Our Char

Charlie, playing in my parents backyard after his first official day of nursery!
I recently realized that in most of the last month's worth of posts, Char is flying under the radar. How did that happen? Lest you think that he is not as favored as his other two brothers, here is a post all about him.
Charlie just turned 18 months and we are loving his sophisticated age! He is such a curious, stubborn, snuggly, busy and goofy little friend. It is so fun to see Char's personality shaping. Charlie is so different from his older brother and I don't know why that surprises me so much. Here is a list of things that you may not know about our little Char (especially since I haven't been blogging about him of late).

Char, wooing Aunt Kathleen

Charlie at 18 months

• Where Mason would rather be with someone he loves more than anything else (even if that means he will be bored out of his gourd), Charlie prefers being busy. He loves you company, but not if it is going to slow him down in any way. 
• This boy is always on the move! All day long his little bowlegged legs toddle around the house creating some sort of havoc.
• His bowlegs are getting a little straighter, but are still more bowed than most toddlers his doctor has seen.
• Charlie loves his brothers. He idolizes Mason and often is found copying everything his brother does. He also adores his little brother, McCabe, and bestows the softest smooches on his bald little head every chance he gets. He also shows his adoration by occasionally sitting on his brother or poking his baby-blues.
• As much as he loves his brothers, he especially thrives when he has special time with either Mommy or Poppy.
• If you are sitting on the ground when Char is in the mood to snuggle, he will scoot backward on his hiney until he is on your lap. This is always incredibly endearing.
• Speaking of his hiney, Char's is quite bootalicious. James and I expect some mighty high standing jumps from this little man.
• Charlie loves to dance! Any time any sort of music comes on, he stops whatever he is doing and goes into a tap-dancing frenzy with twirls and kicks. On St. Patrick day I watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People and was pleasantly surprised to see that the way the leprechauns in the movie do their celebratory jigs were very much like our little Char's.

Charlie somehow managed to play in the dirt in his Sunday best.

• Fittingly, ever since Char was a wee one, James has had a little leprechaun voice and laugh for Char that comes out at the most unexpected and happy moments.
• There is something about Charlie and his name that makes it incredibly easy to create nicknames for him. New ones come almost daily. At the moment James generally refers to him as Raz-apple-chas (or any sort of variation of this: Raz-apple-magic, Raz-ma-chas, Razzleberry, etc.).
• Char's favorite word is Poop. Go figure.
• Charlie loves blueberries, bananas, raisins, goldfish crackers and any sort of other finger food. But he seriously loves pizza. He can eat many a slice without slowing down. 
• Even with his supreme porking abilities, he is still only in the 8th percentile for weight.
• Charlie has started toting a blanket around with him like his big brother, Mason. We even find him sticking it in his mouth from time to time. Anything to be like Mason. Peer pressure can be hard to resist. :)
• Charlie sleeps most often on his tummy with his legs tucked up underneath him.
• He drools when he sleeps on his face.
• Unfortunately, he wakes up at any sound. Thankfully, he is pretty good about flopping back into sleep-mode at night.
• Charlie has an amazing temper. It is improving, but if he is hungry or sleepy WATCH OUT!
• Char is quite the outdoors-man. Maybe even more than his older brother.
• Char is our little ball lover and has an incredible throw for being such a little chap.
• Charlie is our little introvert and seems to be a little shy at times and generally takes a little longer to warm up to a new friend than his extroverted older brother. However, he also seems to play this up at time when trying to woo the women-folk.
• Char loves to "help" with cooking and washing dishes.
• Nearly everyone still thinks that he looks like his Pops. I wouldn't mind if he did, but I know they are all mistaken. He takes after his Mommy's good looks.

We love Charlie!