Translation

Every morning on the way in to daycare, Charlotte and I listen to this wonderful Disney CD that has 30+ children songs contained on the CD (can you capture my LOVE for this CD in my first sentence?!?!?).  Some of the fun songs we sing include: "Wheels on the Bus", "Loopty Loo", "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt", etc...

Well, this morning she demanded (in a nice way) that she hears the Jack song.  I kindly told her that we have listened to this CD 134 times and there is no song on the CD that is about Jack.  Of course she replies, "Yes there is Daddy!".  So I proceed to scan through each and every song untile we get to song number 24 (roughly) and she says "There it is!".  Well what do you know, the song she was referencing was "Frere Jacques".  Once again, she proves Daddy wrong.  And I am still baffled by how she knows that the direct translation of Jacques from French to English is Jack?!?!?

Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but I never would have put the two together. :)

It's hard to capture in a post...

But, Charlotte is hilarious!  And I don't mean, oh that's so funny and cute the things she does...  the girl cracks jokes, has a very dry sense of humor, completely placates her father and mother, doesn't miss a beat with the sarcasm and mastered rolling her eyes before she was two - insert punchline, and roll the eyes.  Yep, she does it regularly. 

I often find it very difficult to discipline her when she's "funny".  I quote, b/c "funny" sometimes entails a little backtalking (oh, age 3 is so fun!), so naturally that does get disciplined, but her humor is really difficult to curb.  And I don't know that I really want to curb it!!  It's so her and a very large part of her personality - which is large to begin with!  She does dig the slapstick humor that she engages in with her Daddy, but Brian and I crack up more at her dry humor and sarcasm. 

It's no secret that the Dean's are hilarious (sorry guys - Kim is the funniest!), so naturally she inherits this from her Daddy and his side of the family!  However, Mom doesn't think she's too shabby herself!  :)  I laugh at myself anyway :)

I couldn't even begin to try to describe a few of the instances - I can't even begin to immitate her correctly.  It just doesn't do her actions justice.  But, just know that when you see her, she's probably rolling her eyes at some point; imitating you; placating you through sarcasm; giving you a look; saying "Are you kidding me?" while waiving her hands; will look at you and say "What's the problem?" and will probably at one point think to herself "these kids..." while shaking her head - the girl is always one step ahead of us and we have a very tough time keeping up!!
So, it's not you....  it's all of us collectively!!  She's a force to be reckoned with.

**Yes, this post comes off of a few instances last night, when Brian and I were clearly in the wrong. :)  LOL!!  A fresh memory! 

Actual Proof....

...that we have a teenager in the making.  This morning (like every morning), Brittany went in to wake up Princess Charlotte for daycare and like most mornings, Brittany once again experienced her 'teenage tendancies'.  Brittany gently asked her to get up and Charlotte quickly told her 'LEAVE ME ALONE."  However, this time Charlotte stuck her head under the pillow in order to avoid having to get up.  Luckily Dad was in there to snap a quick picture for proof.....

Sprokets!!

Today my daughter went to school dressed like she's Dieter from Sprockets.  Need an image? 

Yes, she wore her very lovely shirt created by my friend Lisa (http://www.lovelucascreations.com/).  Black with a monogrammed C on it (black and white damask print), and some black yoga pants.  Is she taking after her mommy already wearing a heck of a lot of black - perhaps?  But, really this child just knows what she wants.  And it REALLY shows in clothes...

Oh my, this child is a force to be reckoned with when she picks out her clothes.  Now, before you sit there and think to yourself "What in the world?  Clothes are NOT worth fighting over...  just ______ " and then think of some brilliant obvious advice, which may include:  give her options, lay them out the night before, let her wear mismatched clothes to school who cares, show her what matches and she'll get it (though this is one she uses against me - but, it doesn't match mommy!), let her freeze in a sundress when it's 40 degrees outside... - we've done it all!!!  NOT that I don't appreciate the advice, because I do - how else do you think we've tried these all?!  Because we have.  It's just she's always one step ahead of us!

