When I was a kid, my aunt made a JOY for each family. At some point, the J fell off of ours and my sister, Jessica, hung it on her bedroom door. We were left with the OY to hang up with the Christmas decorations. My sister has the original OY, but last year for Christmas she made me my very own. Isn't it cute?
To wrap it up, here is a slideshow with random highlights from Christmas 2012. A little background: the adults in my extended family do a white elephant gift exchange. Many of the gifts come from Ray's Closeouts (the off-sale store by the cottage), but some people get really creative. We play a game, everyone ends up with a gift, we sing Moon River, everyone opens their presents at once and laughter ensues. It is super fun. This year we got to have two Christmases because Suze came yesterday!
Shoot! Mike posted my cat dancer video before I got to. I had a post all planned, but I guess the early bird (that would be Mike) gets the worm. For your viewing pleasure, here is the video again. Charlotte played with this cat toy more than any other gift.
And, as you can see from Nacho's girth, he could really use the exercise. I see a lot of cat training in his future, courtesy of Charlotte.
Christmas was nice for its familarity and relaxed pace that Emily and I strive for. I always tell people the best gift we give each other at Christmas is we really don't do gifts. We exchange stocking stuffers and rarely does a gift for one another exceed $20, unless it is a functional gift... like I am getting a storm door and having it installed "for Emily" this spring, and I really could use an iPad for work so we are looking at buying a refurbished one. Such is life in a poor city school district. I have several co-workers who are using refurbished iPads they had to buy with their own money. Meanwhile in the suburbs there are entire schools outfitted with iPads, one for each kid and the teacher. Yet we are all judged by the same standardized tests. But I digress, unless your idea of holiday cheer is a No Child Left Behind rant. Just writing that makes me miss Adria.
Anyway. Emily did get me a three pack of SmartWool socks. And if you know me well, you know that there is no article of clothing I appreciate more than a comfortable pair of socks.
Charlotte enjoyed opening presents and eventually grasped the concept that there was something inside each present for her. But then she wanted to re-wrap the gift. As you can see in the first two videos below, she really liked the Yoda key chain I got for her. I wanted her to have her own set of keys so she can develop the skills of keeping track of her keys that her father so desparately lacks. So Emily and I put Adria's old house keys on the chain which is somehow nice feeling but I have no idea why. Her other favorite toy was the cat dancer toy for the cats. Emily has a pretty funny video of Charlotte playing with it, which is the last video listed.
Charlotte also got a couple CDs, a book from out friend Nathan, a plate and mug set (she calls the mugs "Charlotte's coffee") from her Suze, mittens for the snow, plastic animals, a bracelet (which you can see on her arm in the video) and hair clip, and bathtub paint. My mom comes to visit tomorrow and rumor has it some gifts from Charlotte's Texas kin are coming with Suze. All in all, it was a good day the week gets better and better with her Suze coming.
I have no idea why the videos are out of allignment but my hunch is that it bothers me more than it bothers you.
A few days ago Charlotte was on the chaging table, which just so happens to be one of her favorite places on earth, which means that potty training starts and ends with that fact. Anyway, she was grabbing her feet and putting them in her mouth and saying "eat feet." And then cracking up. Sophisticated comedy to say the least.
Because this joke is stupid, and at the level of, well, a two-year old, I am happy to tell you that neither Emily nor I have done any fake foot eating, or fake eating of anything besides food in a book. My point being that Charlotte came up with this joke all on her own. Well played Charlotte.
This morning started with a nice quality run with two of my closest friends from my Farsnworth days, and I really miss working with and seeing these guys on a daily basis. And then I got home in time to make waffles with Charlotte. There are worse ways to start the week.
Today Charlotte was really into wearing a hat... it started at the Riverview Coffee Shop's play area, which had a fireman's hat she put on. And as always, she was into books, making her Suze proud.
She's no Mitch Hedberg but Charlotte made her first joke last night.... with an assist from me. Ever since Election Day I will periodically exclaim, "Barak Obama!!!" like a sports announcer, not so much because I'm into his cult of personality but more because Charlotte seems amused by it all.
