'Tis the Season

Charlotte is very excited about all things Christmas.  Not just the presents, but everything (of course presents are discussed too).  But it has been fun to see completely wrap her head around the fact that this is a very special time of the year, just like I remembered it.

We had this paper advent calendar growing up that we reused year after year and I always liked getting up in the morning to open up the next day's window.  So I told Emily about that and last year she got this awesome felt advent calendar with 24 pockets and each day you take a new felt "ornament" out and put it on the felt tree.  And Charlotte comes down stairs and sees the calendar and the first thing she'll say to me is "Daddy it's day 11!" and she'll wait for me or Emily to come over to work the calendar with her.  It's a pretty nice way to start the day.  Or on mornings we all forget, it's a great way to start our post work/school afternoon together.

She loves the tree.  Emily brought the kids' table in their bedroom downstairs and put it next to the Christmas tree.  Charlotte is allowed to have her breakfast and snack there, and she'll just sit there looking at her tree and her Christmas stocking, eating.  Sometimes Happy joins her, sometimes she wants to sit in her high chair.

She loves Christmas music.  We have been listening to KOOL 108's Christmas music so much that Charltotte thinks it's a CD and not a radio station because we have heard each song they play at least ten 8712098123 times.   She makes up her own songs as kids do her age, and they are Christmas songs fused with some nonsense about Frozen.  But today she walked past me singing "and then we go KOOL 108 Christmas music time" and she did in the same tune KOOL 108 uses to announce itself.

She loves Christmas books. And Charlotte's personal librarian Suze has done a great job of keeping connected to Haps and Charlotte even though she can't be here with us this time.  She sent Charlotte some stickers, one sheet which is still untouched and a regular decoration at the dinner table.  And Charlotte used the other stickers to make holiday cards for decorations.  And then all on her own she made a card for Suze, but wants to me to add a message to Suze from Charlotte before I send it off.  We haven't found a good time to that because whenever I ask, Charlotte is busy coloring.

Anyway, two days ago Suze sent some Christmas books for Happy and Charlotte and immediately they were a HUGE hit.  Here they are when they first got them.  Note the homemade ribbon Charlotte is sporting.  She asked Emily to make that for her.

And the last few nights Charlotte has created her own agnostic manger to sleep in.  She always gets her stocking, which she treats like a doll, to sleep with, as well as the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas book from Suze (that poem was also a big part of our Christmas as a kid).  Then she gets her Rody bouncy horse we bought for her for physical therapy that she never once used in any physical way.  Only Rody isn't Rody anymore.  He's Rudolph.  And when I tuck the girls in I have to give Rudolph a kiss and then Charlotte makes sure he kisses me back.  And by that I mean she acts like the green reindeer that looks like a pony is licking me like a dog.  "Look Daddy.  Rudolph is kissing you like Pancho!"

So Rody didn't make the shot in the picture below, but there is Charlotte is in her manger.  Every night she lets the cat and book have half her bed.  Note the cat stocking has a matching homespun bow that Emily made at Charlotte's request.  Also, Charlotte is trying to make the exact same face that the cat is.  She came pretty close.  She has a bizarre knack to pretty much match any character's facial expression in a book.

Meanwhile Happy could care less couldn't care less could care less couldn't care less doesn't care about Christmas (sorry, it's an old Linguistics joke).  She's all like, "y'all do you're thing and I'll do mine and if we cross paths, that's cool.  I love you guys and all but I got stuff to do.  Speaking of which, I'm off to find a container, any container, full of stuff that I can dump on the floor.  This time make it super challenging so I REALLY have to earn it this time."

Well that reminds me.  There is one thing she loves about Christmas.  Pulling ornaments off the tree.  She's trying to train us to deal with it and we're trying to train her to stop doing it.

So far it's a stalemate in that regards.

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.

The World According to Charlotte, part 3

As has been well documented, Charlotte enjoys the ritual of shoveling snow and chopping ice. Whenever we get out of the car in the afternoon and head from the garage to the house, she will stop to either shovel or chop.

Our sidewalk in the backyard is basically a giant riverbed, so all the thaw runs to the sidewalk and then freezes when the sun goes down.  This is fun for Charlotte because we get to chop the ice and find water underneath.  But we've had some nasty coldspells (still!) so lately there has been nothing but ice almost all the way to the cement.

