Charlie's Art Class

 Last fall Charlie and Mommy did gymnastics class on Thursdays (Mommy's day off) and this spring we decided to give art classes a try!  You love it!  So far we have been working on a Polar Bear painting and made a clay mouse.  It is so much fun :)

 You can't wait to be enrolled in a soccer class, it seems to be your passion.  Once the weather gets better you'll be into soccer in a big way I'm sure so I'm trying to get this art class in while you're still interested!  Your obsessed with soccer is intense.  The second you wake up in the morning you insist on putting your soccer pants on and you wear Will's old cleats around the house.  We can barely wash your soccer pants since you want to wear them ALL THE TIME and will pick them out of the dirty laundry and try to put them on regardless.  You are constantly kicking the ball around and asking us to play with you downstairs in the hall.  And you really very good!  Your coach will be so impressed!  So many things to look forward to!

The end of our Mexican vacation

 Had to put this pic of Char in here, it was so funny!  Not really a fan of ice cream or sweets in general...

On the scary big guys toe in the lobby:

In keeping with tradition we went out to Gong for our last dinner and had the Peking Duck.  Everyone is on board with that, it was delish!

 A tired baby on our last day poolside.  We were out of our room by this time so you were sleeping on the go.

This was for sure our best family vacation yet.  Mommy and Daddy could really feel the difference a year made this time.  You are both so into the pool and water and we travel lighter these days.  We just had so much fun.  I found myself dreading the end of our special time when usually I am ready to get back home to reality.  Daddy and I talk often about going back again next year for our third year in a row.  We just love this resort and really enjoy all of the amenities it offers for our family.  Who knows, perhaps we will make it back for Christmas again next year!

More Mexico

 Oh boy, it was Pirate Day at the Kids Club.

This hat was mine from my first trip to Mexico when I was two!  What a vintage beaut!  So special that Charlie could wear it now!

 Daddy and I were obsessed with getting a plate of shrimp just like these since we arrived.  One lunch time we went for it, they were awesome!
Charlie also enjoyed them but Will is a non-shrimp eater :(.

 We went out to downtown PV one night and saw this along the beach.  I'm not sure what it's called but I think it is a pretty popular stunt for entertainment in Mexico since we saw these poles in several places.  It was done to music and really neat to watch.  

 For dinner that night we went to Pipi's and had a blast!  The Margaritas were enormous and Mommy and Daddy polished off one each!  Honestly, I can't wait to go back there it was such fun.  There was a band going around singing songs by request and everyone was partying.  It was awesome!

 Poor Char.  We stayed a little bit too long for his taste I suppose!

After such a fun night out we stepped out of the restaurant into the night along a cobblestoned street, and what did I see coming straight toward us but two Hummers with machine guns perched atop and filled with camoed up army guys.  It was the biggest buzz kill ever.  Mommy said "Taxi!" and got the heck out of there.  Apparently they are wanting to show the tourists that things are very safe in town and that they are free to spend their vacation dollars there but jeez!  That was not a welcoming sight!

Charlie's Booboo

 On Christmas Day we were in the hotel room after nap time and the boys were on the couch.  Charlie tried to get up off the couch and tripped, falling into the low glass coffee table.  You cut your head and there was so much blood and Will started screaming "There's blood!  There's blood!"  Mommy scooped you up and brought you into the bathroom.  We laid you down and had a look at it and could see just how deep the cut was.  We called the front desk asking for a doctor and they told us exactly where to go.  I sat on the bathroom floor holding a face cloth to your head and rocking you while we tried to figure out what to do.  You were just crying quietly and looking up at me and you whispered something.  I couldn't quite hear you so I asked you to say it again and you said "I wan you to kish me."  So I leaned down and you leaned up and I kissed you so you would feel better.  So sad.

