The Grubers: Charlie: Three and a Half to Four

(December 19 - June 18)

We have a lot of ground to cover in these last six months!

Charlie started Primary. He is a Sunbeam! He has done really well. His teachers are Sister Hansen and Sister Dukepoo.

On a personal note, Charlie is no longer pooping in his pull-ups (nights and naps). That’s a big deal. He will go during the day as needed, but he still needs prompting every few hours. I think he got tired of the having to take the time to be changed and the way it felt.

Charlie is starting to really be a bully with Colson. He will run around Colson and side swipe him, push him, knock him over. He gets a real kick out of Colson falling down. I feel like we are constantly putting him in time out, but it doesn’t seem to be working. He just giggles as he does it. The hard part is half of the time Colson is laughing too; it is like some kind of game. Colson eggs it on. But the other half of the time, Colson is crying and sometimes gets hurt. Charlie doesn’t understand that it is time to stop at that point. It is frustrating. I am sure he is confused.

Charlie will say “peanut butter” a lot because he thinks he is making a joke. He likes to call people “peanut butter”.

We got rid of Charlie’s nap. Who are we kidding anyways, he wasn’t sleeping during that time anyway. It was more of a quiet hour. I was kind of sad to see it go.

After Christmas, Charlie was no longer interested in watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I worked. He was too excited to play with his new blocks and toys from Christmas. So while I worked, he would play toys instead. It was a little stressful and would bring occasional interruptions, but overall I was happy about the change of interest. (His interest in toys over watching shows while I worked continued clear into the summer.) He really does a great job building block towers and houses for his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse figurines and farm animals.

Dad's version

Charlie's version

Charlie gave his first opening prayer in Primary. I came in and helped him. He did great, especially since he was excited about speaking into the microphone.

He loves playing with play dough.

In February, we had Parent Teacher Conference. Charlie is doing really well. Miss Reay loves him. She says that he is their “fashion boy” and that she thinks she will increase his preschool days next year to three or fours days a week instead of two to better prepare him for Kindergarten. A big area of concern for Charlie is his social interaction with peers. In preschool, he plays with others for about three minutes, which is below average for his age and developmental peers. Another concern is that he sometimes has a hard time transitioning if it is outside of the scheduled or expected routine. He will have break downs and will need to be held. Charlie is making great progress academically and with his speech, but in the social and emotional areas he still needs some help.

Miss Reay

We made some fun Valentine’s for his class.

Other Valentine's Day Pictures:

We had his IEP meeting. Again, they said he is doing well. Miss Reay and Miss Claire love him. Miss Claire thinks he looks like the kid from The Sixth Sense. They said that Charlie loves story time and loves shouting out the words. When he gets hyper he starts his gibberish chatting. Again, they were concerned for his social engagement with peers. They had only observed three minutes of interactive play before he would go off alone. I noticed that he was already getting better though (at the park he is starting to make new friends and he loves doing more interactive play. He will chase and be chased and will talk/yell really loud, so you can tell he is happy and hyper. Even if you don’t know what he is saying, he will jabber on). They mentioned again the breakdowns when they have to transition out of the typical routine. He avoids confrontation; he will wait 15 minutes on the sidelines for a toy he wants to play with rather than going to ask for a turn. When he is asked by other kids for toys he will always say “yes” and hand it over, but then will get the five minute timer for his next turn. There is a girl named Sophia that he is good friends with. Sometimes they will hold hands and run around the room or playground together. She will get his backpack and he will get her coat when it is time to leave.

Miss Claire

When Charlie wants to say no, he will say “No-K” for not okay. He has started saying “crap”, “oh crap”, and “holy crap”. I am sure he hears me saying it when talking to Dad. He also gets it from the movie Surfs Up (Colson loves that one). One day he was excited to have a peanut butter and honey sandwich for dinner and I told him he could after he ate the other food on his plate that I set out for him. He seemed happy and excited about that, so he headed to his chair and starting climbing up. He looked at his plate and saw the vegetables and chicken, then he said to himself “holy crap!” He didn’t want to have to eat all of that before his sandwich; it would be harder than he thought. It was so funny. I have also heard him say “sucks”. By May, he started saying “oh coconuts” instead of “holy crap” thanks to the show Jake and Neverland Pirates. It was a nice and hilarious change.

He is doing better with trying more foods at mealtime. I will just give him little bits of everything on his plate and bribe him with yogurt afterwards.

He has started loving A Bugs Life and Bambi; those are the movies he requests lately.

Charlie will sometimes get rowdy during primary. One boy, Kenyon, really influences him in class. I have heard him running in the halls while I am in Relief Society and have had to go out there to settle him down.

At the end of the school year, we had another Parent Teacher Conference. They said that Charlie is a good boy. He is very good with letters and numbers and he is getting more interactive with peers, but he still needs some improvement. They are increasing his preschool next year to four days a week to help him build more solid relationships and to help with transitions that are not part of the typical routine. He still gets sad when things don’t follow the schedule.

Charlie has figured out how to take pictures on my phone and on the iPad. He LOVES taking pictures. He will take hundreds in a day of random things and even selfies and selfie videos that are about one second long. (See the bottom of this post for his photography collection.) My phone storage is constantly running low.

He has also started being obsessed with laundry! So random.

A brilliant birthday gift from Karl!

Charlie can read some of Go Dog Go. It is not just memorization, he is reading the words he knows. So awesome!

Charlie completed a two week swimming course at the Orem Fitness Center. He seemed to enjoy it, at least once he was there. He grew tired of going after one of the first days after they had to dunk their heads and he got some water in his eyes. With a little complaining he still went, and once he was in the pool he was all smiles. He would mostly bounce around and look at the other swimmers, but when it was his turn to practice a skill with the teacher he would look over at me with a proud smile. Somehow he passed all of his skills, but I was just thrilled to have him get more courage and experience in the water without floaties.