Charles has breezed through his first Christmas with hardly a pause to play with any of the many gifts you kindly gave him as his attention has been drawn by boxes and paper.  The first to climb into and the the second to rip then chew (Emily now knows his bite is much worse than his bark!).

We have done everything with Charles (I think)

Santa's grotto
Christmas tree decs
Lights
Neighbours lights (they are particlarly noteworthy!!)
Christingle
Advent Calendar
Midnight Mass
Turkey + trimmings
Christmas pud
stollen
Tunis Cake
Mince Pies
Chocolate off tree
Christmas nappy
Pressie ripping fun
Pressie noise fun (ok who bought the noiseiest toy?)
Paper chewing
Box sitting
Silly Red Hat
Panto (Emily was in Snow White)
Relative Cruising

etc...

Typical Christmas.

His major achievements since I last wrote are

Clapping - he is now much better at clapping and makes a nice quiet clap sound
Walking - balancing holding with one hand and occasionally no hands
Toys - looking round an choosing toys and actively playing with them - pushing the train along to make a noise and making his own noises for cars/diggers etc...
Sounds - Trying to say other words we have not quite got yet, but he appears sure we should know!!
How things work - trying to reach the door handle on closed doors that won't open
Backwards roll - he loves to get off my lap by holding my hands and laying on his back with his head down over my knees and his legs up on my stomach he lifts his legs to roll backwards and land - standing in front of me on his feet.
Strength - changing a nappy is now a clever combination of distraction, strong grip on his feet, split second timing, accuracy with a wipe, nasal tolerence, speed, preparation, planning and most of all early detection...
His Dad's appetite and love for food - nothing was rejected - not even sprouts.

Perfec!