Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! We wish each and every one of you a joyous holiday!!!! We can't wait to let Charlotte open her gifts. It has been so much fun this month watching her get excited about everything. She's obsessed with looking at all of the lights at night and still enjoys yelling out "mas" every time she sees something Christmasy. She just so happens to turn 17 months old this Christmas Eve so I thought I'd share a quick update. This month Charlotte:

- has had a verbal explosion. She repeats everything, but has learned so many new words. Some of her newest ones are: light, book, read, hat, bowl, go, hello (whenever she hears a phone ring), awwww ( every time she gives you a hug), star, cold, bye, and heart. The best phrase she picked up lately is "oh man". Makes us giggle. She says it when she drops something, trips or finds trash on the floor. She also started saying "ready, set, go go".

- Has developed the sweetest girlie giggle ever. When she gets excited or finds something hilarious, she starts laughing and then covers her mouth with her hands and continues to giggle and squeal with delight. It makes me melt each and every time!

- has developed a love for hiking. We took one hike down to see some fossilized dinosaur tracks. Ross carried her in a pack on his back and she enjoyed the view. We also hiked out to see an old log cabin. The trail was paved most of the way and ran along a trickling stream. Charlotte had a blast running along the path, kicking rocks, and picking up an assortment of leaves and sticks. She loves being outside.



- never grows tired of stomping or twirling! She loves to stand between you and another person, holding hands and stomping down the sidewalk. Of course she instructs you by saying "stomp, stomp, stomp" the entire time. She also twirls around the house when we listen to music. She can go quite awhile before making herself dizzy ;)

- is still obsessed with cleaning and brushing her teeth. Everyday when I pull the broom out, she runs behind me chasing it and picking up trash to place in the dust bin. She also still makes sure that every door/cabinet is fully closed. She begs us numerous times a day for her tooth brush! It's a tad obsessive!

- should become the next spokesperson for Apple!!! She is an iPad/iPhone user. She knows how to slide the icons to open devices, swish through pages looking for apps or listening to music. It's quite impressive. She has a folder full of apps that she enjoys playing. She sits there saying "ummm" while trying to decide which one to open. One of her favorites is called Toddler Shapes. It gives you 5 different shapes and asks you to find a certain one on each page. So far she can identify a circle, square, rectangle, triangle, heart, diamond, star, pentagon and hexagon.

We can't believe our baby girl has grown and changed so much in such a short time. Can't wait to see what another month brings our way. Thanks for checking in on us. Enjoy time with your family and friends over the holidays!!!!!!