Isaac and Charlotte still get along very well and play together all the time.  It seems like they’ve been conspiring more and getting into more trouble since the move, but maybe I just think that because I am much busier and have less family support out here.

Other than adding a new baby, I think the way Charlotte relates to Nicole has been the  biggest change in dynamics.  Isaac’s school day is much longer here in Tennessee so Charlotte has had to resort to playing with Nicole in the mornings.  Charlotte likes to encourage Nicole to do naughty things like ransack my candy drawer so that she can reap the benefits of candy plunder while passing the blame onto her younger sister.  Nicole loves to climb into Charlotte’s bed and Charlotte willingly invites her in and they both crawl under the covers together.  Charlotte has been spontaneously hugging Nicole when she cries and getting out toys for her.  I’ve even seen Charlotte spontaneously sharing her things with Nicole like the other morning when Charlotte helped her pick out a combination of her shoes to wear.  While Isaac is at school, they spend the majority of their time playing together.

Isaac has always been a kind and loving brother to all of his sisters. When Charlotte was a baby I would catch him putting bits of cereal in her mouth, swinging her in her baby swing, talking to her, or trying to teach her things like how to brush her teeth.  Before Nicole was born, I repeatedly talked to Isaac and Charlotte about what newborn babies were like and what they could and couldn’t do.  When Nicole was born, Isaac loved to talk to her and regularly told her lists of things she could and couldn’t do (“you can cry and you can suck but you can’t walk or crawl. . .”).  As Nicole grew, Isaac continued to watch out for her, help her with things, and baby talk to her.  Now he baby talks to Ila and regularly asks to hold her.   When he gets in the car after school he says “Hi Ila” in a cheery voice.  Sometimes he tries to explain things about the world to her in his higher-pitched baby voice.  (Recent example:  After telling me what he learned about the Revolutionary War at school and what it means to be an American, he turned to Ila and said in a baby voice “We’re Americans, Ila.  That means we are  free for everything."

Charlotte has recently taken more of an interest in Ila.  She has a little pink blanket that she has claimed as her own.  I think I remember her telling me it was hers and insisting that I surrender it when I used it on Nicole.  Now she regularly places it on Ila and says “I love Ila so much that I want to share her with my pink blanket.”  She also loves to sing a little song to Ila that goes like this:  “I Love Ila, Ila Jane.”  She has started asking to hold Ila more and more and even fell asleep holding her one day.

I can’t figure out what Nicole thinks about Ila.  I have to be really careful about where I  put Ila while Nicole is awake because if I lay her somewhere that Nicole can reach her, Nicole will not leave her alone.  If I lay Ila on a blanket, Nicole immediately lays down right next to her and rolls close to her to give her a hug.  Nicole loves to put pacifiers in Ila’s mouth, but can be a little rough.  She also likes to hug Ila, but sometimes her hugs are rough and amount to trying to lay on Ila.  I had to move the baby swing into another room because as soon as I put Ila down in it, Nicole would be right there trying to swing it faster or pointing out Ila’s eyes, or almost laying on her in an attempt to give her a hug.  I have also caught Nicole trying to put non-food items (mostly toys) into Ila’s mouth.  I have never seen Nicole do anything that seemed intentionally unkind to Ila, but she does sometimes try to climb on my lap while I’m holding Ila and push Ila out of her way if they are sharing my lap. 

I remember that we’d fill it as full as we could and then still have things packed in the back of the van.  We went through a few car-top carriers, but I can’t remember why.  The experience I’ll never forget is our last trip with a car-top carrier. 

We were traveling home from Canada and were in Ontario with about 3 hours left till we got home.  As were cruising along down the highway at a good speed, car-top carrier flew off of the car with a thud and landed in the middle of the highway.  I can remember feeling panicked and wondering what we would do and how we could possibly fit all of our things in the van.  I remember that by the time we had all of our things packed into the already full van, we could no longer see the floor of the van and we had to rest our legs on top of luggage.

Anyone who knows my Charlotte knows that she loves her name.  For a long time, the phrase you’d hear her say the most was “I’m Charlotte.”  The day she severed her thumb, we knew the pain was relieved when she looked at us and said “I’m Charlotte.”  So you can only imagine her excitement to meet another Charlotte who happens to be close to her age.

She announced to me the other day that she wanted to write a book about Charlotte coming.  She choose paper the color of the sun and came up with the text all on her own.  For days she would make comments about the other Charlotte regularly.   She’d say things like “the other Charlotte likes pink too.”  Today, after Charlotte H left, she said “Jesus accidently made two Charlottes.  One is four and the other is three.”

