Funny Charlie story: Recently, Charlie has been askind TONS of questions, mostly, "what does _____ mean." or "why do they call _____, ________." For example, today he asked, "Why is the snow called snow?" "What does, 'risk' mean?" He is also the fourth child and just to make it easier for mommy, she does a lot for him. Most of the time, he likes to be doted over, but sometimes he wants to do things "by himself". Well today, he asked for cinnamon toast, so I made it for him. He wanted to butter it himself, so I gave him a knive and the butter. It only took seconds of me watching him clumbsily moving big chunks of butter around on his toast before I asked him if he needed help. He gave up the knife without much of fight and I proceded to butter his toast for him. He watched the asked, "Mommy, does help mean do?" He got me!

Also, when he came downstairs this morning, he saw his birthday presents on the table. One, a train table, was too big to wrap so Tom just put the box by his chair. He looked at the corner of the box where it said "3+" and he said, "THAT table is for three year olds!" He definitely does not want to be three anymore, he is moving on to bigger and better things. He loves the table, though. We played with trains and did his new "cars" puzzle on it.

Happy New Year! I have added a few birthday pictures for my two January birthday boys. Luke on 1/7 and Charlie on 1/11. Tom is the family's offical cake creator, the kids order and he somehow gets it just right! In the past, Luke has asked for a train cake, pirate ship and death star from Star Wars cake. All extremely challenging and Tom didn't let him down. This year, Luke said, I think I want a sun cake. Tom and I looked at each other and without words, said, "Fabulous, that will be easy." A few moments later, he said, "maybe a SOLAR SYSTEM!" So that is what he got! See pic below. There wasn't any doubt what Charlie would ask for, he is our 4 year old, penguin CRAZY kid. We were all thrilled with how the penguin cake turned out! Unfortunately, Charlie had a stomach bug for the past three days and just started feeling better today (his b-day). Yesterday, he said, "Mom, I don't think I want to be sick on my birthday."

So, today, he got to stay home, which he REALLY enjoyed. Tom was home with him this morning and I came home for the afternoon. We read lots of books, cuddled and watched tv and both fell asleep watchin movie. What a nice day!