April 9th - Dinner With Justin & Holly

Tonight Justin & Holly came over for dinner. They brought yummy chicken and wild rice soup and bread and WINE! They are my favorite people! :)

We had a very fun and diverse night. We started out in the kitchen, the moved to the back yard {Charlotte HAD to swing!}, the dinner table, Charlotte’s room, the couch/floor, Charlotte’s room {for bedtime stories} then finally back to the couch! That was a lot of “running around” most of which we did to try and keep up with Charlotte. She has not gotten to see Justin or Holly for about two months and was a little shy at first but quickly got into the groove once Justin was willing to push her in the swing – mega pints on Charlotte’s scale! I have to note here for posterity’s sake that Charlotte asked Wayne to hold her purse – and he did! She recently started INSISTING that she NEEDS her purse when she goes out in the back yard but quickly tires of carrying it around. Needless to say Holly, Justin and I were all laughing SO HARD at this turn of events – Wayne, not so much.

Anyway, it was so nice to catch up with them and hear about their Vegas trip. They were sporting a fancy new camera – you know I grilled them about it, right? – so the pictures are ala Justin and Holly. Thanks guys, they turned out great! I think we are back on track with our dinners so we’ll get to see them again in the next few weeks if not before – yippee!

{Wayne: don’t you think I need a fancy camera, seriously these are great photos}

M&M: Easter Party

This morning Charlotte and I headed over to Maite & Cristiana’s house for the M&M Easter Party! Kristin & Maite very kindly hosted this party for the kids and what a great time we had!

Charlotte fell in LOVE with Cha-Cha’s (Christiana’s) play house. Maite is so creative the house even had flowers planted outside with a kid sized rake, table, chairs, etc. – but you know it was the phone Charlotte was most enthralled with! At one point I asked her who she was calling and she replied “Monkey Joe’s”….oh my! Charlotte spent a good bit of time playing with Daisy and they even jumped on the trampoline after a little coaxing on my part. I was surprised to find that she was scared of the trampoline but she was fine once she tried it.

Charlotte was not really interested in the crafts – to my disappointment – and only wanted to sticker her hands into the egg dye. Ack! Of course she reached right over the light pink and yellow cups to put her hand into the DARK blue. :{ Kristin & Maite planned an adorable egg hunt for the kids but just like at her school egg hunt she was mostly interested in taking advantage of the other kids distraction. I was encouraging her to look for eggs and she was interested getting a turn on the swing (or play house phone or slide), now that it was empty. When she did finally get into the egg hunt she was such a little brat. She would shake each egg, then open them – if they held stickers she just threw it to the ground and moved on to the next egg. I of course was scrambling to pick up after her… If the eggs had candy, well that went straight into her mouth. I can’t tell you how many time I JUST caught her before she put a foil covered chocolate egg in her mouth!!!!

Thanks again to Maite & Kristin – we had a wonderful time and it was so kind of you to have us!

Easter Morning

This morning we started our Easter celebration with Charlotte opening her basket from the Easter Bunny. The first thing she took out was a pair of bunny ears – she insisted Wayne wear them. He tried to turn the tables and get her to wear them but she resisted. It was a really funny power struggle with a lot of laughing.

Being the great dad he is, he promptly put them on, Charlotte was satisfied and went back to exploring her goodies. It so neat (and often frustrating) how determined she is sometimes.

In addition to play dough and candy filled eggs she also received two books and two DVDs (The Princess & The Frog and Up). Wayne and I are really looking forward to some new reading options at nap and bedtime. Even with her extensive book collection reading at least six books a day leads to a lot of overlap. Charlotte is not much into watching TV (unless it’s Yo Gabba Gabba, Jack’s Music Show or Olivia) so we think the DVD’s will be something for her to grow into. However, Wayne and I can’t wait to catch up on these movies as we missed them in the theater. ;) She loved the bubbles and play-dough tools and surprise, surprise; she can’t wait to go outside to play with them. We promised her we’d go outside when we go to Uncle Erik & Aunt Sancha’s house….later!

