Charlotte's first letters!

a b c d

My toddler book says some kids with perfectionist tendencies will ask their parents to do things for them because they know they can do them better or faster. The thought is that they would rather have a task done right than grow frustrated trying to do it on their own.

Whether that's the reason or not, Charlotte likes to ask for help with things that intimidate or frustrate her: Getting dressed, putting on shoes, drawing pictures, coloring in the lines, writing letters. Now I'm trying to gently convince her to do these things on her own without entirely denying her help or pressuring her.

A significant victory took place last night. Charlotte learned that if it's bedtime, Mommy will let her stay up to practice her letters. So she caved in (without admitting it) and tried some lowercase letters. I am so proud of my stubborn sweetie!

Fire drill

Charlotte learned about fire safety at school today. I asked her what she would do if there was a fire ...

"Stop, drool ..."

"Stop, drop and roll?"

"Yeah. But if there's a dog, you can ride it away from the fire. That's better than stop, drop and roll."


I'm not sure she's actually learning anything in 3-year-old preschool. Every time I ask her what she did in class, she says some combination of "read books, played dress-up, played with toys ..."- the same stuff she does at home. I'm not sure if (a) they're really not learning anything, (b) Charlotte's not participating in the learning activities, or (c) she's just not telling me. Any of these is entirely possible.

Did you miss us?

The Butler blog is back in action. After a year and a half of working full-time for Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine, I've retired to the position of around-the-clock mom (hopefully with some freelance work thrown in for old times' sake).

Our brood recently doubled with the addition of Baby Finn, and we've relocated to North Salt Lake, Utah for Shawndaddy's new job with The Summit Group ad/PR agency. With all these changes, it seemed only appropriate to begin a new page in our virtual chronicles as well.