Christmas Blogpost Spectacular!

These are going to be super-random, but they are the only pictures we have taken since Halloween. We are delinquent parents.

Very into phones lately. Everything is a phone- calculator, remote, iPod. And mostly she talks to "Elmo."

For Thanksgiving this year we were at camp with Kyle's family. This was the bi-annual Thanksgiving/Grayden's birthday "dress as your favorite book character" costume breakfast. We were Wilbur and Charlotte.

The aftermath of Grayden's birthday pinata.

I made these cool bottles at Thanksgiving camp. I am in love with them.

Sometimes we'll catch Charlotte at Kyle's desk "coloring" (writing with pencil on his notebooks.)

A few weeks ago we went to Christkindlmarkt in Lincoln Square. It was kind of lame- mostly shopping and not much for the kids. However, we stopped at Timeless Toys, which Charlotte loved. Here we are by the Christmas Tree in the Square.

Decorating our Christmas tree one Sunday afternoon.

Charlotte mostly just laid them on the bottom branches.

Charlotte swiped some burnt garlic bread off our counter and very much enjoyed it. She kept saying "Mmmm."

She LOVES looking at pictures.

Last week we went to Winter Wonderfest at Navy Pier. Here's Charlotte and Kyle waiting in line for one of the bouncy slides. Sometimes she smiles like this. We're not sure why, but we love it.

Charlotte was climbing through this candy cane tunnel and I was waiting at the end for her. When she got right to the end she just sat down, with all of these other little kids waiting behind her. Another mom was standing there with me and I asked Charlotte to come out. As I reached in to get her out, she started screaming. (Charlotte never really cries, especially not when it's time to leave something- she's so good about that). The mom said to me "I think my son might have pushed her, I'm so sorry." And I said, "Oh, I didn't see him do anything, it's okay." About two hours later, Charlotte wet her clothes, so we had to take them all off and put on another outfit. As we were changing her, our cousin Olivia pointed to her back and said, "What's that?" What was it, you ask? Oh, don't worry, just a BITE MARK! The kid BIT HER! She has scabby teeth marks on her back!

She was running around all day, it was actually hard to get pictures of her!

We have been super blog-delinquent. It's really hard to take pictures of Charlotte right now because she moves around so fast. As soon as we catch her doing something cute, she's moved on before we can even get the lens cap off. But, she will say pretty much any word you ask her to repeat, her favorites being "mama, da-ee (daddy), uh-oh, no, bye, night-night, tickle, story, shoes, zoey (my dad's dog), nice, and belly."

Tonight we all put on our pajamas and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas on tv while we ate popcorn. It was maybe my favorite thing that we've ever done.

Here is Charlotte chatting it up on her cell phone.

We started our Halloween at North Park's Trunk or Treat. Charlotte was a little unsure of all of the people in costumes at first, but she warmed right up and was eventually dancing around the parking lot- her favorite thing to do lately!

Enjoying some M&Ms.

We met some friends from church so that Charlotte could hang around with their son, Sawyer. He was a viking and was so cute!

Then we headed over to another Trunk or Treat to see some of Kyle's family and some of our friends.
Charlotte and Kendell.

Charlotte spent most of the evening dancing to the live music. Here she is dancing in the back of the Berg's van.

Shenanigans.

Playing with Auntie Amy.

Trying on a Halloween costume possibility.

Getting a real kick out of herself in the mirror.

We recently took Charlotte to Indian Boundary Park. It was so awesome and Charlotte had a blast! We will definitely be going back.

Man-handling a boy who got in her way.

We recently made a visit to the "pumpkin patch." (Home Depot).

My sister and her boyfriend, Pete, joined us.

We came back and enjoyed some chicken chili, pumpkin pie, and apple crisp with my two best friends in the whole world, Amy (and Pete) and Megan (and Scott). After we put Charlotte to bed, we watched Charlie Brown and carved our pumpkins. It was a total blast.

Our pumpkins turned out pretty awesome too!

Charlotte has been really helpful around the house lately.

She helps Daddy wash the dishes.


And she helps Mommy bake.


She also makes everyone who comes over read with her.

This post is long overdue. We also have not taken very many pictures since we moved. But, here is what we have...

In August, my mom had Charlotte and I over for a pool party one day. Charlotte loved the pool, mostly climbing in and out of it.

At the end of August/beginning of September we went up to camp for Erik's installation. These were sadly the only few pictures we took. This is Charlotte enjoying some zucchini bread in the lounge of Cedar.

And Charlotte taking a shower with Kyle.

Charlotte and I did some baking together....

In September, when Courtney and Erin were visiting, about half of the Mecher grandkids took a trip to the children's museum.

We take frequent walks around campus with Charlotte to visit friends or play with the leaves or on the stairs.

She's really into pointing lately.

Not so much into me, but that's okay.

Rainy afternoon couch cushion fort building with dad. He's pretty fun.

And Charlotte's first real haircut! We took her to this place in Lincoln Square called Pickle's Playroom "a Clip, Sip, and Play Cafe." So, we got a haircut and 30 minutes of playtime in the playroom.

No more mullet!