Tag Archives: Charlotte

Easter

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Does anyone else think it’s weird that we celebrate Christ’s triumph 4.12.09 Easter Morn (9)over death by saying a bunny hops around hiding candy and colored eggs?   Were still at that stage where we are developing our traditions and I just didn’t have it in me to hype the Easter Bunny—I need more justification for his “existence” I suppose.  We tried to be simple this year, we hid a bag of jelly beans and a bag of Reces Peanut Butter cups and gave each kid one gift.    We decorated hard-boiled eggs, but then I just fed them to the kids instead of hiding them. 

I tried to put more emphasis on Christ by talking about the Crucifixion and showing them a few movies about Christ and his Crucifixion.  Charlotte and I watched “To This End Was I Born,” and talked about the events at the end of Christ’s life.  I’m grateful for the special moments we had together as we watched that film.  After Church, we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for dinner followed by a short Easter devotional.  Krista helped me fill 12 plastic eggs with scriptures and items surrounding Christ’s Atonement, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.  I hid the eggs around the living room and the kids found the eggs and delivered them to family members who read the scriptures contained therein.  We followed that activity by watching our Church’s Easter message (given my one of my very favorite Apostles).

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Hard-boiled eggs

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When Easter comes around, I’m glad that my kids actually like to eat hard boiled eggs, 4.10.09 Isaac and Charlotte (5) because I don’t like them in any form.  I boiled the eggs today and one of the eggs cracked, so I gave the cracked one to the kids while it was still hot.  They enjoyed it so much that they asked for more.  I gave them one egg at a time which they took turns taking bites of.  Before the eggs had even cooled down, the kids had shared 5 eggs, they might have eaten more, but I feared we’d have none left to color.

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Ha Ha, I joked you

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**I wrote this on April Fool’s day, but couldn’t post it until now, I’ve got some great pictures to post with it once I get this issue fixed**

Anyone who knows my brother Bryan, knows that April Fools Day may be the most  4.1.09 Bryan on April Fool's day important day of the year—at least to him.  He loves not only to play jokes, but to have them played on him.  He eagerly awaited my bedtime last night so that he could get started.  Even now as I write, he’s feverishly trying for just one more prank.

Last night’s preparations yielded missing wheels on my computer chair, a missing remote which once found was missing it’s batteries, my shoe laces tied together and hidden DVDs.  I tried a few quick pranks by switching out the bags on some of the cereals and covering the shower nozzle in saran wrap before we left the house for his orthodontist appointment.  He got braces today which presented me with a prime opportunity to prank.  I made up a list of food that he wouldn’t be allowed to eat with his new braces, the list included as many of his favorite foods as I could think of.  I gave it to the lady at the front desk who read it to him before we left.  The best part was probably the look on the faces of the other patients, mostly children as they overheard this list of forbidden foods.  He played his own jokes on them by smearing peanut butter on his teeth before the appointment and putting pink hair gel in his hair.

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A snapshot of Charlotte

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The other day I walked into her room to check on her3.23.09 rock-a-bye Charlotte and found her playing lullabies on her baby tad and gently rocking each of her stuffed animals to sleep.  Later, I found her combing her toy Lion’s hair.  She’d gently comb his hair then run into the bathroom for another kind of brush or comb and comb his hair some more.  I spent some time sitting with her and talking to her and she soon became silly and started jumping while combing her own hair. 

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Fish

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Today we got the kids their first fish.  They went with dad to pick the fish out.  Isaac named his fish ‘Polar Express’ and Charlotte named her fish ‘Cheese.’

P1050925-1Isaac:  The fish swims around the fish tank and the ‘Cheese’ fish stays down.  ‘Polar Express’ is the fish that swims and ‘Cheese’ isn’t.  That’s the whole story about them.  They can play with the stuff in the tank.  They can hide behind the rock and whenever they need fish food, I could give them fish sticks or dad could.

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Cookies that make your hair grow

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Here are pictures of us making these magical cookies.  As you can see, we made quite a mess.  The kids picked out all the shapes so we ended up with an interesting collection which included circles, hearts, dogs, cats, a sock (Christmas stocking), the letters H, P, and D, bunnies, gingerbread men, the number 1, flags, fish, a bear, flowers, stars, a duck, a dinosaur, and possibly more that I can’t think of at the moment.P1050896
As Isaac ate his first cookie, he asked “is my hair growing?” 

