Although big sister surely still sets the tone... she has graciously handed over (aka assigned) an instrument:
Noah, on the xylophone, loves an audience -- happily cheering to his fans -- and he is already a heartbreaker... as you can tell from the paparazzi shots ;-)
Speaking of performances: Avid readers of our blog know that Charlotte does not sit still often... she rather likes to put on a show herself ;-) So we did not have much hope for taking her to her very first theater play last summer at just 2 years old. BUT: Charlotte was mesmerized and sat still for 45 minutes to follow the fascinating production on stage. "The Cat in the Hat" has been one of her favorite reads after that.
Since this life changing event, Charlotte has been a theater lover: from "Goodnight Moon" to "12 Days of Christmas," the "Jungle Book" and countless puppet theater plays. She even took her little Noey to a baby theater this Spring, and is already excited to see a musical with Mama this weekend.
Of course, there's lots of "night life" with babies & toddlers... but not so much the kind you fondly remember in connection with dinner, drinks and dancing.
BUT: Kudos to Noah. When he was barely a month old, he "allowed" Mama to elope for a fun concert night with Herbert Groenemeyer coming to play in DC last September.
There were only two things Charlotte wanted to do to celebrate the Fourth of July: attend a street parade and watch fireworks. The first was a success. The second? Not so much.
After the morning parade -- an entertaining who's who of local DC politics (with every local official running for election marching down the street) -- we went to a friends' house to BBQ and play in the yard. The kids played all right, running and jumping and swimming in the kiddie pool all afternoon. (Play should probably be clarified: the other two toddlers napped in the afternoon while Charlotte hung out with the parents. Play ensued once they were all awake.)
While swimming in the kiddie pool was fun, the highlight was (not) getting dressed thereafter [video below]. Somehow, in the mayhem upstairs while the adults, Penny and Noah were downstairs, Charlotte's underwear went missing. Like seriously missing. We checked every nook and cranny; it vanished.
The plan was to head downtown for the fireworks later in the evening. Noah would sleep in his stroller while Charlotte enjoyed the view from Daddy's rooftop terrace overlooking the Mall at work. That was the plan. Instead, Charlotte passed out and was a lifeless noodle and Noah was wide awake and giggly. Since Noah was awake, we took him out of his stroller. Charlotte was wedged inside in his stead. Her legs hung about 18 inches past the diaper bag.
We wheeled her around and left her outside until just before the show was to begin. That was a mistake. Everyone knows to never wake a sleeping baby. But. But. But Charlotte so wanted to see the fireworks. Faced with a no-win situation, we woke her and hoped for the best. Like I said, that was a mistake.
Daddy took Charlotte on his lap outside to the front row of the terrace. She was two seats down from the Chairman of the FDIC, faced with a gorgeous view of the Mall and the fireworks. But, alas, it wasn't meant to be. Charlotte watched a few blasts but then decided to go back inside to the cafeteria. Maybe we'll try again next year. Or maybe we'll just leave her sleeping and let the little(r) night owl enjoy the show by himself.
Speaking of colors... you might recall that Charlotte
a) is a tomboy (most of the time) and
b) her favorite color is "BROWN"
At a birthday party back in April, a friend had a balloon lady who was happily twisting balloon animals for the kids. When it was Charlotte's turn to request one, she exclaimed "I want a spider, a BROWN spider!" ... The lady, shocked, tried to confirm "Are you sure, honey, that you don't want a butterfly or something, maybe in purple?"
As for her birthday, Charlotte is excited about all kinds of celebrations now and knew there will be a street parade (!!!) and fireworks for 4th of July.
So we had a fun-filled, colorful day of waving flags, collecting beads (we counted 10 in Charlotte's final loot), splashing at the water park, bbq-ing & playing with friends, hitting a Pinata, and watching the spectacular display of DC fireworks.
Daddy thought the bomb squad truck was definitely the coolest during the parade (only in the nation's capital...) while Penny was happy that she got just a simple, ordinary hair cut this summer. Mama's best present of the day was Germany's soccer team win in the World Cup quarter finals. Despite great anticipation, Charlotte fell asleep and did not appreciate the VIP view we had from Daddy's office when she woke up to "louuuuud" fireworks! Noah, on the other hand, loved the colorful spectacle so much that he decided to stay up a bit.