So last night at dinner we started saying Barak Obama back and forth and then either Emily or I said "Barak O....Mama!" as "mama" is Charlotte's generic word for adult caretaker (it would help if I stopped responding eveytime she called me "mama" but I fear the horse has already left the barn on that one).
Charlotte thought that was pretty funny and then I said, "Barak Odaddy?" and she said, "No...... Barak OCharlotte? Barak ONacho?" and then she laughed and laughed. In fact we all did.
And there you have it. Not only her first dabbling in metalanguage but also her first joke. Funny stuff. See you Leno.
I had a meeting at work this afternoon that turned into this evening. I got home and Charlotte had already eaten dinner, so I assumed she was ready for her post-dinner relaxation routine... hanging out in the living room and playing with whatever her favorite toys of the 36 hour interval are. But then out-of-the-blueshe put her hat on and said, you guessed it. "hat on. hat on." Only to be followed by "jacket on. Charlotte jacket on? Daddy put jacket on?"
Crap I thought, she wants to go for a walk. It's freezing. She hasn't asked for a night walk ever, until today. But I have been talking to Emily about going on night walks with Charlotte to see the Christmas lights and I am pretty sure Charlotte overheard.
So Charlotte and I got Pancho and went out to see our neighbor Greg's lights. I thought that would suffice, but no, Charlotte wanted to make like Ernest Shackleton and explore the whole block in the freezing cold.
When we got to Marys' house on the corner of 45th ave and 42nd street Charlotte stopped for awhile (big shocker there) to stare at Mary's lit-up manger scene. She pointed at the plastic Mary (the Virgin one, not our neighbor Mary) who was holding baby Jesus and said, "Baby!" And from there we had our longest back and forth yet. Resevior Dogs it ain't, but our conversation went a little like this....
Me: Yep. That is a baby. His name is Jesus.
Charlotte: Polar bear. Roooooooar!
Me: No, that is a sheep.
Charlotte: Baaaaa.
Me: That is indeed what a sheep says.
Charlotte: Baby sleeping.
Me: You best be quiet. You don't want to wake up Jesus and get his dad angry.
Charlotte: Quiet. Night night baby.
Me: Good night Baby Jesus.
Charlotte: Wheres a crib?
Me: They're in a manger. They have no room for a bed..... or crib."
This weekend, I turned 40. I felt obligated to do something "big" but I don't like big productions. So, Mike came up with the perfect solution - WaffleJam. We invited my family over and Mike made Belgian waffles and we had all kinds of fun toppings - chocolate chips, strawberries, whipped cream, flavored butter, syrup. The waffles were so good!
For my birthday, Mike gave me improv classes at the Brave New Workshop. Five years ago I took community ed improv and it was really fun. Mike and my sister came to the last class and Mike has been encouraging me to take another class ever since.
Charlotte is beginning to use synonyms on a regular basis. I can't remember all of them, but most are animal related. However, there is at least one exception. Charlotte has three different terms for this thing:
trash
garbage
naughty dog
As you can guess, Pancho and I have teamed up to teach her that last term. Pancho does his part by getting into the trash while we are all away. I do my part by telling him he is a naughty dog as Charlotte and I clean up the mess he made when we get home. Between Charlotte, Pancho, and me, only one of us finds this fun... or funny.
In fact Charlotte thinks this is so funny, she will start laughing and saying "Naughty dog. Naughty dog" while we are on the back deck approaching the house hoping that we have a mess to clean up. Monday I told Charlotte, "Pancho is not a naughty dog. He's a good dog," feeling guilty that Pancho is getting labled and profiled. But then I saw the trash all over the kitchen floor and told Charlotte, "Nope, you're right. He's a naughty dog." In Charlotte's world this is hilarity worthy of deep belly laughs. Now whenever she passes the garbage can she will let me know it is either "trash" or "garbage" and tack on a "naughty dog" for good measure.
This just in: your kids grow up fast. Faster than you'd like. Charlotte found this baby bib in her room and put it on her doll. Then she asked me to put it on her. I obliged and it almost broke my heart. Two summers ago is a huge chunk of time relative to Charlotte's short life, but it seems like just yesterday that the "Vroom" bib went well past her belly button.
