Gymnastics

A few weeks ago, we went with our neighbors to their gymnastics class for "bring a friend to class week." It's a local gym in Downers Grove...and as it turned out, Charlotte LOVED it. So, we decided to enroll her in a gymnastics class once a week. This is not an every day, run of the mill gym. It's an actual competition gym. Her coach is Russian..it's serious :) She was working on cartwheels today. Maybe we'll see Charlotte in the Olympics around 2024....who knows! Wait until Kevin finds out that we are going to have to move to wherever Bella Karosi lives, lol!!

Sorry for the picture quality...I don't know their rules and I was taking them through a window with no flash...

Char's Style

Charlotte is really into dressing herself and picking out her own clothes lately. Especially at bedtime. Only, she can't let go of her summer jammies...her solution? Layering. Brilliant! And, it's super cute to see her combos :)

Blah...

I have to apologize for my lack of posts lately. I'm just in a funk. My mom is not doing well and I just tend to shut down. The blog falls below taking out the garbage lately. I'm not even taking that many pictures lately...and those of you who know me know that that speaks volumes about my mood. So, I went through my recent pics to find a few I haven't posted so that I could at least give you guys something :)

This was a few weeks ago when Kevin and I were hanging shelves and artwork in our living room (aka wine room). We finally got some furniture for that room, after 1 1/2 years! Charlotte ran upstairs and threw on her construction worker outfit and came downstairs to help us hammer and saw :) So cute!

Charlotte getting ready to go to school! Her school has a hill that they can sled down..so, if it's a good snowy day that isn't too cold...we get an e-mail to bring the kids in snowpants, boots and all the fixins...cause they'll be sledding. Char was super excited to don her new snowpants for the first time this winter!

While Charlotte was at school, Nate and I went out in the backyard to play in the snow. He was having a great time!

Snow Nugget

Natey helping daddy cook. It is HILARIOUS how if the kids see Kevin cooking..they immediately run and grab a chair and push it up to the island counter and then run to the drawer where we keep the hats and aprons to get their cooking gear. They LOVE to help us cook.

I took this picture tonight after I went in to check on Nate and saw him clutching his little Charlie Brown doll. He loves Charlie Brown. I mean, it's the end of January and he still wants to watch Charlie Brown Christmas every day. Kevin loves Charlie Brown too....like father, like son!

And last, but certainly NOT least..Grandma Judy got married a few weeks ago!! She was a beautiful bride and we couldn't be happy for her and Ron!

Our Kids' Glazed Expressions

Since yesterday was a holiday and Kevin had the day off, we decided to do something fun together as a family. We settled on painting our own pottery...something we had never tried before. There is a place in Downers Grove called "Glazed Expressions" so we decided to give it a try. The kids loved it! They each picked out two pieces to paint and then what colors they wanted to use. We can't wait to pick them up next week after they have been baked and glazed!

Nate painting his masterpieces

Charlotte painting a jewelry box

Charlotte painting a butterfly

Getting ready to get started

So happy!

Daddy helping Charlotte with a few finishing touches

Nate's crocodile and turtle

Charlotte's jewelry box..it will look much different when it gets glazed

A New Friend

Charlotte has a new friend. Her name is Audrey. Charlotte loves her...she goes everywhere that Charlotte goes. She is also...imaginary. That's right..Charlotte has a new imaginary friend named Audrey. Audrey just joined us about two days ago. But, Charlotte's teachers all know about Audrey. In fact, today...the kids were playing outside (because it was 50 degrees in Chicago...in January) and I was waiting in the pick up line for Charlotte. The line is in full view of the playground. As it was nearing time to go, the bell rang..letting all the kids know it's time to go inside and get ready to leave for the day. However, I saw Charlotte and her friend, Maddy frantically searching the playground for something. I sent Char to school with a pink flower in her hair that morning. I noticed she was searching the playground...sans flower. I assumed Maddy was helping her look for it. I was at the point where I was going to get out of the car to tell her not to worry about it (they are a dime a dozen...well, not really, but cheap anyway). But, Charlotte ran inside. When her teacher walked her to my car 5 minutes later, she informed me that Charlotte had to go back outside to look for Audrey. Alrighty then! I even had to tuck Audrey into bed this evening.

