23 Months Old

Charlie,

You're almost TWO but not yet! Here's what you did this past month ...

It's been a WORD EXPLOSION around here. You now say the following words (some old but many new): mama, dada, PaPaw, MaMaw, ball, kitty, car, light, moo, bottle (ba-ba), done (da), spoon, duck (quack), dog (woof), play, "A" and "D" (when you play with your bath time letters), hi, balloon, fishy, uh-oh, hey, bye-bye, choo choo, and last night you said bear for the first time! I pointed to a teddy bear and said, "What's that?" and you looked at me and pursed your lips and YELLED, "Bear!" It was hilarious. It was like it's been in your head all along and it just HAD to get out, "BEAR!" Tonight, you said shoe for the first time. Lately, it's been a word a day. What will it be tomorrow???



You had your first popcorn at the Bolen Pig Roast. So now that we know you like it and won't choke on it, we get popcorn every time we go to the Winking Lizard Tavern. This is your new favorite restaurant because they have popcorn and skee-ball. They also have a big lizard, but so far you are not interested in him.

Jason & Hailey watched you one day while we went on a lunch date. You cried either because you missed us or because you were very tired. You feel asleep while Hailey held you. Uncle Jason snapped this picture.



You can do puzzles. You can do leggos. You like to hug your Elmo doll. You love to look at pictures in books and say the words you know. You love to throw or roll a ball to us. Playgrounds (especially swings and slides) are the best thing in the world.





You saw some Halloween stuff for the first time. You looked pleasantly frightened.

You love to stand on the couch and fall forward (like a falling log) into our arms. You scream with delight every time.

Actually, you scream with delight all the time and sometimes for no apparent reason whatsoever. You happily screamed non-stop for two days when your cousin Henry came for a visit.



You know that cows say moo, dogs saw woof, ducks say quack, birds say tweety-tweet, and elephants say brrrrrrr and raise their trunks into the air. You know where your nose, hair, and ears are.

You love to "play drums" with anything that even remotely resembles a drum. Here you are drumming the table with a stick.



You give me a huge running hug every morning before you go to MaMaw and PaPaw's house, and if you're not too busy watching Baby Einstein DVDs, you sometimes give me a huge running hug when I pick you up in the evening.