This video is probably worth two minutes of your time. Our daughter is a crazy cat lady and bag lady at once. She can multitask like that.
This video is from Saturday morning. Since that time we got a Christmas tree and I painted the trim that is all scratched up (crazy cats). Oh, and I got dressed.
Charlotte has no table manners. For the last two nights she has insisted on wearing her hat during dinner. Right when dinner was served she ran to the basket where she keeps her winter clothes and got her hat and asked one of us to put it on. Your guess at to why is as good as mine.
.... or someone whose daughter is in physcial therapy.
From a gross motor standpoint, there is A LOT of cool progress in this video. Walking on uneven surfaces easily. Going up and down steep stairs with one hand only on the railing. The general ease with which she is moving. Other things that are even less interesting.
We are still in physical therapy but Charlotte has progressed to the point that this Friday she has to try new things for the first time since we started. Specifically she has to work on balancing on one leg. I am here to tell you that she will not be stoked about this.
A few weeks back (the week of November 4th to be exact) Charlotte went through a three day stretch where she insisted her baby doll (that her Suze got her) wear Charlotte's pajamas. The result was a baby who walked the fine line between looking ridiculous and looking creepy.
Unfortunately I was never able to get a good picture of Charlotte holding the creepy ridiculousness, but then one lazy Sunday morning we were hanging out and she decided all her favorite dolls/stuffed animals should sit on the rocking chair. So hopefully this video does the doll justice. You can also see try to give Pancho his toy even though he is nowhere to be seen and meow at the cat. Like I said, it was a lazy Sunday morning.
An overdue video of Charlotte's first time trick or treating. It was dark here at 6pm so not the best video recording conditions. But, I managed to capture what I really wanted to document - Charlotte's stroller. She wanted to bring a few bags along. This was odd because she was not that interested in collecting candy (or as she knows them, "packets"). When people gave her candy, she gave it back and said, "thank you!" A couple of our neighbors had their fire pits in the front yard (one house had s'mores!) and Charlotte has been really into fire ever since the fireplace at Mojo House.
Charlotte and cousin Aline were fast friends this past weekend. I wish I took more pictures, but they were mostly just running around screaming which is hard to get pictures of. They slowed down to investigate this foos ball table.
Charlotte, Emily, and I had a very fun weekend in Des Moines with Emily's family. We got back today with enough time for Charlotte and I to rake the leaves in the backyard. Here are three videos of Charlotte helping and playing.
In the first video you can see that Charlotte has yet to grasp the notion "work smarter, not harder," but I'll let it go for now. The second video jumps for some reason, but I finally was able to capture her chasing Pancho down to give a stick to Pancho and saying "thank you" after he takes it. It's one of her favorite things to do. And the last video has a few funny moments too.
Before I begin this post, I should give a little background for any non-Minnesotans reading this. This fall we have two consitutional ammendments on the ballot (you should be able to guess which two). Big shocker here: an ammendment FOR voter ID and one defining marriage as wait for it... wait for it... only between a man and a woman.
Also, this is a long way for me to go just to show the video at the end from my childhood that I was recalling as we walked home and Charlotte was blabbering away about coffee. Is that Kurt Vonnegut in that video at the end of this post? Yes it is!
And really, post is for my friend Nathan because I think he would also count yard signs for fun. We both have been known to time how long it takes to drive home, drive to each other's houses, and set personal records in the process.
An interesting little development has happened in our neighborhood over the past month, well, all over south Minneapolis for that matter. As the Presidential election approaches, you'd think our neighborhood would be dotted with Romeny and Obama signs. Four years ago this was the case for Obama and he had about a 2:1 edge over McCain and Palin in the yard sign battle.
But what is interesting is how scant both Obama and Romney signs are. But what is EVERYWHERE are the VOTE NO signs. In fact we have two VOTE NO TWICE signs in our yard, setting the bar high for the rest of the block. We're telling people to vote no, in four different ways! Just yesterday our across the street neighbor added two VOTE NO signs to their yard in trying to keep up with us. I want to make a sign that says, "VOTE NO. ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE DOING IT."
