What Do Busy Toddlers Do All Day?

Charlotte and I have settled into a pretty good post-work routine.  And I should start by staying that mixed in all of this routine is your typical amount of toddler fussing that comes and goes like the wind.  Regardless, every day we get home and she asks for a snack.  She talks about her food for awhile and then she eats her food.... for awhile.  She doesn't have an urgent bone in her body.  Then we usually go upstairs where she looks at books.

Depending on her mood, one of two things happens.  Etiher she asks to be put in her crib with some books and then for me to to sit down ("daddy sit down?") and read a book of her choice to myself.  She is giving me reading assignments, but she is also fine if I choose to read a book of my own choice.  And then we just chill for awhile until we decide it's time to go downstairs and go do some cooking.

Or some afternoons we'll go upstairs and she'll grab a book and say "bye bye" and shut her bedroom door on me.  I actually prefer this because then I can get a headstart on dinner.  And I also like it because it's pretty funny to hear Charlotte gabbering away to herself, or her dolls, or the cats, or whomever.

A few days ago she grabbed her copy of What Do Busy People Do All Day? with one hand and pushed me out the door with the other and we both happily went our separate ways.  So I went downstairs to exciting stuff like check the mail and clean the kitchen, and figured I'd turn on the baby monitor and shoot a little footage of Charlotte's gabbering.  I have no idea what she is saying but I am sure she does.

Money Well Spent

Today we got a zoo membership.  I don't like zoos but I like taking Charlotte to the zoo.

None of this is interesting.  The only thing less interesting than this was Charlotte's favorite "exhibit," which she is enjoying in the picture below.

We spent easily fifteen minutes watching these fountains.  It's only been one zoo visit, and we already got our money's worth because when you are zoo member you don't feel financially obligated to see the entire place if all your child wants to do is watch water.

What can I say?  It's been a year since I documented this, but Charlotte is still all ent.

Learning About Food Safety at a Young Age

Walkies

A friend of mine gave Charlotte a doll stroller over the weekend. We had to walk around the block before we could get in the car and drive home. In the morning I usually walk Poncho with Charlotte in her stroller, but now she wants to push her doll stroller. She pushes it all over the house and even wants to play with it in her crib. I think she likes it!

Boomtown

Charlotte is undergoing another little language growth spurt.  It's kind of neat.  Her expressive vocabulary is really exploding and every day I hear at least one new word out of her.  And today I heard her first four word phrase.  For the last week or so, when Charlotte is in the car, she will say "push button" or something to that effect right when we turn into the alley.  She is anticipating when I push the garage door opener.  So today she said, "Daddy push the button."

What's kind of interesting is while she is using three word phrases and all sorts of novel two word combinations, she has these little artifacts from almost a year ago when she was using single words exclusively.  For example, she still uses the word "table" to mean sitting in something that she needs help getting into, be it a seat at the table, a stroller, her Burley, or when she puts her doll into one of these things.  She has so many ways to explain this, including "chair," "help," "stroller," "sit," and the ability to combine these words.  Yet she doesn't need to.  "Table" is actually a much more efficient and specific to express this sentiment, so it makes sense that she is still doing it.   But I'm stlil kind of surprised to see her still using the word this way.

And on the gross motor front we were goofing around during our post-dinner walk and she walked backwards intentionally for the first time.  It was fun to see.

Going for a Run

Frickin' yuppie runners and their gear.