Thursday, September 30, 2010

Telling stories.

Charlotte is into storytelling in a BIG way lately.  They aren't particularly linear, exactly, but they are very structured, in an awesome way.  She has the mechanics down, the "....and Alice said....and dad said...and the next day...but then..."  Frequent characters in her stories are Alice (from Alice in Wonderland), Mr. Rabbit (the White Rabbit), Mom (me, or Alice's mom), Dad (Matt, or Alice's Dad), Woody (from Toy Story), Buzz (from Toy Story) and Cinderella (you can guess from where).  Sometimes she gets so involved with the story that she forgets to eat, or pee, or whatever it is she is supposed to be doing.  It's totally hilarious.  And when Charlotte is really tired sometimes there aren't even real words.  Just "...mumble mumble...gibberish....AND THEN.....blah....SO...."

Here is an actual partial transcript of a story from the day of her birthday party (September 19th), when she really started telling stories in earnest:

...and Alice said, "Mom...Mom and Dad...can I go out and chase that rabbit?" and so...and so...her mom said, "Of course, of course," but...and so...we sent an email first.

One of the things the parents in Charlotte's stories frequently say is, "Of course, my dear," which just cracks me up.  

Friday, September 24, 2010

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Too small. Too big.

When Charlotte caught me sorting outgrown clothes, she HAD to wear the lamb sweater.  The same sweater that was mine, then my sister's, then my cousins'.  I don't remember if my brother wore it, or if it had gone to live with my cousins by that point.  My aunt found it and gave it to me for Christmas when Charlotte was 1, and Charlotte loved it.  She likes chewing/sucking on the metal "O" zipper pull.  Gross, but I remember loving it too, the cool metal in my mouth.  Charlotte is just about 3, and we handed it down to Gavin, but I remember wearing it, so I was much older.  A preemie, it took me a little longer to get as big as Charlotte is now, so it is very, very strange to know that I remember wearing a sweater that she has outgrown before her 3rd birthday.  Some of my memories start very early, though, so who knows if Charlotte will have a similar memory of the lamb sweater?  Dancing in the living room, sucking on the zipper pull, squeezed into last Christmas's present of blue corduroy pants and slightly too-small witch's hat.  It's not that the clothes are too small, it's that my baby is too big.













Friday, September 17, 2010

QOTD: 5 pm freak-out version

While Matt was trying to get her to sit on the potty:  "It's just an accident.  I don't know what my mouth is doing...there's no energy to pee.  There's no energy!"

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Karma. She is a bitch.

So, remember that time that Nicole almost dropped Charlotte?  Well, in the interest of sibling rivalry, I had to go one better and almost crush Gavin's fingers.

He's okay, but I'm traumatized, Nicole's traumatized, Josh is traumatized, and Charlotte is traumatized.  Matt, while not traumatized, understands that everyone else is.  Ugh.  It was literally the last thing I thought about last night and the first thing I thought about this morning.  Okay, second, after, "Whoa, Charlotte let us sleep until 7:48!"

Which moves us on to a new phase in family stuff - it's one thing to accidentally hurt yourself, a whole other can of worms to accidentally hurt your kid, and then a whole 'NOTHER an of worms to accidentally hurt someone else's child.