Big Girl Stuff

Livi, girl you are growing into such a fun little girl. I can't truthfully say baby anymore when you're doing all these big girl things. You bring so much joy and excitement to our family.

With 4 almost 5 teeth now Charlotte and I thought we would teach you how to brush your teeth. At the mention of the task, you run to your bathroom, move the stool to the sink, and stand up reaching for your Eeyore toothbrush. How are you old enough to do such things?! You are very compliant and allow me to brush first knowing you will get your turn to go to town on your own when I am done.

You have also found a love for reading books. Well, choosing a book from the shelf and back up until you find a lap. I am thrilled that you already love to be read to sweet little girl.

We are also teaching you animal names and sounds. You work on it at school too! Your favorite is puppy dog and then kitty cat. Your little face makes the cutest sounds.

Playground battle wounds

It was only a matter of time until adventurous Olivia got a playground battle wound. Girl, at just 15 months old, you love to play with the big kids. You follow your sister around the playground, running to keep up as best you can. When you get to an object too large to scale I hear your screech that your daddy calls your baby pterodactyl sound (cant wait until you consistently replace that sound with a word and sign) and I know you need help. You try so hard to climb, swing in the big kid swings, and run as fast as you can. You especially liked this bouncy airplane that you and Charlotte rode repeatedly. It wasn't until about the fourth trip down the small slide that you decided I shouldn't catch you at the bottom. I thought I would give you a chance to catch yourself on the rubber padded ground, thinking what's the worst that would happen?! Well you sure did catch yourself...with your face, bless your heart. It didn't seem too bad at the time, just a little spec of blood and a little pink scrape. You cried for less than a minute and wanted down and ran right back to the slide. However, you sported a dark brown scab on your nose the following week but don't worry, everyone just thought you had eaten chocolate! I like your resiliency, kiddo! It will take you far in life if I can figure out how to help you shape it throughout the years. I love you beautiful girl.

Loving heart

Charlotte, I want you to know how much I love and appreciate your joyful heart. I thank God for gifting you with this heart and ask Him to show me new ways to model kindness to you and Olivia. Sure, I remind you to speak lovingly and give you examples of how we are kind to our friends, but I find it is the kind and loving things I do for you that I see you trying out on your own. You call your sister sweetie even when you think no one is listening, you tell Saryn it will be okay and that she will feel better when we take her to the vet for a boo boo, today when I asked you to put your plate in the sink you said, "Sure, I would love to!", and when we dropped your daddy off for deployment, I cried as we drove home, you said, "Don't be sad Mommy, it will be okay." Teaching you kindness has been an easy task...it seems to come naturally for you. Thank you for being a sweet little person.

Carwash Screams

Alright girls, I sure hope you can laugh about this someday. I knew that Charlie didn't like car washes. The couple times I had brought you through one, you lost your mind and no words or hugs made it better. So I have avoided taking the car through a wash in the past year or so. I generally do it myself at the house or wait until I am out by myself. Well the other day, you asked to go through a car wash. I was so surprised that I had to find one just to see if you had secretly conquered your fear. It was our lucky day, I saw one on the next corner. All was good until the jets hit our car, creating that loud noise. You instantly lost it all over again, screaming and crying. Then you lost it too, Olivia! I'm not sure if you were genuinely scared of the noise and water or if Charlotte just set you off with her crying. Either way, it was way too hilarious to sit back and watch with no evidence. I snapped a picture and regret not taking a video. Love you girls...don't hate me.

See Ya later Daddy

Well girls, your daddy left for Afghanistan this week. We have been busy all summer getting our family settled and ready for this separation. I worked quickly to get us into a new house and your daddy tackled numerous projects through the day he left. While we were distracted in the time leading up to his departure, reality set in when we dropped him off. He hugged and kissed both of you girls and we tucked you back into the car. By the time he got to me we were both already teary-eyed. When we hugged we both let our emotions go and just cried together. Neither of us like prolonged goodbyes so we gave each other words of encouragement, a kiss, and parted ways. It was tough to see your daddy so affected by leaving us. But we are so confident in one another's abilities to cope and succeed in our time apart.

Charlotte's Third Birthday

Well I sure hope you girls forgive the inevitable neglect that the blog will endure from time to time over the years. Quite a lot has happened in the last couple months and big things are still happening. Our return from the beach ushered us into rapid packing of our rental house, closing on our new house, moving, unpacking, Charlotte's birthday, and now preparing for your daddy's deployment. I will get to updating you on our  cozy new home and how we fare as dad heads out for awhile. The important part right now is Charlotte's third birthday.

You are such a smart little girl! You have been talking about how you are two, but you will turn three on August nineteenth for six months now. We have been practicing holding three fingers up for several weeks now and you were thrilled to have it mastered by your birthday. We had a small party at our home with friends and Chrissy and Poppie. Dora the Explorer is your favorite in the world and of course asked for a Dora cake. In the past, I scoffed at the mothers that went crazy with character themed parties. But when your little girls says something is her favorite and she wants it on her cake, mama joyfully obliges. I asked a friend from church to do Dora, Boots, and Swiper cupcakes and you were very excited with them! We had a few of your friends over to celebrate and play with you. It was so fun to see you share your cupcakes, presents, and toys. Daddy and I are so proud of how kind, polite, and considerate you are to others. You have a giving heart and you warm our lives every single day.

Smarty Pants

As I sifted through old videos of you girls tonight, I came across some amazing ones of Charlotte. I don't think I realized at the time, just how smart you are. You were verbal at an early age and always very compliant. I had and still have so much fun teaching and loving you.

In this video, you are 18 months old and we are outside our house on Sunny Slope Dr. We were playing with chalk and we had been working on identifying the letter of your name. You did that as well as carry on a conversation with me.

In this video, you are 20 months old and doing one of about 10 puzzles we had around the house for you. I love how you ask, "is it?" when you don't know what something is. Obviously, you had nearly mastered it and I realize now what a feat that was at not even 2 years old.

You continue to amaze your dad and me as you near 3 years old. I am so thankful for your learning spirit and kind heart.