Happy Has A Lot On Her Mind

Noelle's Maxim

One my my favorite quotes about parenting comes from my friend Noelle (the one who made the MDRA marathon training video I posted in October).  She once said, "I was the best parent in the world until I had kids."  And I have known to stay humble, and that managing a classroom, a speech and language group, or the intensity of a 1:1 session with a nonverbal angry toddler, was going to be way easier than parenting.  I knew this to be true, I just didn't know what the challenges would look like and feel like.  I am starting to find out.

If I could give three traits to Charlotte it would be:

1. Work ethic.
2. Finding happiness and fulfillment on her own in every day rather than expecting every day to bring it to her.
3. That perfect balance between taking crap from no one and respecting others.

Number three is tricky.  It is still one I personally work on every day.  And apparently so does Charlotte.  At home she is pretty good in terms of following through on requests and respecting everyone all the way down to the cats, and whatever meltdowns she has, she works through on her own.  At school, well, it's a different story.  Like her teacher Indrani says, "She goes on strike" a lot.  Refuses to put her hat and gloves away nicely.  Refuses to go on the potty.  Refuses to go outside.  Refuses to come back inside.  And by refuse I mean something as simple as just sitting there like a stone to more disruptive behaviors like screaming and yelling.  One day last week, when I showed up to pick Charlotte up some generic four year old said to me, unsolicited, "Charlotte was very naughty today."

Good times.

I will often see Indrani pulling a parent to the side, giving them a heart-to-heart about their own child's behavior and part of me breathes a sigh of relief.  For once it someone else's kid.  But mostly, I just want to say, "I feel your pain."

The thing that is a little unsettling to me is the typical three year old behaviors she is going through all happen at school and not at home.  I'd be much more comforted if she went on strike all the time at home and performed at school.  I've seen kids do this for well over a decade: perform in school or in clinic and hear from the parents how difficult they are at home.  My line to parents has always been, "Well that is the biggest compliment you can ask for.  They know, with you, they can be 100% themselves, warts and all, and you will still love and accept them.  But with me or any other adult that security isn't there, so sense they have to perform and conform if they want to be accepted by us."

But Charlotte is doing it the opposite way.  I'm not at the level of worrying about this yet, but it is certainly something I am tracking.  I think she is just her raw true self with us and at school and home life is easier than school life for her right now. But really who knows why.  There are a hundred possible explanations.

One thing that helped me in terms of letting go, was a conversation I had with Indrani.  I used to really focus on Charlotte's behavior on the ride home.  We'd talk about it.  I'd give her time outs.  I'd remind her of the behavior expectations time and time and again.  Looking back, this got us nowhere and I admit mistakes were made in this regard.  But I couldn't figure this out on my own.  Indrani was going over Charlotte's most recent strike about a month ago and I said, "Okay we'll work on this at home," and she said, "No you don't work on it at home.  That is why she comes here.  So we can work on it."

And that was the most liberating damn thing I've heard.  This isn't physical therapy where there is homework to work on a specific skill.  And it is not speech therapy for stuttering where attitudes and emotions have to be targeted in a specific way.  Instead, this is the messy task of growing up (for both me and Charlotte) and I can't use whatever clinical skills I have to make that any easier. In fact, forget clinical skills, most parenting skills are overrated in a time like this outside of being consistent, patient, caring, and a role model.

So yes, the only thing I can control is letting go and but that has been hard to do.  I hear from Indrani about how bad Charlotte's behavior been at school, all the while Charlotte is running up to greet me with a hug, and I am torn.  I want to hold her accountable but I also want to let her maximize that moment of seeing me at the end of her long school day.  But now it is clear to me, in terms of school, for now I should just focus on the latter and let Indrani take care of the former.

The other thing that has helped is my own memory of my own childhood.  I remember getting in a spitting fight when I was like four on a ride in Kiddie Park.  I never met the kid or saw him again (we were at some mutual "friend's" birthday party), but I do remember we were spitting on one another over and over again.  I also remember getting in pretty big knock down drag out fights with the kids from up the block, on a weekly to monthly basis.  And then we'd hit restart and be ready to play again the next day.  I'm sure we can all recall times when we were less than angelic, thousands of times in fact, and we all turned out able to navigate society as adults and are all works in progress at home, with our family, and with our close friends.  Holding onto that fact is what gets me from wanting to scold her for misbehaving in school to wanting to hold her, hug her, kiss her, and tell her just how much I love her and that she isn't just a good girl, she is a GREAT girl.

