Storytime with Charlie

Charlie got to spend the night with Grandma Deb on Saturday night. She had so much fun. I always ask Charlie what her favorite part of the day was when I tuck her in at night. Sometimes the stories are really entertaining. This one is a little mild because she was on film. (she doesn't like paparazzi....notice the end of the movie.) She is also distracted easily by fake french fries.

Footnotes.....

Mary Kate and Ashley are my brothers twin kittens (yes, he has a great sense of humor!)

She says that Wicket can't come to our house...Wicket is my mom's dog. I didn't catch that while I was talking to her, but now listening I can tell that is what she said.

Whobody else....this is what Charlie says when she wants to know who else...I think it is hilarious, so we haven't corrected it yet!!

The baby that Charlie is talking about it my brother's friends son. Mom was watching him so the guys could go to Hills Alive.

Diaper...my mom thinks it is hilarious that Charlie would not throw away the baby's diaper because it was too yucky. I always refused to throw away my siblings diapers too. Mom thinks it is funny that Charlie does the same things I used to as a kid. I just think that Charlie is incredibly smart. Why would you want to throw away someone's yucky diaper. Gross!

Braids

When Charlie was born, she had a lot of dark brown hair. We were not surprised at all. Of course our child would have dark brown hair.

Then....with in the first few months of Charlie's life, her hair all fell out. So then we had a bald baby. Again....not really surprised.

But then, when her hair finally started to grow back in....it was thin, and fine and BLOND! Then we were surprised! I have (and Nick had) very thick, dark, curly hair. So we of course expected our child to have the same thick, dark, curly hair. All Charlie got was the curly.

I had so many plans for my little girls thick, dark, curly hair. We would put ponies and piggies in it. I would have her sit on the floor and braid her hair like my mom did with me. But Charlie's blond hair has taken FOREVER to grow in. It is beautiful, and I can't imagine her any other way now. But I wasn't able to start putting piggies and ponies in her hair until sometime last year....even if it were just the tiniest bit of hair. And she really hasn't had enough hair for braids....until now!

Nick asked while we were in Michigan if I knew how to french braid. I told him yes, but that I thought Charlie's hair was still too fine. But it got me thinking about it, so I tried it again. It worked!! I am so excited!! Charlie sits nice and still for me, because she thinks her hair looks "really, really, so, so beautiful" in braids. (she is liking the adjectives lately!)

Nell Jr.

Nick's mom's horse is named Nell. Charlie LOVES Nell. She talks about her all the time, even though she has only seen her a couple times.

Earlier this year I found a horse at a garage sale for $5. It is the best $5 I have spent on a toy for Charlie. The horse doesn't move or rock. It just stands there, but Charlie LOVES it. I was told the horse will hold up to 140 pounds, so Charlie should be able to sit on it for the rest of her life. See...best $5 I have ever spent!

She named it Nell like Grandma Jeannie's horse, even though they look nothing alike. I think to Charlie all horses should be named Nell.

I had promised Jeannie I would post a picture back in May, and I am just getting around to it now. But it is better late than never right!?

Smiley Face....with lips

Charlie has been trying to draw smiley faces for a while now. Mostly they have looked like a circle with a line through it and a couple more lines coming out the bottom for legs.

But the other day at the fire station, she make her first smiley face that actually halfway resembled a smiley face. I said "Great Job Charlie!" and asked her to tell me what everything was. She goes through and labels the ears, eyes, hair, legs. I pointed to the 3 lines in the middle of the face and said "and is this the mouth?" She said "No! It is lips!"

Conversations with Charlie

Charlie started to be extremely whinny while we were on vacation. I think there were a little too many late nights and a little too much fun! Anyway, the whining was driving Nick and I up the wall.

So the past week we really had to lay down the law when it came to whining. She was sent to her room a lot. But we also really encouraged her to use her words instead of whining and pouting.

So over the weekend our Conversations went from this....

Me: Charlie, no you can't do that/have that

Charlie: sticks her lip out and whines and pouts and cries until I blow up and yell at her

To This....

Me: Charlie, no you can't do that/have that

Charlie: Oh, that is so sad. Mommy don't be mean to me. You really hurt my feelings. You need to be nice to me because I really, really love you.

What am I supposed to say to that!?! So I just look at her with a blank look and change the subject.

I am thinking that encouraging her to use her words was not the best idea.

First Emergency Room Trip

This Stick

Plus this sweet little girl....Equals this ankle bracelet and a scratched cornea.

We had our first trip to the emergency room last night. Charlie was playing with Hannah and found this piece of our coffee table that Hannah must have chewed off. She poked it right in her eye. I could see immediately that she had a red spot right under the iris of her eye. Of course it was 9pm and Nick was on duty. So I loaded her up in the car and took her to the fire station for the guys to look at it. I was so hoping that I was over reacting, but when they all said they could see a scratch into the cornea of her eye, I knew we were going to have to take her in.

I called my good friend Merci, and she confirmed that we should take her in sooner than later. So after 2 hours in the emergency room, we were on our way home with a scratched cornea and some gel. The doctor said the scratch it just in the first layer of her cornea, so we are so thankful it was not worse.

I am sure we will have more trips to the emergency room, and I really hope they don't escalate in severity. And most of all I hope that these things would quit happening at night, when Nick is on duty. I HATE this kind of stuff!!

Michigan 2009

We had a fantastic vacation to Michigan to see Nick's family for a week over the 4th of July! We always have a great time up there, but this trip was especially awesome. It was jam packed full of fun. And I mean jam packed. We are all exhausted still. I have over 200 pictures from the week we were there, so please don't complain about the 50 that I chose for this post. Ok, maybe not 50...but close!

This is just a taste of all of the fun things Charlie got to experience....

Caught some fish with Daddy and Papa....

Went to the Children's Science museum in Appleton, WI. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area!

The kids get to experience how thing work first and and hands on. This magnetic crane was Daddy and Papa's favorite. See Nick and Doug waiting patiently for a turn?

Oh....Daddy is trying to weasel his way in for a turn...Watch out Cadeance!!

Ah...he finally got his turn. It is just disguised as him helping Charlie.

We went to a animal sanctuary type zoo. It was wonderful. Charlie got to pet lots of babies.

A baby Spider Monkey...

A baby raccoon.....

And a baby Kangaroo....

She did not pet the tigers, lions and bears. They all looked at her like she was lunch!

Oh....and did you know that porcupines dance?

On the 4th of July we managed to pack in even more fun!

We went to Lake Michigan with Dan, Jamie and Cadeance.

And Charlie manage to completely cover herself in sand. That is easy when you purposely fall down every 5 feet and roll for about 3 yards.

When we got back to town that night we went to a parade where Charlie practiced her beauty queen wave and was rewarded with Candy.

More waving...

Whew! This waving is getting exhausting!!

Just can't do it anymore!!

Good thing she got a half of a gallon bad of candy and ate most of it by the time we were ready for fireworks!
Otherwise there is no way she would have made it up till midnight with us!

Nick did a great firework show! See the smiley face??


Charlie loved the sparklers!

The rest of the trip was a lot of playing with cousin Cadeance...

Playing at the park...

Touching snakes with Papa...

And feeding and riding Nell, Grandma's horse. (I think this was her favorite part!)

I know there is a ton I am leaving out, but you can see that we had the best time ever in Michigan! We are all so tired, so can you blame her for acting like this during the last 5 hours of our 15 hour car trip home?