Two and a half.

Yesterday Charlie turned two and a half.

Two and a half years that he has filled with smiles and laughter, frustrations and sleep deprivation.




But I wouldn't have it any other way.

This boy has changed all our lives, his Daddy loves him to pieces, and I love to see both their faces glow as they go off to play together after Charlie insists "Play cars with me, Daddy" for about the hundrenth time that day.

I see the impact he has had on his two big brothers. Charlie brings out the caring, tender side hidden in the heart of my teenage boys. He's taught them it's ok to show tenderness, he's taught them patience and responsibility and he shows them every day how much he adores them both.

Even if he does call them "stinky willy" on occasion.

I have no idea where he picked up that particular expression from. I think he just made it up himself.

Sometime he's too smart for his own good, is that boy! We're constantly amazed by his language skills. To date he can count in 5 languages already.

Truly.

1. English
2. German
3. Chinese
4. French
5. Japanese

Not just rote learning and repeating the sequence, oh no, actual counting and adding. Even to the point where we can start counting in one language, stop part way and ask him to finish in another language. And he does.

I'm getting slightly concerned that by the time he's five he'll be smarter than me.

He's come so far in two and half years. From the helpless little baby, born with an asymetrical cranium who couldn't feed because is jaw was out of alignment, with a torticollus (crooked neck) and various other problems, to a baby who slept no more than 40 minutes at a time day or night but who learnt sign language at 7 mths old, to a rumbunctious toddler running around at hundred miles an hour who could talk at 12 mths and read at 16mths, to the little boy he is now who greets me each morning with "Good morning, darling, how are you today?" as I lift him from his bed.



I'm so thankful that he's in my life, and that I get to be his mama.