Lexie's Life

DETOUR

It's tough keeping up with the ever-changing technology, but thanks to Apple's new "iWeb" application, it's easier than ever to create and post Blog entries (meaning, Mommy can do it now). Accordingly, you can now follow The Boo's adventures at the New Location:

The Charlson Kids

Puke Platter (to go, please)

So a few hours after her brother called his friend "Ralph" Lexie followed suit, chucking right onto her dinner. Luckily, the rest of us had pretty much finished eating already. It was about 24 hours since they had each visited their cousins' house, and we're thankful that this appears to be the extent of the illness they caught this time.

The remarkable thing is how nonchalant they both are about the whole thing. Not much drama, they just toss and then are fine. Amazing.

Boo is talking up a storm these days, stringing toghether her own little sentences and singing songs (she loves "Twinkle Twinkle little star" and the "ABC" song especially).

She tolerated the recent railroad trips we've all taken -- she enjoys Thomas the Tank Engine, and knows what trains are, but is obviously nowhere near as infatuated with them as Dalton is. During the Polar Express ride on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad she spent most of her time trying to squirm past us and into the aisle of the coach, or looking out the windows at the passing scenery.

Unfortunately for Pop-Pop, Lexie had a slightly different trick to play on the Santa Train in Bonsal, NC. Without going into details, let's just say that a certain brand of diaper appears to leak rather spectacularly. Sorry about that, Pop-Pop! Not that there's a great place for that sort of thing to happen at all, but a chilly, open-air train car certainly isn't at the top of the list. Boo was all bundled up and didn't seem to mind a bit, however.

The trip to cousin Isabel's house was fun (and nobody got sick from that visit!), especially the chance to see Grandma & Grandpobbies and to run around at the nearby school playground. Lexie figured out how to land a plane when there wasn't a qualified pilot around. Way to go, Boo!

When she wasn't rescuing a plane full of passengers or playing in the mulch, she spent a lot of time playing with the "new" toys in Isabel's room. Other kids' toys are always more fun than the ones you play with all the time at home, right?

For Thanksgiving, one of the (many) pies that Mommy made was a chocolate pie with Oreos as an ingredient. Neither Dalton nor Lexie have ever had an Oreo before then (as far as we know), but the "twist the top off to get the cream center" behavior appears to be inborn in kids, because Boo did that almost immediately -- or at least, tried to.

"Stuck!" she wailed, holding the cookie out for one of us to fix for her. Once she got the taste of that, we had to open any future Oreos -- happily, most of the cookies went into the pie (or were scarfed by others).

e-Boo

One of the more amusing speech patterns Lexie has these days is way she chops off words ending in an "e" sound. This means that...

ladybug = "e-bug"
lollipop = "e-pop"
Dalton's LeapPad = "e-pad"
etc.

Sometimes we have difficulty in figuring out exactly what The Boo is trying to say. We can ask her brother "What's she saying?" and he translates for us. Once Dalton points it out, we immediately think "Ah, yes, that's exactly what Lexie was saying!" The Boy's ability is impressive, but then they spend all day together, so it makes sense that he knows her language.

Spider!

The Boo has yet to acquire her Mom's fear of bugs. The kids were playing, enjoying the gorgeous fall afternoon outside. Mommy was sitting in a camp chair, looking at photos in the digital camera, which is why she wasn't paying attention as Lexie approached.

The Boo had a "gift" which she placed in Mommy's lap. Boo has been known to bring gifts of mulch, and as preoccupied as Mommy was, the fact that Lexie had said "spider" didn't register immediately. Thirty seconds later, Mommy felt something on her leg and looked down.

Big. Spider.

Mommy screamed Bloody Murder, nearly shattering windows across the entire neighborhood as she shot out of her chair and skipped across the driveway, hyperventilating.

Glancing back, Mommy noticed poor Boo standing with lip a-quiver, horrified at the spectacle unfolding before her wide, blue eyes.

"Oh! Oh, good Lexie! Yay! Nice spider! Yay!" Mommy said with enough conviction to keep Lexie from crying, and the Boo went happily off to play with something else.

Upon subsequent investigation, the spider was laying on the seat of the chair -- rather large, but also rather dead. It was unceremoniously given the boot into the high grass.

Halloween

We spent the weekend in Hillsborough, with Pop-Pop and Granni. It was busy, but fun. Saturday evening we were invited to the Halloween Festivities with Mommy's friend Kristin. There were games to play, and a bonfire for roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, and "Trunk-or-Treating" in the parking lot.

The Boo was dressed as Minnie Mouse, and was the hit of the gathering, even though she kept pulling off her "ears." She didn't like having them on her head. Lexie also didn't care much about the games or the candy, but she enjoyed the food and running around the place, investigating the various luminaries.

By the time we returned to Granni & Pop-Pop's, both munchkins were pretty worn out from all the activity, and zonked out quickly.

On Sunday, we did a triple birthday celebration for Pop-Pop, Kip and Ben, then went to the playground at a nearby elementary school where there were again some plentiful opportunities to run around like fools. Boo spent a lot of time on the slides, stairs and swings, but played for quite a while with her cousin Sarah at an empty sand and water table, filling it up with dirt.

Lexie didn't sleep very well during the ride home, which was a little unusual.

On Halloween night, we journeyed to the mall -- mostly just to run around some more, since the last thing we needed was more candy. We stayed for about an hour or so, walking around the mall and looking at all the other kids in costumes, then came back home and went to bed. Such an exciting life!

Potty Boo

Lexie has recently become interested in the potty -- she calls out "Potty!" several times a day. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't. We've been reading her various "potty" books, and of course praising her whenever she goes. There are times when she hates wearing her diapers and tries to pull them off, but often she doesn't mind them. Anyway, it'd be nice if she was as quick on the potty uptake as her brother was!

She even has had some "conversations" with her toilet, asking "Potty?" and answering for it, "What?"

Dora the Explorer is still her favorite, and Boo has picked up quite an impressive Spanish vocabulary. She knows several words and can count some in Spanish, too, in addition to being able to count to 13 (only skipping a couple numbers on the way).

Scribbling on things is a joy for her -- whether on paper or the walls or books. We've had to restrict Dalton's access to the crayon box, since he inevitably either leaves them where she can get them, or fails to put them all away, and then Lexie has a crayon she can use to draw murals (or chew on).

When Boo isn't gnawing on crayons, she's a very good eater -- still likes her meat, and is a monster milk drinker. Luckily for us, Lexie is a good night-time sleeper too, and takes an afternoon nap (if her brother doesn't wake her up).

The Boo's Blog

In an effort to provide more timely service, the Management has decided to see if setting up a Blog for The Boo would improve things around here.

Dashing off a few simple lines every day or week rather than having to create Small Novels every few weeks (or months, as the case has been) will hopefully allow Lexie's Legion of Fans to get their Boo Fix.