Bonnie & Clyve: Charlie is Almost Two!

In the first two years of his life, I think I wrote a blog post about Emmett every 2-3 months because I loved watching him learn and grow and develop and wanted to embrace and remember every minute. I still want to do all that with Charlie, of course, but now I literally do not have the time or energy. Poor Charlie only has a few blog posts and he's almost 2! Most days, my kids are barely surviving. I really don't understand how people have more than 2 kids.

These are some of the things I want to remember about Charlie forever:

Poor Charlie was thrown into a crazy world--I call him my Covid baby because he is a homebody who doesn't want to leave his mom's side. He never really left the house for the first year of his life, so I don't blame him. But it makes it pretty annoying when I need to run errands and he just yells at me "I wanna go home!" He's got a 30 minute limit for errand running with his mom (just like his Dad).

He loves to make us all laugh--especially Emmett. His go-to joke is "Emmett's a poo poo butt". And if I tell him to try and make Emmett laugh, he picks up one leg, cocks his head to the side, sticks out his tongue, and says "laaaaaa". It might not always work on Emmett, but it always works on me.

He's pretty tough, thanks to his big brother. Sometimes I'm shocked he's still alive after some of the things done to him. Although, he does get his feelings hurt pretty easily (also by his big brother). No one can make him as happy or as sad as Emmett can.

He knows what he wants and knows how to get it. Which usually means yelling at me until I cave.

When Emmett is at school he yells at me for the full 4 hours, "Where'd Emmett go? I miss Emmett!'

He gives the best unprompted hugs. He'll come up out of nowhere and say "Mom, need a hug", and I'll pick him up and he'll rest his head on my shoulder. I hope he never stops doing that.

He loves Vivo and Cocomelon and The Sand Lot. We really need to start showing him some more Disney movies to get him ready for Disneyland this spring. He's gonna have no idea who any of the characters are. Watching him watch The Sand Lot is especially cute

He gives the best side-eye glances. If he's happy, his smile looks like he's flirting with you. If he's grumpy, he looks like the most annoyed person on earth. There's no hiding his mood.

He still loves to dance. He'll bust a move to music he hears in the grocery store. And he has already learned to yell at Alexa in the same demanding tone we all do, (although, she can't understand him yet).

He started biting us a while ago and I had the bright idea of teaching him to lick instead of biting. He still gets the same shocked reaction, but it's a little less violent, so I guess it's better? Although maybe not in this health climate.

He is a champion sleeper. His nap schedule is all wonky because Emmett's school goes to 1:30. So, he usually naps from 2-4 and I have to wake him up so it doesn't affect bedtime. But he still goes to bed at 7 or 7:30, no problem! He even tells me when he's tired. "I go night night" and then gets so happy for us to put him to bed. He'll say "Mom, laugh!" and then I need to do something to make him laugh before we put him in his crib. Then, he'll say "Mom, kiss Dad" and watch Billy and I kiss each other and laugh, drunk with power. And then he says "Lick Emmett" and we'll lower him down so Emmett can lick his face. Brothers are so weird.

He has really bad separation anxiety. We'll all be playing outside and Billy goes inside to get some water and Charlie sobs, "Daaaaaad!" like he's abandoning him on the side of the road. I'm guessing it's from covid and never meeting another human being until he was 1. We've left him with a sitter a few times, and he cries for a solid 30 minutes before he calms down. We still haven't been able to leave him in nursery. Even if we try to sneak out, he looks for us every few minutes. I used to be a little offended that Emmett never had a glimmer of separation anxiety. Like, he could have been kidnapped at Charlie's age and I swear he would have just joined another family and been fine. He never gave us any acknowledgement that he actually needed us. But Charlie won't even let me workout at the gym for a half hour. There's gotta be a happy medium somewhere in there.

We have to call him Curious Charlie so we don't call him naughty. I love watching him explore and investigate things, but man does he make a mess! His brain works so differently than mine or Emmett's. I'm convinced he's how Billy was as a child. He has to open every single door and dump out every single item to go through it all. He likes to push things to the limit. All of our kid's books with the little flaps are completely ripped off cause he likes to see what happens when he pulls them off. He better freaking discover the cure to cancer or something with that inquisitive brain, and then maybe all the messes will have been worth it.

He tells us whenever he poops, but I have a strict no potty training before 3 rule. He's probably not really ready, because whenever we change his diaper, he gets a goofy grin and says, "I go poop!" and tries to push out a poop or pee to freak us out and then laughs his head off at our faces.

