Happy Birthday Charlotte!

On Monday Charlotte turned three years old. How can she be that big already? Wasn't it just yesterday that I was in labor or that we were holding her in our arms for the first time?

Or wasn't it just her first birthday where we bought her a watermelon as a gift and she snuggled with Grandma CarolAnn?


Or perhaps it was just yesterday that our little bumble bee turned two?



But no, it really has been three whole years that she has been a part of our family. Last year I wrote a letter to Charlotte for her birthday, and I think I'll do that again.

Dear Charlotte,
You just turned three years old! You're not a baby anymore; you're hardly even a toddler anymore! You have become a preschooler, a little lady.

Your language skills have grown by leaps and bounds in the past year. Last year you were just starting to put two or three words together. Now you are speaking in complete sentences and paragraphs. You always have something to say or a story to tell (which I hear from Grandma Cindy is the same way your mama was...). You melt our hearts when you sign "I love you" by pointing to your eye, crossing your arms over your heart, and pointing to daddy or I. Daddy then taught you how to sign "I love you, too" by holding up two fingers at the end of it. You now know all of your capital letters by sight, and you know what sounds some of them make. You also know what letter certain words start with, like what letter does the word 'popcorn' or 'baby' or 'Charlotte' and so on. You also know how to spell mom, dad, dog, and cat. Sometimes you can spell nap and bed, but not as consistently.

You are a bundle of energy, a little spitfire. You are always busy. Your favorite thing to do is "play." Whenever we are home together in the morning and you snuggle in our bed, I ask what you want to do that day. Your answer is always "play and play!" (pronounced pyay and pyay!) The kitties are still your favorite thing to play with; they like to have birthday parties, tea parties, go to the pretend grocery store (riding in the Little Tykes cart or a "shopping bag"), or go to school. You love to pretend you are going to school! I think you will love going to preschool either this fall or next year. Often we will hear you gathering things and putting on your shoes before yelling "Goodbye! I'm going to school!" You definitely crave being with other kids, and you even had your first sleepover this year with your friend Raechel when mama's friend Audrey babysat you! You have such a good time playing dolls, dress-up, My Little Ponies, and everything else with Raechel. I think we will need to enroll you in some sort of activity with other kids this year if not preschool.

This spring you learned how to ride a tricycle! We are borrowing one from Baby George across the street until he is big enough to use it. You prefer going downhill when the pedaling is easy, and usually make us "help" push you up any sort of incline. Your motor skills are improving so much. Since Grandma Lois bought you a bike trailer for your birthday, our new favorite activity this summer has been biking. It won't be too many years before you will want to ride your own bike instead of being in the trailer!

You are usually singing or dancing your way through life these days. The other day at the Farmer's Market you danced and danced to the live music with your kitty Stripe in your arms and wearing your pink cowgirl boots, oblivious to all the passersby who were grinning from ear to ear at you. You know the words to lots of songs. This year you were particularly fond of "The Bare Necessities" from the Jungle Book (which you called "The Bare Sessies"). At bedtime you love to hear the bedtime song from Mary Poppins and a Sara Groves song called "You Cannot Lose My Love" which you call the "Baby Teeth Song" because it talks about losing baby teeth. I am amazed at your ability to remember words to songs and books. Yesterday when you didn't know I was nearby I overheard you singing all the right words to a song from a book we have read only about 10 times. Your favorite books right now are the Aristocats, "Felix and the Worrier," and any of the "Rotten Ralph" books.

Recently you have become a little more independent and a little less willing to conform to what you are told. Some days there are lots of time outs and frustration (on both ends!). Daddy and I are working to help you understand why it's important to obey, and why love means we have to discipline you. We want you to learn at a young age how to love and respect others as well as yourself. It's a learning process for all three of us. We're learning how to reinforce that even though we discipline and get mad at your behavior, we will always love you. You seems to get it, as much as a three year old can, and you ask "but you still love me, right?" after a particularly naughty time.

Despite those times, we forget that you could ever be naughty the next morning when your door pops open and you wander out with your "dandelion fluff hair" and your squinty eyes in the bright light with your hippo blanket slung over your shoulder and a kitty or puppy nestled in your arms. You smile and say "Good Morning!" in your tiny little voice and all is right in the world.

