Chuck E Cheese

Charlie's friend Natalie celebrated her fifth birthday at a Chuck E Cheese in February.  We all had a good time!  It was Ephram's first time in an arcade environment, and Charlie was in seventh heaven wandering around with all of his tokens.

When it came time for cake and the birthday "show" the birthday girl was a little shy.  She was very cute and we were glad to be there to celebrate her birthday!

Ephram with one of his favorite friends, Madison.  If they lived closer we would definitely have a future babysitter!

Ephram trying to get in the action while Charlie was playing.  Charlie was very nice and let him join in.

And then Ephram had it all to himself.  How does a barely-one-year-old figure out how to push the buttons on these things so quickly?  He was actually pretty good at the game.

The birthday girl eating her pizza.

Andy and Ephram in a rare, calm moment.

Madison watching the birthday show for her sister.

For whatever reason, Natalie did not want to wear her birthday crown.

Charlie and his pizza.

After the show all of the kids got to go take a picture with Chuck E Cheese.  Here is Charlie trying to imitate Chuck E's pose.

Adventures in Art

Sometime in February it occurred to me that I should give Ephram some crayons, some paper, and stand back to see what he would do.  It was instant love.

Months of watching Charlie put crayon to paper had taught Ephram what to do.  He was a natural.  He was also a natural at putting the crayons in his mouth.  Luckily they taste bad enough that he would spit them right back out.

The same month I also decided to try making some play dough with Charlie.  I thought it would be a good experiment for us, and he definitely agreed.  I think his favorite part was when I gave him the food coloring and let him experiment with how to make a good color.  We ended up with one batch of green and one batch of orange.

Turns out that Charlie is pretty creative with play dough.  Yes, he's played with it before, but he seemed to love the homemade version more.

Incidentally Ephram loved it too.  He loved poking his fingers in it, smushing it,

throwing little pieces of it, grabbing it and rubbing it on his hair, and...

yep, eating it.  You would have thought that its extreme saltiness would have been a deterrent.  But it wasn't.

Still, we enjoyed this play dough for a full month... and then made some more for March!

Spiky Charlie

One of Charlie's classmates this year was named Kyler.  We know a few Kyler's, so Charlie had to come up with interesting ways to explain which Kyler he was talking about.  Preschool Kyler became "Spiky Kyler" because Kyler's mom often spikes his hair.

Spiky Kyler has pretty short hair, so it looks really cute spiked.  Charlie, does not have very short hair.  For a boy, we keep his hair on the long side.

Still, after a February hair cut, he couldn't resist the stylist's invitation to spike his hair.  He was so very excited as she put the gel in his hair and started pulling it up.

So what does long hair look like spiked?  Pretty cute actually...

Ephram at 13 Months

I have made an effort to take pictures of Ephram at the end of each month this year.  Here is a brief photo essay of my little boy at the end of his 13th month.  The focus of this photo essay is: Things That Ephram Loves.

He loves to show off his new skills - like clapping on request.

He loves to gnaw on washcloths.  Especially if they are wet.  

They help soothe all the teeth that he cut and all the bleeding tongues/lips from his many falls.

He loves to play with toys, especially these nesting cups.

He learned how to take them apart and put them back together in ball shapes.

They also make great microphones.

Ephram loves a zipper.  Any zipper provides a lot of fun.

Like 5 minutes worth, which is a long time when you're barely 1 year old.

Ephram loves his push toys most of all.

They work great as battering rams, and allow him access to the areas beyond the baby gates.

(He also learned how to open the gates in his 12th month!)

He loves to walk, and perfected it quickly.

He even started to run.

And what do I love?

Playing Pantry Peek-a-boo

Once he turned a year old, it was remarkable how quickly Ephram learned how to do new things.  We also saw him start to develop his own playful personality.  One of the results of both of these things was his favorite game throughout the winter months... Pantry Peek-a-boo.

Our pantry has two sliding closet doors, and Ephram figured out how to move them by pushing on them and then walking alongside.  He goes into the pantry, closes the door, knocks a couple of times, and then slowly slides the door open while saying "Buh" ... which I think means "Boo".

This kid is simply too cute.

Skateboard Practice

When we got back to Washington with the skateboard Santa had delivered, Charlie set to work right away...  He loves riding his skateboard!