GET UP AND PLAY: Charlie- 23 months

We have an almost 2-year-old on our hands. He's so darling and fun but can throw a fit when he wants to!

He's getting so much better at talking. Often I'll hear, "Hel. Peas." from the other room which means, "Help, please!" So cute. He also likes to grab our hands (or push on our bums) to get us to come with him, usually while saying "C'mon".

If he hears a plane or dog barking, he puts his hand to his ear and cocks his head to the side. Then we all listen. The other day, he "listened" his way into Grandma and Grandpa T's backyard because he could hear the creek rushing.

He's loved to point out our noses or ears, so we've been teaching him other face parts. He now knows chin, cheeks, teeth and eyebrows.

We've had a few warm days (hallelujah) and have spent them at the park. He loves the slide, sandbox and climbing on the play structures but still doesn't want anything to do with the swing.

He's starting to learn his colors, although almost everything is blue. He loves to color (so do Sam and Lily) and his favorite part is putting the markers in and out of the package and taking the lids on and off.

He loves watching "Little Einsteins" and blasting off when Rocket blasts off. He gets so excited to countdown and blast off that he makes sure I'm watching, too and we do it together.

There's a large construction site a few blocks away and as we drive by Charlie yells out "dee!" when he sees the digger (backhoe) and "da ta" when he sees the dump truck. Often, we'll just sit in the car and watch all the heavy machinery for awhile.

Every night when John gets home from work, Charlie puts him through the "Charlielympics". It's basically a game of follow the leader through the living room, including crawling through the IKEA tunnel (yup, John goes through the tunnel), climbing over the ottoman, sitting in all the chairs and culminates in sitting in the tiny, child-sized rocking chairs. Charlie sits down in one and tries to get John to sit in the other one and every time, John has to say he's too big. Then Charlie will get up and trade chairs and try to get John to sit down in the other one.

He's started sitting down and "reading" to himself, which has me over the moon. He'll jabber along while looking at the pictures and sometimes, he'll say the words he knows go with each page. In particular, he's been loving his "Potty" book and reads the last three pages over and over ending with a big "Hip, hip, hooray!" (He's so into it that he puts the book on the floor, and stands up so he can jump on the "hooray!")

The biggest snowstorm we had this year (probably about 14 inches) and it was in March! Silly Utah. Charlie loved "helping" John shovel the driveway and then he and I explored the backyard. The snow was up to his waist and he needed my help to walk through it. Even with all his snow gear on, he climbed to the top of the playhouse and down the slide. He was so slippery that he slid off the slide and kept going for a few feet on the snow!

"Listening" to the stream in Grandma and Grandpa T's backyard led to throwing rocks in the gully, of course.