Things They Say: Feelings, Fingers, and What Charlie Learned at Church

Existentialism at Wake Up Time

Early yesterday morning Charlie came into my room holding two of his most treasured lovies, Puppy (an orange stuffed animal fox from Ikea), and White Blanket (a receiving blanket he has had since babyhood). He stood by the side of my bed for a few minutes discussing Puppy and Blanket, before informing me solemnly of their emotional trials and triumphs, as follows:

Charlie: She (blanket) has black feelings, and Puppy has orange feelings. AND they both have MUSCLES!

Gory Details

Changing seasons is always funny with littler kids, because the last winter was such a huge portion of their lifespan away from this winter, that much of the experience feels brand new to them. For example, they are often freaked out by having to re-learn how to put on long-sleeved shirts or footie-pajamas, both of which Charlie has recently had to re-tackle. I also remember Gracie being a tripped out by the transition between shorts and long pants after a long season of forgetting about them. :)

The quick flip in temperature here (80 some degrees about three weeks ago, now highs are often in the 40s) has meant some new learning experiences. We've started taking blankets in the car when we drive Gracie to school and the other day we were all abuzz with admiration of the sparkling, newly-frosted rooftops and cars in our neighborhood.

One thing we hadn't yet discussed with Charlie was the magic of seeing your breath hang in the air like fog. He discovered it for himself when he waved to one of Gracie's teachers who he always greets at morning drop off, and from there drew his own conclusions about what was going on.

Charlie (shouting excitedly): I see gray mouth-blood coming out of him!!!


Musings After Bath Time

Charlie examined his wrinkly wet raisin-fingers after his bath tonight, and then happily exclaimed:

My fingers look like turtles!

Steve taught Charlie to do "Blue Steel" at dinner this week. :)

What Charlie Learned at Church

Sometimes at mealtimes, I make that often futile attempt to discover what my kids' days were like when they were away from me. Today at lunch I spent a few seconds trying to divine which lessons the kiddos were taught in Sunday school.

Me: What did you learn in your class today?
Charlie: Ummmm... I didn't think about it yet.

(This is Charlie code for either 1. I can't remember, 2. I don't understand the question, or, 3. I'm not interested in this line of conversation. Assuming he meant response 2, I tried rephrasing.)

Me: Well, what did your teacher tell you about?
Charlie: Um, just to get back in my seat. Lots of times!

Things They Say: Charlie-isms

Conversations in the Car

Charlie: Mom her eyes are turning red! Her eyes are turning red!
Me (confused): Whose eyes are turning red?
Charlie (calmly): Juliette's. They're turning red on her teeny eyeballs.

Charlie: Mom, we don't bite sharks anymore.

Charlie (looking at clouds): An elephant!
Me: In the clouds?
Charlie: Yes!
Me: What else do you see?
Charlie: Um, I don't know. Maybe... a WINDSHIELD WIPER!
Me: In the clouds??
Charlie: Yes!!!

And every day--every SINGLE day--he asks me either (1) why the construction equipment we drive past is not digging or (2) why the construction equipment we usually drive past is not there. :)


Yes or No

Charlie, when he interrupted me during his "quiet time" for the third or fourth time: "Mommy, are you crabby--yes or no?"


Ode to Juliette

A song Charlie sang to Juliette in February: "When you are growing bigger bigger bigger you can play wiss (with) meee, play wiss meee, play wiss meee, and play wiss letters! I like egg, you like egg, I like egg, you like egg and I like samich (sandwich) and you like egg and youuuuu can't eeeeeeat samiiiiiiiiiiiich!"


Let it GO.

Charlie (to Gracie, as she sings "Let it Go" from Frozen): Gracie, can you stop saying that noise please?

Charlie at Three

Our goofball boy is three! This year was full of changes and milestones for him--potty training, a big boy bed, a new house, and becoming a big brother to name a few. But the things I love recording are just the little Charlie-things that define his everyday self right now. He is spunky and passionate, loving and sensitive, and above all he loves to goof around. Here's a little about Charlie at three:

Eating

We never thought this day would come, but Charlie does occasionally eat vegetables now! Due partly to some great PBS children's programming that spent an entire episode encouraging him to "try new foods 'cause they might taste gooooooood" he is now more open to at least trying a bite of suspicious things on his plate. We're pretty stoked that he will try (and sometimes enjoy) new stuff now. So far he has established that he (really) doesn't like raw carrots, but that cooked carrots and green beans are okay. So. Charlie's future wife: your husband eats vegetables. You're welcome.

His favorite things to eat (besides candy/cookies/sugar, obviously) are peanut butter & honey sandwiches (and he actually prefers the chunky peanut butter!), pretty much any kind of fruit but especially grapes and watermelon, yogurt, granola, pancakes/waffles/anything you can dip in syrup, bacon, and Raisin Bran Crunch (or the store knock off), which he calls "Raisin Graham." He is also still pretty obsessed with drinking water from his water bottle, though that is currently on hiatus because he's not great at regulating how much water he drinks. :) And since he's home alone with me and Juliette a lot, he usually wants to have a bite of whatever I eat for breakfast after I get Gracie to school.

Music

...is still a big part of his life. He is just as likely to be singing "Five Little Speckled Frogs" as he is to be belting out Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive." He also likes several songs on the latest Taylor Swift album (this is my fault), and the Frozen soundtrack (this is Gracie's fault), as well as Rainbow Connection, the Ben Kweller cover of the Chordettes' Lollipop, and, most of all What Does the Fox Say. (He has shouted this out in the middle of church before.)