Charlotte, while it is often challenging to be a parent and we often don't know what we're doing (we've never done this before--sorry that you're our guinea pig, hope you turn out ok!), we do love having you in our family. I know that we belong together when we sit at the table together for dinner or when we pray before bedtime and you say "We're all together!" Even though our lives are crazy and busy and this year mama and daddy have slept at the hospital every fourth night, I wouldn't trade having you in our family for the world. Of course I wish I didn't have to work so many hours (especially when you say "Don't go to work mama!!! Take off your work clothes!!! Stay home and play with me!!!"), but I hope that you're young enough now that you won't remember us being gone so much. What I hope you remember is that you have a mama and daddy who love you so much and a Grandma and Grandpa who have provided a second home and have been an extension of our family this year.

I can't believe how quickly time passes, little Charlotte. By the time you read this letter and understand what it's about, I will be the mama to a grown up young lady. Who will you be then? I can't wait to see. I love you!

Love,

Mama

Scruffy

A sad day happened a couple of weeks ago in the family. Our poodle Scruffy went to the big dog house in the sky. He lived a wonderful 16 or 17 years (don't know exactly) and he was a real member of our family. I'm really writing about him on the blog for myself, Charlotte, and our family members, so if you are not one of those and are not feeling sentimental about our dog, feel free to skip this and just look at the pictures. :)

Scruffy came to live with our family when he was about a year old. His old family was having a new baby and with their three year old (who, by the way, was the one who named Scruffy...great choice for a poodle, right?), they knew they had their hands too full for a dog. They advertised an apricot poodle with all his shots for just $60 in the local classifieds. My parents took us to go look at him for my sister Laura's birthday, even though we didn't know that our family was even in the market for a dog! My dad pretended he didn't really want a dog, but we all knew the truth. He was in a big hurry to buy this dog saying, "if we don't buy him for only $60, I'm sure that someone else will!" When we got out of the car, a flash of apricot zipped past us and then out of sight. I decided then and there that I did NOT like this dog--a poodle? yuck. apricot? double yuck. and now he looked awfully hyper. ugh. But the rest of the family loved him and so he came home with us in the car that very day. The first thing he did when we brought him home was go under the dining room table and poop on the floor. This dog was obviously not aware that I already did not like him. And guess who was asked to take him outside? Yep, me. We had a little talk outside about how I didn't like him and he better shape up if he was going to stay in this family.

I'm not sure when the tide turned, but I didn't stay mad at him for long. Scruffy became our brother, a part of everything we did. This included lots of doll clothes and carrying him around and riding in strollers. His (ok, our) favorite outfit on him was a Tigger baby sleeper...orange with black stripes and a hat with ears. Adorable! Except that he was pretty fiesty and was a very bitey baby when he was dressed up. Over the years, Scruffy had lots of other good outfits like his red winter parka with the fur hood and his little dog booties and the onesies he wore when he had itchy skin and needed to be stopped from biting himself. He was one good looking dog.

Besides being a fashionable dog, Scruffy was also a playful dog. His favorite squeaky toys were a Barrel of Monkeys and an alligator. He loved to play chase with them and was very protective of them. He would hide them somewhere and come trotting back to the family, but if you made any sort of movement toward the hiding place or you said "I'm gonna get your monkeys!" he would race past you and get it before you had a chance. Scruffy also loved rawhide bones for chewing and hiding. His favorites were little ruffle chip shaped ones or long thin sticks.

Speaking of hiding...there were a few episodes where Scruffy hid things he shouldn't have. When we left him home alone he liked to find treasures in the garbage and then hide them in between the couch cushions. A time or two someone put their hand down on the couch and was suprised to find the remains of a peanut butter sandwich!

Scruffy was more than a great dog, he was a member of our family. He and my dad were best friends for the last several years as my dad worked from home and then this year while he was watching Charlotte. When Charlotte was first born, I was sad that she wouldn't ever get to know Scruffy. He was so old then I figured she would never remember him. But here we are with Charlotte almost three years old and with lots of memories of Scruffy. A few days ago in the car:
Charlotte: (very solemnly) I'm sad.
Mama: Why are you sad?
Charlotte: Because I miss Scruffy because he died. And he was such a good boy.

