Charlotte: three and a quarter

Although it may not seem like it due to my lack of blogging this year, I could fill a novel with all the gushing I could do about Charlotte at this age. Gosh, I love three. Sure, she has her “toddler moments,” but overall Chris and I can’t stop marveling over how enchanting our kid is. And discussing it with each other at night after she goes to bed… or on the phone during the day… or right in front of her like she’s not even there. Really. We are so in so love with this one. (Spoken like a true parent, huh?)

At three and a quarter, Charlotte is all about science. While she loves stories, many of her favorite books are non-fiction. She has books about animals, dinosaurs, planets, and sea life that she just loves to look through and have us read to her. Because she’s so inquisitive, she knows all about carnivores and herbivores, where certain animals are from, and that chimps unfortunately eat baby monkeys (but they mostly eat bananas, I assured her, which makes her feel better). “It’s the circle of life,” has become something Chris and I have been saying pretty often these days, particularly after watching a Nova special on killer whales or carnivorous cats. 

Plastic animals and dinosaurs are still her toy-of-choice, and she always has to take at least one wherever we go. Right now she is sleeping with two girraffs, an elephant, and a baby and mama polar bear. Meanwhile, the basket of cuddly stuffed animals at the foot of her bed is left untouched. She shows even less interest in baby dolls. She has three of them, and I’m pretty sure she’s never played with any one!

Oh, but she adores real babies. She coos over babies Jack and Kenneth at daycare and loves to help her babysitter feed them their bottles. She is always telling me how Jack is “sooo cute,” and she gets all googly-eyed just thinking about her new baby brother or sister. (Can you hear my sigh of relief through the computer?) 

Other things she loves: Star Wars (Darth Vader, in particular. She doesn’t know he’s the bad guy. Ha!), museums, bubbles, Frozen and all its music (okay, all Disney movies), traveling to visit family and having visitors stay with us, going to the library, reading books to us, eating cereal/sandwiches/pasta/fruit, riding down the hill in the babysitter’s yard on the little scooter, maps, jumping. 

Things she’s not so into: Drawing/coloring (she is happier to paint), dolls, wearing dresses, being a daredevil, baths/washing her hair (STILL), getting ready for bed, going home (she always wants to go somewhere!), talking to strangers.

Now, how about a little dose of Charlish to spice things up?

Charlotte was trying to remember where she got one of her horse toys: “I think I got it at…Happy Face.” (aka Goodwill!)

 Katy on the phone to Chris: Boo-boo’s barking his head off at the thunder.  Charlotte: I don’t want Boo-boo’s head to fall off!

Therese (Charlotte’s baby sitter) got Charlotte’s dinosaur toys at “The Dollar Treat” (aka The Dollar Tree) .

K: What does daddy do when he tutors?                                                                                 C: He teaches a little girl how to count!

K: What do you want to be when you grow up?                                                                     C: Nothing.                                                                                                                                           K: Oh, you’re going to just be a bum then?                                                                           C: No, I’m going to be a kid.

This happens all the time: K and C: Charlotte, would you to _________, or not?C: Not. 

Every day now I feel like I am seeing more and more of a little kid in my sweet baby. And aside from the cute/funny childish examples posted above, every day she’ll ask me something or respond to one of my questions in a way I don’t expect – sounding so grown up I can hardly believe she was only born three and a quarter years ago. This year has been the biggest eye-opener for me as to how fleeting our precious time really is. It’s made me re-think a lot about how I want to spend my days and hold on to memories. In two years I’ll have a kindergartener. Just wow.

As I’m writing this post I realize that all this mushy stuff is really something most people don’t have much interest in reading about other people’s children. I’ve been thinking about this blog lately and am reminding myself that this writing is for Charlotte. I want her to have a collection of her pictures and important milestones and happy memories all stored in one place. I’m also hoping it will help her understand just how much we love her, forever, no matter what. 

I plan to post about the new baby, too, of course! From now on, I think I am going to make all Charlotte and baby-related posts password protected. So if you’d like to continue following along with those updates, please let me know in the comments or by email!