Scrapmania II

Charlotte recently re-discovered the scrapbook Suze made for her.   I first blogged about the scrapbook two summers ago, and how it has been a family tradition.  My sisters and I all had one when we were kids that my mom made, and now all of her grandchildren do too.

So Charlotte is back to looking at the scrapbook multiple times a day with me, but with a twist.  She points to at least one picture on each page and asks me to sing a song about the picture.  This works just fine when it's a picture of something like a boat or a cat that I can easily sing a real song about readily, like "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore."  But when she asks me to sing a picture about a lemon I have to make something up.  Fortunately these songs suck, so there is no way she will ask me to replicate the exact songs. There is no way I could remember them, and that does not appear to be a problem.

Another new thing is she likes to grab a book, put it on her bean bag, sit on the potty while I sit in the rocking chair, and we read the books together.  It's pretty funny because she scoots around in the potty as if it were an office chair with wheels.

Lastly, my mom broke her ankle pretty badly the day before the tree fell on our garage... the same week the Spurs blew game six and then lost game seven to the Heat.  Bad things come in threes, so we're covered.  But sadly it was a bad break it is really hard for us to be so far away from home and unable to get there.  I was looking up airfare online about three hours before the storm hit and our summer was redefined.

If any good came of this, it is that Calvin, our nephew is coming to visit us for a week and change as a substitute trip for the vacation he was supposed to take to Yellowstone with Suze.  Selfishly this is great for us and we are thrilled to have him coming.

So here is a video of Charlotte and me looking at her scrapbook and me having to sing a song about a watermelon and whatever random stuff she pointed to.  And then we have a little conversation about the garage, Suze, Calvin, and his sister Sophia.

Booklearning

Suze sent Charlotte some books today.   She liked both books so much she asked me to read them to her right after Emily read them to her.

Here she is reading a book about being a big sibling with me.  As you can hear Charlotte say in the video, she knows that Emily has a baby "in her belly button," but who knows what that means.  When we were done reading, I asked Charlotte if it would be fun to have a baby to play with and she said, "yeah" and then went to find her doll to play with.  So I think she is in for a surprise when Emily comes home with a real baby.

Easter Otter

I meant to post this video at Easter when Charlotte got this package.  It is an Easter gift from Suze.  Here she is opening it.

President Suze

Charlotte has been interested in airplanes ever since Suze visited.  So, I knew I wanted to get her a flight related souvenir on my trip to D.C.  Enter toy Air Force One.  

She loves it.  It flies around the living room, joins us at the dinner table, today the airplane went through a tunnel.  When we ask her who is on the airplane, she says, Suze.

The World According to Charlotte

I have yet to meet a toddler who ignores an airplane.  And given how close we live to the airport, there are a lot of airplanes for Charlotte to notice.  For some reason this winter, the airport is using its least used runway a lot more frequently, which is the one that goes right over Longfellow.  So Charlotte has had even more airplanes to point out.

And here is what we know to be true about Charlotte's understanding of airplanes.

1. Suze is on every airplane Charlotte sees, be it in a book or in the sky.

2. Every airplane is going to Texas.

I'm not sure if Suze is piloting the plane or just riding it.  In the Richard Scarry books, Charlotte will point to all characters associated with an airplane and say it is Suze.  

Well done Suze!  That is quite an accomplishent.   For this to work you have to:

1. Be an aviation Jack-of-all-trades.  You know how to pilot a plane, be a flight attendant, load and unload baggage, and drive and operate a fuel truck.  And you are also racking up an absurd amount of frequent flyer mileage on a bunch of airlines.  You may want to check to see if UPS and the United States Air Force have frequent flyer programs because you been seen on their airplanes as well.  And maybe check with UPS about getting you out of the cargo hold.

2.Be a Greek god or a Pokemon.  Shape changing from a human to all the animals in the Richard Scarry books is not a mortal skill.

3. Own a kickass DeLorean with a flux capacitor.  Some of the airplanes you have been found flying on are five minutes apart.  The only way to explain this is that you are in two places at once.  Enter time travel. 

The close observer will note that there are two Marty McFlys in this screen capture.

4. Have lot of free time.  Time travel or no time travel, the amount of time you are spending flying seems exhausting and consuming. Semi-retired or not, you are living an active life.

