the court of three sisters: Life at home lately

We've been vacillating between Caroline and Charlotte being "almost sick", that sniffly, scratchy throat feeling that you don't go to the doctor for, but you don't feel quite 100% - or they haven't felt quite 100%. I think they are finally both better (fingers crossed!). This week was also my first week back to to work; I'm working half day at the office and the other 1/2 day at home. To be fair, it's probably more like 1/4 day at home, with Charlotte here, working from home isn't as easy as it might seem. That has gone surprisingly smoothly. Jo Jo has been with Charlotte at home in the mornings and then I get home around the lunch hour, just enough time for me to get work done, but not so much time that I really feel like I've been away from Charlotte for too long.

In other news, Caroline has been enjoying helping me bathe Charlotte every so often. She has this inclination to always want to wash her hair (or her head, there's not a whole lot of hair up there), and although she tries to be gentle, she is a three year old and she gets a little excited with the washcloth sometimes. Charlotte is a good sport though and though she's still so little, she seems to take the jostling from Caroline better than if it came from anyone else. That sisterly trust starts young I guess?

We woke up on Valentine's Day morning and traded gifts and cards wiht one another and then I made heart-shaped panckes for Jeff and Caroline while Charlotte slept the morning away (quite a Valentine's present from my littlest one). After lunch and nap time wwent to a parade in downtown BR and we had a good time. Caroline loved catching beads and seeing "the princesses" (the girls dressed up on the floats). We came home and Jeff and I got ready for our Valentine's Day outing. He decided to surprise me, so I had no idea what we were doing, which was a nice treat. He had planned a picnic dinner out at the same place he took me for a similar dinner when we first started dating. The rain chased us away after a little while though and we continued the dinner at a picnic table under a little pavilion at the park in our neighborhood. It was really nice. We both decided that when you have to do things like that our of necessity (when you don't have a lot of extra money to spend going out to eat), you don't appreciate how creative you have to be. Not that we have a whole lot of extra money now, but going out to dinner at a restaurant isn't as rare for us as it once was. I really enjoyed the change from the norm and it was good just to talk and enjoy a night out.

Caroline is getting more and more independent by the day. She doesn't want any help getting dressed for school or church anymore, she says, "I can do it all by myself please." At bed time she's also been telling us "please leave me alone now" after we read books, say prayers and rub her back for a little while. The other night she told me, "that's enough now, thank you mama. Good night". That was my cue to get on out of her room so that she could go to bed. She's been pretty good about going to sleep by self for a long time, but she used to like us to rub her back or talk to her about sweet dreams for a while before we left her alone; she is apparently over that stage!

Here are some pics from the past week!