Proud Mama

I guess I should just get used to all the changes, but each day takes me by surprise.

Take yesterday for example, Charlie made it very clear that he is rational human being able to make decisions and follow directions.  It was amazing.

Situation #1:  Charlie, Otis and I were upstairs in the playroom.  Charlie was randomly wandering the room, and I was half-heartedly playing fetch with Otis.  To be honest, I was collapsed on the bean bag chair with this ridiculous cold -- it's been a week!

Anyway, I tossed Otis' toy and it got stuck behind Charlie's little piano.  Otis went over and tried to get to it, but it was lodged between the piano and the wall.  Jokingly, I asked Charlie if he would go get Otis' toy and give it to him.  Charlie looked at me and toddled right over to the piano.  He bent over and peered underneath it, stood up and peaked behind it, then paused and played a couple songs. 

I had just resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to get up when Charlie reached behind the piano, grabbed the rubber quail and handed it to Otis.  I don't know who was more surprised, me or Otis.  Charlie just looked at me and grinned, then did a belly flop on Otis' bed!  The kid is amazing.

Situation #2: Later in the evening, I was sitting on the couch and Charlie was doing laps through the kitchen, dining room, hall and living room.   Thanks to his love of jabbering, it's always fairly easy to determine where he is, but suddenly it got quiet.  Then I heard an unusual scraping noise and knew I needed to investigate.

I walked into the kitchen and found Charlie in the butler's pantry with the koozie drawer open, pulling out koozies and dropping them on the floor.  His face when he saw me was priceless -- he definitely knew that he wasn't allowed in the drawer. 

Of course, I immediately grabbed the camera off the counter to catch him red handed.  I couldn't have been more surprised when I looked back -- Charlie was putting all of the koozies back in the drawer!  He got all of them in but one -- which happened to have a stickier, non-neoprene texture.  When I asked him to put that one back, too, he looked down at it and smiled, grabbed another one out of the drawer and put it away again, and grinned up at me.  Obviously, I let him keep it.  How adorable!

And yes, I realize that in order to truly teach him to follow directions and the importance of parental authority, etc, I really should have required complete compliance -- but how could I?    I was overcome with pride in his ability to follow directions in the playroom and to clean up after himself in the kitchen.  Truly amazing!

Caught!

Getting rid of the evidence

A Boy's Boy

Watching Charlie's little personality (or should I say big personality in a little body) develop is keeping Jason and I very entertained.   Over the past few weeks we've had many glimpses of the man behind the curtain -- and he is a hoot!

To be clear, there haven't been any drastic changes -- Charlie still loves to eat, loves to laugh, adores his Daddy, hates to nap, and lives to tease Otis -- but all of his emotions and reactions are focusing, and we're even starting to understand some of his thought processes -- and I take quite a bit of the blame for his wacky logic.

One of the highlights of the past week was his discovery of "walking backwards".  To be honest, I never realized this was a skill to be learned -- but last Thursday Charlie mastered the ability to back his way around the living room and spent most of Thursday evening running into Otis.  He has yet to discover the benefits of peeking behind him for obstacles. 

Also, last night he amazed (and alarmed) me with his newfound ability to make obscene noises by blowing raspberries on his arm.  Apparently this is a favorite way to entertain himself while waiting for his dinner.  It's only slightly less exciting than the real thing -- and yes, at 13 months he already finds bodily functions a source of unending amusement.  Is this just wired into the Y chromosome?

Charlie is also working on some of his flirting skills -- but the angels are anything but push-overs.  Over the past week, we've had both Lakely and Kate over to play.  Charlie used his smoothest moves -- leaning against the couch and drinking one-handed from the sippy-cup, as well as moving in for the oh-so-sweet hug -- but both girls were more interested in his toys than his attentions.  Poor thing...

In general, Charlie absolutely adores anything that can be done outdoors.  Just putting on his shoes gets him crazy excited, because he knows he gets to go outside.  Biking and swinging are near the top of his list for outdoor activities, but the real winner is...mowing??   Charlie is an avid lawn boy.  He absolutely adores his little musical reel mower and has even progressed from using it as a jackhammer to pushing/pulling it around the yard.  He can actually spend almost as long out there "mowing" as it takes Jason to do the real thing -- too bad for Jason his doesn't cut the grass.

I have no doubt that even as I type this, Charlie is enlightening and amusing Donna with some other new habit that will have us all cracking up this evening.  Actually -- he, Donna and Otis are just outside my window playing in the yard!! It truly doesn't get any better than to be able to look up and see your baby boy while diligently participating in a conference call.  Life is good!

Hey -- did you know there were goldfish in these plastic things???

Look, Dog-dog, a kitty!

Giving Lakely a Ride

We're all about equality around here...

Hey, Baby...

Like my shades?

Work, work, work...

What a wonderful surprise!

Parental Conflict

It's commonly proclaimed that parenting is an ongoing conflict of wills -- but I never realized that I would be on both sides of the same argument!  I constantly finding myself wishing Charlie would learn or do one thing and then wanting to take it back as soon as he does.  Either I'm completely nuts, or being a mom is...

