5 Obsessions

Charlotte's Current Obsessions (22 months)

1. Choo-choo trains. Charlotte loves all things related to trains. She loves riding trains, playing with trains, hanging trains on the Christmas tree. Over the Thanksgiving break, we went to Gigi's (formerly G-mama, re-named recently by C) beach house. At the nearby Barnes and Noble in Corpus Christi, there is a huge Thomas the Train set-up in the children's section. Charlotte could play there for hours. She now calls Barnes the 'Choo Choo' store.

2. Doing everything by herself. If someone even tries to help, she exclaims, "Shadow (aka Charlotte)!" and points to herself. Miss Independent loves to clean, organize and put things in their appropriate place. Our favorite one right now is when she insists that every cup (including her sippy/straw cups) must be placed on a coaster. We don't know where she got this? We never said, "Charlotte, let's put your drink on a coaster." We actually don't use them with regularity. Somehow she picked up on it and insists that all drinks must be placed on a coaster.

3. The baby inside her tummy. Since we talk about Mommy's baby in her tummy, Charlotte thinks that everybody has a baby in their tummy, including Daddy, Papa and the guy at the HEB checkout counter.

4. Jungle Book - the movie. Sadly, it is the one and only children's DVD that we own. We were planning on waiting until she was 2 to have any tv watching. At this point, Mommy and Daddy are looking for any other option, seeing as though we have the entire "Juh-book" memorized at this point. Its great to see her act out all of the characters - the marching elephants, the snake and the monkeys are especially fun. Owls are her favorite animal and she is convinced that there are owls in the Jungle Book, although we haven't seen them yet. She says that they're going night-night.

5. Going to the dance studio with Mommy, playing dress-up in the pretty tutus and wands and twirling around the big space. Charlotte always wants to join the big girls in their classes....I think she might be ready for ADC's Twinkle Toes class!

Mommy's Current Obsessions

1. Pilates. Although, the idea of 'core strength' at this point is a little silly.

2. Walking at Town Lake. I love this time of year with the crunchy leaves on the ground and trees aglow on either side of the lake.

3. Decorating for Christmas with Charlotte. She gets so excited by the lights, ornaments, etc. It makes it so fun and special to see everything through the eyes of a child.

4. Spending time with family. It could totally be the pregnancy hormones, but there is something so amazing and magical about our simple moments at the house. Dancing around to Christmas music or Norah Jones (my favorite), hanging out in our pjs and making pancakes. I just feel so blessed.

5. Nate Berkus on Oprah & Friends. Never thought I'd admit to enjoying Oprah, but it is really great to listen to all of her peeps on xm radio. Rabbi Schmuley, Dr. Robin, Gayle...I love them all. I listen to them on my commute from southwest Austin to the studio on Mondays and Wednesdays.