Laowai

… or duhp as Bea pronounces it.

See that little scrape on her knee. Why does my eye and my mind go right to it? I guess it’s because it means she’s so grown up and it’s the first of many little injuries. Sniff, sniff.

Bea and I went to the zoo today. We needed to get out of the house and get good and tired out. Plus we needed a Z. I wanted to end this project with the Z but I’m getting down to the last letters and Z is all I have to post right now. 

Here are a few more pictures from the zoo. The pig photo is silly, but I got so goofy excited when I saw them. You have never seen anything so cute. Bea was wondering why mommy was getting all ga ga about some stinky little piglets.

Someday we’ll ride the swan boats. There’s a great view of the city skyline from this area.

She’s into turtles lately.

Will someone please tell me that this is the messiest stage she’ll go through. She’s at a point where she’s learning to use her fork and spoon – and I want to encourage that, but good gracious, I don’t think I can handle much more yucky like this. It takes me forever to wipe her down after meals, trying to keep her clothes stain-free is futile, and no matter what I do little bits of gross remain and end up slowly dingy-fying the couch and anything else she comes in contact with. Occasionally if she gets her hands really dirty outside I’ll fill the sink with soapy water and let her wash her own hands. It gets the dirt out from under her nails, but I’m just left with another kind of mess.

Christine’s “little” Tyler is turning twelve this week. Please tell me you don’t deal with this magnitude of mess several times a day at age twelve. And if there is some special twelve-year old type of mess that I don’t know about – please don’t tell me about it. I’m going for the ignorance is bliss feeling. 

Happy Birthday Tyler.

Bea is really into holding my hand and leading me around lately. Usually it’s nice to feel her chubby little fingers grabbing mine. Occasionally it feels like the little Beast is trying to control my every move. Hmmmm.

— Last night at around 3:30 a.m. we both woke up to a thumping sound on our window. I got up to see what it was but couldn’t see anything. We thought it could have been a bird hitting the window. Then It happened again and this time when we looked out we glimpsed a flying squirrel climbing on our window. Wow – I’m always surprised how much wildlife I see here at our very urban home. I looked out beyond our patio today and I think I saw what might be the squirrel’s nest. It really surprises me because there is just a narrow patch of scrubby trees between our building and the train tracks.

— Yesterday we stopped by Brain’s office so he could get something he forgot. His building uses cards and little reader panels for their security. You just wave the card in front of the door to open. We got off the elevator and I turned to see Brian rubbing his butt against the wall. Huh? As the door clicked open I figured out that he had his card in his wallet inside his back pocket. As we walked down the hall to Brian’s office I thought about what I had just seen and I couldn’t stop laughing. I sputtered out “Honey, You have a magic ass”.

— I just taught Bea how to play Ring Around the Rosey. Of course the “all fall down” part is her favorite and I have to convince her to get back up. In our household the words “up chappy*” mean that you must get up immediately. Like if you’re lounging on the couch avoiding some task or if it’s early in the morning and it’s your turn to get out of bed first. So while playing Ring Around the Rosey I had to invoke the “up chappy” and she repeated it back to me in her funny toddler voice that is so amusing lately. I wish you could have heard it.

* Up Chappy origin: I think it came from high school basketball games. Doug would yell “up chappy” from the stands when his boys played.

— Here are some photos from the North Shore Century that Brian rode in. It’s not a race just a big organized 100 mile ride. We met Brian at one of the rest stops. 

Hope you had a nice weekend too!