As parenting gets more difficult with each passing month, I keep going back to Angle of Repose, one of my mom's all time favorite books.  The Doppler Effect is a strong theme in that book: sound waves (like from a siren) are much louder as the emergency vehicle travels away from you compared to towards.  I know I have made parenting decisions, reactions, and key events have already happened in this child's life that will be blazingly obvious down the road.  I just don't know which ones matter or will matter until after the fact.  So instead of worrying about that, I challenge myself to just be in the moment no matter how difficult her behaviors get.

And finally, I remember a conversation I had with Charlotte about a month ago.  Indrani told me she asked Charlotte if she was Mommy's girl or Daddy's girl.  And Indrani said that Charlotte said right away, "I'm Daddy's girl."  Well, I was more than skeptical because that doesn't sound like Charlotte as she seems equally connected to both of us, and I don't think she even knows what that question means. So I think she just said Daddy just for the sake of answering the question.

So we were driving home and I asked her the same question and she said, "I'm not Mommy's girl or Daddy's girl.  I'm Charlotte's girl."

And I just remember smiling and nodding as we drove along.  I wanted to tell her, "You're damn right that's who you are and that's who I always want you to be."  So really, if going on strike and giving Indrani and her peers a little hell right now is presently a weakness, or something to work on, it is also that same spirit which gives her the strength to be "Charlotte's girl" and no one else's.  And that is a trade-off I will take for now and for always.

Mistaken Identity

Last week Emily had a work happy hour an important meeting for work so she was not home for our dinner and bedtime routine.  Charlotte asked where Emily was once or twice and then went about her business.  I was making dinner when I heard Charlotte crying very loudly and sadly, "I WANT MY MOMMY!! I WANT MY MOMMY!"  I went into the living room uncertain how I could offer anything remotely comforting to her, as I would only be serving as a giant reminder that her mommy wasn't home.  And predicted Charlotte saw me and was even more insistent, demanding "I want my Mommy!"

But, there on the couch was Happy, babbling away holding some generic plastic female action figure type doll.  And that would be the mommy Charlotte wanted.  Well over 100 toys between the living room and the den, and she is crying frantically over some piece of crap doll she never showed specific interest in before.  But sure, now that Happy has it, Charlotte has deemed the doll as "my mommy," all in the name of a burgeoning sibling rivalry.  Now that is the kind of crisis I can ignore manage.

Overheard, Exhibit O

Charlotte in the back of the car as we were driving home:

"Pancho is a good dog.  He needs a hug.  He's sad because the cats scared him so he needs a hug."

Whatever you say Charlotte.  When we got home, we did indeed hug Pancho, but only after cleaning up the trash he got into.

Conversations with Charlotte #6710892373

BREAKING NEWS: Charlotte no longer dislikes Brian Longley.  After a year of "I don't like Brian" (and then smirking) over the past week she has told me she loves Brian.  But she has also told me she loves tables, so take her proclamations of love with a grain of salt.  Charlotte also likes talking out her ass, so much so that I call her out on it to see where it will go.  This morning we were eating breakfast talking about, what else, food.

CHARLOTTE: I like coffee.

ME: Really?  You like coffee.  You've had some coffee and said, 'Mmm this is good."

CHARLOTTE: Yeah.  I like coffee.  It's yummy.

ME:  So where did you did you drink all this delicious coffee?

CHARLOTTE: At Brian's house.

ME: Arabica beans or robusta?

CHARLOTTE: Rabica.

ME:  So you're telling me you were hanging out with Brian drinking coffee with him.  Just you and Brian or was anyone else there?

CHARLOTTE: Me, Brian, and Ancy.  (Ancy would be Nancy)

ME: You guys were all just sitting in the kitchen, drinking some coffee, having a little conversation about politics and sports.

CHARLOTTE:  Yeah.  And Mommy and Daddy and Baby Happy were at home.

ME: What did you guys talk about?

CHARLOTTE: Christmas trees.

She never misses a beat as she just pulls out one random answer after another out of her butt.  It's a little unnerving how adept she is at this.

Happy & Jess

First Supper

Tonight Emily set the high chair up in recline and Happy joined us for the first time at the dinner table.  Upon seeing Happy was joining us for dinner, Charlotte insisted that she sit next to Happy.  A few months ago, Charlotte used to do this on a nightly basis, only it was pulling her chair next to mine so we could sit side-by-side.  Then the novelty of that wore off and she moved on to sitting next Emily.  And then she realized more personal space is better, and went back to having a side of the table to herself.

