Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Bits and Bobs.

* Well, so far Charlotte's disastrous diaper rash and upset tummy combo aren't as bad as they were the last two summers, knock on wood.  It is derailing potty training, and I'm trying not to freak out about that.

* Friends of ours are going in to have a baby today!  Or at least start today.  K is going in to be induced.  I'm VERY excited.  This should motivate me to, I don't know, mail out the baby shower gift or something.

* We had a very good trip to the library this weekend.  Charlotte and I went by ourselves, and she was very good at whispering and letting me know that she wanted to use the bathroom.  Charlotte is getting better at approaching kids and using her words about playing with them, but she didn't do so great this time.  She had a lot of fun playing with the train table (as usual) and playing with the dollhouse.  She used the doll to go potty (of course, first thing every kid does) but she also set up a work area in the living room of the dollhouse with a desk, computer, chair & person.  She also lined up the toy chairs and put people in them to make a "chair train", which is one of her favorite activities to do at home.  I have a small hole punch, so we do a lot of ticket punching.

* For books/stories, Charlotte is very much into Jack and the Beanstalk right now.  Not so much the giant part (though she loves "Fee Fi Fo Fum!") but the magic beans and how they grow into a giant bean stalk.  Maybe next we'll do The Princess and the Pea...I think she'd like that idea.

* Lots of fun with our garden plot, window boxes and our CSA membership.  Charlotte loves going to the garden and eating cherry tomatoes, watering the plants, and picking berries from the thicket at the back.  At the farm we have a CSA share from, Charlotte gets to feed the "f-a-t fat" goats.  She also got to help pick strawberries, water the herb beds, and wash her hands at the outdoor sink.  This week we're gonna try and pick peas & flowers with Auntie & Baby G.  This picture is what all our radishes look like - they are too small (I can't believe I'm failing radishes!) and Charlotte always demands to eat them.  She gnaws them from the side, bizarrely enough.

* The pool at our apartment complex mysteriously broke - it is full of green water and closed until further notice.  This...did not go over well with Charlotte.  We are desperately hoping that it will be fixed for the upcoming long weekend.

* Charlotte just told me that she didn't want to lay down on the couch because there were crumbs, and I  need to help her.  So I guess that's it for now!

Monday, June 28, 2010

The Summer Sick

Warning - if you don't feel like reading potty training/diaper issues, you might just want to skip this whole entry.

Oh man, this happened last year, and now it's happening again...Charlotte had a day of an upset stomach, and now she has the diaper rash from hell.  Last summer she had off and on diarrhea and a red, raised, raw diaper rash for almost 4 whole weeks.  What a bummer.  (ha! no pun intended.)  Today has been a miserable diaper day, and now she has a rash that caused her to cry and leap off the changing table at least once today.  I feel so awful for her, it's gotta suck.  And it's come at such a horrible time, potty training-wise.

Charlotte has made AMAZING strides with the potty training.  I will have to take a picture of her chart to show you.  We went out this weekend, and she sat on the toilet in a few different places, and even peed on the toilet at the library!  Which is awesome.  We're using the portable potty seat thing that we ordered from One Step Ahead, and it's made little toddler on big toilets so much easier to deal with.  Charlotte and I have also had a lot of talks about how bathrooms have a lot of germs, and we need to wash our hands a lot when we are using bathrooms.  This is going great.  I just wish more public bathrooms had footstools to stand on.  It's hard to prop up Charlotte AND help her wash her hands AND hang on to the diaper bag AND try and keep her from not getting soaked by all the puddles that seem to be all over every public restroom counter.

This diarrhea/diaper rash combo is horrible, though.  Charlotte still won't poop on the potty (typical but frustrating) and now she's nervous about sitting on the potty because her bum is so sore, and she can't really interpret her body's signals, so she's never sure when she should sit.  I hope the diarrhea is over soon, and we can just go to all naked time, and hopefully that will heal the rash and help her get back on track.

Monday, June 14, 2010

"I a big helper, Mama!"

Today we made blueberry muffins for breakfast.  From scratch.  Because Curious George was baking, and Charlotte turned to me and said, "Mama can we make a recipe?"  Even though I'll be working late tonight because I started late, I am so so so grateful that I have the flexible schedule to make muffins from scratch with my munchkin.  On a whim.  On a Monday morning.  Just because we both felt like a project.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Ripped from the headlines....or rather, Facebook status.

Charlotte has named her toy dog "Split Doggie" for some mysterious reason. Two minutes later she changed it to "Slimey Spit Doggie" which seems a lot less mysterious.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Thursday, June 3, 2010

quick things

* We are very deep into a "Buzz and Woody" phase.  Buzz tends to appear a lot in an invisible capacity, frequently climbing trees outside the window.

* Charlotte is an amazing swimmer - she's getting good at holding her breath, kicking, paddling, and "dunk myself over."

* I'm currently trying to scale way back on TV and meeting resistance.  I'm not okay with the amount of TV for the preschool members of this house, so that's just tough.

* Potty training!  1 good day, 1 bad day.  Tomorrow is a new day.

* Charlotte fed a goat at the farm while we picked up the CSA box.  She called it over to the fence by saying, "Hi, goat goat goaty goaty.  Hi little goaty goat."

* When Charlotte is sucking up to ask me a favor, she calls me "Honey Mom."  She also calls me "Mama Boy" when she's being affectionate.