The Last Word on Christmas 2012

Oy to the world!

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!

More Christmas

 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. 





Have some pride, Nacho!



Christmas Post

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.

Charlotte's Second Joke

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.

Lazy Sunday Morning

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.

Perusing the Library

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.

Charlotte's First Joke

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.

Conversations With Charlotte #7831

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."

Charlotte: No crib.

Catching Up

Assorted pictures from the last few months.

Big Birthday

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.  

Me, on stage!

Pancho Aids In Language Development

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.

Late Breaking News

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.

Yummy!

Multitasker

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.

Rude

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.