Charlie's Birthday

So if you are looking at our life events chronologically, you will see that we spent 4 days living in a condo in Lake Oswego while our cupboards and windows in our house were being replaced/fixed. One of these days happened to be Charlie's birthday, which actually made it pretty fun.

We ended up using Airbnb to rent a condo (the price was covered in our housing grant) It was an awesome experience and I wish I knew about airbnb when we were searching for beach houses last summer. So much cheaper! Anyway...Charlie's birthday!!

Max and I set out a balloon, a banner, and a wrapped gift before going to bed. Charlie woke up early, went downstairs by himself, played with his balloon and unwrapped his gift. Lucky for him that wasn't his only gift but it was the only one that had come in the mail that we were able to pick up from our house, so he had more surprises coming that we would be able to see him open.

We started the day with some oatmeal. A huge favorite for my boys!

His gift that he opened without us was a science kit. That boy is all about science, experiments and inventions!

It was a preschool day so we were planning on having a preschool birthday party and celebrate Charlie and Lacey (who's birthday is a day before Charlie's)  It ended up that all of Marissa's family was sick that morning so we rescheduled it for the following week. We had a free morning so Charlie picked the Children's museum. One thing about Charlie is that he is the easiest going kid and almost always goes with the flow and lives in the moment...so when I said we wouldn't be having his party that day his response was something like "Ok, I like climbing on these stools for right now!" "DO you want to go to the Children's museum for your birthday?."  "Yeah! I like the CHildren's museum!" Continues playing what he was playing with. This isn't a direct quote but he really is a very in-the-moment type kid. 

 I like that Mile's put this sloth stamp on his cheek by himself. I also like that he can reach the water in the water area now.

When we got back to our home away from home, Miles had a nap and Charlie and I did some science experiments. It was a lot of fun. We learned about the color wheel.

After that, we decided to do a craft. We had planned on making stained glass umbrellas for the letter U. Since we didn't have preschool that day and I had all the supplies ready, I let him make a stained glass circle. He enjoyed it quite a bit!

In the Afternoon, we went to a friends' house for piano lessons. They usually come to our house, but that wasn't going to work so we went there and Charlie was thrilled to play with all of Ty's toys while I taught his sister piano. 

On the way home there was a lot of traffic and CHarlie fell asleep for a late nap. We struggled to wake him up and it was nearly impossible, even though I was preparing his favorite dinner, Waffles!

Max eventually got him awake by spinning him really fast. We always forget how well this works. 

After a tasty waffle dinner, we got to enjoy a Peanut Butter pie that Charlie had picked out the night before when we were at a restaurant. I usually make him something but I wasn't doing much baking while we were away from home.

It was incredibly rich Pie, I don't think Charlie even liked it that much.

 Charlie continued to have tons of birthday celebrations the following week(s) His cousins came down for a night to celebrate with him and we also got to have a fun preschool party which should be blogged about soon. And we also dragged on his birthday by going to take 4-year-old photos 9 days after his actual birth. I felt this was complexly appropriate since he was born 9 days after his due date. ( I know that doesn't make any sense but...he was 9 days late...I'm still a little traumatized!)

We went to the field by Max's work so Miles could go to work with Max and I could play in the field with Charlie. He was pretty excited the moon was out.

So, right off the get-go Charlie tripped and fell on a blackberry bush sprig which made him pretty grumpy. I must be a super insensitive mom because we proceeded with the photos anyway!

He's quick to forgive!

 He's just full of faces.

And more Charlie faces.

We lasted about 10 minutes then ran back to Max's work to warm up!

And here is his interview.... I think these things are hilarious!

Charles Gorden Baertlein

Nicknames: Charlie

How old are you?  4

What is your favorite color? Red and Blue

What is your favorite animal? Tiger

What is your favorite book? All the books in the library

What is your favorite TV show? Octonauts

What is your favorite movie? “I said…Octonauts!” (with a scowl)

What is your favorite song? “Bumble Bee…in a tunnel”. (for some reason we are only allowed to sing this in tunnels?!

What is your favorite food?  Oatmeal

What is your favorite drink?  Chocolate Milk and juice

What is your favorite breakfast food?  “I said, oatmeal!” (another scowl)

What is your favorite snack?  Crackers

What is your favorite treat? “I like a treat with sticks on them…oh…a lollipop, are lollipops treats?”

What is your favorite outfit? Tiger clothes

What is your favorite game? Throw carabiners in Miles’ bed then take them away

What is your favorite toy? “I don’t want to do this anymore” as he runs to Miles’ bed to play his favorite game.  I asked him later and he said “Well, I like it when we’re outside…and what else? Well, nothing.”

