Cute

 

There is so much cute in this picture.  From Carter's cowboy boots, mismatched pjs and elmo hat to Charlie's Christmas-themed, fleece footy jammies in July, all cuddled together on the chair playing video games.  Love summer.

Conversations with Charlie

So we're going on a week-long cruise soon (yes, with the kids!) and I was asking Coulson and Charlie what they wanted to do on our vacation - beach, pool, explore, adventure, etc...

Charlie immediately responded "sleep."  After some more prodding, he finally also admitted he would like to "play video games."

(And I was looking at some back posts and found this similar conversation)

Coulson responded that he wants to eat.  I have the most exciting kids ever!  Although I'm pretty sure Carter will be a bit more adventurous - when I saw the movie 127 hours (the rock climber who got stuck and had to cut his arm off with a pocket knife) I had fearful premonitions of Carter's insatiable quest for adventure.  Maybe he'll let me tag along on his adventures...

Conversations with Charlie

I'm not sure how I feel about this conversation...

Me: (as Charlie is holding a smooth stone) Be careful with that stone, don't leave it on the floor.
Charlie:  Why?
Me: Because it's not good for Carter.
Charlie: What if he dies?
Me:  That would be very bad. You would miss him and you would feel guilty for the rest of your life.
Charlie: When I grow up, I will make a special salt and when you put it in his mouth he will be alive again.
Me: Oh, that would be awesome!  But, what if it doesn't work?
Charlie: It will work. (This is said with a tone implying that the possibility of his invention not working is an absurd proposition - if he can imagine it, he can make it happen, I love the optimism.)

~~~~~~~~~~~
Me:  (detecting an offending odor) Did you fart?
Charlie: No.  I just let some air out of me.

The Sound of Silence

When Charlie gets too quiet, you should always investigate. If he's not into the Nestle Quick, he's eating spoonfuls of sugar. But he's so cute about it!

The Future Politician

Charlie absolutely adores his baby brother. Actually he adores all babies and can't stop himself from kissing their heads and squeezing their cheeks. He is constantly smothering Carter. The most ignored words in the house are, "Stop touching the baby!" I cringe when I watch him smushing Carter's face because I'm sure he's irritating the baby, but Carter only looks up at him with a huge smile. (As I'm writing this, Charlie is kissing Carter's head)
Last year my friend had a baby and Charlie loved holding him and he would hold any baby he could. When we decided to have another baby, I knew that Charlie would be such a proud big brother and I have truly enjoyed watching him shower the baby with love. It's also fun to see how much Carter has grown, obviously thriving on all the kisses from his brother.

In the hospital

One week

5 weeks

A little over 2 months3 months

Conversations with Charlie

I just had a beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered to my door. As I was bringing them to the kitchen, I asked Charlie -
"Do you know who would send me flowers?"
"Yep."
"Oh yeah, well, who do you think sent me these pretty flowers?"
"The flower man," he promptly replied.

Actually, they were from my sweetheart husband. :-)

Potty Talk

A couple weeks ago, my cousin blogged a detailed play-by-play account of the first day of potty training her 21 month old, which I fully enjoyed. I'm one of those impatient moms that disregards the current parenting advice that says we should just wait until our kids are ready and they'll practically potty train themselves. I can't wait that long, so I encourage potty training as soon as I can. Somewhere on the web I found some advice dating back to the 50s that said there's a window of opportunity between 1.5 years and 2 years and I was all over that! I couldn't find the exact link I read before, but here are a couple articles with some history of potty training trends. (Although I'm not quite into the infant potty training.) Unfortunately, I didn't see that until Charlie was about 3.5 years old.

