The Latest

Dear Charlotte,

As I finally opened up blogger to type this post, you came up to me and are convinced of the necessity of viewing Sesame Street at this time. You LOVE Elmo and can't get enough of Sesame Street, which we watch here and there some of the videos online. Whenever you see me on the computer (hopefully not too often?!?), you assume that is what I am there fore - Sesame Street.

As soon as I convinced you that it was not the time for Sesame Street, you saw the pudding (for Matthew) on the table and HAD to have some! I can't say I blame you. So here you are, sitting next to me eating chocolate pudding mixed with your eggs that are still on your tray from breakfast a little bit ago. You are happy, and that makes me happy, even though I would like to see you enjoy more nutritious foods. What can I say, you are a woman after my own heart! :)

Since it is the middle of the day, I do not want to spend much time typing this right now. I just want to record some funny little items of interest for you, especially since it has been so long since I have done this and it has been weighing on my mind.
* Every time you get upset or hurt, one of our tried-and-true ways of calming you down is to ask you where your shoes are. You can be completely inconsolable and when the question is asked you look at your feet. If they are not there, you look all over until you find them and then you point to them with your little pointer. This process is very therapeutic, apparently. Another one that seems to work is having you find a picture of Jesus. You always recognize Jesus in pictures and are excited to point Him out and touch Him. As of late, another effective calming method is to have you call Dad on the phone at work. You thought of this yourself. You started pointing at Dada in pictures when you have been upset and it is clear that you want your Dad at that time. Calling him is the next best thing, and I think you both enjoy those calls. (You usually just listen or say only a few things).
* You are saying new words all the time. Your development, to me, is nigh miraculous. After seeing how hard Matthew has had to work for so many things, it is so exciting to see you just grow in to these milestones with little to no effort on my part, or, seemingly, yours. Your words at this time are: dog (1st), Jesus (2nd), story (3rd), Uh-oh (SO funny, and usually calms you down to say it and hear it when you fall), Yeah (I ask you "Do you like it?" referring to food etc and you say, almost whispering, a quick "Yeah"), No, baby, Dada, Mama, cat, shoes, up. Your signs at this time are: All done (used OFTEN!), dog (also used often and with great enthusiasm every time you hear or see any dog or anything resembling a dog - you are always on the look out), bye-bye, sorry, no, yes, hat (you think everything that you can possibly balance on your head is a hat and you love to do that). When we were at an open house the other day, you noticed a small toy Snoopy dog sitting in a corner of a very messy desk in a very messy office. You kept signing "dog" and I told you that there was not a dog around, but after much searching, I saw the little stuffed dog you were referring to - ha! You understand a great many more words and phrases and it is very fun to converse with you. You also say a great many things that are not understood by most. You are quite the opinionated toddler! At nursery the other day, our neighbor girl who is almost 4 years old heard you talk to me and asked me what you said! That was funny.
* You love to make animal sounds, even though you are very shy around real animals. The animal sounds you know are: horse (neigh), cat (a very high-pitched "BA", for some reason), dog (oof, oof), and lion (RAAAAH, spoken quietly usually). Oh, and does a car sound count as an animal sound? Cause you do that one too ("Mmmmmmmmmmm"...).
* You love to walk, and even run most of the time. You like to push the stroller yourself, which you have been doing since you turned 1. You learned how to walk at 12 months, but shortly thereafter you got sick with an ear infection and stopped walking for about a month. I love watching you toddle around. Matthew is very inspired by this and is much closer to walking now that you love to do it. Thank you for that. You are an inspiration to Matthew in many ways.
* Speaking of Matthew, he is also an inspiration to you. He has taught you how to close doors and clap afterwards. He taught you to go up and down the stairs, how to play under the desk, and how much fun it is to throw things (I don't necessarily love that!).
* Lately, you and I have been going for long runs (4-6 miles) together with you in the stroller while Matthew is in school. Thank you for letting me do this - it means a lot for me to get some good exercise in, and you are extremely cooperative in this regard.

As you are now starting a tantrum, I better stop. You are an expert tantrum thrower, complete with arching, kicking, hitting, scooting around on the floor, throwing yourself on the floor, screaming, and basically the whole nine yards. :) You have been an expert since you were nine months old. I don't suppose that this aspect of life is very enjoyable for any of us, but I am glad that you are asserting your independence and that you are developing appropriately. It is so fun to be around you. You are so small and cute and funny. You are a joy to have as a daughter. Thank you for coming to our family! I will need to post some pictures later. You are a very beautiful girl and I don't want you to ever forget that. :)

Love,
Mom

What You Are Up To

Dear Charlotte,

You are a very busy girl. Your dad often marvels at how busy you and your brother are and comments that he wishes you would "take time to meditate". When dad calls me while he is at work he always asks how you and Matthew are. And then he starts in about how you two are SOOO busy. Anyway, it is true. Right now, you are both sleeping peacefully, taking a nice long nap.


We can't believe how fast you are developing, Charlotte! Just in this week alone, you have figured out how to get down when you are standing up against something, you climbed onto the little play chair and sat up to play at the table, AND you climbed the big set of stairs all by yourself when I wasn't looking! You have such good balance when standing, and you have no fear when it comes to choosing something to pull yourself up to, including my legs and any number of other completely unstable surfaces. You also pull yourself to standing against things that are low to the ground, which leads me to believe that you are not far from being able to stand all by yourself. This is an exciting time of life for us.