The only thing that slightly freaks me out about this whole "Audrey" situation is that we almost named Charlotte, Audrey. Please refer to this post where I talk about it!!!

http://clinninfamily.blogspot.com/2011/05/happy-3rd-birthday-charlotte.html

Charlotte has no friends named Audrey...we don't really know anyone named Audrey (that she sees on a regular basis) So, sort of weird.

Speaking of "pick up/drop off lines" the funniest thing happened this morning in the drop off line. Her preschool has a circular drive that we all park in while we are waiting for the teachers to come out and get them. That's right...I'm spoiled...we wait in our cars, wait our turn to drive up to the door and a teacher comes to the car door and gets them out of the car. I guess that tuition money should get you something!! Put, it's a nice perk when you have another kid in the car. Can you imagine me having to drag Nate into the school twice a day? He'd freak out...he'd want to play with everything...but I digress. So, as I mentioned, it was about 50 degrees here today...beautiful!!! (calm before the storm since we are expecting 6-10 inches of snow tomorrow) I looked in my rearview mirror and saw several of the kids torsos protruding from their parents sunroofs...having a conversation with each other in the line. So, what did I do, I opened mine and helped Char stand on the center console so she could talk to her friends. It was adorable..they were all yelling, "Hi so and so, how are you" (before anyone freaks out...we were PARKED and the kids were all unstrapped from their car seats so the teachers can easily get them out of the car) These three/four year olds were having the time of their lives hanging out of the cars talking to each other. It was so funny. Conversations between kids of this age are already funny...but add in the circumstance and it was super cute. It reminded me of that old show, "You can't do that on television" where all of the kids pop out of lockers and have conversations with each other.

Radio Silence

There's an odd silence in our house these days...because the next step after becoming a "crib free" household is becoming a "monitor free" household. This has been a shock to my senses, literally. Since May of 2008, I have slept with the white noise and the glow of a video monitor by my head...and for many months, I slept with two separate ones by my head. At the snap of a finger, I could glance over and see what both of my children were doing...if they were sleeping, awake, screwing around, laughing, being abducted, etc. But, now I simply have to rely on mother's intuition. Both kids are fully capable of coming to get us if something is wrong...there is no need to have Big Brother (aka..me) looming in their rooms at all hours. The first few nights were rough. I keep checking on Nate (Char's monitor has been gone for a while). I also tossed and turned from the lack of the comforting white noise that I had grown accustomed to. But, eventually it was fine to cut the cord...or pull it, in this case.

Now, if I have lulled you into believing that this has been the best thing for me...that I am now getting sleep where I wasn't before...let me clear that up right away. No....no, no, no. We are having major issues with BOTH kids staying in their beds until the morning. They both go to beds in their own beds...but eventually one or both end up with me. It's almost comical. I know I should just walk them back to their rooms and put them back to bed. But, I usually end up taking the first one to wake into the guest room to sleep with me...because it's the path of least resistance and I am typically exhausted at the ungodly hour that this occurs. Then, usually...the next one wakes up and just crawls right into bed with us. But, me and two toddlers in a queen bed isn't the best situation...they are quite squirmy. So, I end up sleeping horizontally at the foot of the bed while they lounge at the top...nice, right?

So, lose a monitor...gain two toddler sleeping pals. Hmmmph...I should have stuck with the monitor!

Charlotte, Charlotte, and Charlotte

Here is Charlotte, with her twin dolls...Charlotte and Charlotte. All in matching pajamas! Kevin says it's like Newheart...this is Daryl and this is my other brother, Daryl. She's either very uncreative or narcissistic.

New Do

Charlotte is showing off her new look...she got about 3 inches snipped off last night. It was looking a little scraggily...so I suggested we should think about a haircut, in her mind that meant we were going that very minute for a haircut. Luckily, Kevin came home early from work...so, he and Nate hung out while Charlotte and I headed to the mall. She is also sporting her fab bathrobe that she got from Grandma Judy for Christmas. She loves to don her robe after her bath so that I can blow dry her hair..what a Diva!

View from the back