Literature

He has finally gotten really into books in the past year, and will sit next to me on the couch for multiple readings of his favorites. Right now the rotation includes books like Little Blue Truck, his Harry the Dirty Dog treasury, Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night, anything by Mo Willems but especially the Elephant and Piggie books, Darth Vader and Son, Are You My Mother, Go Dog Go! and Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site. I also read him one book before "Quiet Time" every afternoon (its the motivating factor for him to go into his room) and he almost always chooses Richard Scary's Busy Busy Town, which is the LONGEST BOOK IN THE WORLD. I have never actually had the patience to read it, but we do look at the pictures and discuss things like the myriad different construction machines, the bear who is about to have water spilled on him, etc. It is one of his all-time favorites.

He also likes to sit in his bed and read by the light filtering in from the hall light at bedtime. It melts my heart to find him asleep on top of Busy, Busy Town. He never has less than five books in his bed, usually it is more like ten.

Movies & Television

This summer we took the both the kiddos to see Monsters University. It had been over a year since Charlie's last visit to the movies, and he was pretty concerned about sitting in the dark--until Mike Wazowski appeared on-screen. When it comes to movies, he also likes the original Monsters, Inc., as well as Tangled, and occasionally Cars or Finding Nemo. And, of course, Star Wars.

He has one true love when it comes to television: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. (The show that has gotten him to try new foods!) He loooooves Daniel Tiger. He even named one of his stuffed tigers "Tigey"after Daniel's stuffed animal.

Born in 2010, photobombing since 2011.

Playtime

When Gracie started school in the fall, we were surprised to discover how much Charlie likes playing by himself. He spends most of his mornings puttering around near me (he has always been such a little buddy), building "tall tall towers" or "crane trucks" with his Duplos or pushing one of his many construction trucks around. (Sometimes the trucks carry the Duplos!) He is also starting to do a lot more imaginative play--I'll often hear his small dump truck talking to its "daddy" dump truck about when he is going to work.

During his afternoon quiet time I often hear him in his room hammering with a wooden tool set he got for Christmas, playing with his train & train cars (who have lots of conversations with each other), or rolling Matchbox cars down his plastic garage.

Mr. Personality stole the show in our Christmas card pics this year. :)

He and Grace are getting more into playing together (though when she crosses the line we often hear a telltale shout of "GWWWAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!!!") and especially like to take lights into the dark recesses of her closet. Since she's a pretty avid reader, we sometimes find them sitting in one of their rooms as she reads to him about dump trucks or excavators. They're still learning the nuances of sharing but the older he gets, the more they seem to enjoy one another.

He is just starting to take an interest in the alphabet, and he likes to hang out in front of the fridge with me and talk about his ABC magnets. He also likes to go all the way to the front door and then run to me, sitting in the family room, and fling himself into my arms. (We do this a lot.) And when Steve and I sit down to play a card game with Grace after dinner, he likes to collect all the used cards into a stack and hold them. He loves organizing, sorting, and building things.

Sometimes he turns into something else. Lately he has been a "dump truck" (holding his big LEGO bin on his back) or R2D2. Because he prefers to be an accurate R2D2, it can be a little challenging to the schedule when he decides to play that game: he gets down on his knees and knee-walks at a reliably slow R2D2 pace, to wherever we have sent him, beeping and whooping appropriately. Let me tell you, there is pretty much no point in asking R2D2 to hurry to the potty before you take him to the grocery store.

Other Things

We've been impressed with how much Charlie has grown up this year. He gets frustrated sometimes when he can't get something right the first (or second or third) time, but we've noticed that over the last few months he's really been trying to ask for help and keep his cool and try again when he's learning things. He's also gotten much better at talking to us when he's upset. And while he still has moments when he absolutely refuses to do something (sometimes just because) we're learning that TLC is really a big deal, even in those moments. He appreciates hugs and affection and being heard.

He thinks its pretty funny to "make a MAD face."

Other things I love about Charlie right now? His ambulance sound (Wee-hoo wee-hoo!). That he loves hugs, and giggles when I kiss him goodnight because, "Mama your hair tickles!" How he strokes Juliette's head or tells me, "Mama, I want to help take care of Juliette" which means he wants to hold her on his lap for a minute. That he asks Gracie how her day was when she gets in the van after school. How he runs to me when I get home on a day Steve has let me run errands on my own. How he loves to help me fold laundry or press the buttons on the dishwasher and washing machine. (Sometimes, though, I do come in to the dishwasher re-washing itself after I've already set it... I thought I was losing my mind until I figured out Charlie was turning it on when I wasn't looking!)

And I love, love, love it when he gets on a goofy streak. He will sing songs, shout jokes at us ("What does the BOX say?!" instead of "What does the fox say?"), or just pull ridiculous faces until he has us in stitches. In fact, he is so expressive that Steve made this emotion gauging poster for his dad for Christmas this year:

Which Charli-e-motion are you feeling?

This kid is a blast to be around, and, lets be honest, he's also pretty much a minor celebrity in some circles. Love this child!

Charlie's Third Birthday

Because Charlie fell in love with Star Wars this winter (he has recently begun knee-walking--VERY SLOWLY--around the house telling us he is R2D2), we knew nothing would thrill him more than adding some more Star Wars to his life. Since his third birthday fell on a school/work day he spent the morning with mom & Squish and the real party began when the rest of the family came home for the evening.

We let him open some presents first. He was ecstatic about the cards attached to his gifts. It was really cute--he would just hold them with this awe that someone had given him a card. Grace kept trying to get him to move on to opening the goods, but he really just wanted to enjoy his cards for a while.