We went down the elevator and down to the next building and two staff were waiting for us to escort us up to the doctor's office which was a converted hotel room.  The doctor there said he wasn't sure if stitches were needed or not and wanted us to go to the hospital.  He bandaged your head and they called an ambulance.  In the end there was another emergency at the airport so we took a cab the ten minutes to the hospital.  The doctor was waiting for us in the emergency room waiting area and took us right in.  Will and Daddy stayed and filled out paperwork and Charlie and I went in and got you on a bed.  The doctor was very good with you and opened up the gash to look at the muscle underneath.  The muscular layer had not been breached so he said that the surgical glue would work just fine.  He showed you how he would spray the cut with some water and I explained when he dried it with a very big Qtip.  Then when he used the glue I told you he was gluing your cut closed with a glue stick that looked like a crayon.  The whole time you crying quietly but understood that you had stay very still.  It was so sad watching you clearly struggle with big tears coming down the sides of your face but you were so brave.  The doctor glued things very nicely and then put some steristrips on it.

When it was over he told you how brave you had been and asked you who your favourite Superhero was.  You whispered "Will."  The doctor looked at you quizzically and asked "Who?"  You said "Will."  I explained who Will was although I was crying and the doctor said "Well Will would be very proud of you."  They ambulanced us back to the hotel after and we had a quiet night.

We had to keep you out of the water for two days to make sure things had good initial healing.  My heart breaks even thinking about this trauma you had to go through.  Of course, Daddy and I talked about how we could have prevented it etc but it was just one of those flukes.  We know we can't watch you 24 hours a day but we want to!  We chalked it up to bad luck.

Now that we're home we are applying Mederma cream to your scar every night in the hopes that we can minimize the scar.  It will likely always be there but we can hope it will be barely visible eventually.  Poor baby boy.  We love you Charlie, scars and all.  My brave, brave boy.

Christmas Dinner

 We had Christmas dinner under a tent on the beach this year.  It was a fun night with a turkey dinner and all the fixings!

We even met Santa who made on entrance on flaming roller blades!

 Merry Christmas 2014!

Other things in Mexico

 Of course, we had lots of pool fun.  You were both on fire in the pool this year!

 Watersliding!

 Char's first waterslide!

 Every day Will would do about ten minutes of a workbook to stay on top of schoolwork ;).  Such a smart boy.  We are doing simple math (adding and subtracting up to ten) and sounding out words now.  His teacher, Miss Epp, says he is way above expectations.  Way to go Will!

 Soccer with the locals.

 On our way into the Christmas dinner!

Pool fun

 Flinging Will and Timber Charlie!

 Look at that smile!

 The not so popular game of throwing Daddy's sunglasses:

 Weeeeeee!

Settling in at the resort

 We spent most of our time by the pool as usual, but we also spent more time that ever at the beach this year.  We built castles, walked along the beach both ways, played soccer with the local boys and ran into the waves.  

When Will went to the club and did face painting it took a lot of effort to get this stuff off!  It was like wax!

Daddy loves this photo.

 We definitely frequented Tacos Break again this year!  But Daddy passed on the hot peppers...

 Breakfast in the room!

 The kids' water park:

 Charlie, you were amazing this year.  You had no fear of the water, just like Will and you came a long way towards swimming this trip.  Look at you doing flips at TWO!  It was unbelievable.  You got to the point where we could let go of you and you could stay afloat for a brief time or even swim to the wall under the water.  Unreal!

Charlie loves Mexico!

 We went to the Grand Mayan Resort in Nuevo Vallarta again this year. It is a perfect resort for us with lots of family fun.  We had a two bedroom unit this year and you boys had a large room all to yourselves.  We had the big balcony with the dip pool and a full kitchen where we tried to have breakfast and lunch most days.

It was perfect.

We went to the creperie again several times!

 We had a few overcast mornings but no rain for the two weeks we were there and it was hot!

 Sandcastles!

 Joy!

Christmas 2014

 This year we had Christmas on the 19th since we were flying out to Puerto Vallarta on the 20th, yay!

You both would never know the difference and we are good with it.

We had such a fun Christmas morning and you were both spoiled as usual.

 Such joy!

 This Christmas the theme was BMX since we are going to be trying that out this spring.  You both got helmets, goggles and gloves and Will got a Mini Formula bike.  Charlie is going to use the glider bike which will be just perfect.  Can't wait to see you guys on the track!

 This year the Santa's reindeer dropped an antler on our deck!  Will took it in to school for show and tell in the New Year!

It was a Merry Christmas but the best part of all was spending quality time together while we were away.