Prom 2011

I think I have attended my eleventh prom. I went to three when I was in high school, and I have chaperoned at least 8 but honestly I am starting to lose count! Bryce was in charge of Prom for his high school, so off we went. The night turned out to be really special (though really rainy) and we even managed to get over to South City Kitchen for dinner in between setting up the prom site and kids arriving. Bryce does an amazing job getting everything together for his school, and more importantly he stays so cool, calm, and collected. When I was in charge of Prom at my school I felt like a crazy lady for a month leading up to it and I even had to bring it home a lot of the time. With Bryce you would never know all the effort he puts into it from the outside, he is really able to just get the job done and not worry about it. His school is lucky to have him!

Pictures from the nitrogen blast at Prom:








It only lasts about 30 seconds, but what an effect!

Swim class

We enrolled Charlotte in Swim Class for the second year in a row. She made leaps and bounds in progress last year and I wanted to continue her growth (and make sure she wasn't scared of the water again!). Charlotte cried the whole time during our first session last year and this time she cried too.....because we had to leave! She absolutely loved it this year and she was quite the show off. The swim instructor used her as an example for everyone, and I even kept hearing one of the other moms saying "See honey, Charlotte can do it!". I wanted to tell her that Charlotte has done this before but the class isn't really set up for parent conversation. We are really all over the pool this time. We worked on climbing up out of the pool (elbow, elbow, knee, knee) and the safe way to get back into the pool (roll over onto your stomach and slide in holding on to the side). We also worked on paddling our arms and feet at the same time, and floating on our back. Charlotte loved every second and cried the whole way to the car because she wanted to get back in. I am so excited for the summer now, we are going to have a blast!

Grandma Deb's Birthday Party

We headed to my Mom's house for "Grandma Deb's birthday party" (according to Charlotte). My Mom has definitely fallen more into the mode of "all I want for my birthday is for my family to be with me". This is what we hear every year now, which is sweet but can also be infuriating for the Virgo child who likes to buy the perfect gift. Nonetheless, we had a great day together and Charlotte was sad to leave "Grandma Deb's birthday party".


Charlotte "playing" with my Dad on the computer

Two and a half year old

Most asked question of 2011: "How old is she?!" Followed by: "When are you going to have another?!" This little two and a half year old is still the center of our world. Every morning I look forward to going in and waking her up, just so I can hear what she has to say today. She absolutely blows me away with how quick she thinks on her feet, and her vocabulary is unbelievable. In fact, most people don't believe me when I say she's two and a half. We are still working on potty training, and I believe we are almost there. She tells us when she has to poop and as long as we put her on the potty every two hours she stays dry. She wears big girl panties around the house and we still put on pull ups when we go out. Mrs. D celebrated her accomplishments with a pizza party and that seemed to seal the deal, we've had no accidents since then! Charlotte is everything I hoped for and more. She is genuinely a sweet person and really cares about people (and animals!) and their feelings. She cries if I get onto her because she says I scared her into getting her feelings hurt. We are still in a scary stage but she is getting a little better. She loves to give hugs and kisses, even to the dogs. My favorite thing right now is "Hey Moooommmmy. I need to give you something!". And then she runs up and gives me a kiss. Melts my heart every time!

The stats:
Height: Almost 3 feet

Weight: 30 pounds

Words: More than I can count. This girl gets up talking and goes to bed talking. Sometimes I hear her talk in her sleep.

Changes since second birthday: Potty, big girl bed, jumping with two feet, doing flips, drinking out of a cup without a lid (without spilling), putting toothpaste on her toothbrush, brushing her teeth, spitting the water out, turning the TV off, blowing her nose, taking her socks and shoes off, putting her socks on, covering herself up with a blanket, skipping, memorizing lots of songs and singing loudly, carrying her plate from the dinner table to the sink

Favorite books: Fancy Nancy, Wherever You Are, Curious George, Who Stole the Cookie

Favorite shows: Ni Hao Kai Lan, Dora the Explorer, Wonder Pets, Curious George, Clifford, Sesame Street. We have finally moved away from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse all day every day, but it is still a favorite.

Favorite Movies: Little Mermaid, Jungle Book, Horton Hears a Who, Elmo's World

Favorite Songs: I'm a little teapot, twinkle twinkle, Sugarland's Stuck Like Glue, Jack Johnson's You and Your Heart

I can't even remember our life before the girl but I know one thing. She gives our life meaning.

Burgers, Birthdays, and Babies

Whew. Every day I wake up and I think the same thing "I can make it until Spring Break". For some reason as soon as it starts to warm up outside we become crazy busy. It's like hibernation is over and we have to go, go, go!

Burgers:
We went to the Fox Theater with friends to watch "Stomp" and it totally rocked. We had great seats and it was a really cool show. It is amazing what kind of sounds those people can make with every day items and they made it really funny when they interacted with the crowd. We will definitely be taking Charlotte to see this show in the future.

After Stomp we went and had burgers at Flip in Midtown. Except they aren't your normal run of the mill burgers. They only have one "regular" burger on the menu, everything else is a different kind of meat. The owner of this restaurant is on Top Chef Masters right now, and Bryce and I are such huge fans we pushed hard to eat at this place. Despite the long wait in the cold, it was really good food.


The milkshakes, made with liquid nitrogen, made the drive and the wait totally worth it. Mine was Nutella and Burnt Marshmallow (OMG, So Good!) and Bryce got a KRISPY KREME MILKSHAKE. Can you just imagine?!


My "burger" was buttermilk chicken and pimento cheese. Yum.






Birthday:

Next we have Ms. Kaymen's first birthday. That little girl sure is loved!


Kaymen was born on St. Patrick's day, so Nina did everything with four leaf clovers. We really are lucky (and blessed!) to have her here! She is such a sweet girl!





One day we will have a picture with our girls looking and smiling too!


On a side note, we gave Kaymen this butterfly because Charlotte HATED it. She would cry every time she saw it. We actually even used it as a barrier to keep her away from things because she wouldn't go near it. Guess what ONE toy Charlotte wanted to play with at Kaymen's house!

Birth-day:

Baby Amelia is here! Nathan is a big brother! After a surprisingly fast entrance into the world she is here and winning over hearts already:


Pretty girl!

Babies:


I also had a get together with some girls from work to celebrate upcoming birth-days. Congrats Bett and Dennise, I know those babies will be precious!