Although it was a long process with Coulson, compared with Charlie he was relatively easy to train. I was just going through some old baby calendars and I had marked that he first used the potty when he was about 1.5 years old and could say "pee potty" before he went, so we could get him to the potty in time. He was pretty well trained for #2, but we still had lots of wet accidents. For many many months, I generally kept him in underwear at home (which was really cute because he was so skinny that the underwear barely stayed on him and generally it was the only thing he would wear - we have hundreds of photos and some great videos of him from this age that I can't share because he's only wearing underwear and I don't want to post those pictures on the internet), but put him in a diaper or pull-up when we left the house. That may have hindered further progress, because once I mustered the courage to take him out in public regularly with underwear despite accidents at home, he actually did sort-of better. We still had lots of accidents, but not as many as before. And since he didn't have an #2 accidents, we just dealt with the wet accidents. He was fully trained around 2.5 years old, right around the time Charlie was born. And soon after Charlie was born, we had a special party for Coulson to celebrate his potty training. It was one of my first blog posts!

But Charlie has been a different story altogether. He started showing interest before winter last year (at about 2.5 years old) and went in the potty several times. But as winter set in, he complained of the cold toilet seat and being cold when naked from the bum down and thus he stopped being interested. I figured it would be better to wait until summer anyway when he can run around in just underwear and we can potty train that way. When we started in the summer, he initially started with good success for several weeks - he was interested and enjoyed the little rewards (stickers, m&ms). He had a very "regular" system and I always put him on the potty in the morning and he would always take care of #2 and the rest of the day we only had to worry about #1. But then suddenly he stopped trying altogether and put up a fuss when I tried to encourage him. And his regular #2 routine started changing and he was pooping at all different times of the day (gross!) Sadly disappointed, I put him back in diapers for a couple months. We tried again at the end of the summer - he showed moderate enthusiasm at first, but then he stonewalled again. Back in diapers. Although I think I put him in pull-ups to encourage use of the potty at his own desire, but he didn't really care. Through all of this, I would have kept him in underwear like I did with his brother, if it wasn't for one problem - he wasn't trained for #2. He would go in the potty if the timing was right, but, despite his initial success in the area, once he started stonewalling, he never tried to get to the potty himself for #2. And that kind of accident in underwear is NOT fun!

So here's where our story gets more interesting. Charlie is a pretty easy-going kid (he's just like me). He doesn't have a lot of power struggles with us and doesn't give us too many problems (other than standard age-appropriate issues), but apparently he has a passive-aggressive streak in him, which is also apparently just like me. Exasperated by all the false starts with potty training, I tried some different tactics. Charlie loved to chew gum. LOVED IT! It was always his favorite treat. (yes, I let him chew gum before his 3rd birthday, I don't know exactly how that happened. I think Coulson had to wait until he was 4 before I let him have gun). But when he stopped potty training, I told him gum was only for big boys who could use the potty and if he wasn't going to use the potty anymore, than he couldn't chew gum. He simply said ok and gave up his favorite treat. He would ask for gum whenever Coulson got some and I would remind him of the rule about big boys and he would be fine with that, no fussing.

That wasn't working, so I tried something new. He got to the point where he didn't like to be in a messy (#2) diaper and hated having to sit in it. If we were out and about running errands and he messed his diaper right before getting back into the car, he wouldn't want to sit in his car seat. So my response was, tough, we'll change you when we get home. When he messed at home and would ask to be changed, I would make him wait about 15-20 minutes before changing him, reminding him that he could have used the potty if he had wanted. After a couple weeks of this tactic, Charlie decided that he liked his messy diapers and then he didn't want me to change him even though Coulson and I were suffocating from the fumes emanating from his bum. Hmmm.

So then I started to make diaper changing an unpleasant experience for him. I generally avoided eye contact and talking while changing his diaper, so that he wouldn't feel like the changing time was a chance to get undivided attention from me (From the beginning, when he used the potty, I would sit on the step stool in the bathroom and read him a book, so he would get quality time when he was using the potty). Then I stopped changing him on the soft carpet and started changing him on the hard wood floor. These tactics weren't having much success. I seriously considered storing the wet wipes in the refrigerator, but I could never bring myself to actually do it.

With Charlie in preschool 3 times a week and drop off visits to the child care at the YMCA on the other days, consistent potty training was also quite difficult and time-consuming for me, so my last tactic was to wait until Christmas break when he would be out of school for a couple weeks and then we could really focus on it without so many interruptions. Happily, I can say that he has been in underwear ever since Christmas break started. It started at first with anticipating his needs and encouraging him to go to the potty before the need arose, for which he would comply, and gradually he's gotten better at going himself, but we still provide lots of reminding. Sometimes we catch him doing a crotch grab or a "potty dance" and we have to remind him to listen to his body and run to the potty. For a while, we had about one wet accident a day and that has gradually decreased to about 2-3 accidents a week. And #2 accidents are very rare, I think it's been over a month since our last one. So I don't want to claim full success, but I am very happy with the progress we have made!

