Thursday Theatre: Chatterbox Chimpy

Chimpy is talking a lot. She has been for a while, actually, but I've been careless about keeping my old camera (which can take video) handy. On this morning she had just created a game (Daddy, Where Are You?) and I was in arm's reach of the camera. This video doesn't have all that much of Chimpy's talking, but it shows her using rudimentary sentences and that has been a constant source of surprise. Chimpy can parrot anything Mama or I say, but what's most fun is when she puts the words she knows into little sentences: "Two-Tone sleep house" (Two-Tone is our neighbor's rarely-spotted but much sought after cat) and "No chicken. Burger!" (Chimpy has meal preferences now) for example.

The game ends at around the ten second mark so we fill the time with a little Indonesian lesson. We actually hadn't done that in a month or more so I was pleased to see she remembered her words:



Here's some more Daddy, Where Are You? from earlier that morning:

Four Picture Friday: Filmstrip Friday

Milkshakes with Louie

Making breadcrumbs

Reading with Sis

Wednesday Moment of Zen

Four Picture Friday: Mama and Chimpy

This Wednesday at play group.

Chimpy: Mama!
Daddy: Mama is at work.
Chimpy: Mama, Mama!
Daddy (looks around): Which mama?
Chimpy: Kristen!

It was weird enough to realize Chimpy knew her mama had a name, but it was stranger still to hear her say "Kristen" perfectly. I asked her what my name was and she said "Stan." I shouldn't be surprised, those two are as thick as thieves. This despite the fact that Kristen gets her parenting skills on the fly from various magazine subscriptions.

A real head scratcher.

For her part, Chimpy enjoys going out with her mama. But as this photo shows, they have their own agendas.

Let's get cereal! No, cookies! Wait, who put all these vegetables in the cart?


It's a real girls' club. Daddy is only allowed in as long as he brings smoothies.

Spoiled

Well, I don't know about them. They are a couple of class A freaks, but they are my freaks.

My freaks

Four Picture Friday: BFF

Chimpy met Sis when her Daddy (Chimpy's daddy) was outside doing a rare bit of lawn care. Sis was out for a walk with her parents when Chimpy's daddy, figuring they were the same age, intercepted, accosted and invited them in to meet the family. Eager to humor the strange, dusty man with weeds in his hands, they came in and cautiously exchanged numbers. Soon we set up a play date. Here are Chimpy and Sis at one of their first plays together:

Hey, who are these little boys?

And here they are seven months later:



Chimpy and Sis are best friends. When Sis comes for a visit she gets the smile usually reserved for dogs and garbage trucks.



Chimpy and Sis see a lot of each other. We have dinner together two or three times a week which didn't seem like a lot until I typed it out just now.

Then

Now

"The books" say kids don't really develop friendships until they are 3 years old or older. You would never know that by Chimpy and Sis. They ask after each other almost every day (Sis says "Abba" and Chimpy has a sign for "Sis"). If our drives or walks take us past each other's houses without stopping, we hear about it. Although they usually play side-by-side to each other, they do play with each other from time to time which always makes their parents' days.








Well, Sis' parents have decided they want to be closer to the ocean so they are packing up and moving south to San Luis Obispo. The days are numbered and I guess it won't be long before we have to say good-bye. Here's Chimpy outside Sis' house making her sign asking for her friend.


Sis: Sorry my parents are making me move.
Chimpy: Sorry doesn't fix my broken heart.

Well, SLO isn't so far away and it will make for a fun weekend to drive down there. We'll see them often enough, they are BFFs after all. And we have to make sure we stay in touch long enough that we can embarrass them with pictures like this one:

Four Picture Friday: Fun Things We Did This Week

Drywalled the attic.

Dug a hole.

Watched cartoons.

Saw a beautiful sunrise.

Got a cool package in the mail.

Went to the park.