Charlie Talks. A lot.

There for a while, Charlie just repeated words that you said. Now, he points out things all by himself. When he does repeat things, he repeats entire phrases, not just the last word used. He also loves the newly found power of the word “no.” He uses quite a few two-word phrases and simple sentences, such as:
Mama painting
Dexter rolling
DeeDee come
Mama get you
Mama typing
Daddy home
Up please
Cookie please
Old turtle
Old Dodge (you had to be there...)
Wheee Doggie

More Developments:

• He likes to let everyone know when it's dark outside, when we are home, etc. When it's dark outside, he likes to point out the moon and stars, even when none are visible...
• Charlie often remembers parts of books that we've read. For example, he'll bring me Llama, Llama Red Pajama, and say "Run! Run! Run!" because there's a part of the story where Mama Llama runs to see why Baby Llama is crying.
• He sings parts of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” which is the cutest thing ever. He especially likes the line “up above the world so high” which sounds a little like “up a bub bub bub bub hiiiigh”
• He gets you to play chase by saying “get you” while running and looking back to see if you are chasing him. He says "ashes” when he wants you to play Ring Around the Rosy.
• He always looks for deer when we leave the neighborhood. (There's a large wooded area by the neighborhood where we always see deer.) Without fail, Charlie points out the window and says “deer” and “looking?”
• He also recognizes that some things are letters and calls them letters.
• Charlie breaks out in a dance almost every day. It's hilarious. Reminds me of some kind of Appalachian mountain hillbilly stomping dance.
• He also loves football. (Whose child is this?) When the players run, Charlie runs with his arms flailing, back and forth from the living room to the kitchen. He'll also do “down, set, hut” and fall when “tackled.”
• He likes counting. His favorite number is nine. A typical countdown is “nine, two, nine”
• He can jump with both feet leaving the ground. (And not just while in his crib...haha)
  

This is the longest I've gone before having to buy Charlie bigger clothes. I cleaned out closets last month and put away anything that was too small. He's still able to wear a few cold weather shirts from the spring, which is nice. I hit a few sales last month and got him all stocked up for the cold weather. Now, it just has to get cold!

Leave an Open Door: A Cautionary Tale

Tuesday morning was off to a great start. Charlie and I were both up, dressed, and ready to greet the public at an unusually early hour, for us anyway. The main stop on our itinerary was the grocery store. Shopping with an almost 2 year old can be rough. And grocery shopping is the worst. I've found that going immediately after breakfast when Charlie is fresh and spirits aren't quite so high, is the perfect time to make the trek.

So things were off to a great start, and we were all ready to go. I stepped outside with the dogs for an extended bathroom break since we would be gone for a few hours. The dogs finally obliged, and we turned to go back inside. I was lost in pre-grocery shopping thought: “Should we get the deli turkey or the packaged cheaper stuff? I wonder how we are doing on ketchup... Probably also need to pick up TP while we're at it...” And then I stopped in my tracks when I tried to turn the doorknob, and it wouldn't turn. With me and the dogs outside. And Charlie inside peering out at me.

My first thought was that Charlie had just pushed the door really hard and the doorknob was being difficult. This is often the case with this door. If you slam it or close it too hard, something inside doesn't line up quite right and it can be hard to turn the knob and open it. So, I'll just try it again. No luck. That's when I realized that I was locked out. By an almost 2 year old. Who was grinning at me from inside and probably thinking “This is a fun game, Mama!”

So now I think that if Charlie turned the lock on the knob, he can turn it back, right? I immediately became a mime, playing the most expressive game of charades to save my life. But how exactly do you imitate a doorknob and then the turning of the lock on the knob to a toddler? I did the best I could but knew I was getting nowhere, and Charlie was starting to get frustrated. The last thing I wanted was a freaked out little boy with unsupervised access to the whole house.

Trying to think of an alternate way to get in, I cursed our dedication to home security. No unlocked windows or doors. Even the one garage door that is currently “being worked on” was locked down tight. Getting into the garage was probably a futile thought anyway. Even if I had been able to get in, finding the key to the back door that Dave hid in there would've been impossible.

So I was at a loss all around. I finally bit the bullet and headed over to the neighbors. Let me say at this point that we have lovely neighbors. Carol is a retired nurse with a short cap of perpetually blond hair and the sunny disposition to match. Her husband Archie is an ex-Army handy-man type who has some sort of complicated engineering project management job that I'll never really understand. He is three years away from retiring and they'll be moving to Kerrville, Texas, to be near their son. I'm going to miss them when they are gone.

Anyway, back to me. I walked around the house and was never more grateful to see Carol's minivan in their driveway. I knocked quietly as not to disturb their passel of dogs. We share a love for unruly dogs, and I dread the sound of the doorbell at my house. After another louder knock, I just ring the doorbell and an explosion of barking ensues. Much like it would at our house, only it's divided by four at Carol's. Yep, four dogs. And all are rescues and someone else's castaways. Have I said that I really like our neighbors?