So in  few weeks the fun of sitting next to Happy will also pass.  And in a few months, when Happy is mobile and grabbing toys, Charlotte won't want to be next to her at all.  And in a few years they won't want to be in the same room at all.  But tonight it was very fun to see this.

The close observer will note the Rody (the green horse) is resting on top of the trampoline.  That's two toys bought solely for the purpose of physical therapy being used for very un-physical purposes... as per usual.  

Well Babies

Charlotte and Happy had their well child visits last week.  Here are the deets in tabular form.

	Charlotte	Abigail
Age	3 years	5 months
Height	36.5 inches	26 inches
Weight	36 lb	12 lb 12 oz
Likes	reading books eating Play Doh drawing and painting running with daddy	Charlotte Toonces eating wiggling around laughing
Dislikes	having her hair brushed having her hair washed pooping on the potty	sleeping during the day

Happy Halloween with the Big Cats

Another Halloween has come and gone.  This year was the first year Charlotte figured out what it was all about so we had a lot of fun.  First, we carved our pumpkin.

Charlotte's Jack-O-Lattern face.

Scooping out the guts.

It looks just like the one she colored at school!

Charlotte said she wanted to be a leopard and Netta and Bailey were going to be a cheetah and a lion.  They came over to trick or treat Thursday night.  It took FOREVER to get them to line up for this picture.  It was like herding cats.  Literally.  I don't know why Toonces looks like a ghost in this picture?

Too cute.

Happy is a skunk.

The girls were cute, but Poncho stole the show while we out trick or treating.

We only went to a few houses.  The girls were still navigating this whole asking strangers for candy thing.  At the last house, Charlotte and Netta went up to the door by themselves.  Our neighbor said, "what do you say?"  And they just stood there in silence.  

They all chose Skittles as their first treat.  Charlotte spotted a Milky Way and said, "I want to eat that chocolate brown too."  After she went to bed, I had to inspect her loot for anything that was not appropriate for a 3 year old.  You know, like Kit Kats.

Conversation With Charlotte #323

Thanks a lot Halloween.  We had a good thing going with Charlotte, thinking that suckers were cat toys and fun size candy bars were noise makers.  And then Charlotte truly conceptualized candy today.

At bedtime, I end the day telling her what tomorrow bring, which Charlotte is always interested in knowing, especially the breakfast plans.

Charlotte: I'll eat breakfast tomorrow with Daddy, right?

Me: Yes.  We'll have toast and... actually we're out of yogurt but I'll figure something out.

Charlotte: Umm... Daddy?  I want candy for breakfast.

Me: No.  That's not a breakfast food.

Charlotte: No it's not a breakfast food.  It's only for a snack.

Me: Good night Charlotte.

Charlotte (right as I turn out the light): It's a breakfast snack.

Seriously Halloween, suck it.

Overheard, Exhibit N

Charlotte's vision of what high school is like is a bit off.  This morning as drove past the high school by her daycare, Charlotte predicted this is in 11 years:

When I turn into a big kid I'm going to take a school bus to high school with the big kids.  Mommy and Daddy and Charlotte are going to ride the bus to school and Happy is going to stay home with Pancho.

What I Do

This summer and fall was marked by me working a lot with running.  When I wasn't coaching the MDRA marathon training class I was coaching cross country at Washington.  In August there were was one week where there was a marathon class run on Saturday morning, an MDRA board meeting the following Monday night, cross country practice at Washington started that week at 10 a.m. every day, a marathon class run on Tuesday, a track night I host every other week on Thursday, and then the weekly Saturday morning run.  That's five MDRA runs or meeting and five Washington practices I had to be at, and stay married.

By the end of August, I had to confess to Emily that I had reached the end of my coaching rope.  Earlier in the summer and we had to kind of intensely talk out/negotiate if all this coaching was worth it.  The sacrifices Emily had to make while I was gone coaching go without saying and at the same time cannot be overstated.  I am not sure when (or if) I will coach a marathon training class again.  This spring I had to be coaxed out of MDRA coaching retirement by my friend Marty in the first place.

But coaching at Washington is a different story.  That is something I will do for as long as I can, until they kick me off the track.  It allows me to be so much more involved in my building and get to know so many new students I only see in passing if I see them at all.  And I get to be at the ground level of a sport I love.

