Sounds and Screams

Kevin and I had a picnic in the park for our anniversary a
couple of weeks ago. We took Charlie with us, he sucked
on a lemon while we had burgers and fries. Yum.

Charlie is 10 months old today. As is tradition, lots of new changes to accompany the last few weeks.

In my last post, I wrote about Charlie's first top tooth. That same day, we found another tooth...then another. So, now he has his two top teeth and three bottom teeth. It made for a miserable week, but thankfully we all got through it relatively unscathed.

He has some new sounds now, too. He can say his t's, s's and d's. But unfortunately, still no sign of an m. That's ok, though, because I'm sure "Mama" will still be his first actual word (Kevin will vehemently argue that he's already achieved the first word milestone with "Dad", but reality is what you acknowledge, so I say it doesn't count).

Charlie loves his dad. They are the best of buds.

This kid has so much character already. He makes me laugh every day with all his silliness. His faces are absolutely priceless. He's picked up a few new tricks from his girlfriend (the new nanny's daughter). He's started screaming and tensing his body - not altogether a new trick, but the pitch and volume are definitely new. He's walking along furniture now and is getting more able and confident at going from an up position to a down position. Toys are more interesting, too. They aren't just immediately shoved into the mouth, but now he takes time to touch, turn, shake and explore them before turning them into slobber buckets.

One of those faces I was talking about. This was a grape
popsicle. I couldn't get it out of the wrapper fast enough
for him - it was gone in less than 2 minutes.

It's funny to me, too, how he already has favorites. He has a few toys he is partial to and others he couldn't care less about. Right now, he's not a big fan of anything plush unless it's big like a teddy bear. He prefers hard plastic or wooden toys. He also wants anything and everything he is not supposed to have. Examples: Cups, cords, lotion bottles, phones, remotes, ...oh, and let's not forget the cat. He is a pretty fast crawler now and will chase her around a few times before finally giving up. Thankfully, she has been pretty patient with him so far and on the rare occasions where he does get a fist full of hair, she gives a clawless swat or two before deciding to just run away.

My mom sent Charlie a package from their trip to Yellowstone a few weeks ago. It was moose-themed, of course. Charlie got a cute red jammy set, a book and a stuffed moose. As soon as I got the moose out of the box, Charlie got an instant smile and lunged for it. Since then, he sleeps with it at night and during naps. He loves that moose. 

I'm starting to think of what I want to do for his birthday. It's still a couple of months away and I don't plan on doing anything elaborate (we'll save those birthdays for later) but I'd still like to do something fun. I'm still not sure what our family has planned for Thanksgiving, but I might try to combine his birthday celebration with a family get together, if I can swing it. If not, shoot - I'll just bake a couple of cakes and let Charlie go to town. Any excuse to bake a cake is a good excuse.
 

We tried pancakes for the first time with great success. No
choking or gagging, relatively good self-feeding and extra
cakes for mom. Win-win!

 

Angel is holding a very tired Charlie at the fair. The poor
guy couldn't get any peace and quiet to take a nap until
it was time to leave.

More grape popsicle. I expected him to struggle with the cold
ice chunks, but he did extremely well.

Here we are trying whipped topping for the first time. This
was actually just to distract him for a few minutes until his
breakfast was ready. He was not impressed.