Growing Up

First I had a little newborn.

Then I had a chubby little baby.

Then I had a plump tiny toddler.

Now I'm starting to get a skinny kid.

The first day of kindergarten is going to be rough on this momma. This all comes up because I decided to look through all of Charlotte's old clothing in the basement and sort out the gender neutral stuff. There was some, but let me tell you I sure did like to dress her in pink and ruffles! No question she was a girl by those totes. Anyway, as I looked through the tiny dresses and sunday shoes, the frilly little sun outfits and the little swimsuits I started to yearn for her to be that little again! How did it go so fast? It's been two years, but still she's so new and awesome to me every day!

One of my friends says she has a niece who had curly hair like Charlotte's until she turned four and then it grew in thick and straight. I asked her one day if the girl's mom (my friend's sister) missed the curls. I absolutely adore my daughter's curls. Now though I'm thinking that she might miss them, but honestly there's probably too many amazing things about her daughter now that she can't miss the curls too much. It's like that with Charlotte. I don't really have time on a day to day basis to miss my little cuddly bear because I'm so awed by the ingenuity, beauty, and humor I am faced with today. She is so awesome!

But looking at her baby stuff I can't help but remember that she was so awesome too.

An STD can ruin a whole weekend

About three hours after going to playgroup yesterday Charlotte's eye started to water. It leaked and leaked and leaked, but didn't seem to bother her so I thought nothing of it. Then this morning the leaking had a few eye boogers in it. Dan said, "It's just a clogged tear duct. Don't worry about it. It'll go away." I totally (well, sort of) believed that right up until the watering started to look clouded instead of clear tears. Also, the skin around her eye was a bit pink. I called the doctor's office and they said to come in today. I did that. I figured worst case scenario she has pink eye. That'll suck, but you give them some drops and then they're fine. As we were sitting in the waiting room to see her doctor her other eye started to get gummy tears in it too. Turns out that she has an atypical presentation of pink eye. Not only that, but they had to swab the gunk to culture to make sure that what she has isn't Chlamydia. When the doctor told me that I thought to myself, "How the hell did my two year old get Chlamydia?!" Anyway, because her case isn't a classic case we don't actually get eye drops. We get eye ointment. That I have to put on her every four hours while she's awake. For a whole week. And on top of all that she can't go around other kids for 4 days.

So now we're stuck at home for four days putting basically vaseline in her eyes every four hours. Tomorrow is supposed to be Music Makers, which is Charlotte's favorite activity of the entire week. She wakes up every morning asking to go to "Makers?" and now I'm going to have to tell her that no, we can't go. We have to stay at home. This is going to be awesome.

Interpretations

Since Christmas, Charlotte has added a few new names to her repitoire of favorite-people-in-the-whole-world. She says these people's names periodically throughout the day just to remember them and hopefully mom will say she can see them soon. For example this morning as she was taking a bath she suddenly stopped what she was doing, looked up at me and said, "Bonnie! Emma! Grandma! Grandpa!" then proceeded to play with the bath toys. Some of the new names she's added are Roscoe, Katie, Suzie, Garrett, and Travis. That list isn't complete but you get the idea.

This shouting out of names, compounded with the fact that not all of them are pronounced properly can sometimes make for interesting interpretations on my part.

Take this morning at the grocery store for example. As we were walking around the store she would periodically say, "Garreck" which I interpreted as Garrett, her uncle. I saw that saying that name usually conincided with spotting a male customer at the store so I would tell her each time, "Uncle Garrett lives in Colorado. He's not here at the grocery store." To which she would reply, "Garreck!" As we were checking out she was looking at the magazines and interspersed with 10 million requests for "canny" and "chocick" she would say "Garreck." I told her no to the candy and chocolate and that no, Uncle Garrett wasn't on the cover of the magazines. It wasn't until I got home and she was helping me unpack the groceries that I figured it out. She exclaimed, "garreck" as she stuck her hand into a grocery sack and pulled out our pound bag of carrots. At which point I asked her if she wanted some carrots and she said yes. Turns out she'd been asking for carrots throughout the whole store and I just didn't understand her.