He has kind of a sick sense of humor. He'll run out into the parking lot and turn around to see my panicked face sprinting towards him and laugh his head off. We created this human, Billy. Taking any and all advice on how to make him afraid of things like cars or falling off things.

He loves to chant phrases, especially around meal times. He'll say "Bottle time, Bottle time, Bottle time!" or "waffle time, waffle time, waffle time!" to hype himself up for his meal.

He calls all chicken, "chicken nugget". Like yesterday, I made chicken tikka masala and he ate all of it and then yelled "mo chicken nugget!" He loves eating. I was worried Emmett's pickiness would rub off on him, but it hasn't yet. He'll eat whatever Billy and I do. I have so many pictures of him eating, because I love the little faces he makes. He gets really into it and kind of furrows his brow so he can open his mouth as wide as he can and get the biggest bite. Kinda like how a bear would eat, I imagine.

He's got some anger issues. I think that all the times that Emmett bullied him when he couldn't fight back are finally catching up. He gets a rage that comes over him and he growls and fights back and it takes everything in me not to laugh.

I really hate when people say this, because gender is just a social construct, but he really is all boy. Or all what you think of when you think of a stereotypical boy. He's obsessed with balls, cars, trucks, airplanes (basically anything with a motor), sports, climbing, and wrestling. He's into whatever makes his momma the most worried about his safety. When I give him a bath, he thinks it's funny to stand up and then jump and land on his bum and get water all over me and the whole bathroom. He also thinks it's funny to climb out of the tub and run around the house wet and naked. If I ever forget to put his pants back on him after a diaper change, his diaper will be off in 2.5 seconds.

He's already had stitches and he's not even two yet. I need to brace myself for more ER trips in my future. We have a horizontal filing cabinet in our kitchen that we use as a microwave stand/snack drawer (#apartmentliving). But Charlie started putting toys into the microwave and turning it on. Some of which were made of metal. So, I quickly moved the microwave to a higher countertop. And literally the next day, Charlie is climbing on the filing cabinet to look out the window and see our trash truck empty the dumpster. He slips and smacks the bridge of his nose on the edge and needs stitches. When Emmett was little, we baby-proofed our apartment as soon as he was mobile, and then quickly learned that we didn't really need to--he wasn't trying to get into every drawer and cabinet. He was content going after his toys and the remote.

But with Charlie, we need to go above and beyond babyproofing--that next level is Charlie-proofing and its virtually impossible. We have locks on every drawer that is his height. We have locks on every single door. We have cleared every shelf of anything breakable, and we have just given up to the fact that most days he will be on top of the kitchen table. I have locks on our stove nozzles, because he has caused a gas leak before. I have a lock on my dishwasher, because he'll open it up and grab the knives out. Every few days, he'll come hand me some scissors that he isn't supposed to have and I still don't know where he gets them. If I can keep this kid alive until he's 18, then you know there really is a God, because he has no sense of self-preservation.

He is 100% Billy. I have diagnosed Billy as an enneagram 5. He hates big groups of people, it drains his energy so quickly. The other day, we went to a Friendsgiving dinner at a park. There were a lot of kids there. Charlie takes one look at the playground swarming with children and turns around and starts walking back to the car "I go home". Which is even funnier in comparison to his big brother who sees a swarm of children and lights up and is so energized by it. Love my little introvert and extrovert.

He has so many words, it's kind of crazy to me. For a while, I was worried because he wasn't keeping up with Emmett's ability to speak sentences at 18 months, but he has so many words now, I kind of wish he'd stop! Except when he says "what the heck?!?", it still makes me laugh every time.

We love our little Chucky who is not so little anymore!

I gave birth to my husband.

Notice how he's balancing on the ledge and lunging forward? He loves to torment me.

Whenever he sees an elephant, he now yells "Epetan, Halloween!"

I wish I could hike on someone's shoulders.

Meeting his new cousin--baby Jackson! He was so proud to not be the baby of the Strongs anymore.

Jackson loved being licked like a puppy. Sorry Trav and Court!

The climbing is out of control

Waiting for his stitches

That guilty grin is because he pushed the Code button and got all the staff to come rushing into our room. Fun times.

Not a fun day for either of us. Having to hold your baby down while he's sobbing and looking at you "Mommy! All done! All done!" is my new least favorite thing to do.