Charley at 3- Lean Mean Hugging Machine

Yesterday we had Charley's 3rd year well-child exam.

He is 32lbs and I can't remember how many inches, but doc said he was 55th %tile for weight and 95 %tile for heighth. Same proportions that his sister always gets. I'm actually kinda surprised that the weight %tage isn't lower cause he's such a skinny guy.

I also talked to the doc about his speech and he wants me to take him to a speech therapist to do an evaluation. He talks alot but is still pretty hard to understand, especially to those who don't speak Charley quite as fluently as Jeremy and I.

Without a doubt he hears, understands things well and talk alot...but his pronunciation is still pretty rough. The doc said that non-parent people should be able to understand 75% of what he says. Uh, no.

So we'll see how that goes. I'm not worried about it. I would love to see him be able to talk to us more clearly instead of getting frustrated and throwing himself on the ground. Love.

Some other awesome things about the new 3 year old..

---Even when his speech can't be understood, there's no doubt that he's social. He makes friends with people in stores and restaurants all the time by just blurting out 'hi, I Charley!'. He's especially friendly with the waitress at our Mexican restaurant, stroking her hair and sometimes...ahem, her bosoms!

---His ethusiasm for physical things like riding bikes and playing on the playground is borderline unbridled. He loves to run and play and run.

---When Tessa bosses him around acts as leader during playtime, he usually complies and follows along. He loves his big sister and wants to do whatever she is doing. That's not to say that his toy sharing skills couldn't use some work.

--- He loves to pray at mealtimes and bedtimes. Usually we pray and then he takes a turn and its sounds something like 'Fank you my Mom and my Dad and my Mom and my Dad and my Tessa and my Mom and my Dad and my cheese and no!...I no finish yet!'

---He likes to have privacy in the bathroom but it usually sounds like 'I need piracy!! Give my piracy!!"

---Unlike big sis (the kid who would eat anything), he is usually more cautious with new food. He'll almost always say he doesn't like it, we almost always press the issue until he tries some, and he almost always decides that he does like it.

---He likes going to preschool and especially playing with his friend Mason, whose name he can't pronounce. Every time I pick him up and ask how his day was he says "Great! I pay with E-som!"

---He loves guitars, Superman, and anything to do with Dora the Explorer.

---He went through a short phase of only wanting to the do the tap portion of dance class and not the ballet portion, because it's a little more slow and boring. He's figured at that if he doesn't do both he doesn't get the sucker at the end, so he complies. Usually he spends the ballet portion goofing off with Rachel and Tessa...but I do love to see his jumps and spins!

---He's been in full time underpants since last May, but still wears cloth diapers to nap and bedtime. Since he doesn't like to pee in them anymore, he is almost always the first person awake between 5-6am shouting 'I need go potty!'. We take him and he then asks 'is it mernin' yet?'. If it's before 7am the answer is no, it's not mernin..go back to bed!

---The kid could eat his weight in yogurt. He'll go through 3 bowls in one morning, and we often have to make him stop and eat something else like toast. He's not a big meat eater, so I'd say alot of his protein intake is yogurt, milk and cheese. Good thing he's not lactose intolerant!

---At bedtime we read a couple of books and then he likes to cuddle and sing. His favorite song is Hosanna (Praises Rising), a song that we sing in the worship band. He sings along everytime.

---He's a pretty great kid.