Day Four

Well, potty training is going much better than expected. She's still figuring things out, but it's now noon and she's had the same pair of panties on all day! Three times now she's voluntarily sat on her potty and gone to the bathroom without even telling me. She knew it was going to happen so she sat down. The only drawback is that she neglected to pull down her panties each time. So we still have a ways to go. This is a lot of work, but with progress like this I'm excited to push ahead.

Day One

Dear Friends and Family,

In case you don't hear from me for a while I thought I'd post a photo that will show you why:

Yes, a keen observer would realize that not only is Charlotte wearing her favorite mini mouse T-shirt and Mommy's socks, but also her brand new panties. As far as day one of anything new I'm trying to teach her goes, today was not that bad. I'll let you know how the future of this new experiment goes later.

Maggie

A sigh of relief

I thought I'd post about our progress with Charlotte's bed since I've said everything else so far. A few days ago (or was it last week?) we were finally able to take the baby gate off her door without her feeling like she needed to get up and walk out of her room. We also were able to mostly close the door so walking by her room doesn't wake her up anymore. Also she's now started to mostly sleep from the time we put her down at night until 6:30. We did have to move the bed across the room from it's original spot because it was right in front of the vent. Great in summer for the AC, not so great in winter for the heat. Also she'll go down for naps without screaming bloody murder, really without any fuss at all. So were back to where we were before! Hooray. Only it's better because when she wakes up in the morning she'll just get out of bed and come in my room without tears. I can then have her lay with me in bed (if I'm feeling really lazy) or get up. Guess which one I do more often? Because I'm a good mom like that. I am now so, so happy about her progress towards a big girl bed. Which will probably be just a mattress on the floor because have you seen how expensive beds are? YIKES!

A New Dog New Tricks

Sorry about the long post about how horrible things are going. I forgot that teaching a child anything takes time and patience. Also, on Sunday two of her four K-9 teeth poked through and I'm pretty sure I see the bottom set today. Four teeth all at once! Ouch! So that explains a lot. Also, I'm really lucky to have a stick to it husband. I was so ready to give in and put the side to her crib back up, but I think the tide has turned. Charlotte went down for her nap today WITHOUT crying! Now let's just hope that it lasts for a while. I always need to remind myself that teaching a baby/toddler anything new is hard and makes you second guess yourself every time. She's doing much better. She only woke up once last night and we put her right back down. So now it's just a matter of reinforcement.

Just so I remember how it worked this time when I'm trying this for the next baby I think I'll write down what worked and what didn't. This part will probably be really boring to everyone but me so now would be an OK time to skip to the next paragraph. Put her down for bed and linger just a little longer than I used to. Maybe a minute or so in the room. Put up the baby gate, but leave the door open. It sounds horrible that I had to "lock" her in her room, but it worked so I'm not going to apologize to anyone (not even myself). That way she wont be able to get out of the room, but she knows you're not just leaving her alone. If she immediately jumps out of bed and cries/screams, leave and let her do it for about 20 minutes or so. If you wait too long she will make herself throw up and then you'll have a whole other mess to clean up. Go back up, don't talk to her, don't make eye contact. Just put her back in bed, give her a kiss and then linger in the room once more. She knows you're there so she wont get back out. Stand just outside the gate for a while. She will calm herself down. Then leave her alone.

Saturday I threw up so much that by the end of the afternoon Charlotte was pretend throwing up in the toilet which would have made me laugh if I hadn't felt so sick. Then Sunday it was like the clouds broke and the storm lifted. I didn't get sick feeling even once. It was amazing and I loved it. Let's keep our fingers crossed that today goes more like Sunday.

Anybody got any good fall type activities to do with almost 2 year olds? This morning we went to the park, but it's overcast and windy now so my guess is it'll be raining this afternoon. Perhaps we'll do pudding finger painting. If you've got any other ideas send them my way. My mom already gets credit for pumpkin coloring/painting which I'm sure we'll do by the end of the week.