Now, since I have written this blog, regression is sure to follow - that's how life works, right? (That's probably why I have been postponing this post for so long, I'm scared I'll have to eat my words) And if he doesn't regress now, I can expect some set backs in about a month or so, once baby brother joins the scene. Oh well.

Me Pregnant

So some of you from far away have asked to see some pictures of my pregnant self. I don't really have that many, especially recently, since mostly I just take pictures of my kids, but I liked how cuddly Charlie was after his nap the other day, so I had Coulson take a picture of us. But the camera was set to take video, so I had cut this picture out from a video clip and it's a bit blurry. Still cute, I think.

Charlie - a picture in words of a 3 1/2 year old

So I actually meant to write this post for a three-year-old soon after his birthday in August, but then life got busy..... Anyway, better late than never, right?

Charlie is now about 3 1/2 years old and continues to be pretty darn adorable most of the time, and gosh darn adorable the rest of the time. To get ready for this blog, I went back read the posts I wrote about him as a 1 year old and a 2 year old and it brought back so many great memories, what fun!

Anyway, Charlie still loves balls. Small bouncy balls are his favorite. Our local YMCA has programs for kids starting at age 3, so we enrolled Charlie in a soccer skills clinic and right now he's finishing up a basketball skills clinic. I know, organized sports for 3 year olds? We were skeptical at first too, but thought it would be a good way for him to get some exercise each week (especially in the middle of winter) and since he loves balls so much, we thought he'd enjoy it. The programs for the little kids are done really well. The coach (the same man for both sports) and his assistants are very good working with the little kids. They provide structure for the group, but don't actually expect complete compliance from the unruly 3 and 4 year olds. Charlie enjoys about half of his lessons, depending on how he feels that day. Right now he gets frustrated because he wants to practice shooting the ball the entire time and doesn't want to waste his time with the dribbling and passing drills.

Charlie is officially a "picky eater." If you read the post from when he was 1 year old, you'll know that he started out as a great eater, but soon after his 2nd birthday, he started to get picky. Last year he stopped trying new foods, but would continue to eat the foods he was used too. Then gradually, he stopped eating many of the familiar foods that our family loves and now he has a very limited selection of edible foods. Our general approach to food from the beginning is to be relaxed and not pushy about eating. We follow our former pediatrician's mantra - that no child has ever starved themselves to death when food was available. So basically I feed them a breakfast and lunch that I know they like (which means Honey Nut Cheerioes and Peanut Butter Sandwiches about 95% of the time, with some fruit) and snacks that are as healthy as I can manage (usually granola bars, yogurt, fruit) and then dinner is dinner - no special substitutions for picky eaters. Very often he will go without any dinner at all and that's fine with us as long as he doesn't whine about being hungry. He used to do this pretty well, but lately he's been fussing a lot (probably because through the Christmas holidays we had a lot of goodies and candy to eat after dinner, but he wouldn't get any on nights when he wouldn't eat, and thus the fussing began...) Ketchup, as mentioned in his 1 year old post and in a previous post, continues to be very valuable - we can often get him to eat some of his former favorites by adding ketchup.

Experimenting with emotions and facial and verbal expressions is a new aspect of Charlie that has been very amusing to watch. He has a great pouting face and he has been trying out different tones of voice, usually negative - sassy, demanding, bossy, etc. I can easily tell that he's mimicking tones that he hears from this older brother, like he's trying them out for size, but sometimes the tone doesn't quite fit the situation and it's funny. The kind of funny that makes you want to laugh, but you know you can't let him see you laugh or smile at that behavior. But other times he's very sweet and charming. Most mornings when I'm getting him ready for preschool, he'll say that he doesn't want to go to preschool, but when he gets there, he's all hugs and smiles and giggles with his teacher (and we're pretty sure that he's got his teacher wrapped around his little finger, he's obviously her favorite little kid and he soaks that up!) He also has a lot of goofy expressions that I just can't describe. I don't think I would be able to capture them on camera, but I should probably try anyway.

