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.