My little assistant

I got up today and felt better, but still kinda weak and sick. The obvious answer was to enlist an assistant while cooking eggs.
Christopher perched on the counter and gripped each egg tightly, grinning maniacally and obviously excited that he was being allowed - encouraged even - to break something. He "helped" me break three eggs, then stopped after and looked at his hands in grossed-out fascination. Breaking eggs is not a mess-free endeavor when you're 18 months old.
He screamed through the hand-washing process, but then cheered up when he got to eat the eggs he had helped prepare. He ate a lot before demanding to get down and wandering off in search of his little bike.
I'd post pictures if I had any, but trust me, it was cute.

Christopher has said the dreaded word...

Mine.
We are in the territory of "mine" now. Pacifiers are mine, food is mine, a toy that another child dropped is mine. It's starting....
Otherwise, Christopher is doing great. He identifies animals by their sounds "What's this?" "Moo."
That's about all I could do this morning before I gave up, grabbed a wad of tissues and took him to daycare. Now I'm home, hacking and blowing my nose. Christopher had a cold several weeks ago, then Brian had a cold...now I have a cold. Apparently "mine" doesn't apply to illness.

Goodnight, Gorilla

Christopher and I went to the zoo today...it was really nice to get away and relax. Especially on a Monday! We did miss Daddy, though.
We spent about five hours at the zoo. Christopher was a little grouchy - he didn't sleep well last night - but he did pretty well. He did have a few temper tantrums in the chimpanzee exhibit. He didn't want to stop climbing in the exhibit, and he didn't want to leave it. I didn't know he liked chimps so much, but considering how much he likes climbing, it makes sense.
It was funny going to the zoo today and seeing the changes in Christopher. The first time we took him, he liked riding around in the stroller, but was kind of oblivious to most of the animals. Today he did not want to ride in the stroller - he wanted to walk, walk, walk - but he really liked seeing the birds, the bison and especially the sea lions. We got there at feeding time, and he yelled "Yay! Wow!" as they followed the trainers' commands to come out on the step and bark, roll, and do other things. And when they brought out a ball for the sea lions, he yelled "Ball!" and everyone laughed.
I'm telling you, we're lucky they didn't keep him. He seemed to fit in.

Helmet head

Christopher got on a bike and took a ride to the playground on Sunday - but first he had to put on the dreaded (dum dum DUM) helmet.
He didn't like it.
He cried and cried and cried. Until he got onto daddy's bike...once he started moving, all the tears went away. And then he had a great time at the playground. When he was ready to go home, putting the helmet on again went a lot more smoothly.