We're working on potty training with him, but that's a whole other post for another day. He does wear underwear all the time, but we can't claim full success yet.

He likes to do puzzles, play Star Wars, play dress up with his brother and loves books. He especially loves to have one-on-one time with his Daddy. Apparently Casey makes for a very good jungle gym. He loves to cuddle. He favorite outfit right now is his birthday suit, although we have a rule to "Always wear underwear" (from the Latin, "Semper Ubi Sub Ubi.") His 2nd favorite outfit is jammies. So for nap time today, he promptly took off his clothes for nap and when he woke up, he immediately put on his jammies before coming downstairs. (Coulson also immediately changed into his jammies as soon as he came home from school today, so this isn't a new phenomenon.) Go Diego Go is his favorite TV show. He and Coulson are really good playmates now, when they aren't fighting. Coulson can be a bit bossy and likes to dictate how they play, but Charlie is learning to assert himself, so conflict sometimes arises, but they are learning (slowly) to work out these problems effectively. Coulson is learning to read and he will often read books to Charlie, sometimes at night after we've put them to bed - so sweet!

I love watching him grow up and I'm enjoying watching his unique self emerge a little more every day!

Santa brought Charlie a drum set for Christmas

Making cookies at Nanna's house

Playing in the snow

Darth Vader for Halloween

First day of 3-year-old preschool in September

Conversations with Charlie

"You can pray to God if a big scary animal is going to eat you . . . like a monkey."

When he started his sentence, I thought he was thinking of lions (from Daniel and the lions den). It's fun to see how their little minds work. He was talking with Coulson at the time and the conversation continued. I can't do it word for word, but basically Coulson asserted that a monkey can't eat you. The conversation somehow led to wolves and they concluded that they can pray to God if there's a wolf because they don't want the other animals to get hurt. Coulson said, "That would be sad because I really like animals."

More of Charlie's birthday

I tried to post this earlier, but was having problems with the computer. Looks like it's working now!

Ketchup

Here's a list of the things that Charlie eats with ketchup:

ketchup alone (with a fork or spoon)
french fries
hot dogs
hamburgers
chicken nuggets
baked chicken
grilled chicken
fish
corn
rice
broccoli
carrots
sweet potatoes
mashed potatoes

and yesterday he topped them all with this one:
pancakes

A special weekend

Coulson's Nanna and Grandpa Bud invited him to visit them for the weekend. Just him, without Charlie. So Coulson was excited to have his very own special weekend with his grandparents. All morning long he kept asking, "when is Nanna going to get here?" and I kept telling him she would arrive sometime during Charlie's nap. Sure enough, she arrived and picked up Coulson during Charlie's nap. Well, Charlie had been hearing all the talk about Nanna coming throughout the morning and the first thing he said when we woke up, "Is Nanna here?" When I told him that she and Coulson had already left, he burst into tears. It took a while to settle him down and I had the insight to explain the situation as "Charlie's special weekend with Mommy and Daddy." I hadn't thought about it that way before the outburst, but once I did, I thought it was a pretty good idea.

(He finally calmed down after I let him watch some of the NCAA tournament because he loves any and all sports. Speaking of, I started out pretty well in my fantasy bracket yesterday and earlier today, but tonight has been ugly!)

Since Coulson is older and can express himself better, Charlie usually just has to go with the flow. But this afternoon, Charlie was able to call the shots. He got to enjoy the playground at his own pace and just be his natural, funny, goofy little self without any fighting or fussing with his brother to get in the way. And he is a pretty goofy little kid. I'm looking forward to a fun weekend.

Conversations with Charlie

"Charlie, what are you going to do today?"

"I'm gonna get my booger and put it on my finger," (holds up pointer finger) "and put it here" (wipes finger on his shirt)

 

At least he's not eating it!  I can't wait to find out what he plans to do tomorrow.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Universal Truth

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a child crying, fussing, pulling at his ears and constantly wanting to be held will succomb to skipping and laughing mere minutes before seeing a healthcare professional/filling prescription medicine.

