Water Day (by Kris)

Today started really weird. I woke up all on my own. Usually Charis sneaks out of her room, and up to the side of my bed to tell me to "wake-up!" But today she slumbered until 9:45!! When she did get up it was already in the low 80's, so we headed straight outside to water the plants and vegetables before it was too hot. So that's why she's in her pajamas holding a watering can.After breakfast we put on our swimsuits, loaded up a bag with sunscreen and water, grabbed daddy's coffee mug, and rode our bike/trailer down to the bike shop (it has an espresso/smoothie bar in it!). After saying lots of "hi's" we took off again to Butler park, home of the coolest fountain ever, in the shadow of downtown Austin. Charis can barely contain herself when we arrive, and quickly forgets that she even has a dad as she makes for the exploding water.

There were a ton of people there today. Exclusively parents with toddlers and all the battlestation gear that comes with taking your kid out. Charis loves the fountain, but spends most of her time either running away from me, or hanging out in the little side-pools that surround it (I call it "sunscreen soup"). She is so social. Some kids dig her, others give her dirty looks and run off. She's not fazed, she just moves on to the next one. Her favorites are infants (I thinks it's 'cuz they can't run off!) The baby in the video fell in love with Charis. She tickled his feet, gave him eskimo kisses (we've had some talks about lip-kissing), held his hands...and head-butted him.

Finlander Kiss (tilt your head)

Last run through the fountain, towel off, and back to the shop for a refill. Now it's in the upper 80's and rising...time to ride back up the hill for lunch, playtime, books, and a nap. I love being a dad! Ok Sam, there you go...I blogged.

Memorial Weekend

We did not have the exciting weekend I was hoping for but overall it was good.

Charis and I spent Saturday at home together just playing. Last week, we broke Charis highchair again, and this time it is for good. So we are trying out new eating arrangements. Even with this fairly clean meal - I miss her highchair!
She is eating and loving a tofu corn dog, rice cheese, peas and pretzels.


One of Kris' customers gave him 44 animal beannie babies to give to Charis. She loves them! We spent time going through each one and looking at them with her and naming what they were. Maybe next week, she will pick her favorites and we will find a good home for the rest. 44 is just too many.

On Sunday, I had to work. So, Kris and Charis went to the Coffee place and played. After I got home and Charis woke up from her nap, she put her lion and monkey beannie babies and her baby doll down for sleepy time.

She read them Cat in the Hat (from memory, she is really good at remembering a lot of the real words and most of the story line). She also sang a song and kiss them goodnight. Just like her sleepy time.

On Monday, Charis, Grammy and I tried to go to the Sweet Berry farm to pick strawberries and blackberries. We were so excited about it.


But sadly, after driving an hour and getting a little lost, they were closed. Even though, their website said they would be open! Maybe we will try again next week.
So we drove home and took another wrong turn.

But, we had a good lunch at Trudy's.
Charis got a bean burrito with rice and beans. She loved it and said it was delicious. I love it when she uses big words.

We spent this rest of the evening with Grammy, DaDa (Granddaddy/Don Elkinton), Katy, and Timothy. And Charis and I joined in with a large group of people trying to bring awareness and hope to teens struggling with depression and suicide by writing love on our arms.Thanks Katy for writing love on our arms. We love you!!!
When I got home, I went to their website and read what I could find about them. They sound like a good organization and great thing to support. The image that I first got from Katy talking about it, is what I got again from reading the story. Exchanging the lies written on your arms from cutting or suicide for the only thing that matters ... love.
To write love on her arms! http://www.twloha.com/

Art Day

Today, Charis and Kris went to a local art studio (also used for a church on Sundays) for a FREE kids art class.

They had a story time and then painted things from the story. Kris said Charis really enjoyed it.

This is not a picture of today, but from our Kansas trip.

After that they went to a cool coffee shop around the corner from us and Charis played with a boy her age, while Kris drank coffee.
We all finished the night by reading books and bike magazines.


We also got some videos from Phil in the mail, so here are two more from our trip to Kansas.

We just love the way Charis says no problem and she says it all the time. So Phil and Cecilia were trying to get her to say it on camera. She misses her queue a few times.

There was really a spider under the table!

Fun day with Daddy & Mommy

Kris took part of the day off so that we all could spend some time together. After breakfast, we did a little gardening. Charis helped by watering.

Then we went to Home Depot and got food from Phoenicia Bakery and Deli. Kris and I got gyros and Charis got falafels.

Lazy Day with Mommy

On rare Saturday mornings (lazy days) like today, Charis gets to lay on the floor and eat dry cereal and her banana and watch cartoons, while I take a shower or clean.

Today, our lazy day was interrupted by the neighbors asking a for a ride to work, which was a great way to end the cartoon watching.


Charis just started using a kid's mouth wash and she loves it. We brush her teeth and rinse and then brush her teeth again with the mouth wash but she always wants to "drink" a little.



While we were out, we went to find Charis a new butterfly for her shoes. She lost her butterfly in Kansas and talks about it every time she puts on her shoes.

Once we were back at home, we read books and ate lunch and of course Charis had to fix one Daddy's bikes with tools. This is one of her favorite things to do right now and she can always find some tool around the house.

We had Uncle Skot over of dinner and Charis showed him her story video. She loves Skot and played Simon says and told him stories all night.

Charis had a late night tonight because of dinner with Skot, so she was up until 9:30. She kept making Skot and I pretend to sleep and then she would pretend to sleep and snore. It was cute.

A little from the past month

Although I do not plan to go back and "blog" previous
events, I really wanted to share a few things.

"Stories" by Charis

We took a last minute trip to Kansas the week before Mother's Day. Charis got to play with Kristen, Cecilia, Phil, Nana (my mom) and Debbie a bit while we were there.
She really enjoyed it.


Here is a video of her telling "stories"
to them right after lunch.

Playing in the rain

On Sat. 5/10, after Kris and I both got home from work, it was raining really hard and Charis wanted to go play in the rain a lot. So we gave in and let her dance and
splash in the rain.


It was funny, the rain started coming down harder and it would hit her in the face and she would say "stop it" to the rain but then go back to playing.


She really enjoyed it and we were glad we let her just be a kid.

In a magazine!
Kris and Charis are in the Austin Chronicle!!! Kris has lots of quotes and there is a picture of both of them.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A621776

Going to try it out

Sam, Charis and Kris riding bikes in Dec.

Ok, so I am going to try this out because there is so much daily that I want to remember about Charis growing up. My hope is that I can look back and have pictures and journaling to help me remember and as a bonus I can share it with our friends and family. Katrina and her family have being doing this for over a year and I love reading their blogs but I just could not commit (for fear of failure). But it is worth a try.