Breakfast with Santa

I'm slowly but surely getting caught up with blogging.

This past Saturday Judd, my parents, and I took Charlotte to have breakfast with Santa at Hershey's Chocolate World. We were greeted at the door, seated at our table that was covered in Reese's peanut butter cups, Hershey's miniatures, and Hershey's kisses. We then went to the buffet and chose from chocolate chip pancakes, waffles, and other various yummy things.

After I finished with my cup of hot chocolate covered with whip cream and chocolate chips, Santa came out with Mrs. Claus to visit everyone. Charlotte knew just who it was and waved her little jingle bell bracelet with everyone else. We were released by table to go up and visit with Santa - so now standing in long lines. Charlotte did really well - no crying - but no smiling either!

After her visit with Santa, we went to do the Chocolate World tour and then the 3D show. By the time the 3D show started, Charlotte was finished with cooperating and my mom ended up taking her out soon after it started. She was a really good girl for most of the morning, I think her sugar high was starting to wear off.

Nothing like Reese's for breakfast.




Before the 3D show

Scenes from Thanksgiving

Judd, Charlotte, and I flew up to PA last Tuesday to spend Thanksgiving with my family. We had a great Thanksgiving - both of my sisters, their significant others, a friend, both of my grandmothers, and my parents sat around the table. So much to be thankful for.





My grandmother brought the "Marble Speedway" with her along with an assortment of colored marbles. The Marble Speedway is an antique toy that my father and just about every other child that has visited my grandparent's house has played with. It is just a wooden toy that a marble can travel down through a series of shoots - but has the power to hipnotize children - here Grandma is showing Charlotte just how it works. I just love the tongue sticking out in concentration.



Judd flew back to Atlanta on Saturday. I decided to stay up here with Charlotte this week. My youngest sister, Rachel, gets married on Saturday and we were going to need to be up here for that!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The ones you don't take

We had a great weekend last weekend. Judd's parents came into town on Friday afternoon and spent the weekend with us. Charlotte was in heaven with all of the attention. We went to the park, went shopping, played and played - oh, and she even was given Oreos for breakfast before Judd and I got up on Saturday morning!

Judd and I got a chance to sneak out for dinner and a movie on Saturday night. We were originally supposed to go to the UGA game, but I was exhausted Saturday and the game was going to be over late. So, we went to see The Blind Side instead - we still got some football in. (It is an awesome movie - go see it if you can)

Sunday, after Judd's parents left and after Charlotte's nap, we decided to go to Lenox mall to let her run around and burn off some energy since it was raining. When we pulled into the parking lot, we saw that the Pink Pig was up and running. Judd and I thought Charlotte might get a kick out of it, so we bought a couple of tickets and stood in line.

She LOVED it. She got so excited waiting in line - which included screaming at the top of her lungs. Then it was our turn, Charlotte and I rode together and Judd watched us from the side. She sat right next to me and smiled the entire time - we looked at the Christmas trees and all of the pigs - then we got to the mirrors and she waved and waved at herself. When it finished, she looked at me, held up her little finger and said, "One More?".

So, where's the picture? I didn't have my camera. But, I'm OK with that. Initially I was upset - knowing that I wouldn't have something to show for the experience. But it allowed me to just enjoy the time with Judd and Charlotte. Rather than worrying about f/stops, shutter speeds, and ISO, I was able to concentrate 100% on Charlotte and Pink Pigs. I have my mental pictures. I have one picture in my mind of her sitting next to me holding onto the side of the car with her little hand - her eyes wide looking all around - and her little mouth smiling. I have another picture in my mind of Judd, holding my purse, waving and smiling to us as we went by. Sometimes, the best pictures are the ones you don't take.

Little artist

I bought some washable markers for Charlotte last week and she has been drawing ever since.

At her parent/teacher conference yesterday at school they said 'art' was one of her favorite activities. This morning she said she drew a 'frog', then 'mommy', then 'daddy'. Frog, Judd, and I all looked like circles - hope she's not telling me something. :)

Just know

Go ahead and throw your temper tantrums. Go ahead and throw your empty cup at me enraged because I won't get you more cheerios. Go ahead and fight me while I strap you into your carseat - arch that back! You can go ahead and cry and scream in my face because I'm making you pick your markers up. Go ahead and do all of these things and more - I know you need to do it.

You have an idea of what independence is and you feel you need to exercise that muscle. I get it, I understand.

I'm here for you. I'm here to set your boundaries. I'm here to show you what you are in fact independent enough to do.

I know you have can have stressful days too - it is hard to constantly learn - and I know that you are constantly learning because those eyes are always watching us, observing everything we do. Go ahead and get all of that stress out.

But, just know that after you are all done with that tantrum, you can always come back and climb in my lap - that no matter what you do, Daddy and I will always love you.

It's been a while

Wow, I haven't blogged in over a week.

I've been pretty busy, but I also just haven't really felt like it. I think I just need a break every now and then.

Charlotte and I flew up to Baltimore last Friday. Charlotte went to spend the weekend with Grammie and Grandad, while I spent the weekend with my sisters for Rachel's bachelorette party. Sally planned the whole weekend - and did a fabulous job. We toured a couple of wineries in the area, then went out for a really nice dinner that evening. After dinner we kicked up our heels at Power Plant Live in downtown Baltimore. There was some great people watching on the dance floor.

Judd flew from Milan to Baltimore and spent the weekend with us too. It was Rachel's fiance's bachelor party on Saturday as well. So, Judd and Andrew headed downtown in the afternoon to meet up with the other fellows.

We flew back on Sunday and tried to get our lives in order before the start of the week. I can't believe little Rachel is going to be married in 2.5 weeks!

Yesterday I got a call from Judd around 12:30pm. He got a call from daycare saying that they needed someone to come get Charlotte immediately. They had a gas main break and had to evacuate the church. Of course, Judd had a busy day and so that meant that I needed to leave my job and go get her.

I pull up to the church and see fire trucks and other emergency vehicles outside with areas roped off. I pull around the back of the church and there are 5 buses filled with kids. It was kind of crazy. There were little infants out there - they had pulled some cribs outside - I felt so bad for the infant room teachers.

I got Charlotte - she seemed to be having a great time - wasn't scared at all. Then the assistant director comes up to me and says:
"We had a little bit of a scare with Charlotte."
me: "Oh, really?"
AD: "Yes, we all evacuated and came out here to the parking lot, then called roll. We discovered Charlotte wasn't out here"
me: "Oh, really?"
AD: "Yes, we ran back into the Toddler 2 room, and there she was asleep on her mat - she had fallen asleep after lunch"
me: "So, she was in there asleep all by herself??"
AD: "Yes, but only for about 2 min"


What, seriously?? This really freaked me out. I'm not sure what to do about it. I feel like I need to know the evacuation plan a little better - what if the building were on fire, and not just a gas main break?? What if she had woken up and realized that everyone was gone? She would have been so scared. Ugh, I swear - it's always something.