Thanks Charlie!

As a side note, they wanted $50 for ear numbing drops and I have good insurance.  $50!  And since he was now skipping and laughing, I certainly wasn't going to shell out $50 (confession: I wouldn't have paid that much even if he were still fussing.)  Thankfully, the pharmacist was able to recommend a similar generic for $3.50 so I got my "health care professional" to prescribe that one instead.  Who would pay $50 for ear numbing stuff??????

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Conversations with Charlie

So we went to our church's "Trunk or Treat" the other night.  (If you don't know about trunk or treat, click here for some examples, although our church wasn't so elaborate)  As I was setting up our stuff, Charlie kept asking for candy and I told him it wasn't time for candy yet.

He replied, "Oh, do we have to sing 'Happy Birthday' first?"

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Conversations with Charlie!

IMGP0776

Charlie's verbal skills have expanded into complete sentences, so now I can capture some of his best thoughts on my blog!  Sometimes what he says is more of a relection on his parents lifestyle, so it is with some emabarrassment that I share the following with you:

Politics and Race

For the past few months, we've been getting Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report and with the recent conventions and other election news, our coffee table is littered with cover pictures of Obama and McCain.  So we used this opportunity to teach the boys about our future leaders. 

At the DMV the other day, Charlie pointed to an African-American women on the other side of the room and started saying "Barack Obama - Barack Obama."  It took a couple repetitions for me to figure out what he was saying, but the lady sitting next to him picked up on it and laughingly said, "He's saying 'Barack Obama!'"

However, baldness apparently trumps blackness.  The hair on my brother's head doesn't quite cover it the way it used to.  At the gas station the following week, a bald, black man was filling up his car next to us.  Charlie pointed to him and said "Uncle Nay-Nay, Uncle Nay-Nay!" 

Potty Talk

I'm amazed at how easily kids pick up on complex grammatic rules.  Charlie already knows to to switch the first person/second person pronouns when repeating a phrase.  For example after he hits his brother, I say "Tell Coulson you're sorry," and he knows to say "I'm sorry."  (I know, you can totally tell I'm a language teacher since I pick up on these small things - and this switch often created some funny conversations when I was teaching English-as-a-second-language.)

So tonight my husband took him to the restroom and while they were there he tried to teach him "urinal" but Charlie kept repeating "myinal."

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Three strikes and you're out.... or not?

Coulson had his first T-ball game today.  I was a bit skeptical about how this would work with a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds.  A few months ago I tried to explain baseball to Couson while we were at a minor league game.  The concept of hitting the ball was pretty easy, but then I tried to explain strikes and outs and it got very complicated. Coulson's eyes glazed over and then he just wanted to go back to climbing over the stadium seats (it was a curiously empty stadium, probably because it was in South Carolina on a Sunday -- no beer). 

So thankfully the rules for T-ball are a bit simpler than baseball.  For each inning, the teams bat through the whole line-up.  For each hit, the runners each advance one base (if the ball goes out real far, there is potential to go more, but that didn't happen today).  In the field, once a player gets the ball, he holds it up in the air and yells "time."  The coach explained the reasoning this way:  "One - they can't throw the ball and two - they can't catch it."  The game continues for about an hour, or four innings, whichever is less.  No strikes, no outs, everyone scores, but no one keeps count.  We made it through 3 innings today.  It was mostly the coaches directing the kids what to do and where to go, but by the third inning, the kids were catching on a bit.

Enjoy the video Casey made.  It's about 8 minutes long, but it's edited, so it's not boring endless taping.  There is also some cute commentary by Charlie (examples of the endearing "oh man").  Coulson is number 4.

 

Coulsons first Tball Game

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Happy Birthday Charlie!

DSCF2090

Charlie turns 2 today. I think he's going to be a pretty fun two-year-old. He is still as smiley as can be and sometimes he gets a great belly laugh that I just love to hear. We heard that fun laugh last weekend when he and Coulson were teasing my brother-in-laws dogs. He loves dogs, well all animals. Every time we see a dog, he asks to “pet dog” even if it's a mean, growling dog. Yesterday we went to a petting zoo and he loved chasing the goats and sheep around, petting them and trying to give them hugs. The animals were gracious, but I don't think they really appreciated the hugs.

