Monday, January 24, 2011

Note to my daughter:  Any time you have a 20 minute breakdown over the fact that you are not being allowed to watch television, you are only reinforcing my decision.  Sorry, babe.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

January, continued.

* Charlotte had a great time today playing with some Model Magic that had been handed down to her from her cousin.  Seriously, she played with it for well over two hours.  I made a number of little things, and supposedly they are completely dry in 24 hrs.  We'll see how this stuff works out, but I think we are going to get more, since Matt likes it infinitely more than Play-Doh. 


*  We are now working on night-time potty training, where we have Charlotte going to bed in underpants and we're waking her up a few times a night to sit on the potty.  She's doing GREAT.  We had one really good day and then one really bad day, so Matt was ready to despair, but things have been going very well since then.  It has kind of changed our sleeping schedule, which brings us to...

* Sleep.  Charlotte has been having so much trouble sleeping, ever since her birthday.  She's had coughs & colds, we've seen a few different doctors at her pediatricians' practice, and eventually we came up with a plan that involved a 1mg tablet of melatonin to help her sleep, and a FloVent inhaler to reduce the inflammation in her lungs left over from her back-to-back colds/allergies(?) which were causing her to wake herself up coughing every night.  In the whole months of October & November, I don't think she ever slept more than 3 hours in a row or more than 8 hours a night.  December with the melatonin & inhalers we got the sleep back to about 8 hours a night, but we had weeks of her waking every other day or so at 4 or 5 am and not being able to fall back asleep.  I counted it in the win category, though, because at least she was getting 8 hrs of sleep a day, and that was better than it had been.  However, (KNOCK ON WOOD) we seem to have turned a corner in the war for better sleep.  Cranking the thermostat DOWN at night & cranking the humidifier up have cut down on the coughing (since she's done with the inhaler) and somehow waking her up to pee seems to keep her from waking too much on her own.  Maybe it was that the wet pull-up really was bothering her?  Who knows.  I am not particularly amused to be back on the very young baby schedule of waking one to two times in the middle of the night, but it does seem to be doing the trick, and the toilet training is coming along excellently.

* Spring is not yet in the air, but Charlotte & I planted a hyacinth bulb about 10 days ago, and she's enjoying observing it and making notes in her little Science notebook.  She's illustrating and I'm writing notes and asking her questions.  I think we are going to be starting some more plant projects soon, both for her and for me.  I'm very interested in succulents & terrariums for myself, and she's interested in flowers and food plants.  We are definitely going to try the garden thing again this year, even though last year it didn't work out so well.

* Speaking of Spring, and the lack thereof, Charlotte is loving winter, ice & snow, just like Madeline.  She has great boots from her shoe-store managing grandfather, and lovely outerwear, so she has some crazy stamina outside.  I, sadly, do NOT have snow pants, so after about half an hour or so, I get a little chilly.  Charlotte, meanwhile, is rubbing her face in the snow and digging around with her bucket and rake.


* Charlotte's new favorite TV show is on The Cooking Channel. It's called Everyday Exotic, and she ADORES it. The host's name is Roger Mooking, and we do a lot of talking about Roger.  In fact, this week I plan to make avocado pudding, because Roger makes it in Charlotte's favorite episode, and she & I are both very curious.

* "What do you do first?"  Charlotte loves to watch us cook, and everytime Matt or I go into the kitchen, or talk about a recipe, she always wants to know, "What do you do first?"  She is very interested in knowing all the steps to making something, or at least how to get it off the ground.

* The current favorite movie is Tinker Bell, which I had requested from Netflix.  It's a lot better than I expected, and Charlotte loves it.  She's kind of sliding into the princess/girlie thing, and I'm resisting pretty hard.  That warrants its own post, and I'll try to get around to that soon.  I am okay with the Tinker Bell thing, though, and the fairy thing is pretty cute.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Cheap and Easy post. 2011 so far.

Various Charlotte stories from Facebook and Twitter.  (Re-runs, basically.)  Right now Charlotte is doing a rather fascinating and disturbing play - stabbing Yoda with a stick and saying that she's "checking his froat."  I swear I have never stuck her with sticks in the interest of science.


* C is playing "violin" by holding a pillow under her chin and sawing a drumstick back and forth. she's also dancing, which is prob dangerous.











* c says "look at my art!"
 

* Additional Charlotte note: Apparently she can read now and is keeping it secret. We were talking about recycling and she was saying that big girls recycle at the "likwer store." I said, "Yes, they do have recycling at the liquor store." and she said, "No, Mama, the LIKWER store." (She & Matt went to Liquors 44 last night in search of cider, and I guess that reminded her of the bottle return there.)

* Charlotte just said, "When you see it upside down, it's the letter W. When you see it upside up, it's the letter M." Nice work, kid.

*   I asked C what her fave part of the day was & she said "Watching Roger [Everyday Exotic with Roger Mooking]. And playing with Auntie Acole." But Roger came 1st. 


* Okay, Charlotte watches to much Cooking Channel. At dinner tonight she was watching herself in the mirror and saying, "Okay, now we get the liquid from the peas. And then we make celery sandwiches..." - couscous piled on yogurt on top of cucumber slices - "...and we pat it down gently, like this. Gently."

* Two visits in two days, this is the craziest my social life has been in a LONG time. Firehouse crew over last night for dinner & hanging out, Aunt Jen & Uncle John today, yay!!! Charlotte can't wait. "Auntie Jen & Uncle John are coming to see ME. And we should make them scrambled eggs."

* I have this theory that every fabric-bodied baby doll with a plastic head & limbs ends up naked, with one lazy eye & blue ballpoint pen on their head. Bitty Baby, Charlotte's new baby, has been naked for 2 days and has white paint on his head from being wedged between her bed and wall every night. He's well on his way.

* Charlotte just told me, "We're busy, you can leave us alone." She's reading a dinosaur book to Matt while sitting on the toilet. I just wanted to ask him a question, sheesh.

* From the you-can't-make-this-up file: as Charlotte was painting, she frequently told me, "I'm feeling blue." She was both sniffling & using the color blue so I have no idea what she meant.

* I'm not totally paying attention to Charlotte's running dialogue, but this line just jumped out at me..."Even Tigger knows this is crazy!"


 


QOTD: Got No Strings Edition

Charlotte, with a fabric puppet: "Now I have to turn you into wood."

Friday, January 14, 2011

I have this theory that every fabric-bodied baby doll with a plastic head & limbs ends up naked, with one lazy eye & blue ballpoint pen on their head. Bitty Baby, Charlotte's new baby, has been naked for 2 days and has white paint on his head from being wedged between her bed and wall every night. He's well on his way.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

QOTD: Best Music of 2010, Assembling the Mix Tape

Charlotte:  I know a great song.  It's a Jesus song I never listened to.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Charlotte:  This is Charlotte's favorite.

Mama:  This band has a funny name.  They're called Spoon.
Charlotte:  Ha ha!  That is funny.  Heh.  Spoon.

Mama:  This song is called "Written in Reverse."
Charlotte:  Who wrote it?

Mama:  Spoon.

Charlotte:  Who illustrated it?