Bear Friends

Charlotte's into a lot of things that never really interested Emily. She likes broccoli - green beans - peas. And bears. She loves bears. It started with these vintage teddy bears that Matt and I saved from our childhoods. (Not sure they can really be considered "vintage" at 30 years old, but that sounds like an awfully long time to me...) They've been living on a nursery room shelf since Emily was born, and she never paid them the slightest bit of attention.

But Charlotte loves them. She longs for them. When we get her up from a nap, she reaches out and whines for them. She points and grunts and lunges for them. And when we give in and bring her one, that is not enough. Oh no, that is not enough. She wants them ALL.

To honor her obsession, we've decided she'll be a teddy bear for Halloween this year - since she didn't have much say in what she was last year :)

Here are a few pics from a while back, when she got to play with her friends for a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

At one point she decided to exile them all : : : and then remorse set in.

 

Reunited - and it feels so good!

Bye Bye

Here's a peek into our summertime morning routine. As you can imagine, the view from the street was even more adorable. But this one's easier to capture with a camera.



Every morning Emily and Charlotte would race to the kitchen window and wave bye-bye as Daddy headed off to work. (Throughout the day, Charlotte would get so excited when she heard a garage door opening, she'd waddle over as quickly as she could thinking Daddy's home. And most of the time it was only our neighbor's garage. Fortunately, she got almost as much satisfaction out of waving to them.)

Side note: a couple months ago Matt started occasionally taking side streets to get to work instead of the highway, and every single morning he did Emily would think he'd lost his marbles because he was going up our street instead of down it. Nothing gets by her. Nothing.

 

 

 

Jumping & Laughing

Charlotte's very own jumping sister - now this is entertainment!

Preschool Days

Emily started preschool this week <sniff, sniff>. The morning of her first day, Matt and Charlotte stayed home while I took her over because we expected her to have a hard time saying good-bye. She tends to be clingy in new situations and around other kids, so I'd sorta been dreading this drop off for days.

Sarah, her head teacher, greeted us as we arrived and then offered to give us some space to read books before I left. Made sense - have Em get acclimated before she was on her own. Em, however, had different plans. After taking off her shoes she asked to explore, and Sarah said she'd have to say "bye" to me before doing that, so she again suggested we read a book. But Em was insistent and she happily kissed and hugged me before yelling "Bye Mommy!" as she and Sarah scampered off. No drama, no clinginess.

Wait, what?!?!? Never in a million years did I expect her to leave me without the slightest hesitation. I was in total shock. Actually, I was thrilled. Since I'd experienced the feeling of leaving her when she didn't want to be left behind, it was such a relief to not have to do that again. I was sad too. Sad Emily's growing up. Sad she's going to experience new things that I wouldn't be there to see. But I was also proud. Proud she was so ready to start this new chapter. Proud she didn't flinch saying goodbye to me. Proud she is such a brave girl.

I got a midday call that afternoon with an update on how she was doing and Sarah's first words were, "Emily is a total pleasure..." She went on to say how engaged, interested, and well-behaved Em was. She said her language skills are great, and she's really good at expressing her thoughts/needs. During "circle time" everyone had to say their name, spell it (if they could), then name and act out their favorite animal. Em spelled her name (yay!) and said her favorite animal is an elephant. Apparently Em found all the kids' animal actions hilarious too. Sarah summed up by saying she can see Emily is a very confident and fun little girl. My heart nearly burst hearing how well she was doing. SO proud.

Here are the pics we took the morning of her first day. She was very excited and could barely stand still, so most of the shots are blurry from all her bouncing.

(Full disclosure: Since my creativity peaks around times of change, on her first day she donned a dress I'd made along with an oilcloth backpack I'd sewn. Her hair was pulled back by a barrette I'd fashioned and her mermaid sleeping bag was tucked away in a butterfly adorned pillowcase. I know I know, I may have gone a bit overboard with these handmade touches, but it calms me to leave my mark on all the things she'll be surrounded by when I can't be there.)

 

 

And since I'm writing this on her 3rd day of school, I'll mention that the midday call I got from Sarah today started with, "I just love Emily..."   So do we, Sarah, so do we.

Bottle Time

Seems I became a little redundant last week, thanks to a hands-on big sister.

 

 

Zoo Day

Our little family of 4 went to the zoo over the weekend, and for once it was the perfect weather. Despite the lack of pics, we saw giraffes, zebras, an anteater and bob cat, kangaroos, polar bears, pelicans, turtles, and a wild skunk.

So this skunk. We spied him just wandering around the paths in between exhibits, meaning he wasn't a trapped resident of the zoo but rather an at-will dweller. Matt and I were quite surprised to see him so close, and for the rest of our visit Em kept going "I've never seen a real skunk before. That was the first time I've ever seen one" over and over. He might have been the highlight of the day. We were a little worried about spooking him (since we don't stock tomato juice in our pantry), so we didn't snap any pics.

Here's what we did capture:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was our first trip since Charlie's been walking, so she was ALL over the place. We let her run around the petting zoo the most, and "run" is not an exaggeration. She was intent on catching something. She had her eye on a goose for a while, but he was too fast for her. Then she found an alpaca, but he was too tall. Finally she got to pet a sheep, but I think she had mixed feelings about it. Riding the pretend bull seemed to make her happiest. Em opted for a bunny on the carousel. 

 

 

I have a feeling we'll be back soon!

Books books books

We have an abundance of books, so it's nice to know the girls enjoy looking through them. And it's especially fun to see them reading together.

When Emily was Charlotte's age, she loved books with animals, and Ten Apples Up on Top was her absolute favorite. Charlotte, on the other hand, loves books about food (surprise::surprise), babies, and teddy bears. Funny how different their interests are, even at 1. The one book that's clearly a favorite for both is I Am a Bunny.

Nowadays, the books Emily gravitates toward are about the ocean, fish, mermaids, jolly octopi and an occasional taco-eating dragon. We'll have to wait and see about Charlotte!

 

Hugs

Charlotte started giving hugs upon request this week. There's nothing sweeter, in our book.