No matter what, I know this to be true: a time-traveling, shape-changing aviation craftsman is a pretty badass grandma to have.  Charlotte is very lucky.  

It should be noted, however, that we all have our flaws.  Yesterday Charlotte pointed out an airplane to Emily and me, and let us know it was Suze, going back to Texas AGAIN.  So Emily piped in "Come on Suze, make up your mind."

Don't let the smile and motherly vibe of this library scientist fool you.  She can turn into a tiger and fly a military jet from San Antonio to Minneapolis in a matter of seconds, and then three minutes later turn into a bear with a wrench, rewiring a 747 before a transatlantic flight.

Beginning of an Era

Charlotte has always enjoyed dolls and stuffed animals during her waking hours.  But once it is time for nap or bedtime, she has made it clear her world and the Toy Story world are to remain separate.  She wants all dolls and stuffed animals in her doll crib (sometimes the doll crib is so full of dolls and animals, it looks a lot her mom and dad's bed when the animals all climb on the bed for the night).  Meanwhile, her crib is reserved for herself.

But my mom sent Charlotte a Valentine's Day gift this week and everything has changed.  Suze sent Charlotte a doll bottle, complete with fake milk and a very cute book about a boy and his teddy bear.













Since receiving the bottle and book, Charlotte and the bottle and a teddy bear are never far apart and often attached, although she does choose between three bears.  In the book the boy and the bear do all sorts of things together and love each other.  And now Charlotte can be seen doing the same thing, reading to a bear, walking around with a bear, playing hide and seek/peek-a-boo, and now eating with or feeding a bear.  Today she requested that we take a bear, and bottle, to music class.  I've always found it so unique that Charlotte had this division with her stuffed animals and dolls.  They only sometimes left the house and never were allowed in her crib.  All of that has changed now, and, just like when I was a kid, her bear (or one of three bears, to be accurate) is rarely far from her, for now.  The gifts were perfect, Mom, and are quickly a big part of her day.

The bear joins Charlotte for her daily nap...












...and the bear and bottle are present for bedtime.

Charlotte and Suze

Last weekend we went to the Garvin's for a playdate with all the cousins.  Ben took these lovely photos of Charlotte and Suze.

Charlotte is either telling Suze a secret or giving her a kiss

Where Suze?

In a flash my mom's most recent visit to Charlotte has come and gone.  It was great to see Charlotte truly bond and connect with my mom and they fast became good friends.  I take Charlotte to physical therapy (PT) every Friday morning for a 7 a.m. appointment when it's still dark out (this detail will come into play soon).  My mom wanted to go along to see what PT is about.

So we went together the first week with mixed results.  It was the least compliant I had ever seen Charlotte.  It's important to remember that as fun as PT seems (climbing, running, crawling...) for Charlotte it can be stressful because she is being asked to do the exact thing that is extremely hard for her AND she knows it's hard for her AND we are pushing her to the breaking point.  It is no different than when I worked with kids her age for speech and language.  And a good clinician doesn't fear the breaking point, and knows when and how to push kids to the limit and when to pull back, give them a break, and decompress mid-session.  Our physical therapist is very good at this.  But since we are dancing to and from Charlotte's breaking point thoughout a session, it is very possible that simply having another person in the room can make the session rougher on Charlotte.  So although she showed no outward signs of it during the session, there was a chance having both my mom and me in the session with Charlotte's physical therapist was too much for Charlotte, hence more than typical resistance from her.

So the next week I decided I would drop my mom off with Charlotte for her PT appoitment and "go get coffee" (I just drove around the block and then sat in my car in the parking lot for 10 minutes).  Charlotte didn't fuss at all during the session and did a great job with my mom while I waitied first in my car and then the waiting room.

Anyway, when I parked my car in the parking lot just after 7 a.m. it was still dark outside, meaning I could see right into the PT clinic waiting room.  I could see Charlotte take her jacket off with my mom and wait for the physical therapist to greet them.  I saw them walk back to the PT room together.  And I don't know why, but it was super cool to see Charlotte go in with her grandma as if she were going back with me, as happy as can be.  I don't get mamy moments where I can see that Charlotte is a person whose life and relationships are bigger than me and Emily and it is special to see those moments even though in a blink of an eye this will be the rule, not the exception.  At least it better be.

