Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Charlie's summer

I'm actually ahead on my project, Charlie is down for nap without fuss, and the house is clean. Ahhhhhhhhh. Time to blog!

And speaking of Charlie, can I just say holy cra-yup he has changed so much over the summer. Or maybe it was me, I don't know. But once we were at my MIL's I decided enough is enough, let's get off this merry-go-round of veggie burgers/quesadillas/mac and cheese for dinner. I'm sick of making something extra for Charlie. Let's see what happens if we just give him what we eat with no other options! (And yes, yes I know I should have been doing this from the start, but Charlie had some, shall we say, texture issues? Issues that prevented him from consuming fresh fruit, vegetables, and any type of meat without gagging and spitting or vomiting! You'd avoid it too!) And it was HS's job to deal with the fall-out because the whole eating thing is an issue for me, and dammit, Charlie knows it. And do you know what? The boy eats! I almost sobbed with happiness last night when he slurped up his diced tomato and chowed down on a hamburger. But that's not all! He'll eat salmon! chicken! steak! tomato sauce! And, with some encouragement, apple slices! grapes! raspberries! Oddly enought though, no blueberries. But who cares! He will eat. Almost anything as it turns out. Even, ahem, peanut butter, thanks to my dad. Apparently I hadn't briefed him on the finer points of children's allergies and the holding off until three for peanuts when you have food allergies in the family thing. But that's what happens grandpa looks after your baby while you catch some extra shut-eye. Anarchy! Luckily Charlie is just fine with nuts (thank god, because I have a friend with a severe nut allergy and it really sucks). Don't you hate it when you get all worked up and worried about something that turns out fine and you really should have tried it sooner? Yeah, me too.

So eating, good. Sleeping, not so good. Charlie has decided that he'd rather not nap, thank you. He'd much prefer to bake a cake, truth be known (that has been his reason for not sleeping for the past few days. I have no idea why his culinary aspirations must be fulfilled just before naptime, but there you go). And now that he's in a big-boy bed, I can't just leave him to pound the wall and shake the bars until he falls asleep. So I've been singing my heart out and lying beside him until he drops off, which he does, because he is actually tired and there's no way I'm ready for him to drop his nap yet. But the worst part is we can no longer transfer him from the car to his bed if he falls asleep. Dammit, that was a sweet ride while it lasted. It seems that now a 15-20 minute catnap in the car can make up for what is usually (once he's wrestled to sleep) two hours at home. At least now that we're at home he's not getting up in the middle of the night, which was a horrid reminder of all that sleep deprivation of babyhood. I think that three weeks away was a little much for him, and the twice-nightly wake-up calls were just a way of saying "let's go home. Grandma's house is nice 'n' all, but I want my own bed, not this toddler aerobed you're trying to pass off as my futon." But for the first two weeks, the toddler aerobed worked just fine, so I highly recommend one. It's just a smaller blow-up mattress, but it has raised edges to prevent the little guys from falling out. Although Charlie landed on the floor one night anyway, for the most part it kept him in place.

Oh and he's reading. He can recognize quite a few words now, and I'm so f*cking proud, but I really don't feel like we should talk about it, because that would be bragging, but really, isn't a blog the perfect place to say this stuff? So there you go. Charlie's summer in a nutshell: He eats! He doesn't sleep! But he reads! And he's nowhere near potty-trained!

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