Happy Birthday Charlie!!!!

My Charlie Boy is 2 today!! He is such a little rock star. I don't even know where to begin in talking about him. Every one of the kids thinks that he is totally awesome and they all dote on him constantly to the point that they drive him nuts. He makes our house so fun. 

He has finally started talking in the past month or so and now he chatters constantly. He spent a few months before that pointing and grunting with a question tone in his voice which was his way of asking us to tell him what everything was called. I guess he just wanted to soak it all in b/c pretty much as soon as he starting talking for real he knew what just about everything was. I love to hear the way that words come out of his cute little mouth. He ALWAYS says thank you whenever anyone gives him anything and if I ever give him some sort of compliment like good job or you're so smart he says 'thanks!' super excitedly. He also is really big into 'mmm hmm' instead of saying yes. But of course his favorite word is MINE!

He has been really extra affectionate lately. He has this triple combination of a hug, smooch, and then honking my nose that he loves to do. And he has progressed to real, actual tight around the neck hugs instead of just leaning into me like he used to do. If I ever ask him for a smooch he will say 'oh, sure!' and give me one. Along with that he is very territorial about me. I am not allowed to hug anyone else, ever. If Jeff tries to hug me Charlie will run up between our legs and shove Jeff away. Every morning when I hug the boys on their way out the door for school he screams NO and swats at them. When Ellie wakes up after awhile and comes to snuggle in me bed with me and Charlie he will flip out and try to make sure she can't come hug me and wants her off the bed. He's a little bit of a punk in that regard. But after awhile he will settle down once he realizes that I'm not going to ditch him. Since I totally failed in getting him to sleep well alone (although really not my fault b/c he was the perfect baby at sleeping until he got sick and started coming in with me in the middle of the night) he wakes up at some point during the night and comes and snuggles me. It's my absolute favorite when he wraps his little arm around my neck so tight and moves in as close as possible like he thinks somebody is going to try and pull him away. 

Lately he has been loving outside. We have had crazy nice spring weather the last week or so but even when it was cold and snowy he wanted to be outside. My mom has a dog door at her house and he would always crawl through that and go hang out on her deck even with bare feet when it was freezing and had some snow on the ground. But he loves it. The past week or so since it's been so nice everyone has been playing out in back a lot so every time we pass a door that looks out into the backyard he will point and say 'yard...play?'. His favorite is the bouncy horse that we have had since Duncan was a baby that Jeff really wanted me to get rid of when we moved. Good thing I prevailed on that one :)

As much as he is a punk to the other kids sometimes he really loves playing with them. It's so fun watching him get old enough to just play with Ellie for a good chunk of the day...that is, when he's not pulling out chunks of her hair. He has an unhealthy obsession with that...not just her but our dog Slinky too. He will give a good yank and then look at his hands afterwards to see what kind of score he got. But aside from that they will have a great time playing. Dayton has a great game that he plays with him where he puts a blanket on the floor and then pulls Charlie all around. All the kids try so hard to get him to laugh or want to do something with them...it's like it's a competition to see who he likes the best. 

Charlie really, really loves playing with Jeff. As much as I'm the favorite most of the time during the week on weekends after Charlie sees that Jeff really gets to be home for a good chunk of time he decides that Daddy is the new favorite. His loves to share food with him, particularly chips and dip. He loves for Jeff to tickle him endlessly but his favorite things is to chase him around the house in a circle...Jeff will double back and then surprise him around a corner and Charlie just can't get enough of it. Best game ever. 

Let's see, a few random food facts: he loves chicken, loves animal crackers, loves chocolate milk (choc), hates every single fruit and vegetable in existence but loves green smoothies, loves spaghetti but hates mac and cheese, and he seems to have inherited Jeff's obnoxious habit of liking a food for about a week at a time and then shunning it forevermore (yogurt, string cheese, peanut butter sandwiches).

He really is just such a super fun kid. He has the greatest selection of facial expressions of all of my kids. And before he started really talking he had a large repertoire of sounds that he would make that meant all different kinds of things. He looks so much like the other boys at this age, especially Duncan with his chubby little face. Although most of the time I catch him with Tucker's exact expressions. We are so lucky to have him in our family. Love you Charlie Boy!!