Better and Better

We have some friends here who have a little boy just older than Charlotte. I'd say in the range of 9 months. It's been really great to have them around because it's like looking into the future. Her little friend went through a phase where he wouldn't eat. Now Charlotte doesn't want to eat. He learned to stack blocks, and now Charlotte is stacking blocks.

I remember my friend saying that she just loved the 18 month age. That it was so exciting to have her son saying words and communicating with him. She said that being his mom was getting really fun again. When Charlotte was 9 months and just learning to walk I was thinking, "Yeah right! Nothing could be as fun as watching her taking her first steps!" Then a few months ago we went through a time that was not so much fun. Charlotte was whining all the time to try and communicate. Anything and everything elicited the same response. And I think I was going crazy. But this week I've really been remembering her remarks and realizing how true they were. Charlotte has exploded with words. True, most of them sound exactly the same, but she's trying and most of the time I can understand what she means. It is so much fun to say something to her and know that she knows what I'm saying because she responds. Also it has cut way down on her whining, which has the reverse effect on my sanity.

In case that wasn't enough

Dan and I have fallen into a wonderful summer schedule while at our friend's house. We take turns sleeping in and getting up with Charlotte. So whenever she gets up (which is between 6:18 and 6:21 AM right now) one of us gets up with her, gives her breakfast, and then plays until the other person comes out of the bedroom. The other person sleeps in and then showers and gets dressed before showing themselves to the baby. This is because she knows that once both of us are up she will then take a bath. Usually I eat breakfast before giving her a bath.

Yesterday when getting dressed I realized that I only had one pair of pants here on "vacation" left clean. So I got dressed in those and went out to get breakfast. When Daniel and Charlotte saw me Dan went to go shower himself and Charlotte immediately started taking off her clothing. She even got the diaper off, which is pretty good for her. I thought it was funny and figured I'd bathe her after breakfast so I didn't mess with it. She climbed on my lap to eat breakfast with me. Once she was up there she peed my pants.

So we spent the morning doing laundry.

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday marked three years and counting! That went by so fast! There has been so much that has happened. So here's what we did for our anniversary. Tuesday night I got a message on my phone from a friend of ours telling Dan that they would be fine with watching Charlotte on Wednesday. I turned to Dan and said, "Are you planning something I don't know about?" (Keep in mind that a few weeks ago I did say that I wanted something special to commemorate three years together. I knew it wouldn't be much, because, well, it can't be much what with medical school, a new house, and funds running low.) He said to me, "Well, I don't know what you'll think about this, but I was thinking we would have George and Mindy watch Charlotte for us while we tile the bathroom floor." I figured he was really good at thinking on his feet and was trying to surprise me so I just said, "Sounds fine to me." Yesterday came and in the afternoon Mindy asked me if I was going to get dressed for going out and I told her, "I'm not sure if I should. Dan hasn't told me anything about what we're doing." So Dan comes home to pick me up for our date. We take Charlotte over to our friends' house and drop her off.

Then he drives me to The Home Depot. I figure this must just be a pit stop for what we're really going to do. Then we drive over to Steak 'n' Shake and order dinner through the drive through and head back to the house so that we can tile the bathroom floor for our third anniversary.

Let's just stop the narrative there and analyze the fact that in three years of marriage I still don't know my husband enough to know when he's focused on something that's pretty much all he sees. This is a great trait for medical school. A great trait for a doctor. A great trait for getting into our house on time. Not so great when you want a date night. I LOVE our bathroom tile. And I also love our kitchen back splash which he finished during the day yesterday. He's working so hard and I love him and I'm so proud of him.

Anyway, 10:30 rolls around and we're not finished. I'm stinking tired because I wore the wrong footwear and the novelty of using the tile saw has really worn off. I figured that since we told Mindy we'd be done at 10, I've really got to go and Dan can finish on his own. I head back to our other friends' house that we're staying at for now. Mindy lets me in while Charlotte is sleeping away in her crib. She left Charlotte's car seat in her car so we go out to get it. When I try to get back in I realize that while the deadbolt is unlocked the doorknob is definitely not.

