Video of first steps

A video of Charlie's first day of walking, with a few stumbles along the way.

Video compilation of 0-12 Months

I've just finished trawling through 10 hours (120GB) of digital video footage of Charlie's 1st year and managed to condense it all in to this fast-moving 8 minute compilation! I hope you enjoy watching it.

I'm sure his hair-style wasn't as bad in reality as it looks on film!

Walking (unaided)!

This weekend Charlie finally started to walk. He was the last one in his baby group to do it. Over the space of two days he's improved from just a short shuffle to a really long stagger. He's already so confident that he has been kicking footballs too and carrying heavy objects around. As he takes each step, he chants to himself "Walk, walk, walk....,".

[Video footage to follow soon]

Likes & Dislikes at 15 months

Likes:

• Food: Marmite, Shreddies, Shepherds pie & Dipping sauces

• Drink: Tea, juice & more tea

• Hobbies: Flying kites, slides & swings & aeroplane spotting

• Sports: Cycling, swimming & football

• TV & Film: Tikkabilla & Elmo

• Music: Radio 3, Reggae & TERT

• Toys: Sheep puppet & train

• Miscellaneous: Touching the ceiling

Dislikes:

• Food: Green beans & strawberries

• Drink: Appletise

• Hobbies: Jigsaws

• Sports: Motor racing

• TV & Film: The Hoobs

• Toys: Panda (love/hate?)

• Music: Radio 1

• Miscellaneous: Hoover

Chit Chat

Charlie now talks all the time. If other people are talking he just makes a loud screech until he can get a word in. He understands loads of things and imitates many words that we say. Sometimes he says words that we don't know he'd learnt. Such as today, in a furniture shop he suddenly pointed and said "bed".

Here is a list of the most of the words he's said reccently:

Dad-dad (for Grandad), Yiaya (Greek for Grandmother), Bunny, (Fl)ower, (Sh)ower, Bee, Boingy, (Fr)og, DVD, (Cl)ock, (C)at, (S)poon, (Re)mote, Eye, Bath, Birdy, Door, Wall, Look, Milk, Hat, (F)eet, (B)ox, Choo-choo, (D)inner, Bubble, Juice, Bike, Boat & (Ba)nana.

The bits in brackets he doesn't pronounce. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, he'll wake up to practice his vocabulary, much to our amusement at 2a.m.! Another thing he does is to tell the story of his busy day using only the list above.

Catch up

Hmm. It's been a while since I gave any updates.

First I'll start with Charlie's latest stats. He's now 15 months old, still 26 lb, 77cm tall and now has lighter brown hair. He has 8 (and a quarter) teeth which all caused a lot of fuss.

He sleeps pretty well at night although for some reason he likes to get up between 5-5.30am which is very tiring.

Last month he had back-to-back ear infections which was a tough time but he has now been well for a few weeks.

Euro 2008 competition

For Nick's Euro 2008 competition click here to go to www.tert.co.uk/footy.htm

Make sure you add it to your favourites!

Walking (Aided)

To go one better than just crawling, Charlie has quickly started to get up and about. He now can walk around with the aid of a support like this "Stride & Ride" which his Uncle Buster bought for Christmas. He can also climb the stairs with ease and lives up to his "Indiana Chasbo" nickname. His favourite word at the moment is "Hoover", although he pronounces it more like "Rooooooooooba".

He has just cut his 5th tooth and he eats anything/everything in sight, including garlic bread, tomato slices, bananas, chili con carne and enjoys a nice cup of tea in the morning. He doesn't like Appletise.

One year old

I can't believe how much has happened in the last year! Charlie seems to have grown up from a tiny little burping baby in to a remarkable little boy. He fits in to our little family perfectly with his cheeky sense of humour, large appetite, love of music & football and a loud booming voice.

Charlie loves his football

See below for a snippet of crawling action!

He's been crawling for around 2 weeks now and can crawl much faster than this when there is a need for urgency e.g. escaping nappy time.

Recently, in the morning, he has been very excited when waking up (usually at 5.15am). We think this is due to his new found skills and wanting to get up and about, to explore.

As per the clip, he really does love his football. He can head the ball more accurately than John Arne Riise.

Bab Crawl (11 months update)

Charlie has finally started to crawl and now he won't stop. The health visitor thought he wouldn't bother crawling but she got it wrong. He can also pull himself up very quickly on to the side of furniture and stands up in his cot when he's had enough sleep or wants to practice in the middle of the night. He also knows how to turn on the dvd player and open the disc tray, so we have had to do some urgent baby-proofing in the house.

Recently, he has picked up a nasty cough/cold but is starting to get better. Hopefully this means he will build up some immunity for later years. His other top tooth (incisor?) is nearly through but is taking ages to cut through the gum.

More words that he understands are:

balloon (he calls it a bweee)
unicorn
penguin
doggy (geee in Charliespeak)
that (accompainied by a pointing gesture)
light
Iggle Piggle
PC (as in personal computer)
& no (the most useful word).

He also can nod and shake his head for "yes" and "no" although he often gets a bit carried away with the actions.

Charlie seems to be fond of music. He loves playing with his musical toys, even if it is just to have some tunes on in the background while he chases his "bweee" around the room. Sometimes he even joins in singing with the car radio and can be quite tuneful. This evening he selected a Bach CD from the bookshelf.

I'll try to post a video of him crawling soon.

Baby menu

Charlie is a very hungry baby. We've known that for nearly 11 months. He loves his mum's recipes. A typical menu for his daily meals is:

Pre-breakfast
Boob

Breakfast
One Oatabix (like Weetabix without the wheat)
Fruit puree of Apple and Raspberry

Mid morning snack
Boob

Lunch
Fillet Steak with mashed potato, button mushrooms and sauteed tomatoes
Apple and mango desert

Mid Afternoon nibbles
Cheese & marmite pin-wheel sandwiches
Milky bar buttons

Dinner
Leek & Potato Soup
Petit Filous Fromage Frais

Supper
Boob

Understanding words & Spot the monkey

Charlie definitely understands a few words now. It seems to have been a development over the last month.
He is familiar with:

Mummy
Daddy
Charlie
Ball
Shaker
Clap
Bang
Splash
Panda
Where is..
Mug
Monkey
In
Phone
& Point at...

Try making a sentence out of those words. He can say Mum, Dad and Nda (for his Panda). The rest of his vocabulary only makes sense in his own head. He also loves a good game of Peepo.

Anyway, these photos should pretty much bring the blog back up to date...

Where's your ball?

We can't stop laughing at this clip of Charlie trying to get his ball out of his basket. There's just one small problem...

Time to take a stand

Finally, in January, after months of showing no interest in putting weight on his legs, he now wants to do nothing else.

Christmas with Charles (a.k.a. Crimbo with Chasbo)

The first Christmas with the baby was great. Even though he's only 7-8 months, I'm sure he was aware that something was going on and was in a really good mood the whole time.

He enjoyed playing/bashing the piano (he definitely has rhythm), bashing his granddad, opening loads of fab presents and he even met Father Christmas.

However, it wasn't the real Father Christmas - it was Daddy in disguise. Charlie wasn't at all happy to see a beardy man in a bright outfit, shouting "Ho, ho, ho," at him. In fact, I've never seen him cry so much. He was terrified, as were most of the family. The only way we managed to take a photo was to pretend that Santa had gone and then I sneaked up behind him for the pic.

Blog update

Cor blimey. Just looked at the blog and realised that the last message was when Charlie was 7 months old. Now he's nearly 10 months, so I've got a bit of catching up to do. Here are two of the best pictures from just before Christmas.

He loved that balloon until it shriveled up.