Craftiness For Dessert

Most nights, after dinner and before Charlotte’s bath, we clear the dinner plates and delve into Charlotte’s art supplies. Whether it’s coloring with crayons, drawing with chalk or making something with play-dough it’s a fun time for all of us. We do this so often that we just pile the supplies into a basket that we leave on the dinner table 24-7. (It’s also really great for me to be able to keep an eye on Charlotte when she is feeling creative and I need to be in the kitchen cooking/cleaning/baking) Charlotte is the director and she decides what we are going to play with and then lets us know when she is ready to move onto the next creative medium. She will also tell us which coloring books and color chalk/crayons we can use - I think she likes being in charge.

Anyway, the reason I decided to do a post on this everyday “event” is that tonight is just struck me how much we ALL enjoy this creative time. Please note on the picture that Wayne is as much into coloring Oscar The Grouch as Charlotte is with her Thanksgiving themed coloring book. I have to admit that I was going to town coloring my Christmas elves too!
Tonight Charlotte insisted that she NEEDED to draw a picture for “Uncle” Kevin to “make him happy”. So sweet! In the picture you can see Wayne on the phone; he is calling Kevin because Charlotte wanted to tell Kevin about the picture she drew him. His picture is the one you can see right next to Charlotte’s elbow.

As a side note I have to say that I am really amazed by how much Charlotte has developed with her coloring and drawing over that past, I guess, six months. Now she really uses a lot of colors and “fills” the entire page instead of the more sparse pictures she was doing just a few months ago. It’s so neat to see her skills and interests develop.

Charlotte Reading

This afternoon while I was moving through the day doing chores, I noticed my “shadow” was missing. I could hear Charlotte talking but she was not underfoot anymore. I poked my head into her bedroom and caught her “reading”. She likes to narrate her books based on the pictures and what she remembers of the stories – it’s really cute. I LOVE that she is holding the book “out” like we do sometimes when we are reading to her and she is not in our laps. So sweet!

Charlotte's First Ballet Class

Tonight was Charlotte’s first night of Tu Tu Twos ballet class at the Centre for Dance and Performing Arts in Winter Garden. The studio is nice enough to offer free classes for two year olds. Since Charlotte loves to dance, the class is free and so many of her friends are also in the class I thought it would be a great introduction for her. They started off class by making little hearts on the studio floor with pink chalk and telling the girls to “find a heart” to sit on. We are really not supposed to take pictures of the kids IN class but luckily my friend, Melanie, was able to get a quick shot of Charlotte and her daughter (Miss Maya) right before class started.

This first night was a little hectic as there are at least 12 other girls in her class and that is a lot of toddlers and parents/grandparents/siblings in a small space. Hopefully things will settle down as the classes go on. Charlotte didn't cry when I left so I took that as a good sign that she was interested in checking the class out. She really seemed to like the class and was funny when I asked her what she did, did she dance? “No Mommy, I learned A dance” okay, still in the dark here but she was really adamant so I left it at that.

I really wish I had taken pictures of Charlotte trying on her dance clothes last night – she was in seventh heaven. She especially liked the leotards that had skirts and would run up to her mirror, and turn this way and that, checking herself out! Really funny…up until we needed to trade the leotards and ballet slippers for pajamas!

Lazy Summer Days

For the record, Loki has the easiest life!
He was sleeping on the back this chair (in the middle of our bustling house) for TWO hours. Charlotte talked to him, yelled at him and even poked him (her version of playful “petting”) a few times and he still didn’t wake up!!!

Yummy Color Sorting

Today I planned for Charlotte to have a special dessert after lunch, and made her work for it a bit: M&M Color Sorting! Everyday Charlotte amazes us with the new words she uses (usually in context), her daredevil feats or the details she remembers but for some reason colors escape her. She is doing great with pronouncing the names of the colors and knowing that those names are for colors but does not really seem to have picked up which name goes with which color. Her default answer is always “yellow”.

We have been trying to work with her on colors recently and I thought this little game might have just the right kind of motivation! She started with a handful of M&Ms (specific colors pre-chosen) to go with matching bowls I even added a few brown M&Ms to throw her off. Once I told her she could eat the M&Ms after she sorted them into the color bowls (and showed her what I meant) …she worked quickly!

I have to say that hours later I am still surprised by how well she did, only a few were misdirected and those were red with orange or vice-a-versa. I really thought the brown M&Ms would throw her off but she just looked at them for a minute then gave them to me, Thank You Charlotte! She did have a lot of trouble with identifying the right color/name combination and only got the hang of it at the end. Looks like we have a lot of work to do so I am sure she will enjoy the dessert in the future.