Happy Easter!

Charlie thoroughly enjoyed his second Easter. He was so excited about the basket the Easter bunny left for him with teddy grahams, play dough, bath toys and applesauce. He's battling a runny nose, but still managed to keep his head in the game during the egg hunt. He only found one egg. He was so excited about it that he didn't look for any more. He chowed down on brunch and had a blast with his cousins. Today he added "pizza" and "Ohio" to his repertoir of words. Also included in the slideshow above are pictures from his sleepover with Matt's mom's dog, Jack. They had a ball together.

Headed to Ohio this week. Looking forward to the visit!

It's Never Too Early

 

 

 

 

Matt always said our kids would help out with chores around the house. So at not even 16 months, we put Charlie to work in the yard. He definitely needs some more coaching on his raking technique, but that is to be expected. We have been having lots of fun outside as the weather has gotten nicer. Matt recently bought a bike, a child seat and a helmet for Charlie and they are going to take rides together. Charlie loves to ride his little motorcycle outside and write on everything but the pavement with the sidewalk chalk. He also seems to find new ways to get into *everything* daily. Last week, I was letting him walk around with a small, plastic peanut butter jar. After far too much quiet, I found him with the lid off smearing the peanut butter all over his face. I suppose that is one way to see if you are allergic. (Phew!). I should also mention that he had a little "run-in" at day care the other day when he tackled another little boy who had a banana. This child takes food very seriously.

His speech development has continued to progress. He now says "thank you" (as opposed to just "thanks"), "coat", "outside","up", "hello", "hi", "bye", "please", "see", in addition to others that I have already mentioned and probably others that I'm forgetting. He can tell you what sound a doggy, sheep, cow, cat (sometimes), and choo choo train make. He can sing the "e-i-e-i-o" part of Old Mac Donald. He can show you where his eyes and nose are. He now thinks that my parents are on the computer all of the time from our video calls and he talks to the laptop from time to time. He has had lots of fun playing with his cousins recently and is looking forward to Easter this weekend.

My Little Bruiser

 
 

Charlie had a bit of a run in with the rock wall at day care a few weeks ago. Looked like he had been in a bar fight for a few days.

15 Months

Charlie had his 15 month doctor's appointment today. 27 lbs and just over 33 inches tall puts him in the 84th and 95th percentiles respectively for weight and height. He's a big guy. The doctor did not believe that he had all of his teeth until she looked for herself. I personally wonder if the eating prompts the teeth to come in. Today, Charlie shared a burrito bowl with me - including the guacamole. And then he had a full piece of lasagna and green beans and bread at dinner. And I'm not even spelling out all of the snacks. The doctor assured me that there was no need to worry. Easy for her to say. She's not trying to keep up with this kid with a hollow leg. I know that some day I will wish that he would eat this well though so I'm not stressing (other than over what to cook for the next meal).

He's still talking up a storm. He's developed many more words and is starting to really understand them in context. And it's becoming increasingly clear that he understands a lot of what we say. This is exciting. I have a sneaking suspicion that he will be a good conversationalist.

Other news... We survived the puke bug from he*&. Five days. It was pretty awful for the little guy. Made me sad. Matt picked it up too but only for 24 hours. I somehow survived. Then last Friday Matt broke his ankle. Fortunately, it isn't a bad break - just a chip - and he is able to get around in an air cast. For a while, I thought I was going to be doing two tubs a night. Fortunately, my mom and dad were here when it happened so we had a lot of help around the house. We get spoiled when they are here. And Charlie loved his visit. We've been playing with a web cam and having video calls with them since they left. It is pretty cool to be able to see each other and Charlie seemed to really like it.

I'll close with a bit of advice that I learned from the tummy bug. Hang on to old towels. They can seriously come in handy. And use the medicine dropper every 15 minutes to keep hydrated, avoid milk/dairy at all costs, and keep plenty of baking soda boxes on hand. We put them in every room there was an incident.

