Boots!

William is supposed to dress up as a community hero tomorrow. He picked firefighter. We got his plastic hat out of the toy bin and his red raincoat, but William has outgrown his rain boots. I got his cowboy boots as a stand-in. When Charles saw the boots, he was so excited! He tried to put them on. Of course they were way too big, so I told him we would get William's old boots. Charles beamed when he saw them and pranced around the house so proud. He did a tap dance on the bathroom floor to make all kinds of noise. When I had to change his diaper, he cried when I had to remove the boots.

Ear test

Charles' latest exploration tool is his ear--he wants to see what can fit in his ear. The first we saw of it was when he was eating blueberries. He was suddenly walking around with a berry in his ear that popped out onto the floor. It reminded me of a book we have, Hop-a-long Jack and the Blue Bunnies. Then after breakfast a couple of days ago, I had to clean a smashed banana from his ear. Today, it was fruit loops cereal. I really don't want a visit to the hospital for food retrieval from Charles' ear.

Yummy dinner

I made a casserole tonight using the ingredients I had in the house, so I ended up with a tilapia casserole. It was very good! Charles loved it, too, and kept reaching out his hands in his gimme motion. We had two helpings! I love that he tries new foods--and likes it!

shoe bandit

We store our shoes in the alcove inside the entryway so not to track dirt, etc, into the house.  Charles loves trying on the shoes, especially my new leopard spotted shoes and my rain boots.  Last week, Joe started calling me to hurry downstairs and get te camera.  I got into the den to find Charles somehow standing in my rain boots that were reaching his diaper, and William was wearing my leopard shoes.  They laughed and laughed and stumbled around in my shoes for about 45 minutes.

dancing baby!

Charles is the dancing-est baby I have ever seen!  As soon as he hears music on the tv or the radio, he perks up and starts bopping.  We were in the car the other day, and a fun song played on my iPod, and Charles immediately began bopping his little head and dancing in his car seat.  That tickled William completely, and he was doubled over laughing at Charles and his dancing.  Then on TV, there was a Dior perfume add with a snazzy tune as Charlize Theron walked onto her runway while seeing Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe.  I had to rewind that add over and over again while the boys danced and danced around in circles, giggling the whole time.  Then we watched an episode of Bunheads, a show about ballet dancers.  When the theme song starts, it plays part of the Nutcracker and the girls do some high kicks.  Charles froze, watched the screen, and then started dancing with his own high kicks!  Yesterday, Willia introduced Charles to Night at the Museum, or Dinosaur Movie, as William has called it since he was little.  When the credits run, the song is a bee-bop song, and the boys were once again bopping.  They were running in cirlces, jumping off of the sofa, and putting a hole in the den carpet with their animated moves.  That song was replayed six or seven times.  Charles actually wore himself out so muchthat he had to sit down for a while on the sofa to charge up again!

whose playdate?

William wanted a playdate with Adelyn, so she came over yesterday afternoon.  Charles jumped right into the play!  He followed them around up and down the stairs.  The most fun he had, though, was with our new elefun game.  The elephant has a fan in its belly and blows butterflies up and out of its trunk for the children to catch in butterfly nets.  The three children were in our living room squealing and laughing trying to catch the butterflies.  It was indeed all three children.  Charles was holding a net and as soon as the fan was turned on, he would start squealing with the biggest grin on his face!  After all the butterflies were blown out, Charles would plop to the ground and start stuffing the butterflies back in the hole in the elephant's trunk.  He definitely thinks he is four and not 16 months!

Charles' Christmas

Charles has so much fun the Christmas.  He loved looking for our elves, Marzipan and Gingerbread.  As soon as he would spot them, he would reach out and point, saying, "Ook!"  It really made William made the one day when Charles found them before he could!  Charles also loved the Christmas tree.  He was mostly very good just looking at the ornaments on the tree, although my s'mores ornament had to be glued back together, and my Donald Duck jumping jack had to be reassembled, but the real breakables were left alone.  He loved his own keepsake ornament this year--and it was chosen for him for that exact purpose.  It was Mickey playing the piano for Minnie, and it actually played music.  Charles would point it out to any visitors and would dance away to the musci.

When we had our family Christmas, Charles was given a light saber by our cat Lang Se.  It was the first gift he opened, and it turned out to be the only one he was interested in the rest of the night.  He thought it was the best thing ever!  The light saber came with us in the car, and Charles dug it out of our bag and played with it in the hotel room.  After a day in the car, Charles had a blast running around the hotel room, pit-stopping at Mommy for a bite of mac and cheese before running some more with his light saber.

In SC, he joined right in the the bigger boys in their play, but he also had fun with the younger girls.  He and Emma Kate were often together holding hands--such sweet babies!  He also liked playing with babies with Aly and Mary Elizabeth. 

Charles also had fun at the candle light church service, but his fun was a bit distracting for Mommy.  He shoved the battery powered candle in his mouth and he wanted to jump back and forth over the pew to Bee Bee or Uncle Yates sitting behind us.

Christmas morning, Charles was thrilled with the cars in his stocking, and when we opened the door to the living room, he ran right over to the little people zoo Santa gave him and started playing.  The zoo jeep immediately started making trips down the hallway with him pushing it.

Charles and William were also introduced to Lawrence Welk by Granddaddy and loved dancing to the music.  He also got some good cuddle time with Granddaddy, but not wanting to interrupt the moment, I did not get a picture.  I thought I would enjoy the moment and keep it in my memory.

On our trip back home, we stopped at Thad and Wendy's house.  They have a little two step drop to their den from their kitchen.  Charles paid no attention to it and tumbled down it twice.  There were no tears.  He just got up and continued his exploration.  When we got home, he had decided he could now walk down our stairs.  After tumbling twice down our flight, he has decided he once again needs to sit and bounce his was down.

What a fun Christmas with our always happy, smiling Charles.