Charlotte Turns Two

Charlotte Turns Two

Charlotte turned 2 years old on November 27. She was very excited. Charlotte's favorite thing in the world is dogs, so Carol made a special doggie cake. Charlotte understood exactly what to do with the candles: she started blowing them out as soon as they were lit, while we were singing. She extinguished them in two tries.

For a long time, Charlotte's "transitional object" or "lovie" has been a beanie baby dog named "Ploppers". But whenever we go to see Thomas the Tank Engine at Barnes and Noble, Charlotte always wants to play with Plopper's alter ego "Puppers". Carol bought a Puppers for Charlotte's birthday. It was love at first sight. Charlotte immediately abandoned both her Ploppers and now Puppers is the apple of her eye. Charlotte will tell you that she got Puppers for her birthday. She'll hold him up to you and blow.

Charlotte's language is coming along all of a sudden. She learned the word "No" one day. I was surprised to see that as soon as she learned the word, she stopped shaking her head to say no. I would have expected there would be a period where she would do both, but there wasn't. A few weeks later she said her first sentence: "No, Mine!"

In other news, Audrey went to the dentist for the first time last week. I had been feeling really guilty thinking we should have taken her a couple of years ago. But the dentist told Carol that this was a fine age for a first visit. And the best news of all? He said her teeth look great and her home care is just fine. Both girls brush their teeth every night before bed (often with our help), but we weren't very consistent about it for the first two years of Audrey's life. I was relieved to learn that she is doing fine anyway. And she was very cooperative with the dentist.

I have two more days of work this year. I'm taking Friday off. Then on Christmas Eve we fly to Tucson to visit with Carol's parents. On the 28th we'll borrow their car and drive to Palm Desert, CA, where my parents winter. Their 50th wedding anniversary is December 28th. They are having a big party on the 29th. The next day we'll drive back to Tucson to stay with Carol's parents again until we fly home on the 4th. We're really looking forward to the trip. Carol in particular is looking forward to 70 degree temperatures in Tucson and even warmer weather in Palm Desert.