WPPC Easter Extravaganza

This morning Charlotte and I headed over to Winter Park Presbyterian Church for their annual Easter extravaganza. I say extravaganza because they offer a free pancake breakfast, a telling of the Easter Story, crafts, visits/pictures with the Easter Bunny and of course an (age divided) Easter Egg Hunt! The church very kindly invited the entire preschool to join in the fun – how nice!

I was really excited to take Charlotte and especially talked up meeting the Easter Bunny and the pancakes {she’d eat them every day if she could. Who would have guessed she’d like things with the work “cake” in them.} Unfortunately, all this week while Charlotte has been sick her sleeping/napping has been really inconsistent and this morning she slept in….figures. Part of me really wanted to wake her up {the part that was super excited to see her reactions to the festivities} but my rational sided prevailed and I let the poor baby catch up on her sleep. The church has some scheduling miscommunications so even though we should have been on time for the telling of the Easter Story, Egg Hunt and other festivities – we missed most of it!

They were really nice about everything {we weren’t the only ones who came after the big shebang} and set up more hunts for the kids who missed the first one. Charlotte’s egg hunting tactics were so funny – first Ducky HAD to be in her basket, then she needed to inspect each egg before she would put it in the basket. If the egg contained jewelry she put it on before continuing the hunt. If it had candy inside she ate the candy before moving on to the other eggs…her cheeks were full in no time flat. {Kind of a bummer since I was hoping to confiscate some of the candy…for her own good!} This makes for a cautious and deliberate egg hunt – how very much like Charlotte! I really think this is cute and am sure in the next few years we will see a more competitive technique….

The morning turned out to be much lower key than I’d expected but with Charlotte still in recovery mode this was probably for the best. She had a great time and even let the Easter Bunny give her a kiss!

PS – Photo shoot wise Charlotte really was not working with me…might have been all the candy filled eggs …but, Isn’t Charlotte’s outfit ADORABLE? Nanny surprised Charlotte with this super sweet dress and sandals for her Easter gift! You might be wondering what THE BEST PART is, other than the adorable kid wearing the outfit? Well, the he flowers are POCKETS! Love it, thank you Nanny!

Did You Know Ducky Can Swim…

Unfortunately, Charlotte picked up a viral infection this week and Monday night she went to bed with a 102 fever. Over the last four days her fever has jumped back in forth between 100 and 104.6 – scary times for newbie parents! Last night her fever peaked and ALMOST could not be kept down even with medicine. Wayne and I spent the night up with Charlotte trying to keep her cool, happy and hydrated – against her wishes. We were very close to taking her to the hospital but luckily she never quite reached the threshold and our Doctor recommended we wait it out…all night long!

Anyway, during these last few days Wayne and I have noticed an increase in Ducky’s role in our everyday lives. Starting Monday night at Monkey Joe's – Ducky HAD to go on every ride [usually we can get away with leaving him in the car] then he needed his own booster seat at dinner [and Charlotte argued he needed his own cup and plate…]. Charlotte has also started blaming Ducky when she does something she is not supposed to do or saying Ducky is scared when she hears a fire truck siren, and even telling us he has boo-boos and doesn’t feel well. Since Charlotte has spent most of her days lounging around, it will be no surprise to you that Duck also needed his own blanket, pillow, socks and MEDICINE? When we insisted she eat SOMETHING, Ducky took the lead there too. Apparently today during her visit to the doctor Ducky was being consoled with stickers and Charlotte telling him “No owies Ducky, no owies”.

With all that it should not have been a surprise to me that she wanted Ducky to take a bath with her tonight. Usually we can distract her from this idea or appease her by leaving Ducky on the counter in the bathroom. NOT TONIGHT – Ducky HAD to go swimming with Charlotte. I could feel an argument brewing and felt a little sorry for her (she is STILL feverish) so I told her Ducky had to wear a bathing suit {aka Ziploc bag}. She LOVED that idea and off we went…I took a few pictures of their bath. Charlotte really liked washing, rinsing and dunking him in the water but insisted the only toys she/he wanted to play with were the rubber duckies – so cute!

After the bath was over I asked Charlotte, as we do every night, if she wanted to be a butterfly or a frog {hooded towels}. “Charlotte butterfly, Ducky frog!”