What we've been up to

So, I've become a blog slacker lately as we have just been so busy! Charlotte and I headed up to MN last Friday for my sister's baby shower, and stayed there until Tuesday. Then we came back, went to the circus on Wednesday night, Thanksgiving on Thursday, shopping on Friday (yes at 4 am-well that was just me!) and shopping and decorating the house for Christmas on Saturday, and I'm sure I'm missing a few of the other things we have done to keep us so busy!

Now that Charlotte is almost 18 months she is saying new words on a daily basis. Her new favorites include "Abby," my 7 year old cousin and "Marc," Ava's daddy, and "fries". She can also hold a complete phone conversation as she did yesterday with Gramma (my mom) and Gigi (my grandma.) She even said "Howareyou?" to my mom on the phone.

Now that she's getting bigger she is also able to experience new things like riding the train and carousel at Mall of America and staying up way past her bedtime to go to the circus!

Here are a couple of photos from the past week.

So the whole weekend we were in Mn Charlotte kept grabbing her swimsuit and swim diaper saying "water, water" and I kept having to tell her later, with the hopes of going to the hotel pool. On Sunday night after she had her jammies on she pulled out her swimsuit again and said "water". Now I felt bad I didn't keep up my end of the bargain. All she really wanted to do was wear her swimsuit so I let her sleep with it on over her jammies and told her she could go swimming in the bathtub the next morning. When she woke up on Monday, with the swimsuit on over her jammies, she said water (what a good memory she has), and I filled up the bathtub so she could go swimming. Then in comes Bentley, Kimberly and Alan's dog, and I said "Do you want a bath too bentley, and in she jumps (while really she stepped in and only got her legs up to her knees wet.) Charlotte loved it!



Sitting with Abby and Great Aunt Jenny at the circus.
Charlotte did amazingly well for staying up 2 hours past her bedtime for the circus. She danced, clapped, and was in awe with the elephants, acrobats, dogs, tigers, clowns, and human cannonballs!

Ewwwww, Gross!

Yes, Charlotte is licking Greg's toes!!!!!! Ewwwwww, gross! It all started in fun and games as I was showing Charlotte how to tickle Greg's feet, then before we knew it she had her tongue out and was licking his toes! We figured she did it because Greg always eats her toes, an activity that is now gong to stop! And of course, she continued to do it because we couldn't stop laughing!

More Please!

Tonight was girls night for me and guys night for Greg so Charlotte joined me at Maria's Mexican Restaurant with Kelly, Jenny, Christina, and Lisa. The night started with many frustrations such as leaving my cell phone at my grandparents and then having no high chair at the restaurant for the first 35-45 minutes we were there (plus not very good service overall)! Charlotte provided much entertainment throughout! (Just to clarify it was fun, good entertainment, just in case there are those of you saying "Oh-no Charlotte was causing trouble!")
Anyway, the best moment of the evening came at dessert. Lisa ordered flan that she was willing to share with everyone. I got a bite for Charlotte, and then a bite for me. I really didn't think Charlotte was going to like it. Then she said "more, please," over and over again. I said no, that it was Lisa's dessert and gave her the spoon thinking that would suffice. Charlotte licked the spoon completely clean and then promptly handed it to Lisa saying "More please!" It was the funniest thing and got a lot of laughs. However, on my way home, as I pondered her actions, it was eye opening. Charlotte is starting to realize that when mom says "no" she can ask someone else who is going to say "yes." (Mom, now I get it.)