I'm Hoping for Naked on a Stick Horse

The Roc has developed quite a flair for making a dramatic entrance after waking up from his nap. Apart from the aforementioned baby powder incident, he has burst out of his room once on a stick horse, once completely naked, and once pantsless, riding a tricycle. We never know what the next nap time will bring; watch this space.

See You Later, Alligator

On a recent trip to the zoo, The Roc noticed that there was only one alligator in the alligator enclosure, instead of the usual two.

"Where's the other alligator?" he asked, rather loudly.

"I don't know, Honeybun," I replied.

The Roc rolled his eyes and said: "Mommy, I was talking to the alligator."

Every Day is Talk Like A Pirate Day at Our House

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day! We started celebrating early this year. A few months ago, The Roc suddenly went from not pronouncing his R's at all ("The Woc") to totally over-pronouncing them ("The Rrrrrrrroc"). It's like living with Long John Silver, only instead of "Shiver me timbers!" he says things like "Herrrrrre comes the garrrrrbage trrrrruck!" and "I rrrrreally love cerrrrrreal, Mommy."

Preschool

Day 1: I stayed for two and a half hours before The Roc gave me permission to leave. There was just enough time to put gas in the car before I had to pick him up again.

Day 2: I walked The Roc to the door of his classroom. He waved and said: "Bye, Mommy!" I went shopping.

Day 3: I walked The Roc to the school gate, where his teacher was waiting. "Do you want me to come in?" I asked. "No, you can wait here," he told me. Apparently he thinks I just hang out by the gate while he is in preschool.

The Great Outdoors

Daddy has been upgrading our earthquake safety gear and recently acquired a large tent. Because the only way you'll ever catch me sleeping in a tent is if my house has actually fallen down around me.

"Maybe one night we can put up the tent and have a sleepover in the backyard," Daddy told The Roc, obviously expecting an enthusiastic response.

I guess The Roc inherited some of his mother's genes after all, because he looked at Daddy in horror and asked: "WHY?"

The Roc Smells Like Baby Powder

One of the dirty little secrets you learn when you have a baby is that baby powder is not actually necessary. At best, it is useless; sprinkle it in the diaper area and you will end up with a sticky pee-powder paste. At worst, it's dangerous; talc is a carcinogen, after all. Yet everyone loves the smell of baby powder, including, apparently, babies.

Though we never actually used it on him, The Roc somehow discovered that baby powder smells good. We keep a bottle of the cancer-free cornstarch-based variety in the bathroom, and he likes to dust his hands with it after he brushes his teeth every night, just so he can fall asleep to the scent of whatever the heck makes baby powder smell like baby powder.

One day, The Roc was napping--or so I thought--when he suddenly emerged from his room absolutely covered in baby powder. His hair, his face, his hands, his once-black Baby Gap jeans: all snowy white. If not for the distinctive, overpoweringly baby-fresh scent, I would have thought he'd survived an explosion of some kind. I ran into his bedroom; it looked like a baby powder bomb had gone off in there. It was hard to get a straight answer out of The Roc, but eventually he revealed that he'd tried to sprinkle baby powder on his pillow so it would smell good during his nap. How that sprinkle turned into a quarter-inch-thick layer of baby powder blanketing The Roc's room, I guess we'll never know.