I would say the VOTE NO signs outnumber the VOTE YES signs 10:1, at least. It may be 20:1. Interesting that four years ago the lefty/righty signs were 2:1 yet so few people in Longfellow feel comfortable putting out VOTE YES signs of any kind this time around.
As Charlotte and I walked home from the Riverview Cafe today down our 44th avenue, I decided to count the signs on the way back. I have always noticed that block by block you will either have a block littered with lawn signs or one that has almost none. Would that hold true for the walk back? Read on.
38th to 39th street
7 vote NO on the marriage ammendment, 2 vote NO on voter restriction, and 3 Obama signs (12 total)
39th to 40th
Five vote NO for marriage ammendment, four vote NO on voter restriction.
40th to 41st street
1 vote NO sign (marriage) one vote YES sign (marriage... the only one on the walk), and one for Kaufman Roofing even though no roofing was being done. So either the Kaufmans live there or they are just crazed fans of the company, or, like me, are so dischenchanted with Obama and even more so with Romney, that they are going to write Kaufman Roofing in as their Presidential choice. (3 total, if Kaufman Roofing is getting a vote for President).
41st to 42nd street (our block)
6 vote NO on marriage, 3 vote no twice (two are ours) and one Obama... and one of those crazed "We are the 99%" signs.... and four "Together We Make A Safe Community" signs (it's a Longfellow thing, yall, criminals be gone!). So that gives us 14 total, if you count comminuty organizing as a lefty cause a la Obama (which I am going to do to pad our stats)... Our block FTW!
See what I mean? From 12 lefty signs on one block, then nine, then to one on the next, and then 14 on the ours. Peer pressure is in effect. And it was that one block with only one vote no sign that someone felt emboldended enough to put up a vote yes sign.
And for some reason people on some blocks also have Parkway Pizza yardsigns. Emily wants to get one of every sign: an Obama sign (she will have to put that on a part of the yard she will be responsible for mowing and raking because I am casting my vote elsewhere, but I will find a better candiate than Kaufman Roofing), a Parkway Pizza yard sign, a Longfellow Community yardsign, and we are already good on the Vote No front.
So what does this have to do with Charlotte? Well you may be wondering if she is being indoctrined at too young an age, seeing all these VOTE NO signs. Will she ever have a chance to think for herself? Well fear not! As we were walking by the flurry of VOTE NO signs on the 3800s block, Charlotte was saying the following three "sentences" over and over, "Bye bye coffee shop. Thank you coffee shop. Fun."
So if there is a cause Charlotte believes in, and wants a yard sign for, it would be for the Coffee Achievers. Do your best!
Today and tomorrow there is no school in the state of Minnesota, ostensibly so teachers like me can go to our annual union convention. On the radio they said 10,000 teachers are expected to attend. I don't know any of those 10,000.
Instead Charlotte and I walked to one of her favorite places to go and she had a convention with other toddlers whose parents, I found out by overhearing them chat, were also teachers not at the Education Minnesota convention.
Anyway, here we are starting out on our walk before she opted for the stroller. She still loves leaves as you can see.
Here is Charlotte playing with a phone that her cousins Calvin and Sophia played with. Exactly how Charlotte knows this is a phone is beyond me. Other than the telephone in Goodnight Moon and a few other picture books, Charlotte has never seen a phone with a headset. And then there is a video of her opening her gift from Calvin, Sophia, and her parents. It even features a bungled stupid joke by me because that's what I do.
How to Bye Daddy, one of Charlotte's favorite games.
1. Make sure your dad is sitting out of arm's reach of the door.
2. Shout "Bye Daddy!"
3. Laugh.
4. Leave room.
5. Shut door .
6. Try and fail to open door.
7. Knock non-stop until your dad opens the door.
8. Wait for your dad to get out of his seat to open door.
9. Say "Hi Daddy!"
10. Say "Daddy sit down?"
11. If your dad sits down, go to step one.
12. If your dad says "one more time" it's a wild card! Either go to step one or go to step 14.
13. If you have gone through the "one more time" cycle then your dad will say "all done" on thbis cycle. When he says "all done," you have no choice. You have to flop on the floor dramatically and cry.