 

A few months ago, his language skills just exploded. He quickly progressed from single words (ma-ma, da-da) to two and three word phrases (“want cookie NOW!”) and most recently he's been working on some five and six word sentences (“I wanna cookie NOW pease!”) I think he's going to be a pretty good talker, just like his brother. I love listening to him talk. He has such a sweet little voice and he's pretty polite. Sometimes, he'll say “please” and “thank you” without me prompting him first and he automatically says “bless you” when I sneeze. His most common phrase right now is “Oh Man” whenever he's disappointed with something. “Man” has 2 syllables, like me-ann. (No, Charlie, you have to finish your sandwich before you can have a cookie. “Oh Man!”)  I can't wait to start some "Conversations with Charlie" blogs!

 

 

Eating a Peanut Butter Sandwich?

Charlie's love affair with balls has intensified. Now he is learning that there are different kinds of balls – soccer balls, basketballs, baseballs, golf balls, etc. He likes really small bouncy balls and really big bouncy balls. And he's learning about sports, like putting balls into holes or nets, or hitting the balls with sticks. He will often find some long stick-like object and try to hit a ball with it. It's kind of fun to watch him try to hit a soccer ball with a baseball bat, swinging it as if it were a golf club. Actually he's pretty good at most of the sports he tries and it's hard to keep him away from sports activities. Coulson just started T-ball and I'm sure there will be much consternation when Charlie isn't allowed to go out and play with the team. (“Oh Man!”) Speaking of sports, that was the theme of his birthday party on Saturday. Even after most of the guests had left the party, he was still outside playing ball games with his Pop-Pop. And when he wore out Pop-Pop, Grandpa Bud took over and he continued to play until way past his bedtime. After he wore out both his grandpas, Charlie could have kept going - it reminded me an old research study on toddler energy levels.

 

Play it again, Charlie

Charlie now shares a room with this brother and that has worked out pretty well.  They usually go to bed at the same time and I can hear them chatting away (or singing sometimes) with each other after I say goodnght.  He wakes up and happily chats in his crib for a while.  Sometimes Coulson will climb in with him and "read" him some books or play with some toys together, which gives me about 5-10 minutes to snooze.  Those mornings are nice.

 

He is starting to assert his independence and wants to do a lot of tasks all by himself.  He likes to carry his own diaper bag (it's a kid-sized backpack in the shape of a turtle) and he tries to put on his own shorts and shoes.  He also tries to put on his own diaper sometimes, but he's doesn't have a lot of success.

SuperCharlie!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

My Snuggle Puppies

At the end of our bedtime routine, I sing a song to each of the boys before I tuck them in and leave the room.  They are now sharing a room (yeah, we have enough bedrooms, so we did this on purpose, crazy, I know), so I'll sing to Coulson while we all cuddle in his bed and then I'll sing to Charlie right before putting him in his crib.  Lately a favorite request is "Snuggle Puppy" a song from Sandra Boynton.  (Sandra Boynton writes children's board books, but they are all very clever and funny, so it's not a drag to read the same book over and over and over again.  She has also written some songs which are also very amusing and "Snuggle Puppy" is from the the book/music CD Philadelphia Chickens.)

The lyrics go like this:

Ooooooo, Snuggle Puppy of mine,

Everything about you is especially fine.

I love what you are.  I love what you do.

Fuzzy little Snuggle Puppy, I love you.

After I leave the room, I go across the hall to the office to check email and do internet stuff.  Sometimes Charlie wants me to keep singing, but I don't want to get stuck in a routine of endlessly singing to him till he falls asleep, so I have to say no more singing.  But after I leave the room, sometimes Coulson will take over and start singing to him.  So as I have been writing this, Coulson is singing Snuggle Puppy to Charlie and it's just the sweetest thing in the world, so I thought I would share it with you.  Little moments like this are the reason we wanted them to share a room!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend