The dog days of winter are here – January and February seem like they might not ever end. We listen to the song “In Summer” from Frozen over and over while we dream of warmer days.  In the meanwhile, Charlotte keeps our days interesting with all of her sugar and spice.  I wanted to make sure to document some of our life with Charlotte lately…

She wakes up around 7:30 am full of vim and vigor.  The first thing she asks to do is read a book and then she continues to ask for this many times throughout the day.  I have a lot of her books memorized by now.  She then wants to tell all of her animals and Prissy good morning and asks them if they had “good sleeps”.  I kind of melt every time.  She also loves to find dada and likes to brush her teeth with him.  After some breakfast we usually wander outside to the barn to feed the horses and kitties.  If there’s been some new snow, she likes to stop and “dip it” which means dipping her finger into the snow to taste it.  She then asks me if I would like some and I pretend to enjoy it just as much as she does.  We clean up the barn and then find Prissy poops to take care of.  She loves to have a “project” to attend to, much like her father.  As long as she’s busy, we’re all a lot better off.    During the week we often have swimming, gymnastics, or a play date to go to before her nap which is around 12:30.  She still sleeps for 2-3 hours a day.  Keeping my fingers crossed this lasts.

The evenings are always full of more “projects” and play usually incorporating make believe in the playroom and something to do with The Little Mermaid (the first movie she really loves).  We’re usually counting down the minutes until dada comes home from work.  We try to have dinner together but lately Charlotte has been making this quite difficult – she’s into throwing her food and often puts herself in timeout for doing it.  John does her bath every night while I try to make order of the house.  She then requests to read more books before bed and is asleep by 7:30 pm.  Finally, we get to check off another day in the books.

I love the challenges and joys of parenting.  It seems like everyday we’re stretched to a new level of love, patience, and strength.  I’m not sure how we’d ever get there without Charlotte… and so goes on the human existence.  Thanks, Charlotte, for all of your sugar and spice.