14. Keep crying until distracted by something else.
Charlotte's counting to three, and only three reminds me of this video from Mr. Show about 24 years ago. There are probably only 24 people in the world who will find this funny, but I am one of them.
Here are three short videos of Charlotte opening and the playing with her new present from Suze. The spacing is weird between the three videos, but you should be smart enough to scroll to each one if you want to see all three.
In the last video she started counting the blocks which was the first time I've seen her count on her own. Such a prima donna, show boating for the camera.
Anyway, the stacking boxes are a hit for Charlotte and some sort of Sisyphus type punishment for me. Picture Charlie Brown trying to kick the football while Charlotte, I mean Lucy, keeps pulling the football up at the last second. Charlotte implores me to stack the blocks and then she'll act like she's doing something else for ten seconds and then come over and knock them all over the place and happily pronounce "Oh no!!!" And then all meek and innocent like say, "More? Again?" Kids these days.
In college there was a scrub on the cross country team we called the Barber Starver. It was not a flattering term. Some people can pull off shaggy hair and a beard. Barber Starver could not. I fear Charlotte is on her way to being a beardless barber starver. She is getting a haircut today. It's a win-win-win. We won't have a Barber Starver for a child, Charlotte will be able to see, and the barber will get some money from us so he can buy some food.
Day two of my gradual release of all of Charlotte's birthday videos. This video is from Thursday. Charlotte is discovering the concepts of presents in this video. As a result, the process is long and drawn out, but some highlights happen along the way.
1. She scolds Nacho for being Nacho, just like I do. She lets the dog in.
2. She sees me filming her with my phone and comes over to it saying "Charlotte" because she wants to see pictures of herself. Right around three minutes I give her the phone. Her first movie she has ever filmed. It's a stupid movie. Boring, plotless, and poolry shot. Mercifully this tour de force is only about five seconds long. Then we look at Nacho being filmed on the phone WHILE looking at Nacho right in front of us and Charlotte's mind explodes. Well if it did, she keeps her feelings close to her vest. If only she could be so stoic when Emily brushes her hair or I give her sweet potatoes instead of squash.
3. One of the presents (from Beth, Justin, and Hannah) she treats like a step and says "big step" as she walks all over it. Like I said, she is still figuring out the concepts of presents.
4. Our house is messy. We should clean it up today.
So the package arrived two days ago, but since Charlotte marches to the beat of her own, slower than Christmas, drummer, she is opening one or two presents a day. All the videos I shot are pretty funny but I am biased. This one is long.... perhaps the kind of length only a father could love. More such unedited videos to come.
Haven't much time to update things here. I have a few videos to post that are already almost a week old. Probably not overly exciting videos, but I know of quite a few people in Texas who would like to see Charlotte in action. So here they are in their unedited glory.
Both videos are from Charlotte's second birthday. The first video is Charlotte looking at one of her favorite books and talking about hearts, stars, and apples. Exciting stuff. Kind of funny to watch her do her classic moves, like sitting down to her book the same way a dog settles into its dog bed and then reading the book upside down.
Then a few minutes later Charlotte requested to be in her crib to read. I figured it was a good time to show the mobile Deb made and the ceiling Zach painted. It looks so cozy and welcoming, it's easy to see why Charlotte wants to spend so much time there. At the end Charlotte sees Emily coming in with a balloon and her crib gets even better.
Charlotte had her 2 year old check up. She is 35 inches tall and 29 pounds. Now that she is walking, she is starting to slim down a little. She can even wear skinny jeans now. I got her some super cute purple ones.
Charlotte is becoming such a little person. She has lots of preferences, but is still the easy-going baby we know and love.
Likes:
any fruit, if she could she would eat nothing but fruit and pancakes
playing outside
pushing her doll stroller
taking her plastic dog for a walk
reading in bed
music
playing with diapers
balloons
Nacho, Toones, Poncho
bathtime
cooking
doing dishes
going to the coffee shop
brushing teeth
Dislikes:
most green vegetables
being told what to do
getting her hair brushed or washed
drinking from a regular cup, unless it is in the bathtub
Charlotte and I have settled into a pretty good post-work routine. And I should start by staying that mixed in all of this routine is your typical amount of toddler fussing that comes and goes like the wind. Regardless, every day we get home and she asks for a snack. She talks about her food for awhile and then she eats her food.... for awhile. She doesn't have an urgent bone in her body. Then we usually go upstairs where she looks at books.
