My baby.

My baby boy turned four today. And that reminds me that Charlie doesn't like being referred to as my "baby" anymore. Nope. Those days are gone. He's my "big boy" now.

The last few months have been full of great leaps and bounds for Charlie. Over the summer, he learned how to swim. And he pretty much taught himself, after Madi and I took turns pushing him back and forth in the pool. After a while, he just plunged under the water and took off.  He needed faster teachers!

Our favorite major development is that Charlie potty-trained himself over the summer, too. I am so glad I didn't spend time agonizing over that milestone, and just let him work it out when he was ready. It was such an easy transition...even tries to clean up after himself, which is not always a good thing! All kidding aside, he's really doing great with the whole shebang.

Last week, our little man started Pre-K3! He has the same fantastic teacher who Madi had, and this kid didn't miss a beat. He ran right into that classroom and never looked back. So far, he is loving it, and he loves Mrs Bivins. I adore his late birthday, which gave him an edge that he really needed...more time.  And I just know he's going to thrive.

Charlie's speech has really blossomed in the past few months. He's progressed so much...but I was still anxiously awaiting that phone call from Child Find services to have him evaluated, and our call finally came last week.  I took Charlie in, and they did a wide range of testing. 

He first passed his hearing test, which came as a relief. A few people have questioned Charlie's ability to hear, and we now have proven that our son has very selective hearing!  They also conducted a developmental test on Charlie, and he was doing some skills on a seven-year old level!  But they did confirm what we've suspected since early on. Charlie needs help in the speech department. I'll meet with them again next week, and I'm hoping that he'll end up right in our neighborhood school at the same wonderful speech program where Madi took classes. I have my fingers crossed for the same lovely teacher, too.

So, as you can tell, things are really shaping up for our baby big boy around here, and we have a lot to celebrate!