Future Aspirations

Charlotte no longer simply dreams of being a mommy when she grows up…today she told me she wants to work at Home Depot, so she “can eat in the Home Depot worker cafeteria”, and she “wouldn’t have to go to so many schools like I would to be a vet” :)

Feature Fridays :)

Charlotte at gymnastics

My little Nadia :)

 

Our daily walk to school :)

Dec 1, 2011

 

Charlotte talking about her elf (originally Julia, now renamed Buddy)

Elf on the Shelf

 

Another walk to school :)

Dec. 2, 2011

 

This makes me laugh…Charlotte thought I was taking a picture (not a video), and so she keeps on posing. She is rarely this cooperative :)

Posing on video

 

Charlotte’s nightly performance…a song she clearly made up herself, entitled “Dreams Come True”

“Dreams Come True”

 

I think next week I have to take a few more videos of Henry :)

Xoxoxo

Buddy the Elf

This year we started Elf on the Shelf, a fun little tradition for kids. Basically, we have a little elf who came with a book (called…wait for it…"The Elf on the Shelf”)…the idea is that the elf helps Santa know who has been naughty or nice. The elf is supposed to be the eyes and ears of Santa, and every night after the kiddies go to bed, the elf flies back to the North Pole and tells Santa how the family was that day. Then, before the kids get up, he comes back to the family, and finds a new place in the house where he can observe the daily activities…which is essentially a game of hide and seek :)

According to Santa’s rules, the elves can’t be touched or they lose their magic and can’t fly back to Santa…the elves also can’t talk to us, because they are only supposed to talk to Santa and other elves. When Charlotte heard that, she had a healthy dose of skepticism (probably too much for a 3 year old)…she kept saying, “is this real? It looks a lot like a doll. How is this real?”, haha. But she has come around, and she loves looking for the elf every morning when she comes downstairs.

One of the first things you have to do, after you read the book, is name the elf. At first, Charlotte wanted to name ours Julia…according to her reasoning, “it has blue eyes, and it is wearing red…it is definitely a girl”. And so Julia is was. But by the end of the day, we didn’t think Julia really fit our elf…so Charlotte named it Buddy (without any prompting from me!). I would’ve named it Buddy, too, as we are big fans of the movie Elf in this house…to this day, it is still the only movie Charlotte has completely sat through! So, anyway, Buddy it is…and Buddy likes to hide. Here are some of the places we have found him recently :)

(He is supposed to be riding the reindeer…)

Clinging on to the tree for dear life :)

Only December 8th and Mommy…ahem, Buddy, is starting to run out of hiding places where the kids can’t reach! Should be an interesting 16 more days :)

Xoxoxo

Wordless Wednesday

Santa mommy…with Henry holding on for dear life :)

The kids were watching tv and finishing their food, and I looked over and saw them holding hands…don’t mind the cell phone quality picture and bad lighting! :)

Fun in the playhouse…Charlotte playing “restaurant girl”

Such a silly boy

Rare to actually capture Henry smiling, even though he always smiles when there isn’t a camera in sight!

Humoring mommy :)

Xoxoxo

Deep thoughts :)

Since I treat this blog essentially like Charlotte & Henry’s baby book (because who knows when I last took those out!?), I had to add a few things Charlotte has said recently that I want to remember :)

This morning I asked Charlotte what she really, really wanted from Santa this year…what her #1 gift would be. And she told me, “diamonds”, very matter of fact. When I looked at her incredulously, she said “don’t worry mommy, Santa will bring Henry baby diamonds so he isn’t left out”, haha. Because THAT is what I was concerned about :)

Also, last night Jon was teasing Charlotte asking her if she wants us to have another baby (because we all know how strongly she feels about that). He said “you wouldn’t want a little sister?”, and she kind of perked up and said “yes! Let’s send Henry to the heaven in the sky and get some more girls in this house!”. As Ray said, it is kind of hilarious and really not funny at the same time. But it was just in her delivery, like she honestly thought she could just trade him in for a girl. And Mamie had just told her that day that her mommy (the original Mamie) was in heaven in the sky, so I think she just figured that was a good place to send Henry. As I said to Ray, it sounds exactly like something I would’ve said about him about 29 years ago :)

Xoxoxo

It was bound to happen…

We just expected it to happen about 1.5 years ago, like it does for most kids! At 3.5 years old, after we had seriously wondered if she would be going to high school still sleeping in her crib, Charlotte is now in a “big girl bed” :)  It all happened pretty quickly…she hadn’t shown any interest in getting out of her crib since that first (and last) time she jumped out a few months ago, but on Saturday night, that all changed. Not sure why, but at 3am she was at our bedside after vaulting over her crib rails…and again at 315am…and again at 330am…it continued until after 5am until Jon may have told her he was going to yell, haha. So we decided we had better make the switch to her toddler bed before she hurt herself…despite the fact that she jumped over with ease and grace (due to her gymnastics training, no doubt, haha), she is a tiny little thing and it would be a long fall for her.

Here are some pics of the crib as we said “goodbye” :)  Don’t mind the stuffed animals…I decided it would be a good time to clean house while we were making so many life changes!

And here is her “big girl bed”, which she is very excited about (I don’t want to explain that it is the same bed, all three sides are the same, and all we did was put up a little rail, haha).

She had to test it out, thumb in her mouth and all…

Henry wanted a try too!

And now Charlotte is excited because she can make her bed everyday “like mommy” :)

 

Sleeping in the bed has been a slight adjustment…the first night she was up 3-4 times for a myriad of reasons (she is pretty much a pro with the excuses now—her foot hurts, she has to go to the bathroom, she heard a sound, she’s cold, etc.). But last night she only got up to go to the bathroom once at 3am, and then came into my room at 7am when her clock turned green, so I am mildly optimistic!!! She also told me that she “rolled out” of the bed last night, onto the pillows I placed strategically under her bed, and just climbed back into bed and went back to sleep…not sure if I believe that. Typically, in Charlotte’s world, that would be a major event, haha. But we’ll see! Our little girl is growing up so fast, haha. :)

Xoxoxo

Holiday Pictures

Here are some of our pics from Thanksgiving…unfortunately, I didn’t take too many. Too much time eating, not enough time taking pictures…lesson noted!

Big cheeks :)

Busy in the kitchen (and a bit disheveled)

“Hi Mommy”

Jamesy and Sarah

He looks so old!!!

Charlotte barely stayed still long enough for me to get any pictures…so many people to play with!

A rare picture of me and Jon

Loving her daddy

Mama wanted me to take a picture of the wonderful food (thanks mom!)

Sleepy girl cuddling with Uncle Ray

 

Even though I failed to capture most of it on film, it was a very nice day! :)

Xoxoxo