Of course when he got to the presents he was pretty into them, too. :) Steve and I gave him a LEGO table for his DUPLOs that Steve DIYed. It is one of Charlie's fav toys now. And we also gave him a DUPLO construction set. He only opened half of his presents because he just wanted to play with them, so he got a second round of gifts the next day. :) 

Dinner was an ordered-in pineapple pizza (guaranteed to get the kids hyper with sheer joy) on the YOU ARE SPECIAL TODAY plate, complete with a showing of The Empire Strikes Back (Charlie had been amazed all week that we were going to let him watch "a new Star Wars!").

Rapt movie-watching, pizza eating, and soda drinking.

And of course--per tradition--Dad delivered a fantastic birthday cake. Baby boy was SO thrilled. He kept asking us to lift him up to look at his R2D2 cake for the entire week after his birthday (even though it was slowly disappearing... into everyone's tummies) because he loved it so much.

Last year the candles really freaked him out (which makes sense--how much of his life have we spent warning him against getting close to hot things?) and made him cry, but this year he really toughed it out and blew out his candles after we sang to him. And then enjoyed the fruits of his (well, technically his Dad's) labors:

(It was a hit.)

Darth Vader and (our) Son.

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...  Last Christmas (2012) in Utah...

Steve's big brother gave him a book by comic artist Jeffrey Brown entitled Darth Vader and Son. We all flipped through it and giggled at the idea of Darth Vader parenting 4-year-old Luke Skywalker (Ridiculous! What a notion!) and took it home to rest safely in our bookshelf until we needed a laugh.

And then, one day, as if by fate--or perhaps by the unknowable powers of the Force--it fell into Charlie's hands.

The obsession started slowly.

He knew it was "Daddy's book," and that prowess alone was enough to make it interesting enough to take to bed for nap time perusals, but soon that wasn't enough. He wanted us to read it to him. Nevermind that it wasn't actually a storybook (or that he couldn't possibly get the jokes). So we did.

At first we were kind of stoic about it, but soon Steve and I started reading the dialogue correctly, with Luke's whiny true-to-the-movie intonations demanding they "go to Toshi station after nap" or for Ben to "tell him I'm ready!" Darth's voice got deeper, duskier, and generally more James-Earl-Jones-esque. Soon we'd hear Charlie talking to himself in the other room, doing his best Mom-as-Vader impression as he warned himself menacingly, "I am altering the deal. PRAY I don't alter it any further..."

In fact, Charlie learned so much of this book by heart, it became hard for us to differentiate between his normal three-year-old conversation and perfect recitation of this book. He'd start shouting, "Dad! Dad! Dad!" and then totally ignore Steve when he responded, "What?" Because he wasn't talking to him--he was mimicking the page where Luke interrupts a holo-call between Darth and the Emperor. Or he'd go on a tangent about robots and then laugh to himself, "IIIIIIIII'm talking about Star Wars!" He also became especially attached to R2D2, with whom he seemed to relate on a deeper, more meaningful level than any of the other characters.

Gracie got into the action, too, using her newly honed reading skills to read this book to Charlie when she was feeling big-sisterly. They got a LOT of great laughs out of this, giggling at the pages together as only siblings can.

So you can imagine their joy when we told them we were going to let them watch an actual Star Wars movie. They hustled into the family room and prepared to have their minds blown. Little did they know how very much that would happen.

No sooner had Darth Vader appeared onscreen than I, their mother, found myself tasked with the unpleasant job of explaining the realities of the movie's family relationships to Grace. First item on the list? Letting her know that Darth Vader--the hilarious and oddly clad father of precocious Luke in our current favorite bedtime story--was... the bad guy.

She looked at me, almost disbelieving. "But... He's Luke's dad." (Also, she had no idea that the book had basically been the biggest spoiler of her life--you're not even supposed to know that little parentage nugget until the end of the next movie, kiddo.)

Me: "Yeah, but Luke doesn't know that. He thinks his dad died."

Grace: "..."

Me: "He thinks Darth Vader killed his dad."

Grace: "..."

There were some other interesting moments. Clearly Steve and I had forgotten why this movie wasn't rated G. Like in the bar (you know, the bar where where Han shot first (says the nerd)) when that one guy gets his arm cut off? Remember that? Yeah, I failed to recall that in time to shield her from it, so that happened and she was watching the TV with her brow furrowed as she asked, "Who's arm is that?"

So then I tried to explain (a) whose arm it was and (b) that it wasn't real because the movie was pretend and so the arm was pretend... Yeah.

Charlie, meanwhile, ignored the movie when there were people doing stuff, but hardly missed a moment of R2D2's screen time.

And, in related news, I've been trying to teach him to sing Bill Murray's Nick Winters lounge act Star Wars song. "Star Waaaaars... If they should bar waaaars... Please let these Star Waaaars....

....Stay."

TCS: Charlie at 2 and a half.

 Charlie on his first day of preschool. :)

Since his best friend is now at kindergarten all day, we started Charlie in 3-day-a-week preschool on Wednesday. He came home and told us he didn't like it, but we're also not sure he knows exactly what that means except in the context of food or Gracie bothering him. He was definitely having fun on the playground moments before I picked him up. :) And he didn't cry at all when I dropped him off--just walked into the room and didn't look back!

Since that's all I know about his preschool experience, I thought we could find out what else goes on in his little world, so while he was playing with a bin of noodles and a crane truck at the kitchen table, I asked him the same questions I asked Gracie. :)

1. What is your favorite color?
Ummmmm yellow. And pink and orange and red and pink and red and and my crane truck is is is um is yellow and this is green and this is uh, blue. This is blue, and this is green! Sooo this is orange!