I called my friend who owns the house to see if there's a spare key hidden somewhere and she says her husband gave the spare key to George. We call George. He knows nothing about a spare key. So we decide to call a 24 hour locksmith at 11 pm. Mindy asks if we should call Dan to have him come wait with us. I say no because he can't really leave the thin set for the tiling because it will harden up. He'll just get worried and not be able to do anything. We can deal with this on our own and then he wont have to.

We wait for about half an hour for the locksmith. Which by the way, wasn't all that bad. We counted lightening bugs and had a good little chat. All the while the darn cat that we've been watching is wailing to go out with us and I'm worrying about him waking up Charlotte. She sleeps through the whole drama (thankfully). When the locksmith arrives it takes him approximately three minutes to get the door open. For which we pay him $125.

Once we get in I decide to call and let Dan know what happened. He responds, "Why didn't you call me?!" Which makes me a little upset because I was trying to be thoughtful. Which I did a poor job of explaining to him because it was 11:30 and I was tired and exhausted. I had to apologize for that this morning. He then tells me that, "Rich (the owner of the home we're staying in) left his spare set of keys in his locker at school." So the one person we didn't call was the one person that could have solved our problem. Rich is currently in boot camp for the navy since that's who's paying for his medical school. I called Bonnie, his wife, to let her know we got in OK. She felt really bad that she couldn't have just driven back to help us with her set of keys, but since she's in Idaho right now that wasn't really an option.

Exhausted I took a shower to wash all the tile grit off my body and fell into bed.



PS. Charlotte had a great day playing at the Botanical Gardens in the morning and in the fountain at Tower Grove Park in the afternoon. I took pictures of her and of the awesome bathroom tile and the kitchen back splash. I promise to post them just as soon as I can locate the spot we packed the cord to hook the camera up to the computer.

Something I already knew

Last Thursday was the breaking point with my relationship with my beautiful daughter (and also my loving husband truth be told). She was crabby, never wanted to eat anything I fixed, never wanted to go down for naps (and woke up 45 stinking minutes later!), was only happy when I was currently holding her, and yet everything I did while holding her was wrong. I thought I just needed a break from being around her. I thought my husband wasn't helping me enough (which he totally was as it turns out). I thought we are going to have to make drastic changes in our home here. I thought, "We are NEVER going to have another one of these EVER again!" It was at that point I learned something that I already knew and should have been doing, but had let slip. What is this magical piece of wisdom?

A routine.

So simple. So beautiful. So scary. I don't know why I thought that doing things whenever it pleased me or on her whim would actually make for a fun time for anyone. It's hard to decide on a routine when you've stopped being on one for, oh, almost a month. Did my child take one nap or two? Does she still like to have four mini meals a day? I had no idea. And what about working on the house? How was I supposed to get anything done? Let's be honest here, every time I try going over there within 15 minutes Charlotte needs my attention and then I'm no longer of any use to anyone. That's probably not going to change.

In the past I would watch her closely for a few days and then formulate a schedule around what she was already doing. I had been so out of touch with her that I had no idea what she was doing. So instead I just decided what to do when. Arbitrary hours, activities and mealtimes. We'd put it into effect and then make changes as needed. I made her schedule fit around what I wanted to get done. This seems silly to admit it out loud, but I was so nervous about this. I was just waiting to crash and burn. I was changing so many things from when I could last remember we actually had a schedule.

Saturday came and Daniel and I implemented the schedule and surprise, surprise (or really no surprise at all) that day went so smoothly. So did Sunday. Not only has this helped my little darling, but it has also helped Daniel and me. He knows that if he wants to have a lunched fixed for him he needs to be at home at lunchtime. I'm only making lunch once. Same goes for breakfast and dinner. We get to sit down and eat together and I'm totally loving it. After dinner we get to divide the chores of dishes or getting the baby started on her bedtime routine. (We switch off on those two.) Charlotte eats so much better when there are people eating with her and when she's had enough time to get hungry. For a while there she would just go to the pantry and find something (usually crackers or cheerios) and just snack on it all afternoon. No wonder she never wanted any dinner. Also she naps. Glorious 2-3 hour naps in which she wakes up happy.

