Can you believe it?! I can't!
3 years ago we went into the hospital to be induced?
3 years ago we brought home a 5 pound 9 ounce 19 inch long tiny squirming thing??
3 years ago we went from being Jeff and Jordan to Charlotte's PARENTS?! Amazing.
Speaking of Amazing - our kiddo is soooo amazing! She has such a sweet spirit, is absolutely hilarious, is very well behaved, and a pretty smart cookie too.
Her favorite things lately are reading books, singing us songs, doing puzzles, playing with cars and trains, Candy Land, and just recently got into playing pretend with her babies. Charlotte loves to play outside in our huge drive way, go for walks/rides, go to Target and the library, and eating out at restaurants. Her favorite foods are mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, french fries, any breakfast foods, and fruit. She loves all things tech/electronic: playing games on PBS.com or Disney.com, games or books or shows on the iPad or iPhone, and watching movies like Toy Story, Bugs Life, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh, and shows like Dora, Max and Ruby, Calliou, Curious George, and on and on.
She knows her colors, shapes, a lot of the alphabet, how to count, and is starting to recognize numbers and letters, and is continuing with her sign language. Crafts and art are starting to become more fun now that she can be more hands on. We've got the name, birthday, and most of the address down now. With us moving, she also is starting to understand how we all live in different cities and states. She is also starting to help around the house - cleaning up her toys, helping with her bed, getting ice in our cups for dinner, and carrying things to the table. This is of course just a small list of all the amazing things that our amazing 3 year old can do.
We have not had our 3 year check up yet, that'll happen next week. From what I can tell, she is perfectly healthy, still tall and has filled out a little more so isn't as much of a stick :) She also had her first dentist appointment a couple days ago. Charlotte did fantastic! They have a huge indoor play place inside so that definitely helped her feel more comfortable!
It was an option to have them clean her teeth and she did let them do it and had no issues. We got a clean bill of health - no cavities or any issues there. The dentist did alert us to potential future issues. Have you ever noticed the gap in her front teeth? Apparently that's cause from gum/tissue coming down too far and pushing those teeth apart. She may have to have a frenectomy to remove that tissue and braces to close the gap, unless her permanent teeth come in and push that tissue out of the way. Fun huh? She also inherited her momma's small upper jaw. This means her upper teeth on her right side sit on the inside of her bottom teeth when she closes her mouth, instead of coming down on the outside. I had the same issue and had to have an expander and then braces in high school. It's crazy that C is just 3 years old and we are already looking down the road at orthodontics and possible oral surgery. Double Ick. That may be too much information for you, but there you go anyway!
On to Charlotte's party! C's birthday was on Monday (the 23rd) so we decided to have her 'party' the Saturday before. We weren't planning on doing anything big - we don't really have a lot of friends down here yet, and it would have been tough to do something in Spring Hill with our TN friends. We decided to keep it simple with just a family get together. We had more family able to come down than we thought! Saturday Jeff's parents, brother, and his family drove down from Bowling Green KY and met us at the Mellow Mushroom here in Hutnsville for lunch! We had a great time eating lunch together, then headed back to our place to hang out. Charlotte had so much fun with her cousin Reese who is just a couple months younger. They ran and played and scram all day :) The balloon curtain that I made from Pinterest was a big hit too!
It's hard to get a good picture of 2 active little girls!
Visiting with Grandad and cousin Avery
I didn't have anything major planned, but we did do an art project - making butterflies out of their feet! They had fun picking their colors and getting their feet painted.
My parents joined the party that afternoon about 3:30 - just in time too, the girls were ready for cupcakes! I have to admit I'm pretty proud of Charlotte's cupcakes! They were baked in sugar cones and I frosted the top with cupcake frosting in a spray can - it was so much easier! Top it with sprinkles and they looked just like ice cream cones. Love it!
Then it was time for presents! Charlotte got 3 pairs of shoes - she is a shoe-aholic - lots of cute clothes, a Woody doll (to match her Jessie from Christmas), PJs, an art easel, and a few more things. After a little more play time, it was time for the BG folks to head back north. We were sad to see them go after just an afternoon of playing together, but Jeff and I are so grateful to them for making the big trip all in one day so they could celebrate C's 3rd Birthday with us. Thank you all!!
My parents spent the night and we had a great breakfast the next morning, and then took a drive! We were excited to head up to Monte Sano here in Hutnsville and enjoy the view of Huntsville and maybe taking a walk on the trail. Unfortuantly, it was very very cloudy and rainy. We did enjoy our drive though - it was crazy thinking that we were actually driving through the clouds!
This was our "view" but all we saw were clouds! It wasn't raining but we got wet just from being in the clouds.
We had to get out and walk around at least at little bit for this active girl!
That afternoon, Jeff and I gave her our present! A big girl room! We converted her crib to the full size, so she got a new mattress, bedding, art, lamp, etc. She looks so tiny in that big bed but she loves her new room.
All in all, Charlotte had a great birthday party weekend! On her actual birthday C and I had MOPS that morning, then Jeff came home from work early. After her nap we headed out for a Jeep ride with the top down on the beautiful 60 degree January day! A trip to Target to spend her birthday money, diner at Zaxby's and a movie night with Cars 2 wrapped up her day.
What a beautiful kiddo. Jeff and I are so blessed to be her parents.
