Charlotte updates

This past week I had a parent/teacher conference with Charlotte's teachers and Charlotte had her 1-year appt so lots to update!  Charlotte really does have teachers- her primary has a Bachelor's and is working on his Master's and the head teacher in the room has her degree as well!  I cannot say enough great things about Applewood. It is just an amazing place. Anyway, I met with Matt and Elena on Tuesday and they had such wonderful things to say about Charlotte.  They also make a scrapbook for each child in the room so I got to look through about 50 pages of photos and notes about Charlotte and her day. If I have to work, this is the next best thing. Here are some pieces they shared with me:

-Charlotte loves to interact with all of the other children/babies but has taken a special liking to Mason, a 6month old. She often walks over to him and waves at him, pats his belly and he just smiles and smiles at her. 

-she loves the sensory table and loves to paint or play with playdough. The nice thing is that the playdough is homemade and isn't toxic! : )

-she soothes herself to sleep for nap. What?! Who is this child and what have you done with my Charlotte?

-she loves, loves, LOVES music (this we know) which delights her teacher Matt because that is a personal love of his.  She bops along to the radio, classical music, whatever. 

Charlotte has yet to have a problem with separation anxiety and leaving me or Brendan while we go to work while she is Applewood. This is amazing to me but I know she is in good hands.

Today Charlotte and I went to her 1 year appt. It went really well. Short story (no pun intended)- she is in the 10th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight.   She was born only 18 inches long so we suspect she will be short all of her life! Oh well!  Other than that, Charlotte got her MMR, Hep A, and Chicken Pox vaccines. It is still amazing to me that Cole and Charlotte will never get Chicken Pox. It seemed like a rite of passage to go through when i was a child! I remember I got Chicken Pox when my family was on vaca in Montana. I still have a small scar on my forehead from this virus!  Anyway, the doctor and I also talked about Charlotte and her lack of sleeping by herself and she was actually completely supportive of me! Love it! She explained to me that she breastfed 2 of her 3 children until they were 15 months and she had each of them in the bed with her until then as well too. She said it is hard to try to get them in their bed of course at that point because for her, her daughter would yell- "Help me, Mommy! A little heartbreaking to be sure! She told me that she was really glad I had nursed Charlotte for the year and to let go when I was ready because it was just fine.  Everything else with Charlotte checks out! She's starting to formulate words and expresses herself just fine.  

Bring on toddler time!

Why I should not watch Lost and try to multitask

Last night while watching Lost I tried to bake cookies and update the blog. Not a good idea! I undercooked some of the cookies and I think I set a record for the number of spelling errors in a blog. The show is dangerous. It sucks me in but I love it! And the cookies came out scrumptous anyway. : )

Last weekend we visited the Schwinns and headed out to Harvard's Natural History Museum. This place is fantastic and who would have known it existed- it's not really posted and just looks like another academic building. It has room after room of all of these stuffed animals (not the plushy kind!) and dino bones. The kids could run around and be loud and love all of the different animals. It was great. Charlotte, who is walking around just fine now, was loving being able to walk everywhere and just kept talking and pointing at everything. Cole was a nut and ran around with Gavin looking at everything as well. His definite highlight was being able to hold dinosaur bones. This museum was amazing and their collection was fantastic- it was Harvard afterall!

Charlotte enjoyed waving "hi" to the triceratops.

Gavin and Cole make a new friend, briefly anyway.

Our second 1st birthday party

I have to say this 1st birthday party was a lot less stressful than Cole's was. I didn't go overboard on preparing food and I was smarter on what types of food I did provide (less of the type that I had to do detail prep work). Also, I actually took people up on their offers to make food for the party (Thank you Mom and Amanda!).  I know- what did they do with the real Kelly, right?! Well, I learned to just let go a little bit and it makes everything go much smoother!  We planned the party for mid afternoon, thinking Charlotte would have had two naps by the party time but in fact she only got one good nap in the morning and so the happy smiles (smirk) in the above picture was MIA during the party.  She was SO tired during the party and very overwhelmed at all of the people even though she knew everyone there.  It was a nice party, nonetheless and I enjoyed myself, as did Cole and Brendan.  Next year Charlotte will enjoy it a bit more!

