Christmas 2017 & New Years

Ok, I am so far behind, and trying to catch up, but our Christmas and New Years, and the week in between, were really wonderful.

We got a head start on our holiday by leaving our house at 5:10 am to drive up to Maine to avoid a predicted snow storm. Turns out that it is an excellent time to drive- there was no traffic and we made it up to Maine by 11:45 even after 2 stops. It was really snowing when we got there, and I took a nap and woke up to snow swirling outside, which made me feel like it was truly holiday vacation.

That evening, we celebrated Eric's brother's 40th birthday (a couple of weeks early) with a party at his house, with many of Eric's cousins and their children. Our kids went off and played without complaint, until Charlotte pooped out around 8:00 and asked to go home and go to sleep.

The following day we didn't do much at all until the afternoon, when we went out to the movies- Eric, his dad, Asher, and our nephew Kiptyn went to see Star Wars; and Charlotte and I went with Eric's mom, our sister-in-law, and nieces to see Pitch Perfect 3. Charlotte loved getting to go to a grown-up movie, and laughed at the jokes even if she had no idea what they were talking about.

On Christmas Eve, knowing we wouldn't get out of the house on Christmas Day, Eric and I took the kids to Portland to the art museum. They wanted to go to the children's museum, but it was closed, and the art museum was a reasonable size, and the kids actually seemed to enjoy it.

Portland from the museum

 After the museum, we went to lunch at the same Thai restaurant we had visited last year.  Everyone enjoyed their lunch and there wasn't a speck of food left when we were done. After a couple of errands we went back to Sanford and the kids (and Eric!) napped and I went for a jog while I still could.

My jogging route. I managed not to slip on the ice and die

 Then it was time to get ready for the annual Christmas Eve party. Ooh we look forward to it every year, Eric's dad's family is silly, and the kids love the visit from Santa. This year, Eric and I decided to wear inappropriate Christmas sweatshirts.  Eric's mom loved them and wished she had one, too, so perhaps we are starting a new tradition.

One small problem with the profanity on my shirt- 2 of my children know how to read, and the 3rd wanted to know what it said. I left out the first word, but she could tell I was leaving out a word when I told her. Asher courteously said, "I know what it says, but I'm not going to tell you, Charlotte." Benjamin said, loudly, "Bitch? What does bitch mean?" and Charlotte, victorious at her discovery, began yelling, "Bitch! Bitch! Bitch!" Since we are all mature adults, we just cracked up and half-heartedly told her not to say that word.  She knew it was getting a reaction out of us, so she continued to say it the rest of the night, to everyone's delight.

After a long round of "bitch! better have my cookies!" out of Charlotte.

Our other moment of inappropriate humor was when Eric's cousin Michelle arrived and said, "Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah!" and Benjamin replied, "and happy endings!" A long silence descended and I was given the blame for that one!

With Santa.

Asher was a helpful elf to Santa this year.

Santa selfie

There was a packed house at Eric's grandparents', and we laughed all night long until our sides hurt.  We were there until close to 10 pm, and the kids loved every minute of it and had to be dragged out.

We told them not to wake us up before 7 am on Christmas morning, and they listened!  It was still too early for me, since we had been up late putting out gifts, but a big cup of coffee helped.  We started with stockings.

In their Christmas pajamas

Then we had a big breakfast and adjourned to open up the rest of our gifts by the tree.  The kids got lots of nice stuff- all credit here goes to Eric's mom, because I don't buy the kids a single Christmas gift. They are spoiled rotten. All 3 of the kids seemed to love what they received, and spent the rest of the day playing with their new toys.

In her princess gown, examining her new Calico Critters set

With some of her haul

We ended Christmas with a big Christmas dinner and all their cousins came over.  All 9 of the cousins seem to get along well, and my two boys seem to be developing a stronger relationship with their two older boy cousins- they are discovering more things they have in common and can talk about.

We ended up leaving the day after Christmas.  On our way home, we stopped at my friend Jenny's house in Amherst for dinner. I don't get to see her enough, but every time we are together it is as if no time has passed at all.  After a lovely dinner, I drove the family the rest of the way home.  We made excellent time on our way home and arrived around 11:30.

The rest of the week was calm and quiet. My sister visited for a day and I hired a babysitter to stay with the kids while Elana and I went for a run and to shop.  I took Charlotte and Asher to a museum one afternoon while Benjamin had a play date, I worked for 3 hours one morning, but mostly we hung around the house in our pajamas and decided it was too cold outside.

We hosted our annual New Years Eve gathering, which is fun and easy. The older the kids get, the later our friends stay, but I still managed to get in bed before midnight, which is my goal.

