Growth Spurt

"What's that say?" Charlie asks, pointing at a word in a book. "What's that say? What's that say?"

"Red," I reply. "Shoes". "Giraffe". But the thing is, he already knows. It's part of his learning pattern to say, "Hmmm, that looks like 'red'" in his head, then check with me for validation. Last week he took Green Hat, Blue Hat out of my hands and read it to me, pointing out where each word was while he did it. He's rediscovered that book along with his other board books, and now he's using them to step up to reading.

Where did my baby go? It's leaps and bounds all over the place these days. Fearless ones, too. We go to Sand Dollar beach and he runs out into the waves up to his chin. "Let's go out to sea, Mommy!" he says. "I want to walk to the lighthouse." We went to the Big Ex (like a county fair in the States) and he begged to ride every ride. Especially the big, scary ones. (He had to settle for the choo choo train and the busy bee.)

We're planning a camping vacation to PEI in a couple weeks. He's angling to go snorkeling at Seal Cove. I had to honey him off my laptop to write this post--he was busy navigating around Yahoo photos of seals. On his own. He's going to be better than me with a mouse in about a day and a half.

And I just put away another round of too-small clothes and mined the size 4 stash for new wardrobe selections. There are gaps of new, white skin in his hip joints and ankles, complete with stretch marks. Last week he jumped on a big boy bike (with training wheels) at the big box store and took right off. I think we'll wait until next year to buy one, but he's clearly ready.

Yay, my baby's growing up! and Waah! my baby's growing up.



PS May I once again extend a heartfelt thanks to Sandra Boynton for making toddler texts bearable, and to my aunt Sallea, who first introduced me to her. Thank you!

Freakin' HUZZAH

100% out of diapers.

June in Pictures

Zoo!

It was hot. Most of the animals were just lying around--hot panthers, hot wallabies, hot zebras. The camels' humps were droopy. The gibbon nursed her new baby while swinging slowly from the,er, monkey bars.

Charlie went on his first pony ride. The second we entered the corral he zipped to the mounting post and was up and on the horse's back yelling, "go!" while we ran to catch up. Luckily that hot, tired pony was used to ignoring the dictates of three-year-olds.

We had a picnic of fried chicken, biscuits, and local strawberries before heading home over South Mountain. We were tired. It was good.

Almost TOO Nova Scotia

John and Charlie went to the beach tonight. I stayed home to slice up a dozen quarts of local, no-spray strawberries and stick them in the freezer for winter.

Mise-en-scène: While they were building a sandcastle, a team of horses came along pulling a wooden wagon full of children. They trotted down the beach, then pulled the wagon along through the shallow water for a piece.

Charlie chased crows and danced in the surf. He threw rocks in the water. He scrambled over boulders. Then they came home to me, to strawberries and love.