Archive for the Books Category

Congratulations, President Barack Obama! And thank God!

There are countless things I love about Charlie that other people don’t know or get to experience quite as intimately, so I thought I’d do a little sharing.

Charlie is a snuggler.  He asks for hugs all the time.  After naps I get to hold him and snuggle with him until he’s warmed up to the waking world.  I love that he frequently lays prone on anything soft (carpet, blankets, stuffed animals, our fabric ottoman) for the seemingly sole purpose of snuggling.  Today he reinitiated laying on the floor to snuggle with my feet…even on the hardwoods of the kitchen.  While this is odd in many ways (particularly if you’re not a toddler!), I love it.

Charlie is taking his stuffed animals to the Charlie-sized potty on a regular basis.  We’ve noticed that he fairly consistently takes one to sit on it when he has to poop, so maybe he’ll be ready to use the potty sooner than later.  He’s very used to potty talk from our daily cleaning of his cloth diapers.  He’s got the “bye bye” poopy part down pat.

Charlie has started to talk (yes, with his mouth open- although he is still the king of closed mouth talking).  This kicked in to high gear last week and it’s been so much fun.  Most of his words are food related: pasta, cheese, tortilla, avocado, etc… He has been requesting “Baa Baa Black Sheep” on our piano by saying something like “Maa Maa Buh Sheese.” Harry joked that it sounded like “Mama Butt Cheese,” which I hear is also a classic children’s song.  Charlie heard us laughing about this and upon seeing blue cheese on our dinner table that night he exclaimed, “maa maa buh sheese!”

Speaking of blue cheese, the boy loves cheese.  He’ll eat just about any kind, as long as it’s the real deal.  In fact, he’ll eat just about anything.  Asparagus, bell peppers, onions, tofu, hummus, spicy thai peanut sauce, balsamic vinegar, pesto, etc…  Despite his adventuresome palate, I think mac & cheese is still the fave.  I can’t blame him.  I’d eat it every day if cholesterol and waist lines didn’t cry out.

Charlie is silly.  He loves to laugh, be tickled, be chased, make faces, make & listen to silly noises, etc…  He receives no encouragement in this whatsoever.  Check out this recent adorable video clip that Harry Sr. took of Charlie while we visited he & Jody at a cabin near Estes Park.

Charlie is pretty amazing at building block towers, putting together train tracks, and completing puzzles.  He’s building really high towers before they fall.  The boy is patient.  He’s also careful and cautious (except in the swimming pool, for some odd reason!).  And while I sometimes wish he’d throw himself down the slides like some other kids his age do, I’m thankful we’ve avoided lots of rough tumbles and spills.

Charlie loves music.  He likes to sing, play piano, and strum guitar.  Along with Baa Baa, the song of choice in the past few days has been the Alphabet Song.  His version is incredibly cute.  Everyday, often more than once, we tickle the ivories together (dad, that was for you). Currently this involves him sitting on my lap while we go through about 20 music books.  I get to play two measures before Charlie tells me to move on… unless it’s “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” “Old MacDonald,” “Pop Goes the Weasel,” or “The Chariots of Fire.”  Yes, one of these is not like the others.  The sheet music rendition of Chariots that I have has a picture of the runners on the beach and is composed with an intro of consecutive eighth notes.  While playing these notes I joked with Charlie that my fingers were running.  Now he can’t get enough of it.  Of course, he doesn’t mind pounding the keys without me there, either.  Especially if I’ve been talking on the phone too long for his liking.

More fun to come, no doubt!

The questions we answered last year still feel relevant this year so we’re going to answer them again.

What are you happiest about?

Kathleen: Having a baby.
Harry: Having a baby.

What’s the baby’s name?

Kathleen: Justin Uhlotta
Harry: Asurp Rize

No, really

…did some of you fall for that last year? We know you did. Here’s the birth announcement we posted last year.

Share a memorable laugh you had

Harry: These are two of my favorites: Charlie and the Crazy Cow; The Hand

Kathleen: I like Harry’s choices, as well as a night not so long ago when Harry talked while sucking in air and I communicated only through gesturing. Harry’s inhalation comments made me laugh so hard that I was crying.

If you could walk through any door, what would you like it to open to?

Kathleen: The honest answer is the inside of our friends’ homes in Seattle.

Harry: The honest answer is the inside of one of these.

Who is your favorite neighborhood cat?

Kathleen: Do coyotes count?

Harry: Yeah, I think the coyotes eat the cats around here because I’ve never seen one.

Will you be happy to say goodbye to anything from 2007?

Kathleen: Moving.

Harry: If I’m honest, my job at UW. I enjoyed the people, of course, but the job dynamics didn’t fit my personality. I was there 6 years, probably 4 too many.

Who has inspired you?

Kathleen: Harry. Charlie. Angie. Nickie.

Harry: Kathleen is my hero. I’m inspired by her endless thoughtfulness for Charlie, me, her family, and her friends. She has more care and concern for people than anyone I know.

When do you feel like time flies?

Kathleen: When I reflect on how much Charlie has changed since birth!!! Otherwise, it’s felt quite slow this year.

Harry: Working on Jetrecord. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

Any favorite movies or videos?

Kathleen: All our videos of Charlie on Vimeo. Bourne Ultimatum. Ocean’s 13.

Harry: Dramatic Prairie Dog, I Trusted You, Beverly Hills Cop, Bridge to Terabithia (watched without sound on the plane to Louisiana), Superbad, and surprisingly, Blades of Glory. Yet again we’re way behind the times on movies. We became Netflix members this year so I hope we’ll at least catch a few recent releases.

Any favorite music or books?

Kathleen: I’m still playing the same music from last year’s post! I finally read One Hundred Years of Solitude which was incredible, but probably not a good choice when I’m feeling a bit of solitude myself these days…

Harry: As for music I discovered The Acorn this year. I also bought Radiohead’s new album In Rainbows and I love it. Sadly, no books to mention. And really, my music appreciation has been restricted to passive listening at work so I’m not sure that counts, either. Maybe four years from now when someone buys the business for $20M I’ll take some time to read fiction again.

Favorite web sites?

Kathleen: Same answer as last year: “I’m not much of a web surfer, so my vote is for my email account. Harry always shows me funny sites, so I get to see the good stuff without searching for it.” Although—and I’m hesitant to admit—I joined Facebook after getting roped in by a friend (you know who you are!).

Harry: Tip: for the last few years I’ve found all my interesting sites from two places: Delicious/popular and kottke.org. Of course there’s more going on out there but that’s where I start. I joined Twitter in March. Interesting communication medium.

Other than the baby, what are you looking forward to this year?

Kathleen: For the first time in my life, I have almost no idea what this year will bring…apart from spending most of my time with Charlie. I hope to get back to work (very) part-time if we can figure out good care for Charlie and I hope to visit Seattle. I am looking forward to starting the seeds of new friendships and fellowship, growing relationships in Colorado, and the treasured conversations with friends of old.

Harry: The day after Christmas this year I realized that I have everything in life that I’d ever hoped for. That said, I’m looking forward to opening the doors on Jetrecord for the second year in a row.

The End.

As always, we update Loveoirs from time to time with our thoughts so you can keep up with what we’re doing. Our photos (all 2,700 of them) are still on Flickr and we’ve put together a set of 2007 highlights to spare all of you who aren’t his grandparents from looking through our hundreds of pictures of Charlie. Our videos are on Vimeo. Everything else will at least be mentioned here.

Cheers and Happy New Year!