Our Charlie boy is TWO!! He is a ray of sunshine in our family and almost always has a huge smile on his face unless Davey is bothering him or mommy disappears. He is a total mama's boy, and lately his attachment has been getting worse, instead of better. He does not like me out of his sight and screams whenever we take him to nursery. The new baby is either going to break him, or force him to start becoming more independent. We are all hoping to survive his transition from baby to big brother!
His favorites at this age are choo choo trains and reading books. He brings books to us all day long, just hoping someone will scoop him up on their lap for some stories. He also loves music and his most requested songs are Old McDonald, Wheels on the Bus, and Baby Shark. Charlie has also been getting more into TV and loves to watch Little Baby Bum (nursery rhymes on Netflix) and home videos. It's not really something to brag about, but it has been nice to have a distraction when I need to sneak in a shower or nap during the day.
Charlie loves Sophie and is so excited to see her each morning and after school when we pick her up. She is so kind and tolerant, and is always looking out for him at home and when we go places. Davey is his nemesis who has to stir up trouble whenever he sees Charlie happy and content. Every now and then, however, they will get along and those days are the best. These harmonious moments normally happen when they are fighting imaginary bad guys together (until Davey gets too rough), building towers (until Davey knocks it down), or playing with cars (until Davey hoards them all). Oh brothers...
Charlie at 2 Years
- Weighs 25 lbs (24%) and is 33 inches tall (22%). He's the smallest of our kids at this age, maybe because of genetics, but also because he is still not the best eater. He actually eats a wide variety of foods now (fruit being the only struggle), but only seems to need about one meal plus a few snacks a day. We are working to get his weight up because each visit he slips a little more on the growth curve.
- He loves his blue blanket and brings it with him everywhere, often carried in his mouth. I have to sneak Blue into the wash at least twice a week because it gets so disgusting.
- He loves music and dancing and has learned to operate Sophie's CD player all by himself. He also loves to draw and will happily color or paint in his chair for 30 minutes or more.
- Outside is his happy place. If he hears the word "outside" he will be at the door in seconds ready to get on shoes and go in the backyard. And speaking of shoes, he also is obsessed with wearing socks at all times. He calls them "socka sockas" and will not walk on the hard floors without them. We will see what happens this summer with sandal weather...
- He is really into colors, shapes and counting right now. He knows his numbers up to 10 and can put a few of them in order when counting before he just starts saying random ones. He also knows the names of all the colors, but calls most everything either yellow or blue.
- He is still sleeping in a pack n' play in our closet, but will be moving to a crib in the guest room shortly. He has been one of our best sleepers since he was a baby and goes down from 7 pm to 7 am at night and still naps for 1-2 hours during the day. Because of this, we are hesitant to do anything to mess with his sleep arrangements since he is so easy!
- We are also starting to wean him off the bottle. He drinks milk each morning, at nap, and before bed. It's part of why he goes down so easy, so we're not ready to cut him off completely and are taking things very slow.
- Nicknames include Char Char, Char Bug, Baby Char Char (what he calls himself) and Precious (what I've called him since he was a baby).
CHARLIE'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION: We celebrated Charlie's big day at home as a family. He received a few presents from us, one from each of his siblings, and some from grandparents and his Aunt Liz. He loved opening each gift, and would insist on stopping to play with it for a few minutes before moving on to the next one. His gifts from us this year were a bean bag toss game, a color peg puzzle, a gem surprise toy and a baby book that I made for him. Sophie have him a big ball and Davey picked out a Water Wow pad.
After gifts we did cake. Charlie requested a Choo Choo cake, which was a fun and simple theme. He was scared of his candles at first and wanted them blown out right away, but eventually we were able to convince him to let us sing first before he blew them out. He knows the birthday song and has been singing it to himself all week.
His siblings were very attentive, helping him to unwrap and play with his new toys
Loving his choo choo cake
Charlie ended up only eating the frosting on his cupcake, but it was his birthday and he can do what he wants I guess!
Happy Birthday little guy!
Here are a few more photos from how we spent his special day:
He woke up nice and early at 5:45 am for some snuggles with mom. Later we went to the library music program. The "shaky egg" song is his favorite and he is always first in line to get one out of the bucket.
Charlie loves to color!
He took an extra long nap, which was a nice gift to me since he woke up so early. We finished his day with a very bubbly bath, a favorite activity of his.