Mom Sevin made THE most beautifully decorated cake-- even outdoing herself from when she made Cole's 1st birthday cake.  It was a beautiful cake and I felt badly cutting into it!

Cole and Cameron loved eating some of the lollipops from the cake! Olivia looks on as if to say, "hey what do you boys have there?"

I called Cole and Caden the opposite twins. Opposite colored shirts and the brown and blonde hair.

I LOVE this photo of Brendan and Charlotte even if she is not smiling.

Mom? When can I be done? Seriously?

Cole and Cameron opened Charlotte's presents for her while she looked on from the comfort of my lap.  Again so different than Cole. He was equally as tired during his 1st birthday party (having refused a nap all day that day) and instead was really silly.  I have to admit I like the snuggly part about Charlotte! : )

Charlotte liked the cake but loved the lollipop a bit more!

Look at the size of cake of Cole's! And he finished the whole thing. Now I know why he is able to maintain his weight....

Uh, Grandpa- stay away from my lolli....

The lollipop literally started to melt in her fingers because she would not let go (until I pried it loose!)

At the end of the day, the two of them kept going. It took me a hour to put Charlotte to bed because she was so overtired! Cole also was tired but kept getting up. Lots of great excitement!

Charlotte's first birthday

We all stayed home for Charlotte's birthday. Well, we didn't go to daycare or work on the 16th. But we did have an excursion during the day! We originally were going to go to the Children's Museum in Boston but it was FREEZING and we did not feel like walking through the city on a day like that.  We did set off for Natick, MA to visit the American Girl doll store to buy Charlotte a doll for her birthday. Brendan and I have been talking about her first bday present for some time and we wanted to get some kind of collectible doll for her to enjoy later on. We first thought maybe a Madame Alexander doll and then I found the 2008 AG doll and I loved it. Unfortunately we didn't act fast enough to buy the 2008 AG doll before it sold out. The AG store is literally doll heaven.  They have a doll salon (crazy, right?) and two floors of dolls. It was fantastic. Brendan and I ultimately decided on purchasing the Bitty Baby twins for Charlotte which are beautiful dolls that she can also play with sooner than she would if she had one of the girl of the year dolls.  I can't wait for Charlotte to grow older so we can go back and enjoy the store together! : )  The Natick Mall is very impressive as well-- lots of wonderful stores (Hanna Andersen!!  Nordstrom!!  Tiffany's!!) and I think I'll be back there soon for a nice shopping day with my BFF. : ) We didn't go into any of the stores while we were down on Charlotte's birthday as after all, it wasn't my birthday for me to celebrate! 

Robyn, Gavin, and Morgan called Charlotte first thing in the morning to sing her Happy Birthday!  Charlotte couldn't wait to hold the phone and listen. She bopped along while they sang! It was so cute.

Charlotte had her favorite for bfast- pancakes!  She gobbled them up.  

This is was taken while waiting for cake! Love the smile!

After many years, I finally attempted my great-grandmother Luptak's Czechoslovakian chocolate frosting. It is so rich and wonderful and you can only truly enjoy it if you love chocolate.   The frosting takes 3 hours to make and you have to be patient or it won't come out right!  I also made the chiffon cake that my Mom has always made with the frosting. It is so good.  I last attempted this cake/frosting when I was 15, for my Mum's birthday. It came out horrible. Now, I know just a teeny bit more about cooking (for those of you who know me-- I LOVE to bake and cook) and the frosting/cake came out perfect! 

This was Charlotte's first taste of cake and ice cream! She loved it, although she loved the frosting a bit more. She managed to eat all of the frosting and left most of the cake which is exactly what Cole did at her age too.

She especially loved it when I spoon fed her more frosting!

Brendan and his little girl!  We love you Charlotte! This past year has been wonderful beyond imagine!

