My parents don’t have any video of me as a child, and I can honestly say I’m fine with that. So maybe it won’t matter much to C some day that I haven’t been able to capture every little cuteness on video. But it still matters to me. I know I will miss this cute toddler phase when it’s over, but what really bothers me is knowing that there will be things that will be totally lost to time – things that could be saved forever (for me if not for her) if only I’d had a camera rolling a little more often or at just the right time.

For several weeks, C liked to say “How about that, Dad? How about that?” But now I’m the one saying “How about that, C, how about that?” in hopes that she will say it, too. So it was on the way to work this morning that I said “How about that, Charley Pie, how about that?” Her response?

“I’m a pie!!!”

I just finished some work for a client, and I went downstairs to turn it in. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I stepped over the baby gate and set my work on the newel post in time for a big hug from C, who was shouting “daddy!” at the top of her lungs.

After the hug, I put my work in the boss’s office and then chased after C, yelling “I’m going to get you” while she shrieked with glee. I lifted upside down in the air above me while tickling her. When she got down, she begged for more, so I swooped her up and plopped on the visitor’s couch by the front door, where she laughed and laughed and begged for more tickles.

A few minutes later, I helped my mom take her out the door. Today is grocery day, and C gets to drive the “car” at the grocery store while my mom does her weekly shopping. As she was going out the door, she looked up at me and said “daddy go with us?” I said I wish I could, but I have to work. She blew me a kiss as my mom walked out of sight.

I have it pretty good.

We renewed our zoo annual pass on Sunday, and C had an absolute blast.

It’s funny that in the middle of the night, C only wants her mama (not looking forward to Katie being out of town one night next week; I will get no sleep for sure), but an hour ago she got home from her Aunt B’s, looked up at me and said “Daddy … lie down together?”

(Of course it came out more as “togeter,” which is even cuter.)

C has always had a crazy big vocabulary, and she said sentences almost from the start (of talking, not of being). Right now she’s saying:

• It’s blue! (referring to any color)
• Don’t let C fall down and hurt C’s self! (I guess she’s becoming aware of cause and effect? or has she fallen one too many times?)
• Let’s play a game! (what game?)
• C has a question! (which we’re still waiting for.)

And yes, the Bug refers to herself in the third person. I’m not sure, but it could be her daddy’s fault.

I’ve been writing lately about C’s boppy obsession, so I thought I’d post a picture of her first ever boppy (taken in September of 2007, when she was about eight weeks old).

My week (or so) of childcare-free days is over, thank goodness. I can clean off my desk, pay some bills, and get caught up. But today the Bug is at her Mimi’s house, instead of here, and all of that dad & girl time have not made me prepared for a completely child-free day. Allow me to reminisce on last week’s babyness.

For a few days, C asked repeatedly if she could wash her hands. She said they were dirty!

She also spent a lot of time last week asking for Elmo; I said yes way more than I probably should have.

But Elmo did teach her to brush her hair:

C loves this duck. Here she is watering the driveway with the duck.

Did I mention that C loves the duck? I couldn’t get her in the car Thursday without the duck accompanying her:

C went swimming, but first she had to fill the pool (in the yard at our office):

We did have some downtime last week:

And some silly time (C does yoga!):

Ok, now I really must find my desk.

The site with the stupid name.

Anyway, flickr has some really good features, such as easy sharing and unlimited uploads and bandwidth for only $25 a year. But it has some pretty big negatives, too. It doesn’t have a lot of customizability, for example, and the organizing features are just terrible. I spent an hour yesterday trying to tag photos that were supposed to have been uploaded into a folder and weren’t. And at the end of tagging dozens and dozens of photos, I had four photos that were correctly tagged.

Anyway, we’ll see how this goes. I have a fourteen day trial. All I know is there’s got to be something better out there than flickr. If it looks worth it, there are several tools for importing your flickr pictures. Obviously I’ll want to try them before paying!

Edit: here’s a pretty cool article about the family business.

C hasn’t figured out how to use a straw quite yet.