Monkey on the Bed

I've got to pull out my book. We're going through something here, a phase or a cycly or a shift that, please God, is only temporary. Charty had a BIG day yesterday (I mean, I was tired) and only a little nap that she was NOT happy to be woken up from (accident). Last night, I lay down with her to go night-night at 9:00. She didn't dose off until 11:30. She's sitting up, "singing" 'happy and you know it', clapping, stomping, hooray-ing, pretending to read her good night books, searching for Bo-Bo the Frogs missing belly button, opening her night night lotion, squeezing it out, rubbing it on her pajamas, saying 'ahhhhhhhh'. The night before that Adam was late coming to bed and she kept pointing at the door, signing open and saying 'dad', signing help please. She's signing in complete sentences. I finally said, well, shoot, let's find daddy and get some ice cream and we'll try this again in a bit. Dim lights come on, she's now jumping on the bed, then she's over at the radio pushing on and dancing. CRAZY!

A couple mornings ago she woke up and pointed at Moses & Eloise and patted the bed. Okay, I put Eloise up there. Then Moses comes out from underneath the bed and he wants up, Charty pats the bed, points at Moses signs help, I'm kind of ignoring her because I'm reading my book. She slides off the bed, runs to Moses herself, throws her arms around his waist and struggles to pick him up. Okay, okay, so I'll help afterall.

Father's Day was nice. We went to Hampton and had a pool party. Charlotte wasn't quite as adventurous this year as she was last. The water was cold and she hardly even wanted her feet in but she did enjoy the beach ball and Lisa & Matt's dogs. Mason the German Shepherd went for a swim and then ran full speed ahead all over the yard with zoomies - headed right for Charlotte, face plastered with a huge grin, starting to laugh at the silly dog, luckily his aim was better than Magnus' would have been and he flew right PAST her. I nearly fainted but Charty thought it was fun, wanted to do that again. The funnest thing Charlotte saw on Father's Day, though, was Jakob swimming. Oh, that was hysterical!

Katy was here and we went to the song & story group at the library and then went to do some shoe shopping. The shoe salesman was a man so Charlotte was terrified and wanted NOTHING to do with him. But we picked out some cute sandals anyway.

Oh yeah! Adam suprised me with a bicycle and Charlotte a bicycle seat. We both got helmets, safety first. Charlotte loved wearing her helmet around the house (no chin strap). She did not like wearing her helmet, strapped on. We battled through that. Luckily, she likes going for a ride well enough to forget about the chin srap. Katy brought her bike down. Tuesday morning we loaded up, headed to the river and did 10 miles of the 16 mile Columbus Riverwalk. It's a paved trail that goes along the Hooch. It was SO MUCH FUN!

We went walking and what did we see yesterday afternoon? A black kitty cat. Charlotte was so excited and she wanted the cat to follow her and she kept patting her leg. She wanted to pet the cat but would get too excited. She sat down next to the cat, legs spread and scooched up and up and then would try and pet the cat. The cat knocked her over a couple times, rubbing up against her.

We went to Moes last night. Charlotte sat in her chair for 2 minutes and then told us she was all finished. She wanted to explore. Some babies came in and she wanted to see the babies. So, we plopped her up in the booth and let her stand and watch the babies and eat ice. It was time to go when Charty dropped her cup of ice water in mommy's lap.

Charlotte has mastered utensils. She's eating her cheetos with a fork. I can't do that.