This morning Mama needed to do something on her computer, so Papa and I took a bike ride. It started out just like all of our rides do. I saw lots of cool things — some ladies planting trees, four almost-all-grown-up goslings, and lots and lots of puddles left over from the rain. But, you know, there was one thing I really wish that I had seen better…

After passing under some bridges where my voice was big and boomy underneath, the trail we were riding on ended. The only thing left was mud and rocks. Pretty quickly, Papa stopped pedaling and took me down to the creek for my favorite past-time - to throw some stones.

As we were nearing the water, there was a kerplop-splash! Papa looked around. He didn’t see anything, so we sat down and he gave me rocks to throw. After a few minutes, he took a hold of my arm and asked me if I saw the frog. He kept trying to point out a frog to me, but I didn’t see anything. We tried to quietly walk over to the rock that the frog was behind, spying out at us, but he scooted into the water as we came close. Again, I couldn’t see where he was even though Papa was showing me. He told me to keep waiting until the frog came up for air. But the froggy never did.

Finally, Papa took a great big stick and stirred the water close to the frog with it. As he did that, the frog swam away to the middle of the stream. And I saw him! He swam really fast and had huge legs. I asked Papa to make him come back so I could watch him some more, but the frog was gone.

There you have it. I saw the biggest frog I’ve ever seen, but only as he was swimming away from me. I wish I had been able to see him better when he was nearby because Papa kept talking about how pretty he was.

I don’t remember all the words, but back a few months ago there was a nice song about froggies that I sang in my Cradle Roll Sabbath school class. It went something like this:

Mister Froggy likes to hop, hop, hop,
Hop, hop, hop,
In the ponds and the puddles.
Oh, Mr. Froggy likes to hop, hop, hop,
Do-dee do-dee do-dee do, do, do, wop-wop!

Here are some nice pictures of a few fun things I did this past week. Oddly, they’re mostly food related. I guess I do like to eat…

Now I could talk a lot more about each of these pictures, but it’s my bedtime now. If you have any questions, just ask me and I’ll tell you all you ever wanted to know, and then some.

Splish splash! I’m stomping on a puddle.

The last of my chocolate bunnies

OK, Mommy. Stop with the pictures, or I’ll cry!

Beware the waffle snatcher! He will snatch your food and eat it too.

I haven’t always liked going to sleep. In fact, I used to detest being put down for my nap, and especially bed for the night. Now that I’m much older and wiser (a week ago Sunday, I turned one and a half years old!), I take particular pleasure in sleeping…when I want to.

So it threw me for a little bit of a loop today when I woke up from my nap and saw Daddy standing in my bedroom. He wasn’t alone either, there were two strange guys inside of his orange notebook peering out at me. I think they were trying to be quiet, but I take after my mother and am a very light sleeper. Daddy told me to wave at them and so I did. Then I just kind of sat there staring at them sitting in my bed. It was kind of like a weird dream, except that it wasn’t.

This is me looking at them looking at me.

Later, after those guys got out of my bed, Daddy explained that they were two of his friends from Russia that wanted to see me sleeping. Come on guys, can’t you let a poor chap take a nap in peace?! I forgive you. After all, it was my noisy Papa walking in my room that woke me up. You guys were quiet.

I’ve been falling behind on my updates. However, don’t think that means I’ve been getting lazy in my ripe old age for a moment! I’ve been doing stuff you only wish you could remember you did.

Since the weather is nice, I don’t have as much time for coloring as I used to have. But I’m still pretty good at it. In fact, when I visited Great Grandma’s church last weekend, the lady in Sabbath School said that I was doing a really great job.

I’ve always been a professional at taking socks off, but recently I’ve tried my hand and putting them back on. It’s hard work, mind you, but I’m making progress. I can kinda sorta put my socks on myself and, if I’m lucky, get a shoe halfway on.

Strollers are for babies. I am a big boy. So pretty much all the places Daddy and I go, I walk. Sometimes I get tired, so I ask Daddy to carry me. That’s ok though, the view is better from up there.

