Enjoying the warmer weather

Above are some of the more recent pics of our little guy and a video from his visit with his friend Caroline from Dayton a few weeks ago. Caroline came to visit with her mom, Kim, my friend from high school, and her dad, Casey. I would characterize their relationships as love/hate. One moment they were fighting over the same toy and the next they were hugging. It was too cute. Charlie loved the visit and we had a blast too. Kim took a bunch of pictures that I will get and post when I get a chance. I should officially apologize for calling my son a "brat" in the video. That was not nice and I understand that it is his age. But I also think it wasn't entirely inaccurate.

Let's see. What is new with our little guy? Still on the go and moving/climbing very quickly. I've noticed my clothes have become a little looser recently which I largely attribute to the fact that we just don't stop moving most of the day. He is getting more and more stable on stairs and furniture though which is a step toward becoming more independent. He has developed lots of new words. Almost hard to count them all, but recently he learned to say "birthday" in honor of mine which was very cute. He's also working on names and associating them with people. He can count to three, although he gets stuck on "two" sometimes which seems to be his favorite.

He was sick again. Surprise, surprise. He had viral conjunctivitis which he was kind enough to share with me, followed by a runny nose and a very high temp that we later learned was roseola. We will never forget this winter/spring. It has been a VERY sick one. We are ready for some healthy time. He also had some behavioral issues at day care recently. He bit another child. I know this is "normal" but I was still mortified. Knock on wood - it hasn't become a habit.

Charlie is going to the doctor's next week for his 18 month check up. Hard to believe. He is getting to be a big boy!

Charlie's Words

This won't be the most exciting post, but since this blog also serves as Charlie's baby book, I wanted to take a moment to write down all of his words as he nears 17 months. I'm going to try to recall the order they came in. Here it goes...

hi, Mommy/Mama, Daddy/Dada, apple, Papaw, Randi, puppy (sometimes used to mean tummy), thanks, please, wow, cup ("pup"), hello, outside ("side"), coat, bye-bye, I sit ("I sis"), I see (really means "I want"), shoe, hat, cheese, cookie (came from a book with cookie monster, not feeding him a bunch of them), pretty, up, down, baby, pizza, keys, why, boots, spoon, cracker ("cah coo"), balloon ("boon"), night-night, John, banana ("bana")

I'm definitely missing some still, but that's pretty close.

Recovered

 

I am thrilled to say that Charlie is finally healthy again. He came down with a stomach bug when we were in Ohio two weeks ago visiting the family. He fought through it like a trooper and still managed to enjoy our loved ones. But he just hung on to the bug for the next week and a half before developing a high fever for about five days. He gave this new mom quite a scare. We are really looking forward to doing less laundry and taking fewer impromptu baths every day.

I personally think this was Charlie's way of getting Matt and I to stay home this past weekend. We were supposed to go to San Diego for a long weekend. Needless to say when he still had a fever the day before our flight, we cancelled. I would be lying if I didn't say I was a little bummed now that he is healthy, but in the moment I honestly didn't care. All I could think about was getting him better and I couldn't have left him in a million years. Going forward, I hope he just asks us to stay home if that's what he wants.

In the midst of his sickness, he learned how to climb on the furniture, which is really great. Now we leave him alone for two minutes and come back to find him standing on top of the ottoman. Good stuff. Here comes more bumps and tumbles!

Another funny thing - for some reason he calls a stomach a "puppy." I can't figure out where this came from, but he lifts up his shirt and points to his belly and says "puppy." But then he knows what a puppy really is because he says it when he sees them on the street and in books. Who knows? This kid can be a little strange. He comes by it honest. I thought it was only appropriate that you could see his "puppy" in the picture above.

And here is what I learned through this last sickness. The diet for kids who are blowing out diapers is a "BRAT" diet. Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast (any plain, dry carb). Have to admit the applesauce surprised me. Matza crackers and rice cakes are a good bet. It's not effective if you keep them on it for too long though. Or so I learned on day 10. The only other thing to add to their diet is yogurt with active cultures in small portions. This helps them build up the good bacterial in their intestinal tract. Also, you can get a flu swab and it only takes about 20 minutes to get the results. They just rub a Q-tip in their nostrils. Those are my tid bits for parents who are learning like us.

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.