Pee?

The title of this post is not specifically referring to the substance, though we will discuss that, too. "Pee?" is how Charlotte says "Please?" We taught her the word a few weeks ago since "more" seems to have disappeared from her vocabulary and we get a lot of screaming at mealtimes when she wants to eat but doesn't seem to know how to tell us what she wants. Now she says, "pee," and when she wants something REALLY bad, the "pee" is accompanied by either a grabbing hand motion, or the sign for "more." It is thoroughly adorable. Of course, now she wants everything we're eating, and it's hard to resist when she says, "Pee? Mo? Pee?" That's how we found out that Charlotte loves onions. She prefers them carmelized, but will also, weirdly, eat them raw. She learned how to say the word onion, too, all the better to beg for them. "On-yee? Mo on-yee! Pee?"

Charlotte has also, sort of, started potty training. She's been interested in it for a while, just a little bit. I thought she might be getting ready soon because every so often she grabs her diaper and says "Pee!" Who knows if she's actually peeing when she does that, or if she just suddenly notices that her diaper is full of pee, but the fact is that she's kinda gradually becoming aware of it, and that's pretty exciting. We picked up Once Upon a Potty a few weeks ago. At first Matt was reluctant to buy another book, but I pointed out that I didn't want to get it out of the library. After all, I said, where do people read that book? In the bathroom. Do we really want a book that's been on countless potties before us? It's kind of a long book for Charlotte, but she likes it just the same. Gradually after that I would sit her on the big potty for a second at bath time, just before putting her in the bath. I didn't make a big deal out of it, or even do it every time, but then she started to ask me to put her on the toilet if we were in there. She'd touch the lid and look at me and go, "pee?"

It all kind of came to a head this weekend when I made a serious error in judgment this weekend out at a restaurant and we were having a horrible diaper change and she begged to sit on the toilet. There is a page in Once Upon A Potty that goes, "Then she went Wee-Wee and Poo-Poo, but not exactly IN the potty." We had that moment. In public. Due to my bad judgment, Charlotte went back to the table with one less onesie layer and minus shoes and socks. Sunday I bought her a potty, and she sat on it a few times yesterday. Amazingly, before bed, she peed in the potty! It was awesome. One of those moments when we hooted and hollered and clapped and told Charlotte how proud we were of her, and she was like, "Ain't no thang, Mama. Can you read me another story, please?" Matt and I had a moment where he said, "Are you going to take a picture?"

"I don't know - honestly, I just was thinking about it and dismissed it as too weird."

"Well," said Matt. "How about you take it, but don't post it on the internet. We'll save it to mail to her college roommate or something." So on my hard drive are two blurry pictures of a potty. You can't even see the pee, but we know it's there.

In lieu of those potty pictures, I'm going to post some pictures from yesterday that didn't involve bodily fluids. Okay, well, not pee anyway. I put Charlotte in her crib to set up her playyard and do a few other quick chores. When I came back to get her, she had totally slimed her red play silk, and gotten dye all over her hands, face, and sheet. It was very weird - I wouldn't have thought this silk had any dye left to give up! I washed it a few times, and she's slimed it a bunch of times, and it hadn't bled like this in a long time. Such is life.


Charlotte is very proud of her dye job.

One Year Later

2009 so far

So far this year is...underwhelming (with the exception of the new president!). We got a new mattress, which is just plain awesome - I wake up in the mornings without a backache, and I am totally sleeping better at night. I can't believe that we've been putting this off for two years as a "luxury expense." It's been worth it.

Aside from that, we're just going through what the whole country is going through. This economy blows - we both still have jobs, but have the feeling that they could disappear at any minute. No yearly bonuses, no overtime, and a wage freeze. I try not to think about it too hard - it's so hard to find a legitimate job where I can work from home. Even if I wanted to put Charlotte in day care (which I don't) I can't imagine where the extra money would come from - and the extra car. Right now we have one functional car, which isn't a big deal since I work from home and Matt works literally three miles away. If there is a problem in the middle of the day, Matt can be home with the car - and car seat - in five minutes. If our company laid us both off, we'd have to find new jobs, which would probably be for two different companies, in two different locations, with two different schedules, all of which would require us to negotiate that balancing act that most families with two working parents are required to negotiate. And I would hate it. So for now, we're keeping our fingers crossed and our resumes up-to-date.

In family news, my stepsister Julie (who is my favorite stepsister, I'm not gonna lie) is scheduled for a C-section on February 9th with a baby girl. I'm very excited for her - this baby was a total surprise, but she's embraced pregnancy and upcoming motherhood with a maturity and panache that I don't think a lot of people expected. I'm so proud of her I could bust - and I'm knitting like a crazy woman in hopes that the baby blanked arrives before my niece does.

My sister, Nicole, is also pregnant. This is even bigger news - Nicole is my best friend, and my closest family member, and I'm so thrilled for her. The timing, in my honest opinion, is not great - but she wanted to do it this way, and Josh went along with her, so we're all riding it out with them. She's due July 28th, and I just cannot wait. Nicole and Josh don't want to find out the gender of the baby, and I think that's awesome. I really wanted Charlotte's gender to be a surprise, but Matt couldn't take it, so we found out. I'm going back and forth on what I think Nicole's baby is going to be. Charlotte has voted girl, boy, cat, so really, it's anybody's guess.