2. What is your favorite toy?
Ummmm a farm. A book. A moose. Giraffe. Ummm penguin. I have a lots of toys in my bedroom. Sooo the crane truck is getting more of noodles!

3. What is your favorite fruit?
Ummmm the favorite fruit is orange, too. Its orange, too. I like to eeeeeeat sandwich with apples with berries in it buuuuut sooooooo... I like to use apples with berries in it.

4. What is your favorite TV show?
I like to watch Rapunzel ("Prepunzel"). It has a cow on it! (He thinks horses are cows.) The crane truck is digging some some some noodles!

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
Ummm I think ("I sink")... Well... I don't know. But I like to eat apples with berries, so I just... My favorite toy is my crane truck. You're not in charge of it!

6. What is your favorite outfit?
I like to wear a "Pinch Me" shirt! Sooooo, a crab pants. (He has some jammies with crabs on the pants and a crab on the shirt saying "Pinch me" that he just finds hilarious.) Mommy? Ummm.... This. Today the crane truck is driving. It's about to drive! It was going about to go backwards! It stopped!

7. What is your favorite game?
Ummm I think so. It's a favorite toy that I can play.

8. What is your favorite snack?
Ummmm sandwich and peanut butter with berries in it, there's two berries in it, buuuuut my berries are too small they are big soooo they ARE big. Soooo...

9. What is your favorite animal?
Ummm... I think so it's my bear! Yeah! It gets to say (sings) eee kee lee kee ha ha ha! (breaks into a Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood song) If you have to go potty go right awaaaaaay!

10. What is your favorite song?
Ummm... Ummm... Uh "Grandpa's Farm" and "Twinkle Twinkle" and "ABCs" and a excavator song and a bulldozer song and a crane truck song! Mom, you know, you know, you know the the you know the crane truck song? (Breaks into a rendition of a song someone made up for him:) The crane truck likes to diiig! And diiiig dirt. He don't likes to get a hurt. He likes to say hoot hoot! He likes to dig some diiiirt! And he likes to diig with diiiirt! Yaaaay! (claps)

Radioactive and Demons (both Imagine Dragons songs) in the car. (He can sing both fairly well, too.)

11. What is your favorite book?
Ummm... I think... I think... A ABC book? Soooo... I read another book? Umm... I like to read a Elmo! That's a book!

12. Who is your best friend?
Ummm... Samuel? Samuel is a grown up! (He is 6 months old) No. He's a baby, silly! He has a tummy! (His BFF is probably actually Grace right now. They are SO excited to play when she gets home from school.)

13. What is your favorite cereal?
Ummm... I think... I don't know. Ummm. It's yellow. It's yellow, too. And my truck is yellow, too!

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?
Ummm... Baseball?

15. What is your favorite drink?
Ummm... water?

16. What is your favorite holiday?
Ummm... Ummm uhhhh.... Ummm... to drink water.

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?
Umm a book. That's a book. Puppy goes and monkey goes and he's heavy in my family. (Monkey is bigger than Charlie.)

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
I like to eat Cheerios yummy in my tummyyyyy. Yes I do like to eat yummy in my tummy. Yes ma'am. He's talking to the lady.

19. What do you like for a special dinner?
Ummm a mustache. (He's pretending a crane truck wheel is a mustache right now.) I like to eat Cheerios! Yummy in my tummy!

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Umm it will be my birthday when Juliette's born.

21. What is your favorite thing to do?
I don't know.

22. What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy?
Umm play.

23. What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?
First we got to drill it. (Runs away to find a drill for his crane truck, so mom asks the question again.) Umm read a book.

24. What is your favorite thing to do with Gracie?
Look, a mustache. (Sticks his play-drill on his nose and turns it on.)

25. Anything else you want to say about yourself?
Ummm... Some words?

Other things about Charlie at this age...

His Lego trains say, "Chugga-chugga-CHEERIO!" instead of "choo choo," which we love. He also calls all remote controls (like for the TV) a "pretty puh-mote." We're not sure why they're pretty, but they are. His enunciation skills have gotten better over the last month or so: he's started saying "Juliette" instead of "Goo-lee-yet" and "Charlie" instead of "Carly." I know its progress, but is also always just a little sad when he learns to say something right instead of in his cute Charlie way.

Loves & Likes

His favorite passtimes still usually involve opening and closing things. He's gotten a lot better at restraining himself from playing with doors/drawers when we ask him to. But any toy/box/bin that is allowable, he will play with.

He also loves playing excavator/dump truck. Sometimes he plays with actual toy trucks, sometimes he uses a bin of noodles and some measuring cups, and sometimes he just raises his arm in the air, makes his hand into a claw, and becomes a crane truck. "Look Mommy! The crane truck is digging the dirt!" Amusingly, he doesn't seem to want anything to do with actual dirt himself. :)

He loves watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, and will also sit through Sid the Science Kid or Word World, mostly because he knows Grace likes them. He loves The Muppets and Tangled when we get to watch a movie.

We usually have music playing, so he's big into singing and dancing. He can identify a lot of songs and though he doesn't know the names of artists, he can tell when one of our faves is playing. Wednesday a Ben Lee song came on Pandora and he started singing a different Ben Lee song in response. :) He's got some great dance moves, too. He definitely keeps us laughing.

He loves peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and has recently become obsessed with granola. He also likes any and all fruit, especially watermelon, blueberries, strawberries, and bananas. Milk is his beverage of choice. Goldfish are pretty popular, too.

Dislikes

He doesn't like vegetables (he's been known to cry when we ask him to eat a carrot. ONE carrot.) and he's hit or miss with proteins. He hates cheese. (How do we share DNA?!)

