I knew Matt & Charlotte hadn't left to go to the grocery store yet, but it was so quiet that I couldn't imagine what they were doing. I tracked them to Charlotte's room, where Matt was sitting in the rocking chair and Charlotte was on the footstool, and he was trying to braid her hair. I stifled a giggle, and ducked out of sight.
"What are you laughing at?" called Matt.
"Nothing. Well, the look on your face while you're braiding her hair - overwhelmed, but kinda determined."
"That?" said Matt. "That's a 'Parent Face.'"
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
A few more pictures from June.
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| Sometimes Charlotte still naps. But not without creating catastrophe first. |
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| A Cars tableau. Complete with Lightning McQueen in the top bunk. |
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| Charlotte's nursery. |
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| The Girlie-fication of my daughter |
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| art |
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| C wearing her "friendship necklace" from J & B |
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| Packed for Grammy's. All those bags are full of blocks. |
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Midsummer Update
Charlotte facts:
In an effort to sound authoritative, she sometimes says, "Boys & girls need X," or "Boys and girls want more Y."
She tells Matt, "cut it out" when he sings along with things.
She has an invisible imaginary herd of "brothers & sisters"
She cries when it's time to leave the pool.
She can spell STOP and GO with her alphabet magnets
She is *so* into the hobbit right now.
Every time we go to the library we get a book on the ocean/seashore/shells/
She loves books on tape, we think she's trying to teach herself how to read
Finally started playing with "babies"
Can (mostly) get herself dressed & put on her velcro shoes. (Matt got her the right socks, ankle socks, instead of her regular Old Navy & Carters crew socks.)
Copied from my Facebook status:
6/28 - Things that happened today: I made a tutu for a barbie and my kid pirouetted to Tchaikovsky.
6/28 - ...and we just had our first instance of barbie alteration. I caught Charlotte coloring Barbie's hair with a marker. She's in trouble because we only color on paper, but I can't fault her argument. "I didn't want her hair to be golden like Rapunzel anymore. I wanted it to be red or purple."
6/26 - I heard Charlotte's door open this morning and went over and said, "Good morning, baby, how are you?"
The first words out of Charlotte's mouth this morning were, "You speak very well."
6/26 - Charlotte, on watching a tiny bit of a football movie - "Football is like Angry Birds. They crash into people like Angry Birds. And pigs. And they are mad."
6/25 - Nice morning running errands together, along with an imaginary, invisible Rapunzel. At one point, Charlotte was trying to hold my hand, hang on to her teddy bear, and hold Rapunzel's hand, too. I pointed out that Rapunzel is 18 years old and capable of crossing a parking lot by herself.
6/21 - Charlotte is greatly enjoying Flock of Seagulls "I Ran (So Far Away or Whatver The Hell My Title Is You All Know Which One I Mean)." It has spurred a request for "rock and roll that makes my hair shake." Nice.
6/20 - Today's too ambitious for Monday project: Charlotte is making a spider web with Elmer's Glue & yarn
6/19 - About to take Charlotte on a firefly hunt! In the car - there are no good fields within walking distance & a sidewalk. (Also, I don't think she has any more room on her wee little body for mosquito bites.)
6/14 - Charlotte keeps saying, "I need to get to Paris!" She's also already packed for a weekend at Grammy's - 4 tote bags of blocks and a purse full of woodland creatures. I wonder if she's confused...
6/13 - Charlotte wants a CD player that plays records. She just showed me a catalog with the "vintage" Fisher Price record players, and pointed to it. "I want the CD player that plays those CDs, like Lilo."
6/13 - Charlotte is *very* into wearing dresses lately. It's not a girlie thing - it's a "no pants" thing. She finally realized there's a workaround.
Monday, June 13, 2011
How an Impromptu Hippie Jam Band Saved My Monday
Man, I suck at Mondays. And they aren't Charlotte's best days, either. We had kind of a busy family weekend, which was good, but we didn't have nearly as much outside time or family play time as I would have wanted, and that means Mondays are rough. Charlotte wants me to play with her, I am trying to drag my butt to the desk to get some work done, and that laundry isn't going to wash itself. (Yes, I have turned into the kind of person who has to think about laundry. Sucks, a bit.) After a long miserable day, Matt got home later than I wanted him to (but as soon as the bus could get him here) and I was snapping at him and he was arguing with Charlotte, and these dang kids were playing guitar out our window, and then suddenly Matt and I were grinning and joking.
Matt said, "You know what Hampshire really ruined for me?"
I replied, "Impromptu hippie jam bands?"
"Yup."
I know I've mentioned it before, (I think I'm gonna have to go back and tag entries) but Matt and I both attended, and didn't graduate from, Hampshire College. Hampshire is a liberal liberal arts college, small & full of artists, hippies, hipsters, film students, photographers, tech geeks, theatre people, gamers, geeks, nerds, and anyone else who would want to go to a small school without grades that can't offer you a lot of financial aid. One of the things that I think is prevalent at some schools, but EPIDEMIC at Hampshire is informal drum circles, hippies jamming on the quad, and random people singing while someone dances. (There were also breakdancers whipping out ghetto blasters and squares of linoleum, when I was there IN 1997.) I spent 2 years full time at Hampshire, and let me tell you, I have heard my share of impromptu jams. And the people who were playing outside my window today could have cribbed the setlist from any of them. It was both weird and funny.
Tension broken from our shared nostalgia, Matt took Charlotte outside to get some fresh air while I got dinner started. Apparently the hippies were very nice to Charlotte - she is an appreciative audience, and had told me that she was really wanting to go out there - "I'm friendly and brave! I want to meet them and play guitar with them while they are singing! Do you think they are brave too? Can I go play music with them?" She danced and clapped for them while they sang their various songs. When Matt & Charlotte came back inside, they started singing "Jane Says" and I pretty much died laughing. "How old are they?? They can't be old enough to know these songs," I said to Matt.
