27 lbs
35 inches
Charlotte has changed so much over the past 6 months. Her growth both physically and intellectually are astonishing. She continues to amaze me daily with her verbal skills and intelligence. She is sweet, and loving and STUBBORN, and sassy, and funny, and timid, way too smart, energetic, polite, enthusiastic, and just about my favorite person on the planet.
Her favorite things:
BABIES. (Is that genetic?) Sweet girl LOVES her babies. She spends the majority of her day rocking, feeding, changing, putting to sleep and loving on her babies. We never leave the house without a baby and she usually wears her baby in her little carrier, just like mommy wears brother, when we go shopping. Every time we go to Target she begs me to get a new baby, we must have 50 dolls in this house. It is so sweet to hear her talking to her baby so tenderly. She is the best little mommy.
Ryder. She loves her baby brother. It is amazing to see her be so patient with him, even though he is constantly crawling on her and taking her toys. She is always thinking of him, reminding me to not forget him when we leave the house. She is the best big sister.
Dancing. Sometimes a girl's just gotta dance. Almost every afternoon she says to me, "Mom, can you turn on the music, I need to dance!" Her skills leave much to be desired (sorry, Charlotte you can blame me for that) but her heart is in it 110%. She will dance for an hour to the same song and be in heaven the entire time.
Sleeping. She sleeps every day from 7:30-9:00 and a 3 hour nap. She loves her crib, has never attempted to climb out, will hang out her crib for and hour playing with her babies and talking to herself. Most days, her crib is the only time she gets to play by herself.
Charlie- Those two are quite a pair. When they are together the volume in this house quadruples. Charlie spends the entire time hamming it up, and Charlotte indulges him by laughing hysterically at everything he does. It is so sweet to see their friendship really blossoming. She is happiest when Charlie is around.
Family- We are so incredibly blessed to have so much family in town. The biggest reason we moved back to Redding was so our kids would know their grandparents, and she is reaping the benefits of this! She absolutely adores all of her grandparents, loves spending time at their houses, going out to eat with them, playing with them. Jeremy and I could not be happier to know our kids are building such strong relationships with their grandparents. It's what we always hoped for.
Reading- We read at least 3 books every night, and she is always asking for more. She will sit and listen to stories for hours. We recently started checking books out from the library and she is so excited. She has her own book bag, helps put the books back and pick out the new ones. Hopefully it is the start of a lifelong love of reading.
Dress-up: A few weeks ago, completely out of the blue, she decided she has a favorite dress. It is a cute brown dress from last fall, that is too small and not summery at all. She wears it everyday. First thing she says in the morning, "where is my cute dress, with the flowers and the buttons?" She puts it on and cries every time I take it off. I got so tired of the dress I hid it, she spent 20 minutes looking for it, came out of her room crying, "I can't find my cute dress anywhere!" I caved and gave it back to her. I have to negotiate with her to get her out of it. It comes with us everywhere and the second we get back in the car from our activity, she asks to change into it. She sleeps in it. She often pairs it with high heals or red cowboy boots. Fashionista.
The absolute best part of having a 2.5 year old is listening to her talk. And I really am not exaggerating when I say she NEVER stops talking. If she is awake, she it talking. I wish there was a way to record everything she says, because she is the funniest little person I have ever met. Her vocabulary is unbelievable. She said to me the other day, "Mom, you look stunning in that pretty dress." I have had more than one person ask me if she is 4 or 5 after they listen to her talk. She says, "Mom, I have to tell you something, can you hear me? Ok...let me think..." She tells Ryder, "Ryder! Don't touch that, it's so breakable! It's very fragile, we have to be careful with our things." I could fill a book with all the funny things she says. She keeps me laughing constantly.
She know her alphabet, can recognize most letters, and is starting to associate the sounds with the letters. Uncle Tay asked her, what letters says "duh"? She says, "Duh, Duh..... D!!! I remembered that!"
She knows all her shapes. She is not super consistent with colors, but I'm pretty sure she knows them. She can work an iPhone better than most adults. She has at least 10 books memorized. She know the lyrics to more than 30 songs. She loves to make up her own verses to the songs.
She can be painfully timid in new situations. She is very cautious. Still won't go down the slide at the park. Clams up in big crowds, never talks to strangers. We go to story time and she spends most of the time in my lap just observing everything.
She can tell where Jeremy is going based on what he is wearing. She knows where we both work. She recognizes places as we drive around town. "Look mom! There's Chipotle! I love their rice and milk."
She is fully potty trained, except at night. She never had a single pee accident from day one. The poo took her a little longer to get the hang of, but once she did, she never looked back.
She is the one of the biggest blessings in our lives. She gave me the job I have coveted my entire life; and it has exceeded my expectations. She has taught me more about love, patience, joy and grace than I have ever known in my entire life. She makes me strive to be a better mom and a better person. She made us a family. The past 2.5 years have been the best years of my life and I can't wait for the 50 with her.
Charlotte Grace, we love you beyond measure.
