Thursday, April 23, 2009

Awww, Man!

We took Charlie back to the dermatologist yesterday to see what she had to say after a month of using the sunscreen on his face. While his face had looked better about a week ago, it seems it was just part of the usual cycle of the rash that we've observed over the past year, because it had flared up again by the time we went to see her.

She recommended that we still use the sunscreen (it can't hurt), but she's sending us to a rheumatologist (still thinking this might be auto-immune related) and to a plastic surgeon for a biopsy. The blood tests that she had run did not show anything obvious. She took more pictures, and we'll go back and see her after the other visits in about 2 months.

While we were in the waiting room, Charlie was playing with some cars they had there, and when one dropped to the floor, he said "Awww, man!" We don't know where he's picked up that phrase, but he said it several times. His other new phrase of late is "I don't like it." We get that a lot when he doesn't want to eat what is on his plate.

He's been pretty good lately, but he has his moments of stubbornness. He throws a fit when I drop him off at daycare and make him leave his toy in the car. But he gets over it eventually, when he realizes his friends are in the room waiting for him, or that they have basically the same toy in the room for him to play with.

I took Charlie with me to the flower show last weekend and he did wonderfully there. He pointed out the animals in some of the displays, and had fun walking around in the sun for a bit. He fell asleep in the stroller by the time we were finished. This coming weekend John and I have a behind the scenes photography class at the zoo, so Charlie will walk around the zoo with Connor and his parents while we do the class. The weather is supposed to be really warm, and I'm sure he'll have a great time. We're really looking forward to the outing.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I wrote-- we've been so busy! Where do I start?

Charlie makes more progress on his language every day. Amongst the new concepts he's using are pronouns. He has started to point to himself sometimes and say "me." He also is very into possessives-- "Daddy's milk" or "Daddy's book." Words are coming out in short phrases now, like "more yogurt please." He's learning names for the characters in Handy Manny and on Sesame Street-- like Bert and Ernie (although he has them backwards), Turner, and Pat. Elmo is still his favorite, and he uses the name "Elmo" to refer to Grover as well.

I took Charlie to the zoo yesterday, and it was the first time that he really was saying the names of the animals. He roared at the sleeping lions, and seemed to enjoy seeing the polar bears swim. We had a great time riding the train-- he kept saying "choo choo" and waving. Near the end, he kept asking to see the monkeys. It was chilly enough that they were all inside, so I had to work hard to find some for him to see. After his nap when we came home, he woke up and told Daddy all about the bears and the elephants.

John has been building lots of "houses" with Charlie out of the megablocks. Sometimes it's a house for the Little People lion, hippo, and monkey, and sometimes it's for Charlie's little stuffed dog, or Ernie and Bert. If it's not houses, they're building ramps to roll balls down. Then Charlie likes to knock it all down and kick the blocks around.

Last weekend Charlie went to his first Easter Egg hunt. He wasn't quite sure what to do at first, but then after seeing some other kids pick up the eggs, he got started himself. His area was for 0-3 year olds, and although he is almost 2, this was his first hunt (he was not walking last year at this time). So he seemed far less advanced than some of the other kids in that area. But he did a great job. When we were done, and getting ready to leave, he saw some older kids sitting on the sidewalk with their eggs, and he wanted to go pick those up, too.
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Before the hunt started, Charlie walked right up to the Easter Bunny, weaving through the crowd and cutting right in front of another family's photo to stand in front of the bunny. But he stopped short about three feet away and would not get any closer. He waved to the bunny, though, as if he knew it was friendly. I finally got a photo of him with the bunny on my way out, but only by holding him in my arms and having someone else take the photo.