We took Charlie to the snow for the first time while we were visiting Nana and Grandpa, who live really close to the Sierras. Charlie was very excited to go to the snow; she had been talking about it for weeks. On the morning we drove up, I don’t know if she was more excited about seeing snow or about wearing her snow pants that Nana got her. First up, sledding with Papi. Charlie went down with Papi once…and then went down by herself. (Notice I did not get any pictures of her actually sledding down by herself because I was too busy worrying about her falling out and trying to catch her at the bottom. She was fine. Did not come close to falling out.) Then she was done sledding.

Next up, picnic in the snow, sliding on her butt in the snow and making snowmen. She refused for the rest of the day to ride the sled, wouldn’t even let us pull her around in it. BUT, she was very interested in pulling her snowman around in the sled. After all her hard work building various snowmen, she was quite proud to give one a ride on a sled.

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We also went to a tiny local zoo. It used to be full of rescued, gimpy animals in small cages, but they have since expanded, remodeled and built larger, more attractive and comfortable enclosures. Still have quite a few gimpy animals though, all rescued and can’t survive in the wild. Charlie really enjoyed it. They had about 6 wolves and 3-4 black bears.

The photos are in the Visiting Nana and Grandpa set.
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This was the first year Charlie really understood Christmas trees, lights, Santa and reindeer.  And, as it turns out, she loves Christmas carols. . . especially this one:

We took her to see Santa at the LA Zoo. They had crafts and Santa photo ops and real live reindeer. Charlie wouldn’t sit on Santa’s lap, but she did give him a high five, tell him what she wanted for Christmas and sit on Papi’s lap next to Santa to take a picture (I had to sit on the other side of him). Then she made a reindeer antler hat which she wore all over the zoo and brushed the farm animals in the kids area. Also, she loved watching the reindeer (which were all female, since they still had their antlers and it was five days til Christmas…bit of reindeer trivia, the male reindeer lose their antlers well before Christmas).

She was also extremely excited to make cookies for Santa and we left a plate of two cookies, a glass of milk and some carrots for the reindeer. It took me forever to get her to sleep because she kept saying, “I think Santa’s going to eat the cookies. I think the reindeer are going to eat the carrots!” In the morning she ran out to the cookies table, saw that the cookies and carrots were eaten and proceeded to look around the living room for Santa.

We had a great time with both our families over the holidays, and hope you all did too.

Happy New Year everyone.

Charlie started preschool in September. (I know this is almost 3 months late, I can hear you complaining to your computer screen.)  I did a lot of online research and some school visits and managed to find the preschool that almost perfectly matched our values and ideals for what Charlie’s first school experience should be.

Basically, she goes and plays, they help the kids problem solve by teaching them how to talk to each other when they’re upset and they have tons of natural toys and a huge yard full of plants, trees, a giant sand pit, a garden and bunnies. It suits her.

It is the type of school where parents are encouraged to stick around a while until the kids get comfortable. I had to stick around for about 2 months before Charlie made it to the point where she no longer cared when I left… and I feel perfectly happy with that. She made bonds with the teachers, one in particular, and her fellow students and then on her terms she didn’t need me there anymore. It’s been quite an adjustment for both of us, but she is so happy.

Two days a week, Charlie enters her class and makes a beeline for her favorite “dolly baby,” a brown newborn doll with a cream dress with reddish flowers all over it.   There are about 7-10 dolls at the school, and she only plays with that one… sometimes a second. With her baby in hand, she’s off to explore the rest of the playroom. They have snack throughout class when they want, break halfway through for singing and stories and then head outside to get wet in the sand pit, water plants, swing, paint or play house.

They don’t make kids “share,” because sharing is a complex concept to kids this age. Instead, they first teach them what ownership is by letting them play with a toy for as long as they like (assuming they didn’t steal it from another kid) and problem solve between two kids after the same toy (by suggesting a time frame for playing with something.) They don’t punish or praise.

They experience things with the kids, talk to them about what they are doing, help them express their needs and feelings and let them come to their own conclusions about themselves and their creations. It’s amazing to see Charlie come home and use the concepts she is learning in school. For example, if she wants something that I am using and tries to grab it, I’ll say to her that I’m using it and I’m not done. She will then reply, “when Mama’s done using it, Charlie can use it.”

I’m already worried about the year when Charlie has to leave the school and move on to something else. I’m just glad she has a place like this to learn and play and grow.

The school is a co-op, meaning the parents participate in the running of the school and work at the school.  The pictures of Charlie with the crown are from her school birthday celebration.

The crown was specially made for her to take home and the kids and teachers all sang a special song to her and we showed pictures of her as a baby. She loved the crown.  One of the songs they sang to her was about standing up so we can see your face and at random times she insists that I sing it to her.

They’ve also gone on two field trips,one to a farm where they pulled vegetables, picked pumpkins and pet animals, and another to a police helicopter station and fire station.

Charlie was really excited to see the helicopter fly, but was quite shy when it came time to talk to the pilot and sit in the helicopter.

The whole preschool set is here. (It’s organized under the November collection since the pictures span from Sept to Nov.)

This is how Charlie went to music class today: robot sweatshirt, capri pants, rainbow leg warmers, brown and grey striped socks, multi-colored tennis shoes and pink and green backpack. It was her first foray into dressing herself and I have to say, she has a funky sense of style, but I think it works.

Papi helped her put on her backpack and she started heading for the door saying she was ready to go to school. She wore the backpack all day, even danced around class with it.

After thinking long and hard, we thought the most fitting Halloween costume for Charlie would be a werewolf. Not because she bites everyone, but because she’s a ferocious little manimal who constantly talks about eating people (which is, I guess, only one-off from biting everyone). “Do we eat Papi? Noooo, we don’t eat Papi. We eat Mama.” You get the picture.

We even taught her how to howl like a wolf.

This year’s Halloween was jam packed with activities. Friday night was spent galavanting around the Santa Ana Zoo for their Boo at the Zoo event. I had spent all week on Charlie’s costume but was still not finished by the time we left for the zoo so I was frantically sewing the ears and eyes on the wolf hat in the car on the way to the zoo–done just in time. The zoo was tons of fun: we got to see an animal presentation with snakes, spiders, and opossum and a barn owl. We tricked or treated (they gave out cool, non-candy stuff) and visited the animals. And we went on the carousel. Forgot the camera so this is all you get:

Yes, that blurry person in the background is me.

The next day, on Halloween, we took Charlie to her first Halloween party with a bunch of other LGBT families. There were several toddlers for Charlie to play with, lots of food and people to meet. Then, we headed over to Lola and Pop-pop’s for dinner and trick-or-treating. Charlie wore her wolf hat to about one house and then refused to put it on the rest of the night. We tried to get her to at least carry it so people would know she had a costume but she shoved it inside her pumpkin and refused to take it out. But, she did enjoy getting candy and eventually would venture up half on her own to say trick-or-treat and Happy Halloween. She was not fooled by the scary decorations–she loved the giant spiders, spider webs and skeletons flying through the air.

The next day, we went to the Los Angeles Zoo (to which we had never been). Charlie really enjoyed the Hippo and Giraffes and African Wild Dogs, but was not too keen on the great Apes. Which we thought was unusual. I think she was bitter because the Rhinoceros was hiding and we couldn’t see him.

Halloween weekend rocked.