"Well, the girl singing is almost 27," he said. "She asked Charlotte when her birthday was, and when Charlotte said September 24th the girl said she would be 27 on September 19th, so..."
"Chris's age. Hmm. They must have older siblings." Seriously, their set list was like MTV's early/mid 90s afternoon rotation, with a couple hippie exceptions (two Janis Joplin songs):
mercedes benz
bobby mcgee
no rain
jane says
what i got
what's up
mr jones
what i like about you
The "What's Up" cover was pretty timely, for me personally, because I've listened to it a few times this year already. I was thinking that Charlotte would like it, and she sort of does (though she likes this cover of it better) but I realized how much I loved that song. I also looked it up on Wikipedia last year and discovered that the singer has done some other projects, none reaching the kind of exposure that this single did, but that she's actually a song writer who has written or co-wrote a ton of big songs. So that was cool. And, uh, maybe I sang along in my apartment with the hippie jam band while washing my dishes.
Matt and I had another crack up moment when they started playing "No Rain," because a) I love that song b) everyone used to say I reminded them of the Bee Girl*. Then we started giggling even harder because Charlotte ran to her room and started rifling through her instruments to find something to play along with it. She picked up and put down two tambourines and started playing them, which caused Matt and I to lose it. "What, does she just instinctively know this song?" She ended up bringing out her drum, but again, seriously, this whole thing just turned my day around.
* Just a nice way of saying, "You know you're chubby and kind of weird, right?" but I was okay with it. Also one time at Hampshire Halloween someone dressed as the Bee Girl and I was jealous because I always meant to do a costume but never got one together. Maybe this year. Or maybe when Charlotte is older so I can REALLY embarrass her.
Matt said, "You know what Hampshire really ruined for me?"
I replied, "Impromptu hippie jam bands?"
"Yup."
I know I've mentioned it before, (I think I'm gonna have to go back and tag entries) but Matt and I both attended, and didn't graduate from, Hampshire College. Hampshire is a liberal liberal arts college, small & full of artists, hippies, hipsters, film students, photographers, tech geeks, theatre people, gamers, geeks, nerds, and anyone else who would want to go to a small school without grades that can't offer you a lot of financial aid. One of the things that I think is prevalent at some schools, but EPIDEMIC at Hampshire is informal drum circles, hippies jamming on the quad, and random people singing while someone dances. (There were also breakdancers whipping out ghetto blasters and squares of linoleum, when I was there IN 1997.) I spent 2 years full time at Hampshire, and let me tell you, I have heard my share of impromptu jams. And the people who were playing outside my window today could have cribbed the setlist from any of them. It was both weird and funny.
Tension broken from our shared nostalgia, Matt took Charlotte outside to get some fresh air while I got dinner started. Apparently the hippies were very nice to Charlotte - she is an appreciative audience, and had told me that she was really wanting to go out there - "I'm friendly and brave! I want to meet them and play guitar with them while they are singing! Do you think they are brave too? Can I go play music with them?" She danced and clapped for them while they sang their various songs. When Matt & Charlotte came back inside, they started singing "Jane Says" and I pretty much died laughing. "How old are they?? They can't be old enough to know these songs," I said to Matt.
"Well, the girl singing is almost 27," he said. "She asked Charlotte when her birthday was, and when Charlotte said September 24th the girl said she would be 27 on September 19th, so..."
"Chris's age. Hmm. They must have older siblings." Seriously, their set list was like MTV's early/mid 90s afternoon rotation, with a couple hippie exceptions (two Janis Joplin songs):
mercedes benz
bobby mcgee
no rain
jane says
what i got
what's up
mr jones
what i like about you
The "What's Up" cover was pretty timely, for me personally, because I've listened to it a few times this year already. I was thinking that Charlotte would like it, and she sort of does (though she likes this cover of it better) but I realized how much I loved that song. I also looked it up on Wikipedia last year and discovered that the singer has done some other projects, none reaching the kind of exposure that this single did, but that she's actually a song writer who has written or co-wrote a ton of big songs. So that was cool. And, uh, maybe I sang along in my apartment with the hippie jam band while washing my dishes.
Matt and I had another crack up moment when they started playing "No Rain," because a) I love that song b) everyone used to say I reminded them of the Bee Girl*. Then we started giggling even harder because Charlotte ran to her room and started rifling through her instruments to find something to play along with it. She picked up and put down two tambourines and started playing them, which caused Matt and I to lose it. "What, does she just instinctively know this song?" She ended up bringing out her drum, but again, seriously, this whole thing just turned my day around.
* Just a nice way of saying, "You know you're chubby and kind of weird, right?" but I was okay with it. Also one time at Hampshire Halloween someone dressed as the Bee Girl and I was jealous because I always meant to do a costume but never got one together. Maybe this year. Or maybe when Charlotte is older so I can REALLY embarrass her.
Friday, June 10, 2011
last week in cell phone pictures
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| all dressed up for the occasional nap |
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| STPO spells STOP, Mom. |
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| last trip in the old car, Johnny the Hyundai |
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| Al's Toy Barn |
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| Gardening is serious work. |
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| Queen & Princess |
Monday, June 6, 2011
A tale of two baby dolls.
Charlotte has two "babies." One is a very lovely, very expensive baby that was hand-picked by a doting great-aunt who adores everything that Charlotte is. One is a $10 baby given to Charlotte for her 2nd birthday, the year that she got books & dinosaurs....this one was given to her by a relative who sees Charlotte once a year, and has no idea what she really is like.
Guess which one Charlotte plays with the most?
Guess which one Charlotte plays with the most?
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