Conversations with Charlotte #43267

This weekend Charlotte and I were walking along the boulevard on West River Road which was fun for a lot of reasons.  We spent about 30 minutes at one of the boulders they have strewn along the boulevard.  In that time, Charlotte decided the boulder was a couch, an oven, a dog, and a bed, and she treated it accordingly.  Well, except for when she said she wanted to sleep on the bed because "it's nice and warm.  So comfortable."  I told her she would regret trying to night night on a boulder.

Finally we made our way back home.  Charlotte wanted to linger among the trees.  I wanted to get home because a lunch and a nap were in her near future.

ME: We walk in the grass or check it out, we can walk on the cow path.

CHARLOTTE: Let's go on a cow path.

ME: Okay it's over here.

CHARLOTTE: Mooooo.  It a cow path.  There's milk down there.

ME: Where?

CHARLOTTE (points to the ground):  It's under there.  The milk is under there.  Moooo.

Sometimes I have no idea what Charlotte is talking about.

Pen Pals

Little Nacho (nee Toonces) is fast becoming good friends with Charlotte.  Emily would even have to begrudgingly agree that Little Nacho is extremely patient and gentle with Charlotte.  In fact, both Nachos are, as is Pancho.  And Charlotte gets credit too, as she takes care to be pet each animal softly.  So far, only once have I had to get on her case about being too rough with a cat.  Normally she'll pet one of our animals and say, "soft and gentle" a few times.

Little Nacho has lately been very insistent about getting into the crib with Charlotte when Charlotte wakes up from her night of sleep or her nap.  And Charlotte is super happy to have Little Nacho in the crib with her.  One of them is always gently trying to snuggle up with the other.  It is very sweet to see.

Overheard, Exhibit I

Charlotte has been on a roll lately.

Yesterday as we were walking home from the playground, but were still within earshot of the playground, we could hear a toddler crying loudly.

Charlotte: It's a firetruck.  [imitates fire truck noise]

Overheard Exhibit H

Last night we went to Rusty Taco for dinner.  When I told Charlotte we were going to a restaurant for dinner she got excited, as per usual.  She responded by saying that we were going to get pizza, as if it were God's truth.  Wishful thinking.  

I told her we were getting tacos instead and she was totally fine with that as well... kind of.

As we were driving there, Charlotte was doing usual her stream of consciousness narrative from the back seat.  Most, but not all of it centered around Rusty Taco.  Just put this following paragraph on endless loop and you have our 15 minute drive to Rusty Taco with Charlotte summarized:

Go to a restaurant.  Mommy go to a restaurant.  Daddy go to a restaurant.  Charlotte go to a restaurant. I see a airplane.  Go to Rusty Taco together.  I see birdie.  Red light stop.  Go to Rusty Taco.  Eat a chicken.  Hi doggie.  Go to Rusty Pizza.

That's right.  About every 8th reference she made to Rusty Taco she changed to Rusty Pizza.  Way to keep the dream alive Charlotte.  But I think she moved on just fine.  Once we got there she completely devoured her taco and strawberries she brought (as an aside, only Charlotte can devour a meal and at the same time need 45 minutes to do so).    

Overheard Exhibit G

Today Charlotte and I were driving home from work/daycare.  A pick-up was in front of us as were driving down our alley and turned into its garage.  As it was turning Charlotte said, "That truck is hiding.  Peak a boo truck."

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.