Beautiful Boy!

It's been a long time since I've written an update about our little man, which is exactly what he's become!  Our house is a joyful whirlwind most of the time these days.  He's 22 months old today.  That means he will turn two in exactly two months.  That is crazy to me, where has the time gone??

His is a smart little guy...and funny too!  The other day, we were sitting in the car waiting for M. to come out of work.  C. was about 1/2 way through the apple he was eating when he handed it to me, seeds exposed, and said, "Ewwww Mommy, poop! Yucky!"  Needless to say, he wouldn't eat any more of the apple after that.  lol



One day last week, I was standing at the kitchen sink doing dishes when it suddenly dawned on me that I was talking to C. at eye level.  Little stinker had emptied out one of his toy baskets and pulled it over to the counter when I wasn't looking.  He wants so badly to be like us and to do everything we do, it's quite endearing and also quite frightening.  He has such a mischievous, playful personality...sometimes it seems that he almost enjoys getting into trouble.  Speaking of, we've started (loosely) using time outs lately and they seem to be working.  We try only to put him in a time out when he is hurting someone or himself or for the worst infractions of him not listening to our requests.  He really hates being excluded from the action & doesn't enjoy being ignored so this method of redirection is effective for him.  One minute can seem like a long time when your little boy is crying as if heartbroken.  Ahem.  Yes, I daresay someone has his parents pretty much where he wants them.

He's very interested in how things work these days.  He loves opening/closing things any time he gets a chance.  Doors, jars, bottles, cabinets, drawers...you name it.  Zippers and buttons fascinate him right now too but they sometimes also frustrate him when he isn't successful.  Speaking of frustration, that happens semi-often too these days, although it's getting better.  We've been working with him to get him to say, "Help Mommy" or, "Help Daddy" when he's frustrated, instead of throwing a fit.  We're getting there but sometimes he forgets, especially when  he's hungry or tired.  


Really, every day with him is something new.  I'm continually amazed at all he learns and all he can do...I absolutely love hearing his little voice as he learns new words and phrases.  I'm not sure where he even picked it up but today it was, "Oh dea!" repeated time and again, followed by peals of laughter.  For some reason, that really struck his funny bone.  We repeated it for him countless times just to hear that contagious laugh of his.  He's getting pretty good at communicating these days.  He regularly speaks in 3-5 word sentences & will usually tell us exactly what he wants.  Today I was playing "tick-tock" with him as I swung him back & forth.  When I stopped he said, "Mo, Mommy.  Mo ick ock!"  I obliged, of course!  He loves to count too and will often count when we go up and down steps or when I'm giving him goldfish.  He can count to ten & usually does so successfully but sometimes it's, "1...2...3...4... 5...6...7...4...5...6...7...8...9...10."  He also knows the names of all his characters in both Thomas the Train & Bob the Builder.  He is often heard running around the house talking about "Weasle Teeen, Pecy, Thomeees, Aewy, Buwt, Deisyy, Bob a Biwdew and so on..."

Earlier this week he learned the word okay but he pronounces it "hoakey."  He will excitedly say, "Mommy, I waaaa wach weasle teeen!" (which comes out sounding like one big run-on word) and before I can even answer it's, "Hoakey Mommy!" over and over.  Pretty much if he wants us to say, "Okay Charlie" to him he's excitedly chanting his version to us.  He also uses okay in the other correct context.  For example, last night as we were lying on the bed he pulled my hair.  Then, ever so gingerly, he leaned over and in the sweetest toddler voice you can imagine said, "Hoakey Mommy?"  Needless to say, I didn't get too mad at him for not being nice to mommy.  :)    

Obviously I could go on and on about this little person.  He is pure joy to me; wrapped up in a sweet, cute, mischievous, sometimes stinky, often sticky, but always lovable bundle of 100% boy!  Every time I have the thought that I couldn't possibly love him more, a new day dawns and I am once again amazed by the depths of my emotions for our precious little man.  

 
           

   

17-Month-Olds Are Sweet...

...or at least ours is.  These are the kind of encounters we have on a regular basis these days.  Now that our lives have changed, I miss my time with the little one more than words can express but the old adage, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" is certainly holding true for us.  He wants me as much as I want him after we've spent the whole day in separate places. 



