Bits and Pieces

Charlie helped me make some cupcakes this afternoon. He liked putting sprinkles on them. He liked eating the cupcakes even better.

Charlie is getting better at giving Lucy treats. Usually he says "sit boy" and then quickly throws them on the floor at her feet. But the other day I helped him hold the treat out in his hand for Lucy to take. Charlie was nervous, but Lucy was really gentle.

Charlie often calls his brother "Bay-bee-lee-am"- all one word. One of his favorite exclamations lately is "Goopa!" I'm not exactly sure what that means. He calls his favorite cereal "floop lutes." I have to laugh every time I hear that.

Charlie is funny about some of the food that he likes and doesn't like. Last week at our favorite Indian buffet, Charlie asked for some of the anise seed sprinkles as we were leaving. To our surprise, he really liked them. It was just like the first time he asked to try the saag paneer-- and now it's probably his favorite food. In contrast, when we were at Disney I tried to give him chocolate milk as a treat, and he did not like it. He also wouldn't drink apple juice out of a sippy cup. I presume it's because in his mind, juice is supposed to come in a box.

Swimming lessons have been very good for Charlie. This morning they tied a noodle around his waist and he swam on his own for the very first time. He seemed very proud that he did it by himself. He is getting more used to going under the water, although he still doesn't like it too much. Getting his head wet is not as traumatic anymore, anyway. We've signed him up for next session, also, so he should be good and ready for summer.

Liam loves to sit in the bumbo seat that Charlie never liked much. This morning we pulled out the exersaucer and let him try that for the first time, and he really enjoyed it. He loves being upright. Earlier this week we gave him his first rice cereal. Not much went down, but he didn't seem to hate it.

He's getting so big-- wearing size 2-3 diapers now for over a week. We had him at the doctor this morning for a cough and possible ear infection, and he weighed over 16 pounds. He's been keeping us up at night, between the cough and a gassy tummy and what we think is the start of teething. He has been drooling like crazy for the past 3 days. We can't keep a dry bib on him for more than a few minutes.

It's looking like rain tomorrow for the neighborhood Easter egg hunt, which is sort of a bummer. We'll have to do our own hunt inside the house with our plastic eggs. Luckily, Charlie won't know the difference.

Cute stuff Charlie does

Sometime shortly before our trip to Florida, Charlie took to saying "that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" I'm not sure exactly where he got that, but it sure is darned cute to hear him say it.

While we were in the airport on the way back from Orlando, we went to get some milk from a Burger King. Charlie wanted to know why Old McDonald (aka Ronald McDonald) wasn't on the bottle.

Charlie had a helium filled balloon from when he got his haircut. After only about 24 hours, it had sunk down to the ground, no longer floating. Charlie asked me to "put it back up in the sky." At that moment, I sure wished I could!

One day a couple of weeks ago, Charlie was busy cleaning up all his toys. Then he paused, and told me "no snack tonight!" When he could see that I wasn't sure how to react, he told me to cry. I guess we've been using these techniques too much (or maybe just enough?)

Charlie is very proud of having his little brother at daycare. He loves to show him off to his own classmates and say "that's MY baby brother!" For a few days this past week, he was calling his Brutus Buddy his "baby" and was mimicking what we did to take care of Liam.


When we took Liam for his 4 month check-up at the pediatrician, Charlie was with us and we tried to entertain him with books they had at the office. When we'd get a few pages in to a book and he would discover a page that had been torn, he'd close it and put it aside, wanting a new book. As we were leaving the office, and he got a sticker from the front desk, he told them that they needed to get some new books, because the ones they had were torn.

4 month check up

Last Tuesday we took Liam in for his 4 month well-visit with the pediatrician. He weighed 15 pounds, 4 ounces (70th%). His height was 25 inches (55th%) and his head was 16 3/4 inches (45th%). He's a little bigger than Charlie was at this age (except the for the head). He's really caught up, after being born lighter.

His health is good in general. He caught Charlie's cough while we were in Florida, and when it didn't clear up after about 3 weeks, we put him on some antibiotics and it cleared right up. Other than that, we've had no worries.