He doesn't like when Daddy goes to work, or when it is nap or bedtime. He's gotten a lot better at coping with these things (we have some incentives in place) but he still lets us know he'd rather they didn't happen. :)

Big Steps

He's potty trained! Totally and completely--he even wears undies at nap time and at night. Our next things to practice are putting underwear on independently (he can do this with some guidance) and learning how to wash his hands without playing in the sink. :) He's seriously done so awesome--he even gets up in the night and comes to get us if he has to pee, and that only happens about once every couple of weeks.

He's also gotten a lot better at communicating in the last two months, which has meant a lot more using his words and a lot less crying hysterically. For some reason he cried every time we drove anywhere for pretty much all of June. A couple times I pulled the van over and we had some, er, conversations about how we don't scream in the van. Sometimes vegetables get him down, but we just ask him to go to his room until he is done crying, and he's usually pulled himself together within a few minutes of that. Since potty training in July I think he is feeling more like a big boy, and he has been talking things out with us a lot more. He's also getting great at conversation and his sense of humor is shining out. He cracks us up.

He wasn't really interested in books until he turned about 2, but now he can sit through and recite his favorites, and he always wants to take some to bed. He often asks me to sit and read to him in a chair in his room. (He's very understanding about the fact that I no longer have a lap.)

Independent playtime/pretend has gotten a lot more fun for him lately, too. He's started to parent his favorite toys, putting blanket to bed or cuddling Monkey when he cries. He only occasionally punishes them; he is mostly a very benevolent parent. And or course crane trucks and excavators are a big part of pretend time, too.

I love this age, and he is a ton of fun. He is definitely my little buddy, and it was hard to send him to preschool even though I knew it would be good for him. I just missed him! He's always starting conversations and showing me things and telling me what his crane truck is up to. We love our Charlie boy. :)

Prison break.

I know it is hard for you to imagine that someone with this face might ever be a challenge to parent.

Unfortunately his range of hobbies currently includes things like turning the dishwasher on and off, pulling DVDs and Blurays out of their cases, opening and closing the dishwasher while I try to load/unload it, unraveling the toilet paper, trying to put plugs into outlets, playing with the printer, and opening and closing the slider and screen doors.

It's not that he's naughty. He isn't. He knows how to be obedient, and he is definitely not trying to subvert the rules when he spends his naptime pulling dozens of wipes from their container. He just loves thinking about how things work. He's always been a tiny engineer: figuring out how to open jars and containers long before Gracie cared to, stacking ketchup and mustard bottles at restaurants by sixteen months, and experimenting with his bedroom dresser drawers (open closed open closed) by the time he could army crawl at 6 months. It's just who he is: curious, adventurous, a critical thinker.

He's also got pretty strong opinions about most things. Recently we've been working hard on getting him to eat non-fruit/non-carb foods. Like carrots. Or chicken. Nothing crazy. Some days he will take a bite of corn with just an offhanded suggestion from Mommy. Most days we ask him to, say, take a bite of his ham before he gets some yogurt, and he pitches a fit so loud that we send him to his room to cool down. He may have to take another trip to his room if we ask him to eat the ham again. Then, tearful and exhausted, he makes his way downstairs and tells us he is done yelling and ready to eat. He would like some yogurt. So, again, we suggest the ham. He whimpers and cries and eyes the ham suspiciously. He glances at the yogurt. Then, tentatively, he takes a bite of the ham. We all cheer, including him. We make a big deal out of it. We offer him the yogurt. He is suddenly uninterested in it, and finishes the ham.

*sigh*

Another thing he's passionate about, is not staying in his bed at bedtime or nap time. Which... I mean I am passionate about him staying in at those times, so we've been in quite the battle of wills. It's been at least a week so far. And most days Steve or I (and baby-bump) spend several hours either nap or bedtime camped out in the hallway to send him back to bed over and over.

The night this belly shot was taken was a two-hour battle, during which Charlie alternated getting out of bed, crying because he was put back in bed, and monologuing things like this:

"Can't catch me, Mom. Mommy? (singing) A popcorn popping an apricot tree! IIIII! IIIIII! Me now now. (end song) Hey, Dad? (Sneaks to the door. Mommy says: BED. He scurries back over.) Mommy! Mommy! Hey, Daddy! (whimpering) Mommmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Mommmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Daddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! (Repeats for a few minutes until the sobs wear off.)

Mommy? I think it's ten o'clock. Ge bo ge bo ge bo bayyy! Nah mo nay mo nee meh no mah. I just going fixing monkey. I just going fixing monkey! Fixing monkey! Fixing monkey! Bap bap boo bop bop. Oh beddy bap bip (and more nonsense words.) Hi dog. Hi apples. Yes siree! (Sings nonsense words.) Yes siree! Yes siree! (Repeats about five more times.) (Quiet. Bed rustles.) (GASP!) Daddy's home!!! (He isn't.) (More quiet.) You know. It is NIGHT time!"

To say we are tired would be an understatement. :)

So finally we decided that--for nap time only--he could play, as long as he stayed in his room. So we flipped the doorknob around so the lock was on the outside. Only the tricky-to-open side of the knob would be accessible from his room. Like so:

Yesterday it worked okay. Today, after several attempts to body-slam his way through the door, Steve heard a cry that unnerved him enough that he went in to check on the boy-o. Charlie was holding his little bank, wailing inconsolably. 

At first Steve thought he had dropped something into it and gotten it stuck, but when he popped the seal open there was nothing inside but a dollar and a handful of coins. Charlie picked out a penny and suddenly felt much better. Steve put him back in bed and locked the door.

