Talking boy

Charlie is a full-fledged talker now. A conversationalist. A high-energy motormouth spewing consonants and vowels.

Jeff and I love to catch each other’s eye across the room and snicker while we listen to him ramble on. He “reads” his books out loud when he thinks no one is paying attention; he sings little songs about the toy in his hand; he repeats over and over little bits of his Blues Clues videos; and he provides non-stop commentary on the events of every moment of every day.

I’ve been trying to capture snippets of this on video for a while now, but these chatty moments are unpredictable. Plus, Cboy enters shy-and-quiet mode whenever I turn on the camera. But here’s a tiny taste. This particular singing of Old MacDonald happened several weeks ago now, and Charlie has honed his skills (and pitch!) significantly even since then.

A few firsts

First teeth!

First ponytail!

That Lillian — she’s really growing up.

Take Two

I’m not sure how I got so lucky. (*Knocks on wood*)

Maybe God just knew I would crumble under any further chaos right now. Or maybe this just happens to be Charlie’s uniquely ideal time frame.

Either way, I’m not complaining!

We began potty training (our second attempt) yesterday morning. The decision was somewhat arbitrary: we’re pretty well settled into life here, and Charlie seems to be relatively stable and well adjusted; we don’t really have any plans for this weekend, which is rare; I’m home all day on Thursdays and Fridays, so I knew I would have four solid days to focus on it; and let’s face it, the kid is nearing three, and we’re all just plumb sick of changing his diapers.

Yesterday morning began with three different puddles on the floor, to which Charlie would exclaim, “Look!” (or more accurately, “Wook!”). I was stressing out. Not to mention totally clueless. But then we had a breakthrough; he peed in the potty. And the day was suddenly brighter. He did so well from then on, with only one more accident when we were playing outside.

Today has been awesome so far — no wet undies whatsoever!

This could still change, I realize, and soon I could be stressing out again about wet clothes, wet undies, wet floors, etc. But right now, I’m feeling pretty good about things. Right after lunch, I asked Charlie, “Are you ready to potty?” He answered as he typically does: “Not yet.” I said, “Okay, you can play for three minutes, and then we’ll go potty.” A minute later, he came running back into the room with his hands between his legs. I asked excitedly, “Is it time?” “Yeah.” So I helped him onto his little froggy potty, and he did his thing while we read a book together.

I just had to say that I’m so proud of my boy.

**Update: right after I clicked on “Publish,” Charlie got off the couch in the middle of his absolute favorite Blues Clues episode (“Steve Goes to College”) and came to me with his hands between his legs. We ran to the potty. Success within about 30 seconds. Wash hands. Back to the couch. Hello again, Steve and Joe.

Comparison

Charlie: 4.5 months

Lillian: 5 months

First food

She loves it! She can’t get enough!

And two totally unrelated photos, just because:

I love these people

 

A hug. Sort of.

Miss you, friends.

Hand-me-downs

A friend and I were discussing recently our thoughts about dressing our kids in clothes that we wore ourselves as children. And so I wanted to ask you: Is this super cute in a sort of sentimental way, even if the clothes are outdated? Or does the outdatedness of the clothes just make the whole thing a little too silly and contrived?

Here’s Lillian this morning, looking just like her momma circa 1981, in a dress made by her Nana.

She seems to like it:

Baby update

A few people have asked me recently, “What is Lillian doing these days?” And I have admitted that I’m doing a terrible job of documenting her growth and her milestones and her sweet, wide-eyed personality. I’m keeping up with her baby book, but not so much with the Interwebs.

So here are a few specifics:

-She’s a big girl. I took her to the doc earlier this week for her four-month well visit. She weighs 16 pounds, 13.5 ounces, and measures 26.5 inches long (both are in the 90-something percentile). It looks like she’s got her mommy’s thighs and her daddy’s height.

-She’s a really great night sleeper. She’ll usually wake up once, eat, and go right back to sleep. If I remain conscious for the feeding, I’ll usually be back in bed within 15 or 20 minutes. I often fall asleep in the Poang, however, which means I’ll leave her room a good hour or two after the initial wake-up call. It’s so sad to be that tired.

-She’s still an unpredictable, not-so-great day sleeper. A couple weeks ago, she took a two-hour afternoon nap for four days in a row, and I was elated. By now she’s back to 30- or 45-minute snoozes, and there’s just no chance of getting her back to sleep. This is infuriating.

-She loves to roll. Lay her down on the floor on her back, and she’s on her tummy before you can stand up. And she’ll remain there, swimming contentedly on her belly for a while. Sometimes she’ll return to her back; sometimes she’ll scoot along the floor a few paces. But whatever happens, there will definitely be squeals and jabbers and grunts and spit-up involved.

-Her hand coordination is really impressive. She’s quite skilled now with reaching for and grabbing her toys, and of course, immediately pulling them into her mouth. She gets frantic if there’s nothing in her mouth. She can pull a bottle toward her and even sometimes hold it up by herself while she drinks. She loves to touch faces and grab hair and reach for Charlie. Oh! And she can grab her toes!

-For a while I was convinced that Lillian would be our serious child. She didn’t laugh easily, and her expression was often intense and uncertain. But these days, she can catch a serious case of the giggles, and oh how I love that sound! She’s flirty and amused. She grins with her whole face, and she has a wide-open-mouth smile that melts us all.

-She spends a lot of her time in either the bouncy seat or the exersaucer. She seems to favor the saucer, where, as long as the top is littered with loose toys, she can entertain herself for long stretches of time.

-Quick kidney update: After a couple ultrasounds and a few specialized tests, the urologist in Chicago recommended that we have the upper portion of Lillian’s left kidney removed (which is causing major problems in our application for health insurance, but that’s another story). However, I talked to her new pediatrician about this, and he winced at the mention of surgery. He highly recommended that we get a second opinion. So we’ll see.

And that’s Lillian in a nutshell, at 4 months & 3 weeks. She’s pretty fantastic.

Pumpkin patch

This past Saturday, I had only one goal: to get our little family to a pumpkin patch. We were thankful that Jeff’s sister, Kristi, was in town and able to join us! We had a great time — pumpkins, a big slide, piggies, a slingshot, a wagon, a donkey (named Ted), two goats (Max and Moe), friendly folks, and corn coming out the ears (ha).

For all the photos, feel free to visit the October 2009 album on my Shutterfly site.

A few teasers:

Siblings

Now that Lillian is a little more alert and active, she and Charlie are more frequently interacting in that sweet sibling way I always imagined. When Charlie is in the room, Lillian’s eyes are on him. She’s even been known to start fussing when he leaves her sight. Charlie can get her laughing like no one else can, and I’ve finally caught that on a couple videos.