Five year old in winter, in pictures.

It's not that stuff isn't happening. It's just that I'm sorta lazy? Busy? Hermit-ing?

*shrug*

a million more pictures under the cut. 

September to June.

Charlotte's last day of her first year of preschool was this week.  I just typed "last week" because it seems like it was a million years ago already.

2012, so far.

State of the Four Year Old

Just a bulleted list of the stuff that is going on right now, in Charlotte-ville.

* Charlotte still loves school, and is seeming to be doing a better job in general of following instructions & schedules.

* We've pretty much decided not to push her into Kindergarten in the fall, and instead red-shirt her.  Her birthday is September 24th, and the cut-off is September 1st in this district.  This deserves its own post some day.

* Matt really decided to get on the ball and prod the school in the PT area.  Charlotte is still doing a ton of toe-walking, and while the rest of her gross motor stuff seems to be working out (fine motor, too), it's still worth another detailed evaluation at school.  Her teacher is totally on-board and was going to bring it up in a meeting yesterday.  So we'll see where that goes.


* TV-wise, Charlotte is still very into naturalist animal shows, both live-action and animated.  She's way into the Wild Kratts, the animated series, and its predecessor, Zoboomafoo.  She also just watched an episode of Dirty Jobs with me that was about an animal ranch, a whole hour long, and usually adult shows just do not hold her interest.


* Charlotte is dipping her toe back into representional art.  They have been talking at school about healthy foods, staying healthy, getting excersize and getting sleep.  So she drew two pictures last week; one about being sick and throwing up on the side of her bed, and one about the sorts of things she sleeps with.  (Tiggy, special blankie.)



* Had a late but awesome Christmas and visit with our friends in CT and went to the Wadsworth Atheneum for their free Second Saturday.  They had crafts set up for the kids, and Charlotte made an awesome "barn owl" mask, complete with eyelashes, mustache & beard.

* Right now Charlotte's main interests are Lalaloopsies toys and fairies and Playmobil people.  She's way into creating these elaborate landscapes and storylines.  They all really center around one tree house that she has carefully set up.

The whole set up. Note the Nutcracker out front. He's there to indicate that is is Christmas, apparently.

This is Scarlet Riding Hood's bedroom. She has the Playmobil boombox for music, and a jewelry box for a bed. Charlotte sets her alarm for her every night.

Two shelves. Storage area. Books on one shelf, paint tube, bug in a jar, and bug catching net on the other.

 

 

* Back in January, Charlotte got to meet her newest cousin, my brother & sister-in-law's baby daughter, R.  Charlotte was surprisingly into it, and did a pretty good (well, okay-ish) job of being gentle and protective of the baby.  At least as well as the dog did, anyway.

* While we were in Central New York meeting the new baby, Charlotte also got to go to her first zoo with Daddy, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo.  They had a really great time together, and I'm glad that they got to do something so special just the two of them.

* Valentines Day was awesome, as far as she was concerned.  She helped me make cards that we sent out to family, and we made a heart-shaped icebox cake for dessert on Valentines Day.  We also had heart-shaped homemade pizzas.

Mini-me: Photography Edition

Charlotte learned how to use the auto-focus on our camera, and is making some really interesting photographs.  I can't wait for her to get her own camera!  I know that her aunt & uncle got her one for Christmas.  Charlotte has been copying me and documenting our projects, and I think it will be really interesting to see what she chooses to photograph.

I look.....drunk.

This picture makes me think of "The Blair Witch Project."

dirty face.

cat food.  in sharp focus.

A few more pictures from June.

Sometimes Charlotte still naps.
But not without creating catastrophe first.

A Cars tableau.  Complete with Lightning McQueen in the top bunk.

Charlotte's nursery.

The Girlie-fication of my daughter

art

C wearing her "friendship necklace" from J & B

Packed for Grammy's.  All those bags are full of blocks.

Charlotte's new thing is rhyming.  She's so so good at it, just grasps it really solidly.  At bedtime sometimes she likes to do some chatting before bed.  We did some rhyming tonight. 


Mama:  What rhymes with day?


Charlotte:  [after some other rhymes] Tay.


Mama:  Tay isn't a word, baby.


Charlotte:  Yes it is.


Mama:  Okay, what does it mean?


Charlotte:  "Tay" is like a creature, a tiny bug.  A big monster with green fur, and it lives under the sea.  A "tay."

She totally does this whenever we do rhyming and she thinks of something that isn't actually a word.  The made up words are usually creatures, bugs, monsters.  They are tiny, big, with fur, and under the sea.  It's great.  I love her.

paper faerie wings

my brother's dog, doing the "play bow" to Charlotte

Charlotte doing the "play bow" to the dog

Museum of Science & Technology, Syracuse NY

Museum!

excavating at the Museum

giant Kinex table at the museum

Charlotte & her uncle & aunt

weird close-up

So hard to reconcile...

....this...

From Sleeping positions

with this!

Go Ask Alice.

Despite the evidence to the contrary, Charlotte is not going to be Alice in Wonderland for Halloween.  She still wants to be a witch.  Though last night she said she was going to be Cinderella.  But we're right back at witch this morning.  Thank goodness, because we already have a witch costume.  And an awesome broom.  I figure if she starts to waver towards Cinderella, we can pull the broom out and remind her of how cool it is and that Cinderella doesn't carry a broom (actually, that's patently untrue, but I'm not sure that she'd remember that in time to make a convincing argument).

In other news, Charlotte is recovering from a cold and being a huge pain in the neck.  Here are some facebook status updates from yesterday:

11:48 am -

You know your kid is three when you specifically tell them that you are happy that the crayons didn't roll into the baseboard, because the heater is on and that would make a mess.....and five minutes later, she's put all the crayons in the baseboard. Groan.

2:15 ish pm - 

In the ongoing saga of I-need-a-vacation, Charlotte just came out of her room during "nap" with a mouthful of toy food saying, "I need to throw up," and spitting out her fake food. I did not laugh, but it is pretty freaking funny. This is my punishment for laughing at a puke joke 2 weeks ago.

10:55 pm - 

I know today has been rather Charlotte-heavy, but I'd like you all to know that the hilarious child is STILL AWAKE. Luckily, I'm still up and working and just monitoring from the living room, but seriously? Really?

11:16 pm - 

...and she's finally asleep. Phew.

wordless wednesday