About ten minutes later, we heard a door upstairs open and close. And open and close. And open and close.

"Is his door unlocked?" I asked Steve.

"No."

The door opened and closed again. I knew Gracie's door was unlocked, but she's learned the perils of coming out of her room before quiet time is over.

Confused, I walked up the stairs--and there was Charlie, peering out from behind his door. Thinking Steve had just forgotten, I put him back in bed and locked the door. Then, just to see, I stood in the hallway and watched the doorknob for about thirty seconds as the lock slowly twisted and the door popped open.

Charlie smiled at me, penny in hand. Mr. Lincoln had promised him LIBERTY, and liberty had been delivered.

So. My two-year-old had unlocked his bedroom door using a penny. Certainly that had to be a fluke. I walked in with him, locked the door behind me, and shut us in together.

"I want to go out," I told him. "Can you help me?"

"Yes!" he enthused, sticking the penny in the doorknob's slot and turning. "I'm helping you!" Pure glee.

I thanked him and decided that it was okay that he played with the doorknob (after all, he is my engineer) as long as he stayed in his room.

Which he didn't.

So I put him (wailing) back in bed and, much to his dismay, confiscated the penny. To say he was furious/heartbroken would not be an overstatement. Then I locked the door and left.

Imagine my surprise when, less than ten minutes later, Gracie called down the stairs that Charlie was out of his room again.

...?

I tromped my pregnant self back up the stairs (interrupted for the umpteenth time from trying to pay bills--not my fav to begin with) and found Charlie standing in the doorway with his plastic screwdriver in hand. Steve keeps a real one upstairs to lock or unlock doors the kids have locked or shouldn't unlock (like the bathroom, where Charlie also enjoys turning the lights on and off over and over while standing on a stool). Turns out plastic ones work just as well. 

Needless to say, Steve spent the next hour or so hanging out in the hallway putting our son back to bed again and again.

Looks like we're in this one for the long haul. Good thing he's cute.

And I have to admit, as frustrating as these long nap times are, we have to give him some credit for sheer ingenuity. Right???

Home is wherever I'm with you.

If you've been wondering about the radio silence around here for the past few weeks, allow me to explain: we bought a house!

For all a lot of March we hung around Winston kind of mentally checked out, thinking we would be on to a bigger city in a state far, far away (or not so far, depending), but, as usual, God had better plans for us. So five days after our Match Day results divulged that we would be spending the next three years right here, we had worked through the numbers and said a lot of prayers and consulted our feelings for their response... and we went house hunting. For two days.

And then we put in an offer and waited.

So April and May became a blur of loan paperwork, utility transferring, conferring with our then-landlord about move-out details, and an insanely organized packing spree (thanks to Steve, our resident move expert), and I didn't have the time or the energy to write. Plus, we were waiting on things like inspections and appraisals just to find out if our loan would even go through.

But last Thursday (which also happened to be my SIL Emily's birthday--a very good sign) we left the kids with Christie (thanks Christie!) and drove out to Kernersville to sign the papers for our FIRST HOUSE!

And an hour later we were back on the freeway giddily calling our parents as I clutched a set of shiny new house keys.

And I couldn't help but be charmed and girlishly excited when I saw that sweet blue bow tied to our mailbox!

We have our own little tree! And shrubberies! A garage! A garbage disposal (glory be)! Three bathrooms. And so much light, all day long. Oh my word. We love it. We are even doing dishes much more frequently, and today I was so thrilled to be doing laundry UPSTAIRS and INSIDE the house that I did an extra load just because.

After we signed the papers Steve picked up Chipotle for us and I grabbed a packed dinner for the kids to eat on the slab out back. Steve had to run a quick and unexpected errand (selling stuff from the old place before moving day) so I served the kids their meal and some sparkling grape juice (we "cheers"'ed each others cups a lot, and Charlie later christened the carpet inside by spilling some delightfully purple juice right out of the bottle, with which he had secretly absconded). Then they played in the grass while we waited for Daddy to return so we could all unlock the front door for the first time together.

Gracie didn't mind, because I taught her about the joys of rolling sideways down a hill. :)

I snapped a picture of baby #3 (15 weeks here--uh oh!) in the sliding glass door while the littles played behind me.

And then Steve came back and we went around the front together, where he unlocked the door and--oh I just love him--carried me over the threshold! Melt me, right? He is adorable and the best, and I love love love that I just bought a house with him. I know it isn't typical to find a 30 year mortgage romantic (we literally laughed at the lawyer's office when we looked at the payoff date), but I have to admit, I love anything that ties us together a little tighter and says one more time: you're the one for me, forever.

We stepped inside and let the kids run free through the empty house and while we admired the fridge (which is fancy and has buttons and is bigger than any one I've ever had, and has an ice maker that you can LOCK--genius) and all the other random things you admire as a first-timer, and then ate burritos on the bare kitchen floor while our babies bumped noisily around upstairs playing in the closets or thundering up and down the hallway like a herd of tiny, bipedal elephants.

It is a great house.

My favorite part is the light, which is divine and makes me so happy. Our last place was so very dark, and it made me really sad. I love every window and bright spot in this house, and there are so many!

Gracie's favorite part is her closet, which she likes to sit in with her toys and play, and which has its own light switch. She chose that room specifically because of its closet, and would not be swayed.

Charlie's favorite part is the garage door, which he can't pronounce but loves to watch. His eyes go wide and his little mouth drops open into an O of awe and delight. He talks about it most of the day, and pretends other things (a trap door on his play car, the toaster oven) are garage doors, too. :)

Home: Charlie's Room

So Charlie has been around for over 2 years now, and I have yet to show you his room. These pictures are old, but since we'll be moving him into a big-boy bed sometime in the near future (and he currently has that AND a crib in here right now) I wanted to document his baby-room--this is pretty much what it looked like when he was a teeny thing! (Well, as teeny a thing as the baby-hoss ever was, anyway.)

