Happy 3rd Birthday Maya

This morning Wayne, Charlotte and I headed over to My Gym in Lake Mary to celebrate Miss Maya’s 3^rd Birthday.  Maya and her Mommy are friends from Mommy & Me and the girls have been taking ballet together recently.

What a SUPER FUN party!  The kids had free reign of the gym…were bouncing off the walls with excitement and the result was a feeling of being trapped inside a monkey cage!  :)  They hopped on trampolines, played with (under and over) a hot air balloon silk, flung themselves into the ball pit, swung on a rope swing, walked the balance beam, dangled on uneven bars… and on and on.   

The party was a BLAST for the kids AND for the parents to watch.  

 

Charlotte really got into the spirit of the party and was laughing so much and, well really squealing with exhilaration.  She surprised me by literally jumping at the chance to ride the rope swing.  It runs the length of the gym and goes pretty fast.  I was sure Charlotte would just want to sit and watch but Wayne says she jumped up and was so excited to ride.  Even with it going really fast she had a smile and held on (T-I-G-H-T) all by herself.  We are so proud of her!!!

Miss Maya was so adorable and like all the kids was just having a BLAST.  She always has a sweet little smile and today was no exception!   

Happy Birthday Maya, thanks for having us! 

Just Call Her…Mama

This afternoon Charlotte and I spent some time in her room.  She was “baking’ and I was pulling out the 2T size clothing  out of her dresser drawers.  (WAY too small now and I might need to pull out 3T soon too!)  The entire time she kept me laughing because Charlotte sounded like such an adult puttering around looking for things and mumbling to herself.  I kept up a running dialogue with her about what she was doing.  “Charlotte, don’t forget to use a potholder”, “Maybe that could use some salt”, “Wow - that sounds yummy”, etc.  As my sorting came to a close she pounced on me…

“Mama, I’m gonna make you some gingerbread cookies cuz’ you didn’t eat your lunch!”  She pulls out her baking sheet – good so far – and adds two bowls with things like a potato, hunk of cheese, loaf of bread!  For posterity I should mention that I HAD eaten my lunch…SHE had tried to eat it too!  :)      

“You sit right there, here’s your fork, do you want me to cut it for you…I’ll cut it for you!”  I tell her that I am a big girl and can {pretend to} cut it myself – SHE LITERALLY DOES A SLOW TURN from the kitchen sink and says “You are not as big as me!”  I SWARE I have NEVER said that to her before…where does she get this stuff!

“Mommy, SIT DOWN – you have to sit down at breakfast”

“I’m gonna make your lunch for … school.  See, here is your cow milk.  You can have one jelly sandwich – NO COOKIES.”  I swear she YELLED at me about a cookie I didn’t even ask for….sigh!

“Mama, Mama, MAMA…um, Mama…he, he… I forgot!?! 

Good girl, Mama”

“Close up your lunchbox, it’s goin’ in the fridge right this minute!”  Proceeds to put it in her oven, then catches herself with a laugh and puts it in her fridge… “Oh, you gonna need a drink!”  Then she got me some water from her faucet and puts it in the fridge too.  (presumably for lunch tomorrow)

“You need to do what I say, Mama! Ok, ok … TIME OUT!”  “Do you know what (you did wrong), two minutes (in time out)!”  I mean, really…I was just eating my hunk of cheese with a spoon….. what did I do?

Obviously it was a fun afternoon and I am just including the wacky things she said to me but man, it’s like she is already a teenager!  Her adorable outfit for the afternoon included a red beaded necklace she was wearing under her dress and another pair of legwarmers (besides what are on her arms) under her green pants.  All the clothes were stolen with glee from the work I was doing to clean up her dresser!  Okay, I admit I thought it was cute and helped with the zipper and bow!

Let me just take a minute here to note that I am fascinated by the fact that Charlotte calls me so many variations of mommy.  I guess if we have taught her to call me anything it would be Mommy but somewhere along the line she started in with Mom – which freaked me out because my two year old is instantly transformed into a 15 year old.  Then, in the last 3 months or so (insert that she has TRIED to call Wayne and I BOTH by our first names…not gonna work, we refuse to acknowledge her!)  she calls me mostly Mama.  Not sure where it’s coming from: what friend, book or TV show but it’s really cute!  It is so cheesy to relate it this way but frankly, I am just glad she calls for me at all especially since she has really shown a preference for Wayne for the last year or so.  I think the tide (that I have not so patiently been waiting out) is finally turning in my direction al little bit!  I’m thrilled! 

Playing (& Eating) With Colors

Tonight Charlotte asked if we could play a game before we read stories.  Thinking quick and with dessert on my mind I told her we could play color sorting!  I happen to have a stash of Sixlets candies in my baking pantry so we grabbed those and some small colored bowls and were off…

We started doing straight color sorting – orange, red, green.  Then we each choose a color and sorted only those colors.  Then we tried to show her how to make patterns but that really did not interest her – at that point all she wanted to do was EAT as many as she could fit in her mouth.  :)

 

Wayne came up with a great idea to have Charlotte find things in her room that were green, red and orange.  She did a really good job with this and we could tell she liked the adventure of looking for things.  At one point I told her that I was going to give her some clues to find something that was orange.  We went through all kinds of clues: it was orange AND white, fluffy, pretty big, polka dot…she was so excited when she discovered what I was talking about was her orange pillow.  Charlotte jumped up on her bed, grabbed it and started waving it around. 

Finally, we turned her attention to cleaning up her room and found one of Charlotte’s spoons from her play kitchen.  With that discovery Charlotte started using the spoon to scoop Sixlets from one bowl to the other.  Sometimes we had her do this trying to fill the spoon up, other times we challenged her to do it one at a time. 

It’s funny how a made up game on the fly can turn into something educational AND fun!  Plus she got to eat A LOT of candy…what’s not to like.

Then it was story time….

Giddy Up Ducky

Tonight after dinner, while Wayne and I were still sitting at the dinner table talking, Charlotte decided she wanted to take a ride on her rocking horse.  After a while we looked over and she had Ducky (now known sometimes as Lucy) riding the horse and she was telling him/her to “Hold On, Hold On”.  She then took the bridle and dragged him/her around the kitchen for a ride.  Every once in a while Charlotte would stop to adjust Ducky and tell him/her again to “Hold On”!  It was too cute.

You may notice the bandage Charlotte has on her knee.  Yesterday she fell (while running away from Nanny – when Charlotte was supposed to be walking WITH Nanny!!!!) pretty badly and ended up with some scrapes and her first real injury, a skinned knee.  She has been whiny and milking it a little but also pretty brave considering this is new to her.  Last night after Wayne cleaned her knee up with some hydrogen peroxide, she told us it was “stinging” but didn’t cry….then anyway.