3,2,.............ONE Year Old

I can hardly believe Charlotte is going to be a year old on Sunday. Last year I could barely figure out how I was going to handle a newborn let alone a toddler. She is walking, talking, developing her personality. Which I must say is just like her momma! She has figured out how to throw temper tantrums. Which has been really hard for Jim. He just doesn't want her to cry. So yesterday when we went to the doctor I asked her what I should do (While Jim was listening) and she told me that I need to ignore the tantrum and let her cry it out. Otherwise it is going to be a long road. So problem solved. Jim only believe something I tell him when he hears it from someone else. So we are working on stopping the tantrums. We brush her teeth when we are in the bath tub and she wants to hold the brush and chew on it and chew on the toothpaste so when I take the brush she throws a fit. So last night Jim helped me instead of just letting her have it. So now we are both on the same page. He is such a good dad. Charlotte loves him to pieces. When he comes home she literally hyperventilates when he walks in the door. She trips over her own feet trying to run to him. I love it. He plays with her from the minute he walks in the door until I put her to sleep. He is just dying to get her powerwheel put together and give it to her. We are having a small party for her on Sunday. Just close family and friends. I went and bought two fancy cake pans and I am going to attempt to make her birthday cake. One is a big cupcake (Which is the theme of the party) and a ladybug. I have been practicing my cake decorating technique. I hope they turn out. I enjoy baking so I think I can handle this. I order her a whole cupcake theme package of decorations. I am really upset with the company I ordered them from. I placed the ordered over two and half weeks ago and I still haven't received the stuff. I called them on Monday and they said it should be here today, which would be fine except her part invitations were in the order, and it is getting kind of late to send them out. So I had to go to hallmark and buy her different invitations. I sat in the parking lot and filled them out so I could get them out yesterday. They only had one design and they weren't what I really wanted but I had no choice. So I told the company that they were going to have to send me a prepaid postage so I could return the invitations. Oh well I guess as long as the rest of the stuff gets here today everything will work out.

I finally got my corner kitchen nook and table. Our kitchen is so small that we don't have room for a dining table and chairs. So I thought a corner nook would be perfect. Well after a year of searching for a used one. (we are to poor to buy a brand new one) I finally found one. The problem was that it was in Menasha, which is about 15-20 miles north of Appleton, and Appleton is about an hour drive. But I figure for 50 dollars it was worth the drive. A brand new one would run us anywhere from 300-1,000 dollars so I convinced Jim that it was really worth the drive and I had been searching for this table for over a year. So we planned on going up on Sunday. Well as Wisconsin winters go we got a huge storm that came through Saturday. I almost said forget it and didn't go, but Monya called and asked if she could take Charlotte for the afternoon, so Jim and I were by ourselves so we decided to go for it. Well an hour and half trip turned into almost two and a half hours. We finally got it and got home. I was worried that Monya had Charlotte for so long because she has had Charlotte a lot lately, but of course her and Dave didn't care. So now I have my table and when we get it home it is too big for the kitchen. So I thought maybe we could try it in the breezeway. We don't ever use that room and it is such a shame because it has tons of windows and is really a nice room. So once I got it set up in there it looks really nice and now we use the room all the time. I love being able to sit down together as a family to have dinner. Even Jim likes it.

So now I need to get prepared for Sunday. We are going to have a small little picnic type lunch. All of Charlotte's favorites. broccoli, bananas, corn. Just Kidding. I will make that stuff for her but for everyone else I will make a picnic lunch It should be a lot of fun.