Charlotte is growing up and is such a joy!  She actually loves daycare (or "school" as we call it) and we've been told she is quite the little mama! She loves to take care of the little babies, often when they cry, she'll toddle on over to them and try to hold their hands. So cute!  Charlotte is a giggler and loving walking now.  Cole is a constant source of entertainment for her and she loves to sit and sort things out, like taking things in and out of boxes and taking the cap off of containers and putting them back on. : )  She still will not sit and read stories and will not sleep well, but that will come with time. One thing I've realized with the second  child is just to take things as they come.  And I am loving each day with each of my children! 

Pics of the party to come soon!

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

As of 3:45 am this morning Charlotte is now a 1 year old.  This is a 12 minute photo montage of the past year. If you can sit through it, enjoy!!!

Not Me Monday!

Ok, I started it last Monday and I have to continue! : ) So, in line with mycharmingkids.net, I have to report events that really did NOT happen in my life. Because if they really happened, I wouldn't tell you, my wonderful blogging community (all three of you! ha!).  

This past week I really would not be listening to the radio on the way home from work and certainly would not find myself bopping along to the American Girl radio commercial. What?! Seriously it is like a cheerleading chant..... if I did do this, I really would not also start singing along.  Nope!

I would come home one day and feeling chilled to the bone, turn on the pellet stove to one of the highest setting, turn on the oil heat upstairs to 70 and the TV room to 68 and turn them up again after Brendan turned them back down.  Wouldn't do it! I realize that heat actually  costs money! : )

I really would not share my bed with my daughter for the better part of the last year.  Would not keep putting off placing her in her own bed and certainly would not have issues discussing this further with Brendan.

Stepping out of this silly post for a moment- I really AM struggling with moving Charlotte to her own bed. Incidentily, a woman at work kindly told me that I am not co-sleeping, I am bed sharing.  I didn't realize there was a correct term for it! I think I am having a really hard time with it because I realize that when Charlotte moves to her own bed, she really should stop nursing at night because she relies on me to fall back asleep. I suppose she should learn to soothe herself to sleep at this point.  I suppose...but it is really hard. I don't know why because I was ok when Cole stopped nursing. Maybe it is because it seems to be more of an emotional bond between Charlotte and I...more so than it was with Cole? Maybe because I know she is the last baby I'll have and this is the last time I'll do this? Maybe I just do not want to have her cry? I actually haven't figured this out about myself yet.  All I know is that I am having a hard time letting go...and to be honest so is Charlotte.  So if it so hard for both of us, why stop?!  

Ok, that is a little bit of a different take on Not Me Monday.  One of those things that is the elephant in the room at our house....Brendan and I are discussing it and not discussing it at the same time. Arg....

Stay tuned...

Wonderfullness

I know "wonderfullness" is not a word but that is how I felt this afternoon.  I sat down on our couch and Charlotte fell asleep in my arms. I started to watch The Food Network (At Home with the Neeley's- LOVE them) and Cole snuggled in with me asking questions about what they were making.  He soon nodded off and there the three of us remained for the next 2 hours while Brendan finished up painting Cole's room.  It was so great, just snuggling with my babies. One of those moments as you a Mom, you know? : )

Yea for Sledding!

Have to take a bundled up photo every year! Charlotte was not pleased with me- mostly because she could not move. Cole could not wait to go sledding with Caden!

Oh, Charlotte did not like the snow and the cold. No smiles from her while we were outside! She doesn't like being all bundled!
Cole and Charlotte were pretty good sports even if they couldn't go sledding with the big boys! Lisa and I pulled them in the slides for a bit to keep them happy and then they watched while we snapped photos like the crazy photags we are!

Ready!

Set!

Crash!

Oh Cole and Caden had a blast crashing into one another and kept laughing and laughing!

Cole kept losing his boot! Only the right one though- so strange. We just doubled up on socks and that seemed to work!

The big boys had fun too of course!

A Funny

From the message board in the Mother's Room at work...

Did you ever notice how the word "mothering" is so similar to "smothering". I will be the mom from that '70s show one day for sure!

