The "Keen" and I

Today my mom and dad, who spent the weekend with us, dropped Anthony off at daycare for me, and apparently he threw a FIT when they left. A screaming, crying, red-faced, clinging, please-Grandma-don't-leave-me FIT. Which is just a little hurtful, because when I drop him off, he immediately runs to his teacher so he can have his breakfast and start his day. I know I'm grumpy in the morning, but is it that much of a relief to get away from me?

Brandon, don't answer that.

Anyway, despite the little stinker's propensity for crushing my heart, he's been a ton of fun lately. The language development is a blast to watch - favorites are "Keen" for Lighting McQueen (of Cars fame), "Melmo" for Elmo, and "Boos Coos" for Blues Clues. I know what you must be thinking - "Wow! That is amazing! I'm so impressed! I mean, seriously, how DO they actually fit that much TV into one toddler's waking hours?" To which I can only respond, "Tivo."

Fortunately, despite his copious TV watching, Anthony has found time in recent weeks to visit with Grandma Dianne and Grandpa Harry, enjoy the nice Miami weather, get a cute new 'do and learn some words that didn't come from PBSKids or Nick Jr.

And I also took the bold step of buying a plastic potty (unfortunately, unlike litter boxes, there did not appear to be a self-cleaning model). Don't get me wrong, I don't have any illusions here (for the record, all six of my choices at Target bore pictures of little toddler girls happily approaching the potty, the message clearly being that if your child happens to be a boy, don't even bother, 'cause it ain't gonna happen until they're tall enough to just use the real toilet) but I also figured there's nothing wrong with letting Anthony see there is an alternative to Pampers.

So, we'll see how it goes - maybe we'll get lucky. Hey, I figure someday on a very special episode of Sesame Street Melmo will learn to go to the bathroom by himself, so I'll just wait for that to hit the Tivo and we should be all good.

Some pictures:

At the park...check out that cute new haircut:

Trying on Grandpa's hat:More fun at the park with Grandma:

Grandma and Grandpa took Anthony to the library:

And to pick strawberries:

Anthony is 20 months! (yesterday)

In honor of Anthony's "birthday" (but mostly because it's cute and I want to always remember how the little fella sounds when he says what was his first and remains his favorite word) I'm posting a video of my favorite 20-month-old:



That's from Anthony glancing at one of those free car sales flyers we grabbed to entertain him at breakfast yesterday. Imagine how he sounded later in the day when Brandon put on the Daytona 500 for a little while. Or how he'll sound in the days before his 16th birthday.

Anyway, listening to Anthony's car talk makes me laugh because he always says it with that Boston "pahk the cah in the Hah-vahd yahd" accent, like he's a member of the Kennedy family who just spotted his car after hours of searching (insert Chappaquiddick joke here). And every time, never fail, no matter how many hundreds of times he finds his Disney Cars books or we drive to school or I drag him through the supermarket parking lot, he always cries out, "Car!" with that same mix of amazement and incredulity and unbridled joy, and then keeps going until someone acknowledges the sheer awesomeness of it all by saying, "Yes, Anthony, that's a car." I wish I got that excited about anything.