A good boy, indeed. We'll miss you Fish Breath Goat Legs Butt Licker. You were an excellent dog Mush Mouth. Hope you're having fun chasing squirrels Mr. Muff Muff. And hope you're eating lots of popcorn and buttered toast Mr. Shivers.

She's here!!!!!

Baby Ephrata has made her debut into this wild and crazy family!!!! She is sweet and smiley and oh so chunky! We are all in love with her. Lisa and Travis flew with her into the Minneapolis airport on June 1st. We were all able to drive up to be there when they arrived. Even Grandma Lois took the shuttle from Duluth so she could be a part of the welcoming committee too! Here we are, lined up at baggage claim, waiting for them to get home!!! The sign says "Liya" if you can't read it. Her name will eventually be Liya and her middle name with be Ephrata, but for now they are still calling her Ephrata or Liya Ephrata so that she isn't too confused.

They're here!!!! Doesn't Lisa look happy?! And Travis glad to be off the plane?! And Ephrata wondering what the heck just happened to me?

Charlotte of course wanted to touch her right away. Never mind the fact that we started off the morning with Charlotte throwing up in our bed. But she got better, so we didn't let it keep us from this happy occassion!

"Oh she has yitto (little) hands, doesn't she?"

"And a yitto nose!"

"Can I hug her?"

"Who are all these people?"

The newly expanded family. Aren't they beautiful together?

After the airport, we wanted to go somewhere else to hang out with the new cousin. We started heading toward a park, but it rained. So we went to Ikea instead and had ice cream cones in their cafe. Charlotte doesn't like ice cream....

My first duty as a new aunt: spoil Ephrata with her first ice cream cone! When I asked Lisa if it was ok if I gave her a few licks, she said "I don't know, can babies have ice cream?" I knew then that I can get away with anything with Ephrata. As the "experienced" mama I can tell Lisa whatever I want and she'll believe me! Oh yes, babies are supposed to skip their naps when auntie is here to play... Hey Lisa, stop reading this. You're ruining my game!

Lucky for us, Lisa and Travis were too tired to drive all the way home from the airport, so they stayed overnight at our parents' house. That meant we got to play a little bit the next day, and I got to play "dress the baby" in all of her cute clothes, including this adorable headband. When Lisa and I were putting together their baby registry, I kept picking out headbands and hairbows! Her curly hair looks adorable with little decorations!

And now we switch gears. Here is a trout Matt caught on one of his recent fly fishing expeditions. He has had good luck at Whitewater State Park, about 45 minutes from Rochester.

This morning we went for a ride with Charlotte's new birthday present! We found this bike trailer at a garage sale a couple of weekends ago and Grandma Lois got it for Charlotte's birthday coming up. We have had so much fun with it already. She loves to ride in it and hates coming back home when the ride is over.

She even has two little steering wheels so she can pretend she's driving! We'll be doing a lot more biking this summer!

Happy Mother's and Father's Day!

Guess who is in the arms of her new Mom and Dad? That's right, Lisa and Travis were united with Liya this morning in Ethiopia around 5 am our time (around 1 pm in Ethiopia). Hooray!!!! I am thrilled! (And I'm pretty sure they are too!) I am anxiously waiting for an email or a blog post or a $0.75/minute phone call from them with an update.

Poor poor Charlotte and her absent parents

This morning as I (Kristi) was leaving for work, Charlotte says to me "I'm feeling pretty sad right now." Rip my heart out and stomp on it! Boo hoo. :(

Liya Ephrata

Just three short weeks and we will be kissing and squishing these *little* cheeks at the airport. We are counting down the days to meeting her when she finally comes! Charlotte says she can't wait to sit next to her cousin "Frata." Only three weeks!!!

Fotsy the Fots and Charlotte's big day!

Mama: Charlotte, what are you doing?

Charlotte: I'm not stepping on the ant houses.

Taking the "babies" for a ride.

This whole time she was running and skipping and singing a song about the way to church. Those babies got quite the jostling.

Then she skipped a little too hard, which resulted in the stroller coming apart. In her arms is her new best friend Foxy the Fox. Only she pronounces it Fotsy the Fots.

Looking for adventure...

And then....

We found a worm instead.

More skipping.

Isn't she cute?!

Where could that little Charlotte be? Can you see her?

Oh, there she is!