Is it spring yet?

I keep thinking that I need to post a recap of Christmas... I'm aware that it's almost March. So briefly, our Christmas was wonderful. We received a Christmas Eve blizzard that left us home-bound for several days. I loved it. We opened presents Christmas morning, ate lots of goodies, and stayed in our pajamas past noon. Absolute heaven. We were finally able to get together with Dave's family on the 27th and then we left for Texas on the 28th. We had a great visit and returned after New Year's.

We've had so much snow this winter. Charlie has really loved playing in it, when we've let him! Sometimes it has just been too wet or too cold outside to properly enjoy it. I enjoy the winter weather, but it's challenging to keep Charlie entertained inside. I've relied on Playdoh, colors, paints, new books, lacing beads, his tent, and bean bags to keep things interesting. We also have a few things that we do religiously each week to get out of the house: visit the library, have lunch with Dave, visit the play area at the mall or the playground at the lake (weather permitting), etc.

In developmental news, Charlie has started voicing his opinion about the shows we watch on TV. He'll often ask to watch a particular show: “Watch Max Ruby?” And thank goodness for OnDemand, which gives us access to all of his favorite shows whenever we want to watch them. He has also started answering characters when they ask questions. Sometimes he just answers “yes” or “no” questions, but other times they are more detailed. For example, last night he told Diego to use the “hang-glider” to rescue an animal. True, they had repeated “hang-glider” several times, but it's neat to see him thinking about what's going on. Also, he's starting to learn colors. He's really good about identifying orange, black, and red. And he's started recognizing a few shapes, especially circles and triangles. He has also started saying "I like ___." Such as "I like bananas." It always tickles me when he does that.

One funny thing that happened a few weeks ago is that Charlie answered the phone. All by himself. While I was in the shower. For about a month now, I've been able to leave Charlie unsupervised while I take a quick shower. We haven't had any problems (knock on wood), but I try to be as quick as possible. I typically park him in our bed, turn the TV on, and figure he's good for 10 minutes. This day, I was showering when I heard Charlie opening the outer bathroom door. I figured he'd gotten bored with TV and had come to check on me. Knowing that he also likes to get into my makeup, I quickly finished up and heard him open the door again. Then I noticed that he had the phone up to his ear. And that he was talking to someone. We sometimes pretend to talk to people on the phone, so I didn't think much about it. But then he held the phone out to me and said “Granddad.” I looked at the phone and saw that the “talk” button was on. I held it up to my ear, and sure enough, it was Granddad. He had called to tell us about the snow they received, and the phone just happened to be on my nightstand next to where Charlie had been laying. He had never tried to answer the phone before, but I guess he heard it ringing and decided to see what would happen if he pushed buttons. He surprised all of us with that one, and we've had lots of laughs over it.