A Post about Charlie

I realize that lately a lot of my posts have been a little Ellie heavy. She talks so much and has so many antics (that's what I call them when I'm in a good mood and she's safely tucked away in bed--just antics) to report on. I don't want Charlie to be overlooked in our family's history, though. It's not that we aren't completely enamored and charmed every day by this little guy. He is quite difficult to catch with the camera, though. 

I have finally gotten videos to successfully upload to the computer, but now the editing software isn't working so great. And, really, you do want these videos edited down. I have quite the sequence of patty-cake footage, but I had to take quite a bit to get it all. He's the only baby I've ever known who will actually do the motions when you say "roll it and roll it," and also "throw it in the oven!" Several weeks ago I had him out in the foyer during Relief Society (we're on the 1:30-4:30 block and he was restless) and he did the whole sequence about 12 times in a row with me just whispering it in his ear. Sometimes he will just clap and roll his arms while he walks around like he's leading his own conga line. But, boy, whip out any kind of recording device and the kid could not care less to perform. He doesn't do it on command anymore. The same thing happened with Ellie's Cab Calloway impression. It's sad when kids outgrow these things.

So, anyway. I have really been feeling like I just needed to get some memories of Charlie recorded. I did my best to get some (blurry) pictures of him walking around. Plus, I almost can't stand how cute he looks in his Sunday clothes here (sorry to gush). [Good photographers, pay not attention to how not good I am at capturing these kids in good lighting or while in motion. Someday. For now, I just want to get it done.] 

Charlie is getting good at figuring out just how useful Ellie can be, and even communicating what he wants sometimes, even though he has quite the limited vocabulary (here he's gotten her to get his favorite stuffed animals out of his crib for him). I'm not sure how many words Charlie has down yet. His first words were "hi," "yes," "yay," and "dance," which I think says something about him. He's a pretty good mimic of tone and inflection, so he tries to say what we say sometimes. When I count for Ellie to go "hide" in a game of hide-and-seek, Charlie echoes me in nonsense words, but matches the tone length of syllables to sound like he's counting: ooonnee . . . twwooo . . . threee . . . Surprisingly, he seems to actually understand "no" a lot of the time. We didn't know kids could do that! After I pull his hand away from something I'm trying to do and say "no," several times, he in turn pulls my hand away and tells me, "no!" And sometimes even pats the lid of the garbage can and chants "no-no-no." (Sometimes I still have to steer him away, but come on, for 15 months, not bad.)

 He can charm anyone with his smile. Really, he knows how to melt you.

He loves to walk around carrying two things. These two stuffed animals are his favorites to carry, but he always likes to have something, and he thinks it is so funny to do this. He will shake them, toss them in front of him, pick them up again, crack up, and keep doing it. Walking is so funny to him. The lion was a Christmas present from Ellie. I encouraged her to pick something with shaggy hair in hopes of getting him to start pulling its hair instead of mine. This kid pulls hair worse than any other baby I have ever met. So. Hard. (And before anyone tells me I should cut off all my hair, it wouldn't make a difference because he pulls at the root, not the ends. He pulls Brady's hair just as bad as mine. It's getting better, though. Maybe the lion is working.)

The last time he really yanked my hair, I was on the floor with a heating pad for my back (not a good place with these kids). He walked up carrying one of Ellie's dolls, sat down right next to my head, and said, "Bay-bee," over and over again. I smiled and said, "Yeah, Charlie! Baby." We went back and forth like this a couple times. I turned my head to say something to a friend who was over, and Charlie grabbed and fistful of hair, whipped my head around, and insisted, "Bay-BEE!" Oh. I guess we weren't done talking about that yet. I think he was really happy to actually be communicating about something with me.

He really is a pretty mellow kid most of the time, plays well on his own, will get totally absorbed in something for long stretches. But then cry like his heart is broken when Ellie takes a toy from him, or you have to take something away from him that he's not supposed to be playing with.

He lets us know when he needs attention, though. Recently he took my hand and led me to his room. Didn't beg me to pick him up or anything, just quietly led me through the house to his door. Reached for the knob and jiggled it (he is already dangerously close to opening doors!) to get me to open it, then led me into his room. He was just so sweet about it. Then he found his bear and lion and started doing his little game of walking, shaking them, tossing them, for several laps. He just wanted me in there while he played. He did the same thing with some toy cars and a few books, cracked up laughing when I tried to catch him to read the books to him, but just kept playing.  He picked up the bear and lion and put them in the rocking chair and tried to rock the chair (though mostly he was the one who moved back and forth). When I said, "Oh, rock-a-bye," Charlie repeated, "bop-bye, bop-bye." Then he went and got two toy cars and set them in the rocker, "bop-bye, bop-bye." I'm not sure what age kids start to play pretend, and he probably got this from watching Ellie play with her "guys," but next he picked the cars up to face each other, and bounced them like they were walking along the seat of the chair and kept saying, "Hi! Hi! Hi!"

(Occasionally he will carry this bear around by its nose like this.) The whole world is such an exciting place of discovery right now for Charlie. I love how he looks to us when he sees something new, as if to say, "Do you see this?!" I love reading books with him, just to watch what pages he'll turn back to and study when we're done. During Sacrament meeting he'll turn pages back and forth through the hymnbook like a frantic scholar trying to cross reference with the board books sitting next to him on the bench. He gets so intent, so focused and driven about things like sorting blocks or books to put away on (or take off of) the shelf, and then get deliriously excited over two random toys he finds on the ground that he can carry over his head like a trophy. I look forward to seeing where this passion and drive takes him in life.

P.S. Sorry for the long, oddly nostalgic post. Not sure where that all came from. Sometimes I write with my parents as the audience in mind, who I know go through Ellie and Charlie withdrawals at times and are likely the only ones who will actually read all the way to the end here. Hi guys!