What WAS working for a long time was picking out her clothes the night before.  Which happens post-getting ready for bed / pre-reading bedtime books.  I usually give a few options, she usually politely declines, and then picks out what she wants.  We lay them out, I make a huge deal of it, and then the mornings are flawless...  yes, this was working until she said to me "Let's just talk about it in the morning, okay Mommy?"  Is my child placating me again?  Yes, I think so!

And the shoes - oh the shoes!  Don't even get me started.  She has such a tough time wrapping her arms around new shoes, or something, I don't know what it is!!  She has favorites and those are the only options.  And she won't wear a pair of shoes for months (brand new) and then all of a sudden it's ALL she wants to wear!  She loves shoes, so I've had her pick them out before too and nope - she goes back to certain ones.  Now, that would be fine if there was ANY method to the madness.  I can't see any trends on what she likes or doesn't like in order to buy...  guessing game!

Yes, my sweet, very independent and strong-willed Charlie Girl is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to fashion.  Therefore, she went to school today dressed like Dieter.  Sprockets!!

Give my regards to Broadway!

Someone is hitting the stage tonight!  Stage, auditorium...  comme ci comme ca...  whatever :) 

Charlotte's first performance for school is this evening!  Unfortunately, Mommy won't be there...  I am heading to Milwaukee in a few short hours for work.  Of course I've cried over it, but Daddy will cheer her on for both of us - and take lots of pics too!  So, stay tuned for our future Broadway star!  We think we've seen a sneak peek of the lineup, since someone likes to sing - A LOT!!!  Includes:  Be Kind to Your Webfooted Friends; Rubber Duckie; Ants Go Marching; and some rain drops song to the tune of Do Your Ears Hang Low that I can't get enough of!! 

Oh, and I told Charlotte we were going to video it...  she patted my head and said "Sounds great Mommy, but that's okay.  I don't need it."

Too much, that child of ours!!

Teenager - at age 3?

Charlotte is the most difficult person to wake in the morning...  next to her mom!  She takes after me to a T.  Even right down to her uncanny ability to naturally shout out things like "leave me alone", "go away mommy!", "don't wake me" and "get out of here!" while trying to wake her.  By the age of 32, I've managed to curb it to very simple, yet profound, "five more minutes" - but, alas...  it's takes time to develop that diplomacy and panache :)  The three year old reaction is real!  And exactly what I want to say....  :)  (wait...  maybe Brian should be writing this post....)

Well, today she woke up in a very grumpy mood!!  And just wouldn't shake it off!  She was full equipped with her bravado listed above, and begged me to leave her alone and go shower (and I couldn't be rid of that fast!).  I put her back to bed to start a do-over - much to her dismay...  finally I exited and left to get ready while she and Brian carried on their morning.  And no sooner than just a few minutes later, this little sprite bops into my bathroom while I'm getting ready and looks right up at me with a big smile and said "I'm not sad anymore.  Good morning!" and gave me a kiss.  I picked her up, she gave me a hug and a kiss, and told her I loved her...  and she hugged me and kissed me right back and told me she loved me.  And then bopped back into her room.  Just like that - minutes post-WWIII she's as peaceful as can be and carrying on her normal day. 

I shudder to think what the mornings will be like when she's 13. 
 

Charlie Girl Rules

I went to update the blog and someone hacked into it and wrote a novel. (JK honey)  That was actually a very nicely written recap of the past 6 months.

I just wanted to pop in super quick to show everyone a quick picture of what life is like with Charlie Girl.  We keep talking about how she rules this house, but I think a picture speaks louder than words....

Don't leave me yet!!

Man that was a long post!!  But, it takes a bit to catch up on the (almost) last six months....  Promise they will be shorter in the future!  I know you aren't visiting to get the college course, and I will stick to the cliffs notes versions :)

We're bad and we're back!

