Happy Reads Frozen to Elsa

Danceteria

Charlotte had another dance recital this weekend.  Again, it was pretty spectacular.  At the first dance recital, Happy impressed the teacher, Miss Amy, with her maturity and ability to sit still and be a respectful audience member.  Even though she was not yet 2 years old, Miss Amy said Happy should join in the class next session.  Happy participated in the class a few times, but then either lost interest or decided that she would rather have mom or dad all to herself while Charlotte was in dance class. Or maybe that good behavior was a fluke as you can see she did not demonstrate the same maturity at this recital. In fact, Mike had to remove her from the auditorium and miss Charlotte's solo - so the pressure was really on me to execute my videography skills.  

They started by playing "Dance and Freeze"  which is self-explanatory.  Then they demonstrated their ballet chops by showing us releve and "something smooth" of their choosing.  They also had solos. But, I am not able to merge that clip with the others because it is has copyrighted music.  So, it can be enjoyed separately, here:

On the way home Charlotte reminded me to sign her up for another dance class.  This is so fun!

Take a Bow

I signed Charlotte up for a creative movement/ballet class.  We took one last year that was parent and child. It was OK, but the teacher was a mess. We'll leave it at that. This time I signed her up for a class taught by our neighbor, Miss Amy, who has basically taught ballet to every girl in St Paul, including our neighbor and my cousin Hannah!  On the first day of this class, the teacher said grown ups don't get to watch until the last day.   Every Saturday, Charlotte would wake up and ask if it was ballet. When I said yes and she'd say, "yeah!"  But, as the it got closer to the time to leave, she would start saying she was tired, which is her way of saying she doesn't want to do something.  When we pulled into the parking lot she'd say she didn't want to go to ballet and I'd tell her we were just going to check it out.  Charlotte would go in, but she would burst into tears during the class and the teacher had to leave the door open a crack so another mom and I could sit on the floor in the hall and the girls could see us. A couple weeks ago, the last day of class finally came and all the grown ups were so excited!  Charlotte wore her special "ballerina" dress.  We sat on the floor in a big round room and the dancers were in the middle.  First, Miss Amy led them through some standard ballet drills - first position, second position, etc.  Then some other moves that were all in French. It was so fun, all the girls were smiling.  Then, the teacher announced that each girl would have a solo and show us how they could go different speeds, and in different directions.  Each girl chose a different piece of music.  The first girl ran around in a circle for about three minutes.  Miss Amy would say, "Oooh, do you think she'll change directions?  Maybe she'll show us an arebesque.  No?" Then she said, "3-2-1, take a bow!" I was tearing up and I knew I was going to cry during Charlotte's.  Charlotte's turn came and she ran around in a circle as fast as she could for three minutes. She did switch it up and run sideways for a while.  She was panting she was working so hard.  And she was beaming.  It was my happiest moment of being a mom.  I thought I was taking a video, but I wasn't so I had to just replay it in my mind all weekend.  Mike took this little video and made a loop so you can kind of get the idea.

Basically, all the solos were 3 minutes of running around in a circle.  When it came to the turn of the other girl who always cried, Miss Amy said she wanted to tell everyone what her dance was about.  She said, "Angry!"  Then she proceeded to run in a circle for 3 minutes with the biggest smile on her face.  Well, one girl actually did a whole bunch a actual ballet moves.  I was like, whoa, she must have an older sister to practice with or something.

Then they had a "ballet challenge" where Miss Amy had them demonstrate their pas de chats (cat steps).

Charlotte is taking another session of ballet now.  She has gained so much confidence.  At the playground, she tries things she would never do before.  Now at ballet she just  marches right in.  Miss Amy said Happy could join too.  The last class is going to be AWESOME!

This Video Has it All

Jammin' On the One

Happy found a kazoo the other day and it's like she finally found her jam.  

One of these days I'll remember that you have to hold your phone horizontal to make a video.

Learning to Walk

Happy is figuring out this bipedal thing.  It's fun for everyone!  

I always forget that I have to turn my phone horizontal!

Happy Birthday Happy!

 How perfect is it to have a baby named Happy when there is a hit song called "Happy"?  I really wanted to make a music video of her first year set to the song.  It took me a couple of months to figure out how to make my own music video. I had to get a music video app (Video Star, I recommend) for my phone and then buy a couple of the "power packs" so I could use existing video clips.  The result is not a masterpiece, but it is exactly what I wanted.  Happy's first year certainly was happy!

Nawrockis Got Talent

On Monday, Happy crawled for the first time. She has been working on this for a week or two and finally figured out what to do with her arms.  And legs.  She looks just like baby Mike in the thumbnail for this video. 

In other news, Charlotte is still making guitars out of Bristle blocks and singing unrecognizable songs.

Happy is Happy

I have probably worked over a thousand kids over the years (yikes, I'm getting old) and if I have learned one thing, it is be careful with nicknaming or naming your kid something like, I don't know, Happy.  More often than not, the opposite occurs.  So I am waiting for the curse to kick in.  Meanwhile, we'll sit back and enjoy the ride.

Happy Has A Lot On Her Mind

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.

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.

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.

Big Sister Gifts

Charlotte has had a great week and so many family members and friends have given her big sister gifts which really helps her transition into accepting someone to share center stage with.  Most people get to be present when Charlotte opens her present but out out of town friends and family don't get that chance.

My sister in Texas sent us some brownies which (sorry Charlotte) we are treating as parent gifts.  Unfortunately my camera was low on batteries when Charlotte opened the present so I don't have any footage.  But the brownies are delicious and miraculously not all gone.

