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).

I am always talking about throwing rocks and other small projectiles into the water. But I don’t think you’ve seen good pictures of me doing this yet. Today I would like to fix that glaring mistake.

Like any other day, Daddy and I set out for a walk shortly after breakfast. When we first left the house, I really wanted to see our neighbors’ cats Pablo and Frida. But they weren’t around, so we started moving again. On the way to the park, I picked up a few pieces of bark and a stone. When we finally got real close to the creek, Daddy grabbed a handful of gravel and we meandered to the bridge.

Once on the bridge, I assumed the position and thought about throwing my rock in the water. Being the tricky Daddy that he is, my pap put his stones down on the bridge. But not all in a pile, like you would expect, no-sirree; that would be too easy! He spaced the rocks out evenly so I would need to walk a little bit in between throwing them.

When I ran out of rocks, I still wanted to throw more, so I went and grabbed two sticks from the bank. Daddy broke them for me and I threw a few pieces in before getting bored.

We got on the only dry swing in the whole park (wasn’t I lucky it was my favorite, the yellow one?), and I had a great break swinging. Then it was almost time to go. But before we left, I went to the place where the picnic tables were and learned how to bang cool rhythms on the tables.

Finally, Daddy said it was time to go, but I had one more little surprise for him. I asked really nicely if we could go to one more bridge. That bridge is right next to a road, so you can only throw stuff of one side. But….if you’re tiny like me you notice a very tiny gap on the roadside of the bridge to drop things into. Maybe for five minutes, I’d grab stones off the road and drop them into the slit. I sure got dirty, but it was fun.

Note: I looked both ways before sticking my arm into the street.

Aha! See the rock in my hand?

And that does it for me. I hope you enjoyed the picture and movie. Now, if Daddy would just get the Zoo movie up for everybody…that one is much more interesting.

For Christmas, Grandmommy and Granddaddy gave me a couple of Raffi CDs. We’re lucky because we haven’t scratched them yet. I’m sure we will though…oh well. But I’m getting myself all distracted. On one of the CDs, Raffi sings a song about going to the zoo. Guess what? Today, the song came true for Daddy and me when we went to the National Zoo!

If you haven’t noticed it yet, there is a new section in my sidebar at the right. It’s called Hear Me Chirp and it is the most recent posts from my Twitter feed. I’m quite proud of myself, I got a Twitter account before my dad did. (In fact, I still don’t think he has one yet!) Anyhow, I’ll start out the account of my day with a recap of all my tweets.

Thinking back over the day, what my comments don’t really capture is how much glee bubbled up in me. For example, usually when I go for a walk with Mommy or Daddy, we always need to be careful because cars might be coming. At the zoo, the place to walk is twice as big as a road AND there are no cars! I could walk wherever I wanted to…almost.

My day at the zoo is all over now, but if you want to remember me and all the fun I had, press the play button below and sing along!

Mummy’s takin’ us to the zoo tomorrow,

Zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow.

Mummy’s takin’ us to the zoo tomorrow

We can stay all day!

Chorus:

We’re goin’ to the zoo, zoo, zoo

How about you, you, you?

You can come too, too, too

We’re goin’ to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

Look at all the monkeys swingin’ in the trees,

Swingin’ in the trees, swingin’ in the trees,

Look at all the monkeys swingin’ in the trees,

We can stay all day!

[chorus]

Look at all the crocodiles swimmin’ in the water,

Swimmin’ in the water, swimmin’ in the water,

Look at all the crocodiles swimmin’ in the water,

We can stay all day!

[chorus]

Yes, Mummy’s takin’ us to the zoo tomorrow,

Zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow,

Mommy’s takin’ us to the zoo tomorrow

And we can stay all day.

[chorus]

[chorus]

© 1961 Cherry Lane Music Co. ASCAP

I think that as a little boy like me grows up, things change an awful lot around him. Sometimes the changes are nice, sometimes they aren’t that good, and sometimes they’re a little bit of both. I’m going to tell you a little story. Then you can tell me what kind of a change you think I had.

A few weeks after I got back from Russia last year, Mommy, Daddy, and I walked all over the neighborhood and collected things from people. I got really good at putting the things into my pumpkin basket (the bag I’m holding in the picture is what we’re going to talk about today). Mommy and Daddy ate most of the things that I got, but I got to play with almost all of them.

My toy pretzels lost their shake

What you see in the picture here was one of my favorite toys to play with. I squished it and it crinkled. I shook it and it and it rattled. I dropped it and it fell. All of this noise was amazing!

Well, today at snack time, Daddy got it out. Even though it had been a long time since I last played with it, I remembered what to do. I grinned as I shook the bag. Then Daddy took the bag from me and opened it. How could he? Didn’t he know that was my special toy? But at the same time, I was also excited to see what was inside. I helped dump the bag out and inside were little round tasty things. Along with some tasty peanuts, Daddy and I devoured my Halloween pretzels.

Yum! Who could have ever guessed that my rattling bag would also be so tasty? Daddy showed me how to hold the little pretzel pumpkins that weren’t broken yet and look through them. In between mouthfuls, we peered at each other through our pumpkins until they were all gone.

Now that my story is finished, what do you think? Was this change good, bad, or a little bit of both? Why do you think so?

A week and a half ago I displayed the first computer drawing I made. I don’t think it is fair for you to judge me solely on that pixelated scribble scrabble. So today we’re going to look at an original drawing (crayon on scrap paper) that has been many months in the making.

Before I got big crayons for Christmas…before I heisted two little crayons from the Olive Garden…yes, way before any of that, Mommy and I would take pens or pencils and make beautiful masterpieces together. Believe it or not, this subtle montage dates from that era. It is hard to see the pen underneath everything, but those non-crayon strokes form the skeleton that holds the rest of the drawing together. Most of what you are looking at is, of course, from the crayons I just mentioned. And from what I can remember, this paper was actually the first one I used my crayons on.

This morning a great calamity befell this limited edition piece of art — I stepped on it. Stepping alone is not that bad, but when the step is combined with a turn, a hole is made. Mommy was really sad when it happened. I tried to make her feel better, but she was unconsolable. Look on the bright side, Mommy, yesterday our artwork was just an ordinary collection of colors and shapes. Today it is holey! It takes a special paper to achieve that status.

Forty-five sheets of scrap paper, four envelopes, and one piece of wrapping paper later…this is where I began my career as an artist. Someday, it will be worth a lot of money, but who cares? I had fun making it, looking at it, and even stepping on it. What more could a sheet want?

The front

The back