I hear scurrying inside and Carol soon appears. I apologize for bothering her so early (it's probably 9:30 by now), and she replies brightly “Oh no, I've been up since 5:30!” Of course she has. I explain the morning's events and you can see her personality immediately switch over to Nurse/Grandmother/Solver of the World's Problems. When I explain that I really just need use the phone to call Dave to come home and let me in, I think she was truly disappointed that we weren't going to have to physically break in. She has a grandson close to Charlie's age living in Boston, and I think she felt nice to be needed. I called Dave who happened to be even farther away downtown running errands with his uncle. But he assured me that they were finished and he would be there ASAP.

By this time, I had not checked on Charlie for 10-15 minutes and had visions only moms can imagine running through my head. I was fearful of what I was going to see when I looked through the back door. But all the worrying was for naught. Charlie was sitting right by the door, not even missing me, playing contentedly with his toys. We played a few games through the door while the dogs, also oblivious, enjoyed their extended time in the morning sunshine.

Soon after, I heard the garage door open and saw Charlie run to the door to greet Daddy. We had a big laugh and were all relieved that nothing bad happened. I was so thankful that Charlie is such a good boy and wasn't running through the house with knives and lighted matches as I had envisioned. And almost as importantly, that I had my act together enough that morning to put on clothes before taking the dogs outside.

Summer Recap

I wish someone would read my mind and then create thoughtful and witty blog entries for me. That would be awesome. Until I find that person, you'll have to make-do with this warm and cozy bulleted list of Things Charlie Did This Summer:

• Started pushing toys with wheels across the floor. He will also sometimes pull his pull-along toys behind him when he walks.
  
• Repeated everything we said to him. Every. Thing.
  
• Became more aware of his physical presence. He enjoys climbing on you, pushing on you, collapsing on you, etc.
  
• Became more expressive of his frustrations. There was screeching involved.
  
• Learned that hitting and throwing things is a no-no.
  
• Did a few craft projects like coloring and finger painting.
  
• Went to the zoo for the first time, where he
  
• Got to practice his newly learned animal names and sounds, like elephant and monkey.
  
• Developed a nice overhead throw.
  
• Learned to blow bubbles in the water. With his mouth.
  
• Spent lots of time with his grandparents and family.
  
• Got in the dog bed and said “nigh nigh”
  
• Spent lots of time playing outside in the yard, swinging, swimming, chasing the dogs, and generally milling around.
  
• Said a few multiple-word phrases like “Mama and Daddy”
  
• Picked up keys and said “bye bye” and “car”
  
• Developed many new facial expressions
  
• Understood most everything we told him. He even follows two-part instructions.
  
• Enjoyed cutting up and being a ham.
  
• Interacted more with the TV and music. He claps when he hears applause on TV. He bounces up and down and sometimes sings when hearing music (“mumic”)
  
• Has extended periods of time where he Will.Not.Stop.Talking.
  
• Enjoyed hiding under his crib many times when Mama tried to put him down for a nap.
  

Also, we still haven't found too many things that Charlie doesn't like to eat. He doesn't like the texture of some things. However, he does love ice, olives, and pickles. Get the kid a bag of Sonic ice and a relish tray, and he's good to go!

Playing pretend

Charlie's latest development is playing pretend. Every once in a while, he would pretend to hold something or pick something up between his thumb and forefinger and pretend to hand it to you. However, last night, he showed us a new trick--he pretended to feed one of his little teddy bears. He held the loaded fork to the bear's mouth and then made smacking noises as the bear "ate." Then, he put the bear's face on the top of his sippy cup to give it a drink, also while making smacking noises. Dave and I were astounded! And his little smacking noises were hilarious.

Charlie's language skills continue to impress us (we're pretty easy to impress...). The pediatrician said that Charlie's language skills would explode, and he was right. The first thing I hear in the morning is Charlie naming things: window, Dexter, DeeDee, bear, rabbit, blanket, Mama, Daddy, dog, etc. And it just continues as I get him up and change his diaper: bathroom, light, diaper, eat, breakfast, kitchen, belly, etc. It's so funny to listen to him, but sometimes it's a hard transition for me to go from morning fog to clear thinking that quickly!

He's also been more responsive to TV (and, yes, we watch TV). He recognizes characters like Elmo (melmo), Cookie Monster (coocoo), Oswald, Wubbzy (wow-wow), and also says Gabba when Yo Gabba Gabba is on. We really don't watch that much TV, but we when we do, it's the same 2 or 3 shows all the time, so he gets good reinforcement...haha. He's also more responsive to things he sees on TV and names them like ball, fish, balloon, bubbles, tree, etc... And he likes watching kids and dancing along with Yo Gabba Gabba. It's too cute.

If all of that cuteness isn't enough, Charlie also likes to sing. He and Daddy sometimes listen to music on an mp3 player. Sometimes during the day, Charlie will find the earbud earphones, put them up to his ear and start "singing" along with the nonexistent music. I've also gotten him to sing with me, usually in the car on the way to go swimming. There's a "Happy Birthday" song from PBS Sprout that we sing and another song about taxis that he likes. And of course after every song, he gives a round of applause.

Waking up from a nap

This video was too large to upload to Flickr, so I'm posting it here. There are two other clips that I took after this that are up on Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/mcbabble).