Two months and more

Charlie is two months old today!!

He's really becoming much more active - we've learned if we put him down on his new playmat (thanks grandma K!), his little legs kick like crazy. He is constantly looking around, staring at all the new things around him, which of course makes us wonder how much he really can see. He also has started to grin a lot more, just in the last couple days. It still brings a tear to my eye every time though - so very very cute!

Zach has become quite the little consumer. As we drive around town, he yells things like "There's Arbys! Holiday! There's Home Depot!" If it's a store he doesn't know, he asks. And he loves the (annoying) Staples commercial that is on too many channels on tv; the one that goes "WOW! That's a low price! I KNOW!!" He does quite the imitation.

He's also trying to learn to read. He does his best to sound out the words, but usually just looks at the first letter or two and then guesses. It's amazing how often he gets it right, just using the context of the book or picture. When we're driving, he tries to read signs he doesn't know, and it usually takes me a minute to figure out what he's even talking about. For example, when he saw the sign for Davanni's pizza, he decided it said "David". A more confusing one: we were driving next to a semi that said "Valley Cartage;" the little voice from the backseat piped up with "Mom - V Cat!"

And I may have mentioned before that Zach seems to have inherited both of his parents' interest in art. I've tried to come up with creative arty projects to do with him, but he's rarely interested. He likes stamping, particularly with the alphabet stamps he got from his cousins, but painting, coloring, drawing - he generally says no thanks. So imagine my surprise when he wanted to fingerpaint the other day - a rainy yucky day that was just perfect for that sort of thing. We got his easel out for the first time, and he definitely enjoyed painting on that more - he went through about 8 pieces of paper, between finger painting and using brushes! Perhaps he was inspired with his experience at the Children's Museum last week, when he got to paint... on his face!