Flip Flops and a tree update

I am sure that all of you have flip flops. I am also sure that a few of you consider them 'shower shoes'. Well, at our house, they are status symbols. They are the Manolo Blahniks of Ava's world. You may remember months ago when she praised her father so highly with three comments. 1. He's my friend. 2. He's big. 3. He's got flip flops.

Well, they've taken on a new level of importance. I have officially given up in a battle with my daughter. She still is not allowed to wear these flip flops out in public. (There is absolutely no support in them, and I spent $80 in vain at the Stride Rite store earlier this year!...you decide which is the real reason.) She is allowed to wear them around the house and out in the yard. Now, she is allowed to wear them to bed.

We have been working with Ava about sleeping in her 'big girl bed'. She is supposed to stay in her bed. There are rewards for staying in...and consequences for getting out. A few mornings ago, I went in to get the girls up in the morning. I walk into their room and immediately notice that Ava must have gotten out of her bed the previous night. She has a toy in bed with her that was on the dresser the night before. I say, "Ava, last night you got out of bed and got your Dora Doodler off the dresser. That means you don't get a sticker on your chart, right?" "Yes, mama," she says. "And I've got flip flops, too". Without a hint of remorse, just very matter-of-fact, she flips back the covers and reveals darling little size 8 feet with flip flops on them! I don't know how she did it, but she slept in flip flops and actually KEPT THEM ON HER FEET! I am sure that she can walk in heels better than me! She actually may be Christine Ransdell's daughter...or maybe she belongs to Donna Hern!

So, now she is welcome to sleep in her flip flops any time she would like to. I have decided that the day is so full of important battles...and that is not one of them.

On a side note, Mark has also decided that she can eat black olives by sticking them on the ends of her fingers and eating them off, one by one. Since her so rarely makes these types of rules, I'm enjoying the one he came up with! What a fun dad!

TREE UPDATE:

Here is where Mark and Zach are with the tree. You can't tell, but it is a million inches around! Big tree!!!

Kenny has also been over to help with the tree, but more importantly, he flips Ava when he comes over. You may remember that in our family, every body loves Aunt Sandy, but Kenny is Aunt Sandy's son...and everybody loves Cousin Kenny as well! At the end of the clip, Ava is looking for Charlotte's toy 'moveo' (video camera) to record her flip!

This was our yesterday...

Our family had a wonderful yesterday. (today was definitely not a yesterday!) Mark slept in a little, so I had sweet time with the girls in the morning. They are at the age where they can take a bath together, and if I watch carefully, Ava will not drown Charlotte...or the other way around!

Then, Ava went in to wake up Daddy. She ended up lost in the land of snuggle. Looked pretty good to me.

Mark was talking to Ava a little later and caught this one. If she were in an ice cream cone, I'd eat her!

Then we documented some of Charlotte's favorite words...while Ava tries to put a hat on her. (Sorry, there should be a video here, but it won't work! Tried twice!) Over and over every day, Ava tries to treat Charlotte like a baby and Charlotte will have none of it! Ava constantly asks to 'hold' Charlotte. I am barely strong enough to 'hold' Charlotte when she's not in the mood. When I say no to Ava, it is only to protect her!

After we played at home for a while, we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, where uncharacteristically, Ava ate everything and Charlotte watched the TV and ate nothing. In Ava's defense, the food is amazing. In Charlotte's defense, 'What Not to Wear' was on the television. Then we went to Sharon Woods for a while. Ava loves the play areas and ran wild the whole time. Charlotte is actually quite the 'playground master' herself. We are going to change the sign that says, "Play area for children aged 2-5 years." to reflect Charlotte's 12-month old mastery of the place. She climbs up the stairs, turns around - or not - and goes down the slide. We always stand very close by, because she looks like she wants to go down the slide head/face first. I just don't want her to fall off at the bottom and break her pretty face!

The Neighbor's Tree + Our Fence and Garage = Mess

Well, we had a bit of a wind storm (aka landlocked hurricane) during Charlotte and Mark's birthday party Sunday. Here's the math:

The Neighbor's Tree + Our Fence and Garage = Big Expensive Mess

Don't even get me started on what I've discovered about the homeowner's insurance industry. Turns out, if the tree falls onto your property, it is your problem! So, we're responsible for the damage to our property AND handling of any part of the tree that is on our property! If this were Charlotte typing, at this point you would see a bunch of this *&)@#()!@#&!!! (she knows bad words!) What you can't tell from the pictures, is that only about 1/3 of the tree is in our yard. This is a HUGE tree!

