Fifteen Months (Charlie's Monthly Photo)

Charlie is a full blown toddler now.  For sure.



He walks around the house shouting, "Mommyyyyyyy!!!!!" until he finds me.  Then he stands right in front of me with arms straight above his head until I pick him up.



He feels fully entitled to anything the other kids are having--especially candy.



He is loving sitting forward facing.  He giggled and clapped his hands with a huge grin the first trip we took that way.



He imitates the other kids so well (and us, too).  You can ask him to say almost anything, and he'll at least attempt it.  Especially following on the heels of Oliver, he seems very verbal and Daniel and me. I love how he says shoes -- ush! ush! And then I say, "you want your shoes on?"  And he nods his head earnestly.



He's still napping once to twice/day and is still mostly sleeping in the clursery beside our bed.  He'll move to the green room at some point, but I'm not eager to have him in there, because I'm enjoying being able to put the other kids' clothes away without interrupting anyone's sleep.



He loves to be tickled (though not as much as Lucy or Oliver at this age) and is just so sweet and cute.  He waves at people and is usually pretty persistent about it until they acknowledge him and wave back.  It's so cute. He also signs more, please, all done, eat, and cereal.  He even tried signing play the other day.



He loves to sit in front of his food for like 10 minutes and then sign all done and come sit in my lap and try to eat my food.  It's kind of annoying, I'm not gonna lie.



He's mastered climbing up the little plastic slide in our house, and he's completely tickled with himself when he slides back down it all by himself.



He's recently discovered books.  He loves opening and closing them but also pointing to various pictures inside.



He's adorable.  Charlie, we love you so much!!!  We are exhausted but are loving this stage of your toddlerhood.  You are so, so sweet!

Fourteen Months (Charlie's Monthly Photo)

Fourteen months, and Charlie is doing great!



He's got a few words -- Umma (mama) and Hiiyee (hi) and Uh (yeah) and he shakes his head for no.  We're still waiting to hear Dada or any other word.



He loves walking all around the house, and he's even climbed up the slide once or twice.  It's getting more challenging, having him on my back during Oliver's gymnastics class.  He always wants to get down and jump on the trampoline like he sees the "big kids" doing.



He's a pretty easy eater.  He like salty vegetables, meat, and cheese.  Loves cereal in the morning, too.


Sorry so short, Charlie.  Mommy is exhausted and totally maxed out.  But you are adorable and sweet and so fun, and we love you.

Charlie's Cake Smash

Charlie's Cake Smash Session.



Like most 1-year-olds, he had no interest in the cake.  It took a LOT of encouraging to get him to try it.



He thought it was super weird.




Eventually he kind of got into it.  For like a second.



But then he was like, "Pick me UP!!!!!"



What really helped was when I let the other kids jump in there for a bit.



After that he did much better.




It also helped when we gave him a fork.  He loves eating off forks.




HEEEERE!!!

Happy birthday, dear Charlie Bear!!!

Thirteen Months (Charlie's Monthly Photo)

Boy I tell you what--I am just barely squeaking by on these monthly photos.



It has gotten so much harder since Lucy was a baby.  Somehow being in charge of wiping so many noses and bottoms and providing sustenance for four mouths, not including my own... it has almost got me beat.

However.  I will power on.  Only 11 more months to go.




Charlie has gotten even more adorable.



He wakes up from naps in the best mood (most of the time), with a big toothy grin.



He is walking all over the place.  He falls down from time to time, but he's getting faster at walking.  He holds his arms up for me to catch him and usually barely makes it over to me as he's falling down.



He has three words... I think.  Three may be generous.  He consistently uses the proper intonation of "hee-eer" when he's handing us something, though he doesn't actually articulate the H or the eer.  I'm about 95% sure he's been saying Mama the past day or so... so that's exciting!  I also think he's been saying, "Uh-ohhhh!"  It's kind of hard to tell.  He definitely has the intonation down pat.



He loves crackers (who doesn't).  He seems kind of so-so on just about everything else.



When he gets tired, he sticks his index finger in his mouth, and if his robot is handy, he'll also hold onto the robot's hand.



He loves being tickled and playing "fly on the bed" with the big kids.  He's really ticklish--especially around his neck and his ribs.



He also loves being held.  A lot.  Can't really blame him, but my meal planning skills are lacking, so around 4:30 pm I really could use both of my hands to try to pull something together for dinner.



He's 17 pounds now.  A little on the small side, compared to the other kids at this age.  He seems so petite to us.  Oh, I just checked and apparently he's back to below the 5th percentile for his age.  Oh well.  He'll catch up.

Twelve Months Old (Charlie's Monthly Photo)

So... I kind of missed 11 months.  Oops.  What can I say... it's been really busy here.

But anyways!



Charlie is a delightful little cruising 1 year old!  In fact, he just took his first steps the other day so I guess he is actually a toddler!

He loves to clap for himself and when he's in a crowd that's applauding.  He also likes clapping for himself while he's toddling along.  He's so proud of himself.



He's so delightful.  He loves being tickled and is so happy after he nurses in the night, frumping around on our bed.



He's passionate at the dinner table.  He shrieks and sounds like a monkey when he sees something he'd like to eat.  He hasn't totally mastered the signs all done and more, but he does them sometimes when prompted.



He's such a youngest of four.  If he sees the other three sitting quietly on their bottoms waiting for Daddy to read, he crawls on over and sits on his bottom right along with them.



He loves his siblings.  If he's sitting on my bed and Lucy or Elliot walk up, he stretches out his arms for them and lets them lift him down to the floor.



He already has a strong sense of fairness.  If I pass out a snack to all the other kids in the car, he makes sure I know that he'd like one, too.  He loves crackers and pasta.



He doesn't really care for the stroller much, but he's okay in the car seat and doesn't seem to mind riding along on my back (usually).




He's completely in love with every animal.  He loves puppy dogs and every animal we see at the zoo.  He wants to crawl after them and pat them and tug on them.

He's adorable and we love him and are so glad to have him in our family!

Ten Months Old (Charlie's Monthly Photo)

Well, Charlie is just a wonderful 10 month old now.  He is pulling up and cruising a tiny bit and smiling and babbling and signing!

He signs "all done," which he might think means more.  And he waves at people when they wave at him (sometimes).  He babbles and makes lots of happy noises, and he's generally pretty content most of the time.  He likes to say, "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma."



He's pretty choosy when it comes to sleeping.  He wants to be in a quiet, dark room--preferably his clursery.  He gets fussy now, when we're out and about and he's tired.  He sleeps in the car okay but not every time.



Did I mention he's at the 5% for weight?  He's kind of petite.



Poor guy--he's cutting about three teeth right now, all on the top.  He currently has his bottom 3 teeth and also his 2 top canine teeth... so he looks a little vampire-ish.  But that's okay.



He's feeding himself really well now!  His favorite foods are rice and raisins, though he also seems to really enjoy cheese.



He's still napping twice/day, except when we're out running errands in the morning.  Then he's absolutely exhausted when we get home, or he falls asleep right before we arrive home.



He's really developed a preference for being put down with a bottle of water.  He drinks his bottle, cries for a few minutes, and then falls asleep most of the time.  When he's older, he'll have more of a "bed time routine," but for now we pretty much just turn the lights out and leave the room.  Very practical, no nonsense.



When the older kids inevitably remark that Charlie had it easiest (as the youngest), I'll remind them that he had about 1/4 the "bedtime" routine they got at this age.  It all evens out in the end, I'm sure.