Charlie at 18 Months

Charlie officially turned 1 1/2 on March 9!  He suddenly seems like such a little toddler now!  He's talking all the time and surprises us every day with new words he knows.  My sister tried to count the words Parker says to estimate if she's on track (they say 15-20 at this age is normal), so I thought I'd do the same.  I came up with 30+ words off the top of my head, so he's clearly on schedule for this area of development.

He also says a lot of things we don't understand still, which causes frustration for all of us.  He will repeat the same thing over and over again while we guess what it means.  His newest thing is pointing out buses and planes he sees while we are driving.  BUS!  It reminds me of when Jack used to yell out EVERY time he saw a truck, train, bus, plane or motorcycle (bike).  And it was a LOT.  I'm sure we're headed that direction with the Char Man.

He loves doing anything Jack does and they play together pretty well these days.  Jack has started trying to wrestle Charlie which he enjoys at first, but then it gets a little too rough and he wants to stop.  He has become very curious about Jack's potty habits.  About a month ago he started telling us he needs to "boop," after which he would scoot the stool over to the toilet, and stand with his hands on his crotch like he sees his brother do.  Too funny.

I finally convinced him to sit on the little potty, which he has done a few times now.  One time he actually tinkled a little bit, much to his and my surprise!  Of course it went all over the place.  We are not actively pursuing this interest.

Charlie loves taking baths.  It's quite a conundrum really because Jack does not look forward to baths (though he ends up having fun once he's in), so we try to give him lots of warning when it's bath night.  But we can't say it too loud because as soon as Charlie hears the word bath he runs to our bathroom saying "bath," "bath," "bath" until we appease him and get the bath going.  We've had a few meals end abruptly because of this mistake.

Cute little tushies

Speaking of dinners, Charlie is not a great eater these days.  He will go days and barely touch his lunch/dinner.  He usually eats pretty well at breakfast - he loves his "wawa" (waffle) with "bop" (dip, which is either syrup or Cool Whip), but other meals are pretty hit or miss.  One day he'll surprise us and chow down several meals in a row of the same foods he's been ignoring for weeks and then a day or two later he's back to his normal bird-like eating habits.

He's clearly not missing the extra calories; at his 18 month check-up Charlie weighed 26 lbs, 6 oz (76%) and was 33.5" tall (84%).  He still has a giant head (off the charts) but I think he just has a lot of brains in there.  ;)  Side note: I'm not sure I believe the weight at this appointment; last time we went to a sick visit on January 24th, he weighed 27 lbs, 14 oz and on January 13th he weighed 27 lbs, 6 oz (he had an ear infection and Impetigo, respectively). Granted, they weigh with clothes on at those visits so it's less accurate, but I find it hard to believe his clothes weigh 1.5 pounds AND he hasn't gained any weight in 6 weeks??

This weekend we were at Lowe's and Charlie was very impressed by the saw the worker was using.

Charlie is also hitting a really fun terrible-2s-esque phase.  This week he has taken to yelling our names over and over again until we respond.  When we do respond (whether the first time or after he's repeated himself numerous times) he usually doesn't have much to say then he just starts over again "Mom! Mom! Mom!"  Fun times.  Other times he yells our names and when he has our attention he says "Watch!" and does something silly or kicks a ball or throws something.  That's pretty cute, but we could do without all the demanding yelling.

Little stinker took LOTS of my shirts off their hangers.  I knew he was too quiet in there!!

He's taking after his brother in the athletics department. He has been able to throw pretty well for awhile but now he can actually catch sometimes too. He's also really good at kicking and loves to use the aforementioned attention-grabbing methods to show us this newly refined skill. Pretty impressive for a little guy I must say.

Charlie and his buddy Ethan Asher

Another fun little thing: Jason has been playing this little game with Jack for years where he says "Hey Jack, guess what" and Jack says "What?" and Jason says "I love you." He started doing this with Charlie too and instead of responding with "What?" Charlie started responding with "I Wuv Wu." Seriously melt my heart.

Charlie is a sweet little guy who loves to make us all laugh.  We are having a blast with our big toddler!!