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The strange and funny things that little mouths say

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2.22.09 "The new Grandma sings!" Charlotte upon hearing her grandma Bunny sing to Nicole2.20.09 Isaac and Charlotte (8)

2.28.09  If Nicole spits up ever again, you should hold her over the toilet so the spit up will go into the toilet. Then Nicole would ask "where is my spit up?"  Isaac

After reading Richard Scary’s Busy, Busy Town, Charlotte wants to be a cat with clothes on that talks and she wants to build a house for walking babies, like Paul, and Isaac wants to grow his own wheat so that he can harvest it, grind it into flour and then make bread with it.

3.1.09 Isaac was helping me build a dresser when I discovered a few pieces were missing.  I said I was going to sweep the floor to see if I could find the missing pieces.  He said in essence, you don’t need to look I’ll just go pray for Heavenly Father to help us find it.  He ran into the living room, knelt said "Thank thee that we can find the missing pieces." then ran back in and said "They’re on their way!"

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Making Doughnuts

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I wrote this post and then the computer wouldn’t let me post it because Live Writer was not on speaking terms with our web hosting something or other, but it appears that they’ve settled their differences, so here it is.

The kids decided that they wanted to make doughnuts instead of going on an outing after they filled up their outing chart.  We took pictures of most of the steps, so read and view our adventure by clicking on the ‘Read More’ link below:

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I need more mom time!

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I am grateful that I got to see my mom last weekend, even if it was a very short visit. 1.23.09 Making cookies with Grandma Bunny (21) She is seriously one of my very favorite people and no matter how much time I get with her, I always want more.

She flew in on Saturday and spent Monday night at Krista’s before flying home on Tuesday morning.  We had just enough time to swim at my Uncle Toby’s house in Lindon, make cookies, play two hands of cards, stay up late talking twice, drink a 2.22.09 Story with Grandma Bunny (11)cup of hot cocoa, read stories to the children, play games with Isaac and Charlotte, hold Nicole, and make some soup.

After my grandmother’s death last year, we realized how few pictures we had of us as children with our grandmother so although we prefer to look at adorable pictures of the children by themselves, we have decided that it’s important to take pictures of the kids with their grandma and made sure to take more pictures this time.

***Grandma Cochran beware, I intend to take more pictures of you with my kids as well****

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Bryan’s First Week

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My youngest brother moved in on February 11th and will be living with us for an unspecified amount of time (we’re still building his room–sorry Bryan). Anyway, I thought his first week was worth writing about, so here goes:

He arrived on Wednesday night just in time for dinner. Little Nicole stared at him all through dinner with an expressionless face that made us laugh. Every time I would look at her she was staring at Bryan.

Charlotte welcomed him in by showing him his chair at the table and telling him that he sleeps downstairs.

The cats showed their displeasure by leaving a ‘surprise’ by my washer. I responded to their ‘surprise’ by locking them downstairs with Bryan. Jack was so unhappy that he camped out at the top of the stairs. The next morning when Bryan attempted to come upstairs Jack hissed and threatened to scratch him. Bryan was scared of Jack so he went back downstairs and climbed out the window, but discovered the doors were all locked and he was without a key so he went back inside and found that Jack had abandoned his post and it was once again safe to go upstairs.

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From the mouths of kids

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Here are some recent things the kids said:

“I would sleep so hard that I couldn’t wake up. I’d be stuck asleep and you’d have to kiss me to wake me up. Would you kiss me? And after her birthday I would be stuck sleeping if you don’t kiss me.” Isaac (possibly before Charlotte’s 3rd birthday)

After biting his finger accidentally, Isaac said “My mouth thought my finger was food. My mouth thought it was salad”

“Mom, what time will Tigers eat us?”
“Mom, don’t let tigers eat us until we’re ready to die.” (so, when we’re ready to die we should let Tigers eat us?) “Yeah” –Isaac

“That’s the Tiger’s pretzels? Because of the white spots?” Isaac upon seeing footage of a Tiger eating a deer that had white spots on it’s back

In answer to the question “What are kids made of?” Isaac replied:
“They’re made of everything that skin covers.”