Elvis

The past couple days have been a tough adjustment back to work after 10 days of vacation.  Cole has had more tantrums and crying fits than he has had in a long time. Each day is accompanied by "when can we go on vacation?"  He just got used to sleeping in and hanging out with Mum and Dad every day!  He just gets extra hugs and kisses and is ok as long as he gets attention and little bit more babying than usual! Anyway,  I wanted to post one of the funniest movies that we took over our vacation because it makes me happy and I know Cole will be ok after a little readjustment.

Not Me Monday!

Inspired by another blog I follow,  I decided to try the "Not Me Monday" entry. See the mycharmingkids.net blog on my blog list for the rules but it is basically a good way to laugh at some of the poor decisions that I have made in the past week. Read and enjoy a good laugh!

-I wouldn't let my son watch a total of 9 hours of the movie Wall-E over vacation break (that's six times if you are counting!)....Not Me!

-I wouldn't eat an entire Lindt chocolate Santa (that's almost 5 oz!) in one day...Not Me!

-I wouldn't let Charlotte co-sleep with us and then forget to shield the edge of the bed with a pillow so she wouldn't fall off....Not Me!

-I wouldn't wake up at what I though was 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning and think that it was entirely too late to even try to get everyone ready and skip church..Not Me!

-I wouldn't get mad at Brendan for not finding something I was sure I had left in the bedroom only to sheepishly realize that I had moved it to the downstairs bathroom earlier in the day..Not me!

What "wouldn't" you do?!

Play time!

This past Tuesday we joined Rob, Caden, and  Cole back at the local play area (The Discovery Stop) for the first time since last winter.  I didn't want to take pictures just to take pictures but I did want to capture how Cole handled the play area differently this time around as opposed to when he was 2 and a half.  Well, I tried to capture photos of him but he and Caden were just too quick most of the time and I could not capture a photo of both of them. They were two nuts jumping through the jungle climbing structure. No Dads or Moms needed this time!  They are big boys now!  Charlotte was happy to explore or just sit there and laugh at the big kids running by! There was a big painting of a snowman on the wall and Charlotte pointed to it and would "dance". She thought this snowman would sing and dance just like her Frosty at home! I do love this place. Cole crashed about 6:30 that night!

Well, hello, there, Miss, what would you like to order today?

See? This picture is too blurry- they are quick!

Oh, Charlotte was tired and kept laying her head down on the mat. It was too cute.

A little bit organized

Two of my faults (ahem, two of many, but no comments from the peanut gallery please! : ) ) are that I am messy and disorganized.  Every weekend I say that I want to organize this or that about my house and somehow life gets in the way and it doesn't happen. More often than not my bedroom is a war zone  with my floor winning out over the closet with the amount of clothes which leads me to think I have less clothes than I actually have. It's bad and I wish most days I could hire cleaners....and maybe a cook..and while I am at it...a personal stylist would be nice. But I digress....

A small personal achievement was made today...I organized the ridiculous amount of CDs that hold family photos from the past 3 and a half years. I bought a CD organizer and the CDs are in nicely covered pages that I can flip and find a month at a drop of the hat.  I love it.  And I feel slightly better about myself. : )

I also (finally, I know) made Charlotte's 1st birthday invites.   I am sorry to all of you who never received Christmas cards this year....I vow never to try to make my own Christmas cards again. Store bought all the way.  But I did make the 1st birthday invites and I love them. Simple and cute.

So, at 1am on this Friday night (Saturday morning) I feel a sense of accomplishment...finally.  

Charlotte firsts

I completely forgot to post on the Christmas morning entry-- Charlotte has taken her first steps!!  Brendan witnessed them on Christmas morning as two little shuffles of the feet.  Since then she has taken up to four steps by herself and the look on her face when she walks is so adorable. She is so  proud of herself. She loves to practice walking by pushing her ride on toys on the house. She circles the house several times before she tires of it!

Charlotte's first word is "dat" as in "that".  She points and says it to everything.  We think she is saying Cole too ("Co") but are not sure as she doesn't say it all of the time.  

I took a look at the pictures from the past year last night since I am organizing them for a photo album and I cannot believe the changes in both Cole and Charlotte this past year!