Friday, April 13, 2012

Easter 2012

This was our fifth Easter in Chicago and yet it was the first we actually celebrated here. Our first year we went to Cleveland to visit Ben's aunt and uncle. The second year we went on a spontaneous road trip and drove south without looking at any maps or making any plans. We ended up in Louisville and eventually Nashville where I believe we ate BBQ for Easter. Then our third year we were in Austin visiting Ben's grandparents. Our fourth year we were in Ireland at a Catholic cathedral then restaurant with Ben's grandma. This year we hosted it at our place with 3 other families. We brought the dining room table outside in the sunny weather. Set up a kid's table so they could quickly eat and run around while we hung out. It was a lot of fun and relaxing... once I stopped running around cleaning, decorating, and cooking.

The weekend itself was really busy. Friday we had an Easter-themed playgroup and then Ben and I went and saw the Hunger Games that night. Then Saturday we went to a Cub's game for the day. When we woke up Sunday morning I realized we hadn't dyed eggs yet. Oops...
So at 7:30 that morning Charlotte hunted for her hidden basket, dyed eggs together, then went outside to hunt for them... after our neighbor went and hid them for us.
Good thing she's so young. She had no idea we were running around behind her back.
She was most thrilled about her princess paper dolls and "crotchet" (chocolate).
Isn't she darling?
Here she is hunting down her freshly dyed Easter eggs before we headed to church.

(I made that scrap skirt by the way)


And Ben actually had the ENTIRE WEEKEND OFF!
I don't remember the last time that happened...

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Charlotte update

I swear. I always wait and wait to blog and then regurgitate the last two months of our lives.

Charlotte is almost 2 1/2 now... which is so weird.
She's more interesting and hilarious than she's ever been.
She looooves to sing and dance. And she doesn't do either very small. She belts out songs (using A LOT of vibrato) that she knows, makes up, or in answering a question.

For example:
Me: "Hey, Charlotte. Would you like spaghetti or chicken tonight for dinner?"
Charlotte: "IIIIIIIII can't like chiiiiiiiickeeeeeen for dinner! Want pizzAAAAAA!"
(using her best operatic voice)
She wears or asks to wear a tutu or dress every day.
She asks if she can wear a tutu like "angweena boweena" (angelina ballerina).
Then proceeds to twirl and skip around the house and incorporates somersaults in her dance. She's quite graceful.
When she's 3 I'll put her in a little ballet class.
She says "can't" instead of don't.
For example:
"I can't like that samwich. Yuck!"
"I can't want to go to bed now."

-likes her toes and fingers painted daily.
-is FINALLY liking nursery.
-loves putting on my "makeups".
-goes on bird watching walks with Ben. We have 2 cardinals that live close by so they go out looking for them. Once I found one and pointed it out to her. She got excited and then said "No. Those are Charlotte's and daddy's birds."
Well, excuuuuse me!
She's spunky and sassy if you haven't caught on yet.
She knows all of her letters and about 3/4 of her letter sounds.
-loves to put on her Cubs baseball hat and play ball outside with Ben.
-is more snuggly now than she's ever been in her entire life.
-has a horrid temper. Doesn't hit or kick. But screams like a banshee. We're working on that...
-likes to snuggle her baby dolls. put them down for naps. take them on walks. and put them in time out.
-at night after we pray, read, and sing - she sits up in bed (in the dark) and reads a book to herself then sings herself to sleep. love it.

***
Our next door neighbor gave us a plot of her garden to plant some veggies in. Here I am putting my kid to work clearing it out to get ready for planting.
We have our own side yard, but our landlord won't let us plant anything...

***
Do you have a 5 o'clock slump?
I do.
Charlotte and I have ran our errands, gone to the library, played with friends, read books, snuggled, gone running, she's up from her nap... and then you look at the clock and it's only 5. Another two and a half hours until bedtime.
And I'm done.

This day (below) we threw that ladybug ball for almost an hour. She loved it.
And by the time we were done it was time for dinner and bed. Love it.