Favorite Things, Right Now

It's been a long time since I blogged, for a lot of reasons.  But certainly not for lack of material.  Charlotte is such a funny little person, and I definitely owe the blog a post of Charlotte quotes.  But to ease into things, here are some things that Charlotte is really into right now:

* Pirates.  Charlotte is into the tv show Jake and the Neverland Pirates, but also the book The Pirates Next Door, and Talk Like a Pirate Day, and anything piratical that isn't "too spooky."  This includes certain snippets of The Pirates of the Caribbean movie (enough to recognize Captain Jack Sparrow).  She even had a vaguely pirate themed birthday party for her classmates, and wore a pirate shirt to her family birthday party.  She has a "pirate playlist" in Spotify, and she's going to be a pirate for Halloween.  Here she is at her birthday party, in the museum's dress up clothes.  (We should have taken that jacket, I swear.)  When she really likes something, she gives it "two hooks up" - holding her thumbs up, but curved like hooks.

* Making Books.

* Representational art, finally.

* Reading.  I can't believe I have a kid who is old enough to read, but she is.  Charlotte is pretty good at reading short words, and sounding things out, and very good at remembering words she's seen if someone tells her what they are.  She's constantly surprising us by saying, "Oh, that says X," and we say, "How do you know that?" and she says, "I read it."

* Pre-school, friends, and marriage. Specifically, she wants to marry a boy in her pre-school.  Luckily, he wants to marry her, too.  When I dropped her off today, he said, "It's Charlotte! Hey Charlotte!  You wanna come sit next to me?"

* Family.  Grandparents and cousins especially.

* Playmobil, LaLaLoopsy, anything else small, plastic, and with a million tiny pieces.*

* Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives.

* Holiday planning.

*  Music.  Imagination Movers, Blues Brothers Soundtrack & Nightmare Before Christmas (soundtrack only).