With 2 of my friends

Party girl

On New Years Day, we had tickets to Disney on Ice, which interfered with our annual tradition of going to Ikea. Disney on Ice was way better this year, mostly because it featured strong women instead of Pinocchio.  And seriously, I still want to cry when I hear "Let It Go." Eric thinks I'm crazy.

We fit in our tradition of Ikea after the show and picked out a mattress and boxspring for Charlotte, who has moved into a bigger room (formerly known as "Eric's office") and got a big girl bed. She loves her new room, and has somehow managed to multiply her toys and junk to fill up every corner.

On January 2 I went back to work, on January 3 the boys went back to school, and on January 4 and 5... snow days! 2018 has gotten off to a slow start at school, but hopefully we can have a full 5-day week soon.  I have enjoyed our extra time together (mostly), but not my loss of income. Now that the holidays are over, I have decided that I have to take a vacation somewhere warm and sunny in order to make it through to spring- there is still a lot of winter ahead!

Charlotte Eve: 5 years old

My littlest one is 5! We are well and truly past any baby stage in this house. And this girl is 5 going on 15.

Charlotte is, as always, amazing. She is strong, smart, and witty.  She has a mind like a steel trap, and holds on to memories and information both inside and outside of school.  She is continuing to grow, at her 5 year well-visit she was:
Height: 42.25" (47 %ile)
Weight: 42 lbs (66 %ile)

Charlotte has a zest for life, and an eagerness and excitement around new things and thrilling experiences. She is swimming, diving, and riding a bike with no training wheels. She is strong, brave, and independent. She loves thrill rides at the amusement park (as long as they aren't as thrilling as Guardians of the Galaxy) and will ride them over and over, as long as she is allowed.  She has always tried things earlier than her peers (i.e. walking, makeup), and that continues. She likes to keep up with her brothers- mainly Asher, who shares many of her interests.

She loves to do arts and crafts of any kind. She colors in coloring books, does craft kits, paints, makes jewelry, and enjoys helping out in the kitchen.  She draws adorable pictures, mainly of our family, or cats.  Charlotte loves anything cat-related, and probably half of her clothing has cats on it.  She also carries around a small family of cats everywhere she goes.

Posing at the doctor's office at her 5 year well-visit

 Charlotte is loving her kindergarten class at her preschool.  She knows all her letters and numbers, and has for some time, and is now working on reading. She knows a lot of sight words, and can work with me to sound out many others. If she wanted to read, she would be fully reading, but she gets easily frustrated at the prospect of sounding things out so I don't push, but I do encourage.  Socially, she is quite adept. Just like last year, her friends gather around her to hug her goodbye at the end of every day, and they all beg for play dates.

We have eliminated after school activities for Charlotte this year, mostly because I just didn't get my act together to sign her up for anything, but also because there are fewer hours for activities now that she is in school 5 full days a week. She has asked for dance, gymnastics, and now drama, so hopefully we can narrow it down sometime soon. 

Charlotte also adores watching horrible videos on YouTube. She is partial to "DIY life hacks" or some variation thereof, as well as the strange videos of adults opening and playing with toys (creepy, in my opinion). She has actually offered a few life hacks gathered from YouTube that have been helpful, like using a rubber band on my baking soda box to level off teaspoons while baking. Like I said, mind like a steel trap.

Her eating habits haven't really changed. She is mostly vegetarian in her diet, and prefers fruits over vegetables. She will eat eggs, yogurt, hummus, carbs of all kinds, and desserts of all kinds. We recently moved her into a new room (bigger, with a big bed) and Eric discovered many hidden candy wrappers in Charlotte's room- she is a little sneaky!  Some meals Charlotte will eat nothing at all, and at others she will have several courses. We mostly let her do her thing; she is never lacking for energy and is growing well.

The big girl still loves her stuffed animals. Gray Kitty and Black-and-White Kitty are her favorites, and Gray Kitty is looking even more gray and even more saggy.  She also has an assortment of Beanie Boos and other animals who get arranged around her bed and pillows each night before she goes to sleep.

Charlotte has stopped being a small sociopath and has shown indications that she is capable of empathy!  She has started noticing how other people feel and attending to their tone of voice. She is often sweet and loving, and still allows herself to be snuggled and kissed. She has her moments of being emotional and unreasonable and whiny, but in general she is good-natured and a pleasure to be around. 

I know it has been 5 years, but I continue to be astonished that she is my daughter. She is growing into a friend, a companion whose company I genuinely enjoy. I have, so far, the relationship I always dreamed I would have with a daughter of my own.  How lucky we all are to have her in our lives.