It's been a while since I've posted an update about the little man.  He's growing like a weed and we have so much fun these days.  He seems to pick up new words and abilities daily.  His favorite things at the moment are to open and close all sorts of things; doors, bowls with lids, water bottles, bottles with flip caps, you name it.  He still hasn't figured out how to screw tops back onto bottles or open doors that are already closed but he's actively working on it.  I love his little face when he's concentrating.  He squats down, sticks just the tip of his tongue out and his breathing slows.  I've tried, unsuccessfully, to capture this expression on "film" but here's an almost shot:

 

He's so precious, there are absolutely no words for how much I love this little person.  Last night when Daddy got home from work, Charlie was sitting on his lap.  Daddy said, "Charlie, what color is Daddy's shirt?" to which Charlie replied, "ojamonge" We both got a good laugh at his unique pronunciation of the word "orange."  He also says "beeoooou" for blue and he will sometimes say "ed" for red but not always on cue.  Our days right now are absolutely flying by and that's hard.  One part of me can't wait for next April because it means I'll finally be graduating but the other part wants to slam on the brakes because April also means we'll have a little two-year-old in our midst.  Hard to imagine that but I know it will happen fast.  

He's also developing quite the little sense of humor lately.  He's always been a face-maker but now that he's learned he can make people laugh with his antics, they are a regular part of his repertoire.  LOVE!

      

A Few Words

Little C. has been talking up a storm lately.  He likes to say words one time and then refuse to repeat them, leaving his mommy to wonder if he really said the word or if she just imagined it.  But he is learning so much right now and really seems to be trying to break the language code.

My favorite thing is when he looks right at me and spews off a long string of baby babble, complete with inflection and varying pitch/volume/tone.  He's clearly saying something important, I just don't know what!

Last night as we walked two houses down to visit one of my best friend's, Nancy, he saw her yard and said, "Nacy."  That was it though, he refused to say her name again the rest of the night.  Then this morning, as he pulled my glasses off the headboard of our bed to hand them to me (which he does every morning) he said glasses, only he didn't clearly pronounce the "gl" part.  Yeah, that was funny.  He also said umbrella tonight when we were having dinner with my parents out on their deck.  It sounded surprisingly clear (umbedda) but yet again, he wouldn't repeat himself for anything!  His other current favorite words are duck, truck, fishy, up (upeee,) uh-oh, brush, yay (as he claps,) no (sounds more like none,) varying animal sounds and hi or hello.

LOVE!

A Long Time Gone

Wow it's been over three weeks since I last posted anything here. With my very hectic spring semester winding down, my gardening and yard work winding up, and lots of family/friend events going on, those have been exciting/exhausting weeks to be sure, but my absence is more than that too. I think I'm kind of out of ideas, at least temporarily. Do you guys have any thoughts about what I should write? What is it that keeps you coming back to see if I've added anything new? I'm sure there are things I could talk about but to be honest, I'm simply enjoying spending time living my life and not focusing so much on writing about it. I've felt kind of bored with several of my posts lately anyway. Plus, blogland seems to have changed. It seems like many of the blogs I read have slowed down over the past few months...or is it just me?

Moving on...

Our little toddler (how is it possible that we have a toddler?) is constantly on the move and keeping us very busy! To be honest I'm more exhausted in the mom department now than I ever have been before, even when he was a newborn baby. By the time his bed time rolls around each night, I am r.e.a.d.y to wind down in a big way. Having said that, every day with him is something new and special. I love to watch him learn and discover the new things in his environment. I love being his mom.

He adds new words to his vocabulary all the time. This week it was apple (apoo) and fishy (ishe.) He also mimics how we say, "I love you" but it comes out sounding more like iooeuuuu. He has the right sound pattern though and the right number of syllables. It's the best thing in the world, even though no one but us would know what he's trying to say. :) We have this cute little dialogue thing we do when it's just the two of us in the room. He will say, "Mommy" or sometimes, "Mimy" and I will say, "Charlie" or, "Yes, Charlie?" over and over. We go back and forth and mimic each other. If he says three M sounds then I say three C sounds and so on. This exchange usually ends in peals of laughter, which I love.

He absolutely adores books and being read to. He will sometimes spend 15 or 20 minutes sitting in the middle of the floor looking at his books. His current favorites, in no particular order are:

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear
• Counting Kisses
• Barnyard Banter
• The Rainbow Fish
• Goodnight Moon
• Whose Knees Are These
• Here Are My Hands
• Daddy Kisses
• All About Baby: A baby's Guide to Babies
  

This is great because books are always the perfect tag-along toy for car rides or when we're going to be somewhere that doesn't have many toys. Sometimes he even falls asleep holding books, which is perfectly adorable! Depending on his mood, he will even occasionally sit through short story books, such as, "A Blessing From Above" or, "I Wished for You." I cherish those quiet times with my little guy and really, really love that he enjoys being read to as much as I enjoy reading to him. I honestly feel that this is one of the very best things parents can do with and for their children.







