Best Toy Ever

This simple toy has brought literally hours of CR fun to our house since getting it 3 weeks ago - whether it is rearranging the penguin, walrus and bear toy that came with it, splashing in it to squeals of 'Agua!', or sliding the ice down the waterslide contraption - he is having a blast with this water table. Putting the ice in it brought it to a whole other level, as the heat here is rising and it is a great way to stay cool outside.

Our little piece of the Arctic in the Texas heat...

Every day seems like a new adventure with Charlie Ross, and he is certainly ready to embrace his 'twos' both the terrific and terrible sides. He frequently comes up with some new word or gesture that he never did before - from picking up a phone and saying 'Hello! [babble, babble, babble]', to perfecting what I can only term the toddler squeal of frustration at a pitch I did not know was possible.

One funny play event from a few weeks ago - these toys started out at the other side of the room spread out in their train station, within minutes they are all as shown below - banished en masse to coffee table Siberia - this was every figurine I had put out, no rhyme or reason behind it.

Crowded at the edge of nowhere, these toys wait for a train that can never arrive....

It is fun to play with him since he is so curious about everything - this is an awesome age even with the tantrums - some are pretty brutal, they can come in quick and leave just as quickly - but sometimes it as much fun just to watch him play alone, we really like trying to figure out what he is saying when he babbles to himself and his toys.

Storm on the horizon (this one blew over quickly with a hug, most are not so easily subdued)

We just discovered these mole movies on You Tube, and CR took to this particular one below - and requests 'Mole' nearly every time he is by the computer, he gets a big kick at the end when the season changes and the mole pops up from the hole ('Hi mole!', 'Hi Mole!'), and when winter comes back and the the snowman returns and hugs the mole (he pulls up his arms and giggles).

And he got a super kick out of this one the other day, with the water table we have been talking about the penguins alot, and pointing them out wherever we see them, so it should not have come as too much of a surprise that he would like this, but in the middle he just giggles at the penguin and seals' antics uncontrollably, which I had never seen him do before.

Charlie and I are having fun watching the birds and squirrels in the backyard get their fill from the new bird feeder Charlie put up (and keeps well stocked), we have seen a really impressive array of bird species (cardinals, blue jays, doves, and what we think are sparrows), a few of which we had to look up in our field guide (the Internet). We are going to get a hummingbird feeder too, as we had several our first summer here when we had flowering plants in the backyard - and that was a fun sight to see.

We start swimming lessons tomorrow, and I am looking forward to it - CR's first forays into the pool this summer were promising once he got acclimated to the water, and I will feel a bit more comfortable once he has some feel for water safety.

Below are some various pics since our last post....

CR's version of the 'Watermelon Crawl'

Hope everyone is having a great start to their summer!