“What happens if a Lion goes into a machine that turns him into food for people, that would be chicken?” –Isaac

After getting a light spank for getting out of bed at bedtime, Charlotte said “I need pajamas that doesn’t have a spank on them”

2.10.09 “Before the end of my calendar will dinosaurs be replaced? Heavenly father will make some new dinosaurs?”3249692697_947b6d5061_b

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Canguno

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Charlotte: There’s a grey cat on Grandma’s bed
Me: Is that can’s name Zelda?
Charlotte: No, Canguno.
Me: What happened to the name Zelda?
Charlotte: It got broken.
Me: Who broke it?
Charlotte: Me did it.
Me: How did you break it?
**SILENCE**
Me: Did you drop it?
Charlotte: Yeah, I was running in Grandma’s Hall and I dropped it.

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Opposites?

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Some days I wonder how my oldest two can be so opposite. The other morning Isaac was using the potty and Charlotte claimed she needed to go. She insisted she could only use the potty that Isaac was using, no other potty would do. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be interrupted to change to another potty so she just had to wait. As soon as he was done I told her she could use it and instead of being glad it was her turn, she started to insist that her brother use the potty again. She finally gave up trying to force Isaac to go potty and sat down for breakfast. Meanwhile, Isaac earned a chore square and filled up his chart. He choose a small bag of cookies (100 calorie pack) for his reward. He opened the bag and immediately started giving Charlotte cookies as “rewards” for silly things like taking a bite or being happy. He didn’t care that she had been a pill to him all morning, he gave almost his entire bag of cookies to his sister.
Isaac and Charlotte 1/09

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Story-Time

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One of my favorite things over the Christmas break was having our extended family participate in the bedtime routine. I particularly enjoyed our story-time sessions where we read stories like Lucky Socks, Here Are My Hands, Trains, Violet the Pilot, Put me in the Zoo, and Two Little Trains.  The last one was particularly fun because the book repeats this phrase "to the west" and each time it said it, everyone pointed to the West. Isaac really enjoyed this pattern and laughed and smiled after each time he pointed. 12.31.08 Storytime (13)

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

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And what could be more beautiful than a house made of candy?  Apparently not much.  Isaac and Charlotte made a gingerbread house with aunt Heidi on Sunday and lets just say it wasn’t Heidi’s most aesthetically pleasing creation.  Isaac, however thought it was great and described it as "beautiful ever all" Charlotte pronounced it finished and then said "now lets eat it!"

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Charlotte’s Birthday Party

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12.16.08 Charlotte's party (9)After being invited to several birthday parties for three-year-olds this year, I decided to bite the bullet and try hosting one for Charlotte.  This is the first birthday party I’ve thrown and after all the time I spent planning it, I know why many parents decide to wait a few years!  We had three 2 1/2 year olds, two 3 year olds, a 4 year old and a one year old for a total of 7 children, but it went really well. 

I had activities to fill the entire time, so it went by fast and we didn’t have to get out toys to entertain the kids.  Here is the list of activities:

1. Stories and songs (I read "Happy Birthday Moon" and "Snow Day")

2. Fishing snack (cream cheese with blue food coloring in a bowl and goldfish crackers around the side, the kids dipped celery sticks in the cream cheese then "caught fish" with the cream cheese coated celery)

3.  Watermelon caterpillar snack (I set the timer for 3 minutes to see  who could build the fastest watermelon caterpillar with toothpicks and watermelon balls, then they ate them)

4.  Picture treasure hunt (They raced around to find envelops with clues.  The clues were a few lines of rhyming text and a picture of where they’d find the next clue, at the end of the treasure hunt were birthday cupcakes)

5.  Sing Happy Birthday, Blow out candles, Eat cupcakes, Open presents

6.  Ice cream game (I checked out a game from PERC where they had to find matching ice cream pictures)

7.  Dancing to Christmas Music and playing with balloons while moms arrived and children left.

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Charlotte

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11.16.08 Charlotte (2)Charlotte was born at 2:16 in the afternoon on Wednesday December 14, 2004.  She  was about a month old on the day we blessed her (January 15th) and on that day I remember having a distinct feeling that I was holding a very special daughter of God and I had a sense of the strength of her spirit.  

Charlotte is a treasure and a joy to me.  I love her more than I can say.  I feel a special connection to her at times that is beyond what words can describe.  There are times that her tender hugs lift my spirit and give me strength.

