Charlie's Second Birthday Party

Today is Uncle Gil's birthday!  But since we couldn't celebrate Gil in person, we hosted a party for Charlie's second birthday.  His birthday is still more than a week away, but today was our chance to party down since we'll be traveling at the end of the week.  It was a fabulous celebration with lots of wonderful Dallas friends.  We served a light brunch, made paper bag pirate puppets, played dress-up and munched on red velvet cake balls.  In lieu of birthday gifts, we asked friends to bring gently used books for donation - we're giving them to Charlie's therapy centers.  The kids love to read while they're waiting for their appointments and right now, the reading selection is pretty slim.  Here are some photos from the day...

I was inspired by a friend who did this for her son's birthday - Who can resist a bunch of smiling Charlies?

It was 105 degrees today, so we kept the menu light and cool.

Here are two of our pirate puppets!  Argh!

After our friends went home, the boys watched a little TV together in the back room. Charlie got up into a seated position on his own! He's been rocking out his new trick whenever he can!

Uh oh... we all fall down!

More photos from the Kenna Cup...

HUGE milestone for Charlie

He did it!  And he did it unassisted!  

When our physical therapist asked me at our first appointment in September of 2010, "What is your first goal for Charlie?" my response was simple.  I wanted him to be able to sit up on his own.  And yesterday afternoon he did it.  And today, he's doing it some more.  And some more.  And more and more and more. 

Tent Time

We set up the tent in the dining room today.  The boys have spent their time in the tent snuggling and jockeying for position.  Walker complains that Charlie drools too much on the bedding and Charlie complains that Walker can't stay still.  Its a good tent relationship I think.

Spiderman

Walker has never read a Spiderman comic strip or seen a Spiderman movie. But when asked by a face painter in the mall what he wanted painted on his face, Spiderman was the answer.

Big boys, Big projects, Big love

Walker recently received a haul of model train magazines form our friend Michael Connolly. Walker has been cutting out the engines and gluing them onto butcher paper - making his own train yard.  So much fun to watch all of the different engines pull into Walker's roundhouse.

And Charlie is still showing off his new trick - "How big is Charlie? SOOOOOO big!"  Look at that beautiful open and free left hand!  Jack and I are convinced that these new seizure meds are doing Charlie right. So many new expressive behaviors are coming into view this week.

And thank you Grandma Betsy for the AWESOME bibs.  These are handmade triangles with snaps on the end.  Definitely cooler and more hip than the baby bibs that Charlie has been wearing up til now.  I love them so much, I'm going to make some more myself!

And in the same package with the bibs were some fabulous vinyl stickers for Walker Starr.  He loves them and is thrilled that he can stick and re-stick them in any configuration he desires!

And here is a snap shot of our gallery wall in the dining room filled with Walker's art. Today I am again reminded that "We might just be the luckiest people alive."

Oh, and the newest member of the Greenman household... a birthday gift for Jack.