Ring Around The Rosy

Or, as Charlie calls it, "Pocket Posy Game", is Charlie's new favorite past-time. I mean, really -- running around in a circle and then falling down on command? And singing a little ditty to boot? What's not to love? We had to do it oh, about 80,000 times today. Possibly more. Jeez, if he thinks Ring Around The Rosy is fun just wait till he gets introduced to Duck Duck Goose...

Doggy Visitor

Today I attempted to explain to Charlie that we are having a dog staying with us over the weekend:
ME: "Mommy's friend Jessica and her doggy are going to stay at our house this weekend."
CHARLIE: "I get doggy?? Big black doggy?"
ME: "Well, she is big and black but she is just staying with us for a few days -- she's just visiting, then she'll go home."
CHARLIE: "I get doggy! I get animal! ROOAAAAR!!! CHARLIE GET RHINO!!!!!!!"
Hmmm, not sure how the dog morphed into a rhinocerous there....

The Monster Under The Bed

Charlie is afraid of the dark, and specifically of monsters under the bed.* "Turn light on!" he says to me before he will venture into the only-sort-of-dark livingroom to play.

At Grampy & Grampy Robinson's this afternoon he peered mistrustfully into their dark bedroom from where he was eating lunch in the kitchen. "Shut door! Monster under bed in there, Mama!"

"There is no monster in there, honey," I try to tell him.

"No Mama! Monster in there!" he insists.

I get up and shut the door.

"Thank you," he says, obviously relieved.

*We will not be assigning any blame in this post as to why he is suddenly afraid of monsters under the bed.

Happy Birthday Becca!

Take One:


Take Two:


Take Three:

Cool Kid

Charlie busted into the bathroom this morning wearing nothing but a Red Sox tee shirt and diaper -- Mike was in the middle of getting him dressed. "Mama, look!" he shouted, displaying his shirt, "I got Red Sox shirt! I so cool!"

Baby Got Back

Southwick's Zoo

Random

Sometimes the things that come out of Charlie's mouth are, well, random. This afternoon we were outside looking for Charlie's "baby ball" -- a little rubber ball that he loves to throw around outside, and since it is well, little, he loses it about twice an afternoon.
ME: (walking down the sidewalk with Charlie.) "I wish I could see but the sun is in my eyes."
CHARLIE: "Sun in eyes?"
ME: "Yeah."
CHARLIE: "Sun in eyes! Coke and donuts! Coke and donuts!"
Your guess is as good as mine...

"Oh My Gosh!"

Charlie says his new phrase with gusto:

Fringe Benefits of My Profession

Cooking group:


Thank Yous:

Mistaken Identity

PATIENT'S DAUGHTER: "Hi -- It's Amanda, right?"
ME: "It's Abigail, actually."
PATIENT'S DAUGHTER: "Really? Why did I think it was Amanda? You look like an Amanda."
ME: "Yeah I've gotten that before..."
This would not be so remarkable if it wasn't the THIRD time that I have been mistakebly called Amanda in the last two weeks. Except the other times were because there is a CNA named Amanda who works on the 4th floor of my building, and people for some reason think we look freakishly alike, despite the fact that she's a) skinnier and b) blonder. (Umm hello as if it wasn't bad enough to have ONE twin sister who is skinnier and blonder??)

Boys & Bugs

Charlie saw a worm last week.

He is still talking about it. It made quite an impression on him. To be sure, it was a very active worm, wriggling its little head (?) off, but really, how fascinating can a worm be? Very, apparently:
"Where worm go?"
"Where worm head?"
"I see worm again?"
"No eating worm -- very yucky!" (This last one worries me a little bit because it leads me to believe he may have considered eating the worm at one point...)
I thought we were over the worm, but then tonight during stories there happened to be a picture of a worm in the very bottom corner of a page and it started all over:
"I see worm again?"

I guess its true what little boys are made of...

Reaping the Rewards of Apple Picking

Zoologist in the Making

We took Charlie here this morning; it is free to MA residents on sunday mornings and wednesday afternoons, and was a great way to spend a rainy morning. Charlie ran around like a maniac yelling, pointing, making animal sounds, and well, generally just being Charlie. It was dark so not the best for taking pics, but here are a few:

Charlie looking at pickled things in jars:


Charlie and Daddy examining fossils under a magnifying glass:


Charlie meets a tiger:



Charlie explores the bird exhibit:

Honey-Pot Hill Orchards

Dragon Rides

This morning we took Charlie here
As we got in the car, I told Charlie we were going to a farm.
"A farm? A farm?" he replied. "We ride horsies?"
"No," I answered, "but we'll go on a wagon ride."
His eyes lit up. "A DRAGON ride??"
Despite my attempts to correct him he spent the hour long ride asking about the dragons.
In the end I think he enjoyed himself thoroughly despite the obvious lack of dragons. And tigers, which he apparently also thought should live on a farm. Pictures to follow.