But last night's freeze was a gentle one, meaning today when we chopped the ice, I found about an inch of water underneath which Charlotte was happy to see.

So Charlotte looked down at the trench of standing water and said, "It's a Mississippi River."

Kind of, I guess.

If You Liked Icebreakers...

...then you'll LOVE Snow Shoveler.  Same cast.  Same director.  Same writers.  Get your popcorn ready.

Ice Breaker

Snow and ice mean two things to Charlotte: shoveling and chopping the ice.  Like father like daughter.  We took her out on a sled once but she is pretty happy helping shovel the snow and breaking the ice.  I can only hope she still enjoys these chores for the next 16 years of her life.

Crappy Unimaginative Book Spark Imagination In Child

A few months ago the art teacher at work came by my office and asked me for some manila folders.  I don't know how life is for teachers in other schools, but we pretty much have to buy all of our own supplies aside from computers and paper for copying and printing.  So it is a bigger favor than you'd expect for me to give her a stack manila folders.  I gave her a stack in the name of a happy workplace and as a thank you, the next day, she gave me a stack of Hello Kitty books for Charlotte.  And by "gave me," I mean unloaded on me yet another stack of random crap she has and is trying to get rid of.  Pretty good trade: I'll give you the trash I was about to take out for those folders you'll eventually need and bought with your own time and money.

So I brought the books home and didn't think much of it until.... Charlotte found them and fell in love with them.... and Emily and I quickly hated them.  I can allow for the text in the book to be horrible because the books are meant for emerging readers.  Like Emily says, a computer probably wrote them.  But a computer also drew them.  It is the crappy artwork that drives me batty.  And the art teacher gave me the bleeping books.  Irony.













Alas, the books remain.  And Charlotte continues to loop back to them and want to look at them nonstop for two or three days straight before moving on to the next step in her book cycle.  This morning, Emily and Charlotte read the timeless classic Hide-and-Seek six times while I was out running.  It is probably no coincidence she has insisted on wearing her Hello Kitty boots for the rest of the day.

Later Charlotte and I went to Seward Co-op which is still her favorite place on earth.  When we got home, Pancho wanted to go outside and Charlotte did not want to come inside.  So I left the two of them out there while I put the groceries away.  Five minutes later, Pancho and Charlotte were on the deck together.  I wanted to show how one of them could self-entertain and the other was co-dependent. I had this whole post in mind about dogs, toddlers, and how seeing the two of them together made me miss Adria.  We used to debate at what age a toddler becomes smarter than Pancho.  Anytime one of her grandchildren would exhibit a new skill she would ask me in a very self-assured tone, "So, now who is smarter?"  And I'd always find a way to show how Pancho was still smarter.  To see Charlotte talking away, playing independently, and co-dependent Pancho doing nothing but starting at the door, I was going to give a tip of the hat to Adria.  I was going to use the video to acknowledge that it is clear that Charlotte has surpassed Pancho's intelligence across the board.  It's okay Pancho, you're still smarter than the cats.

But then around 20 seconds into the video, something kind of funny happened.  Charlotte had no idea I was filming her.  I could here her saying  "Hide and seek.  Hide and seek" (I am not sure if this is audible in the clip below) before poking her head from one side of the support beam on the deck to the other, as if it were a tree, and saying "It is me."  The close observer will note that this is exactly what the stupid dog (and all the other stupid Hello Kitty friends) is doing in Hide and Seek.  This is the first time I've seen her act out a scene from a book.

And so the Hello Kitty books remain in our library.

Cripes.

Charlotte Is Unimpressed...

...with winter.

Charlotte and I ran a few errands today, ate at Smashburger, and baked a cake to reflect on Martin Luther King's legacy.  On the way in from our errands and Smashburger, I looked back and saw Charlotte had decided today was a great day to play in the backyard.

Ten below zero?  Dog poop and dog toys frozen to the ground?  Big deal.  She wanted to play in the backyard.  I let this nonsense go on for a few minutes before going out to get her.  She protested mildly but then when we got inside she said, "Brrrrrr! Cold outside!"  I think she saw the logic of coming inside.

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.

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.