A Cerney Periodical

Brock's verbal skills have been constantly exploding. It's dizzying trying to keep track of all the bloggable stuff he does, and as he gets more active, I constantly feel like I'm slipping further behind. In a small attempt to keep up, I've been sending myself some short emails when he says something funny. It's time to dig through the backlog, while Brock digs through the log.... 2/23: OK, I promise we'll get back to the logs, but this one needs a picture. Brock likes us to draw whatever comes into his mind. This day, it was a mommy spy camera with hands holding a yo-yo and eating cheese. I labeled the spy-cam "mom" in an attempt to work on reading with Brock. He knows the sounds that each letter make, but he can't quite grok how the sounds come together into words, so he resorts to guessing. Here's Brock sounding out mom: "mmmmmmm.....aaaahhhhhhhhh....mmmmmmm....CHEESE!" "No it doesn't say cheese. Try again....

Highlight on a Brock nature moment: Brock has played this before, a game that bloomed from his amusement after learning that the tiny fruit abundant in the park was called a crab apple. We are crabs and Brock runs back and forth from the tree to the stool bringing the namesake fruit to the table for a crab feast. When I asked him to smile for the picture he said "crabs don't smile". Too true.

I am finding it more challenging to capture the raw amazing of Brock for posterity and blog. Too much to choose from... hard to focus. After taking some inspiration from Knight blog, I decided it's been way too long since some playground moves were captured.  Brock is a nature boy. Trees, flowers, plants, dirt, berries, sticks, bring it.  One walk home he hugged every tree along the sidewalk way home. K, so his balance is getting pretty great. I was so confident in him that I could use my hands for the camera without too much clenching. 

Matt is out of town this weekend, and so was Miles, so Brock and I made a break for the country to check out my dearest pal Sarah's new house about an hour away in Chesterton Indiana.    Maeve has been Brock's play buddy who he never played with since they were babies. But hark! What is this? Playing? Sharing? Smiling?   They started out in their usual "no mine" situation, but as the weekend went on they really figured their stuff out. With similar backgrounds that excluded daycare, Sarah and I have always made an effort to give them social opportunities.   Her beautiful 5-acre green seriously made me green.   Brock loved their new house and exclaimed so a few times. Stand outs for him was a giant bell (he loves bells these days), the swing, the ducks, the sidewalk chalk and baby James's light up flushing potty (it was Maeve's potty, but since Brock goes potty in the big toilet, I think he thought the little one was more Ja...

This year we continued an Easter tradition from daddy's childhood: picture-based Easter-egg hunting. Instead of scattering eggs and leaving him to wander everywhere, it's a linear hunt. One clue leads to the next clue, to the next clue, and so on, until finally the Easter basket! Each egg has a candy and another clue. Brock wasn't really sure what was going on for the first two eggs. I thought I'd served up the easiest picture first. He had some trouble, and then as soon as he found it, he just wanted to do something else. We coaxed him to decipher the next clue. Then he wanted to do something else. Something clicked after the third egg. Perhaps the prospect of procuring infinite gummis and jelly beans finally crossed his mind, or maybe the connection of the pictures to the placement just needed some time, but he was hooked. Here's a video of the middle of the hunt: Eventually the basket was found... It was a beautiful day so we wen...

Rare evidence that Brock is aware and interested in his peers. Here Brock and a little guy at the library take turns spinning each other. No parent persuasion was used here. Brock plays restaurant with two gals in the park. He initiated. The little girl in the yellow coat was quite leery, but the gal in blue was into Brock. Yellow warmed up after he brought her some chicken (sticks).  Brock has started to invite "babies" (everyone is a baby, even 9 year olds... he only just recently started using the term "kid") to play. He does it in typical Brock style... real creepy. But wonderful! I would say yes in a second, but some of the kids stare at him as he says, "hello baby, would you like a to go down the slide with me?" 

Curses to you Chicago winter, we goin' to Mehicho! Puerto Vallarta to be precise. Our annual multi-family fun trip was much anticipated. This year our all inclusive resort of collective choice was Garza Blanca. It was first on our list because we enjoy the charming downtown of Puerto Vallarta, the vigorous ocean on the western side of the country and being on the water with great food. This place really delivered! Thomas...check! Peppa Pig....check! Perplexus ball....check! We are cleared for liftoff! Our welcome view from the lobby. Hallelujah! View from room.  Curses curses curses. So the beach was rocky. And the vigorous waves we said we loved? Well, they were too vigorous. The beach area was closed for swimming because of rough tide and rocks rolling on shore with each pass of wave. I was a bit broken hearted as sand and waves are primary in my vacation fantasy. A few mojitos seemed to fix the despair. I will say the ferocious froth did give us a wonderful s...