Charlie's Favorite Book

Charlie loves this book.  He got it from my parents and he loves reading it.  Over and over.  And over.  It's pretty cute actually.  Every other page looks like a blanket that you use to "tuck in" each of the animals.  It says "Who needs to be tucked in?"  Then you turn the page and it's "I do" for each baby animal and you tuck them in.  So Charlie sits there and "reads" it to himself by shouting "I do!" over and over again.

He definitely is a fan of other books too, especially this old favorite.  This one just seems to be top of his list.

Charlie at 15 Months

I'm a little late with the 15 month post.  Ok, so I'm a lot late.  He's almost 16 months.  I've been SO  busy the last few months.  I didn't even post about Christmas.  And now it seems like a lifetime ago!  But I really need to stop and record all of the goings on with Charlie because, as my mom put it, it feels as though he's matured 2 months in 2 weeks.  All of the sudden he's walking, talking, throwing fits when he doesn't get what he wants, feeding himself, and so much more.  He's turned into a toddler overnight, it seems.

So let's start with walking.  He took a few steps a few times in mid January, but really took off and started consistently going across rooms on Sunday, January 20th.  The day before he turned 15 months.  Here's a video of one of his first promenades :-)  Notice he cheers "Yay!" for himself at the end of it.  That brings me to the next topic: talking.

He's saying stuff all over the place now.  No phrases or really consistent talking yet, but lots of random works.  Mama, Dada, yay, uh-oh, eye (which he says while poking you in the eye), down.  And then there's his favorite word: no.  I hear this all day.  He already has quite an opinion about things and a pretty bad temper if he doesn't get his way.

He still wants to stir constantly and will go to great lengths for stirring materials.  This is how I found him this morning when I came out of the bathroom.

He's sooooo cuddly.  He loves to give hugs and just sit in your lap.  He loves to read books.  He's always bringing me books and wanted to sit in my lap and read them with me.  I don't remember Will being this cuddly and I love it.

We also had our first playtime in the snow recently.  Well, as much playtime as a little guy can have.  I did take him down the hill in our yard on the sled with me a few times and he was mildly amused.

He's feeding himself really well with forks and spoons now.  Really runny stuff I need to do with the spoon for him so he doesn't make a huge mess, but he's getting pretty good with the fork.  He can even get individual peas on there and feed them to himself.  He's a decent eater.  He loves peas.  The other night he gobbled down spaghetti squash.  He eats a ton of fruit: the fruit cups I give Will as well as grapes and clementines.  And he is a hummus fiend.  I think if given the choice, though, he would subsist on peanut butter and jelly, salami, and cheese.

Sleeping continues to be a struggle.  Every time I think we're getting somewhere and he sleeps through the night consistently for a week or two he goes back to waking up a bunch.  The other night he woke at 3:15am and didn't ever go back to sleep.  That is rough.  And it seems like the nights he does make it through (like last night) Will wakes up.  So nights that I get to sleep through are few and far between.  Just hoping he gets it figured out soon.  Napping has definitely gotten better.  Probably 75% of the time he takes two consistent naps per day that last an average of an hour.  Not as good as Will did, but light years ahead of where we were 6 months ago, for sure, so I'll take it.

He's still a tall skinny little thing.  At his 15 month check up he was 32 3/4 inches tall (90th percentile) and 24.1lbs (50th percentile).

He's had 6 teeth for awhile (4 on top and 2 on bottom).  Two more on the bottom have been breaking through in the last week or so (which may explain some of the sleep issues) so I guess he officially has 8 now.

He's a total mimic.  He wants to do EVERYTHING that we do.  Tim's mom was visiting a few weeks ago and he saw her making tea all of the time so he started saying "tea! tea!" and wanted to move the kettle around on the stove and fiddle with the stove knobs like he was turning them on.  That's part of the problem with the mimicking  though, is that he wants to play on the stove, which is not the safest idea.  He brushes his hair with things, and pretends to talk on everything like a phone.  The other day he saw me cleaning the bathroom and tried to clean the toilet with a toy golf club.  Mimic, mimic, mimic.