You love to chatter all day long. It is so fun to hear your little voice. Sometimes it is quite a big voice, actually. I sometimes worry that I have a yeller on my hands! :) Your dad jokes that when you are old, we will call you "Old Yeller". I trust that you will have learned a sense of propriety by then. For now, you love to sit at the top of the stairs and yell when Matthew leaves you behind to go down. You don't know how to go down them yet, and you have fallen down enough times to know that you don't know. Don't worry - you will figure it out soon. You are at this really fun stage right now, when you seem to really know what you are saying. Your voice inflection sounds like you are truly having conversations with us, yet you do not know any words just yet. We just talk back to you and have a marvelous time. You can be very funny. The other day, Dad came home and you said a distinct "Hi" when he greeted you. Both he and I stopped in our tracks - you had never said anything like that or like any other word before, and it was just so fitting! You didn't realize you said it, I suppose, and just went along your merry way, chattering as though you hadn't said anything out of the ordinary at all.

Last week, you started feeding therapy. Eating (other than your bottle) has not been one of your favorite pastimes. You do like yogurt, for sure, and (lamentably) I have given you ice cream from my cup on a number of occasions, and you are at a point now where I cannot eat ice cream in your presence without sharing. Yesterday, I was eating a milkshake and talking to your dad on the phone and you chased me all over the house to get some of that milkshake! At one point, I hid behind the front door. You thought I had gone up the big stairs and started going up, crying along the way. That was when I decided that I had to give in. I hope I will have more of a backbone as you get older, that's all I have to say! In therapy, we are working on giving you "oral input" before meals, and making sure that we have 3 solid meals per day. Would you believe that this is something I struggle with? Hopefully by the time you are old enough to read this, I will have this all figured out and you will be eating nutritious home-cooked meals 3 times every single day. So far we have not had much luck, but I am hopeful that successful mealtimes, for you and for your brother (eventually) are on the horizon!

For the record, I wanted to tell you about your nicknames. Did you know that your name is very special to us? You were named after one of your pioneer ancestors who was faithful and a great example. We chose your name when we were engaged, so you have been long awaited. When people would ask us what your nickname would be, we would always say that we were going to call you Charlotte - nothing for short. Well, you are too cute to not have some nicknames, even though Charlotte Christine is still the most beautiful and fitting name we can think of. I call you: Char-zee, Charlotte-a-girl, Cha-cha, Chewie, Chew-it, and sometimes Charlee. Your dad calls you Shar-char, mainly. Matthew considers you his "baby". We sure love you. You are special and we are glad you came to our family.

Love,
Mom

Day of Firsts, Take Two

Dear Charlotte,
For whatever reason, the last blog I made for you got removed. Now I have to start over, and your "day of firsts" is about a week past. Bummer. You are such a sweet girl to have in our family. We treasure our time taking care of sweet little you, particularly when you are in a good mood. :) On your "day of firsts" last week, you did several things:

1. You climbed in and out of a cupboard all by yourself! I know you didn't learn this from Matthew because he does not ordinarily get inside the cupboard. In fact, I think I have only seen him do that once, when I was pregnant with you! You got the idea and executed it all by yourself, and for that I am proud. You are a girl who knows what she wants.


2. You stood up against the bathtub, and almost dove in headfirst! This was pretty scary for me, but not for you or Matthew. Matthew has a really hard time when I give him a bath, and this time was no different. He was screaming and thrashing. I had thought I could just lay you on the floor in the bathroom and I would have enough time to get Matthew in and out before you had a chance to get into anything or get bored. Boy was I wrong! You heard your brother, and you were out to save him! What a good sister! You had never before pulled yourself up to standing, but you did it without an ounce of difficulty. I tried to push you down, gently of course, but you would have none of that. Eventually, I was able to get Matthew to lay down safely in the tub while I laid you down on the floor again. After that, the bath was much faster! Since that day, you have done this another time, with the situation being much the same. And you also taught Matthew to do it, so he also almost fell in headfirst when YOU were bathing! Now, for safety's sake, I will make sure that one of you is in your crib while the other takes a bath.

3. You crawled through the desk. This is something Matthew does all the time. Now you seem to think that the only way to get out from playing under the desk is to crawl through it. Which is not true. But you think it is, so that is what you do. And you get "stuck" many times, which makes you cry, but you have learned to get out now. It is so cute to see little you trying to get out.

Since that day, you have done more. You continue to do all of these things, but now you are also trying to go up the stairs. You get very sad when I leave you to go in the kitchen, even for something quick. You almost always try to come upstairs with me. You have made it up three stairs, and surprisingly, you have not ever fallen backwards. Knock on wood. The family room used to be my "safe spot" for you, because I knew you wouldn't fall down the stairs. Now that you are trying to climb up, I no longer have that surety. Now I just have to take you with me. :)

Charlotte, raising you is a pleasure. Do you know that you are a lot like me? Sometimes we have our difficulties, even though you are currently a baby and I am an adult. You are determined, sweet, snuggly, funny, strong, and a good playmate for your brother. You play so well together. Thank you for being such a good baby and for being you.

Love,
Mom