There he is!

Yeah!  We found him.  Our Charlie is back and appears to be planning to stay.  After a few nights in his own bed and a return to his routine, it appears that life is back to normal.  I'm no longer flinching when Charlie comes at me, confident that he plans to hug, not scratch, bite or hit, and he's replaced his frustrated habits with some new games.

Jason's and my favorite is "family hug".  We have no idea where he got it, but Charlie's new favorite thing is to insist on hugging both Jason and me at the same time.  He demands a family hug every morning before Jason leaves and another each evening while I'm making dinner -- with others sprinkled in from time to time.  It's absolutely hilarious.  If one of us is holding him, he'll yell the name of the other until we're all together, then he grabs us both around the neck, pulls us in tight and giggles.  And once we think we're done, we generally have to come back in for another squeeze or two.  What started out as a funny moment in San Diego has become a highlight to our days.

And I can't tell you how excited I was to replace "Imposter Charlie Peek-a-Boo" with "Where's the Book?" this morning.  After three for four run-throughs of the Boat book, Charlie stashed it behind the couch cushion, looked at me, held open his arms and asked "Go?"  I quickly learned that my role is to become very concerned about where the book could have possibly gone, until in a fit of giggles, he pulls it out from behind the cushion.  Then I say "Ta-Da!"  As you can imagine, for a 17 month old, this game just does not get old...and only ends when Daddy comes downstairs to put on his shoes.

It's definitely good to have our happy little nut back.

Another new game: Naked Piano