He's still VERY attached to the paci.  And now he likes to have two when he sleeps: one in his mouth and one to cuddle.

The "jazz hands", which we hadn't seen in awhile, have made a comeback as his form his dancing.  It's pretty funny.

Quick Update

Charlie is seriously the cutest little thing these days.  My friends gave me/him a little "Tickle the Pig" book when I was pregnant with him, and it is his FAVORITE.  We snuggle in the glider in his room and read it together before his naps.  He isn't saying a lot of words yet, but he says "Tickle Pig" every time I get it out to read it.

His favorite activity is currently stirring.  He loves playing in the kitchen with bowls, pans, tupperware... whatever he can get his hands on.  He likes to have an assortment of spoons and just sits there and stirs.  He'll pretty much stir anything.  Yesterday the garbage can in our bathroom was empty and I looked over to see Charlie "stirring" in there with my hairbrush.

He's starting to cruise a little bit.  Not confidently yet, but definitely enough to get to where he wants to go.  He can walk behind his push toy for a few steps, but pretty quickly gives up and goes back to the butt-scoot.

He's mimicking everything.  He's not saying many words, but he mimics what we say in terms of intonation.  The other day someone on TV was saying "SHHHHH" and he kept mimicking it back to me.  He wants to push the buttons on the microwave like we do.  Lots of things.

He uses his little pointer finger to point at everything he wants now.  He's at that frustrating age where he knows what he wants, but can't communicate it well to us so he gets really frustrated   There's a lot of grunting and fussing and whining.

We started with a new babysitter this week.  It's always hard at first.  Charlie won't nap for her, which causes a whole new set of crankiness issues.  Hopefully everyone settles in OK.  I think this one will be better than the last one, though.  She (the last one) didn't really play with Will and let him get away with everything.  So that was a problem.  Will still tells me he misses Miss Debbie, which breaks my heart :-(  I really hate the whole thing.  I have so much work to do, but a lot of times I can't focus because I'm worried about the kids being happy or getting into things they aren't supposed to.  I wish I could just find a sitter they love.  There's this whole bundle of anxiety and guilt about the whole thing that I'm always carrying around.  Ugh.

Will has been having a lot of issues at school hitting and pushing the other kids, so we've been working through that.  He did a lot better on Tuesday.  He's been hitting and pushing Charlie too.  I think it's a combination of just not knowing how to handle the frustration he feels with other kids being in his space and being tired . He stopped napping a few weeks ago.  I think it's the right move because bedtime is much better, but I think he still needs it some days so he's getting tired and cranky.

He's very excited about Christmas.  We went to see the trains at the museum last weekend, which he loved. We're going to try to go see Santa this weekend.  He mailed a letter to Santa a few weeks ago and got a reply in the mail yesterday.  We have an elf on the shelf this year named Elton.  Will loves coming down every morning and seeing where Elton "landed" from the night before.  He's counting down to Christmas using a cute Santa stocking calendar my mom got him a few years ago and an advent calendar with chocolate treats inside.

Pulling Up

Charlie finally started pulling himself up last week.  12 1/2 months.  I wonder if that's some kind of record for a normally functioning child.  When he did it the first time it was totally seamless and he gave me this look like, "Yeah, I've known how to do this all along.  You've just not given me a compelling reason to do it until now."  Unfortunately, his new found ability to stand in his crib is yet again wrecking havoc on his sleep patterns.  I got, what, two weeks of decent sleep?  Ugh.

Well, we love the little bugger.  Even if he is a slow learner and a bad sleeper.  He's pretty cute.

1 Year (plus a little extra)

My little guy turned 1 (almost three weeks ago - yikes!).  Yay!  I'm late in posting because we've been SO busy.  But better late than never, I guess.  I have mixed emotions about this birthday, as I'm sure all mothers do.  I love watching him grow up.  He's such a sweet little thing, and I'm really enjoying seeing his personality bloom.  I'm so sad to see him get bigger, though.  He's been such a cuddly, lovey baby and I'm going to miss that.  I also feel like I didn't really get to enjoy his babyhood as much as I would have liked (or as much as I did with Will).  I guess that's the nature of the beast when it comes to 2nd kids.  Knowing that he's almost a toddler, though, makes me think about how maybe I should have spent a little more time enjoying him :-(  I'm kind of glad this year is over, though.  It has been HARD.  I always figured that once you had one kid that adding another wouldn't have too much of an impact on your life because you're already in parent mode.  I had a lot more time for myself before Charlie was born, though.  Part of the problem is Charlie's minimal napping.  But bedtime also takes a lot more time in the evenings now that there's two of them, so I hardly have any downtime before I need to get to sleep and start all over again.  I have to get up earlier in the morning because it's almost impossible to get myself ready for the day in any kind of efficient manner once both of them are awake.

