Adopting Charlotte for the Week

Ryan and Chantel left for Lake Powell for a week and McKay and I volunteered to babysit little Charlotte while they were gone. 

I personally had a blast with Charlotte who is very comfortable with me and loves following me all around the house to watch what I am doing and find new things to clam as “Jessa's!”

For example, my belly button whenever I was changing my shirt. Or as Charlotte would say, “Jessa button!” While pointing at my belly. Haha!

I think she is adorable! And I loved having a little girl to follow me around and mimic my every move. One morning after breakfast I put on my workout video to get a sweat going and as soon as the pump up music started Charlotte started dancing around. I let Charlotte choose which workout I did - legs (which is the hardest one haha). As soon as I started my squats and lunges, you could see little Charlotte squatting up and down while trying to follow my movements as best she could. I wish I could have recorded it!

One of these times while she was following me around I went into the bathroom to do my makeup (which Charlotte calls, “Jessa Makeup.”). While doing my makeup Charlotte explored every cupboard and drawer she could reach in there. When she happened upon the drawer that I keep all my feminine products in she pulled out a pad and exclaimed, “Owwie!” And then from there on out whenever I went into the bathroom she would follow and find that drawer and pull all the pads out while saying, “Band-aids.” Haha!

Another day I took Charlotte to the splash pad to have some fun in the sun. She hesitantly stood in the water for a good ten minutes staring at the other kids until she got the desire to explore the premises. When she saw a group of kids playing together she would walk over and stand in the very middle of them to see what they were doing. They didn’t pay much attention to her so Charlotte found a rock that she befriended because it was more interesting than the kids. When she got tired of her friend the rock she would place it in the water and wave “Bye bye” to her friend as she left it abandoned on the ground. She never could leave her friend alone very long before she would find him again and then repeat the process of waving good bye and then abandoning. That poor rock must have developed some real trust issues from Charlotte’s friendship that day...

After abandoning her friend for the fifth time that day another little kid came around and snatched him up. When Charlotte got lonely and went to find her friend, he was no where in sight. She searched around for him for a few seconds and then began to call his name, “Rock! Rock!” But he never showed up so we had to go find Charlotte a new rock friend but none were as fun as her first one so she gave up on trying to befriend rocks after that.

Not only did we have Charlotte this week but I started a new job and we were asked to speak in church on Sunday. It was a busy, full week for sure! We were always up and going. Charlotte was not as use to McKay so every evening that I was gone she would get emotional and want, “Dada Ryan, mommy and baby Julia!” 

I feel bad for McKay because while Charlotte was with me she was a little angel, full of life and very animated. But McKay said that once I left she would just stand there and stare at him, zero emotion on her face until she started crying. Haha! Luckily she calms down fast if you just take her outside. 

For sacrament meeting we took her up on the stand to sit with us while we gave our talks. I thought that maybe since she was in a new environment she would just sit there and stare at people (which she did for a good 30 min) but then she warmed up to being in a new church and decided to explore all the choir seats and aisles. She found some cute kids to play with on one bench and then a nice couple who shared gold fish with her on another. She carried her blanket with her where ever she went but then left it in the middle of the walk way below the pulpit. While she was sitting with us in the stand she would sing, “Twinkle twinkle little star.” And when I gave my talk she even decided to come stand by me for a few moments. At the end of it all we located all of her things except her cup which was then brought to us by a brother in the ward who Charlotte had kindly shared with (but not actually drank out of shared with, just gave to him for safe keeping). Haha! I was oblivious to most of this because I talked for a whole 20 min and then only left McKay with 5 min so he was in charge of Charlotte much longer than I. He felt that it was alright to let her roam around as she pleased because Pres. Hinckley once said that, that is the reason we have isles is to let kids run down them. Haha 

Okay so one more story from the week! We were eating our very last meal with Charlotte and normally we didn't have much trouble getting her to eat her food, but for some reason she was just not having this food. We were bribing her with everything under the sun from candy to not being able to go home with her parents (okay looking back that last one was pretty cruel...). 

We only had a few bites left and it took (what seemed) a good five minutes of bribing before she would take another bit. And it's not like it was gross food or that we had over fed her that day either. We finally only had one bite to go and the old bribes weren't working anymore. I then remember that she had vitamins in her bag so I told Charlotte, "If you eat the last bite you can have a vitamin!" Little Charlotte perked right up after crying her little eyes out and gobbled that last bite up so fast that McKay and I just stared at each other with "What the heck just happened" kind of expressions on our face. Haha! 

I guess Ryan and Chantel should be proud that they raised a child who is more motivated by her vitamins than candy, toys, and even seeing her own family...just kidding! Haha! But we really did get a good laugh over that!