Charlotte May

Since we still can't upload pics in the usual way (grrrr), I've created a temporary work-around to show what we've been up to these past few months.

I'm going to focus on Charlotte today, since she's been growing leaps and bounds it seems. Here's a quick update on our little squirt:

In the past month she's gotten really good at animal noises. She can do a monkey, doggy, kitty cat, sea lion (my favorite), elephant, bee, cow, owl, snake, and lion. She's mastered "Mama" and "Dada" too - which basically gets her anything she wants. The conversations she has with us are often very serious, only we can't quite tell the gibberish apart from her real words. But she's getting there - it's almost as if we need to figure out her language, not the other way around.

She loves to pretend jump, which is adorable. Crouching down then stretching up really-really fast, arms flapping over and over. I'm pretty sure she thinks she's really doing it.

She's in love with her baby dolls. She likes to cover them with blankies (head to toe) then instruct everyone around her to "shhhhhhhh" so baby can sleep. She's meticulous about getting the blanket placement just so, and it often takes her more than a few tries to arrange it perfectly. She also gives the babies a bottle or spoons them some food. Once they wake up, naturally.

Our amazing eater has become a little pickier about what she's in the mood for, at the ripe old age of 18 months. She might turn her nose up at veggies one night, then clamor for more broccoli the next. She also seems to now hit a point during mealtime when she *finally* feels full and asks to be done. (This has been a welcome change since it used to be up to us to cut her off, otherwise she would have kept on eating and eating and eating.)

 

With all the warm weather we've been blessed with this winter, we're spending lots of afternoons at the park. Playing on the slide mostly, since it's her favorite. She also seems to enjoy getting friendly with the other kids by sidling up (so close she's only a couple inches away from their faces) then just staring into their uncertain eyes. And it's funny (well, not really) to see how the other kids handle what is clearly an invasion of their personal space. Some cry and call for their mom or dad, some sit there frozen and completely uncomfortable, and some take a swat at her. Doesn't seem to deter our little observer.

Obviously we spend a lot of time reminding her to be gentle and not crowd the other kids. But who wouldn't want to be super close to this cute face?! ;)