Charlotte is a smart cookie—-as Mommy was talking to Charlotte at her crib railing, Charlotte pointed over to the humidifier to remind Mommy to turn it off. The humidifier is definitely helping Charlotte sleep at night. This morning Charlotte’s nose wasn’t running, so Mommy was hopeful that Charlotte was now over her cold—-this would mean that Mommy’s cold will end relatively soon as well, as Mommy seems to be about a day or so behind Charlotte.
Once again, after a brief period of not doing it, Charlotte insisted on bringing her red plush blanket with the kitty on it to the change table to put under her head while Mommy changed her diaper and got her dressed for the day with Daddy. Mommy and Daddy decided that Charlotte wouldn’t attend her “paint” play group today, as Charlotte doesn’t seem to be enjoying the class, not really understanding what to do with the paint and loosing interest really quickly, despite Daddy’s attempts at trying to engage Charlotte. Since Daddy was the one who would have to take Charlotte to the class, Mommy let Daddy make the call not to go.
Mommy was a little sluggish from her cold this morning so was a little later getting ready for work. As usual, when Mommy’s in the bathroom, Charlotte likes to be right beside her, usually standing on her little stool. Charlotte was quite fascinated with Mommy shaving her legs. At one point, Charlotte started to position herself as if she was going to shave her legs. While Charlotte was investigating the cream on Mommy’s legs, she got a little too close and rubbed up against Mommy, getting a big splotch of shaving cream on Charlotte’s right leg. Charlotte stood there, looked at it, and then went to the side of the tub and grabbed the wet facecloth that was hanging on the side of the tub and wiped off all the cream without being asked to do so. She handed the cloth to Mommy and then carried on moving the stool to another position to get a better view of what Mommy was doing. The shaving complete, it was time to jump into the shower. Charlotte went to see what Daddy was doing as Mommy got into the shower.
While Mommy was washing her hair in the shower, she heard Charlotte’s little tinkling voice laughing. When Mommy wiped the water from her eyes, she realized that Charlotte had opened the shower door at least 2 feet and water was sprinkling out of the shower onto Charlotte, likely her face. Yikes! Mommy envisioned a huge puddle of water awaiting her exit from the shower—-much to her surprise, there wasn’t. At this point, Daddy came to see what all the laughing was about. As usual, Daddy lifted Charlotte up so that she could watch Mommy over the top of the shower doors. Mommy showed Charlotte how she doesn’t cry when water rolls down her face, hoping that at bath time tonight Charlotte would do the same—-we’ll see.
Charlotte always laughs when Mommy gets out of the shower, wrapping her hair in one towel and wrapping a towel around her, usually accompanied with a little wiggle to which Charlotte giggles. Today, Charlotte decided that she, too, wanted to have her hair wrapped up like Mommy. It took a few tries, but Mommy got a towel wrapped around Charlotte’s head—-Charlotte moved her head in different directions, trying to knock it off her head.
Charlotte eventually settled to have the towel wrapped around her neck, holding both ends of the towel under her chin. When it was time for Mommy to brush her teeth, Charlotte brought the stool over to the left of Mommy and then motioned for her toothbrush. Charlotte doesn’t really try to brush her teeth anymore—-she enjoys sucking the water out of the bristles. This makes Mommy think that perhaps Charlotte might like to drink water from her sippy cup occasionally, instead of milk. Mommy also wondered if she should invest in a child’s electric toothbrush to encourage Charlotte to move the toothbrush around her mouth and to ensure that some of the teeth are actually getting brushed.
As Mommy got her clothes ready, Charlotte kept taking Mommy’s underwear out of the drawer and running away, usually to Daddy. Charlotte does the same thing with Daddy’s socks when he puts them on his feet—-it’s quite a game with Charlotte, usually accompanied with a lot of laughter.
Later in Mommy’s morning routine, it was time to do her hair. Again, Charlotte was up on her stool beside Mommy—-she, too, wanted Mommy to mist her hair with the spray bottle and put a headband in her hair. Mommy wonders when Charlotte will mimic Mommy putting in her contact lenses—-right now, Charlotte just looks up with a puzzled look on her face. Mommy hopes that Charlotte doesn’t decide to stick her finger in her eye, not understanding why she’s doing it but doing it because that’s what she thinks Mommy is doing.
Charlotte likes to watch Mommy apply make-up while trying to take items out of or put items into Mommy’s make-up bag. So far, she’s not asked for any to be put on her face—-that day will come, but hopefully it’s not for some time. Charlotte eventually joined Daddy sitting in the hall outside the bathroom so that they could watch Mommy get ready. Charlotte disappeared for a moment only to return with Mommy’s bottle of gingerale; she gave it to Daddy, asking for some, which he obliged—-Charlotte likes to drink little sips out of the cap of the bottle.
Grooming complete, it was time to go downstairs. Charlotte and Daddy said “goodbye” to Mommy, as Charlotte was motioning to put on her outer clothes to go out as well. As Mommy put on her boots, she could hear Charlotte and Daddy laughing on the other side of the closed door—-for a brief moment, Mommy thought about going back in and staying home today to play.
