Winter is here

I meant to get this up last week, but just didn't get that far. This is Charli after we got home last week during the snow storm. She wanted to walk in the snow but instead ended up in it. She didn't much care for it then. But I was able to catch it on film.

On Sunday while I was getting ready to start some Christmas cookie baking, Papa helped Charli with this wooden stable and nativity play set. They had too much fun assembling and knocking it down. The cutest was when I was walking away, camera off (of course) and Charli kissed the angel.
Hopefully I'll get some shots of her "helping" with the baking this weekend. Of course it is all dependent on how much she actually helps with.

Breakfast with Santa

This Saturday Charli's daycare, Pony Preschool had breakfast with Santa at the American Legion in Bayport. After breakfast, the kids sang a couple of songs with Pastor Rich. (The daycare is housed in our church and Pastor Rich does chapel with them every Wednesday)

When we got there, Santa was near the buffet line and he scooped Charli up. I was surprised that she was as willing as she was.

Jake and Emma were with us (they had an overnight at Jama and Papa's house Friday night due to Dustin's car accident). So, I was also able to snap a quick picture of the three of them with Santa. My camera is acting up and I have yet to get a new one but oh, well, at least I got some pictures.

Charli was getting ready to sing with her friends.

Oops, we need a family Santa picture first.

Pastor Rich playing guitar and leading the kids in songs.

After the family Santa picture Charli didn't want to go sing with her friends. Luckily Addyson's mom was on the stage and she decided it was okay to sit with her.

Here's Connie, one of the owners handing out the jingle bells for the next song.

Hannah was getting into it, but for some reason Charli decided to play shy. Not at all her normal behavior.

Group shot of the kids and part of the crowd.

Here's Charli literally running around the place when the performance and breakfast were over.

She only slowed down to play and climb on the railing surrounding the stage.

It was a lot of fun. The staff at Pony did a fabulous job. I feel very fortunate to have found such a wonderful place for Charli to be while I'm at work. Connie, Cory, Tracey, Christine, Kelci and Trista are teachers that Charli has had or will have and she loves them all, as do I. And so I say to them, Thank You!!!

And so we start

the potty training process. Potty chair, check. Big girl pants, check. Flushable wipes, check. Rewards, check.

These were taken yesterday. I was trying to encourage her to sit and try. So I handed her some of the Sunday ads to look at while she tried. She liked looking at he pictures.

Charli and I had a whole weekend at home with the emphasis being on her going potty on the potty chair. Saturday was not great. I was nearly ready to call it quits. If you haven't done this yet, it's not really that bad, but then again it's not real fun either. I stayed really positive for her and kept encouraging her to try. But she had more accidents than successes. I went through nearly every pair of big girl pants (the double layer kind) and a ton of rags. As Sunday approached I was optimistic that maybe this would be a better day. She had 2 small accidents before nap time. (I am still doing diapers for naps and nighttime right now) And then after her nap it was like a switch was flipped. She went in the potty chair the rest of the day. She even went all by herself a couple of times and would come running to tell me, "mommy, peepee". The first time I thought it was an accident but was thrilled to find out it wasn't. My folks dropped by to drop off a casserole they'd made for us and she even went while they were there. She was soooo excited. She jumps up and claps her hands and cheers. I think it's adorable. Now if we can just keep this up.

Today she is at school and they will continue to work with her. I am hopeful that she will continue to get better with each day. And if all does go well, we may just be done with daytime diapers by Christmas. Now that would be a real present. I'll let you know.....

Happy Halloween

I bought this pink flamingo costume 7 years ago. I thought my neice Emma would look adorable in it, which she did. And then I wanted to save it for someday when I had my own daughter. Karen gave it to me last year but it was too big. But it was perfect for this year.

Charli loves her "pingo" costume. They had a Halloween party at school last Wednesday so she was really kind of into the whole thing. We started the day out as we do most Saturdays, at Espressly Yours in Woodbury. I put candy in her bucket and she handed it out to the owner and the ladies we meet with. She had fun doing that. Here she is checking out what's left in her bucket.
And then we went home to carve our pumpkin. I opted to only do one of the smaller ones as I didn't feel like gutting more than that. She thought the seeds were really fun to play with. Needless to say, I had pumpkin seeds all over the kitchen and she was covered.

She had to hold it and check it out every step of the way...

Here it is all done

Charli let me snap a few pictures before we headed out into the neighborhood to trick or treat.

Going between the houses she would make frequent stops to check on her candy. I thought it was pretty cute.

Here we are done and getting cold.

But the best was once inside, she didn't want to take her costume off. She didn't even want to take the hood off. So of course I made her stand for a few more pictures. She makes such a cute flamingo that I just couldn't resist.

What a fun night. I can't wait for next year.

