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.

Caption contest

Overheard, Exhibit B

Get ready for the most gripping opening to a story ever.  Hold onto your hats, because here we go!

I have two belts.  One is brown and one is black.  Both are over ten years old.  Normally I wear my black belt because I wear black shoes to work.  But lately I've been on a brown dress shoes kick lately, so I have been wearing my brown belt a lot more freqently.

The end.  No not really.

Also, we have a brass jingle bell on one of our door knobs.  Either it is a Christmas decoration that we forgot to put away or.... well I have no idea why the jingle bell is there.  Emily?

Anyway, the brown belt features weathered leather, like you'd find on jingle bells, and a brass buckle.  Whenever I put on my brown belt or take it off, and Charlotte sees it, she will point to it and say, "Jingle belt."

And only my brown belt is the jingle belt.

That was a long way to go for that "kids say the darndest thing" moment but it was worth it, no?

Like, Ooops

Saturday afternoon Charlotte found a bag of dried apricots and kept on calling them her vitamins.  They are round, and they do have the same translucent quality of her gummy vitamins.  She walked around with them in her possession the rest of the afternoon and evening. At bedtime she insisted on taking them with her into her crib.  I agreed, as the apricots were closed with a twist tie and she had shown zero interest in eating them.  I thought it was funny that most kids want their teddy bear for bedtime, but Charlotte wants a bag of dried apricots.

Fast-forward to Sunday morning.  I was out running with some friends when Charlotte woke up.  So, fortunately for me, I was not first responder.  Emily walked in when she heard Charlotte blabbering away.  When she opened the door, Charlotte was standing up in her crib, held out an opened baggie, half-full of dried apricots, and said, "Vitamins!"

Emily said, "Did you eat some of those?" and Charlotte matter-of-factly said "yeah."

We have no idea when she ate the apriocots but it must have closer to bedtime than wake up time.  Let's just say that when Emily was done changing Charlotte's diaper and cleaning Charlotte up, an orange hue remained on her bum.

Like I said, glad I wasn't the first responder.

Self-Cleaning Oven

For the last few nights, Charlotte does her own bedtime routine.  She reads her books to herself in her own chair.  She sings her own lullibies. She runs to the top of the stairs to shout goodnight to Emily.  Then she runs to the crib and waits for me to put in the crib.  I just sit in the chair and watch, keeping her on track.

Here she is reading her books to herself.  Charlotte's cousin, Hannah, will notice that for her last book, Charlotte chose Maribelle, one of Charlotte's birthday presents from Hannah and her parents.

Overheard, exhibit A

Charlotte, talking about the cats.

Points to Nacho.  "That a big Nacho."  Points to Toonces.  "That a little Nacho."

Cats are weird.

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.