Some obvious examples are the big milestones: rolling, sitting, crawling, walking, talking, weaning, etc.  I looked forward to each of them, was proud for about 30 seconds and then missed my baby. 

But there are many much more subtle (and perhaps crazier) such moments every day.  Last night, for example, Charlie was obviously sleepy, so I was rushing to get him through dinner, nap, stories and prayers, so he could go to sleep.  Then I came downstairs, curled up on the couch to do my crossword puzzle and missed him.  I wanted him awake to play with me.

An even more ridiculous situation occurs regularly in the mornings.  Like any mom, I am thrilled when my baby sleeps through the night and overjoyed if he makes it past 6:30, but if 6:45 rolls around and I haven't heard a peep, I have an uncontrollable urge to sneak into his room and see if he's breathing.  And due to my 32 year old knees that snap, crackle and pop, I sometimes wake him from a peaceful sleep (like this morning!).  Seriously, who is crazy enough to wake a sleeping baby before 7:00 in the morning!?

We actually experienced a brand new conundrum last night at dinner.  As Charlie is quickly closing in on 13 months, it's probably time that he starts learning to feed himself.  I've been cutting him loose with "tidy" finger food for months, but to be honest, I'm just too lazy to let him feed himself the messy stuff -- I don't want to clean it off the walls, floors, dog, etc.  Therefore, Jason and/or I take the lead with anything that requires utensils. 

Based on this practice, one would imagine that the first time we did let Charlie try to feed himself it would probably be something not too sticky and not too brightly colored, right?  No, OCD mom here decided that the perfect food for Charlie's first foray into utensils would be left over pink fluffy stuff.  For anyone who has never attended one of Jason's family's holiday, this is a glorious concoction of strawberry jell-o, strawberries, cool whip and angel food cake...mmmm....  Fabulous food, but completely contrary to my attempts to keep my kitchen free of pink flecks and Otis from succumbing to a sugar-high.  Oh well -- it sure was fun!

He scoops...

He scores...

He chews...

He wants more!

Read All About It

It's crazy to think back to the pre-Jason days when I would frequently stay up until 2 AM to finish a book that I'd started earlier that evening, or the early-Jason days when I'd waste and entire Saturday reading in the recliner while Jason was fishing.  It wasn't the least bit unusual for me to read two to three books per week -- and despite my husband feeling sorry for me, I loved it!

Obviously that's all changed with Charlie -- but not just due to lack of time.  Even before I found out I was pregnant, I just stopped reading.  I'm sure some of it was due to the exhaustion of the first trimester, but it was as if a switch were flipped and I just had no intererst.  Instead, I wasted countless hours watching crime documentaries on TV. I think I've seen every single episode of Cold Case Files, American Justice and City Confidential -- which begs the question, will that craving have similar results to my chocolate milkshake and chicken nuggets cravings?  Is Charlie destined to be a cop???  But I digress...

I mention my formerly voracious appetite for reading as a context for the fact that I have been embarrassingly lax at introducing Charlie to books.  I had every intention of reading to him in the womb, but that really seemed like a waste of time to me.  Then I pictured myself reading multiple books a day to my newborn...but I spent his waking moments cooing at and/or shushing him and it again seemed somewhat silly to read to a sleeping baby.

Over the past year as our routines have changed, we have somewhat regularly read to him before bed -- and yes, yes, we know that we should read to him other times a day, too, so he doesn't only associate books with sleep.  But to be honest, other than Goodnight Moon, we probably only read Charlie 2 to 3 books per week.

Which is why we are so surprised and amused by his newfound obsession with books.  It's a hoot!  Whether he's repeatedly paging through his tugboat book in the bath (Splash! Splash!,  Toot! Toot!,  Tug! Tug!), reaching over the side of the glider to point and laugh at his bedtime books, emptying the bookshelf in the playroom or tripping around the living room with his great big puzzle book -- he loves them!

Sadly, I missed the foremost literary moment of Charlie's life so far.  Earlier this week when Jason was putting Charlie to bed, he started out trying to read our new Easter book (which is fabulous by the way -- I would highly recommend it for anyone looking to explain the true meaning of Easter to kids!  It's The Easter Story by Patricia Pingry and available at both Walmart and Target.)

Anyway, Jason started out reading The Easter Story, but Charlie was fidgety and whiny, so he switched to Goodnight Moon, which never fails to calm our little monster.    After he finished saying goodnight to noises everywhere, Jason set down the book and started prayers, but Charlie reached towards The Easter Story and started his grunt/whine thing that lets us know that he wants something, so Jason picked it back up planning to try to read it again.

Instead, Charlie grabbed the book out of Jason's hands and held it off to the side away from Jason, just like we do with him.  He then opened the cover and started "reading" to Jason, "blah-blah-blah-blah-blah," turned the page and read some more "blah-blah-blah-blah-blah," and proceeded do this for five or six pages.  Next, he closed the book and looked up at Jason and smiled.  Then Jason laid Charlie down in his crib, and we didn't hear a peep until morning!  I so wish I had been there to see it!  Now we just have to figure out how he'll fit in both voracious reading and obsessive fishing on the weekends...

Our little book worm