Fall leaves

Last year Charli had only been home a little over a month when I stopped on a road near my folks house to snap some pictures with the beautiful fall leaves. Well, I stopped on that same road today. I can't get over how much she's changed in a year.

Here's Fall 2008.....

Now look at her. (Fall 2009) She's grown so much and has really changed from a baby to a toddler.

I can't wait to see what next year brings. Good thing there's a place we can go every year for some quick fall color shots to see the constant and the changes.

Two year olds....

I had to snap this picture last week while she slept at the office. You see she was a real spitfire that morning and I thought this picture sure contradicts her earlier outburst. They are so darn sweet when they sleep.

Her new favorite thing to do is to help Papa fee the birds at his house. She thinks it's really cool. She carries out the bucket of bird seed from the garage. (I don't know what she'll do when it's full)

Not all of the seeds make it into the bird house but she likes to try.

All done, now time to close it up and take it to the garage.

Yesterday the Bayport Fire Department came to her daycare. Each kid was sent home with a packet full of neat stuff and they each got their own fire hat. Charli loved hers. She wore it off and on all night. As you can see it went back on after we put our jammies on. I thought this was just too cute to not snap a picture of. (note she's saying "cheese")

Today Charli wore her new "skinny" jeans to the office with a hand knit sweater from one of my mom's friends. I wanted to get a picture. I swear she's posing... (and yes they're skinny jeans because finding plain/basic jeans for a 2 year old who can still wear 18 month clothes but needs the 24's for length is NOT easy to find. These are not only skinny but have the much loved adjustable waist)

Now I feel as though I've finally caught you up on her recent endeavors. I hope to take her out in the leaves sometime if the rains ever stop. We'll just have to see what happens.

Such a girl

Charli is such a girlie girl. It cracks me up and yet it is also rather frustrating when you're in a hurry. Earlier this week I was trying to get her out of her "mammies" (that'd be jammies to you and me) and get her dressed to head to the office. I had a cute little dress and tights picked out as the weather is definitely fall-esque. I got the tights on her and she immediately began to tug them off. "No wanna" was what I got. I tried leggings and again NO. We ended up with anklets. Stubborn little thing. She also likes to pick out her own shoes. Fortunately, I've been able to narrow it down to 2 or 3 pairs for her to pick from.

As for what else is new, she LOVES to sing. She can sing her ABC's fairly well. She also loves "Hoppeye Birfday", "mouse" (farmer in the dell), "nana" (Banana rhyming song) and EIEIO. Her vocabulary is growing every day.

And soon we will start the potty training process. She is getting very interested in it. I bought the potty chair last week. She of course had to sit on it right away. And within the firs few hours of it being home she did piddle and do a small poop. Of course I was thrilled and am now hopeful that when we start this process in earnest it goes smoothly. But only time will tell.

I will do my best to get some new/updated pictures up. She's growing up so darn fast.

Today is...

Forever Day. For many in the adoption world, they refer to this special day as "Gotcha Day". I chose to go with "Forever Family Day". It was one year ago today in Guatemala in the lobby of the Casa Serena that Charlotte was placed in my arms FOREVER!!!! It is hard to believe it's been a year. But what a wonderful year it's been. I put a collage picture together of "Then and Now's" for you to see. She really was a baby when she came home at one year old and now at two she's truly a toddler. (the pix of the two of us in the "now" row were taken yesterday)

I just can not imagine my life without her!!! She really and truly is a gift from God!!!

Happy Forever Day, Charli!!! I love you, mama.

Just another day

I just had to put this up. I took Charli to the Target Portrait Studio for some 2 year old photos last Friday. I put some of the old sponge rollers in her hair and ponytail. She thought she was sooo cool. She had to go sit on the rocker to pose for pictures.

But this is my favorite. Charli doesn't go to "school" on Tuesdays. She generally spends part to most of the day at my mom's. And as she has done lately, she finished lunch and then announced, "No nah-nee" which means no nap. Right. My mom tried multiple times to get her to lay down but she wouldn't. Papa went home around 3:45PM and she climbed up on his lap to read books. Well, as you can see, they both fell asleep. (thanks mom for finding my camera and taking this picture.)

And finally the party....

I really wanted to get a picture of her in this outfit, just cause I like it. It has flamingos on the shirt so why wouldn't I?? :-) But of course Charli decided to play shy.

Until Dan came along to get her giggling.

And then I had Dan snap one of the two of us just for good measure.

The Murillo twins having lunch.

Here's "little" Louie smiling for the camera

Charli didn't eat much lunch due to all the excitement but she did manage to eat her dip

Getting ready to open presents

Yeah, presents!!!

back to the pool for all the kiddos

Charli loves the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoon right now so I went with a Mickey cake. It seemed the most logical choice for this year anyway.

Charli's favorite was the frosting

She kept grabbing more as I was cutting the cake. A picture was definitely needed....