Commando

This week we've started letting Charlie run around commando. Yes, we've been freeing him of diapers and got him a little toilet to test out. It's been a pretty funny week as he says "pee-pee" and we all go running to the bathroom only for him to decide that he won't sit down. He repeats this about 15 times before finally peeing in his pants. He's made progress in terms of letting us know when he has to go, but the running back and forth to the bathroom with only 1 successful pee so far isn't a good sign. He got a bit of a reprieve from the bathroom runs though when his friend Ehrin spent two days with him while her day care was closed. They played together (though Charlie made sure she only got the small toys!), took naps at the same time and ate snacks together. I did notice that she is not very interested in his trains or trucks (of which I didn't realize how many we had until I was looking for alternative toys for her). It made me think about the nature vs. nurture. Ehrin's mom says she is already particular about her clothes! Charlie could care less what goes on him (which enables Sandra to somehow put clothes on him that I've packed away as being too small for him. I'll come downstairs and see him wearing high water pants and I just roll my eyes and pack them deeper in the closet).

On Monday Aunt Mary came for a visit and Charlie was beyond ecstatic. He screamed when she came in and did some sort of tribal dance to welcome her. She taught him how to put penne pasta on his fingers which makes eating them so much more enjoyable.

In addition to eating from his fingers, he also likes using spoons. He is indifferent to the size of the spoon or the size of the bite as seen in this video

The Goldbug book is old news now and his new favorite is Green Eggs and Ham. He calls it the "Ham" book. He has started to drag every book we own over to our reading spot so as to delay going to sleep as long as possible. It makes me wonder how long I'll be able to hold onto the 8pm bedtime....

The weather has been cold and lots more snow than I remember in past winters. Here is the sight from our bedroom window this morning.

Grandparents and Abuelos

I think Charlie is getting bored of us and wants to hang out with his grandparents more. He loves to talk to Abuela on the phone and on skype and last weekend Charlie was in heaven as both my mom and my dad stayed with us. Carlos and I were old news. He followed my mom around saying "grandma, grandma, grandma." He was skeptical of my dad at first and scooted carefully by him trying his best not to be noticed by the scary man. But he warmed up and my dad provided lots of entertainment because he and Carlos were employing lots of loud tools. The kitchen island was demolished and only partially rebuilt and the closet is torn up too. Here are some photos of the recent projects.

Charlie got to hang out with his buddies at brunch last weekend too. He was kindof a brut though as he was very territorial about Isaac's car. He didn't even fit in the car very well, but he still didn't want any of the other boys to even touch it. But they did all sit next to each other on the couch for a few photos. Luckily Jamie was taking pictures - I can't find the camera charger so I'm yet again without a camera....

Photos finally

Delinquent! Sorry! We were in California for the holidays and had a great time in (relatively) warm Carmel with Carlos' family. Charlie had a lot of firsts - he got to take his first boat ride - "butt" as he calls it. When we got on the boat he kept yelling "da butt, da butt, da butt!" I thought he was going to offend's Tali's family....The excitement wore off and he was more taken by the toy cars in the cabin - which was not fun for me as I could spend a whole 2 minutes down there before turning green. He also got to take his first hike at Point Lobos which he loved. He did most of the hiking himself although we needed to keep him on the path. It was beautiful and luckily we made it back before sunset. In addition we acted as tourists and rented a surrey for the first time in his and my life. We put him upfront as we pedalled our way along the Monterey bike path. It was so cute and he loved it. While we were tourists Carlos helped Tali build a fence.

He loved taking morning walks on the beach and watching the surfers. Sadly he loved when they fell down: "boom" he'd say happily and then wonder where they went. He loved spending time with this grandmother and learned the words 'abuela' and 'abuelo.' He likes talking to abuela on the phone though she has to do most of the talking at this point. His tia Veronika also took good care of him and gave him wonderful trains for Christmas.

He remains a terrible traveler. He would wake up early every morning and he knew we were sleeping in the bed next to him so he'd reach over and grab me: "mama, mama, mama." I was about to go crazy. I never want to sleep in the same room as him again!!