couple of pics

Charlie

Have I told you lately how cute you are? I know you know this, but I still need to tell you. How do I know you know you are cute? Well, often during a meal I use a modified sign for "beautiful" with you. It is modified since I do the sign touching your face. As we got home tonight from going to your first baseball game, as Dada held you in the kitchen, you did the sign on yourself. Yep, you have a bit of an ego. You also tend to smile and say "yeah" when someone talks to you about how cute you are.

Tonight we spent a little over an hour at the local baseball game. You probably could have lasted longer, but not by much. Plus, after over an hour of baseball, they were only in the bottom of the third. As usual you heard music and had to dance and/or clap your hands. (Proud moment: Your Mama over heard a couple of the students from the high school band who played the national anthem comment on your ability to change the speed of your clapping as the rhythm changed.) You also made "new friends" with the couple in front of us by pointing, smiling, and saying "hi."

So when we first came home sometimes we were at a loss on how to calm you. We found you highly enjoyed looking at pictures of people. So we would look at the photos around the house and talk about the people in them. You loved the photos of yourself, but also those of your cousins or friends' children. We would point to the person, say their name, and something about the person, event, location, or relationship. One of your favorites is on the refrigerator and is your "three picture story" with the earliest picture we have of you, a picture of the three of us with your favorite care giver at HH, and one of just the three of us- your family. It is your story and we point to the different parts of it and discuss your story. Sometimes we do this multiple times while looking at the frig pictures, since you keep pointing to it.

Another favorite is of you and Dada our last day in Ethiopia on our first trip, it was when he finally got you to smile. It sits on an end table, but recently the picture next to it has become a favorite. We can be playing on the floor and you will crawl over to it and slowly point to the different people in it. You are usually jabbering at it and "talk" to each person in the picture. Sometimes you laugh between "talking" to the different people, at times you "shout" at the different people. I find it funny. Other times, you point to it and then make an indication of wanting me to come join you and tell you about the picture. So here you are, talking to some of the members of your family at Aunt Meg and Uncle Alex's wedding. You are pointing to Dada and will actually say "Dada" and "Mama" when you point to us. This reminds me I need to be sure you have a picture of the three of us when you start at the sitter's on Monday. (Yep, Mama goes back to school this past week.)

Love
Mama