Update from Houston

Charlie has been a pretty good boy during our Christmas trip to Houston. He did not sleep on the plane on the way down, and he had a rough time sleeping through the night the first two nights, but other than that, he's been very well-behaved.

Charlie has been attempting to repeat the last word of almost any phrase we say to him. If we say "do you want me to sit here, too?" he will say "too." If we say "do you want a snack?" he will say "snack." He's got a couple of new words that are starting to be distinguishable-- pillow (sounds like "bibbo") for example.

Charlie also will walk to a box of tissues and say "nose" when he thinks his nose is runny or stuffy. He doesn't yet know how to blow really well, but at least he does recognize what the tissues are for and when he needs one. Still, I think he really likes the part at the end about throwing them in the trash best.

His other new habit is to point next to him on the sofa or the floor or a step where he is sitting, meaning that he wants us to sit there. The only problem is when he is sitting on a rather small chair and wants us to sit next to him, but we don't fit. Then he gets really upset because we won't do what he says.

Charlie discovered that he likes mushrooms tonight at dinner. At least mushrooms cooked in a tomato sauce. So there is one Cincinnati Robenalt that likes mushrooms.

Charlie's favorite gift here in Houston was a Handy Manny tool box. He clearly recognized the tools, even before it started playing one of the songs from the show. He got many other nice things as well. I think he enjoyed looking at the Christmas light display here, but he fell asleep about 5 minutes into our drive around last night, so I can't be sure.

We're headed back home tomorrow, and I'm sure that Charlie, like John and myself, will be very glad to be back in his own bed.