He's also going through a clingy/fear stage at the moment and to be honest, I'm kind of glad. This boy has always been a social butterfly who will go to anyone and who even (usually) likes total strangers. Not that I want my child to be afraid but it's nice to know that he does sometimes want his mommy/daddy and that he does differentiate between caregivers. As for the fear, loud noises such as the garbage truck, UPS truck, loud planes, other babies crying, etc. have really been freaking him out lately. He will be playing happily and then something will startle him and he will run over to me and grab my legs. It's both sad and cute at the same time...and (again with the honesty) it does give me a bit of an ego boost to know that I'm the person to whom he most often looks for comfort.

We've been having fun. Michael and I are a one-car-family out of necessity and it's not always easy being stranded here with a little one all day but we make the best of it. I'm so grateful for this time with him because I know the day will come when I will look back on these experiences very fondly. At the risk of sounding incredibly Pollyanna about the whole thing...this parenting gig is pretty awesome most of the time!

Elevensies

A post about second breakfast? No not exactly...but the title was so cute that I decided to use it anyway. Mr. Baby is 11 months old today. Yes, I said eleven!

***please forgive the quality of the photos in this post, they're cell phone images***

He's getting big. Starting to communicate. Thinking about climbing. Becoming very mobile. Soon he won't even be a baby anymore. *sigh*

But it's good too--life is good, if extremely hectic! I took some time a few days ago to read back through some of the posts I wrote when we got THE CALL about him and it still made me cry. How far we have come since this time last year. This spring has me showing all the amazing sights and sounds of the world to my son, while last spring had me questioning life in general. Wow. But enough about that...here are the goods about the boy and what he's been up to this past month:

He's a master crawler now and has quickly turned that into proficient cruising too. He also does a funny little thing where he crawls with one leg up, especially on hard-surface floors. You can see it for a second or two in the (goofy) video below, which was created at the beginning of March.

He's beginning to get big, he weighs exactly 20 pounds and is 28.5 inches long...time for a new car seat! I am continuously amazed by his communication abilities and what he's saying, trying to say, or understanding.

He consistently says:

• hi,
• mama
• dada
• yum-yum
• bye
• ball
• light
  
• grrrrr (or growling)
  

and he's been actively practicing:

• baby
• dog/Ditto/Dinah
• good
• bottle

He also understands so many things even though he hasn't started saying them yet:

• Names for other important people in his life
• waving
• give me five or fist bump
• Kiss/give me a kiss
  
• where did it go/where are you going
  
• come here
• go get it
  
• glasses
• give it to me/can I have it (usually when he has my glasses)
  
• don't eat it
• gentle
  
• are you hungry/want a bite
• cup/want a drink
• cold/hot
  
• water/splash/bath
  
• yes/no (he shakes his head back and forth every time I nod mine)
• home
• window/outside
• sky
• bird
• book
• look (and he points now too, at books or in the grocery store, SO cute)
  
• brown bear-brown bear animals (he will usually point to the correct ones on his blanket or in the book)
• moo
• duck
• dance/skate
• song/sing
  
• eye
• nose
• ear
• teeth
• tongue
  
• hands
• socks/feet
• our "stinky feet" game where he touches his nose to his own feet (cute) or our feet (even cuter) and then makes the same sour face he makes for food he doesn't like.
  

He's doing great and he never ceases to amaze me with his new abilities and what he can comprehend! Every day is such a joy and it seems there are things I could add to the "What Charlie Knows" list all the time. He now has two new top teeth, which have come in at different rates but still make him look completely adorable. I think this is a big part of the reason he's started experimenting with so many new sounds/words lately...his mouth now feels different so he can try new things.

His experiences with food continue to go really well. He's pretty much eating what we eat now, although I still enjoy making him veggie and fruit purees that I freeze. He's learned how to start telling us what he thinks now with his sour face and yuck face. The really funny thing is when he makes the sour face with a food that clearly isn't at all sour. He's figured out that we think he's cute when he makes those faces so he performs for us. :) He's definitely an independent boy when it comes to food. Depending on his mood, he sometimes won't even try a new food unless he can feed it to himself. He's also beginning to master his sippy cups, which is so cute to me since they still look so big in his little hands.

Bottle time is still very much a special bonding ritual for us and that's the one time when he's perfectly content to relax and let me take over. I cherish these moments even more now because I know they are limited. With the days flying by so quickly, sometimes I just want to stop the clock and hold my baby boy a little while longer.

I can hardly believe there is only one more month before this amazing little child turns ONE.