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We had a big snowstorm earlier in the week and got about a foot and a half of snow. I managed to get Charlotte into her snowsuit, though not into her waterproof boots or mittens. She’s in an anti-new-things phase, especially with clothes. By the time we got outside, Brian was almost done shoveling. But Charlotte helped anyway with her new shovel. We stomped around in the deep snow too, but it was so deep Charlotte couldn’t really move. The best part for her (well, for everyone, really) was coming inside afterward for hot chocolate.

Charlotte’s birthday and Christmas were a fun, busy two days, with lots of presents and cake.

Charlotte really likes the lights on our Christmas tree and points out lights on the outsides of houses when we see them. We’ve been talking about her birthday too, and she told us she wants a cake with a monkey and light blue and dark blue balloons on it.

We went to the kids’ matinee at the Holiday Pops this past weekend. It was fun–during the first song Charlotte said it was too loud, but she got used to it after that, luckily. The show was very kid-friendly — pretty short, with a singalong and an appearance by Santa. Charlotte liked looking up into the balconies and was excited to see the trombones, though she could only see them for a minute.

We went to the aquarium last week with my parents, brother and nephew. Charlotte showed Baby Elmo the fish, climbed on a turtle statue, and touched a starfish (she declared it “bumpy”).

Charlotte has been talking up a storm lately. Sometimes it seems like she’s just continuously narrating everything that’s going on. She says “no no” or “uh uh” to mean “not,” and talks a lot about things and their opposite. In the morning, for example, if we’re walking to school, she’ll say, “Walking, uh-uh driving. No no too cold. Winter jacket. Uh-uh pink jacket.”

She’s very into Elmo, both her Big Elmo and Baby Elmo dolls. When she can’t find Baby Elmo, she walks around saying, “Are you, Baby Elmo? Are you?” — her version of “where are you?” She likes to make Baby Elmo hop around, or walk up the stairs next to her. And she talks to Baby Elmo, telling him “Look, Baby Elmo!” if she sees something interesting on Sesame Street or if I spill squash on the floor like I did last week.

Charlotte also says “Funny!” a lot lately when she’s laughing at something. Things that are funny include: walking backwards, wearing two jackets at once, and poop in the bathtub. She has recently started saying “show you.” One of her favorite pre-bedtime activities is jumping off her stepstool after saying “Show Mama Daddy high jump!” She also breaks into song here and there, mostly the alphabet song, but sometimes “Old MacDonald” and more recently “Jingle Bell Rock” (we think they sing that at school).

We visited Indianapolis this past weekend. Charlotte had a lot of fun with her grandma, aunts, uncle and cousins, plus lots of other family. She loved the Indianapolis children’s museum, which is huge and really cool. She’s playing in the dinosaur exhibit below, wearing one of the dinosaur costumes.

We’ve discovered on our last few trips that Charlotte gets airsick. She threw up on the plane ride home, like she did on our flights to and from London. Charlotte is putting words together lately in funny ways, so today she said “Barf. Monkey shirt. Laundry,” when we were talking about our trip.

Charlotte has recently become obsessed with videos of trombones and banjos. This is mostly because of a parade in Roslindale a few weeks ago that featured a few marching bands, plus some of her books that have musical instruments. She also demands clown videos, although non-scary clowns are pretty hard to find on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsy_yc2e3kU

Charlotte had trouble remembering the “trick or treat” part of Halloween.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlkuapuEj0o

Charlotte dressed up like her favorite animal for Halloween. Here she is getting ready to go trick or treating. We went to three or four houses but that was plenty for her.

After: Charlotte discovers Nestle Crunch, gets hyper for the next two hours, then crashes.

We got back a few days ago from a trip to London. Charlotte and I met Brian on his way home from a conference in Spain. It was a lot of fun, and also tiring. Charlotte wants to walk everywhere these days, so getting her into her stroller on busy streets turned into a wrestling match more than once. We saw a lot of the sights, though, and had some really good food.

Charlotte became obsessed with this backpack at the Tate Modern museum store.

We visited some great playgrounds in London. The Princess Diana memorial playground was huge, with a giant pirate ship, tunnels, teepees and lots of swings and slides. This one below was smaller and had goats and sheep roaming around.

Brian took these pictures from the London Eye.

We spent most of a day at the Tower of London, which is in the background here.

Inside the Tower of London–one of the Buckingham Palace guards seemed to be on loan.

Charlotte and I in front of the Tower Bridge.

Brian and Charlotte inside the big indoor courtyard of the British Museum.