Anyway, Mark looked very manly sitting up on a high branch with a chainsaw. I felt much better when he was sitting up in that branch while our friend Zach helped out.

Ava, the generous and thoughful one, offered Daddy the toy chainsaw that Unka Sean gave to her a couple of Christmases ago. She said, "Daddy, I carried my chainsaw downstairs for you and gave it to Mama to get to you."












And, the other day (when we, of course, were going out in public) Ava insisted on dressing herself! For your viewing pleasure...

Hope Is Hip!

I saw this on a bumper sticker today. I like it. I'm not a bumper sticker chick, but I'd like this one...

So, this is what the t-shirt says...

I saw this t-shirt online the other day. This sort of sums it all up... As soon as I get over my irrational fear of ordering things online, I'll buy it! Of course, I know that all of you love our little babies, so you're thrilled...just like us!

Yes, I am pregnant.
Yes, I know what causes it.
No, I don't have too many!!

By the way, Ava has taken to calling her girl baby doll, 'baby brother'. Usually it comes out like this: "Mom, can you hold baby brother for a minute? She is too tiny and she needs you." The really scary thing is that she has figured out this: if she's 'baby brother's' mother (which she is) then I am 'baby brother's grandmother (which I cannot bear).

It's been one year...

At this moment, it has been one year since I went into labor with Charlotte Grace. It was a very sudden and short labor. I remember being so surprised by it that I was frustrated with my dad when he was trying to get me into the car to leave. I was in my room doing something very important, I'm sure. He was laughing the laugh of a man married to a woman who had her third child in the car, when they only lived 15 minutes from the hospital. I was so sure that I had plenty of time to take care of details, and I'm sure that he didn't really think that finding matching flip-flops was important! Remembering this makes me miss him almost more than anything else has. It feels so real. Anyway, back to the star of the show!

What an amazing year! Charlotte is absolutely the most amazing 'life force' I have ever encountered. She is so full of life and amazing. She is little bits of everyone. She watches everything just like my dad and Danielle always have. She engages just like my mom and Laura. She has peaceful moments just like her dad, but she also has wild moments where she is so much like Leah that I just watch her...amazed! She makes great faces just like her GiGi. Every once in a great while, she looks like her hair might have the slightest hint of reddish (not real red...darn it!) and in those moments, she reminds me that she is related to Patrick and Havah! But, most of all, she watches and tries to be just like her big sister and hero, Ava. If you've seen her eat, you know that it deserves mention, but I don't know anyone else who eats like that...except Sahja!!

Her favorite thing to do is blow raspberries on me, and she always gives open mouth 'soap opera kisses' with the biggest mouth you've ever seen. She loves to eat everything except yellow squash, Gerber baby vienna sausages and anything you would have to feed to her. She's a lightweight, but when I asked her doctor about her appetite, Dr. S said, "feed her until she stops eating". My response was, "Dr. S, she's never stopped!" She climbed all of the way up and part of the way down the steps yesterday. She makes a 'dog' sound about dogs and today when I told Sahja to sit down, Charlie said her 'down' sound several times, looking at our little pup. She is confused about 'bye-bye', because we tell Dada 'bye-bye' every morning. She says 'Dada' while she waves. This tells me that I need to leave her more often!!! And, most hilarious of all, she learned how to throw a fit...and she throws a good one. Hold on to her tightly and watch out for her head! If she is on the floor throwing her fit, she curves her little legs around and spins a little on the floor! It is so funny, but if you laugh, I'll give you that 'don't laugh at my kid while she does something bad or I'll deck you' look...you know the one...

So here are some pictures and a video to celebrate the first anniversary of the life of Charlotte.

Happy Birthday little girl!

She has this darling little stuffed doggie that she loves. She will crawl across the room toward Dreyfus with her mouth open wide and such intense love in her eye!She grabs him and snuggles him in a way that makes the Sahjinator stay far, far away! Below, she is wallowing on that stuffed dog, Dreyfus.