Okay, so I dropped the blog - third times a charm like Brian said.  I was just soooooo overwhelmed!  So much happens at the end of the year, and you have to document it and hopefully add a little pics too - but, we were so busy enjoying it!  After Zoe's birthday was Thanksgiving - great to be home visiting friends and family.  Then came Christmas - loads of fun!!  Lots of sugar plum dreams and even a housecall visit from Santa!  Then came the new year...  and wow, it's already April!
In that time, one of our girls got bigger and we lost the other.  Unfortunately on March 18, 2010 we lost our beloved Zoe.  It was a rapid decline, and it was time for Zoe to go...  we actually tried to give her a treatment plan again, but she was in extreme pain and not healthy - all of the signs were there.  We knew this day was coming and embraced it seven months prior, but it didn't make it any easier whatsoever...  we wanted to keep fighting for her until the end!  She was our baby!! 

She started rapidly declining on Sunday and passed away on Thursday.  Looking back, I do think she was telling us...  she would go out in the back yard and just stand in the same place.  And typically looked away from the house, periodically looking back...  and then she would come in after some coaxing and then turn around and walk back out, doing the exact same thing.  It's like she was trying to tell it she was leaving.  We took her in on Monday, developed a treatment plan with the vet, and then by Wednesday we took her back in again because the treatment plan wasn't having any impact on her.  Wednesday night, we went in to say goodbye as a family (dressed in our green!), and it was good.  Zoe was in bad shape, and of course it went about as well as you would imagine with a three year old in a vet examining room - most kids might have been a little timid, but seeing as how Charlotte knew all of the staff there and we found ourselves in those exam rooms many times taking Zoe in, Charlotte felt like she rules the place!  What IV, get out of my way :)  Still, it was great to say goodbye to our girl  We loved her so and told her what a good sister puppy she was and how much we cared for her.  The next day Brian and I planned to go in to finally say goodbye to her and she had other plans - she went before we made it there. 

Our family still mourns Zoe and the house is definitely empty.  Hard to believe it's only been a month, but we talk about her all of the time!  Friends have been very kind to us giving us a book, a frame for Zoe's picture and a tag to remember her by.  And Charlotte was definitely impacted - we have been very honest with her, and she knew all along that Zoe was sick (and very well explained to me by another mom - big sick and little sick!  Zoe was BIG sick!), and we told her that she isn't coming back...  once in awhile she will bring her up and say that she misses her "very a lot"  :)  We tell her it's okay to miss her and that we miss her too. 

One day I think our family will embrace another dog, but for now Zoe holds our heart.

On to a happier note...  Charlotte turned THREE!!!!  Wow, three is SO MUCH FUN!  She is so funny, witty, smart, onery, sweet, loving and a bit devlish all wrapped into one ball of big blue eyes and curls!  She most definitely keeps us on our toes.  Some say that three is harder than two - the end of two was a little daunting for Brian and myself, so we were holding on tight white knuckled wondering what three would bring...  I dare go into details, for fear of a one-eighty ahead of me, but I do think we've turned a great corner!  This past January and February was scary, so maybe it was leading up to three for us?  One can only hope!

We had a great celebration - Olivia themed - with our friends/family in Cleveland.  We celebrated in March in Cincinnati with the Dean side also covering Daddy's and Aunt Amy's birthdays (and saw Yo Gabba Gabb live on stage!), and we'll see Mom's side of the family later this month.  This child could not want for more!!  :)  She is spoiled rotten, but so creative and sweet and endearing too - it's hard not to shower!!

Another big milestone - she's potty trained!  Brian had a day off last December and PT'd her in one day - literally that night we went to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate - and she went in underwear!!  We went to stores, restaurants, everywhere.  We did put on pull ups for the trip home to Cincinnati for the holiday and after those few days, we went back to the underwear - and she didn't miss a beat.  She is quite in tune with going to the bathroom and it's definitely not a secret when she accomplishes the goal!  Which includes:  running through a store or restaurant yelling to me about her success (while Daddy trails); giving specific details on her accomplishment; and even still justifying how some accomplishments warrant m&m's over others...  let's just say it was carried out without a hitch and we are very proud of her!  She expressed interest very early (18 mos) and even started telling her teachers 5 times a day that she had to go - we ALL thought she would be potty trained well before she was.  Then she dug in her heels, declared that diapers were for babies and that she would only wear pullups (this was shortly after she turned 2) and carried this on for more months...  finally at age 2y 8mos she was potty trained - looking back, I'm glad I didn't push b/c it was way too easy when she finally was!  Typical Charlie Girl - on her terms.  The girl knows what she wants!