We wanted it to be very bright and colorful. Something to stimulate playtime and make the room cheery even on gloomy or cloudy days. We started with the bedding (and I've just realized I didn't get a good picture of that because I'd just changed his cute sheets that day for some white ones) which Steve and I picked together after MUCH debate. :) Then Steve painted the walls for me as a surprise gift--I came home from my baby shower (with Charlie still tucked under my ribs), and he had the whole room painted sky blue!

My friend Page did his name for us in vinyl (so it is renter-friendly) and Steve put it up above his window. The changing table (which was mine as a baby) was used for toys and storage. He was so big even at birth that I've always just laid him on the floor for changes. :)

The little brown arm chair was in our room when we first got married, then in Gracie's when she was littler, and migrated to Charlie's room (Gracie got a cool tent from her grandparents which took its place), and the toy bins came from our friend Wendy.

I made the bunting (the little banner, boys) while I was pregnant with him. I made my own bias tape (the green strip at the top) and it took forever. I don't think I ever want to make my own again. Did you know you can buy it at Joann's? You can. :) And for the little flags--I didn't want to sew all the edges, so I just cut them out with pinking shears. They've been up for almost two years, and since they're not getting washed or anything they've held up perfectly. I love all that color way up high. :)

He still needs a couple more photos on his walls, but moving day is slowly looming, so he may have to wait until his next bedroom. :)

There is a framed "Charlie Ticket" that Grandpa Curt brought for him when I was still pregnant.

Charlie at Two

Charlie is like a good wine (or so we hear)--he gets even better with age. When this spunky little guy made his way into our lives (and hearts) in December 2010, we had no idea what a fun, sweet, entertaining little person we'd be enjoying two years later!

Eating

Though he is constantly hungry (he greets us every morning with something like, "Goo mowning! He's awate! I want eat food.") Barles is a pickier eater than his sister was at this age. He definitely has his favorites, though, and would be quite happy to subsist on a diet of milk and bananas. (His favorite jammies have bananas and monkeys on them.) He also enjoys the addition of graham crackers, cranberries, and almost any fruit, and will usually eat beef or other salty meats (such a guy, right?). He also loves our Saturday dinners at Firehouse Subs ("I yike! Fire! Howsubs!") and sharing cereal with us while he sits on our laps.

Songs

Charlie loves to belt out a good tune. His favorites right now are Queen's "We Will Rock You" (as you saw/heard here), the Hot Dog song, "Ho Hey" by the Lumineers, Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box" (he heard it at a hotel, rocked out, and said, "I LIKE this one!!!"), "Life's a Happy Song" and "Man or Muppet?" from the new(er) Muppets soundtrack, and the ABC's, which go "ABCD HIJ HIJK Now I know my ABCs (mumble) sing with MEEEEE!"

Michael Buble still calms him when he starts fussing, though now we only have to Buble him on long road trips.

Books and Such

He's just barely starting to care enough about books to sit still for short ones. His favorites right now are mostly Sandra Boynton, with Hippos Go Berserk topping the charts followed by The Going to Bed Book and Barnyard Dance. Dr. Suess's ABC's are another fave, but he usually can't endure a full reading before he slips off our laps to explore.

He is also a big fan of the TV. He likes to watch Super Why (because Gracie loves it, and he wants to be just like her), Duck Tales, those Christmas claymation movies (Rudolph, etc.), and, most especially, the Muppets.

Playtime

I love this age. Charlie is so sweet and cute and cuddly. He likes to tell me what he is doing ("I playing cups, Mama.") and to be sitting near us. Whenever I sit down on the floor to fold laundry I know I will have to do it around his cute little self, because he plants himself right in my lap. (Today at church he asked to sit on Steve's, and then said, "Thank you for my lap, Daddy.") He recently discovered the joy of tickles and will come up to me at random times of the day and say, "I want tickles," very seriously and then giggles mirthfully when I follow his directions.

With Gracie in preschool, we get at least one morning a week when it is just the two of us. He likes to go o "dates" with me to Target or the grocery store, and when I ask him where Daddy or Gracie is, he yells, "All gone!"

He loves semi trucks, and construction equipment and playing with matchbox cars. His biggest love right now is cooking play food, and he can spend a good 40 minutes playing with his new pots and pans at their little kid kitchen. (Right now he has found some plastic cups and is filling them with (pretend) water or milk and feeding them to me.) He tells us, "Be careful! It's hot!!!" before he hands us our food.

He is also starting to show a little more interest in the nurturing play that Gracie did, putting his "doggy" (a fox) or tiger (just named "Tiger") to bed or taking him for walks in the doll stroller. I recently heard him putting Tiger to bed. He tucked him in and said, "No, all done ABC's. No yelling." He is a very firm parent. :) (We also play "where's Tiger?" at bedtime).

He is still an explorer and loves to figure out how things work--this has caused us a few minor parent heart attacks (yesterday he locked himself in a bedroom and we couldn't find him or figure out where he'd gone, and he also decided to start with unplugging and replugging some Christmas lights). We love to watch his little mind work, to see him engineer stacks of anything from blocks to ketchup bottles (he's been doing that at restaurants since at least April).

He likes to tell me he's going to work or "to hah-pital" (to work there like Daddy does) and sometimes says, "Bye! I miss you!" or gives me a kiss goodbye before he leaves (into the hall).

