Charlie Speaks

It seems like it happened overnight: Charlie has gone gangbusters with new words. He fits a lot of things together to convey his point, like telling me, "Moh" when he wants to me to refill his drink bottle and "No muck - boose!" to make sure I give him juice instead of milk.

His two favorite commands are "Look!" (he says it, "yook!") and "Read!" (he says it "Weeeeed!"). These are his most dangerous words, because if we don't look or read soon enough, he screeches the word and / or beans us on the head with the item at which we are to look or the book that we are to read. My earlobe took the corner of his favorite oversized animal picture board book the other day and is still sore.

The sweet thing about him wanting me to "yook," (it's usually at blocks or cars that he stacked or lined up like his brothers do) is that when I do, and when I compliment him or even just smile, he scrunches up his shoulders and grins all proudly.

One other great development in Charlie's talking is that he can now tell on his brothers. I know that eventually that will turn to tattling, but it's wonderful right now. And pretty funny.

Up until now, I could enter the room where the baby suddenly started crying and ask what happened, and the two big brothers would suddenly have amnesia - no one knows, no one remembers, the baby just started crying. Hmmm.

But now, NOW I can go in to the same situation and Charlie will tell me, "Calvie...bonk head!" or "Hehwy...throw it!" Sometimes the interpretation is a little rough, but at least with the name of the prime suspect, we can nail the culprit. The big brothers can run, but they can no longer hide.

Along with identifying his attackers, Charlie can also identify their clothing. He has become very interested in sorting the laundry with me. He doesn't understand my color / texture / type sorting system, though. He stands and watches for a minute, and then starts pulling things out of the piles.

"Daddy," he'll say as he yanks a white shirt out and puts it to the side. "Calvie," he tells me as he puts a pair of jeans in another pile. "Hehwy," and he flings a pair of Shrek underpants to its own pile. Then he starts adding other items to those piles until the laundry is sorted by family member. Very smart, but more than a little frustrating.

So the bulk of laundry sorting now has to take place during Charlie's naptime. There's not a naptime long enough anymore for all the things that have to wait to be done during it. Sigh.

But when naptime is over, one of my favorite things is hearing him yell from his crib, "Mom! MOM! Mooooooooooooom! Out! Mom! Out! Mooooooooom! Out!" It makes me laugh, and when I go get him out, he smiles a big smile and laughs a sheepish little, "Mom!" and jumps into my arms.