Happy Birthday Charlie

Charlie turned on on Monday! It's hard to believe he is already that old... practically a toddler! Time seems to always fly by, but this year has gone by faster than most it seems when I think in terms of Charlie. I guess each child's first year must seem to go by faster and faster as the parents get more and more busy! The year seems to have gotten away from me so much that I think I treat Charlie as more of a baby than he is and forget about the advancing skills that he should have. Not saying he is beind at all, just that I guess I am sometimes surprised when I notice him seeming more mature than he seems like he should be since I still think of him as a baby baby. Make any sense?

Our big boy is beginning to toddle around and very proud of himself when he manages to cross a room or distance further than from the coffee table to the couch. He loves to jabber and is quite good at mimicking sounds (a click of the tongue, flubbering lips, shushing sounds, etc.). I'm having visions of two children who talk non-stop...

Charlie is totally in love with his big brother. It is so amusing to me to watch how excited and animated he gets when we climb the stairs to get Davey after his nap. Body convulsions, squeals of delight, laughing like crazy. And it is reciprocated by Davey once we enter his room. So cute. Each afternoon it's like a reuion of two long-lost brothers.

Charlie is still a very happy boy who plays well on his own. He is quick to smile, loves to be silly and will laugh even through tears.

I am having a bit of a struggle with feeding Charlie now that we're in Bahrain. Babies must be fed mostly home-made baby food because jarred baby food is in extremely short supply here, even in the more western-geared stores. I have only found one store that carries any jarred vegetables and it is just one jar of mixed vegetables, which Charlie does not care for. Everything is fruit, and only apples an bananas. And everything has added sugar. I have been trying to get him to eat my own home-made baby food but have not had much success so far... There are a few foods, however, that Charlie absolutely loves and will eat until he vomits. Thus each feeding of these things always ends in a screaming fit worthy of a full-on tantrum because I have to cut him off before he wants to be done. They are yogurt, bananas and spaghetti. Luckily I have recently realized that spaghetti sauce can hide a multitude of mashed vegetables, so it may be spaghetti for dinner every night until I can get him to expand his horizons.

A happy boy birthday morning in the midst of eating his yogurt.

Dave had the day off so we used it to go exploring a bit around the island. I'll include a separate post about that adventure.

At 5:30 a neighbor family (the only people we know outside of Dave's work!) joined us with their twin boys for some cupcakes...

Frame one: Charlie desperately trying to get that cupcake

(how do kids instinctively know when something is sweet?

I swear he's never had a cupcake before)

Frame two: Distracted a bit by the Happy Birthday song

Frame three: Delight when he is finally presented with the cupcake

Frame four: No hesitation to dig in once he tasted that frosting!

No explanation needed here!
There was nothing left of that cupcake but a few crumbs!

Afterward we opened a few gifts that I had to run out and get at the last minute (his bday gifts were in our shipment that was supposed to be there before Christmas but still hadn't arrived as of his birthday).

Apparently I picked well; the toys were a hit!
Charlie often has to wrestle the little cars from Davey, but he got the hang of it right away.


Having fun with the twins.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this darling little birthday body!

Of course Davey didn't want to be left out.

We hope you had a great birthday, Charlie! We love you so much!