So my best friend David has been down at NAS Pensacola for some training, and I thought this was the best time to go see the National Museum of Naval Aviation with him.  I’ve always wanted to visit; they have a great selection of aircraft.  Naturally, a road trip these days means bringing Isaac with me; bringing Isaac usually means bringing Charlotte too.  Hit the jump for a boatload of pictures and a quick summary.

It’s quite fun to have kids who are content to go on drives with me.  And by drives, I mean drive from Knoxville to Pensacola (about 500 miles) one afternoon and drive back the next.  Both Isaac and Charlotte never once complained about being bored (hungry, yes) and seemed to enjoy the ride as much as I did.  They look bored, but they were actually asking lots of questions here:

After breakfast at IHOP, we headed over to the museum.  At first, Charlotte was very nervous, but she warmed up after a while.  Isaac was gung-ho from the start.  Here are some pictures.  One of the highlights for the kids was the number of cockpit displays available for them to climb in.  We showed them how to give a thumbs up when they were ready to go (we also had them hum the Top Gun theme).

Isaac with the Blue Angels:

Me trying out my favorite plane (one of them, anyway), an F-8 Crusader:

Isaac trying out an A-7 cockpit.  The kids would ask each other to hold down the displays to make sure they didn’t accidentally take off.  Here Charlotte is holding the plane down for Isaac:

Here the kids are on a rescue mission in a Coast Guard (David calls them Puddle Pirates) helicopter:

Talking about the F-4 Phantom cockpit the kids are trying out. They thought we were teasing about the seat shooting up into the air in an emergency:

After finishing up at the museum, we headed over to the beach.  This is the first time they’d been to any kind of beach, so they were very excited (that’s the Pensacola light in the background):

Digging a great big hole with help from David (the “thumbs up” idea stuck):

Here’s the whole gallery of pictures from the trip:

Lately, Nicole has developed her own little way to have some time with her mom. It started off with Nicole trying to put my shoes on my feet once when I sat down to feed Ila.  Soon she was trying to put my shoes on me each time I fed Ila.  I recognized a new opportunity to play with her and I started trying to tickle her with my feet, or give her feet hugs.  Sometimes my feet try to dance with her or startle her by jumping when she least expects it.  I know this sounds strange, but we both started to really enjoy this time together.  Now whenever Nicole sees me sit down to feed Ila she gets a big grin on her face and runs over to my feet and she gets very frustrated if they’re not on the ottoman where she likes to play with them.

What Creative ways have you found to spend quality time with your kids (or others) when you find you lack quantity of time?

The main thing that has been holding me back from letting Nicole try a bed is that I wanted to find a nice bedspread for her.  I don’t like big cartoon characters or Disney princesses, but still wanted something feminine and girly without looking really cheap.  Unfortunately, the only ones I could find that I liked were online and started at $80 (granted my local store search only included Wal-Mart and Target).  

Zach took Isaac and Charlotte on an adventure to Florida today so I thought I’d get the grocery shopping done after Nicole’s nap. As I took my periodic stroll through the bedding section at Wal-Mart I noticed this bedspread that I hadn’t seen before.  It fit the bill and was much less expensive than the ones I liked online.  Needless to say, I bought it.  

I got home about an hour before bedtime and it was too dark to get the spare twin bed from downstairs so I set Nicole up with an episode of Curious George, stripped Charlotte’s bed, and moved it into Nicole’s room.  I got the bed made and the room re-arranged before Nicole finished her show.  I set up the camera for our baby monitor and positioned it to see the bed.

When I took Nicole into her room she was surprised to see that I had rearranged and added a bed.  I told her that it was “Nicole’s Bed” and she said “bed” over and over and kept straining to see it as I changed her diaper.  As soon as I had her PJs on, I put her in the bed and started our bedtime routine of signing songs.  She was thrilled with the bed.  I told her good night and left the room.  I watched her through my video monitor as she practiced pulling her blankets on, read stories, hugged her stuffed  animals, and sang.  It took her 2 1/2 hours to fall asleep (which is not atypical for her), but for the entire time she never left the bed and never cried.

My family didn’t take a lot of family vacations that weren’t to visit extended family.  Most of the time we traveled it was to see either my grandma in Pittsburg, PA or my grandparents in Knoxville, TN.  Either trip meant many hours in the car. 