And actually as I type this, I realize the brownies will be a perfect treat to have next Friday.  When Happy and Emily were discharged on Tuesday there was some concern regarding the amount of weight Happy had lost since her birth (over 10% of her body weight).  And her bilirubin count has been high.  High enough to warrant three trips to the doctor for a blood draw, but never high enough to warrant home photo therapy.  So in the grand scheme of things, none of this is a big deal, but we are looking forward to not having to check in with a doctor every 24 to 48 hours to confirm that everything is fine (which it is).  Friday should mark this day.  Brownies for everyone!  Well except Happy.

Our friends in Colorado Jen and Steve also sent Charlotte and Happy some gifts.  Charlotte is in the habit of saying "Oh Steve" the same way we would say "oh for geez" and now she calls Steve "Oh Steve" which you can see in this video.  Anyway, as the video shows, she loved her gift.  

In fact, Charlotte liked her gifts so much she wanted to eat dinner with them.  This is a pretty big deal, as Charlotte usually pulls her chair next to my chair or Emily's so she can eat dinner next to one of us.  But when she got her gift, suddenly sitting next to Mommy or Daddy was not on her radar.

Charlotte Doesn't Like Brian

Charlotte is always very excited whenever Emily's uncle Brian comes over.  He was over recently to meet Happy and Charlotte was so psyched to see him.  In fact, when it comes to Brian, the only thing Charlotte likes more than hanging out with Brian is acting like she doesn't like him.  It is one of her greatest jokes.

Mother Daughter Bonding

As I was washing dishes I overheard Emily reading a book to Charlotte.  It took me awhile to figure out which book because I had the radio on.  But when I figured it out, I knew I had to film this beautiful, tender moment.

Funny Game

Over the weekend our house was invaded by a few wasps.  We are still sorting where the hive is or if we even have one.  But we definitely had a few of them in our house.  Big Nacho did his best to kill them, but unfortunately I had to step in.

Having a wasp flying around is stressful enough as it is, but when you couple it with Emily's extreme fear of all things that sting, it was pretty easy for Charlotte to realize that something dramatic was happening.  I killed the first one in front of her by smacking it off a wall with a towel and then stomping on it.  Charlotte looked a little stressed out and very confused as it all went down, so I just told her I was wasp dancing.

Five minutes later she had her blanket and was whipping it around the room and then stomped on the floor and told me she was wasp dancing.

Later that day she was hanging out on her potty upstairs, waiting for the magic of urination to happen, when I isolated wasp #2 in our bedroom next door to hers.   So I told Charlotte I was going to go play a funny game in the bedroom (exactly why I said this is beyond me; I think I was just keep from feeling unnecessarily worried).  This wasp was way more aggressive than the previous wasp, yet I was stuck with the same dumb weapon, a towel.  Eventually I killed the thing but not before madly slapping the wall and blinds with a towel repeatedly.

Today I was making dinner and Charlotte was playing by herself in the living room when she suddenly came running into the kitchen announcing "I'm gonna play daddy's funny game" and then proceeded to smash the cabinets, fridge, and stove with her toy hammer.  As an aside, I fantasize about taking a hammer to our cabinets, too.  Only with a sledge kind, not a toy kind.

I was able to coax Charlotte into playing the "funny game" one last time for the video but the video does not reflect all the frantic energy Charlotte had when she first came into the kitchen and played the funny game for her own sake and not mine.

Also, I think we need to invest in a fly swatter.  Cats and towels are inefficient ways to fight wasps.

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.

Boomtown

Over the past month Charlotte has become more and more expressive with her music.  I don't know much about toddler music development. or much about music at all.  But her music boon seems exactly the same as the language jump all toddlers make.  Right before our eyes, and almost out of the blue to my amateur ears, Charlotte is making up tunes and singing songs to us she learned at Montessori or even pulling out songs she remembers from months ago at her Music Together class.  And now instead of babbling away about who knows what, she is often singing away about who knows what.

A week ago the most she would do is finish a word or two from the line of a familiar song I would sing to her.  And now, over the last two days, she started singing whole, multiple lines of songs on her own, like the one about the spider and the water spout and You Are My Sunshine.  It's all very fun and she gets pretty excited when she starts a song up on her own and I can figure it out and sing along with her.

Here is kind of a weird video from bedtime five days ago where she is making up one her songs from scratch.  She did this routine where she would sing with the blanket over her head, let it slowly fall off, and then ask me to throw it on her head again.  This cycle went on for about five minutes and would have kept going on if she had her way, but it was time for bed.

Spring Wonderland

I don't know what is more tiresome in Minnesota: the endless winter or the endless whining about the endless winter.  To be totally honest, I have done my share of complaining but at some point you just have to acknowledge that this is how my wife's state operates and deal with it.  I made my deal with this state years ago and have moved on.  I allow myself one major public complaint a year.  I used mine earlier this winter during a run with Nathan but I can't remember the context beyond that I knew I was burning my rant on one person at 5 a.m. who may or may not be listening to my rambling.

Or, you could be like Charlotte and think this weather is awesome.  We went to the zoo today and her eyes were half open on the drive home, she was that tired.  But once we hit the backyard, she perked up instantly.  She was having so much fun playing in the ice and sleet that I let her stay out there for 15 to 20 minutes, playing, before putting her to bed for her nap.  Charlotte certainly has her moments.  Below is a snippet of how to embrace whatever is in front of you.