But coaching the MDRA class was a challenge to get up for by August.  I always was able to.  Fortunately, there were so many things to keep me going: working closely with my good friends Deb and Marty, giving back to a sport that gave me so much, the enthusiasm, hard work, and camaraderie of the people in the class, and most importantly Charlotte.  Charlotte loves running.  And she loved to "help the runners with Daddy."  We would fill the water jugs together on Tuesday afternoons in the backyard and on Saturdays I would pick her up while the class did its long run and we would go check on the runners together at various points along the way, and she would run with Marty at the finish of the run... and then eat all the snacks we had laid out for the runners.  She especially liked the cookies and Goldfish.

Charlotte also noted"the blue water for the runners.  They like it."  This would be PowerAid Mountain Berry Blast which I usually made five to ten gallons worth of at each run.  It's an unnatural blue, with an unnatural smell, and an unnatural taste.  The kind of thing a two year old would love, but all summer she said wanted nothing to do with it.  She would say, "the blue water is for the runners.  The regular water is for Charlotte."

Anyway, a week before the Chicago marathon, class member made a video for her friends who were all running Chicago together.  A little background: we break the class into four pace groups.  The slowest group is the Terrapins (a name they chose themselves and they call themselves the Terps with pride).  They are longtime friends and very loyal to each other and our training classes, no matter who is coaching.  So Noelle made this video to celebrate.  The fact that Noelle was able to film and photo and then edit this into a four minute video speaks volumes to the depth of friendships running and this training program has produced.

Regardless, it tells the story of what the MDRA program is all about and why this summer was worth it for me, even if it is too much to do again for a long time.  One day, when Charlotte is older we can watch the video together and I can tell her that in her how special way, she played a small part in this class.  And that for sure makes everything worth it.

Worst Conversation Ever

The Longfellow Grill came up in conversation at breakfast this morning.  Charlotte was quick to point out that we have gone there a few times with our Longfellow neighbors Ed and Carly and their baby Sasha (who is well on her way to toddlerhood).  And then Charlotte asked a series of questions so mind-numbingly dumb, I had to indulge her and answer them just because I was curious where this would go.  The answer is nowhere.  These questions went nowhere.

Charlotte:  Ed and Carly go to Longfellow Grill with Charlotte, Daddy, Mommy, and Happy... and Baby Sasha.

Me: Yes.

Charlotte: What's Ed's name?

Me: Ed.

Charlotte: What's Carly's name?

Me: Carly.

Charlotte: What's Sasha's name?

Me: Sasha.

Charlotte: Satisfied silence.  Resumes eating her waffles.

End scene.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

Kids say the darndest things.  My favorite Charlotteisms:

Sweet Potato Head for Mr. Potato Head

sun scream and butt scream for sunscreen and butt cream

alligator for elevator

Nacho's shoe fly for any fly

And in the car she is just babbling away about Lord knows what and sometimes I listen in and have no idea what the Hell she is talking about.

"The sun goes down at nighttime and eats.  He eats a snack.  He eats apple sauce and he likes it."

"When Pancho was a baby, he learned how to.... sleep."

"When I grow up, I'm going to be a kitty and daddy is going to be a doggie."

Another One

Charlotte & Happy

Charlotte Turns #3!

If you ask Charlotte how old she is, she'll hold up her fingers and say, "I'm number 3."  We celebrated three ways.   Charlotte's birthday part 1. Her birthday happened to fall on the same day as the Twin Cities Marathon Family Day, so we had a nice breakfast (pancakes,  Charlotte's favorite) and headed over to the capital to sign Charlotte up for the toddler trot.

Birthday breakfast sausage

We also signed Happy up for the Diaper Dash.  We debated whether or not it was worth it, after all she is nowhere near crawling, but we agreed that it was worth it for the photo op alone.  I think you will agree.

Happy at the starting line 

Totally worth $11!

There are not many things more joyful than watching a 3 year old run.  All the kids got race t-shirts and Charlotte wore hers for 3 days in a row.  I had to bargain with her to get it off her long enough to wash it Sunday night.

Happy's souvenir from her first race - CUTE!

Then we went home and took naps to get ready for Chartlotte's birthday part 2.  After dinner it was time for cupcakes and presents!  Charlotte has a mild obsession with cupcakes. Ever since her birthday last year she has asked to look at pictures of her birthday cupcake on my phone at least once a week.  She has fond memories of the "fire" and frosting.  This year's cupcake did not disappoint - Oreo!  The frosting tasted like the filling of an Oreo.