Another milestone - she moved up to Montessori class!  We were experiencing some not so lovely behavior in January and February...  and apparently she was doing the same at school and they came to us asking if we were noticing a change at school - um, YES!!!!  So, school proposed bumping her up early.  Her Montessori class is supposed to start at age 3, and has an integrated class of 3, 4 and 5 year olds.  By this point she was spending a few hours a day in Montessori anyway, so this was a good and natural progression.  In typical Montessori fashion...  they wanted to do it on her terms - and the transition was ROUGH!  Rough on her, on us, etc.  Looking back I almost think it was too flexible / borderline wishy-washy.  I get why they want to do it on the kids terms, achieving their buy-in, but we've never been a big transitioner when it comes to Charlotte's changes.  We just start doing something new...  so, I think the fact that she had options of being in Toddlers or Montessori was too much - finally two weeks after this we cut the cord and sent her to Montessori fulltime and she didn't miss a beat.  She did great!  And she's really enjoying it!  It's a whole.new.world.  Toddler always did a great job of having an appropriate curriculum and she leaned so much there (again, integrated ages 18 mos - 36 mos).  But, this was like popping straight into school.  Independently child-led (Montessori), and definitely play based (they have killer practical life stuff!  It's great!), but she is just learning so much!!  She tells us about planets, and how they go round and round; what a groundhog is and how it lives in the ground and we wait for it to come up; she sings a ridiculous amount of new songs (she's been practicing for her upcoming performance - spring show), etc...  It's so fun watching her being completely engaged and captured!  And I think this is linked to the turn in behavior as well - thank goodness!

Well, this will catch everyone up for now!  Back on the blog.

 

Charlotte Blogging?

So, I wasn't sure what to blog about today, so I decided to give Charlotte creative control for this one post. 
So without further ado, I present you with Charlotte's first blog post (and most likely the last):

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I am so serious about this blog that I signed up for mobile blogging! In fact, I am writing this post from my iPhone... Watch out world!!!!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Charlotte's daycare has been doing various activities throughout the week to to celebrate 'The Week of the Young Child' (WOYC). The purpose of the WOYC is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet their needs.  The fun activities span between school and home and have included some of the following:

• Brittany and I decorated a cardboard cutout of a child and made it look like Charlotte
• Charlotte learned about children in other countries and what they eat and play with
• Take your child to work day (which included me taking a cut-out of Charlotte's hand to work)
• Family story time
• Blowing bubbles outside and taking home a balloon

Today is the last day of the WOYC and they get to either dress up or talk about what they want to be when they grow up. While Brittany and I thought for sure that Charlotte was going to be a princess, she actually took in her Fisher Price play doctor's bag (complete with stethoscope, syringe, bandaids, etc...) because she wants to be an animal doctor!!!  She loves her stuffed animals and always talks about Zoe's vet too.  In fact she told me this morning that she wants to make animals not be sick anymore.  I found that to be extremely profound; however, what impressed me more was the fact that she said she wasn't going to take care of tigers and wolves because they had sharp teeth.  She will instead take care of elephants and giraffes because they won't bite. LOL!!!

3rd times a charm, right?

After digging through my emails at work, I stumbled across the link to our 'Life with Charlie Girl' blog. After wiping off the cobwebs and dust, I perused through the 41 posts we have made over the past 2+ years and really enjoyed reflecting on the past. Especially now that Charlie Girl is a very mature 3 years old. It was extremely enjoyable to look back on how little she was and how much she has grown. So I decided it was time to give this thing one more shot. I quickly emailed Brittany and she was kind enough to inform me that I have only made a couple posts over the life of the blog. So I guess it is now my turn to give writting a shot.... however, as I sit and write this, I have a strong recollection that it was Brittany's idea to start a blog and not mine. One of these days, I am going to learn how all the wives in this world can get us men to do stuff we don't want too. LOL!!!

So there it is... all dusted off and ready to go. I will work on making updates about Charlotte in the very near future.

Peace and hairgrease....
Charlotte's Daddy