And we’re back…

Who is your best friend?  “My best friend?,..well, my best friend is Madeleine, I like to be at Madeleine’s house because it’s fun, she moved to California and I want her to come back.”

What is your favorite thing to do? “I like it when we are outside.”

What is your favorite thing to do outside?  “I like my bike, I like...those rhyme…ride my bike….those rhyme!”

What is your favorite holiday? “Oh yeah, Thanksgiving is before Christmas!”

But what is your favorite? “ummm….Saturday…I mean Monday, Monday, write Monday!”

What do you like to take to bed with you at night? “At night? I like when I take my giraffe at night.”

Where is your favorite place to go? “To go? Well…we were already talking about that, I said Madeleine’s house!”

What is your favorite restaurant? “The lobsters!”

Where do you want to go on vacation?  “uh…to California, then we can drive back. I want Madeleine’s house there!”

What do you want to be when you grow up? “go on slides...really big ones with water on them!”

What do you love? “I love daddy so much…I want water on the slide, a really big one like a playground…and puddles, a lot of puddles…” (this went on for awhile)

What did you do on your birthday? “I ate pie, I didn’t do anything.”

What do you do really well? “uhh..um…rake leaves!”

What makes you laugh? “mmm, darts.” “

Why do darts make you laugh?  “Because I shoot them at people.”

What are you afraid of? “I’m afraid of monsters.”

What do you like to do with your family? “HUG, hug, hug hug…”

What do you love to learn about? “Ummm…Ummm…balloons!”

What is your mom good at?  ”Hugs”

What is your dad good at? “He likes to do arrows at me, it’s a little not nice, but he’s a lot nicer, right?”

What is Miles good at? “He’s good at..well…stepping on stairs.”

Tell me a joke? “yes, ging go, haha, is that a joke?”

Anyway, we just love our little big boy! and if you made it to the end of this post, chances are that you like him too! It is so fun to celebrate him and make him feel special on his birthday...(and the following week or two) 

Lead

Nearly a year ago, at Miles 9 month checkup. I had the doctor check Miles' blood for lead. We live in an old house that has been in the middle of a remodel for his whole life. The results came back very quickly that his lead levels were fine and there was nothing to be concerned about.

I was completely confused when a couple weeks later the county called saying that Miles had lead in his system and they have some free procedure available to check our house for lead. I told him that Miles was fine and it was confirmed by the doctor. I was pretty confused on why the county had his health record and lead results but I followed along. They said that Miles' lead level was at 4.8 (whatever units they measure that in) and they get concerned when the level is 5 or greater. They recommended I go have him checked again by the doctor. When I was at the doctor, we weren't able to see his normal pediatrician and the pediatrician that we did see seemed completely confused by the phone call we received. I started to think it was some sort of scam to get me out of my house at a certain time. (I had to report back to the county that Miles had a follow up appointment with the pediatrician so they knew when I would be gone) At this doctor visit, the doctor called the same number and got an answering machine. She pulled up Miles lead count numbers and saw that it was in the healthy range and basically kindly sent us away with no test. Since I was so confused by the county calling, I went along with this. After Max, the pediatrician and I had spoken with the county a couple times we realized it was a legit concern.

The county said they could come out to our house and do a free test to find the sources of lead in our house. Once I knew it was legitimate I was happy to have them over to get to the bottom of it.

It took awhile to get the results back but it turned out that some of our exterior paint had lead in it (and it was chipping) also our kitchen cupboards had a amount, as well as our upstairs bathtub (which we haven't used since) When he was here doing the inspection he told me of a program from the Portland Housing Bureau that provides a grant for your home if you have young children exposed to lead.

We decided to apply for the grant. We got accepted but the process took forever. So, to make a long story a little shorter, we ended up receiving a grant for our whole house exterior to be repainted, receive 5 new windows, have our kitchen cabinets be reworked and painted (and now we have cabinet doors!!!), and they gave us money to stay in a hotel for 5 nights while they did our windows and cabinets! What an amazing blessing. And the contractors were all lead certified so it gives us the peace of mind that our house is so much safer for the kids. The grant didn't cover our bathtub repair but they are just starting a new program that may cover it so they are sending us info on that, if it isn't covered, we will be resurfacing it soon, And luckily Miles is completely fine. His lead levels were still below the minimum for worry and I have continued to have them checked at each of his appointments and the levels have gone down. We just feel so blessed that our kitchen is actually done now after living here for 3 years and that it is a much safer place for our family.

They cleaned up thoroughly after each day they worked on the exterior so we were still able to go outside.

We have cabinets now, They put the old knobs back on and we have since changed them but we haven't taken a picture yet because our kitchen has yet to be this clean again.

Also, our drawers and cupboards to actually shut all the way, I was just taking a quick progress pic before we moved back into our house.  

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