Charlie has matured a lot in the last month or two.  He has three teeth now (his two bottom middle and his top right middle).  He's eating a lot of table food, and has gotten really good at picking the little bites up with his fingers and getting them in his mouth.  When he first started eating table food he wasn't picky.  He'd eat anything I put in front of him.  It was great.  One of his favorite things to eat were peas.  Then he got sick for a week or two and lost his appetite and once he started eating again he was picky all of the sudden.  He still eats a most fruit, but I'm having trouble getting the veggies in him.  And without many teeth meat is a challenge.

I haven't really started weaning him.  We're cutting back (he's really down to only his morning feeding and nighttime now), but he still wants to nurse sometimes in the afternoon when he's cranky.  Id did start him on whole milk a few weeks ago and in the last week or so he's really gotten the hang of the sippy cup, so we're moving in the right direction.  I just want to make sure he's getting enough liquids other than breastmilk before we cut it out.  He's just a lot more immature than Will was a this stage and I don't want to push him.  I'm going to work on it in the next month or two.

He's talking a little bit.  He says a few words, but they're not consistent.  His three main words are:

Uh-oh (when he drops something - it's really cute to hear him say it)
Yay (he applauds himself for everything)
Eye (he likes to point at my eye and say it)

He says "da da" and "mama", but not really in the right context, which is kind of odd.

He's starting to stand a bit more, but still isn't pulling himself up.  He seems to have no interest in doing anything but his crazy monkey scoot.

He went through a 2 month phase where he wasn't sleeping very well AT ALL.  Up several times a night.  Not going back to sleep after he woke up, etc.  The last two weeks or so have been better, though, and he's back to sleeping through 75% of the time or so.  Naps are hit or miss.  Some days he takes two naps without a fight (although they're usually no longer than 45 minutes, and that's on a good day) and others he'll only take one and/or requires rocking or holding in order to sleep at all.

He's getting better about his stranger danger issues, though, so that's good.  He's enjoying people other than me (like getting excited to see my mom).  He's even letting some other people hold him... sometimes.

The babysitter that we've had since he was 3 months quit a month or so ago so we have a new girl now.  She's doing ok, but she's a little immature (she's only 18) and I think she kind of lets Will run the show, which I don't like.  Charlie seems to like her, though, so at least that's not an issue.  She's leaving for boot camp in February, though, so I'm still on the hunt for someone else.

Here's some pictures of the little man

Feeding himself with a spoon (although not well).  He's very independent about eating these days.

Birthday party pics.  Eating his birthday cupcake (he had no qualms about digging right in).

And here's a video of him doing his favorite thing: playing with pots and pans.  I think he's destined to be a percussionist.

Halloween 2012

Halloween this year was pretty cold and rainy, but we still went out and trick-or-treated for awhile.  Will was a fireman and Charlie wore Will's lion costume from a few years ago.  They were very cute.  Will had fun getting candy, but he was scared of all of the lit jack-o-lanterns.  After about a half an hour or so he told me, "let's start heading home so we can eat some candy".

