Charlie Update

We think we should make some money off this guy.  Seriously, is it just us, or is he really super cute?
Charlie is certainly our little charmer.  Without trying he somehow manages to be endearing at almost everything he does.  Some how he’s even charming  (to me) when he’s in trouble or being ornery.  I remember thinking how different I felt about him as a screaming two year old than I had about Hazel. Somehow I just didn’t take his tantrums very seriously, I could remove myself from what was happening and just see a struggling two year old trying on all kinds of crazy behavior.  I know that it was hugely that I was a more experienced, less nervous mom by the time Charlie hit that difficult stage….but there is also a little something in his personality that makes him just, well, kind of charming.  Frankly,  I’m a little worried about what this will do to him.  He knows he has most people wrapped around his little finger from the get go.  We hope his good sense of right or wrong will somehow keep him from becoming a self absorbed little punk.  

Charlie is super into:

• sticking out his tongue….pretty much all the time, but especially when he’s concentrating.  we’re just hoping he doesn’t bite it off one day while trying to run full speed
• building with whatever he can get his hands on….rocks on a hike, sand at the beach, dirt in the backyard, play doh, legos, kapla blogs, geotrax (or gediotrax as he calls them), paper, leftover wood and metal from random house projects.  He’s a builder and loves to know how things work.
• space.  he’s decided to give up his ambitions to be a fire fighter and be an astronaut instead.
• subarus.  Jeff has started this obsession and even though Jeff has moved onto love affairs with other cars, subarus have stuck for Charlie.  Today Jeff suggested that when it’s time for a new car we get a toyoto land cruiser.  Charlie burst into tears and told us he’d punch that car if we got it instead of a Subaru.  we’re not getting any car anytime soon.
• acting all big and grown up.
• trying to sketch all kinds of aircrafts from Jeff’s huge aircraft book.  The other day he was showing me his drawings and telling me that they were all airplanes.  I found a few that I thought looked more like Helicopters.  I told him I thought they were Helicopters and gave him some good reasons why (like that they have a propeller on the top).  He didn’t buy any of my explanations and finally said, “well, mom, sadly, they’re not helicopters.”
• his model rocket.  he’s only flown it once, but he carries around the house pretty much non stop.
• his tomato plant.  he grew one this year from a little seed he got at a birthday party.  when we were at Bear Lake I asked him what the first thing he was going to do when he got home.  Without hesitation he said, “run in the back yawd and see how big my tomato plant is.”
• trying to do wheelies on his pink hand me down barbie bike…..oops, I mean his “tough guy bike.”  He’s convinced that it’s not too girly for him because the pink plastic basket on the front is broken.
• spohts (translation: sports).  Charlie has the greatest accent/speech impediment ever.  We all love the way he talks.  Jeff was trying to help him put his laundry away the other day and asking which drawers different things belonged in.  “No, my shohts go in that drawer, no, not my shohts, my shohts!” (Translation: No, my shirts go in that drawer, no, not my shorts, not my shirts!”
• saving up money for his remote control helicopter.  he’s the best saver of the two (Hazel HAS to spend money the second she gets it).  He’s been doing all kinds of helpful money jobs for quarters.
• Running fast.  Charlie has been wohking weally hawd on running fast.  He’s actually getting a little faster than pretty slow.
• His sisters.  Charlie is a dear big and little brother.  He’s a great little friend to Hazel (sure, they fight a lot, but they sure make up for it by the way the play and talk with each other the rest of the time….it pretty much melts my heart to see such a strong bond between them).  When Charlie isn’t making Emmeilne scream “NO!” at him his is being incredibly cute to her, he loves to help her learn new things, to join her in her crib in the morning.  She loves him, always greats him with a “Hey, Chawly.”

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  All in all, Charlie is a pretty awesome boy (and he knows it).