As for my baby girl, her new hot trick is singing. Charlotte has always loved music, but since she has been picking up on this talking thing, the ability to speak the words of her favorite songs has been a fun new hobby. She's been requesting "row, row" for some time now, but now she sings along with Old MacDonald, too. She can make her requests known, too - she's very into "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond right now. It's one of her current top three. In fact, here are Charlotte's top three favorite songs, as of today.

3. "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel
I love this song, so I've been playing it a lot. To Charlotte, the best parts are the lines where she can sing along - she sings "boom" to the line my heart going boom-boom-boom. Her favorite part is the part on each chorus when Peter Gabriel sings "I've come to take you home" or "I'm going home" - she loves to sing "home" in this sweet, wistful tone that I know she got from me.

2. "The Hoppity Song"

Her other favorite song right now is the cover of The Hoppity song, originally sung by John Ondrasik...I think that Uncle Rock does the cover that Charlotte loves, but I'm not sure. I couldn't find what I was looking for on YouTube, but this video is hilarious, and it's the right song, so even if it isn't the performer, it's appropriate. There's a part of the version Charlotte likes where he sings, "Everybody sing hi(gh)" and the chorus sings back a high-pitched "hi!" and then he said "Everybody sing low" and the chorus sings back a low-pitched "low!" Charlotte loves to say "high!" and "low!" and have us sing back. We're an easy bunch to amuse around here.

1. "Sweet Caroline" - Neil Diamond
For those of you who aren't from Massachusetts, let me explain that "Sweet Caroline" is played at Fenway Park every game between the 7th and 8th innings. During the 7th inning stretch they play "God Bless America" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (as do many parks, I believe) but a few years ago the music director started playing "Sweet Caroline" because they really liked it. A sort of call and response has grown during the chorus - after the line "Sweet Caroline" the whole park goes, "bum-bum-bum", and then after "Good times never seemed so good" the park says, "so good! so good! so good!" Charlotte has learned these, and requests the song by singing, "Ba, ba, ba." To add to this, my mother-in-law got me a Wally the Green Monster doll that plays the chorus to "Sweet Caroline." (That sentence is such a Boston Red Sox fan in-joke that I can barely unravel it - sorry if you don't care.) Charlotte loves Wally, of course, and will request him by singing "ba, ba, ba" and pointing. She can be appeased by either squeezing Wally's hand so he plays, or by playing "Sweet Caroline" on the stereo. We do a lot of both.

Here is a video - it's kind of dark, but Charlotte is holding Wally, and sings the response *almost* in the right place.




Matt says that today Charlotte made her first two-word sentence that didn't consist of the word "hi" or "bye" as the first half. Apparently when he microwaved his soup for lunch she said, "Ha noo-noos," which means "hot noodles," if you don't speak toddler.

I think that's just about all the news that's fit to print - and I have some baby stuff to knit, so that's it for now.

Apparently, quality print media is dead. Bummer.

Just found out that Disney Corporation is gonna shut down Wondertime magazine. I'm utterly bummed - this is the only "parenting" magazine I get, and for good reason. Most of them suck, or have a heavy mommy-bias. Matt actually really enjoys Wondertime, too. I also got Cookie, but my subscription is almost done, thank god. That I subscribed to for 10 dollars to get the cute diaper bag. It sucks. Everything is about buying and shopping and expensive world vacations. I did enjoy the whole Amanda Peet vaccination who-hah, but other than that, I recycle Cookie as soon as I've read it. Wondertime gets saved on a shelf and referred to time after time. That's where we found the World's Best Mac N Cheese recipe.

Sigh.

AND they were local, based out of Northampton, MA. What a bummer, dude.

Happy Obama Day!

Charlotte and I watched CNN's coverage of the inauguration on mute while listening to NPR. Her favorite part was Aretha Franklin singing - Charlotte was utterly transfixed. My favorite part was Obama's speech, and the closing prayer actually made me cry.

Will post more later, re: babies, baby showers, employment, and my new mattress

Happy New Year!

We spent a quiet New Year's Eve with my sister Nicole and her husband Josh, as well as my best friend Kelly and her husband Chris. It was low-key, Charlotte got a few more Christmas presents that she really liked, and went to bed at 8 like usual. Chris and Kelly headed out at 10:15 because Kelly had to work today, and Nicole and Josh left about an hour later, to get home to their puppy before midnight. Matt and I played some Mario Kart on the Wii until 11:52, watched the ball drop, and went back to Mario Kart before going to bed way too late. Of course I didn't take any pictures. But here's a good one of Charlotte from last Sunday, while everyone else was at church and we were enjoying a leisurely breakfast at Grammy's.



Christmas was awesome, and I may post more later. Charlotte had a doctor's appointment and got a jillion vaccinations. Matt and I have been half-jokingly checking her every day for signs of autism and chicken pox. God, it's exhausting to be a nervous parent.

