Charlie: 17 months...

17-month highlights:

• Charlie would not sit still long enough to allow me to take a few pictures.  I finally settled for a few of him reading with daddy.  It was the best I could do this month.
• Charlie has developed a love for making animal sounds.  He can moo (boo), quack (guck), and oink.  Henry gets a kick out of looking at books with him and pointing to all the animals and saying, "Charlie, what does a (pig, cow, duck) say?"
• We got our Christmas decor out a few days ago, and Charlie LOVES playing with the fisher-price nativity set.  He also loves to carry around baby Jesus from my nativity set.  If you were a fly on the wall in our house you might hear us saying funny things like, "Charlie, take baby Jesus out of your mouth!" or "No Charlie, baby Jesus does not go in the bathtub".
• Charlie still loves books.  His favorites are still Richard Scarry books.
• Charlie's rain boots are still a big hit with him.
• In the morning when I make smoothies Charlie loves to grab Henry's cup and run and give it to him.  Henry always says, "Thank you, Charlie!" and then Charlie gets a huge grin on his face.
• We seem to be entering a new stage of communication.  Charlie wants to talk so badly, but he mostly just says, "Dah!"  Although, in the past month, along with his "dah" he has been pointing emphatically to what he is trying to show/tell us, and we can usually figure out what he wants.  It will be nice when he can actually start talking though :)
• Charlie likes to copy John when he works out.  He will do push ups, sit ups, and leg lifts right along with him.
• When Charlie wants something to eat or drink he will walk to his cupboard and bring me a plate or cup.  Then he will walk to the fridge or pantry and point to what he wants me to get him.
• And, as has been the case since pretty much day 1 with Charlie, he still LOVES to eat.  He eats so much more than Henry every day, and he can probably out eat me at some meals too!  His teenage years are going to be scary :)
• He is still napping well.  He sleeps in Henry's bed for 2-3 hours every afternoon.  It is glorious, and something that I will NEVER take for granted.
• Sleeping at night is going pretty well too.  He goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00.  I rock him to sleep because if I don't he will literally cry for hours, and quite frankly, I really don't mind rocking him to sleep.  I know he will outgrow this, just like Henry, so I will savor my chance to rock him now.  He usually sleeps in his crib until anywhere between 4 and 6, and then we will get him up and put him in bed with us for the last little bit of nighttime sleep.
• Charlie is currently very much a mama's boy.  He is fine with John, but much prefers mom to dad.
• Oh, and it should also be noted that Charlie locked himself in Henry's bedroom for 30 minutes last week (the first 20 minutes he was as happy as a clam, but the last 10 weren't so great).  My dad had to come over to help me get him out, which ended up being a really easy fix!  Thank goodness :)
• Charlie is still a joy and delight.  We just love watching him grow and change.  What a blessing he is to our family!