11 Months, Preschool, and Big Boy Pants

Well, I totally missed month 10 for poor little Charlie and here we are at month 11.  Only a month until the big 1st birthday.  I can't believe it!  He's still such a baby to me.  I felt like Will was so mature at this point.  It definitely puts it in perspective now that I have a preschooler to compare him to.  High points on the Charlie front:

1. He now has two teeth: both of his bottom middle ones.
2. He's starting to rebel against baby food.  This is a problem, though, since he only has two half-teeth.  He's eating a lot of puffs and bits of banana at this point.
3. He's been "crawling" for about a month now.  I'm using this term loosely, though, since it's not traditional crawling.  It's more of a scoot.   Or maybe a drag.  I'm not really sure what to call it.  He basically uses his hands (like in normal crawling), but instead of using his knees he propels himself forward with one foot and just drags the other leg underneath him.  It's pretty effective so I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't ever bother to actually crawl normally.
4.  He's not pulling up yet and pretty much never stands.  Not sure what's up with that.  He can do it.  I've seen him.  He'll stand and play if there's something he deems worth the effort.  Most of the time when I stand him up, though, he just plops himself right back to his butt.
5.  The last 2-3 weeks of sleeping have been TERRIBLE.  I think he's slept through the night maybe twice during this time.  There have been several nights where he's up multiple times or is up for hours at a time.  I've done a lot of sleeping on his bedroom floor.  Not sure what's going on.  I've blamed it on everything: teeth, ears, growth spurt.  I still haven't figured out what's causing it.  Maybe there just isn't a cause.  I just hope it stops soon.
6.  He loves to wave.  He waves at everyone, but rarely at the appropriate times :-)  He also claps a lot.
7. He's starting to talk.  I think.  He's at that stage where every once in awhile he'll say something and you're 99% sure that he said it, but then he doesn't do it again for 2 weeks so you question whether you actually heard it or if it was a fluke.  Like he'll hear Tim and say "Da Da".  Or he'll drop something and say "Uh-Oh". Or he'll see you and say "hi".  He still calls me "Nuh-nuh".

Charlie's favorite pastimes right now:
1. Pulling everything out of the kitchen cabinets

2. Chasing the cats

3. Trying to get into whatever Will is playing with

Sibling rivalry has definitely set in.  Charlie wants to do everything Will is doing.  Will gets annoyed and pushes him or yells in his face or hits him.  Sometimes Will wants to play with him, but that usually ends in him being too rough with Charlie and hurting him.  Another new "game" Will likes to play is to taunt Charlie with a toy.  He holds it up and when Charlie tries to get it he screams "No Charlie" in his face and grabs it away   It's exhausting.  

Will started preschool a few weeks ago.  He's done great so far.  The jury is still out on his teacher.  She hardly talks, even when I ask her about how he's doing.  I don't need a huge amount of communication, but I would at least like to know if he had a good or bad day.  Either she has some kind of social anxiety or she just hates me and/or my kid.  One of my friend's little boys is also in the class and she said she's having the same issue so at least it's not just me.  I guess that's just how she is.  Or maybe she just hates boys.  He seems OK with going, though, and I trust the school.  I guess I'm just going to have to press her to be more communicative.  

We're finally making some progress on potty training.  YAY!!!  He's pretty much completely trained from a pee standpoint.  We're still have some accidents when he gets really busy playing and doesn't remember/want to stop playing.  I have to stay on top of him about it.  Those really only consist of him peeing a little bit in his underwear and then making it to the bathroom for the rest so it's nothing major.  He even stays dry at nap.  He's dry most mornings too, but I've still been putting him in diapers overnight.  He's stayed dry at school every time I've sent him too.  Poop is another story, though.  Let's just say I've been spending a lot of time scraping poo out of under-roos and it's one of the least enjoyable things I've ever done.  I have no idea how to fix this.  He refuses to go on the potty.  I would be Ok with this (temporarily) if he would at least notify me and ask for a pull-up or diaper.  Instead he just goes in his pants.  And the worst part of it is that he seems to see no problem with it.

I've just committed to a big project for my business and my babysitter up and quit, which is adding a LOT  of stress right now.  Charlie is NOT ready to go into any type of daycare situation, nor do I want to put him there anyway.  Plus, I'm not sure how that would work with Will's preschool schedule.  It's just really hard to find anyone.  This project is big enough that I can't do what needs to be done in my down time (especially since Charlie only naps sporadically which means there isn't much downtime to begin with) so I need some kind of solution.  I'm just really picky about who I leave them with and it's hard to find the right person.  Being sleep deprived is really not helping with my coping skills either.