My Son the Dog

Sea Horse Stress

Charlie woke up last night stressing about a sea horse. Yup, a sea horse. He woke up around midnight calling me.
CHARLIE: "Sea horse fall down? Sea horse have boo-boo?"
ME: "Huh?"
CHARLIE: (plaintively) "Sea horse running -- fall down, get boo-boo?"
It's about here that the light dawns and I realize that Charlie had been watching Shark Tales at dinner and that there is a scene in it with a sea horse race where the sea horse in the lead collapses just short of the finish line.
ME: "Umm... no... the sea horse is fine. He just had to take a rest, that's all. He didn't get a boo-boo."
Mental note to self: Pay attention to what Charlie watches on tv now that he actually remembers it.

Raincoat Melodrama

It was raining this afternoon when I picked Charlie up from daycare, and bad Mommy that I am I had forgotten to look at the weather forecast so was wholly unprepared for rain. I made do with putting Charlie in a hooded sweatshirt but nonetheless had to listen to this all the way home:
"Ouch! OUCH!! Rain bumpin' head! Rain bumpin' head! Where my raincoat? Need my raincoat!!"

Whole New Worlds of "Mine!"

Now that Charlie's vocabulary is expanding, he is taking the concept of "mine!" to whole new levels. I never realized how many different ways "mine!" could be said and expounded upon.
Charlie started bright and early this morning -- the first thing he said to me when I got him out of his crib was: "It's my firetruck! It's not yours -- it's mine!" while clutching said firetruck to his chest. Since it was a school day, I reminded him that he was going to school today and that he needed to share. To this he replied: "I share Theo. I share James. But it's mine." Well, I thought, atleast he said he would share -- maybe I won half the battle?
Until we got to Dunkin Donuts and Charlie started yelling to the man who happened to follow Mike into the store: "MY DONUTS! NOT YOURS! GET YOUR OWN DONUT!!"
Yeah we have a long way to go...

Conversations With A Squirrel

Charlie loves animals. He can probably name a hundred different kinds of animals. He talks about animals non stop. But in all other ways he is clueless about animals, as evidenced by the following conversation he had with a squirrel in the backyard today:
CHARLIE: "What you doing, squirrel...? You want ball? You looking for ball?"
ME: "He's looking for food, honey."
CHARLIE: "You want lunch? You thirsty? You want sippy?" (offers his sippy cup.)
ME: "That's nice of you honey, but squirrels don't drink out of sippy cups."
At this point the squirrel has had enough of Charlie and makes a beeline up a tree.
CHARLIE: "NO!! No climb tree squirrel! You get boo-boo!"
Atleast from this encounter we did establish that squirrels eat acorns and that they, unlike little boys, are allowed to climb trees.

Halloween Preview

Bottomless Pit

What Charlie ate today:

• 8 mini waffles
• 1 bowl of honey nut cheerios
• 1/2 of a sausage and cheese bagel sandwhich
• 1 box of yogurt raisins
• 1 mac 'n cheese with franks microwave bowl
• 1 container of applesauce
• 1 generous helping of Grampy's chicken pot pie
• 1 king sized kit-kat bar courtesy of Uncle Tom
• 1 brownie cupcake
• 8 chicken nuggets

Based on his cousin Ben, he is stocking up for the lean years ahead where he won't eat anything.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

And welcome to the wonderful world of internet Grampy & Grampy Robinson!

Scream

The following would be why we no longer allow Monsters, Inc. in the collection of dvds we take to restaurants to entertain Charlie with:

All Grown Up... Almost

Backpack... check!
Lunchbox.... check!
Security blanket... check!

Unreasonable Requests

I remember when Charlie was a baby and he would cry for no apparent reason -- I would think to myself 'It will be so much easier when he can tell me what he wants!'

Umm yeah -- I was wrong.

Welcome to my world of toddler requests:

Being tucked into bed: "I eat pizza now?"
Being herded into the car: "I watch movie?"
At breakfast: "I have meatballs?"
At dinner: "I have waffles?"
Randomly all day Saturday: "I ride horsey?"

I suppose you could call it progress...