What I was really surprised at was the ease with which this new schedule went into place and the complete success we were met with. Daniel's happier, I'm happier, Charlotte's happier. Welcome back to sanity little family!

The Comeback Kid

When Charlotte was 4 months old Grandpa Greg thought that the summer sun was too much for her little eyes so he bought her sunglasses. ("They have UVA and UVB protection. Shee needs that.") They were huge. Here she is wearing them the day she got them:

For a long time they were too big and then she never wanted them on. She thought she couldn't see I think because whenever she had them on she closed her eyes. Then today her little friend came over wearing a pair of purple sunglasses and she wanted them. So I went in her room and dug out her pink sunglasses to wear. Now she loves them! Here she is today.

Oddly enough her mouth has the same open expression in both photos. What a big girl!

Grins and Giggles

Because it's been awhile since I posted photos of my baby here they are for your pleasure: Thank you Grandma Denise. Daddy thought the dress looked great at church.
Here is Charlotte eating breakfast with her best friend sitting right next to her. This is her prefered way to eat breakfast.
Playing in the fountain at Tower Grove Park.
She found the bin under the sink in the bathroom and thought it would make a great seat. Climbing on the lion at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.Peaking through the lion's mane.

Yeah! We Have Our House!

The closing was last Friday. And so was Dan's last final. It seems like all our stress has just melted away. What added to the wonderful weekend was that we had was Dan's parents coming into town. Not only did the stress go away, but we also go to have a real holiday. It was tons of fun. We went to the Samuel Cupples house, the St. Louis Art Museum (which had a quilt exhibition right then), the zoo, and a few really great restaurants in town. My favorite dinner was at Kabob International. It has excellent food. It really was stupendous having them here and Dan done and our house all wrapped into one great weekend. Dan's parents loved Charlotte and she loved them right back. She told them jokes and sang songs and just generally enjoyed all the wonderful attention she got to have all weekend. She fell asleep on the way to the airport when we dropped them off Monday and then when she woke up and they were gone she seemed as though she thought she'd lost her two best friends in the whole wide world. It was pretty funny.

Another great gift is that Dan is taking today off from work. Yeah! He wanted to give the woman in charge of him a day to get all his papers together so he can really jump right in when he goes in. That means that today he spent the morning being the most wonderful husband/father in the whole world. He cleaned the kitchen, did the dishes, and even swept the floors. He picked up the front room. He gave Charlotte a bath and played with her so that I could get all my work done. I got to clean the bathroom, change the sheets on the beds, do laundry, and pick up both bedrooms all in peace! We got two or three days worth of work done before he left to help some friends pack up for their move to residency. Charlotte is taking a nap now and I'm basking in the greatness that is my family.

Yesterday, after dropping off Dan's parents we went back to our new house and tore up the kitchen flooring to expose the hardwood underneath. The sheet of linoleum was on top of plywood that had been stapled to the floor so it wasn't too hard to get it up. Now it'll just take a few days to get all the staples out of the floor. Who thought you needed to put them 3-4 inches apart? That person was crazy. It's going to take us a while. We have a lot of work to complete before my parents get here in a week and a half. I'll take photos today while I'm over there to post so everyone can see our progress.

Gross. No, Really Gross

Charlotte sometimes grosses me out.

Her new favorite toy is the plunger.

Not the new, unused plunger.

The old, used gross plunger.



So if you come over to our home and are greeted by the plunger at the top of the stairs just realize it's the only place I can keep it away from her single minded pursuit to carry it everywhere.

Gross.