So clearly Suze made an impact on Charlotte's life.  One morning Charlotte woke up and Emily brought her downstairs and my mom was in the shower and right away Charlotte asked, "Where Suze?"  And since my mom has gone Charlotte has on many occasions said, "Suze gone on airplane.  Texas."  I hope this memory sticks.  Two nights ago Charlotte started labling everything by who it belongs to.  "That a daddy's chair.  That a daddy's fork.  That a daddy's napkin.  That a mommy's chair.  That a mommy's fork.  That a mommy's napkin."  And then she pointed to where Suze usually sat and there with this long pregnant pause, and then she just said, "That a that a that a.... chair."  I don't know if she missed my mom at that moment but I sure did.

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!

A Funny Video

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.

More Videos

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.

Back From Texas

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.

Spring Break!

For spring break, we drove from Minneapolis to San Antonio to visit Mike's family.  It's 20 hours of driving and we spread it out with 2 overnight stops.  The drive was actually pretty fun.  We stopped at children's museums, parks, and restaurants that have been featured on Diners, Drive ins, and Dives.  We really enjoyed the Wonderscope Children's Museum in Shawnee, Kansas  and the Ernie Miller Nature Park in Olathe, Kansas.   Charlotte, who normally goes to sleep without a peep, was totally out of sorts in the hotels.  We had a great time in San Antonio, where we got to eat at couple other restaurants featured on Diners, Drive ins, and Dives.  We spent a lot of time just hanging out outside or playing games at Suze's.   Spring in San Antonio is like summer in Minnesota - perfect weather.  All in all, it was a great trip.  We will definitely do the road trip again!  Here is a slideshow of some of the highlights of our trip:

Suze's Scrapbook

One of Charlotte's new skills is pointing.  Here she is showing Suze some of her favorite pages in the scrapbook.

Scrapmania!

When I was a kid one of my favorite books was a scrapbook my mom made for me.  There were a lot of pictures of animals, faces, families, whatever pictures she could find from her book catalogs and magazines that we would find interesting.  She made one for each of us, me and my two sisters.   I still remember a lot of the pictures and I probably looked at it every day until I could read.  And even after that I would still look at it all the time.  It was so much fun.  Now my mom has continued the tradition for the next generation.   We just got a scrapbook she made for Charlotte in the mail last week and it is now one of Charlotte's favorite books.

It's such a great size for Charlotte.  She loves to get up close to the pictures and touch them.  She can look at one single page for quite a few minutes, no small feat for a nine month old.  And everytime we turn the page together, you can see she is eagerly waiting to see what is on the next page.

My mom kept the tradition alive and made scrapbooks for each of her other three grandchildren, and clearly my niece Sophia is also a fan of the scrapbook.  Sophia beat my mom to the punch this time around and made a scrapbook for Charlotte this summer, before she was born.  The quick reader will note Sophia finished her scrapbook well ahead of her grandma.  Great work Sophia!

And more importantly. Charlotte also really gets into looking at all the pictures in the scrapbook Sophia made for her.

And most importantly, both books put a smile on Charlotte's face.

Hello, Hello, Hello!

Charlotte loves her Suze!

Suze was here for a couple weeks to help out while my sister and I take care of my mom.  We could not have managed the last few weeks without Suze here to help take care of Charlotte, walk Poncho, spend time with my mom so my sister and I could go to our cousin's baby shower, she even took a walk with Lewis to check out some big vehicles doing some work on the street.  We miss you already!

Charlotte Says Goodbye to Suze

Actually she is upset about something else in this picture, but it sums up the feeling in our house quite well.  Today Suze left to go back to San Antonio and we are all sad.  It was wonderful having her here for 4 weeks.  I hope she had as much fun as we did!  Charlotte was all smiles when Suze was around.  They had lots of fun while we were at work - laughing, playing, and one time rolling over.

Bubbe and Suze

Bubbe and Netta

Suze and Charlotte

Suze Visits

Mike's mom and sister drove from San Antonio to Minneapolis this weekend and finally got to meet Charlotte.  Suze is going to stay with us for a few weeks while I re-enter the working world.

Charlotte meets her Suze