Charlie! He’s just the best little guy. I wish all of you could spend a day hanging out with him. He’s getting quite funny at the ripe old age of two and a half. He loves to laugh, talks all the time, is extremely expressive and opinionated, loves trucks, trains, tigers, dinosaurs, dirt, super heroes, pirates, sticks, and is the sweetest most cuddly, loving and empathetic tiny person I’ve ever met. He does ridiculous boyish things like run while shaking his head back and forth until he falls down or crashes into something. He animates his actions with sounds. He believes he is the biggest, the fastest, the best climber, the highest jumper there was, is, or ever will be. When I open a door to let him through, I can’t prevent the voice in my head from announcing “Release the Kraken!”
Here are some things I want to remember about my Charlie Boy at this age:
- He’s either running full-speed or stubbornly not walking at all depending on the opposite thing I’ve asked him to do. If we need to hurry – he requires being dragged, when we’ve got all the time in the world, he’s running as fast as he can.
- He loves telling everyone about his new shoes. They’re not new, there the same shoes he’s had for months.
- You should see the way he hugs his sisters when they cry or when they’re sad. He gets behind them and hugs their back and pats them with his little hand. It’s the sweetest.
- The other night I had a pirate at my dinner table. We are still working on manners – obviously.
- After being rough and rowdy he asks, “you ok mom?” which is very thoughtful.
- There’s nothing he hates more than riding in elevators. He’s got some spacial awareness thing going on that terrifies him when he feels himself going up or down.
- Many friends are greeted with a roar or a growl, based on their reactions bigger roars and growls will follow.
- His ears are tuned to hear planes, sirens, helicopters, trains, or big trucks …sounds he hears that I wasn’t aware of until he points them out.
- High fives and fist bumps are his favorite greeting/closing move.
- If I’m carrying him he’s yelling, “Me want to walk!” and if he’s walking he steps in front of my feet and says, “Me want to hold you, mom!”
- Similar to his sister Ruby, he is extremely organized. He lines up his trucks at night and makes sure all the dinosaurs are lined up in their places as well.
- I love the way he puts both feet on a seat before he sits down in it
- His favorite books are “Goodnight Construction Site” and “Little Blue Truck.” He would let me read books to him all day.
- One time after a run-in with a pair of Ruby’s scissors I took him in for a haircut and he came out looking’ like Lloyd Christmas
Here are some recent Charlie-isms.
- Whenever we’re driving, “Me lookin’ for horsies. Me see one! Me see a biiiig, biiiig one!”
- “I tell you a question, Mom! I tell you a question.”
- In the morning Clara loves to wake him up, but if he wakes up first I hear, “I awake! Mom? Where are you? I awake!”
- This is what his rowdy face looks like. He will likely spontaneously combust if I don’t let him run around outside or jump on the mini-tramplone in our basement everyday.
- Many nights around 4am I hear his quiet voice from down the hall, “My tears. Wipe my tears. Wipe my tears, mom.”
- The next morning telling me about his night, “I crying. I sad. I crying and crying.”
- Christmas lights never get old. He screams out, “Chrissas Lights!!”
- On trying a bite of a pickle, “I no like it. That’s too, too tasty.”
- “Lay up” is the opposite of “Lay down”
- Anytime he’s working on something, “I havin’ a little trouble here.”
- He’s a professional stick collector. Charlie’s never encountered a stick he doesn’t like.
- When I discipline him he says to me, “Stop talking! Don’t say that!” but then after he’s done in time out and has a “happy heart” again he says, “I ok mom. Sorry mom.”
- We took him to a Monster Truck Rally last week and he absolutely lost his mind with excitement.
Amazingly, my littlest buddy will be off to preschool for a couple mornings a week starting this Fall. He’s growing so fast and changing so much right now. I’m trying to soak in every moment… also, I’ve adapted as a boy mom and now I have eyes in the back of my head.
You guys, I don’t even know how old Charlie is right now. I was going to title this post, “Charlie: 18 months old” but as I was typing it I wasn’t really confident that’s actually his age. I was much better at keeping track of these sorts of things when I only had one child… and I feel like I was ok at it when I had 2 children. Poor Charlie – maybe he’s 18 months old? If he’s not 18 months old yet, he probably will be soon – or maybe he’ll be 19 soon. I don’t know.
So let’s begin, shall we? CHARLIE TURNED ONE on July 2 and we had our first big gathering of family at our new place! The backyard turned out to be the perfect location for all of Charlie’s cousins (7 babies/toddlers) to enjoy copious amounts of birthday cake and ice cream.
Ryan grilled an amazing lunch for everyone to enjoy. I know you’re not surprised. He’s pretty much the best at everything.
This picture accurately portrays Charlie’s true feelings about his first taste of birthday cake. I love him and all of his little boy shenanigans. Happy Birthday Charlie Boy. I’m so thankful I’m the one who gets to 
I’ve carved out a few minutes to quickly update you on my Charlie boy. He is currently contained in his crib, which is the only reason I am able to write this post. Since Charlie became mobile my life has clicked into warp-speed. I took these pictures of A Polar Bear checking him out at the 
Charlie had his 4-month checkup today and is a whopping 14 pounds of man-child. When I arrived at his appointment this morning the receptionist, while looking at his chart said, “I see here that Charlie goes by the name ‘Ruby’?” Ha! I cleared up the misunderstanding explaining that Ruby is his sister and he goes by “Charlie”. That could’ve been awkward later.
Charlie is growing so much! He was 10.5 lbs at his 1 month checkup and continues feeling heavier and looking chubbier every day. He has one chub roll on his thighs – it’s awesome. He’s been cooing back and started smiling last week, which is my favorite thing ever. I love all of his expressions… he’s a Ryan face.
People ask me if I’m enjoying having a boy… and all I can say is “YES” …and that he looks super cute in his boy clothes. Speaking of clothes, I had to get the 3-6 month jammies into his drawers because at 6 weeks old he was already too long for the 0-3 month size! Love this kid. He’s such a good eatin’ good sleepin’ sweet little buddy.
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