He and Gracie are starting to find more common ground now that he's a little older. They love to shut the doors to the closet between their rooms and play with flashlights--I often hear them giggling in there--and now and then they will play a good chasing game with his blanket as a tether or he'll climb into the doll stroller and allow himself to be pushed around for a while. They have trouble sharing, but they really love each other a lot.

Language

He's still got an awesome vocabulary and loves to talk. Right now one of his most common phrases is, "Dat needs batt-ries." Anything that doesn't light up or make sound when he presses a button needs batteries. Broken lights in the airport, kitchen, grocery store, or anywhere else? He will find it, and recommend new batteries. He also tells me, "I very okay" when he falls down, usually before I can even ask him if he's hurt. (If he is hurt, he tells me which part of himself he "bonked"--we started asking him if he bonked his head, but now he will tell us, "I bonk finger!" or wherever to indicate an injury.)

He's started to get good at conversation, too. He asks us how we slept when we get him up in the morning, and can recall and tell us things he did when we were apart. (Today he told me he ate goldfish crackers at Nursery). He and his cousin Adelaide (2 months older) have even started conversing with each other. I LOVE toddler conversation. I'll have to catch some and write it down. :)

We love this kiddo and can't wait to see what the next year will bring. We suspect even more adventure, and probably more snuggles.

Charlie at 18 Months

18 months worth of Charlie looks like this:

I tried to get a better picture, but 18 months worth of Charlie also moves pretty quickly, and is usually talking. :) But here's another.

He is 24lbs 9oz, and to be honest, I can't remember how tall he measured in at. But suffice it to say he is in about the 75% for height, and 25% for weight, a little string bean like many Walton boys before him.

He goes by Charlie, Charles, Barles, Charlito, Barlito, Charlie Barley, and sometimes just "you sneaky one" or "NO SIR!". Gracie also calls him Sugar Buster on occasion--we've never figured out why, but we love it.

Charlie is starting to seem more little boy than baby. He walks, runs, and falls off of things (one day last week he took a header off of a kitchen chair twice). He goes down the slide on his own (on his tummy, as you see) without any fear. Like his sister he is very verbal and says over 80 words (that I can think of; it is probably closer to 100), when he is only required to know 3-4 for his age milestones. And if he is quiet, we know that he is most definitely up to something (as I wrote that I went to check on a suspicious quietness--and he was halfway out the front door, making his escape).

He thought it was pretty funny to just flop back into the sand and laze around.

He does not like to take naps (he lets us know by shrieking when we lay him down) but is a good sleeper, with one nap from 1-3:30 in the afternoon, and a 7-7 sleep at night time. He does like being cuddled before naps, though, and will lay his head on your shoulder, especially if you have a tay-tet (blanket). He doesn't like being buckled in to anything, being told no, or having to sit down in chairs. He doesn't like going to sleep in the car, but the musical stylings of Mr. Michael Buble still knock him out like they did when he was a teeny thing--Buble is our secret weapon on long road trips and in shared hotel rooms.

If he had his way, he would live on graham crackers, milk, watermelon, and bananas, with the occasional round of chicken nuggets thrown in. He also loves strawberries, and, as I discovered the other day when he insisted on sharing mine, chocolate cupcakes. Also any salty meat, like bacon and beef. Such a man.

Helping himself to my cupcake...

He will also eat mac and cheese, but only at Ikea as far as we know.

Swedish-looking baby eating mac at Sweden's best export, Ikea.

His favorite things in the world right now are buttons. He is infatuated with them. He is constantly showing me buttons. If he sees an elevator, he will reach longingly for it. When he gets our car keys he can spend ages setting and unsetting the alarm (I'm sure our neighbors love all the honking). The same morning that he fell off the chair twice, he locked himself in the bathroom, because he closed the door and then found a "button!" on the doorknob. That's what he told me when I broke in through the back door and rescued him. Just pointed to the knob and exclaimed, "Button!!!!" In other words, How could I resist locking myself in?!

Just cute.

He loves the ABCs, and will sing "ABCD" at us until we sing the rest. He has just reached the age where he will follow you around with a book until you sit down, and then back up right into your lap for reading time. His favorites are "Hubbo!" ("Hippo" meaning any book by Sandra Boynton, but especially those with hippos in them) and "Op Ah Op???" (Hop on Pop, always said as a question), for which he provide the last word of many of the pages, and in which he likes to admire the bananas that Brown and Black eat for a snack. He loves to talk to Daddy on the phone or the computer, and, since the computer has buttons, he loves to touch that even though he isn't allowed to (recently during another suspicious silence, he managed to rename my hard drive. I don't remember what it was before, but he thought "p" was sufficient. He's a minimalist at heart.)


He loves anything his sister loves, like markers to draw with or figurines to act things out. He likes to push around the doll stroller and ride on his Tonka truck. He will respond to your open arms by running right into them--or, more often, by running past you laughing hysterically. He is a great little engineer, and has recently been seen stacking ketchup bottles at restaurants and putting together play train tracks without any help. He also learned to unscrew bottle lids at a shockingly young age.


He is a little shy of new things, like wading in cool water or playing in sand, but if you let him cry for a few minutes he will get over it and have a ball. I respond to change pretty similarly, so he came by that honestly. ;) Once he has overcome his fear of things, like sand, he can do amazing things, like this excellent Downward Facing Dog yoga pose.

Yogi in training.

This boy-o goes a mile a minute, and we love him to pieces. He was extraordinary when he was born (10lbs 1oz, remember!?) and he has continued to impress and amaze us the more he has grown. We are so lucky to have this little Sugar Buster! Love you baby boy!