 

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Candy / Nutrition

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Last month I wrote about my candy controlling issues.  Tonight as we arrived home 10.20.08 Isaac and Charlottefrom the ward party, Isaac handed me the unopened bag of candy that Santa gave him and asked me if I would add it to the candy container in the pantry. I didn’t even have to  sneak it away when he wasn’t looking!  If the story ended here it would have been great, but he actually changed his mind when he saw his sister open her bag of candy and pull out a few pieces, so he came to me and asked for it back.  After eating only a piece or two he gave it back and told me to put it up.  Charlotte, on the other hand ate several pieces and cried when her dad took it away.

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Everyone’s got a story. . .

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The more people I tell about little Charlotte’s thumb, the more stories I get back about  severed appendages.  I think everyone knows someone who has severed a finger or a toe.  In my informal study, I’d say fingers are the most commonly severed appendage.  I get at least 3 or 4 finger stories to every toe story.  I suspect I had an unusually high toe severing sample so the odds of getting a story about a severed finger are likely even greater than that.

Charlotte is still doing quite well.  I attempted my first re-bandaging of 12.7.08 Isaac, Charlotte, and Nicole (2)Charlotte’s thumb on Sunday and failed.  The bandage was stuck to the wound and I ended up taking another trip the ER to have them help me for fear that I’d make the injury worse by ripping it open or detaching the stitches. Injuries are crucial especially when it comes to brain injury in such cases it is always advisable to contact attorneys at earliest as Orange County suffered a brain injury helped to claim compensation. I don’t deal well with pain and bloody gross looking wounds particularly if it’s my children.  As I watched and tried to comfort her, I started to feel sick and broke into a cold sweat.   I’ve never actually passed out, but I suspect I was on that path.  The only time she complains about pain is when the bandage is off or coming off or if her thumb is pulled when dressing or undressing.  she is very careful with her thumb throughout the day to avoid getting it wet or irritated.

Tonight I succeeded in re-bandaging her thumb on my own and the wound is looking much better.  If you want to see how the wound looked tonight, click here.

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“I do not have a hurt bumb [thumb]”

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Adults can follow auto injury tips, but that does not work well with kids. However,Charlotte seems to be coping with her injury quote well.  The next morning when I 12.3.08 Charlotte entered their room, Isaac and Charlotte were having the following argument:

Isaac:  “you have a hurt thumb”

Charlotte:  “I do NOT have a hurt bumb [thumb]”

Which was ironic because I stayed up all night fretting that she’d wake up in pain before I could fill her pain medication prescription the next morning. If The first day I kept her medicated until bedtime, possibly more out of my fear than her actual pain.  At bedtime, she said her thumb didn’t hurt.  The next day I asked her repeatedly throughout the day if her thumb hurt.  Again, I was more concerned than she was because she answered no each time except once at 3:00 so I gave her medication then.  She didn’t need another dose all day. Also, if you need attorney’s help for denied social security disability claim, you can check it out here!

Today she had the thumb re-bandaged for the first time.  It’s still a gruesome looking injury and after looking at it for a few minutes I felt a little sick. Not all injuries require a personal injury lawyer Osborne Law Firm, P.C., but they can be scary. The top of her thumb to past her stitches was very white (the kind of white you get when you’ve had a wet bandage on too long), the nail area was bumpy with stitches and dried blood and the P1040115base of her thumb was purple and bruised (probably from the shots used to numb her thumb).  Charlotte whimpered and wiggled as they took the bandages off.  They had to  take off several layers of gauze with dried blood which agitated her injury repeatedly. If you need help with medical bills after an auto accident, then you can check it out here!  Then they washed her thumb and had the doctor look at the injury.  The good news is that it’s not infected and seems to be healing ok. But if it is no healed, it is advised to contact an experienced lawyer for DUI claims or personal injury claims. She was eager to have her thumb re-bandaged.  I’m not entirely sure if the sight of it brought back painful memories or if it was just that it didn’t hurt when it was immobilized with gauze and tape, but as soon as she was re-bandaged she felt much better and stopped whimpering.I don’t know why, but the whole tension reminded me of an accident and lawyers for traffic accident victims.  She’ll need to have her thumb bandaged for about three weeks to give the fractured bone time to heal, but the stitches should dissolve in two.

On a side note, Charlotte does not like having her hair washed in the sink, but I’m grateful for the brand new sink with detachable nozzle for washing her hair.

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