the low family lately

Halloween. Do I even have to tell you who Dave is? Yes I am married to Napoleon Dynamite.

Charlotte as a fairy

The above photos are of Charlotte with her friend Brooklynn. Lucky for her (and me) that Brooklynn is right across the hall so they get to play a lot with each other. Brooklynn's mom Suzanne is the best. I love having her across the hall as well. She's full of good parenting tips, recipes, support and is just an all around awesome friend. I never feel lonely when Dave is gone because I know she's home during the day too if I ever need someone to talk to.

Charlotte is definitely into the toddler stage and it is as they say, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good:
Charlotte is at a really fun age where she loves to participate in everything. She helps me unload the dishwasher, sort laundry, and recently she just helped me with the Christmas tree and baking some cookies. She's also learning how to play better with others and how to share.



She also loves to play dress up with no persuasion from me. Her fairy Halloween costume is usually her go to choice. It hangs in her closet and for the week after Halloween she would go into her room every day and "ask" (whine) until I put it on her. Now it's about twice per week she'll ask to dress up. Same thing with the apron. I put it on her to make cookies and then she refused to take it off for the rest of the night. I used to think that kids couldn't "refuse" to do things but now I realize that in certain cases it's not worth Charlotte's huge tantrum to get the apron off her.

Charlotte is my little buddy and I love spending time with her. She is so fun, full of energy, personality, sass and is learning so much. She really is one of the greatest joys in my life.




The bad:
If I have to hear "owie" or "nya" (snack) one more time, I might lose it. ANYTIME Charlotte is physically hurt, sad, angry, upset, emotional hurt, or anything in between she expresses it by falling to the floor crying and saying owie over and over and over again. It's a little embarrassing in public because people must think I'm ignoring her physical pain. If she ever does get hurt I'm going to have a hard time believing it. Maybe I should read her the story, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Her other buzz word of choice is nya. She asks for a snack literally the second she's awake pretty much until she goes to sleep at night. She'll even ask for a snack after she's had a big breakfast. She'll ask for a snack while she's having a snack. This is confusing and annoying to me.

The ugly:
Charlotte picked up lice from my sister Alison. We just spent last night washing literally everything in our house including winter jackets, hats, scarves, bedding, pillows and anything that couldn't be washed got vacuumed to death. I have to sit and pull out the nits one at a time from Charlotte's hair. They're really hard to get out and she will not sit still to let me do it. Dave and I are both driving ourselves slightly mad thinking that our scalps are itching all day.

Dave just finished sending his applications into Residency programs for internal medicine. He doesn't need to decide what he'll subspecialize in within the internal medicine program for a few more years but right now he's narrowed it down to Gastrointerology (GI/digestive tract) or Nephrology (kidneys). We're really hoping he matches in Calgary but our 2nd choice is Edmonton followed by Vancouver. I feel like I'm always saying these two things about Dave, but he works extremely hard and that he's really busy. We prioritize a needed date night once per week and we make sure that we plan our week each Sunday. Those two things have really helped us enjoy each other along the way. I feel like I'm still in honeymoon stage with Dave most of the time because he is so easy to love.

I've been keeping busy with my aerobics as I mentioned in the post earlier. I've also tried to find little projects to keep myself occupied for those nights when Dave is at the hospital over night. His last call shift I was able to finish some throw pillows for my couch. I LOVE how they turned out and I LOVE the fabric. The photos that you see are recently printed photos and I told my photography that I'd post pictures of them once I had them hung up. I have to admit though, I might have done that anyway because I looooove how they turned out. (The bow is just up for Christmas)


I discovered last year that Christmas wrapping paper in frames is a really cheap and cute way to decorate for Christmas so I was excited to get new wrapping paper up this year again.

Phew this has been such a long post that I'm too lazy to read over it to see if it makes sense.. so sorry if I sounded like an illiterate teenager. lol, ttfn :)