Excuses, excuses, excuses.  It's been months.  I'm sorry.  Without further ado, here are some photos from our "summer vacation" to Iowa over Memorial Day weekend -- we met up with Seth, Renada and Amara in Rochester and spent the rest of our 5 days either driving to and from the Milwaukee airport or living it up in Decorah.  We had a great trip and Charlotte especially liked all the play time she got with her cousins.  I appreciated the fact that we could send the three of them off to play somewhere and not have to watch them all the time!  Enjoy some highlights.

Goldberg family fun at Perkins!

Cousins hanging at the backyard bonfire.

Waiting patiently for Namma to make her a s'more.

Delicious!

Charlotte had a great time in Arizona (more to come), but especially liked having ice cream at the historic Sugar Bowl in Old Town Scottsdale.

Expected sometime around Sept. 3!!  Stay tuned.

I realize our posts have  been few and far between in recent months.  I also realize I haven't really captured all the wonderful things Charlotte is up to recently.  So below is a list of some things about Charlotte. 

• She asks to "watch a wooodie" several times a day (despite the answer often being no), which sometimes means she wants to watch a movie or a show on PBS, but usually means she wants to watch clips from YouTube.  Especially if she wants to watch it "upstairs". Her favorites are this one, this one, this one, and this one. I don't really understand the last one.  We stumbled across it one day and she absolutely loves it.
• She also likes to "color upstairs" which means she gets to sit and my desk and use the many varieties of pens and highlighters I have sitting in a vase.
• Perhaps her best sentence (which gets said to random people all the time, often seemingly out of context) is: "My shoes getting so dirty".  Honestly, I do not reprimand her for dirty shoes!  This is another of many things I do not entirely understand about my daughter.
• When she says "another" it comes out "othen" as in "I want to read othen book"
• She knows her colors, but in times when she doesn't want to pay attention she just says "blue"
• She can put on her coat by herself, but sometimes ends up with the hood around her bottom - then she gets frustrated that she has to do it again
• She finds her pink chair is best for either 1) flinging herself upon it after running across the room or 2) jumping off of it - I allow jumping onto the floor from the chair, but balancing on one arm of the chair and jumping onto the seat is taking it too far
• She hasn't sat in a high chair/booster seat since last Saturday morning.  Instead she sits in the chair next to me and likes to step over to my chair to visit.  Last night she ate most of my dinner while I was putting some things away...
• She can count to 10 in Spanish and she's gone as high as 16 in English.  However, that doesn't mean she can tell me how many of something there are.  The answer to that is always "two".  My feeling is that's pretty typical for her age, but we're looking forward to some variation in her guesses/responses at some point.
• The other day our neighbor was playing in his Power Wheels car in the park.  Another couple of kids joined in and were taking turns driving/riding in it.  Charlotte was the passenger while an older girl drove her around.  Then we let Charlotte sit in the driver's seat with Evan (18 months) taking his turn riding along.  We figured they'd just sit for awhile.  In fact I said "Oh, there's no way she'll be able to drive it. She's a good 4-5 inches from reaching the pedal."  Not 10 seconds later she'd scooted forward and proceeded to drive Evan around the field in circles for a good 5 minutes.  I should not underestimate my daughter!!

Quickly, before February ends, I thought I'd better get up a few pics from the double holiday weekend.  What we are missing are photos of our great visit from our friends Norah and Dave (and our trip to the zoo -- where a gorilla charged the glass and "scared" Charlotte -- she tells us about it all the time).  We need to get better about snapping photos!

But here are some photos from Charlotte's first Great Valentine Hunt (which is a tradition started by my mom). We only had two clues this year, but she thought it was pretty fun to search for presents.  Mommy also didn't get it ready until Sunday, but I don't think Charlotte noticed the delay.  Two new books!

And finally, here is Charlotte helping Daddy take apart the futon to make room for our new couch!  Wow. One step closer to being "real grownups".

Apparently our new president has made a big impression on Charlotte.  We thought she'd be excited to go back to Martha's house today, but she had other plans.

Here's a video from Charlotte's birthday in Decorah.  She knows all the words.

We're gearing up for the late-December fiasco festivities.  Charlotte is now well aware that on Sunday it will be "Larlotte Happy Birthday to You (sung kind of in tune)" as she says.  She also realizes there will be cake and that she will be two.  In fact pictures of cake or cupcakes are no longer identified as cake or cupcakes but as "Happy Birthday to You" (again, sung kind of in tune). In fact, last Friday Martha and Stephany gave her a surprise birthday party complete with cupcakes, decorations, new shoes and a birthday-girl outfit.  It's too bad they don't love our kid!

She also knows all about "Han-kuh" and "day-dels" thanks to several books she likes to read repeatedly and the cookies we made together. She's best at doing the "puuuuuuuush"ing and "'princkles"  

Charlotte is obsessed with any "'No Man" she sees (and she can spot them a mile away!) and "Fosty" in particular.  "I 'ant 'isten Fosty 'gain" is heard over and over, as well as the similar "I  'ant read Fosty book, pease".  We are also reminded repeatedly about the times when we have gone to Home Depot to see the "no man dancing" and singing "i-bells" -- well, until its batteries wore out.  She can't wait to  build a REAL snowman with Namma and Papa and her cousins next week!

We look forward to celebrating Charlotte's birthday all over again and being with my family for Christmas in Iowa!  Family, celebrations, candles and SNOW!  Would could ask for more?

Let the holiday madness commence!  And to all a happy New Year too!