Charlotte's Big Day at the Courthouse

On Friday, Doug took Elisabeth ice skating.  He dropped Charlotte off at the courthouse to hang out with me for about an hour and a half.  Charlotte thoroughly enjoyed her day at mommy's office.  She enjoyed herself primarily because I bribed her.  With iced donuts with sprinkles.  Fridays at the courthouse are notorious for breaking diets.  Then I took her down to the file room to let everyone say hello.

Charlotte is not my outgoing, friendly little girl.  At least not initially.  She clammed up and looked as though she might cry when the nice women wanted to chat with her.  Thankfully I had my handy dandy iced donut.  All kids look cute shoving a donut in their face.  And then, as kids do, as soon as everyone turned around she was all smiles and waves.  

Charlotte is, however, adventurous.  Unlike Elisabeth who sticks very close to me when we're at my office - never leaving the confines of my 8x8 office - Charlotte thoroughly enjoyed running up and down the halls.  So much, in fact, that I ended up moving my chair into the hall so that I could watch her.  She'd get about 4 doors down and then decide to come running back.  Great exercise for an 18 month old.  Charlotte also climbed up on my desk when I wasn't looking.  And - don't tell anyone - she just might have spread some ketchup onto a divorce file I was looking at.  Fittingly, it now looks like some blood on the complaint.

And for all of those wondering - no, it was not a good idea to get a ketchup packet out in my office without having the 18 month old confined to a high chair.

Charlotte enjoyed walking around the courthouse so much that when I sat down to try and get some actual work done, she came over, grabbed my finger, and tried to pull me up saying "walka walka walka walka."  How do you say no to that???

Then, sadly, it was time for Charlotte to go back home.  I still see the little remnants of her visit though - my two chairs that were previously at the same height are now 6 inches different, the ketchup splatters on the wall, the green dots on the floor, the paper she doodled on.

The two ice skaters had a grand time.  Until they didn't.  The report that I received was that everyone did great - Doug skated along behind Elisabeth, holding her up.  Elisabeth then decided to skate like the bigger kids, on one foot while holding the other one up.  This caused a crash and resulted in Elisabeth vowing never to skate again.  Of course until she decided that next time Charlotte and I could go too.

I think the right term is "when hell freezes over."  Which, given how February feels to me right now, might be sometime next week.