We seldom stopped for food because I know my mom was always trying to conserve money.  She’d pack a cooler full of sandwiches and a variety of snacks.  One time she packed baby bottles filled with juice for all of the kids.  I think the idea was to prevent spills ( this was my mom’s frugal alternative to juice boxes).  My sibs and I loved the bottles, mostly for the strange looks we got from other cars passing by.  We would wait until another car was about to pass and then lift the bottles in the air to take a long drink..  My mom became very embarrassed and made a sign for the window that said “these are not my children.”  The time in the car passed more quickly on the long drive and so for several drives after that we all insisted that she pack us baby bottles of juice.  I think she initially refused, not wanting to repeat the embarrassment, but eventually she caved and for awhile we had baby bottles for every extended trip.  We were also required to make the “these are not my children” sign for the window.  I think once we wrote “these ARE my children.”

Here is today:

Went to bed at 1:00 AM last night.  Ila only woke up once after that, but didn’t settle right back down after eating so I held her in my arms on the couch and went back to sleep—luckily she’s good at sleeping in my arms. 

5:56 AM:  I hear Nicole wake up and cry out.  I lay there and try to decide if I can stay in bed for 30 more minutes.  I convince myself that the last thirty minutes of sleep only seem like the most  important, they won’t really make a difference in how tired I feel so I carefully maneuver off the couch without waking Ila and gently lay her in her bed.  I get Nicole out of bed, change her diaper and carry her into the living room.  She seems so content to hug that I think maybe she’ll lay on the couch and cuddle with me and I can have some of my last 30 min of sleep.  It doesn’t work.  She’s way too wiggly. I’ve never been able to cuddle Nicole to sleep.   I give up, turn off my alarm and make her breakfast.

6:30-7:20 I wake up Isaac.  It usually takes a few tries.  I go in at 6:30 and wake him up just enough to ask if he wants a few more minutes of sleep.  He does.  The next time I go back to his room I pull some clothes out for him and remind him why he needs to get up.  Usually he has rolled off his bed and is hiding between his bed and the wall with his multi-colored afghan from Aunt Heidi over his head and I have to tap him so he knows that  I found him.  He usually laughs a little, but doesn’t move to get up.  Today he was still in bed.  He surprises me by coming out dressed before I go back in his room.  I make him breakfast, fix his hair, and help him tie his shoes.  Charlotte comes into the kitchen and I give her breakfast as well.  Zach gathers the family and we have family prayer before he takes Isaac to school and himself to work.

7:20-11:20  I help Nicole and Charlotte choose a few toys to play with and then clean the kitchen.  I feed Ila and she falls asleep so I lay her in her swing. 

The girls are all happy and safe so I decide to take the shower I that I neglected to take last night.  I started showering at night to guarantee a shower each day, but some nights Zach is asleep before Ila is settled and I don’t want to chance him waking up to a screaming baby while I shower. 

I take a quick shower and start to get dressed before I hear Nicole crying at the door.  It’s still better than last time when Nicole heard me start up the shower and cried at the door until Charlotte came along and opened it for her and I had to cut my shower short when both girls opened the shower door.  I had to wrap a towel around myself and set her up to play with some toys so I could dry off and get dressed without her in the room getting into her father’s things.  This time I finish getting dressed and open the door to let her in.  She gives me a strange look as I apply my deodorant.  I pick her up and carry her out of the room with me.

She wants me to read her a book.  After I read the book to her three times she’s still not satisfied. She’s just started to demand more attention from me, she used to prefer reading books by herself.  I’m expecting someone around 11:00.  I need to get some chores done before she comes so I turn on Curious George and try to interest her in a show and some toys.  It works well enough and I’m able to make all the beds and straiten up the books and other things in all the bedrooms.  I get out some clothes for Nicole and get her dressed.  Charlotte is wearing a different pair of PJs.  I know what this means so I look in the bathroom and find her other PJs and “night time underwear” on the floor.  She doesn’t want to get dressed in daytime clothes ,but I’m able to bribe her to get dressed by offering her a banana cookie that I made yesterday. 

I’m afraid I’ll forget to use the bacon we bought last week so I pre-cook it and put it in a Tupperware container so that it can easily be re-warmed for a quick breakfast.  As I cook the bacon I finish up some chores.  I take out the kitchen trash and pull the garbage can back to the house, re-organize Ila’s clothing storage by borrowing some better looking containers from Nicole’s room and from the cabinet under the TV.  I have to find a new container for under the TV and pick out a few toys to donate in order to make it work.  Fix my hair and make-up.

