Charty See, Charty Do

We were sitting eating pizza a couple of nights ago. Charlotte wanted out of her chair, wanted to come sit next to mommy on the bench at the kitchen table. She was toting her dolly with her. She had her cup and her pizza in front of her, dolly in her lap. She took Dolly's hand and hand-over-hand signed "drink". She gave her dolly a drink. Then dolly "signed" more and please. OH it was so cute! Adam and I realized then that we have the smartest toddler in town.

Popi's retirement party was last week. Popi is retired! Yay Popi! After 37 years working for the government. It was a family holiday and we all went. It was in the MLK building, downtown at 2pm...2pm otherwise known as Charlotte's nap time. So, I was a little concerned as to how her mood would be. She was her Noni and got excited and wanted nothing but to be with her. Then she saw her Aunt Elisa and wanted nothing but to play with all her bracelets. There were a bunch of people there and several people spoke but she was quiet and sweet. So many of the women Popi works with are so sweet! They even had balloons at the party especially for Charlotte. Right in the middle of someone's address to dad Charty ran up front and started pulling her balloons down in her face bopping herself over and over again. But she was quiet! And we had none of that high-octave screeching that she has been gracing us with.

The Wilson family got to spend some quality time together and over the 4 day weekend I had lots of alone time, or time away from Charlotte, which can be nice every once in a while. (Keep in mind that the longest I have been away from her in 19 1/2 months is 8 hours and that was just on one occassion...when we moved into our house here in Columbus.)

Charlotte loves to dress up in my jewelry and stomp around in my shoes. Bless her heart, she tends to be drawn to my prettier dress up shoes (which, come on, I'm not really a pretty, dress up shoe type of girl) so she has very little to choose from.

Charlotte has a lovey. None of the cute ones that we've picked out over the course of her life but an old raggamuffin one that she some how found, somewhere. It's an old stuffed Cocker Spaniel that she LOVES to stuff up under her armpit and tote around.

A few days ago it was getting close to time for Charlotte to wake up from her nap. I heard her in the baby monitor calling me...'mama? ma? mamamamamama?' I tip toe in there and she's halfway hiding behind her blanket. She sees me and hurries and covers herself up. And I say, where is Charlotte Rose?! And she throws the blanket down, suprises me, laughs and covers herself up again. We play this game alot.

But I think the biggest fun here lately - washable markers. Washable markers EVERYWHERE! She has a little table that I allow her to color all over but that's it! No markers on the wall or floors or on Moses or Eloise or CHARLOTTE! The first day she definetely colored on all aforementioned, which is why I decided it was necessary to lay down a few ground rules.

Charlotte is such a chunk! I mean, it's so cute but my arms are bulging out like a muscle man from toting her around and she hardly eats anything at all. Today so far she has had two bites of toast and two pepperonis. That's it. It's 5:33

Charlotte has no interest in her big girl elmo potty but we're finished with the diapers. Lord have mercy, I think she's allergic, to diapers, to all synthetic materials... That's best save for another post. Keep me in your prayers. I seriously think she's allergic...to diapers. No wait, think about that for a minute. My baby is allergic to diapers!