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.