8.23.2010

We have a Toddler!

Did you pay attention to the face above? I'm not talking about that sweet little baby Charlotte face, I'm talking about that toddler "no no mamma" face. Do you see it?! When did our baby take that miraculous leap into toddler-hood? I mean the last blog entry I wrote was 3 weeks ago (yes, we all know I'm horrible about updating this thing frequently), but in that 3-week time frame somehow our baby was replaced by a hilarious, talking, sticky, imaginative, "no no" yelling, messy, whiny, lovable, sneaky toddler - right before our eyes (I'm guessing this is only the first time she pulls one off on mom & dad)!
Some recent Charlotte happenings:
  • Sunglasses. I've bought 2 pair of sunglasses from Target Dollar Bin. This weekend she'd barely take them off. She realized also that one pair is "bedder" because they fit better and those are her favorites.
  • About a week ago she learned possessive. Now everything is "Charlotte's." Sometime's it's "daddy's" or "Mart's" (our neighbor Mark), but mostly Charlotte's. I do think "Charlotte's" is better than "mine," so I'll take it.
  • Sudden infatuation with her babies. The first thing she said when she woke up this morning was "baby...baby seepin...Charlotte's baby..." and that's all she played with pre & post-daycare today. She feeds them bottles (complete with noises), cleans them when they're "messy" and kisses them when they go to sleep. She even tries to put her diapers on because they "poop." It's utterly adorable and amazing to watch her beginning pretend play. She even feeds a bunny the tomato & lettuce from her velcrow sandwich toy.
  • Another pretent play...we've caught her 'reading.' It's absolutely hilarious. She'll sit with a book, look at and turn the pages and make noises like she's reading. She only does it when she's alone and we love to catch her. She's also started memorizing parts of her favorite books, she'll say some words right when we turn the page.
  • Silly Bandz - aren't those things for grade school kids? Well, our 19-month old is pretty much obsessed. She's gotten a few from Zach (or babysitter's son whom she adores) and Grandma Millay sent some too. It's amazing, she puts them on, picks out the "lellow" and "pintk" ones and wears them all day. She's like a 10-year old already, seriously.
  • The repetition...she repeats everything. Wait, did I mention e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.? Yes, it's time to be very careful about what we say and do around here!
  • Obviously she still has a pretty solid mullet (does that have 1 t or 2?)...but it actually made it into piggy-tails! That's a big milestone.
  • We're working on colors and counting. She will pick out colors if you give her instructions to "bring me the yellow block." But if you ask her what color something is, she almost always answers "buooo" (blue). She's got 2 down, we're working on 1,2,3,4,5, which she will repeat.
  • Potty training - well, let's leave that one for next time. We have a seat on the potty and she knows she gets a sticker if she goes, but no big strides. Every few times I sit her on there she'll go and then get super excited, yell "yay" and clap, but it's hit or miss. We'll wait a bit longer to really push potty training.

This is such a fun time and we are having a blast watching our baby grow and learn new things. We have no idea what she'll say or do next, but we know it'll be amazing and hilarious all at the same time!

With all my chatter, y'all deserve some new photos. Here's some Summer Fun ones. Enjoy!

8.01.2010

Photo Shoot

We have made some great friends here in TX over the past year. One of which is starting her own photography business...Mandy Lilly Photography. Mandy has a daughter, Elliette, who is only 1 month younger than Charlotte.
Mandy and I decided we could work out a nice "trade" - she takes Charlotte's pictures, and I make Elliette a nap mat for the fall. We had a pretty good time with Charlotte's photo shoot and the pictures turned out great! Thanks Mandy! For some reason mpix won't let me share the link here, I've tired & tried. I'll upload pictures when I get the cd, but for now...find Mandy Lilly Photography on facebook and there's a bunch there.

Here's some photos of the girls on July 4 from Mandy:

ps - yes, we do have baithing suits for our children, it was just easier this way :)

6.27.2010

Summa Time Fun

I just wanted to post some pictures of what Charlotte's been up to so far this summer. Enjoy!

6.19.2010

New Kitchen Pictures

So we had our first big home improvement project done this week and we're so happy with it. Beautiful new granite counters, travertine tile backsplash, sink, faucet and cooktop. Now it's time to cook!
Before picture with seller's stuff: Another before picture, but with our stuff:
All pretty & new:

6.14.2010

Nap Mat...SUCCESS!!

Charlotte's daycare told me a few weeks ago that she needed a nap mat. "NAP MAT?!" I replied in a crazy-mom-voice. I mean for sure, my baby isn't ready to move from her contained pack n play to a free-for-all nap mat with the other toddlers and big kids!? Jennifer (our daycare provider) assured me that 1. she was ready, 2. she was the next kid to go, and 3. that they had already started practicing with another girl's nap mat (she doesn't use it). Jennifer then told me that I had to make her one. I'm not sure if she knew that when you tell me to make something...well...I do.

I love Google. I found the perfect free tutorial, bought all the stuff, and went to town. It turned out really cute & I'm pretty proud of myself. The best part? The first day we take her new nap mat to daycare and she slept........drum roll please............almost 2 1/2 hours!! That's crazy-long for a Charlotte daycare nap - yay new nap mat!
The other best part? She keeps saying "nap" and kind of petting the mat and putting her head down on it, she loves it! She looks at these photos and keeps saying "nap."

Jennifer took a picture of Charlotte snoozing away today:
Here's the mat all rolled up (that's a shoulder strap for easy transport): And here all unrolled, waiting for a little girl to take a nap (it's flannel with a fleece blanket and attached pillow and velcrow all down the side for easy washing):
Here's the tutorial I followed. I still haven't learned how to do a button hole, so I improvised on that part and made a tye (too bad it covers up part of the cute "C" I appliqued on the outside):


ps - obviously I still heart my sewing machine...thanks Mom & Dad! Pillow photos coming soon!

5.24.2010

Berry Picking

We tried to do some fun things while Grandma, Grandpa & Aunt Allie were in town the past week. On Saturday we had a super-full day which started off with berry picking at a farm in Arlington. Meghan (our neighbor and friend) came up with the idea to go to this farm to go strawberry picking. We ended up with few strawberries (it's the end of the season for strawberries at this farm), but over 2lbs of blackberries. Charlotte was quite the little berry-picker! She even managed to miss all the thorns. She knew which ones were ripe, would pick them saying "pict pict" then say "baket baket" and put them in someone's basket, then sign and say "more" and just keep going. She was a red-mess about 10 minutes in, but it was all worth it. We got tons of great pictures, check out the slideshow below!
Oh, and Grandma Millay, notice the necklace, she's been wearing those things nonstop - thanks again!

5.17.2010

San Antonio Trip

We headed to San Antonio for the weekend. It was a great chance to get away and have fun with grandma and grandpa. We had a lot of fun: saw the sights, learned that indeed the Alamo has no basement (hehe), ate WAY too much tex mex and had a relaxing weekend. Probably the best time of the weekend was when we found this fountain in the middle of the city. It was made for kids to play, that was obvious from the chlorine smell. Charlotte absolutely LOVED it and we had the best time watching her. Here's a video daddy put together playing with his new computer (Sorry, I'm not sure why it's chopped off on the right side):

I'll post some more photos once I get them uploaded.