Hellobee

Charlie turns 15 months old today, and I am loving him so much lately! Of course it doesn’t hurt that I’m his favoritest person in the whole wide world, but he’s just so darn affectionate lately that he’s hard to resist. He loves to run into your arms and give you a hug. Whenever I’m sitting on the floor, Charlie uses me as his chair and sits in my lap. He waves hi and bye to just about everyone, and loves to blow kisses all the time. In fact he went around the room and gave a kiss on the cheek to every girl, including the teacher, at the end of his gym class today. I don’t think parents can be truly objective about whether their child is smart or cute. I don’t think Charlie is particularly smart or cute, but I do think that he gets a lot of attention for acting cute. He is such a flirt! He’s just the happiest little fellow, always with a huge smile plastered across his face. And he’s been cold-free for the past couple of weeks (the longest stretch this entire winter), so he’s been in an amazing mood. This has definitely been the most fun month of Charlie’s life to date!

Charlie was decked out in the new Brooklyn tie t-shirt that I picked up at a local shop, and a velvet blazer he received for his birthday.

Charlie’s Schedule

Charlie still takes two naps a day, but he is very, very slowly transitioning to one nap a day. The transition from 4 to 3 naps and 3 to 2 naps was pretty easy, but the transition from 2 to 1 is going to be tough because it’ll require him to stay awake for 6 hours in the mornings, when the longest he’s awake now is 4 1/2 hours before bedtime.

This is his schedule lately:

6:30am – 7:00am – Wake up, 5 1/2oz bottle
7:30am – Breakfast
9:00am – 10:00am – 6oz bottle, Nap #1
12:00pm – Lunch
2:00pm – 3:00pm – 6oz bottle, Nap #2
4:45pm – 4oz bottle
6:00pm – Dinner
7:00pm – Bath, 7 1/2oz bottle
7:30pm – Asleep

Charlie is still drinking a lot of milk, but since he’s always been such a picky eater, I haven’t been trying to cut back his milk.

Teeth and Eating

Charlie has all his teeth except for his rear molars. People are always asking if he’s a good eater since he has so many teeth. Perhaps he’s been such a bad eater since he’s pretty much been teething nonstop for the past 7 months. The past two weeks or so, Charlie has become a completely different baby solids wise. He’s eating so much that he poops 2-4 times a day every day, instead of once a day like he always did. He wants to eat everything I’m eating when he previously showed no interest. The change was literally overnight! His favorite foods right now are moo gook (Korean beef + radish soup), string cheese, Gerber strawberry yogurt melts (he can eat an entire bag in one day!), and veggie flavored Pirate’s Booty. He eats three good solid meals, has 5 bottles, and snacks throughout the entire day. Who is this baby?!  I hope it’s not just a growth spurt or a phase!

Talking

Charlie hasn’t really learned any other new words than the 7 that he already knows – ball, bubble, mama, dada, baba (milk), more, and uh oh. He can say “owl” because it’s in one of his favorite books, but I don’t think he really knows what it means. But he will say the words he knows if you ask him, “Charlie can you say dada, mama, bubble, etc?” You can check out a video of it here (he walks towards the bottle warmer when we ask him to say baba because he’s hungry). He says uh oh probably 100 times a day because we think it’s funny. And though he can really only say 7-8 words, his comprehension is pretty amazing, and he “talks” nonstop all day. Charlie learned how to sign “more” after one sign language class when he was around 9 months old, and it’s been absolutely invaluable in him being able to communicate when he’s hungry. With our next kid, I’m definitely going to be way more diligent about teaching sign language.

15 Month Checkup

Charlie had his 15 month vaccines this month, and our pediatrician asked if he could say 3-4 words, so Charlie is hitting his milestones right on track.  He even gave our pediatrician 3 pounds after a teary examination. Charlie was really sick around the time of his 12 month checkup so he slipped down into the 20th percentile for weight. But now he’s in the 50th percentile for weight and head circumference, and 75th percentile for height. (And 99th percentile for awesome Mr. Bee says.)

He loves french fries more than he loves chicken mcnuggets. Is there anyone in the world who doesn’t like fries?!

Quantity Time

Since I’ve been sick, Mr. Bee has been waking up with Charlie this past week and it’s had a dramatic effect on their relationship. Before, Mr. Bee would see him briefly before leaving for work and maybe an hour at most after work. Charlie was a big time mama’s boy and would cry if I left him in a room with Mr. Bee, and would only want me to give him his bath and bedtime bottle. Now Mr. Bee wakes up with Charlie, spends all morning with him and comes home after I put Charlie to bed. That morning bonding time is so important, perhaps because Charlie is always in the best mood in the mornings. Now Charlie sits in Mr. Bee’s lap (he’d previously only sit in my lap), constantly asks for dada, and runs to the window to say bye and blow kisses to Mr. Bee when he’s leaving in the morning. Quantity of time matters so much at this age. Maybe he’ll even start loving Mr. Bee more than he loves me soon!

Mr. Bee dipped Charlie’s fry into some hot mustard, and as you can see Charlie was not a fan.

Potty Training

We bought a potty and we’re going to slowly start potty training! We’re not going to push him hard if he’s not ready. We just want him to get used to the idea of the potty, even if he just sits on it for a little while each day. Charlie poops once a day about an hour after he wakes up, so it’s very predictable. My friend potty trained her son by 18 months, and I’m hoping to do the same with Charlie. Parents in Korea typically potty train way earlier than they do in America. My mom put me in underwear before 15 months because there was no way she was handwashing diapers for two babies. Sure there were accidents, but I was potty trained well before 18 months.

I feel so lucky every day that we have a healthy, happy, affectionate, hilarious baby. I couldn’t ask for anything more. Except maybe a daughter one day… who’s just as healthy and happy.

Overall month 14 was simply incredible and Charlie is so, so, so wonderful!