Charlie Speaks Wookiee

I know it's a big deal when any child learns to be bilingual, but can your kid help bring about lasting peace to the Galactic Empire? We're very proud. Who doesn't want their son to grow up to be Han Solo? Or at the very least, a Chewbacca impersonator. I think a person needs at least some hair for that, though.

Charlie does this a lot, sometimes when he's really happy, sometimes leading up to a big squall, or sometimes just when he doesn't want to finish eating. He'll usually do it for several minutes on end. But, boy, whip out a camera and this kid clams up. I had to hold the camera off to the side for a while, real casual like, until he forgot about it to even get this footage. "What, this camera?" I have a lot of sympathy for nature photographers. Maybe it will be easier to get footage of my kids when we're all wearing those Google glasses I keep hearing about. If people still even talk to each other by then.

And another thing--why, oh why didn't they decide to call them Google Goggles? Seems like a wasted opportunity to me.

5 months and Easter

This post has far too many pictures. I had a bit of a backlog on my camera. It probably should be two posts, but who has the time?


Anyway, as you can see, the Easter egg hunt was a success.


Capturing a photo of Ellie in all her Easter finery, less so.


She sat and played quietly while I got things ready for church. As soon as I took out the camera and suggested a picture in her pretty dress and "Fancy Nancy" bow, she remembered the bow, ripped it out and was all over the house.


She was really proud of that bow for the first few minutes of nursery. She kept touching it and pointing to it. The leaders were kind of busy with some fussy kids and didn't notice. So she went off and played with some toys. The bow was long gone halfway through nursery (I did get it back). We're working on it. This kid is not having bangs if I can help it.


This was the best I got for a pose.


The next Sunday, Charlie turned 5 months old. Love the baby cargo pants. Finally, a place for all that spare change and keys he's been lugging around.


He's really starting to look like a little boy sometimes. A bald, bald little boy.


He's also getting really good at controlling his hands and getting a hold of whatever he wants.


Ellie is always excited to see him. She really seems to genuinely like him. I think she's starting to see him as more of a person now and tries to initiate conversation with him: "Charlie, I eat pizza today!" "Charlie, I watch a show!" The other day when I was helping her hold him, she looked up at me and said, "I'm having fun!" She loves when she makes him smile and insists on holding his hand and tries to "cuddle" with him when he's in his bouncy chair. It doesn't even faze her when he gets a big handful or two of her hair. She just laughs and says, "Charlie's gettin' Ellie!" I guess that's one blessing of her late-coming hair.


Now if I can just figure out how to get this sibling affection to last into their teen years . . .


Some of Charlie's latest feats include finding his feet and pulling off his socks (upside down if you believe this picture--I don't know, I tried uploading this one twice, it just wants to be upside down).


As I said before, reaching, grabbing, and . . .


capturing. He might be getting a bit big for the mobile.


He also loves standing now. He gets the biggest kick out of being held up on his legs.


He is quick to smile and laugh and a lot of fun. He seems to be doing really well on the latest reflux medicine we have him on. He sleeps much more peacefully. Now if we could just get him to sleep longer. We're working on that too. Slow, slow, slow adjustments to his feedings and schedule seem to be his M.O. So we are getting there. Hopefully soon we will all be getting more sleep. In the mean time, at least we are having some good smiles from him.

Cousins

Last week we got to go visit with a bunch of cousins.

Ellie still talks about being "stupor" heroes with Collin. She especially liked that she got to wear "Jessie's hat."


Mostly we had fun just hanging out.


Ellie helped get ready for Aunt Kari's baby shower. Kari let Ellie keep one of the gift bags--Toy Story. It is about as big as she is. She loves it.


We got to go to Jumpin' Jacks to celebrate Collin's 3rd birthday.


Charlie came too.


Ellie was fearless, climbing on the biggest slides.


She loved riding on this little merry-go-round with Phoebe and Collin. She talks about riding on all the Bullseyes and says, "Yee-hah!" when she see this picture.


She had to learn a thing or two about sharing. Clearly Collin has already learned this lesson. He is quite the charmer for the camera.


Since we have been home, Ellie has been talking quite a bit about all these cousins. One new development, though, is that she has been having more problems with her "guys." Sometimes they fight over toys now. It's not uncommon to hear, "Hey! Hey, no! That's Jessie's ball. No, Woody. It's Jessie's!" I find myself having to mediate disputes between plastic frogs and miniature Disney characters. Jessie and Donald Ducky (the "mom" one, or bigger Donald, not the baby one) seem to fight quite a bit. The other day I actually heard the words coming out of my mouth, "Froggies, if you can't share the car we will have to put it away." They seemed to get along better after that. I'm hoping Ellie is learning a thing or two about sharing before Charlie gets bigger and wants her toys.

Charlie has been happy to be home. Both kids were pretty good on the trip, but it was rough to pull them from their routines and make them ride in a car for several hours. My grandma always says that babies are home toys. Never were truer words spoken. Here is a video of Charlie at home with his cousin Grace (12 this month). He thinks Grace is pretty funny.