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.

There is something super cool that happens inside my belly when I drop a pebble or twig into the water. If I’m pretty far away from the water, there are the ripples and the time spent waiting for it to splash. If I’m down right on the bank, there’s the trickling sound and squishy stuff under my boots. All of that is nice, but there is something much more that comes over me when I kerplunk things in the water.

Today instead of being with Mommy like usual, Daddy stayed with me all day. I think he said something about her going to work, but I don’t know what that means. I guess it can’t be all that bad though, cause Mommy was pretty happy when she said goodnight to me last night.

Daddy and I went for a walk over the hills and far away (just like the little ducks!). When we got close to one of the parks that we hardly ever go to, I saw a green tennis ball on the ground. Naturally, I started telling Daddy to go and get it for me (Uhh, uhh, uhh [point finger at ball]). He did and I rolled it around on the tray of my stroller until we got to the park.

Sometimes I play a game with the person pushing my stroller. S/he give me my water, I drink it, then I give the cup back to him/her. I see a rock I like, s/he gives it to me, I play with it, then I give it back. I can repeat this many times right after each other, or not. It all depends on my mood.

As we finished our great playtime at the park, and, of course, some quality stone-throwing, a lightbulb came on in my head (lampa! lampa!): if I throw rocks in the water, and I have a soft furry green ‘rock’ in my hands, why shouldn’t I throw it? So throw it I did.

Remember at the beginning I said we went over the hills and far away? Well there were some really big hills. And I found that I didn’t need to throw my tennis ball at all. All I needed to do was drop it. This game was even better than the normal pass back and forth game. Daddy had to run really fast to get the ball and I went bumpity-bumpity in the stroller while he chased it. Whee!

Recently, I’ve been learning how to let go of things when I try to throw them. It’s hard work you know. My hand just doesn’t want to let a perfectly good stone at the creek or bouncy ball at home slip away. I am getting better though. In fact, I think I’m a professional ball thrower after today.

If you’re ever in the neighborhood and want to have some real fun that’ll make your insides tingle just like mine do, bring a tennis ball and come play with me. Actually, you don’t even need to bring a tennis ball…I find them on walks all the time. See you soon!

Today Daddy and I got to play together. I took a nap and when I woke up Mommy was gone and Daddy was here. He fed me some soup. Not like Mommy’s, though; it had chunks of white stuff in it (potato) and they were fun to chew.

After lunch we walked all the way to Becca Lilly park. Nobody was there at first and we swang, went down the slide, and picked up some good leaves. Before you know it, some other big boys showed up. I tried to follow them around but they were just too quick for me. Daddy wanted me to walk home, but I was tired so I made him carry me. I got down a couple of times to see a kitty. I barked at a few doggies too. That was fun!

Mommy came home just a little bit after we got home and she hugged me and kissed me. She gave me a surprise — we went to Elliot’s! Playing with my friends is grand; playing with anybody is fun, as a matter of fact (as long as they don’t take my toys).

Back home I had some more yummy food. Then when Mommy and Daddy were eating, I walked. Daddy took away the coffee table last night, so the big room is a lot easier to cruise around in. I crept along the couch and then walked to Mommy, then around the room back to the couch. I must have done this 20 times. It is so scintillating to walk all by yourself. The couple times I fell down, it didn’t even hurt all that much. Wow!

To finish up my day, I urinated all over the bathroom floor….oops! So if you visit us sometime in the next week or so, watch where you step!