The house is all clean except for vacuuming.  This carpet shows everything so I have to vacuum.  Ila is awake.  I try to feed her, but she doesn’t want to eat so I try to lay her down somewhere while I vacuum.  It doesn’t work, she cries right away when I try to lay her down.  I ask Charlotte if she wants to hold Ila.  She does, but Ila isn’t content for long and I really need to vacuum.  I start to feel stressed that i won’t be able to vacuum.  I know it shouldn’t be such a big deal, but someone is coming and I’m so close to having my house perfectly clean.  I take a deep breath, sit down and settle Ila to sleep.  It actually didn’t take too long.  I get out the upright and check the bag.  It’s really full.  I take it out, but can’t find the spare bags, maybe I’m out.  Luckily I have a second vacuum, it just takes a few more minutes to put together.  Finally, I am able to vacuum the living room, hall, and children’s bedrooms. 

I feed the girls again.  It’s a little early for lunch but at least I’ll have time to clean up before she comes.

Ila is awake again.  This time she will eat.  I nod off while feeding her.  I feel strangely more rested after my catnap but Ila’s asleep time for more cleaning.  The girls have made some messes.  I help them clean up. 

The phone rings.  She’s not coming today.  I’m ok with it, but I think now I’ll have to do this all over again when she does come later in the week. Not that I let my house fall apart most days, but I usually don’t have it perfectly clean at any given moment.  I’m actually somewhat relived that I can go to the store now instead of going after school when I have one more child with me and am running into Nicole’s naptime.  The thought occurs to me how glad I am that I cleaned a little extra this morning because now I can just go and come home to a clean house. 

11:20-12:43  I get shoes on all the girls.  Ila is already awake again so I put her in her car seat.  I load up all the girls and head off to Wal-Mart.  Short phone call to Zach along the way.  The girls are perfect in the store but it’s a challenge to fit groceries in around Ila’s car seat with Nicole in the front.  It’s usually even harder to fit the groceries back in after they’ve been bagged, but I take out Ila’s car seat and turn it so that it can rest sideways on the back of the cart and I’m able to put a few things under the seat so that everything fits in easily.  I even get a compliment for how well behaved my girls are.  I unload everything into the car and select home on my GPS.  It looks like I’ll have just enough time to stop at home and unload.

12:43-12:50  I give Charlotte and Nicole each a bunch of grapes to keep them happy while I hurry to unload groceries and put all the perishables in the fridge (Zach would not be happy about them eating in the car, but they ate lunch early and I have to be at the school at 1:00, maybe I should have left this part out of the blog).  I get the mail so that I can sort it in the car at the school.

12:50-1:15  I drive to the school and get there six minutes early.  I park the car in the line of cars waiting to pick up their kids.  Even 6 minutes early I’m too far back to see the kids come out of the school, but I know I’ve got a little time.  I open some mail, but Ila is getting fussy.  I get out of the car and try to calm her in her seat.  It doesn’t work so I take her out of the seat and carry her to the driver’s seat.  With her blanket covering her, I feed her as I sit in the drivers seat and watch for signs that the kids are getting out of school or the cars in front of me are restarting and moving forward.  I can barely see the top of the door to the school, but I see it open.  I stop feeding Ila and give her her pacifier.  I burp her as I take her back to her seat.  She would have eaten more, but she’s content.  I have her bucked in her seat and I’m back in my seat with the car on before the line moves forward.  I pull up to the school and a teacher walks Isaac to the door.  As he gets in he enthusiastically says “Mom, Trevor said not to sit by Faith because she’s a werewolf”.  The teacher smiles as she shuts the door.  I ask a few questions about his story.  Soon he’s telling me that “the cold that made Mr. Burton’s foot hurt is giving me bad germs so that my foot is starting to hurt so I will have to hop on one foot, but I’m not very good at hopping on one foot so I need those things like Mr. Burton has.”  He means crutches, but still hasn’t embraced the name for them.  We drive home.

1:15-3:00  I gather the mail, my purse, the diaper bag and Ila.  All I can do is unbuckle the girls, I have no free hand to take Nicole in and Ila is awake.  Isaac takes his bag and jacket into the kitchen table then joins his sisters to play in the garage.  The house is clean and I need a few moments to take care of Ila and go through his backpack so the garage seems like a perfect choice.  I warn them to stay in the garage and not to unlock the door so that Nicole will be safe.  I take Ila out of her seat, put bags away and hold her as I go through the papers in Isaac’s bag.  I turn on the oven, knowing that cooking a snack will get the kids out of the garage quickly and efficiently.  I put away the things from the car, check to see if Zach left me a message on the computer.  He did.  I call him and he wants me to make a call.  I know it’s the kind that will have me on hold and then answering a multitude of questions, but the house is clean and the kids aren’t too needy.

