Charlie: 18 Months Old

 At 18 months old, Charlie continues to be the funniest, quirkiest, most amazing little guy, and I just can't believe how he continues to worm his way deeper and deeper into our hearts.  He is just exploding right now with new tricks, new ideas, new words, and new ways of doing things.  It is so fun to watch him develop right now.  Some of our favorites:
* Charlie's standard greeting for people is "Big Truck!" rather than "hi," or something else typical.  I think he believes that this is his best conversation topic, so he likes to start things off on an exciting note. :)

* Charlie now says "Chargie" if you ask him his name, and "one!" when you ask him how old he is.

* Charlie loves to perform, and as a result, is learning a lot of words (and silly faces and noises) just by observing people.  He has a "silly" face, a "surprised" face, a "happy" face, and a "mad" face.

* Charlie loves nothing more than family.  He seems to know the difference between friends and family and treats family like they are something special.  He knows the names of all of his "people" and talks about them constantly (randomly, he also likes to keep people in pairs--if someone shows up without their other half, he always inquires after the other person and seems a little agitated that they are not together).  I have never seen anyone love a big crowd of people more than Charlie--especially when it's his family!  [As a result, Evie's birth and the resulting mass of visitors has pleased him immensely.]

* Charlie's biggest loves right now are trucks, construction vehicles, and driving, followed closely by trips to the park (referred to by Charlie as "Big Bop"), picking up sticks, and playing outside.  He is also a big fan of hats and boots--we rarely leave the house without a hat these days.

* Charlie LOVES to read.  He reads all the time, either by himself or cuddled up in one of our laps.  He gets very attached to certain books, and will read a certain book or two almost exclusively for a few weeks, and then he moves on to something else (at which point he is so tired of the previous favorite that we can't read it to him for a quite a while again).  The big favorites right now are "Go Dog Go," "Curious George and the Puppies," "Cars, Trucks, and Things that Go" (this book is so quirky and fun.  Charlie gets really excited about it, and I will hear him screaming "big truck!" "big bus!" "a BUG!" (when he finds goldbug) from across the room when he's reading it.), and "The Nursery Rhymes of Mother Goose," particularly Hickory Dickory Dock.
 
* Charlie's favorite adjective right now is "big."  He thinks anything is more impressive if preceded by the word "big," and so he adds it to everything he likes in order to impress his audience ("big truck, big car, big bus, big trash truck, big bop, big nana (banana), big cheese, and big toast").  So random!

* Charlie loves animals and making animal noises.  He knows quite a few noises right now, and cracked us up the other day with one of his newer ones.  My mom was feeding him his snack and I asked her to try to get him to eat a bit more.  She replied that she didn't want to "stuff him like a Thanksgiving turkey."  Upon hearing that, Charlie turned to us and smiled and said "gobble, gobble, gobble."  We just about died laughing. :)

* I cannot say enough good things about Charlie right now (which probably means that he is about to go through a difficult phase :).  He is so sweet and loving, and has adjusted so quickly and well to having Evie around.  He gives the sweetest hugs and kisses and has even started saying "love you" to me and Clint before we leave the house or before he goes to bed.  He cannot go to bed without giving (or getting) kisses from everyone in the room, especially his sister.  He kisses Evie about 20 times a day, and always seems so pleased about it (I'm not sure that these kisses are wholly benevolent.  Charlie loudly announces "I kiss!," and then scans the room to make sure everyone is looking before he plants his mouth on Evie's head.  He then looks up immediately to hear how adorable the kiss was. :).  One of my favorite times with Charlie is bedtime.  I love snuggling up with him in his rocker, reading his favorite books, and then saying prayers and singing songs as we settle down for bed.  He now says "Ayyyyy-men!" at the end of prayers, and then requests his favorite songs [as a side note, Charlie just loves singing (and has started humming short portions of his favorite songs).  He's the only person who just loves for me to sing.  Anytime I sing a few lines of anything, I immediately hear an enthusiastic little "again!" :)].  There is nothing better than seeing his happy little smile behind his paci (while we're putting him down; don't worry, paci doesn't come out of the crib :), and hearing his little giggles while we sing to him.  I love this age!

Charlie was sweet enough to pose with his Mama and his Ahhh, two of his biggest fans. :)

Papa gave Charlie the "Big Truck" towel pictured below, and it has been a huge hit.  He insists on wearing the towel with its matching belt (see below), and we always have trouble getting him to move on to pajamas. :)

Snuggles with one of his all-time favorite people...

This is one of my favorite recent pictures of Charlie.  He was thrilled with his new winter hat, and showed his enthusiasm with his "cute" face.  Unfortunately for Charlie, he didn't realize that the matching mittens were still attached to the hat. :)

Charlie's 18-month appointment went great, although his new-found fear of doctors (we haven't broken it to him that his dad is one) made it a pretty wild outing.  But he rocked ages & stages and our pediatrician was very impressed with his crazy growth spurt (apparently most 18-month-old don't eat much.  Charlie has not gotten this memo).  His new stats are:

Weight: 25 lbs., 14 oz. (50%)

Height: 33.5 in. (80%)

Head: 19.5 in. (85%)

Love you SOOOO much Big Charlie!