Charlotte's 2!

OH... hello blog. I forgot you were here....Let me tell you about my Charlotte...

Last Friday, Charlotte turned 2! We trained her the night before to correctly answer "how old are you?". It stuck and she proudly proclaim "TWO" while holding 2 fingers up, so be sure to ask her when you see her.

As with most kids her age, she's been "2" for a while, but WOW if you saw her on her birthday at the shoe store with Boz and I attempting to try sandals on her, there'd be no question how old she was... :)

She's loves Cookie Monster (they have a lot in common) so we did all thing Cookie Monster to surprise her after she went to bed the night before her birthday. 

it was hard work

 The kids made construction paper Cookie Monsters and cookies and taped them on the wall and made blue balloons look like him. She was pretty excited when she saw the wall in the morning. 

Her breakfast was berry cornmeal muffins (I had frozen blackberries on hand that I mushed up, so they were more dark purple cookie monsters- they look brown in the pic) with marshmallow eyes and half a chocolate melty for a mouth . 

We made ham, cheese and broccoli calzone for dinner to try and incorporate some of her favorite foods, rolls, cheese and "trees". Her love for broccoli is pretty entertaining. She didn't eat them much until one day we called them "trees" and now she can't get enough. She'll even cradle a bag of broccoli florets in the grocery store (while dude clutches his green beans- he loves them roasted). Dorks! Ha, I can't complain :). 

  

I made her some clothes (the shorts and shirt pictured above) and did my second carpentry project, a baby doll high chair, that is a big hit with all the kids. (attapted from more Ana White plans- seriously cool sight). It was SO much easier and faster--and less flawed--then the crib. Thanks to the miter saw! Boz could resist "helping" either. It was nice to have help painting too. Good chatting activity. 

Her Cookie Monster "cake" was the easiest thing ever! Those Cookie Monster cupcakes are pretty darn cute, but man alive this was EASY PEASY. I just made 4 giant cookies out of cookie dough, stacked them, stuck 2 short skewers in them and stuck marshmallows on for eyes. Then used the blue cotton candy (from 2 of those $1 store bags of cotton candy), albeit light blue, and just sort of stuck it around the the cookies and skewers. 

 Then after the festivities came another favorite activity: Bubble Bath! She asks for one after dinner ever night. Elyette got her some bubble bath (paid with her own saved earnings, she's so responsible). Dude made her a cookie monster picture/card. It was pretty cute

A random sunflower growing in our yard they wanted to give her

ABOUT CHARLOTTE: with some more bday photos

Charlotte had her check up today too and came in at an even 85% across the board (weight-28lbs, head-49.5cm, height-34 inches). Hehe, my little chunky monkey... well as far as her siblings go...nah, she's proven proportionate :).

She's a funny kid. VERY opinionated, but not too picky (there's a difference). Bossy, but follows directions really well much of the time. In fact, I'll ask her older sister and brother to do something or get something and she's often the first to respond without hesitation. Of course she thinks she's big enough to do all that they do too --a usual source of 2 year old frustration. 

Charlotte is in that walk everywhere and refuse to hold mommy's hand phase that is really fun to handle in parking lots... she's maturing though :). 

Om nom nom

... crud, she just dumped a whole bag of pretzels on the floor.....            k, I'm back.
 AND Her favorite past time is eating. She's very proficient at it too. Ha. She never did take a bottle and refused sippy cups, alhtough it wasn't so fun when she was 9 months old, she's been a long time pro of drinking from regular cups and water bottles (I can't even write how she says the word water-bottle--like "wa-blah-blah" with a crazy flapping tongue). And very drink must have ice ("eye-sh"). Including her milk. 

She's got her own little language but its starting to give way to more clear speaking that not just her family can understand. She's using phrases and has blown me away with her ability to recognize and name colors. Yellow (said "eye-yo") is her favorite. She's been particular about what milk she drinks- likes the yellow capped milk (non fat) over the blue capped (2%) and thus started recognizing all things blue and yellow and now knows green and is starting to name orange. 

She's great at mimicking what she sees and holds a crayon and pencil correctly. I never showed her that. I think she just picked it up from observing. She loves to draw. Her favorite thing to draw on is Elyette's homework.

 She plays much older than she is. Watching her pretend play is rather entertaining. She's a born nurturer, cradles and sings to her babies. Love ALL Animals. Charlotte is the type of kid that is fearless with animals and will walk up to and try to handle anything any size. The only thing that seems to make her more hesitant are really small things, like bugs and frogs, but she warms up to grabbing them pretty quickly. Her cooing "ooooo" can be heard frequently. 

She loves music, singing to her and to sing (calls it "wa wa"- also her word for meal??? Crazy kid). She sings everything to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", or "ABC's" or "Baa Baa Black Sheep" if you rather. She enjoys "Ring Around the Rosies". She LOVES nursery at Church. She use to freak out during sacrament meeting and march off to Nursery, but soon discovered nothing's there yet, so she gave that up, thank goodness.

She reminds us to pray and during a prayer if you look up she give a look and gesture that means you better be closing your eyes, bowing your head and folding your arms. She's our music leader for Family Home Evening and thinks its her job to climb on everyone during family scripture study. 

She holds up 2 fingers and says "more" when she wants more.

 She calls herself "YAY" as in "you". It comes from when you will show her something of hers or a picture "thats you" or "that yours". She's called herself that for a LONG time, but I just picked up on what it meant a month ago. She would always yell "NO YAY" which as you can imagine sounds pretty funny and it finally dawned on me, "OH! She's saying 'NO MINE'!". I prefer "NO YAY".

Like I mentioned she's opinionated and very particular, but when it comes to learning a new skill or working something out she handles the hard stuff well. For example, she set up Jack's wooden train the other day and the magnetic cars were not always cooperative, but she never got frustrated or mad, just merely looked for a solution or moved on to something else. I've observed this a lot with her. And when she gets hurt or stumbles she just gets right back up. If she reacts its either because she is really hurt, scared or Jack did it :)--but you can tell by the reaction which is which of course. These are strength of hers that will benefit her well in life. 

She's a good problem solver. A stool is her best tool. The other day she let go of a helium balloon in our vaulted living room. First she tried to jump for it, then she had Daddy jump for it, then me, then after no success with us, she exclaimed "oh stooo" (aka "stool"). She ran up stairs and carried the bathroom step stool all the way downstairs set it under the balloon, got on it and reached with all her might. It was a sweet and valiant effort, but the balloon remained until the next morning when it was starting to drop. 

 

 Charlotte is buddies with Jack and loves to play with him. She'll comfort him when sad, but she also certainly bullies him and they tease each other to no end (for better or worse).

She ADORES Elyette and will mimic her every move. Elyette adores her in return. And like sisters they both pick on poor Jack (but he's no innocent brother, mind you). All in all the 3 of them a wonderful team. 

Aside from her strong opinion, Charlotte is pretty chill... unless of course you're Jack (in which case don't even look at her funny or she'll scream at and possibly whack you on the head).

Charlotte is animated, clever, gives the best hugs and kisses (she just molds to me, I'm going to miss that!), is very observant and aware, and complete tease and goof ball. 

Charlotte makes our lives so colorful! 

 

We love you Stinkster! Happy Birthday!