Depending on her mood, one of two things happens. Etiher she asks to be put in her crib with some books and then for me to to sit down ("daddy sit down?") and read a book of her choice to myself. She is giving me reading assignments, but she is also fine if I choose to read a book of my own choice. And then we just chill for awhile until we decide it's time to go downstairs and go do some cooking.
Or some afternoons we'll go upstairs and she'll grab a book and say "bye bye" and shut her bedroom door on me. I actually prefer this because then I can get a headstart on dinner. And I also like it because it's pretty funny to hear Charlotte gabbering away to herself, or her dolls, or the cats, or whomever.
A few days ago she grabbed her copy of What Do Busy People Do All Day? with one hand and pushed me out the door with the other and we both happily went our separate ways. So I went downstairs to exciting stuff like check the mail and clean the kitchen, and figured I'd turn on the baby monitor and shoot a little footage of Charlotte's gabbering. I have no idea what she is saying but I am sure she does.
Today we got a zoo membership. I don't like zoos but I like taking Charlotte to the zoo.
None of this is interesting. The only thing less interesting than this was Charlotte's favorite "exhibit," which she is enjoying in the picture below.
We spent easily fifteen minutes watching these fountains. It's only been one zoo visit, and we already got our money's worth because when you are zoo member you don't feel financially obligated to see the entire place if all your child wants to do is watch water.
A friend of mine gave Charlotte a doll stroller over the weekend. We had to walk around the block before we could get in the car and drive home. In the morning I usually walk Poncho with Charlotte in her stroller, but now she wants to push her doll stroller. She pushes it all over the house and even wants to play with it in her crib. I think she likes it!
Charlotte is undergoing another little language growth spurt. It's kind of neat. Her expressive vocabulary is really exploding and every day I hear at least one new word out of her. And today I heard her first four word phrase. For the last week or so, when Charlotte is in the car, she will say "push button" or something to that effect right when we turn into the alley. She is anticipating when I push the garage door opener. So today she said, "Daddy push the button."
What's kind of interesting is while she is using three word phrases and all sorts of novel two word combinations, she has these little artifacts from almost a year ago when she was using single words exclusively. For example, she still uses the word "table" to mean sitting in something that she needs help getting into, be it a seat at the table, a stroller, her Burley, or when she puts her doll into one of these things. She has so many ways to explain this, including "chair," "help," "stroller," "sit," and the ability to combine these words. Yet she doesn't need to. "Table" is actually a much more efficient and specific to express this sentiment, so it makes sense that she is still doing it. But I'm stlil kind of surprised to see her still using the word this way.
And on the gross motor front we were goofing around during our post-dinner walk and she walked backwards intentionally for the first time. It was fun to see.
Over the summer cooking and cleaning became a little more difficult because Charlotte wants to be held so she can watch all the exciting action, which is tough to do if you are chopping, say, broccoli.
Introduce my new best friend:
Charlotte is pretty content sitting on the stool. She gets really excited when it's time to cook and enthusiastically exclaims, "cooking! cooking!" and either runs to the little fake stove Emily made for her with a cardboard box or to my legs for me to pick her up and put her on the stool.
Charlotte's "kitchen" that Emily made, complete with fake food to cook and miniature pots, pans, and utensils..
Charlotte has also been working on clearing her plate after eating. She stacks her plates and starts singing "cleanup everybody" and waits to go into the kitchen.
Over the weekend she started washing her own dishes which then turned into washing ALL the dishes, or at least sticking spoons under the water while I wash everything else. But that's fun because she will announce with great fanfare whatever I am washing. "Wash... BA!" (bowl) "Wash CUP!" and so on and so forth.
And then at the end I let her wash the remaining two or three things. On this occasion she announced, "Wash... coppee!" which is her all purpose word for anything having to do with coffee. And yes, she is still in her pajamas. What can I say? It was a lazy Sunday.
I fast foward to seven years from now when she will argue about having to do stuff like this. But for now, I'm just soaking it up.