Don't Ever Grow Up

A few days ago I took Charlotte to the park. She was so cute I couldn't believe it! I was taking photos of her while she tried to climb the steps of the big toy. There were two older girls on the big toy. My guess is they were probably in the 7-8 range. One girl was clearly the leader of the two. Right in front of me she asked the other girl, "Do you think that baby's cute?" Typed out that seems like a very innocent question, but let me tell you that girl was just inviting the other one to say, "No she's totally ugly." I was instantly furious! I just waited to see what would be said. The other girl was in a jam. She knew I could hear her, but I could also tell she didn't want the other girl to think badly of her. I wanted to say to the girls, "Of course she's cute! She's the cutest little girl that you'll ever see and don't you go saying otherwise!" I didn't. The second little girl decided that since none of the answers she could think of would be good she would just say nothing. Then the leader girl asked the other one, "Do you think her shoes are cute?" (The expected response was a resounding, "No.") Again no response. The leader girl finally said to the other, "You should go spy on them." This the follower obediently tried to do. It was at that moment I decided that we should just move. Charlotte is only one so she doesn't care what other little girls say about her, but I sure do. I got mad when I realized that the mom there watching the girls was just sitting there on her cell phone not even paying attention to what they were doing.

I don't want my precious little baby girl who is smart and beautiful and funny and awesome to go outside of our house. Inevitably she's going to run into this type of situation again and then she might be old enough to really understand what's being said. And then I might not be there to protect her. It makes me so sad and so mad at the same time. I can't wait to see her ride her first bike, or drive, or go on her first date, but then again, maybe I can.

Carnivore

Today Charlotte had her iron tested. Surprisingly the most traumatic part of the whole ordeal for her was having to keep the Dora Bandaid on after the poke. Once I took it off she was fine. She was also mad that a stranger actually had to touch her to do the thing, but that's a whole different story. The results came back that she has GREAT iron levels. Then we were talking about her eating habits and what she will and wont eat. She's not a picky eater at all, so I'm especially grateful for that. (Now that I say this, she wont eat anything but graham crackers for a week.) Anyway, I realized that the reason her iron levels are so high is that she has not run into any type of meat that she doesn't like. In fact for most dishes she'll root around all the other stuff just to find the meat. Don't get me wrong, she eats a fair share of everything else, but her clear favorite in the food category is meat. Does anyone else think that's 100% strange?

Big News

We got the house. Dan didn't go to bed last night until 1 AM. (He blamed it on the Dr. Pepper he drank, but I didn't mention to him that I drank about 1/4 of that Dr. Pepper in between all his sipping and I was out by 9:30.) He was thinking and planning and improvising how our kitchen would work best. I think he came up with a superb layout that I think will work really well. It's a whole lot of problem solving when you have a small space to work with, but I think his plan really maximized the space.

Now I can't wait until Dan's parents come out! It's gonna be so much fun to show them the new house. Also, Dan's sister is going to drop of his nephew for wrestling camp this early summer so she'll get to see it too! Plus, my dad's already starting to plan his trip out here.

Yesterday Charlotte recieved "Christmas in April" from Grandma Denise. She got new books, which she loves, a new dress, and most of all, a new dancing duck and a little tykes piano. Guess which two she loves the most? You guessed it, the two that make sound. Right now they're both still pretty cute, but I can see that these two presents will be both a blessing and a way to teach me patience. Thanks mom!

PS. We had an earthquake here early this morning. Here's how it went in our house:

Me: Is that storm shaking the bed? (There was a pretty big storm going outside. It was rattling the windows.)

Dan: No, go back to bed.

Jump to breakfast:

Me: Did our bed shake in the night?

Dan: No.

Turns out there was a 5.2 earthquake in southern Illinois.

