20 months - CJM

I swear I just wrote his 19 month post, but here we are again 4 weeks later and it's time for another update. Charlie is really settling into toddlerhood and is becoming more and more independent by the day. He's always wanted to be independent, but along with that came a lot of fussing, fighting with the big boys, whining, etc. Now, he can just figure some things out on his own and play with his brothers more without them being mad at something he is doing 99.9% of the time. It's more like they are frustrated about 50-60% of the time, but hey, it's an improvement. And I'll take it. He's just a fun kid to watch because he's always "working" and on the move. He won't sit still for too long and always seems to have an objective in mind! I turned his carseat around a few weeks ago because he was so crammed, and he's a much happier boy in the car these days.

Now he can point at "cahs" very five seconds!

I know I have described this habit before, but the kid loves to hide. And, here's the proof. When it's time to change a diaper, he hides. When it's time to go down for a nap, he hides. When he runs away with a toy or piece of food he knows he shouldn't have, he hides. You get the picture.

  Here he is trying to peek back to see if we are still looking.

 Waving bye-bye. He'll also blow me a kiss every now and then.

 Twinsies.

 Does he not look like he is about 3 or 4 right here?!!?

 His new found love. The ice cream from "Cheek-o-lay"

 What's better than eating the ice cream? Feeding it to someone else.

 And then eating from the spoon before feeding CoCo again.

 He takes his job seriously

 Forget the spoon, let's go straight to the hands.

 Love, love, love him

His new favorite place to sit. As soon as he sees the fridge door swing open, he promptly finds his place inside of it.

One of his favorite times of the day. I love watching it. After baths, he and Wes just laugh and giggle while Wes tickles him, then Charlie points up to the fan and calls it a "Tee" (no clue what that means because he also calls the TV a Tee), then he usually pokes his fingers around in Wes' eye or mouth. It's super cute.

I don't have any pictures of him this month with his new obsession, but he is currently all about his toy cars (and real ones for that matter, too). He wakes up talking about cars and goes to bed not wanting to let them go. He "dive, dive, dives" them everywhere. Up my walls, on top of my trashcan, on the arms of the couch, they travel all over our house. He lines them all up, races them across the wood floor, crashes them into each other. He is ALL boy, no doubt.

He's also been very into washing his hands, or more appropriately described as holding them under running water.

He could just stare at the water and be perfectly content.

In his happy place. With fresh haircut, no less!

I think he weighs about 26 lbs. these days. He still seems really petite for his age. Tall, but super skinny. He could easily wear all 18 month clothes if it weren't for the length of the clothes. The next size up swallows him. He is still a great eater, when he is hungry. He eats most anything (except for veggies, not a huge fan), but sometimes his appetite is huge and other times he laughs at the sight of food. Milk is probably his favorite food/drink, except for candy or chocolate of course. He knows when it is dessert time. He goes and grabs a bowl from the kid's drawer, runs over to the counter where our limitless supply of M&Ms reside (Thanks a lot, CoCo!!!!), and jumps around dancing and screaming until somehow promptly fills his bowl. Just the talk of anything sweet basically ruins him from any and all future food we had planned on him eating in the next hour. He will hoover down certain dinner foods. Crockpot Spaghetti squash (as we call it), lasagna, ketchup, pizza, you get the drift. Pretty sure our kids are Italian because they could live off of Italian food for dinner and be perfectly fine. Oh, and he is SUPER messy. I used to think he was just so much more careless than the other two, but I think it is because I give him much more freedom to feed himself and to also not monitor him as closely as I probably should.

 I am almost positive I have mentioned before, but here is more proof of his love for shoes.

Little guy. Big shoes.

We've even branched out into women's active shoes.

Every once in a while he will slow down and take it easy. Although he is normally running 90 to nothing, I like when he takes it easy. My heart rate appreciates it, too. I feel like I live most of my time around him in panic for the next fall or accident he is going to partake in. 

This photo pretty much sums up our life with Charlie in it. Wild and Crazy. To the MAX!! We wouldn't have it any other way (except for if it could maybe be a tad bit safer. That would be nice)!!!