This picture was from her last nap of the summer with me yesterday. Her new thing is to wake up and just chill in her crib with her books of choice (either you have to figure out which books she wants or it takes some finessing for her to go with the books you give her).
Yesterday afternoon she spent over an hour in her crib looking at books (and would have gone longer but I talked her into a diaper change and a second lunch/first dinner). One time I checked in on her and she was kicking two books at once.
So, the big news is Charlotte is finally walking. We are all very happy, especially Charlotte. She runs around the house laughing she is so giddy. When Charlotte, Netta, and Bailey were little babies my sister and I would marvel at their tiny little feet that were soft and smooth, it was as if there was no friction when you touched them. Those feet had never done any walking and their skin was, as they say, soft as a baby's bottom. I knew the day would come when Charlotte's feet would get dirty. It's the most grown-up thing she's ever done. It's bittersweet.
Emily shot this video yesterday and e-mailed it to me this morning. This is Charlotte leaving the house for the day. She has a work bag the same way Emily or I do, some keys somewhere, and then to do her own thing she is carrying a toy kennel with a stuffed dog inside.
This is a sad week for me because I go back to work Friday. But it was another great summer thanks to Charlotte. Last night I went for a run with a couple teachers from the school I worked at two years ago (I hang out with those folks way more than I do the staff at my present school, part of the reason I'm bummed to be going to back to work).
At the end of the run my friend and I were talking about how fortunate we are to have such a family-friendly job. He is probably the least sentimental person I know and he said, "I love my daughter so much it hurts sometimes."
I watch this video and I know exactly what he means.
Edit: Hey, this is Emily. I was planning to blog that video, but Mike beat me to it. Dang it! I was going to post it with the picture below. This is what I look like when we leave in the morning. I am a bag lady, which is story in itself. Anyway, this might be how Charlotte got the idea that dragging a big bag around means, "bye bye."
This is not the best video of Charlotte walking but it is representative. The biggest issue is my phone was freezing up for some reason towards the end so you will the video skip a bit. Oh well. Also, take note: jackets in August.
There is a story from when I was a kid and we were moving to Texas. I was young, two or three. I don't remember any of this time of my life, of course, except for random five second snippets here or there (and none of these snippets are part of this story).
But the way I remember the story (my mom will have to do the fact checking) is I knew that we were moving to Texas, but I sure as heck didn't know what that meant. So throughout the move I kept asking, "Is this Texas?"
I don't know if this right after the move or during the move, but we ended up doing a family outing to some caves. I want to say we were at Natural Bridge Caverns and the tour guide turned out all the lights so we could see just how dark it was for the original spelunkers. And as we silently sat there in the dark, I chimed in to the tour group, "Is this Texas?"
And now it has become very clear that Charlotte has no bleeping clue what Texas is either. As we were driving back to Minnesota she kept saying, "Texas" with a smile on her face everytime Emily or I said the word in conversation. Wouldn't it be nice if she were saying it, fondly recalling the great week she had with her grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins? Of course I'm not fool enough to fall for that projection. I figured she just liked the word.
Well enough time has passed for abstraction to wash away. Today we were at the Children's Museum and she was looking at books (as mentioned in the post from earlier today--see below). She came up to me with a board book, a smile, said, "Texas," and handed me the book to read to her. And not just any book. A counting book about gardening with a picture for each page. Much like one of her favorite books, 1 2 3 Texas.
So there you have it. For Charlotte, Texas simply means "a counting board book." In her defense my original use of the word was "Hey! Who turned out the lights?!?!?!,"
Her understanding will evolve. And since Texas is a part of me, I hope it will become part of her being too. And I'm talking about livestock, sunshine, the Spurs, the Alamo, or any of that. I'm not talking about family and my sense of home. I love it here in Minnesota and this is where my life is. All I want is for Charlotte's Texas to feel a lot like this video: hanging out with cousins at my mom's house.
Here she is with her cousin Hannah, who was nice enough to put some batteries in this toy cell phone for Charlotte to enjoy and organize a bunch of toys for Charlotte to play with. They had a great time together, as was true for the time Charlotte spent with her other Texas cousins Calvin and Sophia. That's Texas.
