on the move

Charlie is on the move! He's officially crawling---well if you can call it that--it's more like a scoot. He loves doing tricks--clapping, waving and he can now pull himself to standing! I apologize for my "excited Charlie" voice, but had to share our latest update on our little man! We're so proud of him!

a passion for sea life!

This past Saturday we piled in the car and headed to Nashville. . .for lunch! Yep, that's right. It was 3 hours 15 minutes to get there, lunch, and then 3 hours + to get back!

Luke has been on a sea creatures kick since December. He loves any and every sea creature you can name. All day long he plays with sea creatures and talks about the adventures they go on. So, when I recently found out about the Aquarium (a chain restaurant, one of which is located in Nashville), Chad and I thought we had to take Luke! It's a big restaurant that's basically like dining in an aquarium. All kinds of sea creatures swim around you--fish, sharks, sting rays, eels, etc.

We finally had one Saturday with nothing to do, so we woke up and decided to go! We climbed in the car and headed out. Luke didn't know where we were going--except to Nashville--which means nothing to him, yet he was thrilled!! He even brought his Nemo book to read in the car, still unaware of the excitement ahead. Sweet Charlie was just along for the ride!

The restaurant did not disappoint! The outside of the restaurant had sea creature etchings on the wall and Luke was beside himself. When you walk in the place, it's just an underwater fantasy world! We had the best seats in the house and had a blast looking at all the sea animals swimming by as we ate! Even Charlie followed the animals, though mainly he enjoyed knocking off everything that was on the table in front of him!

It was such a fun random trip! We decided that life is too short to pass up opportunities like this. Some friends laughed at us for driving 6 + hours round trip for lunch, but it was completely worth it to feed Luke's passion for sea life and to see the sheer excitement on his face when he saw the aquarium! I can't wait to see what Charlie's passions are!

Ready to head out!

Busy reading his Nemo book on the road trip!

Look everyone! It's a whale and some fishies!!

Oh my goodness! Look at the sea creatures!

I think this is pretty fun too!

hanging out

So the grass is still dead and the scenery isn't pretty, but the subjects were too adorable not to capture! We've had some crazy weather here in February. One day it's hot and we take advantage of the outdoors and the next day it's freezing and we're all bundled up again. We let the boys play outside after church a week ago and they had such a fun time being brothers! Luke's a great teacher and was busy introducing Charlie to dead grass. Who knew how fun that could be?!

Isn't my big brother cool??

Ode to Bun-Bun

I am writing this post for several reasons--some of which you will find out at the end of the post. Another is for journaling purposes. I think Luke will appreciate these stories later in life--and if he doesn't, his future wife will. I have no idea if blogging will even be around then or if there's enough blogging space in the computer universe to have a blog that long from now. Anyone ever print their blogs to save as a hard copy? It might take forever, but I still feel like a hard copy would be worth it!

As many of you know, Luke loves bunnies. In fact, he thinks he is one. Seriously. He recently tried his hardest to convince me that he was a bunny and not a boy. We went back and forth about whether he was a bunny or boy. He lost, but he doesn't know that!

His love for bunnies started at a young age and came from a book. I have no idea which one since it seems that every book we own has a bunny (and a bee---but that's another story too). Some of you may have thought that his love for bunnies came from his widely known lovie, Bun-Bun, but in this case the book came before the Bun-Bun. Not much before, however. Luke's first lovie was Buddy, the giraffe. He started sleeping with Buddy when he was 9 months of age. Buddy eventually took the place of a pacifier, as he would soothe himself to sleep by chewing on Buddy's antlers. Quickly, even after multiple washings, Buddy would get moldy and smelly--disgusting. So, I would have to go out and find another Buddy. No problem---it was made by Ty and I found them everywhere. But then---Bun-Bun came into the picture and slowly but surely, he climbed to the #1 spot in Luke's lovie world. Don't be sad for Buddy, he's a close #2 and still gets plenty of love. But now back to Bun-Bun. . .

Bun-Bun goes everywhere and Luke will not go to sleep without him. Bun-Bun even has his own language that Luke translates for us in a really high voice. . ."Bitty, bitty, bitty, bitty." Bun-Bun is full of love and often gives Luke and the rest of us hugs and tells Luke he loves him all the time---or so Luke tells us! Bun-Bun also has feelings and desires. When it's time for Luke to go to bed, Luke will tell us that Bun-Bun doesn't want to go to bed. We often hear things like, Bun-Bun wants a snack, likes this, doesn't like this, etc. He has a lot of power in our house! :) Many of his friends have and know Bun-Bun by name (Luke's lovie of course). You really can't get the full picture of Luke's love for his bunny until you've seen it in action. He is the most loved bunny in the world!

But. . .is he a bunny??

As I've mentioned, Luke loves Bun-Bun. So much so, that this bunny is looking pretty loved--really just rough. He's a little dingy and just getting worn. I keep thinking I'm going to find a hole in Bun-Bun after each wash--and that's a scary thought. What in the world would happen to Luke if Bun-Bun fell apart?? Our Luke would fall apart!!! So, I tried finding another Bun-Bun, like I did Buddy. However, he's not made by Ty and it appears this company has stopped making this bunny. I couldn't remember who gave us Bun-Bun and couldn't find any store that had one. I decided to check E-bay to see what I found. Nothing labeled "blue and white Kids Preferred bunny rabbit." I DID however find a "blue and white Kids Preferred PUPPY/bunny!" I checked out the picture and saw that someone thought that Bun-Bun was a puppy dog. Turns out--after looking at other puppy pictures, most everyone who has what Luke has thinks it is a puppy dog!!! I was in shock! I immediately told Chad and we cautiously took a look at Luke's Bun-Bun--pulled down his ears and realized he might have actually been a puppy all along!!!

Luke does not know this, nor will he ever know until he read this blog----many, many years from now! :) Luke's little Bun-Bun will forever be a bunny in his heart. A couple of days ago, Luke asked, "Mommy, will I have Bun-Bun when I grow up?" After wondering, "Why would he think otherwise and who's the punk who might have told him otherwise?" I then teared up because my little boy will grow up one day and will leave Bun-Bun behind. However, I responded with an emotionally strong, "As long as you want him, you will have him!" And he smiled the biggest smile and my happy little Luke and his Bun-Bun went off to play!

Luke and his ever-precious Bun-Bun!!