I get the info I need and make the call.  I get through menu selections then put the phone on speaker as I put the kids snack in the oven.  I hold Ila and set the table. 
The timer sounds, the snack is ready.  I take it out of the oven and call the kids in.  As they sit down in their seats my hold time ends.  I put Nicole in her seat and dish up snacks as I talk to the person.  Her computer is responding slowly so the call is elongated.  I have to hold the phone with my shoulder with Ila in my arms to log into some info on the computer.  The kids finish eating and ask to get out train tracks.  I make a deal to let them if they’ll clean up before Dad gets home.  Ila is asleep in my arms.  I lay her down as gently as I can with my free arm while still on the phone.  She stays asleep.  Isaac starts describing something he’s building.  I still on the phone so I can’t really listen, but he goes on and on.  Nicole finishes eating and I take her from her seat.  She needs a diaper change, but I’m still on the phone and I know she doesn’t want to be changed so I grab a bag of fruit snacks and give her one as I lay her down on the changing table.  It works, she doesn’t scream and I’m able to change her diaper as I continue to talk on the phone.  I finish changing her and put her in her bed.  She is not happy and starts to cry.  Charlotte walks in as I’m leaving the room.  She has wet her pants and wants me to choose which underwear she should change into.  I have to pick her up and put her in the hallway so that I can get out of the room where Nicole is crying because I’m still on the phone.  I have to break away from the call to choose some underwear for Charlotte.  The lady on the phone asks a question I can’t answer so I’m back to my computer to type to Zach.  He responds and the call is finally over. I can’t believe how much I did while on the phone and it worked out ok—I have to let someone know how awesome I am and no one’s home so I update my status on facebook

I’m feeling good.  I”m on a roll.  With Nicole and Ila asleep and Isaac and Charlotte building train tracks I have a moment to myself.   Charlotte has peed her pants 4 times today so I decide to do some laundry even though I had washed all my dirty clothes yesterday.  I sit at my computer for a few moments and clear out my google reader.  I check my email.  Krista tried to call.  I realize my phone is still in my car, my hands were so full that I forgot it.  As I talk to Krista, Ila wakes up.  I pick her up and keep her happy while I talk to Krista.  I feed Ila and things are still calm so I call my cousin. We make tentative plans for Friday.

3:00-5:20  I wash and prepare some potatoes for dinner and put them in the oven, switch the laundry, have Isaac do his homework, turn on the oven, pack lunches for Zach and Isaac, put meatballs in the oven for dinner, set the table, cook some corn for dinner, and take pictures of Isaac’s train track so that he’s ok with cleaning it up.  I notice Charlotte go to the bathroom.  After a little while I start to worry and check on her.  She’s had an accident and it’s all over her legs and the toilet.  I have to let Ila cry while I clean Charlotte and the bathroom and then send Charlotte in to put clothes on.

5:20-5:40  Nicole wakes up.  I pick her up and hug her for a few minutes.  Ila starts to cry so I put Nicole in her chair with some food and I sit down and start feeding Ila. Isaac finishes cleaning up his mess.  Zach comes home. 

5:40-8:00 I put Ila down and pull dinner out of the oven.  We eat dinner.  Zach holds Ila while Isaac and Charlotte help me clean up from dinner.  The mess is small, but Ila cries the whole time.  I take her from Zach and we gather the children for Family Home Evening.  We sing a song, have a lesson on Abinidi and King Noah, then have our “Family Olympics.”  I record the competitions and awards ceremonies with my camera while holding Ila.  When the “Olympics” are over we send the kids to change into PJs.  I put Ila down to dish up ice cream for our family night treat.  Nicole doesn’t notice the ice cream  so I put her to bed while Zach takes care of Ila.  The kids finish ice cream and we start our bedtime routine.  Zach runs the show as I hold Ila.

8:00-9:30  With the kids in bed, we quickly  list a few items to sell (Zach lists 5 and I list 1 while holding Ila).  Ila is fussy so I take her to the living room to rock her to sleep.  She calms quickly and Zach joins me for a snack and a show.  I lay Ila down to sleep during the show. 

