"I've wanted one of these my whole life!"

 Charlotte's catchphrase this Christmas was, "I've wanted one of these my whole life!" followed closely by "This is the best [whatever] of my whole life!"  Those are both kind of from Polar Express - at one point The Boy pulls the train's whistle and say, "I've wanted to do that my whole life!" and at another point Billy says, "I've wanted one of these my whole life!"  Charlotte clearly understood the concept, and re-iterated it frequently, and to the amusement of all her adult relatives.

Things that Charlotte (apparently) wanted her whole life:
Lite Sprites
a tea set
a tea shirt with a penguin on it
a tricycle
a coloring book
a Squinkies dispenser

This was the year that Charlotte got wowed by toys, bikes, and all the STUFF about Christmas.  She wasn't outright mercenary, but she totally understood the present side of Christmas for the first time ever.  And since she wasn't bratty about it, it was actually pretty fun to indulge her, and just watch her lose her tiny mind over all the toys she got.  The big present, in every way, was the tricycle from Santa.  It was a Big Deal for her mom and dad, and it's awesome how much she loves it.  Charlotte is great at riding it, and I took a bunch of videos I'll have to upload.  It's been a long road to get to bike riding, and I'm so proud & psyched that she can do it.  At physical therapy a year ago we really realized just how behind she was on some of the big physical stuff, and riding a trike was so hard for her that she couldn't even go 20 feet without stopping.  Fast forward to this week, and Charlotte is pedaling all around the apartment complex.  It's terrific.  Part of it is the tricycle design, part of it is her age, and part of it is the hard work we've all been doing with her big muscle needs in mind. 

Watching my kid ride her tricycle around and around, all I can think is, "I've wanted this my whole life."

Belated Christmas.

We couldn't decide on one best picture this year, so we sent out three different cards.  These were the photos we chose.

Week from Crazy Train

oh. my. god.

Can I just tell you that pretty much nothing went as planned this week? I'm not gonna get into a day-by-day play-by-play, though it's tempting. I will say this, though...there were BACK TO BACK trips to the doctor's office on Thursday and Friday to have fuzz pulled out of Charlotte's nose. I don't want to talk about how we scoured her bed and got rid of everything we thought she could get stuffing from, or how the first doctor may not have looked hard enough, or how she screams, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" as she's held down by a nurse while the doctor comes at her with the long tiny tweezers.

So why am I even posting?

I'd like to whine without reliving...it's just been one of those weeks where you know you are doing everything right and everything you can, and it's still not enough. The kind of week where you feel like you were grumpy all week and allowed too much television and not enough "I love you"s. (Though I did get two of the most rare, the spontaneous "I love you, Mom"s on Monday. That was nice.) The highs and lows came so fast that I feel unbalanced and uncomfortable and out of control. Which sucks. I'm supposed to be the calm one, the laid back one, the one who takes things as they come and makes flexible plans, and instead I feel like one more reschedule could make me shatter. The thought of continuing exactly like this for the next nine months is terrifying. The thought of only doing this for nine more months is heartbreaking. I don't want to think about pre-school and potty training and sleeping in a big girl bed, but I know that I may have to, as soon as next month, next week, or maybe even tomorrow. (Charlotte asked to pee on the potty twice this week, and did both times! Then she peed once on the floor, and today wouldn't sit at all, but that's okay.) Christmas is so exciting and overwhelming at the same time. The present I had my heart set on getting for Charlotte is sold out until January. Charlotte is so excited by the "Chris'm" lights in her room and the santa hat Matt got her that she cried hysterically at bed time. I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, and Charlotte answered, "A Chris'm tree, and go a Yankee Candle." Luckily, I think she'll get both those wishes this weekend.

So that was my week. High points included the two aforementioned spontaneous "I love you"s from my daughter, babysitting (by myself!) the excellent baby G-man (and the excellent puppy-nephew M...the kitty nieces informed me that they did not need or want babysitting, so there), watching Charlotte get very into Christmas songs/lights/decorations, playing Pretend Yankee Candle (auntie's idea) with Charlotte, and making chicken & cheese enchiladas for the first time. Low points were too numerous and horrible to mention.

Tomorrow, though, to mix up some literary heroines, is another day...with no mistakes in it. And boy, am I looking forward to that.

I elfed the baby.