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.)

Mischief

I'm sure I'll have a lot more posts in the near future titled this way!
Greg and I were preparing for our trip to the post office when into our bedroom toddled Charlotte with a train of toilet paper behind her! (And she came all the way from the bathroom in the hall and not the one in our bedroom.) It had to have been at least 15 feet of toilet paper! The best part (besides the laughs that it gave us) was that it didn't break, which allowed me to write to the company to say how strong their product is (Charmin). Anything for a chance to get free toilet paper!!!!! Also, Charlotte loves blowing her nose, which you can see she does with the T.P. (Thanks mom for teaching her that skill!)

I Heart Matt and Al Photos

Here are the long awaited photos!

The Conniver

Sounds like a good movie, right?!? Only if the star is sweet, but conniving Charlotte Devyn Foster. We're at Gigi and Bopa's and Charlotte wanted a banana. I didn't want her to sit in the death chair so I asked her to sit on the floor. No problem. There she sat, asking for bites of her banana which I would then give her. She even said "banana please." Then I decided to just give her the rest of the banana. She then promptly got up and I said "Charlotte you have to sit down to eat, otherwise I will take your banana away." Good, she sat down. Then she got up again and walked towards the fridge. So I said, "OK, give me the banana." Does she give me the banana? No! Does she sit down and finish it? No! She stuffed the rest of the banana into her little mouth!

I Heart Matt and Al!!!

Today we braved the alarm going off at 5 am and headed down to NBC Tower to see Matt and Al and of course get on national TV. It was crazy! We didn't end up being interviewed by Al (or Matt) although I would say Charlotte was the cutest baby out there!!!! Looking for us was like Where's Waldo! Kimberly called from MN and said she thought she saw us, but when I looked at the spot she said she found us, I couldn't even see us! Must be that super big screen TV they have! :) We did tape it, and yes, there are glimpses of us (more of Greg due to the 10 inches he has on me), but you'd have to know where we were. Now, although we weren't interviewed on The Today Show we did have some good interactions and photos (photos will be posted when I'm not so tired!) Charlotte at one point was crying in the background when they were showing the clip of Second City (thus you couldn't hear her) but someone said "Oh, a baby's crying!" (Not sure if it was a producer who was upset or just another fan). Matt Lauer then turned around to see us and I said "Sorry," and he said, "It's OK, we're used to it, Al cries every morning." At another point Greg had Charlotte on his shoulders and Al said, "That's a really tall baby back there."

It was a fun, crazy morning, especially since Charlotte did not take it very well for the first 2 hours we were there, but then she totally was hamming it up. One time we are on TV behind Al and Art Smith, she was clapping (and pulling the girl's hair in front of us!)

Oh, and yes, we got individual pics of Matt and Al. They are both so sweet! Lots of people were calling Al's name for photos including me and he looked at us, and said "Yes, with the baby." For Matt, we were afraid we missed our chance, until he came back out to do the intro for the west coast, and then he quickly got out of there. I started following saying "Excuse me," He turned slightly but I don't think he saw me. I was turning away dejected, but then a producer said, ""Go after him. He will take a photo with you." So I did and said "Excuse me" louder, and he saw us, stopped and took his photo with us!