9:30-now  Zach watches a Jazz game while I use my computer and take care of Ila.  I start this blog.  Zach and I pray together.  He goes to bed.  At midnight Isaac’s alarm rings and he starts to yell and cry.  I turn it off and comfort him.  I reset the alarm so that if it gets turned on again it will go off at 9:00 AM.  I finish my blog—maybe I should have taken the opportunity to go to sleep early, but sleep will come another time.  I might not remember all the details tomorrow and now I’ll always have this record.  I’ll likely finish my night by editing my blog, posting it, and perhaps posting a few pictures and videos to flickr.

It was a good day.  I accomplished a lot because the kids played well and slept well and Ila was not very demanding.  It wasn’t necessarily atypical, though it had it’s atypical moments.  The days that are most frustrating to me are the days that I’m not able to keep up and my house gets messy and it seems like everyone needs me at once.  Those are the days that I need help, but I won’t ask for it because I’m too afraid to let anyone see my house in chaos and mess so I just do my best and I”ve usually caught up with the messes by the time I go to bed.

To anyone who made it to the end, I’m sorry for all the boring details.  Don’t blame me, you kept reading. . . .good night!

So when he saw this picture of my grandfather he said “Mom, your family is a forklift family"

Ila is still establishing her sleeping pattern.  At two months old, she doesn’t usually settle down until about 11:00 (which is much better than last week when she didn’t settle down till 1 or 2 each night).  She can be a little fussy in the evening which is fairly typical for her age, but once she settles down she usually only wakes once to eat before my alarm goes off at 6:30AM.

This is what the house used to look like and except for the fact that there were a lot more trees and other plants and a birdbath in the front yard, this is pretty much how I remember it looking

Here’s the picture of what it looks like now

The lady who lives there now was very kind and talked to us at length about the changes they had made and apologized for the roses and other things that didn’t survive.  It’s strange that she’s been there for ten years already because in my mind that house has always been my grandmother’s house and for some reason I had it in my head that she had just moved in.

My girls on the other hand, like girly things.  Sure they’ll play with a truck or drive a car around the room, but they show their gender identity in different ways. 

This morning I went to check on the girls and found Charlotte still in bed with one Sunday shoe on and Nicole wearing one of Charlotte’s shoes and bringing Charlotte another shoe.  That scene is what prompted this blog post.  Lately if a shoe is left out, Nicole will try it on.   At least once a day she brings a pair of shoes to me while I”m feeding Ila and insists on putting the shoes on my feet, taking them off, and then putting them on again.  While browsing through my log the other day, I read a note I had written about Charlotte walking around the house listing each of her shoes and what the shoe is for (ie:  my pink crocks are for playing at grandma’s house. . .) . Their Gender-specific actions don’t stop at shoes.  Charlotte prefers to hint at wanting something rather than ask for it directly.  Like if she sees me eating a chocolate she might say something like “Chocolate is brown, Chocolates are my favorite candy. , , “ and she will continue describing the chocolate but never directly ask for it.  She waits for me to ask if she wants one.  One day I overheard her saying to her grandfather “that candy is not in my mouth.” (The picture is from this morning—note the mismatched shoes)

My girls play with toys differently as well.  When I was pregnant with Charlotte,  my mother-in-law got out a doll to get Isaac used to the idea of having a baby around.  Isaac never once picked up the doll to play with it, but both Charlotte and Nicole liked to hug dolls and other stuffed animals by that age.  One day, Charlotte and Isaac were playing with dolls.  Charlotte told Isaac that he was the dad and she was the mom and they each had a doll.  Charlotte lovingly rocked her doll and sang songs to it.  She made a bed in a laundry basket and laid her doll in the bed.  Isaac took the laundry basket, turned it upside down, put the doll inside and said something like “the baby is trapped.”

Charlotte loves to have her nails painted.  She likes to put on make-up and will volunteer to sit still for 30 minutes so that I can put foam curlers in her hair.

I don’t know why, but it makes me smile each time I see one of my kids expressing his or her gender identity. 

Charlotte gave herself a haircut.  I was lucky—it wasn’t too bad and it was on the verge of being much worse when I interceded. She made her cuts right in the front forming a very choppy upside-down V and forcing me to cut some shorter-than-I-ever-would-have-chosen bangs.  I was mostly sad because we’ve been trying to grow out her bangs since birth and now we have a new set of bangs to grow out.

This is a continuing tradition because many (all?) of my siblings and I cut our hair at some point during our childhood.