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
