18 Months!

Well time has certainly flown on by, and all of a sudden I find myself the mother of an 18-month-old!! What?!?!

This was definitely an occasion to celebrate!

The celebratory balloon : )

Our big kid- eating like a champ with his fork!

And, there must be cake...

This cupcake had gummy worms on top that Charlie really liked. As you can see, he was also fond of poking  the cupcake. To the left is the cute, chunky thigh of my youngest, who also enjoyed the festivities.

That's my boy!

Charlie's stats from the doctor's appointment:

26 lbs, 31.75 inches tall

I don't really know where to begin with an update on what Charlie is like at 18 months. I feel like he is growing and learning new things constantly, and I try to be very intentional about savoring this time with him. He is such a sweet, friendly, lovable kid, and I love hanging out with him. Running around with him outside is still my favorite thing to do with him, as well as snuggling and reading books together. Jimmy loves to wrestle with him, tickle him, chase him, and throw the baseball with him (as much as an 18-month-old can...). Henry smiles at him a lot when he is not rolling his eyes in annoyance over all the noise his big brother makes. Charlie seems to love being a big brother- he endlessly kisses and hugs Henry, giggles at him, and sometimes enjoys terrorizing him (which I think is probably par for the course with brothers). Charlie gets this really high-pitched voice when he gets in Henry's face and 

tries to talk to him. So far he just calls him "baby."

Charlie continues to love playing outside and is getting really good at climbing on things. He likes to push his trike, his dump truck, and his lawnmower. He is captivated by lawnmowers recently and his version of this word sounds like this: mawnmow. When he hears anything that even remotely sounds like a lawnmower, he gets wide eyes and repeats "mawnmow" over and over! A lot of times for words he will say the first syllable. Water is "wah," blueberry is "blue" or "blue-blue," bulldozer is "buh," etc. He is chatting up a storm, and we love to hear him talk! Trucks are also a big favorite. He loves to play with all his cars and trucks and drives them on pretty much anything standing still. Here he is in Jimmy's work truck one day:

He wasn't quite sure what to think about it, seeing a truck up close! He says "truck, truck!" a lot.

His newest Baby Einstein DVD is all about animals in the wild, and Charlie loves it! He likes to read animal books and we talk about what all the animals say very often. We hope to take him to a farm and the Asheboro Zoo this fall. 

Although he is a very active little boy, he will also play with things while in his feeding chair. Lately we have been having fun with play dough and crayons!

He likes playing with the container just as much as the actual playdough!

Henry watching big brother.

Exploring crayons and a coloring book

After a while, I just let him play with the crayons by themselves! He really liked taking them out and putting them back in the box. Whatever works... he's figuring things out!

Helping Mommy in the kitchen for the first time- stirring pancake batter!

He liked sticking his finger in there and licking the batter! (Not to worry, no raw eggs were involved...)

Sitting at the table like a big kid! We've started working on puzzles lately, too.

Our growing little boy is so much fun and such a priceless blessing. We love you Charlie Byrd!!!!