Charlie really seems to be growing up all of a sudden. He's still a baby, but is starting to feel more and more like having another a little kid around. (Except he still only has 2.5 teeth. He's been teething forever and finally this week had one on top barely cut through. Nice little jack-o-lantern smile for Halloween if he doesn't get more in soon. But at the rate this kid teethes, we'll be luck if he has a full set by age 14.)
He's getting more independent as he's gotten better and better at crawling and is now pulling himself up to standing. The worst is when he pulls himself up and holds onto the backs of my pant legs. He's trying to get me to pick him up, but I can't move to get him without him falling flat and we're both trapped. Kind of funny actually. He pulls himself up on everything (whether it can support him or not).
And I mean everything. He loves to reach up to the TV and the low windows in the living room. I've decided that little hand prints on the glass are just part of our lifestyle right now. I try to clean them off once a week or so and call it good. I remember a story my mom told me once. After her baby sister who was around 2 died in an accident, some ladies from the Relief Society came over to help with meals and cleaning, etc. One of them wiped all the little hand prints off the window of the screen door, and it was so sad for my grandma that those little fingerprints were gone. I remember that when I see the fingerprints on the TV and don't really mind them.
Charlie has become quite the explorer lately. He is figuring out his world pretty well. Opening and closing cupboards, wandering off to different rooms, playing with open doors, shutting himself in the bathroom and scaring himself to death . . . He seems more adventurous than Ellie was at this age, more willing to wander off. Probably because he doesn't have stairs to deal with, so nothing is blocked off like it was for Ellie. It has made for some interesting moments where we've had to go hunting for Charlie.
I think he's going to be a funny kid. The Grandpa Charlie sense of humor seems to be making itself manifest. This kid is a tease. I'll put him down to change his diaper and, like most babies his age, he immediately flips over to his tummy. But then he starts cracking up, like he played this great joke on me. If someone is resting on the couch, he will pop up like a jack-in-the-box, grab their hand (or face) and laugh like he's just done the funniest thing.
One time when I was singing to him before putting him to bed, he started crooning along, "Ahhh-daaah-ooohhh-baaahh." Either he thinks he's a terrific singer, or that I'm not much of one.
Lately he's been having a hard time just falling asleep for his naps. One time I heard him in his room just playing all through his morning nap. I finally went in to get him and saw that he had somehow reached up and dismantled his mobile and was playing with the pieces in his bed. Instead of crying for me when I walked in the room like he usually does, he burst out laughing. He thinks he's pretty funny anyway.
Ellie is starting to see Charlie as more of a kid too, someone to play with and not just a baby. She loves to include him when she is getting into things, but not so much when it comes to sharing objects. They are both learning about sharing. But they are both really excited when it works out and they play well together. Today seemed like a good, rainy, drippy-nose, blanket fort kind of day and they just loved it. I think Ellie has taught Charlie her affinity for being "in" things. He's also started humming when he eats sometimes. I think she might be more in charge of him than we are . . .
