Charlie: 16 Months

 
Today, Charlie turns 16 months! He sure is growing up quickly and learning so much lately! Here is a glimpse at Charlie this month:

Charlie reading with Grandma Schmidt

* Charlie now prefers running over walking, and he even prefers it over riding in his stroller. When we go for a walk, he only lasts a little while before wanting to get out and walk beside us.

* Charlie has added the following words to his vocabulary this month: "amen" (when we're finished praying), "God," "cards" (playing cards), "Marme" (What my mom is known as to the grandchildren), "Grandpa" ("Bam-pa"), and "basketball"- no joke. He usually calls it "ba-ba-kah" and can point to it on t.v. or at the park. We only told him one time what it was on t.v.!

* Charlie can strangely identify any "gar gar" (garbage) lying around the house, whether it be a napkin, bag, banana peel (ok, not lying around the house, but on the table just after eating...ha), and will take it to the kitchen garbage and throw it away! Many times without asking, which means we have to constantly check the garbage to see what's been thrown away. Recently after finishing his milk, he said, "all done" walked into the kitchen and when he came out didn't have his sippy cup any longer. Sure enough, in the garbage. This poor kid is going to go crazy as a neat freak in this house! Ha ha.

* In the past week or so, none of us has gotten much sleep, unfortunately. Charlie has been sleeping really poorly lately, and a few days ago got a runny nose and his shirt was soaked with drool...yikes, it's teething time again! Today I felt his upper incisor, yep, coming through. Poor guy. These seem to be worse than the molars! I think this new tooth makes 13.

* Also interrupting our sleep have been the really disturbing cries coming from Charlie's room at night, occasionally. I think he started having "night terrors" or nightmares or something. I've never ever heard him scream like this. Seriously sounded like a horror movie. We got up and got him and he was standing in his crib, but we're not sure he was awake. As soon as we picked him up he was quiet and asleep. Poor guy!

* Charlie LOVES being outside. We can't open the door to get the mail without him crying to go outside. Sometimes I feel like we have a dog. I'm looking forward to even warmer weather so we can be outside much of the day.

* I've gotten the chance recently to observe Charlie with other kids more, and it's so interesting! He especially enjoys playing with older kids. He gets really outgoing and hyper with them, even if they are shy and ignoring him. He yells at them, dances around them, etc. Hmm...attention needy? I started working in the nursery at our church a few weeks ago and was in Charlie's room with Nursery 1 & 2 combined (so birth-18 months or so). I had one baby, probably around 7 months old that I was holding, and another little girl, around a year, climbed up on my lap at the same time. Charlie was shocked and disgusted. He quickly came over to me and tried to climb on my lap as well, which looked absolutely ridiculous, me with three babies hanging off of me while trampling each other. Charlie could not handle seeing me hold other babies...I realized he probably had never seen me holding another baby before!

And this has been... a glimpse into little Charlie's 16 month old life.