Easter at the lake

Easter weekend was great, of course.  We spent most of the weekend at the lake and had Aunt Bonnie take the best pictures.  I wasn't sure if Charlotte would be interested in hunting Easter eggs, as she normally grabs two and won't let them go to pick up others, but after a bit of coaching, she got the hang of it.  Good thing Gigi got her a sweet little basket! 

She got stuck on the yellow and green eggs for quite a while, putting them in and out (and in, and out, and in, and out...) of her basket, so we finally got smart and got her to take them to D.  Of course, once her hands were free, she decided she was more interested in swinging than finding more eggs.

We all pointed out the other eggs and she went along with us and picked them up.  From there, the "hunt" was pretty much over and we just played around and got some cute pics.

"How'd that get under there??"

Love these next three - the dogs were running around like crazy and Charlotte thought they were hilarious!

You may have noticed that her mouth and nose look a bit dirty in some photos.  Well, it's not dirt, it's a war wound.  She took a spill on the pavers in the back yard and happened to be holding flowers in each hand, and rather than let go of the flowers and catch herself with her hands, she landed face first on the concrete. Needless to say, she was not a happy camper!

Time to play catch-up

I have a treasure trove of pictures stored up, due to a malfunctioning SD card reader (the thing I use to upload all of my pictures from my camera) that I am about to unleash on this blog.  They are from the past month, just before Easter.  I'll try to keep them organized and the timeline somewhat sensible.  Wish me luck!

We'll start with Charlotte's favorite little buddy, Adeline.  Charlotte "talks" about her alllll the time.  "Adda...Adda...Adda." She even repeats this as she's going to sleep sometimes.  About a week before Easter, Adeline came over and she and Charlotte spent a gloriously sunny afternoon splashing in the water and squealing at each other in the most ridiculous, high-pitched voices ever.   It gave me a glimpse into what the teenage future holds for me....

What did Daddy find in his guitar today?

Such a wonderful game to play.  Today's episode was especially fun.  There was a:

*pacifier
*water bottle cap
*pen cap
*the letter "p"
*door stopper (one of those springy metal things you attach to the baseboard)
*electrical outlet cover
*bottom half of a pen
*blue foam domino

Yay!  Thanks for playing! 

Oh, also, today Charlotte pointed at Koby and called him a happy girl.

Oh, the talking!

Lately I have been just blown away by Charlotte's vocabulary and how much of what I say she understands.  She has begun attempting to parrot random words we say, which of course just thrills us (and makes us laugh sometimes). I knew it wouldn't be long before she starting stringing her known words together to communicate more effectively, but I had no idea it would happen so quickly.

Today she said a phrase!  It was only a two word phrase, but the novelty of it made me realize she's been saying phrases for the past few days and I didn't even notice.  Koby and I were playing with her in the living room and she looked at me, pointed at the front door and said, "Outside boom-boom." (Meaning, I want to go outside and ride on the boom-boom.) I was so happy about her using a phrase that I scooped her up and we went for a very chilly, very wet, very barefoot boom-boom ride.

As I was walking her, she heard an airplane and commented on it with her mangled version of "airplane," but it wasn't just "airplane", it was "airplane sky" along with her pointing out the sky. (In case I forgot where it was...) I agreed with what she said and we continued along, but I got to thinking, this wasn't the first time she'd said "airplane sky". As a matter of fact, she also will say "mama nose" (or different body part/person, but I feel like mama nose is the most common) or "earr out" (meaning I should take my earring out so she can play with it - her latest obsession, o joy). I'm going to have to really start paying attention to what she's saying (and what's coming out of my mouth...) because it's happening fast- we will soon have a talker on our hands!