18 Months of Charlie...A Month Late

Yes, Charlie is technically 19 months, but I just realized I never did an 18 month post on him.  Can I just start by saying how much I love this little guy?  I LOVE THIS LITTLE GUY!  He's so dang cute and sweet.  He's funny and happy, quiet and peaceful.  He has a love for books and if I (or anyone else) would just sit and read to him from morning until night, he would love it.  He also loves TV (He is a Henderson, after all...).  He takes things in stride and puts up with a lot.  Rowe can be very intense with him, only allowing him to have one toy at a time, and dictating which toy he's allowed.  Of course, as I type this, she is sharing with him and "teaching" him how to play.  Kate can be pretty intense too; wanting to carry him and hug him often.  Delaney is just kinda there.  Both older girls will read to him and talk with him, which is wonderful to watch.

At Charlie's 18 month well-check at the doctor, this is what occurred...

Weight: 19 lbs, 7 oz (3%)

Height: 30 1/2" (5%)

Head: 47 1/2 (50%)

He gained 1/2 lb in 3 months, so the doc is happy with that. He's tiny, just like Kate. At 1 1/2, Delaney was 21 lbs, 3 oz., Katie was 21 lbs, and Rowena was probably 23 lbs.

The doctor had me fill out a questionnaire that screens for autism. He passed with flying colors. I'm not sure if this is standard now (as I didn't do this with any of the girls), or if it was prompted due to his lack of speech development. Going with his speech, he can and does now say Da and Dadda. He says it on command, but not when he sees Peter. He is also starting to make a few more babbles, but remains very quiet. He tried to test Charlie's hearing at 15 mo, but he was too squirmy. He asked about his hearing today and I told him I'm not worried about it. He doesn't deny that Charlie can hear, but he is questioning the clarity of hearing; thinking if he's not hearing clearly he may not be able to articulate. I'm still not too concerned. So they attempted to test his hearing again today, but it (again) didn't work. I'm taking him back in 1 month for a hearing screening. Then doc wants him to be able to say 5-10 words by 21 months. If he's not, he has to go back in.

 

Here are a few other things about Charlie at 18 months:

 

Talking:

As stated before, he's not talking.  He will say "DeeDaDa" for Diego in the morning for the TV show he wants to watch.  Other than that, you don't really hear a word from the kid.  I usually only hear him if he's crying.

 

Play:

Charlie doesn't get a lot of play time, sadly.  If he tries to play, it's usually quickly interrupted by a sister (insert Rowena).  He does like the pretend food, our playhouse, his cars, and our pinball machine.  He also loves the big legos; building and destroying. He also loves to play in the bath, his water table, and the pool (as long as it's not cold).

 

Eating:

This kid is an eating machine.  I wonder why he's not 30 lbs yet.  He eats just about any and everything.  And, if there is food around, he wants it.  The kid is never full, I swear.  What he doesn't like: hot food, as in oven hot.

 

Sleeping:

BEST. SLEEPER. EVER.  You tell him it's "ni-night time" and he waves to everyone, blows kisses, reaches for his paci and blankies.  You can lay him down wide awake, and he'll wave to you and you leave the room, and don't hear from him for hours...when he awakes, which is usually making noises, sometimes a cry.

 

He's becoming our little boy, not our baby anymore!

 

 

Rowena Won a Skating Party!

Last Wednesday Delaney and I went to a skating party for one of Katie's friends (Katie was in Iowa visiting Nana).  The friend, Amanda, won a party for her and 14 friends to skate for free for a few hours.  I guess they pick a winner for a party every night.  I entered everyone's name (except Charlie's), and ROWE WON!  So, we had her party last night.

The local roller rink has had it's share of challenges, with roller skating being popular then not, teenagers being left unattended in a dark, etc, etc.  Well, they reopened about 6 months ago and are trying a new angle--a FAMILY oriented facility.  They have arcade games and laser tag too.  They market to families and the policy is for kids 14 years old and younger with their families.

So, after Charlie was dropped off for a fun night with Grammie and Poppy, we headed over for our party.  Everyone showed up and several ordered pizza and drinks.  It was much more crowded than the previous party the Wednesday before.  They did more skating games and such; backward skating, all boys, all girls, hokey pokey, chicken dance, etc.  Admission is $5 and skate rental is $3.  Everyone in our party was given free admission.

