Monday, April 23, 2012

She excels at non sequitirs.

After saying prayers tonight, Charlotte asked, "What does 'God Bless' mean?"

I told her, "It means, 'God, please watch over this person I'm mentioning.' "

Charlotte 's next question - "What does 'amen' mean?"

"Uh, it means 'the end of this prayer.' "

"What is a prayer for again?"

"It's for thanking God and maybe asking him to take extra special care of someone or something," I said.

"I can see in the dark now.  I ate lots of cherry tomatoes."

Thanks for lightening the mood, babe.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Spring Break, Day 1

This week is spring break week for Charlotte's school.  She doesn't have school, but I do have to work, so we're striving for a balance of fun things, social things, and Mama getting shit done.  Today was actually a pretty good start, all things considered.

* Charlotte woke up EARLY, before 6 am, to play with her new Lalaloopsies.

* She got to play some PBS kids games (Peep, Electric Company, Cat in the Hat), watch an episode of Powerpuff Girls.

* We walked to the playground at school & played some on the little kid playground. She got to play on the equipment and do all the things she's not allowed to do.  Chuck rocks down the slide, go down headfirst, kick dirt into giant dust clouds, swing on her belly on the swings, twist the swings into knots.  We also acted out the Three Little Pigs.  Charlotte was all the pigs, and I was the Big Bad Wolf.

* I took the old pictures off of Charlotte's camera so that she could take new pictures.  She took some really hilarious videos.  They are like tiny micro-plays.  In some of them, the camera is both a tool and a character.  "Hey, are we friends?"  "No, we aren't friends!"  "Fine!"  "Fine! I'm going to turn you off now!"

* We listened to the first few chapters of Charlotte's Web on audiobook.  I've read her the first few chapters a couple times, but she isn't always that interested in me reading books without pictures.  She was impatiently waiting for her name-twin when I was reading it to her.  We're listening on cassette, which means she can't listen to it in her room on her own; we listened together during dinner.  I wasn't sure she was listening, but she really seemed to like it, and asked for more when side 1 was done. 




* Charlotte almost fell asleep during dinner.  First time in a loooong time.

* Charlotte, up for 14 hours straight, had one of the most epic meltdowns ever at bedtime tonight. Of course it was over something ridiculous - which pajamas to wear.  I told my brother, and Matt agreed, that it was in the top 10 most epic temper tantrums she's had in her whole life so far.  I stayed very calm - I have lost it worse at less provocation, but really, we had such a good day, and she was so clearly overtired and not herself that it didn't bother me as much as it would have on another day.  And I even giggled a few times, which I tried to cover, because, god, how furious would that make her?  And really, of course it would and it should! Can you imagine trying to express the most extreme serious emotion you have in your four-and-a-half year old body and have your mom just giggle at you?  I didn't want to hurt her feelings, even as she was doing her best to scream the loudest she ever has in her life.

* Charlotte was asleep in less than 7 minutes tonight.

Monday, April 2, 2012

the quotable miss charlotte emily - cribbed from facebook

* "Hi-ho-the-dairy-o the duck's wife takes the chick! Hi-ho-the-dairy-o the duckling takes the chick's friend."

* Charlotte told me, "I woke up crazy today."

* Charlotte just used the word "whatnot" correctly. "Oh, Saturday. A family day. A *big* family day. A day to visit with your friends and whatnot."

* Me, foolishly trying to bargain: "I'm pretty sure even pirates brush their teeth."

Charlotte, indignant: "They do not! Pirates do not brush their teeth! Baby pirates do not brush their teeth! Big pirates do not brush their teeth! All people who live in the wild do not brush their teeth. Hmph."

Bonus parent quote:

* Shit parents say: "That's it. You are in time out for kicking the toilet."