The Holbrook Family: Charlie Update

Charlie continues to grow and change everyday. He is still very sweet and very loving, but he is also testing his boundaries and developing his two-year-old tantrum tactics. When he doesn't get what he wants, his current approach is to throw himself on the ground in a classic flop and then cry about his "owie". It's pretty funny. We also do timeout with him when he needs it and he is surprisingly good about it. He sits on the bottom step for two minutes. A few days ago he refused to pick up his crayons so he went to time out. When he got out, he STILL refused to pick up his crayons and went back to timeout. By the time that timeout was over, lunch was ready, but I wouldn't let him eat until he picked up his crayons, so he finally did. If it wasn't lunch time, I have no idea how many times he would have gone back to time out. I was so surprised by his sudden move to test me.

In addition to testing his boundaries, we are surprised daily with Charlie's expanding vocabulary. He can still be difficult to understand, but he is getting better. He talks all the time now and he understands most everything. Yesterday I took him to gymnastics because Lili was sick. When we were leaving, I told him
"Thank you for going to gymnastics with me. I know I couldn't do as much as Lili does with you because I'm carrying baby Holly." He said "yeah, Lili better gymnastics." Wow. I didn't know he even knew the word "better."

I'm sure school is helping a lot with his vocabulary, and his social skills. He is less timid around other kids now and will sometimes be the aggressor rather than always being the one whose toy is stolen. His teachers tell me that he has grown up a lot this year. (Although they warned me that it may change for a while after Holly is here.) His teachers are so good to him and they really pay attention to what each child needs. In fact, they told me that they don't talk about Holly much because they want him to feel like school is his place and all about him, since he is going to have to share everyone else with baby Holly soon. I can tell Charlie is comfortable there now and he doesn't cry at all when I drop him off. He goes right in and plays and waves good-bye to me. I am SO thankful for that! Yesterday he even told me that school was fun!

My biggest challenge with Charlie right now is getting him to play by himself. He always wants me to play with him. ALWAYS. If I'm busy doing something, he wants to help. And if he can tell that I just want to sit on the couch for a minute, he says "Mommy, up? Play? Please?" I know this is probably my fault because I do play with him a lot. But I'm trying now to force him to play by himself. I don't like to turn on his TV shows much because he'll just sit down and watch them rather than play. It's a constant battle. He'll climb on me, cry, hang on me, ask for hugs, kisses, anything. Now he even says, "Mommy, attention!" because I would ask him, "do you need attention?" when he was climbing on me. This week I tried playing with him in the mornings and then making a conscious effort not to play with him in the afternoon. That way I don't feel guilty because I did play with him some each day. I know when Holly gets here I'll have even less time and energy to play, so this issue will continue and probably get worse before it gets better. I'm hoping that he will be forced to play by himself more while I'm busy caring for Holly. We'll see...

Here are some recent pictures of our wonderful toddler!