She's in love.

 Charlotte got this gift from her friends Nathan, Noah and Alma.
I think these fruit snacks were her favorite present.

Trying to tempt her with another present, but she can't stop talking about those fruit snacks!

Frog Trouble - Sandra Boynton's best work yet.  Seriously, I would listen to this without any kids around.

Charlotte's big present - a sweet stove.

And to top it off, cupcake PJs!!

A week later, we had a little party with Netta and Bailey for birthday part 3!  We had a little cake and went to the park to play.  Charlotte was very excited for Netta and Bailey to come over and spent the morning talking about which burner of her new stove would be for which cousin to cook on.

Bailey, Netta and Charlotte turning 3 together.

What's Happy Doing?

Charlotte asks that question about a hundred times a day, as we are now all in on the phase where she asks questions she knows the answer to.  In the case of this question, the answer is always one of the following: nursing, sleeping, or laying around making nonstop noises.  Usually the noises are accompanied by a lot of smiles,  but this video did not capture the smiles.

Regardless, congratulations to Happy for finally reaching the point in her life where she is doing enough stuff that warrants some videotaping, even if it will only be interesting to her grandparents and Texas cousins, aunts, and uncles.

Overheard

"Charlotte, you have to eat something besides broccoli." Said mommy.

Get More Happy!

Working It

Conversations with Charlotte #92

As of this week, we are a one car family.  Well, we were a one car family all summer but this is our first run at it now that Emily and I are back to work.  It has been pretty nice for the last three days because it means we end up driving together a lot as family to daycare and commuting to work.  

This has been especially nice for Charlotte because after I pick up her and Happy we head to Emily's work.  This means Charlotte gets to see tons of airplanes resting, taking off, and landing at the airport, the lightrail train (she is particularly fond of automatic gates), and lots of trucks.  Also, Cirque du Soleil is at Mall of America so we drive by the tents in the MoA parking lot.  Charlotte was talking about them quite a bit and then as we got closer wanted to know if they were camping tents.

Me: No.  There is a circus is in there.

Charlotte:  Ooooooo.  I want to go in those tents.

Me: We can't.  We have to have tickets.

Charlotte: Daddy has to buy the tickets.

Me:  No I don't.  They cost too much money.

Charlotte:  Daddy has to buy money.

Me: No I don't.  Then I'd have to pay interest.

Charlotte:  Ooooo.  I like interest.

Me:  Hmmmm. That would work only if you were a banker.

Charlotte: Daddy's a teacher.  Mommy's a scientist.  Charlotte's a banker.

Crazy Hair

At daycare, they say she looks like a woodpecker.

3 months

Here are a couple of beautiful photos of Happy that Ben took recently.   Hard to believe she is already 3 months old! 

So Happy!

My estimates put her at 24 1/2 inches and about 12 pounds.  Definitely outgrowing her clothes in length!   Last week she started going to the Montessori daycare/preschool  that Charlotte attends.  She's adjusting well there, there are only two other babies so she gets lots of attention.  Some days she doesn't sleep much, but that's no different than when she is at home.  We are very fortunate to have a good nighttime sleeper - typically about 9pm to 6:30am.  Happy is now reaching for toys and bringing things to her mouth.  She also likes to watch Charlotte play and listen to her talk.   

Worst Book Ever

Tonight at dinner we were talking about our day and I asked Charlotte what story they read at school today.  Charlotte gave the following summary.

Charlotte: It was about a guy... who went into a sock store.

Me: I'm sorry, did you say sock store?

Charlotte: Yeah a sock store.  He's a funny guy.

Me: What else was in the story?

Charlotte: And then.... a fishy came in.

Me: A fish came in the sock store?

Charlotte: Yeah.

Me: Anything else?

Charlotte: No.

Me: So the whole story was about a guy in a sock store and then a fish comes in.

Charlotte: Yeah.  Funny guy.

Seriously, this has to be the worst book ever written.  No context, plot, depth of character...  Awful.  Truly awful, this book.  And I'm sorry Charlotte, but the guy shopping for socks doesn't seem like a funny guy at all.  He seems like a cautionary tale against doing hallucinogens before going out in public to buy socks.  Tragic and/or depressing.  Not funny.

Charlotte's First Race!

