Good time Charlie with the Harley

End of Summer

 

 

Here we are at the end of summer - sigh. It went by way too fast. I think the fact that it rained most of June made it go by even faster. We have already had mornings sub 50 degrees. Now we have football season to look forward to. This was a great summer with Charlie. We have had lots of fun since the last post. The most recent pictures are on the bar on the right. Let's see... Sami and Julia came for a visit. Charlie *loved* seeing them both and still talks about them going to the beach with us and he even says it is "Julia's turn" on the slide from time to time. Our trip to the beach with Sami and Julia was to celebrate Charlie's cousin Hailey's 1st birthday. Charlie says Hailey "Hwee-hwee" which we think is the cutest thing ever. Still trying to catch it on the camcorder but no luck so far. He sort of freezes up when I turn it on.

We went to the Marshfield fair with Uncle Jason, Aunt Michelle and Morgan and Hwee-hwee. Charlie had so much fun on his first rides. It took him awhile to understand that you had to get off the rides. Every time it would stop, he would say "again!" We visited Grampy, Patty, Chris and Sam and did another beach trip. Charlie loves the beach - the sand, the water, everything. It was on one of these trips that he acquired his much loved backpack. He had been asking for one for awhile, from seeing the kids at day care with them. Chris was nice enough to dig an old toddler backpack up and give it to Charlie. It's adorable - it has a little frog in the front pocket. I'll have to get a picture of him with it on. He loves to wear it. We've spent lots of time with Uncle Matt, Aunt Nicky and Caroline. Charlie is smitten with Caroline and now thinks that it is totally appropriate to tickle random baby's feet. He's very sweet with her though. He says "gentle" every time we go around her.

He has a great vocabulary now and can communicate very well. He can repeat about anything you say to him. That did come back to bite us already as he shared his first curse word (s*&t) with his friends at day care. It was when he spilled some water though so we are taking some comfort that it was said in context. He's starting to talk in sentences too. Just yesterday he spit out his apricot chicken and told me "I don't like it." He is pretty obsessed with the potty and can tell us when his diaper needs to be changed, but hasn't managed to do it in a preemptive way just yet. He loves reading stories and doesn't totally understand pictures just yet. He tried to ride a bike in one of his books the other day and looked at a flash card with a ball on it and said "ball....throw it" and then chucked the card across the room. He knows who his favorite football team is and says "Go Bucks", "O-H-I-O" and "I'm a Buckeye." He seems to remember who got him each gift and says the person's name when he grabs it (ex. books from Aunt Edie). Oh and he's taken to a new comfort item. He randomly decided he wanted to sleep with a giraffe that my parents got him for Valentine's Day when he was 2 months old and now is enamored with "Mr. Giraffe" and sleeps with him every night. Behaviorally, he's focused on sharing, which is a concept he's not taking too naturally. He's so big and strong to that he can really come off as a bully, pushing and pinching other kids. So we are practicing with him quite a bit.

That's the big summary but I'll end with two quick funny stories. First, this morning I went in to get Charlie and he looked at me and said, "Daddy working" and I said "no" and he said, "Daddy golfing" and I said "no" and then he said "Shhh. Daddy sleeping." I like that he already knows that those are the most likely options. Second, we were at a block party on Labor Day weekend and Charlie grabbed a ball that belonged to a younger boy. He didn't want to give it back and the mother of the little boy said it was fine because her son was easily distracted. Immediately after they walked away, a little girl and her mother walked up and Charlie held out the ball to the little girl and said "here you go" and then looked at the mother and blew her a kiss! I'm afraid we have a little Don Juan on our hands over here...

Sorry for the long update but it has been awhile. We are excited for Papaw to visit this weekend. Charlie has been saying "Papaw coming on a plane."

Welcome Caroline!!

 

 

 

 

Last Sunday Charlie was VERY excited to finally meet the latest addition to our family - Caroline Lynette Boyer. After days of anticipation for Uncle Matt and Aunt Nicky, Caroline decided to come very quickly. Unfortunately, I was still down with a cold and so we had to wait until last Friday to meet her in person. Charlie and Caroline hit it off right away. He loved tickling her tiny, tiny feet and he got to hold her and kiss her on the head. Of course, since the poor little thing spent the last few days in the hospital with a fever and virus, I guess she'll learn to steer clear of our petri dish. Even when he looks healthy, he is apparently dangerous. Ugh. We felt awful, but thankfully Caroline is on the up swing.

Since the last update, we also visited Ohio and got to practice our roll call several times. Charlie can say everyone's name and loved visiting. Julia stayed with us most of the time so we spend a lot of time talking about her still. We went to the pool in New Albany where they had the coolest little kid spray park. Charlie had a blast even though he ended up getting a fever and a cold that he shared with everyone - including me. Pictures of our visit are to the right.

We also ventured up to Northern New England and visited Queechee, VT. We had an awesome time at the Lake and the pool and enjoyed morning walks up and down the mountain. He loved the beach and swimming in the water and insisted that everyone get in with him. Charlie loved visiting with the Stegmans and especially the dog, Shelby, who he chased relentlessly for two days. We are continuing our vacation week at home and are headed to the beach tomorrow - yay!

Crazy Weather

 

 

In the same week, Charlie went to day care in long pants and a sweatshirt and then found himself on his first trip to the beach. The weather has been nothing short of HORRIBLE. It has rained and rained and rained. We finally got some sun this weekend. Thank God. This city was getting ugly. The picture in his Red Sox hat killed me. He looked like such a little boy. He had a blast at the beach. He loved the sand and playing with all of the other kids. He wasn't such a huge fan of the water. He claimed it was "cold." At sixty one degrees, who could argue? He made it all day with just a quick 20 minute nap in the car. He had a great 4th of July, going on a boat ride on a lake and then having his first beach day.

His language skills continue to develop. He has been saying "privacy" for several weeks. The doctor didn't believe Matt until Charlie said it for her. He can also say "iguana." These aren't exactly words we have been coaching him on - rather chance encounters so it is funny that he can say them so clearly. He is starting to really identify people with their names and understand directions. Today he threw away his diaper in the trash for me. About time this kid chipped in. Enough of the free ride already. Of course, he then attempted to throw his shorts away, in awe of the concept of it all, so we need to keep a close eye on him and the trash can.

One less than desireable development is that he went through (and hopefully is really over) a biting phase at day care. It was awful. He got pretty much every other kid and didn't hold back either. I thought he was going to get his pink slip. I never fully appreciated how hard it is to teach a toddler basic social skills like not trying to eat your friends for lunch. I also never thought I would praise my child for using his teeth to eat his food ("I really like the way you are using your teeth to chew that sandwich.") You realize quickly that there is little that is too stupid to do on the off chance it works when you are so incredibly inexperienced and sort of desperate. Anyway, he has been incident free for over a week now so fingers crossed that we are on our way to the next fun obstacle and past this one.

He is loads of fun though as he understands and can communicate more and more. It is great seeing the world through his eyes. Everything is new and interesting. This week we are off to Ohio to visit our family there. Charlie is very excited. We have been talking about our big plane trip for a while. He's going to be even more excited when he realizes how much attention he is going to get. Fitting that he learned to say "Go Bucks!" and pump his fist this weekend. We are working on learning the words to the fight song next :)

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.