Have a happy and healthy new year, to anyone who might actually read this. :)

Flying solo.

I have a lot of stuff in my head right now, but not a lot to post about. Today Matt is at a Patriot's game, having been invited by a friend who got tickets from a friend, who got them from a friend. They are good seats, with access to a luxury box, so Matt was pretty thrilled. He's off having a great time, and I'm happy for him, but I'm a little frustrated and tired. I'm likely going to be by myself with Charlotte all day, without the car, and some days that's just a little overwhelming.

Charlotte and I spend 4 days a week by ourselves, no problem, but on the weekend it's a different routine, and I expect and anticipate having the extra help. Or being able to say, "Dude, I need a nap and a shower, hang out with the kid, okay?" Plus, I feel bad for Charlotte. It sucks when your mom is phoning it in, and today, that's how I feel. Charlotte's napping right now, but I know she'll be up soon, and I have soooo much to do for Christmas still that I know I'm going to have to stick her in the play yard and work around her. I feel guilty for that, but I don't have time to put this stuff off, either.

Blah. I need a vacation. Not from Charlotte, but from everything else. If only I could wake up tomorrow with no work and a clean house. Someone send a fairy godmother, 'kay?



In Holly Jolly news, we went to a family Christmas party last week (like last year) and Charlotte again got to sit on Santa's lap. She didn't actually cry, but she was very concerned/interested in this dude. She couldn't take her eyes off of him. Even when she got her present and we took her to the back of the room to open it, she was still craning her neck and trying to see what he was doing with the other kids.



Santa gave her a Minnie Mouse toy, which would not have been my first thought, but Charlotte absolutely adores her Mo-mo. I don't think she's ever seen Minnie before - it's not like Winnie The Pooh, where we have a lot of stuff with him and Tigger on it. She recognizes Pooh, Tigger and Elmo when she sees them in different places, but Minnie is her first Disney Mouse, and there is something about her that Charlotte finds very appealing. They've been inseparable all this week, and Mo-mo is oft requested by name, which is unusual for Charlotte.

Another fun thing at the party was Charlotte hanging out with my youngest cousin, Chelsea, who is seven. Chelsea and I are the cousin brackets - at 29, I'm the oldest, and she's the youngest. Chelsea was chasing around Charlotte, with Matt or I following as back-up. After five minutes, Chelsea looked at me and said, "Playing with Charlotte is fun, but she never stops moving! And she always wants to touch things she's not supposed to!" This is a lesson that the youngest daughter and youngest granddaughter never had to learn before, and it was pretty funny.



It was a great party, I enjoyed myself, and I enjoyed seeing my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and relatives who I don't know who they are. It was awkward and weird in some ways, though - my dad wasn't there. He's never there, since my stepmother and my dad's family had a fight over 10 years ago. And as much as I am kind of over the whole thing, it still hurts and sucks to see Dad's siblings all joking together and helping the family set up, and to know that Dad isn't there because he doesn't want to deal with it. It sucks that Dad isn't there to say, "Oh, Jenn, this is Uncle Joe, remember him? He's the one who used to tease Gramma about going for a ride on his motorcycle!" Me and my sister just kind of wander aimlessly, not knowing what we should offer to do. It doesn't help that my whole family is kinda bad at communicating, to the point that one year we showed up at a party only to find out that we were supposed to be dressed nicely for a family photo. Dad, who had been the one to relay the party invite, neglected to mention this. We thought it was just a regular cook-out, and were wearing t-shirts and jean shorts. It ended up being no big deal, we all stood in the back, but it was just one more thing to make us feel alienated.

At this party, my uncle told me and Nicole that he had talked to our dad on the phone that morning, and we both said, in unison, "That's nice." He realized from that response that we hadn't heard from him in a while - and Uncle Scott felt bad. The whole thing is such a big mess, and I don't even really care to untangle it. I could go on and on for hours about it, and it would make even less sense. I'm just really sensitive to it at this time of year, with all the sentimentality and obligation and true joy and dread that Christmas means to me.

Shaking that all off....

I'm really looking forward to Christmas with Charlotte - I know that she's getting some fun toys, and I can't wait to see her play with them. We've been really lax about leaving her presents around, banking on the fact that she's 14 1/2 months old, and won't really notice that the See N Say in the box in our room is going to be unwrapped on Christmas morning. However, Charlotte has noticed and remembered said See N Say, and she likes to come in our room and stand in front of it. I think she's trying to figure out why we have something that is so obviously for her in a box in our room. She's going to lose it when she realizes that it actually makes noises!

I'm trying to decide if I want to take her out in the snow for a few minutes. I think I'm going to wuss out - it's such a pain to get us both all ready to go. Maybe tomorrow before Matt goes to work we'll take her out for a minute. She really likes the process of getting ready to go out, thank god. Charlotte loves her coat ("co") and her mittens and her hat ("ha") and thinks the snow ("no") is funny.

One last picture of Charlotte - her new thing is climbing, and she's figured out how to pile up things to use them to stand on. In this picture, you can see that she totally thinks she's going to be able to swing her leg over the side of the play yard and make her escape. Not true.