December is here

December is here, and with it the crazy traffic patterns and nasty, variable weather that is typical in Cincinnati for this time of year. But aside from dealing with all of that, and busy work schedules, Charlie is bringing us much joy.

This past Saturday it snowed most of the day, so we bundled Charlie up late in the afternoon and took him in the backyard to see what he would do. He mostly just watched Daddy throw snowballs for Lucy dog to chase and catch. But you could tell he enjoyed being outside. We took him to the local Indian buffet for dinner that night, and as usual, he stunned us with how much he ate. Pretty soon they'll start charging us for him!

When we left the restaurant on Saturday, John was impressed that he identified a baby that was covered up in a carseat. Without seeing it, he knew there was a baby inside. His ability to reason and understand things that he cannot see or hear is really great.

He's using a lot more words now, some even in two syllables. He asks for "ogg-oggs" to eat (hot dogs) and calls more of his new Busy Bee classmates by name (Audrey, Anna, and Kacy in addition to Oscar, which he's had down now for some time). He asks for "Boo" right before bedtime, which means he wants to watch a little bit of Monsters Inc. before going to sleep. John plays it for him on his iPhone and it calms him down.

We've also shown him Nemo and a couple of other new movies and shows to add to the arsenal. Handy Manny is taking a much needed break. But having the videos on the iPhone comes in really handy, especially for situations like when John took Charlie to get his haircut on Sunday. Instead of taking him to the kids' place, John took him to Sports Clips, where he gets his own hair cut. Of course, the ladies working there were just goo-goo over Charlie.

Charlie is getting much better with crayons now that we got him some big fat ones to use. He more easily makes marks on the paper-- although it's still just scribbles for now. One of his favorite toys at daycare are some hot pink pompons that he shakes around while he dances to music. He's now easily going up the ladder on the indoor climber and knows how to go down the slide by himself.

Instead of just saying "bye bye" and waving, Charlie will now routinely blow kisses at you. Sometimes he will even come up and give you a hug when asked to (which is really more like him leaning his body up against you and letting you hug him.)

Altogether we're really quite pleased with how he's adjusted to his new room, teachers, and classmates.