I had a difficult time deciding who to invite.  It was Rowe's party, so I naturally wanted to invite her friends from my Mom's group.  However, I wanted to give back to those who invited us (who also have a daughter Rowena's age), then I wanted the older girls to have some friends, and wanted to invite the Salkas family.  Oh, my decision dilemma.  I ended up going with 3 families: Ruchs (neighbors), Salkas' (good friends with all my kids and us), and the Kistigners (Amanda and her sisters).  So--with just our four families, that was 14 people so I invited Delaney friend, Kyla, too.

Here are pictures of our fun night!

Delaney and her Bestie, Kyla

 Katie and her Bestie, Cassandra

Kisses from Daddy 

 Skating with Abby

 Rowena decided to start "napping" in various places: 

The floor

 Some chairs

 Floor again

 And the big carpeted rest area

 Hey!  She even skated while napping

 Oh, Gwen looks like a comfy spot for a nap.  Poor Gwen...And what a trooper!

 Hendersons and Ruchs!  Rowena, Spencer, Gwen, Katie, Julia, and Delaney

 Delaney and Kyla

 Daddy had an opportunity to skate with Kate and Rowe.

THE PARTY KIDS!
Back Row: Sean, Delaney, Kyla, Gwen, Rowena, Julia, Spencer, Lizzie, Sophie
Front Row: Abby, Amanda, Katie, Cassandra

Oh, and Amanda, who won the party we went to last week, won another party from Rowena's!  ahahahha.

Pinterest...I Love You!

I am having a serious love affair with Pinterest!  It's a wonderful and perfectly paired website with me.  If you want to find something, I'm pretty sure someone somewhere has pinned it, and then you can simply add it to your pin board to keep it for yourself and share it with others.  Today is a super pinterest day.

It's close to 100* here and is humid beyond tolerable.  In fact, it's 2pm and we are all still in our jammies and have the blinds still closed.  Not so smart, is that we've been using the oven like crazy.  This is what we've been working on...

Dinner a la Crockpot: Mississippi Roast

And then for dessert, you can choose raspberry bars or Nutella cookies

I cannot wait to dive in and devour!  You can check out all the things we've done and/or tried because of Pinterest here

Cooking Queens

Our girls love being in the kitchen, especially to bake.  Rowena is the most devoted to the kitchen.  Nana gave perfect gifts for the girls after their recital...aprons.  Look how cute!

They were so excited to wear them and help daddy cook breakfast on Father's Day!

Recital 2012: Gone Country!

All three girls danced in this year's dance recital for DanceQuest.  The theme this year was "Gone Country" but the older girls danced excerpts from Swan Lake.  It was awesome to watch them all on stage.  We were so proud of ALL of them.  They did excellent and Rowena was so dang cute up there!
We had a super busy weekend.  It began on Friday with four hours at dress rehearsal; getting pictures taken and practicing on stage.  Then we headed to McD's for some playtime and a late lunch (or as we call it--Linner).  After that, Delaney had a softball game which I helped coach 3rd base.  Saturday was the "BIG" day.  Peter worked all morning and then it was time for showers, hair, and make-up.  We headed to the recital which we were there from 2-6.  Then Delaney had a double-header for softball.  She missed the first 3 innings of the first game.  A parent bought the team pizzas and another parent supplied enough Gatorade for the Chicago Bears (thank you to both families).  Meanwhile, I put Peter on a huge scavenger hunt for our dinner which I ordered online from Jimmy Johns the night before.  Due to a huge storm coming in, the game was called, so we headed to Sonny Delite's for our annual Post-Recital Ice Cream.  We finished the night watching fireworks and putting the pretty flowers in vases.

It was a WONDERFUL day!  Thank you to all that came to support our daughters, including Grammie, Poppy, Nana, and GAP.  An extra special thanks to Grammie and Poppy for the Christmas gift to all the girls to be in dance for the recital and to Nana for the costumes.

Now...be prepared to be overloaded with pictures from our day...