And we were nice enough to leave the cell phone behind so it could enjoy Texas and we could enjoy it not in Minnesota.
This morning Charlotte was assessed by Children's Clinic (physical therapy) in Roseville, MN for her gross motor delay. Kind of weird being the consumer and not the provider in these assessments, and watch this parallel world where things play exactly like a language/speech/fluency evaluation, only for motor skills instead.
The physical therapist that assessed Charlotte was awesome and we are now on the waiting list for their services. Back in my private practice days I referred kids to the Roseville clinic about five times a year so it was kind of a no-brainer in terms of where I wanted to go once Emily and I decided to pursue private physical therapy.
The assessment went really well and Charlotte did a great job in a new environment with a new person as the PT poked, prodded, and assessed. The bottom line is Charlotte is kind of loosey goosey (hypotonia) with her muscles, including her ankles, legs, and trunk. This gives her a lot of range of motion at all the joints as well as a lot of instability. This why she uses her whole body to walk and has to sway and use her arms for balance the way a cat or monkey uses its tail. She can't just stablelize herself at the calves and ankles like most of us do.
Also she pronates significantly. So at the end of the assessment we came up with the plan to have orthotics made for Charlotte to help correct the pronation and we are on the waiting list at the Roseville Children's Clinic for physical therapy. We could look elsewhere but I'd rather wait and go to the clinic I trust the most.
After all that I took Charlotte to the Children's Museum and for awhile we had Habitot to ourselves. Then a few other kids her age came in and it is always kind of fun to watch them quasi-interact as they climb, slide, and explore. But then the Waltons and the Von Traps all showed up at once and there was like 18392 siblings running aroud and Charlotte had enough and went to the "resource room" to chill out.
I don't think I've ever orchestrated a picture of Charlotte before as much as I have this one. And judging by the looks of Charlotte, this should be the last time I do such a thing. So a little background is in order, because what's a post from me if it's not wordy?
Emily and I both prefer having maps and atlases to look at over any GPS software, but our atlas was over ten years old. So my mom got us a new very cool atlas while we were down in Texas. I never knew atlases could be improved but this one is evolved from your typical road atlas. When we stopped in suburban Kansas City Wednesday night I brought the atlas in to see the best way to avoid the next morning's rush hour traffic.
Well it turns out Charlotte also loves altases, or at least flipping through the pages. She was up on the bed looking at the atlas for quite awhile and then said, "bye bye book" and rolled over to Emily. I looked down and saw what page she randomly stopped at and had to get her picture with it. So I tried to get her next to the atlas, which she clearly wanted to no part of. But I was able to get a picture at least before feeling overly selfish. It was like trying to get Pancho to behave when I try to take his picture but worse because he doesn't protest like Charlotte does so much as remain confused.
Emily, Charlotte and I had a very nice trip to Texas to see my family. Charlotte has such a great collection of aunts, uncles, cousins, and an amazing grandmother (of course I'm a little biased), so it is important to us that she see them as much as geography allows.
Charlotte continues to be an incredibly patient and easy going individual. She did great with the drive down and the drive back up. We made sure we were done driving for the day by 5 p.m. each day to give her plenty of time to explore the hotel room, hallway, and pool. In the car, Charlotte did an awesome job, entertaining herself with books, music, and Emily when needed. And she was VERY effective at letting us know when she needed a break from the car.
So I'll upload videos and pictures here and there throughout the week. I thought this video was a good place to start.
This is the second night at my mom's house and Charlotte is having her first dinner (she tends to have a first dinner and a second dinner... as long as she eats at the table, I don't care how many dinners she has at this juncture in her life). It is a perfect example of how she will say "all done" when really all she means is, "I'm considering the notion of being done with eating in five to ten minutes." But it is particularly funny in this case because she says "all done" right on the heels of ranting and raving about how good her cheese stick is.
Also, right around 12 seconds she looks at me (and my phone video taping her) and says "yah yah" which is how she says Charlotte. She says "Charlotte" everytime she sees my phone because her picture is the phone's wallpaper (how cliche). I show her pictures from the phone maybe two or three times a week tops and yet she already knows it as "Charlotte." Creepy.