Delayed Response

Sorry for the no posts lately. There were a number of factors why. The first being that Dan and I are trying to buy a house that we're really excited about. We put the offer in and I was going to wait until the offer came back to post anything (I don't want to jinx it), but the bank hasn't said anything about it yet. We're buying a house that was foreclosed on and apparently it isn't the bank's top priority. Go figure. Anyway, the house is awesome and a fun project for the next three years. The only big things that need to be done can get done during Dan's down time this summer. Plus, my dad and mom are so excited to come out and help. And Dan's parents are coming out for Memorial Day and they'll see the place. It's great to have such awesome support. Other than the biggies all the stuff is totally do-able projects that can be spread out over the next three years here. We're both pretty excited about the whole thing. (Dan keeps getting out his orange Home 1-2-3 book from Home Depot just to peruse.) I wish I had news to tell right now, but I don't. We put the offer in and now we just have to wait.

The other reason is that Charlotte was pretty sick last weekend and it scared the crap out of me. She had a fever that came in the afternoon every day for about three days. Then she was pretty dehydrated and would not eat or drink anything. We were super worried that we would have to take her to the hospital, but the amount of fluids we forced into her kept her at home. We were just both really worried about her and I didn't really have anything to say except, "My baby's sick and I'm so worried I might throw up."

And the last reason I didn't realize until a few days ago. For about two weeks I was walking around being totally angry at Dan and totally sad and frustrated. Dan is an amazing husband and he didn't do anything wrong so I never brought it up because I knew that it was unfair to be mad at him. Whenever he asked, "Are you OK?" I just said, "I'm super tired," which isn't a lie because I was also super tired. It wasn't until I was talking with my mom about it that she asked if I felt a little overwhelmed with everything and I just started to break down and cry. So I guess that was the answer to everything, feeling overwhelmed. After thinking about it all the rest of the day I figured it wasn't fair of me to walk around feeling this way without telling Dan. Plus, I figured I was in a situation that needed fixing, and he happens to be pretty good at fixing things. Turns out that was the best thing I could have done. It was hard to tell him because I feel very responsible about everything that happens in our home. He has never acted like the running of the house and the raising of our daughter is my responsibility alone, but that's how I felt. (Why do I take on more responsibility than I need to? Something to answer someday.) After I told him this he asked what exactly made me feel overwhelmed to see if that was a task that he could take from me. Turns out that there is no one task he can take completely away from me. What he did say he wanted to do was take some tasks away from me partially. So our new plan: when Dan comes home from school, after he unwinds a bit, he and Charlotte have time just the two of them where they go for a walk or go to Home Depot, or go, well, I guess it really doesn't matter where they go. I then will be home. Alone. For half an hour. We've done this the past two days and it has been amazing how much better I feel. I don't have to get anything done when they're gone, but if I want to I can be that much more productive.

And also, he's taking me out to dinner tomorrow night! We've got reservations, and someone to watch Charlotte and we're going to use the gift card my sister and brother-in-law got us for Christmas. I can't wait! I've already planned what I'm gonna wear. (I've also planned what Dan's gonna wear, but don't tell him that.)

The Up-shot

I feel like I've been complaining about my baby a lot this past week and it's really not giving the whole picture. I LOVE how much she's learning right now. She seems to have exploded in the growth and development this past week. Here are somethings she's learned:

• If you ask for a kiss she will lean in and say, "Mmmmmm-wah" right along with you. It started with her leaning in with a fully opened mouth, but then she figured out that we're not doing that so she adapted.
• She blows on her own hot food. It's so cute because she hasn't quite figured out the direction of her blowing. She'll do it just above the food. But she knows to test the food with her fingers and if it's too hot she'll blow on it.
• She knows jokes, well, toddler jokes. She thinks it's so funny to do something unusual with the items we use in our house every day. She uses the hamper and puts it over her head. Then we put it over both our heads and laugh and laugh.
• She understands pretty much everything we tell her. She doesn't always pay attention, but she understands what we're saying and that's so fun.
• She's figured out how to flush the toilet, which is pretty funny. She will walk up and just flush the toilet and then walk away.
• When I say, "Do you want to help me with the laundry?" She'll run to the door to the basement and wait for me to take her down. Then she'll help me turn on the light in the basement by pulling the string. She's also learned to shut the dryer door for me.

So I have actually been having loads of fun with my toddler too!