Daddy and Charlotte had a good day, as usual, playing with Charlotte’s puzzles and toys, reading books, and watching a little TV. Mommy figures that Daddy must also play a little on-line poker, which gives Charlotte just enough time to get into Mommy’s office desk drawer to remove writing instruments and accessories, which Mommy finds usually after Charlotte has gone to bed for the night. Daddy always insists that he keeps an eye on Charlotte and claims he doesn’t know how these items get removed—-Mommy knows the answer and tries not to make a big fuss about it as Mommy is grateful that Daddy is able to stay home and look after our beautiful daughter.
Lately, Charlotte has been pulling out a lot of books for Daddy to read, but quickly looses interest in the story before Daddy gets too far into it—-Charlotte is generally interested in turning the pages, but she has her favourites that she will linger on for more than a split second. Today, Charlotte let Daddy read, or should I say sing/lyrically read, the complete book (32 pages) of rhymes with Mother Goose. It is very easy to engage Charlotte with this book—-she frequently sings along and moves to the rhythm.
As usual, Charlotte removed her pants and socks early in the day; Daddy, as usual, put the pants and socks back on Charlotte. As this is a vicious cycle, Daddy gave up early in the afternoon; hence, Mommy came home to a little girl who was wearing just her onesie—-thankfully, it had long sleeves.
When Mommy arrived home and was removing her boots in the porch, she could hear Charlotte yelling about something in the house. Mommy was surprised that Charlotte didn’t run to the door to greet Mommy—-Daddy had put Charlotte in her highchair, as she was getting into everything while Daddy was trying to cook dinner. As soon as Charlotte saw Mommy, she went crazy with excitement in her chair, waving and bouncing around. Charlotte was really generous with her kisses—-Mommy wondered if Charlotte was going to try to lick her lips again…whew, she didn’t. Then Charlotte started asking for a bath. Mommy had to explain a couple of times that she had to eat her dinner first before having a bath.
Charlotte gobbled up every kernel of corn and most of her rice. Once again, she wasn’t that fussy about the cooked salmon; however, she did eat a few pieces that Daddy snuck onto her fork when she ate some rice off Daddy’s fork. Charlotte threw a couple of pieces of salmon only after Daddy had tried to feed it to her—-one of the pieces landed in Daddy’s glass of water and another landed on Daddy’s plate. Not sure if this was luck or good aim on Charlotte’s part. Charlotte drank some of Daddy’s water from his glass—-for the longest time, Charlotte refused to drink water, so maybe it’s time for Mommy to try again. Charlotte has started to dump her food from her plate onto her highchair tray, preferring to have food placed on her tray for her to pick up rather than fed to her on a fork or spoon.
After dinner, Charlotte scrambled upstairs for her bath. Charlotte now holds the railing of the small staircase just before Charlotte’s room and walks up the stairs one at a time—-I don’t think it will be long before Charlotte is walking up the stairs like a big girl, graduating from crawling as a toddler.
Charlotte enjoyed her bath as usual, except for when it was time to wash her hair-—Charlotte did not remember that Mommy didn’t cry when water splashed on her face this morning. Charlotte began fussing even before Mommy brought any water near Charlotte’s hair, so Mommy decided to cheat and just wet Charlotte’s hair with a face cloth-—Mommy decided to leave the battle for another day.
Charlotte really likes being wrapped up in her bunny towel and makes cute little noises as Mommy dries her off while she lies on the change table. As usual, Charlotte enjoys Mommy rubbing body lotion on her legs and arms. Tonight, Charlotte wanted Mommy to count her toes and fingers while she was rubbing lotion on her hands and feet. Mommy dressed Charlotte in her cute Christmas angel jammies—-Charlotte immediately pointed to the angel and tried to say “angel.” Last time she wore these jammies, she pointed to the angel and said “Santa.” Regardless of what she calls the object, she knew that they were Christmassy, which is pretty good, since she was looking at objects that are upside down to her when she’s wearing the top.
Mommy wanted to play with Charlotte on the floor for a few minutes before Charlotte went to bed, but she wanted Daddy to join us on the floor—-she was quite fussy and adamant and wouldn’t give up coaxing until Daddy stopped playing his on-line poker game to play with us on the floor of Charlotte’s room. As usual, Charlotte wanted Daddy to get right down on the floor, leaning on his elbow that brings their faces in line with one another; tonight, for the first time, Charlotte wanted Mommy to do the same, but she settled for sitting in Mommy’s lap, as she usually does. Daddy showed Mommy how he lyrically read the book of rhymes with Mother Goose to Charlotte; Mommy chimed in and sang the rhymes with Daddy, until Daddy had to leave for a couple of minutes. Charlotte was quite upset and didn’t want Mommy to continue singing her book without Daddy.
Mommy tucked Charlotte into her crib at about 8:10 pm—-for some reason, Charlotte didn’t really want to hug her stuffed kitty that she has been sleeping with for the last couple of weeks, but she did eventually with some coaxing from Mommy. Mommy quietly closed the door and hoped that Charlotte didn’t start fussing in about 10 minutes as she has for the last couple of nights—-Mommy sat quietly waiting for Charlotte to cry out, but she didn’t.
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