Rolling balls with two people is ordinary. But when I find enough people so that there are three or more playing, that’s when life gets real fun. You see, I point to whomever has the ball and then point to the person for them to roll it to. It’s like I’m a traffic director for the ball. I like being traffic director and I’m good at it too!

Circle time at the library has always been fun. At the same time it is overwhelming at times. I’m a big enough boy that I can do some of the finger plays and motions just like everybody else now. I think my favorite has to be Roly-Poly, but Open shut them is all right too.

A long time ago, I got a toy telephone. At the time, I didn’t like it as much as Daddy’s or, even better, Mommy’s because it wasn’t real. Even though I know it isn’t real, I’ve started to play with it more. You see, it makes sounds when you press the buttons and has lights. And possibly the most important thing is that I can always use it. The best time to be on the phone is when Mommy is. Unfortunately, her phone is busy then, but luckily, mine is available. Occasionally, Mommy looks at me while I’m on an important phone conversation and just laughs. I don’t see what’s so funny — she does exactly the same thing when she talks.

I know the letter “A” and what sound it makes. “M” too - it sounds like mama. I ripped the M letter we have yesterday by accident. On Monday, I found A on the keyboard. It’s kind of confusing you know, look at the 6 on top of all the other letters. Isn’t that an A on it?

My brain is getting a workout too. Just today I was at the park and I met some really big five-year-old kids that were interesting. I stopped and watched them for a long time and they explained how Easter works. I learned about how there is a magical Easter Bunny. This bunny gets eggs from a duck that lives in a barn. That duck is magical too, I guess, because inside its eggs are little toys or chocolate. But sometimes there is normal stuff in the duck’s eggs, just like in chicken eggs. Anyhow, the bunny takes these duck eggs and hides them all over the place on Easter for kids to find. None of the kids had ever seen the duck or the bunny, but they seemed to know what they were talking about. Have you ever seen the Easter Duck?

Daddy note: There is a sound-bite that is waiting to be trimmed down from its two hour length to about 45 seconds. This post has languished in draft status long enough, so it is getting published without the voice of Alexei, for now.

Finally, this is what I sound like these days. Silly Daddy decided to narrate, but I’m sure you could have understood just fine without his help. (Just to make sure you can hear everytyhing, here are all the things I said in order: da, mama, papa, me, animals, beep-beep, talking, sniffing, wow, letter a, letter m).

Everybody needs a favorite caterpillar. My Daddy’s favorite when he was a little boy like me was the woolly bear. He showed one to me before Christmas. But you know what? I wasn’t all that impressed. It was only two colors - black and brown - and really not all that interesting. So today I was really happy to see my favorite caterpillar online.

Let me back up for a moment, my favorite caterpillar is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It is without a doubt one of my all-time favorite books. Even though I own it myself, sometimes I check it out when I go to the library; it is just that good. Come on Daddy, you have to agree that my caterpillar is way better than yours.

Now that we have established whose caterpillar is better, lets talk about the book. It is holey! What more do you need? Religions have been founded around books less holey than The Very Hungry Caterpillar. [If my last remark is crass, please excuse it, I did not mean to offend (maybe I’m a little more cantankerous than usual ‘cause I just got up from my nap).]

This morning while we were running around getting ready to go to the zoo with Uncle Tyler (where, by the way, I saw the cutest baby gorilla in the world!), Daddy went into his office and had to search for something real quick. Normally I would’ve protested, but today was different. Do you know what (or, should I say who) greeted him? That’s right, none other than my caterpillar! I wouldn’t go so far as to say Mr. Hungry Caterpillar is taking over the world, but surely this must be a sign.

The Hungry Caterpillar chomps through Google

I hope you enjoyed your Caterpillion Day as much as I did mine. If you’d like a refresher on all the stuff the Hungry Caterpillar can eat, stop by. I’d love to read my book together with you. Who knows, I may even let you turn the pages…well, at least a few of them. The holey ones are mine!