I Forgot about Shoes!

Charlotte's other favorite word is "shuss."  In fact, when she wants to go outside, she'll go find her "shuss" and bring them to one of us, plop down in one of our laps, and wait for us to put them on. She'll also hand me my shoes (the correct, matching pair) and gets somewhat agitated if I don't take my "shuss" off before I go in the house. "Shuss!" she'll cry until I pull off my shoes.

And for cute thing, part two (because sometimes being at work is hard, and I think about my cute baby and need to write it down):

Charlotte is turning out to be very helpful.  We came back from grocery shopping last night, and Charlotte helped by trying to put the groceries away, including sticking a box of crackers in the freezer.

We also found her trying to stick one of her shoes in the diaper pail.  Good thing we caught her in the act, because we found two more down there.

A Whole Year and a Half!

Charlotte is 18 months old today.  I don't know why, but these six months have really flown by. It seems like only yesterday that we had her first birthday party, and now we're halfway to her second.  It also means that we've been living in our house for over six months, which is even harder to believe.  Charlotte really just gets more fun by the day.  I know I keep saying this, but every new stage has been great.

Charlotte's 18 month appointment was on Friday.  Here are the obligatory stats:

Weight: 24 lbs - 51st percentile

Height: 32.5 inches - 77th percentile

Head Circumference: large - 79-ish percentile

The doctor said she's perfect and growing just as she should be.

We had such a fun weekend.  Our good friends Kristen and Todd came over from the Bay Area and stayed with us.  We cooked a Christmas goose, which was good, but not as spectacular as I'd hoped.  I think it was because we didn't have a sauce or gravy to pour over the gamey meat.  Anyway, Charlotte has turned into a little mimic.  Todd and Kristen were both standing up against a wall, and Charlotte walked over to them and stood between them.  We got a great video of Kristen and Todd running up to walls, only to have Charlotte run after them shortly afterwards and stand in a nearby spot along the wall.  Here is a picture taken right before bedtime, as a sneak peek of the hilarity (Chris was laughing so hard while taking the video that I know the camera is shaking).

 Charlotte's verbal vocabulary is progressing at a faster and faster pace.  She still doesn't talk as much as I guess I expect her to, but her doctor wasn't concerned, since she clearly speaks well over the six they expect at this stage.  I've lost count, but I think we're at about 30 words, including a good 10 animal sounds.  Charlotte's favorite words are ball, cheese, cup, more, pain (bread in French), nigh-nigh, puppeh (puppy), and all gone.  Her receptive language is amazing, which makes me suddenly much more conscious of what we're saying.

Christmastime has been so much fun.  Charlotte loves turning on the Christmas tree lights; she'll try to get them on and say "ooooh" when they turn on.  She also loves making this little mechanized Snoopy play Christmas music, finding candy canes on the tree, eating her daily piece of chocolate from the Advent calendar, and dancing to Christmas (well, all) music and then shouting "yay" when the song ends.

Her new favorite bedtime ritual is putting Chris and me to sleep.  She pulls her blankets through the slats of the crib, proceeds to make us lie down, and then very meticulously spreads out the blankets on top of us.  Sometimes she even catches us off guard and tries to stick a pacifier in our mouths.


First, she spreads the blanket over Daddy,

 

Then Charlotte lies down on top of Daddy and goes "nigh-nigh" herself.

 

Then she goes through the same process with Mommy, usually by pushing me over, so I'm lying on my side.

 Charlotte really has developed a nurturing side.  Along with wrapping up her stuffed animals and having them go nigh-nigh, she loves babies.  Baby Samantha, Charlotte's birthday buddy, was over and Charlotte tried to put Sam's pacifier in her mouth.  She also brought over toys she thought she might want to play with.  I'm wondering whether she needs some baby dolls for Christmas? When I asked Chris, he said she needs more blocks.


Trying to scale her crib - luckily, she really hasn't tried getting out of her crib yet.

I was about to write how she continues to sleep like a dream, but right now I can hear her crying from her crib.  This happens about once a week or so. I take her out of her crib, bring her downstairs, and let her sit with me on the couch until she's calmed down enough to go to bed.  But really, she generally sleeps really well, and even if we sometimes keep her up past her bedtime, she'll actually let us sleep in.  For example, last night, she had no problem going to sleep, despite loud noises downstairs.  And she didn't wake up until 8:30, which was much appreciated by everyone (even me, who despite staying up late, can't sleep in past 7:30; at least I got to read in bed).
She's just the sweetest, most fun girl ever. We are so, so lucky.

We love you, baby little girl Charlotte.

Bullet Points

• We wound up using the picture of the three of us with Santa for the Christmas card. It's the only decent picture of us, so I thought why not?
• My mom came up last weekend, and Chris and I spent a great night in Squaw Valley with our friends.  We had a great meal and a lot of great wine.  There is an excellent wine bar in the Village at Squaw Valley; Chris couldn't stop raving about it.
• Chris and I shared a lift ticket; I was supposed to ski the entire afternoon, but the weather was so bad and the visibility so poor that we stopped early.  Instead, we enjoyed the heated outdoor pool and Jacuzzis.
• Santa visits a different neighborhood in Folsom each night; he hits our neighborhood is tomorrow. I'm not sure exactly when he'll stop by on his firetruck sleigh, but I've been told that with the sirens and lights, it's hard to miss.  It will be another great opportunity to see those neighbors we met on Halloween.
• Daycare continues to be great. When I pick Charlotte up in the evening, she sees me and runs the other direction.  Miss D offers up babysitting in the evenings and weekends, so last Tuesday, we went out for dinner just the two of us.  I think we'll be utilizing her again as I turn the big 3-0 in three weeks!
• We got Charlotte a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe (you know, the red and yellow Flintstone-type car).  She loved playing with it at the old daycare.  We tried to put it together during naptime, but the plastic doens't snap in exactly right in places, rendering it completely useless. I can't wait to call them tomorrow morning. You'd think that after 30 years of having this car (we bought the 30th anniversary edition), they'd have the manufacturing down.  Poor Chris burst blood vessels in his hand from trying to jam the plastic sides into the plastic roof. Grr.
• Okay, and because blogs are meant for oversharing, we come to the disgusting parts of child-rearing.  Charlotte went down for a nap this afternoon and about half an hour in, she started wailing.  I went into her room to see what was the matter, and I smelled something not-so-nice.  I grabbed her out of the crib and put her on the changing table. She's still crying, which is unusual, as she usually stops right when you get her out of the crib.  I look down and see it all over her hands and her shirt. Gross! Apparently, she decided to stick her hands down her diaper. Awesome.  I had to wash all of her blankets and her sheets. Then I went outside to tell Chris all about it, only to have him point out that Charlotte got the crap over my sweater. The joys of parenthood.
• And to end on a high note, Charlotte does such fun things these days.  She loves to pretend.  She wraps her stuffed animals in blankets and tells them "Nigh-nigh" (Good night).  She also learned the word "hush" from Goodnight, Moon.  So she'll talk really, really loudly and then stick her finger up her nose and say "hush."  Charlotte loves to play Hide and Go Seek.  I'll count to three, I'll go hide and then she'll come and find me and laugh hysterically.  And she likes to count - onne, chuu, tree... Too cute.