10 1/2 Months

Charlie is SO much fun right now. Well, not RIGHT now. Today he has a fever and is pretty miserable. Hopefully it's just a small bug. But the past few weeks he has been a lot of fun. Here's what he is like at 10 1/2 months:

• Talking - Charlie now says Mama ALL the time. He usually says three "ma"s and it comes out MaMaMa. It sounds like My Momma and I find it adorable. He also says Dada for Kyle now and he is doing a lot more babbling. 
• Recognizing Words - I can tell that Charlie understands more words now. A few days ago I said "Charlie, why did you take your socks off?" and he reached down and picked up his sock and showed it to me with a big smile. Things like that happen a lot that make me realize he is comprehending more vocabulary every day. 
• No Walking Yet - I won the bet regarding Charlie's walking, which means a new iPhone4s for Mommy. Woo hoo! That also means better video quality for the blog. :)
• Personality - As Charlie gets older, we see more of his personality developing. For example:
• Not a morning person - Since the day he was born, Charlie has had a hard time waking up. When he wakes up in the morning, he seems totally out of it for several minutes. He spends a long time stretching while I change his diaper and he doesn't smile until he wakes up a little. After a while, he turns into the sweet Charlie we know. I'm sure when he's a teenager this trait is going to get even worse!
• Curious Old Soul - Like his Mommy and Daddy, Charlie is a very curious little boy. People often say that his face seems old or that he seems like an old soul. I think these are all sort of the same thing. It's hard to describe, but I can give you an example. During story time at the library last week, all of the kids were playing with bubbles. Most of them were laughing, popping bubbles, and being silly. Charlie was staring at them and trying to pop them, but he wasn't laughing. He was studying them. He got frustrated when he tried to touch them and they popped. He looked at me like, "What the H-E-L-L are these things?!"
• Falling Asleep in the Car - When Charlie is about to fall asleep in the car, he gets a look on his face like he's questioning the meaning of life. It used to upset me because he looked so depressed. But I finally realized that just his "zoning out" look he gets before he falls asleep.
• Play Time - Charlie and I have found more fun activities around us, especially now that he is getting more mobile. We found a small playground inside the mall that will be great this winter. We also tried out a Little Gym class and Charlie LOVED it. Here he is getting away from me at the mall playground. 

• Growth Spurt? - It's amazing to me how much Charlie has been eating lately. At dinner a few nights ago he ate all of his fruit and oatmeal baby food and then ate almost 2 pieces of my pizza! He might have eaten more but we were ready to go and I was getting grossed out by how much he had eaten. Here he is enjoying Nana's spaghetti and meatballs.

• I was in the church nursery this week with Charlie and got some pictures and video of snack time. The little kids on either side of him are almost 4, so Charlie looks even smaller than usual. He was so adorable having snack with all the big kids!