Charlotte

Charlotte will be 5 years old in just over a month. 

I don't even know where to begin. I have been just staring at this blank area for a while. 

Her middle name should be "enthusiasm". She is just so happy and excited about everything- from a beautiful leaf to her pink Hello Kitty Build-a-Bear. 

She loves Hello Kitty, Land Before Time, and pretty much anything pink. She doesn't care much for princesses or playing dress up. She prefers to play "kitty cat" or "family". 

She can spell about 30 words and read a lot more than that. She still hasn't quite flipped the switch to officially reading, but she is  getting so close. We have a pack of  sight words flashcards and she has almost all of them memorized. She can do basic addition and actually shows more of an affinity for math than I ever did. 

Charlotte is so interested in everything- almost every day she asks for us to teach her about something random. She is fascinated by space and astronauts- we watched the space shuttle launch the other day and she clapped and cheered with excitement. She can name all the planets (usually in order) and a few stars. 

She adores her baby brother. She is super protective of him and does a great job helping us. She will sit and entertain him for long stretches of time and loves to feed him his breakfast while I clean up the kitchen or do laundry. 

One thing we struggle with (besides her smart smart mouth, but I am trying to keep this focused on the positive) is her very picky eating. She has a very limited diet and we are working to change that while she is still young and malleable. I read a great book on nutrition that recommends the following plan for getting your picky eater to try new foods. It's really simple: you pick a food and every day for two weeks they have to take one bite. That's it. It takes away the fear of trying something new and gives their taste buds time to adjust and see if they might actually like it. We started with corn and it is going really well so far. 

Random things: 

she still says "hamping" instead of "panting". 

Every night she kisses us goodnight in this order- mommy, daddy, and then Elliot. The reason? She wants to save the best for last. So clearly I am not the best ;) 

She has a knack for impressions. 

She loves King of the Hill

I know this isn't terribly exciting, but I will be glad I wrote it all down.