Charlotte

As my first baby approaches two years old (Two? When did that happen?), I've been thinking a lot about how much she has changed. It's amazing the transformation she's gone through and all the new things she's learned in just the past few weeks. So I thought I'd share a few of those things that make Charlotte the amazingly cute little girl she is.

1. Her vocabulary has recently exploded. She surprises me every day with some new word or phrase. It's so nice to be able to communicate with her. I nearly hit the floor when she came up to me the other day and said, clear as a bell, "Where'd Daddy go?" Three words sentences? Weren't you just learning to say "Mama" yesterday? She still has plenty of words that need translation for those who don't spend every day with her and other words that still sound like complete gibberish, but it is amazing how quickly the language stuff has progressed. It seems she went from pointing and grunting to logical and complete short sentences in a matter of days. I love watching the learning process. It's so cool.

2. She loves her sister. She calls her "Baby", which is bad, because I don't think Audrey will ever learn her name. Matt and I have taken to calling her baby as well. It will be just like Dirty Dancing- a teenager with the nickname Baby. A couple of nights ago we were in a hotel and both the girls were awake on one of the beds as we unloaded what we needed from the car and got settled. Charlotte laid on her said and smiled at Audrey. She kept talking to her and holding her hand, occasionally leaning over to give her kisses on the head. She was so sweet and gentle. We've started to use that love of her sister as a guilt/discipline method when she hits Audrey and pulls her hair. She does it to get back at us, so we recently tried showing her Audrey after she grabbed her face and explained that she made baby cry when she hurt her. We got the most remorseful "Sawhry" out of her and we haven't had a major episode since. Breakthrough? I sure hope so.

3. She LOVES to dance. Any time the girl hears music with a beat, she starts bending her knees and shaking her booty. It's freaking adorable. Last night in a parking lot, a car drove by blaring some rap music and Charlotte started to dance. The car stopped at a stop sign then started to pull away. As the music got quieter, Charlotte waved and told the car "bye-bye". Cuteness, I tell you. This girl has rhythm.

4. She also loves to sing. I have no idea what songs she's singing half the time, but they are the cutest songs in the world. I suspect she's making most of them up herself. Occasionally I'll hear a tune I recognize, like ABCs, Wheels on the Bus, or the Bumblebee song, but usually, it's just a lot of random words and sounds. She's taken to performing for groups. She'll stand in the middle of a room, spread out her arms to emphasize certain parts of her song, and then fall down, clap and say "yay!" when she's done. Again, freaking adorable. How much cute can one girl hold?

5. She's made a lot of headway with potty training. She's getting really good at telling us when she needs to go and is having more and more success with it. We're hoping big girl pants in six months or less. Fingers crossed. I change a lot of diapers these days.

6. She's becoming more, how should I put this?, willful, every day. This little toddler personality has developed and while cute and adorable most of the time, it's down right frustrating other times. She spends her fair share of moments in timeout, usually for not listening. Sometimes it's impossible not to laugh at her defiance. For example, yesterday Matthew could do nothing right in Charlotte's eyes. She was really tough on him. Part of it may have been the 10 hour car ride, but for whatever reason, she was kind of mouthy and moody with him. We stopped at a Dairy Queen so I could feed Audrey and get Charlotte a treat. She and Matthew shared an ice cream cone, but Charlotte started to get a little crabby and wanted to sit next to me. Matt put the ice cream cone in front of her (it had the flat bottom cone) and asked her if she wanted more. She put on the poutiest face, said no, and then proceeded to clench her fist and punch the ice cream cone. There was no chance for discipline because we both started to practically die with laughter. It was hilarious! My daughter, in a fit of poutiness, PUNCHED an ice cream cone. Priceless. Oh, how I love her.

I'll call this list good for now. It's amazing how much I'll type in these posts when I'm feeding Audrey at 5:30 in the morning and have nothing else to do while everyone else sleeps. I apologize for the Mommy brag, but I just love watching Charlotte turn into this little girl. It breaks my heart a little, but she is just so much fun as a toddler. I love watching her grow. Audrey, however, will have to stay a baby forever. I don't think I can handle watching two of my babies turn into their own persons. Sorry, Baby.