Be My Baby

Somehow I'm constantly amazed at the things Charlotte does... like I haven't raised a little girl before? With Olivia, I remember I was always getting her to try new stuff and pushing her to do the next thing... crawling, walking, talking, etc. But with Charlotte, I've found myself just wanting her to "be my baby."

 

Sometimes I start to feel bad about it - like I'm somehow giving her the short end of the stick. But then I snap back to reality and realize she is doing just fine!

 

Today I left her playing in the living room while I went to the bedroom to start sorting out the laundry. When I came back in the room I found her sitting in the Minnie Mouse chair, with a bracelet on, and playing with her baby doll. It was like I was looking at a toddler. I couldn't believe my eyes!

 



She is really growing up too fast! I miss her being my newborn, but at the same time it is so nice now that she's getting older. Just this past week, she's really started playing with Livy. She follows her everywhere and wants to do everything Livy does. And thankfully, Livy is usually very good at obliging. It definitely makes my life a little easier. I'm able to get things done, like laundry, dishes, and just general cleaning. They'll play in the playroom together for a really long time!

I'm so thankful for my girls, and looking forward to Charlotte's big birthday party in a couple weeks!

Mommy Daughter Day

On Friday morning, we dropped Charlotte off with Pappy and Annie (and Livy bawled her eyes out because "she was gonna miss Charlotte so much!") then Livy and I headed off to Texarkana. 

She had an appointment with an ENT doctor. She keeps getting strep throat about every 2-3 months... 5 times in less than a year and a half. So her doctor wanted an ENT doctor to check her out and see if a tonsillectomy was necessary. 

He said she was borderline on "needing" the surgery so he wants to give her a little more time. If she keeps getting strep every few months then he said he would recommend doing the surgery. But if she goes several months without getting it, then he said it probably isn't necessary yet. 

That was a relief to me. I'm all for it IF it's absolutely what she needs but I certainly don't want to put her (or Drew and I) through that unless we have to. The thought of her being wheeled down the hall on a hospital bed to be put under anesthesia and have her tonsils removed is almost more than I can handle. I can't think about it!

After her appointment I let her choose where to eat lunch. She wanted cheese dip so we went to Chili's. We shared some queso and a chocolate cake with ice cream. 

Then we did lots of shopping! I had some Christmas cash and gift cards that were begging to be spent. Who am I to say no? :) Livy was an excellent shopping buddy. It's not often I get to shop without Charlotte so normally I'm in a rush... Get in, get what I need, and get out. But yesterday we took our time, tried clothes on, and spent all our quarters on bouncy balls and horsey rides. 

The whole day Livy worried about Charlotte. 

"I miss Charlotte."

"I wonder what Charlotte is doing right now?"

"I wish I could play with Charlotte."

I thought it was so sweet how she missed her little sister. Between stores I let her call to check on Charlotte and as soon as Pappy answered the phone Livy asked,

"Is Charlotte having fun over there?"

And of course she was. She was at the fun house, after all. 

I had such a fun day with my big girl... And it was pretty nice coming home to my little girl too! 

Chicken Spinach Alfredo

We decided to take turns being the pizza chef and this week was all me. I decided to do what I'm calling my Chicken Spinach Alfredo pizza. Drew said if I owned a restaurant I'd have to come up with something a little less boring. He suggested The Green Haired Chicken. Eh.

I rolled out the dough and then I spread on my homemade alfredo sauce (which I also learned from PW). Have I mentioned she's saved my life in the kitchen?

Next I added spinach that I cooked in a pan with a little butter, salt, and a tad bit of lemon juice.

Then I put down some sliced tomato.

Next came the cooked chicken seasoned with olive oil, Chicken Tickler, and Seasoned salt.

Then I topped it all with lots of mozzarella cheese.

Baked it in the oven at 500° for 12 minutes... and voila!

And can I just say YUM?! It was so delish!

Pepperoni

Since I discovered Pioneer Woman's pizza dough, we decided to make Pizza Night a thing.

We started last Tuesday night with just a plain old pepperoni pizza to test out the pizza dough... and it was a hit! The dough recipe is awesome and so easy! A lot of times homemade pizza dough is really thin and crispy (not that anything is wrong with thin crust) but this dough is just like a hand-tossed pizza. It's great!

So since it turned out so well Drew had the idea of making a different pizza every week. I thought this would be a fun little way of keeping up with our creations. And when we run out of ideas, I can go back and repeat some of our favorites.

 

 

Little Sister

 

If I had to pick one word to describe Miss Charlotte these days it would be...

 

BUSY.

 

Oh man, is she busy. It's tough to get her to stay still long enough to get her picture. Of course, she thinks she needs to do everything Olivia does. Sometimes that makes my life a little more difficult, but most of the time it's totally cute!

 

Here she is sporting her first ponytail...

 

And here she is making a bigger mess helping me with laundry. This girl can pull everything out of a drawer/box/cabinet in about 3 seconds flat. I'm sure that skill will come in handy at some point in her life... although at this time I'm at a loss for what that might be. She helped me sort through her socks, tights, and bloomers yesterday and she meant business! As soon as I put one in her basket, she would pick it up and throw it over her head!

 

As busy as she is though, she always has time for her mama. I'm still her #1 (she hasn't quite discovered how cool her dad is yet). I love her sweet snuggles! She lays her head on my shoulder and pats my back. I also can't get enough of her chubby little hands reaching up for me. When I come in her room after her nap, she reaches up for me with a big grin. When she's done with her snack in her highchair, she reaches for me with mushy food stuck to her fingers. When I walk in the church nursery to pick her up after services, she reaches for me and then quickly waves goodbye to her friends. I love that she needs me.

 

It's so hard to believe she'll be ONE year old in just a few weeks. Charlotte's first year has gone by so incredibly fast!

 

My Girls

Well I knew it would happen eventually. All good things must come to an end, right?

My husband left me.

...to go back to work! Ha! I'm so sad! He was off work for a solid 2 weeks during Christmas break and I loved every minute of it. I LOVE when he's home. I just love spending time with him. I'd follow him to work if I could. He probably wouldn't appreciate that though.

I'm missing him today. Livy's definitely missing him today. And we'll just say Charlotte is missing him too. But it is nice to get back into a routine. Not that we have daily schedules or anything like that. But when Drew's home, I usually slack on all my chores because I'd rather just hang out as a family. I've been trying to de-clutter all the Christmas mess. It's a long process!

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to stay home with my girls every day. I'm super thankful we don't have to wake up early every morning and get ready for school/work. Big props to all the moms who do it! I can't imagine leaving them every day.

The girls are both taking naps at the same time so I thought I'd squeeze in time for a post. But now I must go wash those dishes! I really shouldn't put it off any longer.