Chatterbox

Charlie is talking non-stop! I think he has decided he needs to make up for lost time, so his little gums start flapping when he’s lying in his crib in the morning waiting for someone to come get him (this morning I heard him say excitedly, Birthday cake!) and he doesn’t stop talking until bed or we try to get him to talk on the phone (he’s not interested in performing). He has conversations with us (one we had this morning went like this:  Hi Mommy! Hi Charlie. How you mommy?  I’m good, Charlie, how are you? I’m fine mommy. – and this was after I’d left the room for approximately 30 seconds). He also has conversations with himself; it’s not unusual for him to pick something up and say, “Thank you Charlie. You’re welcome Charlie.”  He has very good manners when talking to himself!  And a minute ago, he just told me “I goin gym” and went marching off with his turtle bag. He likes to repeat instructions he’s been told in an authoritative voice, “DO NOT SIT ON COUCH!” (he’s got that one a little confused, he was of course told not to stand on the couch, but oh well).  I especially love when he looks for his toys; "Where aahhh you waa-ie (lovey)?” is a frequent question we hear.  It’s crazy to realize how much he remembers now, too. He’s been to get donuts a couple times with his daddy, and now whenever we’re driving on the GW Parkway and pass Belle View Blvd (where Dunkin Donuts is), he says, “Goin donuts?”  It’s pretty cool that he recognizes the street (though I wish that wasn’t an indication of how many times we eat crappy breakfasts!).

I wish I could remember all of the funny things he says now. His pronunciations are great – he calls himself “Charwee” and talks about “disonors” instead of dinosaurs. When we leave the park (no matter what day it is), he  says, “Have a nice weekend, kids”, and he still uses “See you back” instead of see you later on a regular basis.  The other day, his daddy found a stinkbug (one of many!) in the house, and put it on the counter for Charlie, who of course picked it right up.  He wanted to hold it up to his head so he could “hug” it, and he said, ‘Awww, turtle’.  When we listen to Here Comes the Sun on his Beatles CD, he always says, ‘It’s alright’ every time they sing it. He also asks for things in Spanish now and then – if we don’t respond to his first or second request for music, he’ll start asking for musica in a very loud voice, as if we aren’t understanding him in English. He also adds a sounds to the end of his words, like ‘Helpa me’ or ‘Sita witha me’ (which means he wants to sit on your lap). He still loves numbers – he now has several sets of cards with numbers and pictures on them, and last night he wanted to sleep with Number 3, Number 4 and Number 11.  He talks about them like they’re his friends. And if he starts to get antsy at a restaurant or someplace public, we can often calm him down by writing numbers on a piece of paper while he counts from 1 to 20. We took him to a Nationals game a few weeks ago, and he was so excited to see number 18 and number 19 on the seats next to us.

He’s keeping us VERY busy these days, and very entertained.