Born to Talk

We have officially moved into the language development stage. It is so fun and exciting to see what comes out of Charlie's mouth. The video above shows Charlie "reading" one of his favorite books. I was so surprised when I picked up the book one day and he said "puppy" and then when we got to the end and he said "me". His other words include apple, please, thanks, cheese, shoes, mommy, daddy, cup, ball, and I'm sure there are some others I'm missing. He's also working on his letters. We got the alphabet magnets for the fridge and he can pick out the letters "P" and "O". He seems to have a strange affinity for the letter P too. There are two of them and he carries them all around the house saying "P", "P". What can I say, I'm a proud mama :) Of course, for all of his talking, he does seems to be a bit of a scaredy cat. He is so afraid of the vacuum cleaner, even when it isn't on, that he refuses to be in the same room with it. He has the same apprehension about the dust buster although he'll be in the room with that and just keep checking it from time to time to make sure it isn't coming after him. Very strange. Maybe he inherited my distaste for cleaning. So all is well with our little guy. He definitely has a mischievous side though. He ate dog food the other day and has also taken to climbing which has resulted in me finding him standing on top of his toy chairs and his train. I swear I look away for 60 seconds and the kid tries to teach me a lesson. Hence the lack of blogging. Free time is precious!

Most recent pictures

 

 

Here are some of the latest photos of our little guy. A new album is also posted on the right with fun in the snow and some of Charlie's typical antics. Not much to report other than that we actually had a healthy week thanks to the antibiotics for the ear infection. We also seem to be going through a change in napping. Lately Charlie has only been taking one small nap, if any at all. Needless to say this leads to a pretty unhappy guy at some point in the day. Hopefully he settles back into a schedule again soon. It is no fun playing the guessing game as to when the melt down is going to occur. Latest words are "Papaw" (my dad) and "apple." He also sort of says "thanks". I realized he was saying the same thing every time I handed him something and I just started saying "you're welcome" back to him but didn't really think that was what was going on and then the other day at Randi's, she handed him something and he said it and she said "thanks" back to him. What a polite one. He has also taken to throwing things down the stairs or in his play pen (which is apparently where we keep the phone and remotes these days) so it is always fun to see what he has chucked where.

Belated Happy Holidays!

I know. I've been a bad blogger. I would promise to be better but that would be setting myself up for failure. In any event, above are some pictures from Christmas. We had a great time in Ohio visiting with everyone and being spoiled to death. Charlie has a full array of flashing, singing toys to play with (which we also get the joy of hearing as well). He definitely didn't completely "get" the gift-opening but he loved the excitement and everyone being in one place. Ironically enough, he also learned to say the word "wow" with a fair amount of wonder in his voice on Christmas Eve. So we heard "wow" from him with just about every gift that was open. At least it was an appropriate time to say it. Although his astonishment at my brother's spatula was a little overstated if you ask me. That definitely got the biggest "wow."

The poor thing kicked off the holidays with pink eye and an ear infection and then got a cold followed by the stomach bug. He battled through all of that while his molars were coming in. And now, he has another cold. I don't mean to brag, but Charlie is a bit of an overachiever when it comes to building his immune system. Which has led me to the Vitamin C addiction I've developed. (I know, it can be toxic in excess. No worries. I'm on a 12 step program). A word to the wise for any parents that haven't gone through the molar process yet. Obviously different for every kid, but Charlie was in a tremendous amount of pain and went through about 4 days where he threw awful temper tantrums. I will admit that it was scary and I ended up crying to our pediatrician at one point. So if you're child appears to be immitating a demon abruptly, give him some Motrin and a cold wash rag to suck on. I hope it goes smoother for the rest of you. I'm glad to report my smiling little man is back to his normal self.

As mentioned, Charlie is a full-fledged walker now. Correction - he's a runner. And usually in the opposite direction from us. Oh well. It's the best exercise I get!