For sure, we all had a lot to dream about that night.
While climbing the monkey bars, Charlotte made sure to explain to her friend that she's "the sister of baby Noah." As she views herself as the protector of her little brother, it's nice to see that she identifies herself in relation to him (as opposed to identifying him in relation to her).
The video, above, is her third time descending the monkey bars. Her technique improved considerably in the process. Below is her first time down. It was spontaneous and she didn't know I was around.
It's always difficult to have Charlotte keep still for a second
(although she has the rare toddler moments where she loves to model for a photo)... but now that Noah is on the move too,
moments like this are almost impossible to capture!
Although Charlotte wanted to be four (her favorite number) for the
longest time before her third birthday, she's been loving to be three -
often exclaiming "I can do this... I'm a big girl now, I am 3!!!"
And big girls know what they want: For her third birthday, Charlotte
requested a "chocolate-vanilla cake that is brown and pink!" ... Mama
complied:
With the assistance of a cute little helper:
This year, Charlotte was for the first time really excited about her birthday - talking about it in advance, always asking when her birthday would be coming up when celebrating others'. She couldn't wait for birthday morning to come, so that she could head downstairs and sing, blow out candles and open presents.
Being a little brother is also great when big sister celebrates: you
get to eat birthday muffins way before you have your own birthday!
Penny actually did turn four and celebrated with birthday muffins too, of course ;-)
The friends at Kindergarten couldn't wait either to celebrate - and dig into that cake!
... and has become more boy than baby in the last month: Like Charlotte, he made some big leaps around the eight/nine months mark -- after he had figured out sitting and standing up by himself, he was fast onto crawling less than two weeks later. And now, there's no stopping him anymore. He was actually a little earlier and faster than big sister: after only a brief period of army crawling, Noah has discovered that all-fours is speedier. After all, he has to keep up with his busy bee role model ;-) Also, sitting is so yesterday. Noah loves to pull up and stand everywhere -- and again, proved to be a bit more daring: already letting go with his hands here and there to test how it feels to truly stand all by himself!
He loves to explore (i.e., get into everything) and is fascinated by Charlotte and Penny. They are just too funny and cuddly.
Like big sister, he also cut his first teeth in month 9. He's already sporting three now.
And before we forget: he's become so interactive and a social butterfly in the past months! At 7 months he started pointing and babbling a lot, with "Da!" and "Mamamama" as his favorite words. At 8 months, he turned into a total flirt, waving hello and giving big loving open-mouth kisses to everyone in reach ;-)
THANK YOU - for all you do and are. For taking care of us, showing us the world, making us giggle, taking us on long walks, and yes... also for telling us what to do.
♬♬ ♬
"Your are our sunshine, our only sunshine... you make us haaaaaaaaappy [picture Charlotte belching out a tune, very loudly] when skies are gray... you never know dear how much we love you, please don't take our sunshine away."
♬♬ ♬
With Big hugs (that are just a little too tight ;-),
I'll be blunt: Charlotte is getting hard to put down. We've tried everything. Putting her to sleep when it's dark. Putting her to sleep when it's light. Reading. Not reading. Tranquilizers. Running. Painting. Playgrounding. Ju-jitsu pressure points. Crying it out. Laughing it out. And many more.
The kid simply doesn't like to sleep. If there's anything even remotely interesting nearby, she wants in on the action. And if nothing is around, she'll just talk. And talk. And talk. Loud snoring noises can't even derail the runaway train.
Recently, I've been trying new techniques. Letting her fall asleep on the floor, beside me, helped one night. She was out only shortly after darkness encompassed the room. But, alas, like all things: it wasn't meant to last, and we're stuck looking for new tricks.
Of course, that falling asleep on the floor doesn't work for Charlotte matters not to Penny. She seizes the opportunity to cuddle "on her level." Last night, Penny pinned my legs down while Charlotte peppered me with kicks to the neck and head [not pictured]. For a while, Charlotte's feet were on my head and Penny's head was on my feet. Good times.