Charlotte ran in the fun run at Victory races this morning.  It's Mike's favorite race  - it's fast, flat, and a fun family event.  Aunt Jessie and the cousins ran too!  Charlotte had a blast, she was smiling the whole time.  Happy had a very pretty miserable time, it was cold and I left her pacifier in the car.  Poor thing.

photo credit Gene Niemi for Down the Backstretch

Post-race hot dog

What's Arthur and Lewis Doing?

This morning, Charlotte was cheerfully eating her breakfast and making conversation.


Charlotte:  Jessie's eating breakfast too!

Me:  yes.

Charlotte:  What's Arthur and Lewis doing?

Me:  Um, they are probably riding the school bus right now.

Charlotte:  Yeah.  They're going to school.

{Pause}

Charlotte:  They're going to an apple school.  Charlotte goes to an orange school.

Me:  Uh, OK.

Charlotte:  I'm going to an orange school.  Arthur and Lewis going to an apple school.


Me thinks that we've been reading a little too much Richard Scarry with all the pickle cars, apple cars, etc.

Ice Cream at The Oscars!

FUN x 3!

Friday my sister and I took the girls to the Minnesota Children's Museum.  The girls had soooo much fun.  Since they are the same age, they are pretty much in the same place as far as interests go.   We spent a long time in the pretend area.  They shopped in the pretend grocery store, worked in the pretend restaurant, and made some music videos in a room with a green screen. 



Abba cover band



Lillith Fair



Ready, set, go!



They're off!



Snack time (thanks for the picture Jess!)



Cute Kid Alert

Two and a half is such a fun age. Charlotte is exploring and learning about the world everyday and I love it when she shares her observations. Having a new baby sister has exposed her to many new things and she is always asking, "what's that?" She often comes up with her own names for things and phrasing,  including:

"cloth burp" = burp cloth
"office doctor" = doctor's office
"sound poop" = a fart
"bicycle" = tricycle, and she will correct you
"beep beep truck" = any maintenance or construction truck, which require her to wear her sunglasses for protection
"where it is?" = where is it?
"what I'm doing?"= what am I doing?
"I'm number two." = her answer when asked how old she is

and one more

"egg greens and ham"

I've Been Waiting

Charlotte recently started playing with other kids rather than alongside other kids.  It's so cool to watch.  Something I have been looking forward to since my sister and I were pregnant at the same time, is for the girls to play together and it finally happened this weekend!   Over the weekend, we were at a family party at Joanna's.  The kids were playing outside and Charlotte and Netta were playing "soccer" together yelling each other's names and laughing.  Later, the twins wanted to show Charlotte the spare bedroom at Joanna's so they went in there and my sister and I followed.  They told us to leave the room and close the door.  So, we left.  I looked at my sister and said, "they're getting into trouble together for the first time!"  A while later we went to check on the them and we heard squealing and laughter and when we opened the door they were jumping on the bed and laughing.  It's the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Charlotte Pedals!

As you saw in my last post, having your garage torn down creates some new playtime opportunities.  The cement slab is the perfect place for Charlotte to practice riding her tricycle.

I'm Playing a Baseball Game

We finally had our smushed garage removed, which means we had to find place to put all the stuff that was in the garage.   A lot of stuff was damaged from being exposed to rain for a month.  Some of it we threw away and some we wanted to let dry out, but there was a threat of rain so we pitched our tent and put everything in there.  Including the pack-n-play.  Charlotte thinks it lots of fun to have a camping tent in the backyard and she likes to sit in the pack-n-play and look at books.  The other day she wanted Happy in there with her.  

Also, when retrieving our things from the garage, Charlotte discovered a couple of whiffle ball bats and decided she would play a baseball game.  Charlotte's baseball game consisted of each of us hitting a large rubber ball with our respective whiffle ball bats.  Charlotte has become so much more active lately, it's really fun to see

One of two rugs drying out in the backyard.  It looks like we live in a trailer park.  Our neighbors love us.

Two Months

Beautiful

Happy had her two month well visit last week.  She was 23 3/4 inches long and 10 pounds 2 ounces, that's 87th and 20th percentile, respectively.  She is one long and skinny thing!   She had her first shots and handled it like a champ.  She has been smiling at us, but she only smiles at me in the morning for some reason.  The rest of the day she looks very serious.  She loves to look at the bright decals on the wall by the changing table and to relax outside in her bouncy seat.

Charlotte and Happy in the pack n play outside.