he’s a changing

warning...this is a mom post. i am writing a ton of little things that i know i will forget in a month and want to be able to look back on :).

this has been the month that charlie really started to communicate. he is so hysterical to be around because he is constantly making some kind of noise/word to “talk” with you. sometimes after i pick him up from places and we are driving home i will ask him questions about his time. here is an example of our conversation after picking him up from our gym's (rac) childcare:

me: “charlie, did you have fun at the RAC?”

charlie: “ysss”

me: “charlie, did you play in the little house with henry?”

charlie: “yssss”

me: “charlie, did you have a snack?”

charlie: “yssss”

i love it! now i know he does not understand everything i am asking him, but i know he loves interacting like we are conversing normally. when the car becomes quiet he starts rambling like crazy "da dou da da da da ga ga na na da dou da dou" to tell me how his time was.

charlie is actually saying quite a few words. now most of these words i would probably only recognize because i am with him 24/7. he legitimately says dada, mama (or moamoamo), dog, yes, and duck (uh-oh and da dou continue to be his most used words – i would bet he says them 1 billion times a day). i would recognize…diaper, doctor, dog bone, flower, nana (sometimes for banana or my mom). he is also a pro at saying quite a few animal noises. moo (or mmmm) being his favorite. he will find his “little people cow” and walk around saying “mmmm”. he barks like a dog whenever he sees one. margit, charlie’s aunt, painted charlie a canvas of lily and of lewis (their basset hound) for his room. they are hung up by his crib and every morning he “woofs” at them when he gets up and while getting changed. so funny. when reading books he will make monkey noises, pig snorts, for a frog he just moves his shoulders up and down (because i do that when i tell him frogs say “ribbit”). i do feel proud that "no" is not in the group of his first words. i have been intentional about not saying it off the cuff without explaining what is off limits...maybe it is working :).

he can associate words with pictures. in a word book we have he can point to a ton of the pictures when asked to (ie: banana, baby, apple, ball, fire truck, bottle, lots of animals, etc). one day i heard him almost crying when looking at the picture of the bottle. he was standing over it, whining, saying mmmm (he says that when he knows that something tastes good – he does it when he sees bananas, strawberries, etc). the funny thing is charlie only had bottles for about a month or two of his life. just after he turned 1 year old, i stopped giving them to him at night. he gets a sippy cup with milk instead before bed, but whenever he sees the picture of that bottle he almost gets weepy.

something i find adorable is that he will walk around the house and find or see pictures of bill and say “dada”. even tonight he pulled out a family photo album my mom made charlie and went through every page and found bill and said “dada”. i almost cried it was so sweet. he would also see lily in the album and “woof”.

lastly, he really knows what he wants and he wants you to figure it out. when he wants to read a book and will go pick a specific book out and bring it over to you. before you even get a chance to get settled he is already plopping down on your lap. he is still a fantastic eater, but sometimes really wants one food. he will say “da” or “mmm” until you figure out what he is pointing at. most of the time it is a banana, pb&j, or whatever you are eating.

i will add pictures when i am able to get on bill's computer for a bit.