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| Welcome to May! As you can see, I’ve discovered the value of style. As I get closer and closer to 2, I am recognizing how important it is to impress the other toddlers on the playground. |
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Of course, it isn’t just clothes that make the man. It’s important to have a good set of wheels and a celebrity hanging out with you…and when it comes to celebrities, there aren’t many that impress the toddler crowd more than Tigger.
I’ve also decided to take up guitar. I’m starting out with this Elmo rocker that Mom’s friend Jodie gave me, but as you can see on the ’Crouch’ page by clicking on the button below, I’m working up to the real thing.  |
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| Actually, I really am fascinated with instruments these days. Uncle Mark gave me a book that introduces different instruments of the orchestra and Dad followed that up with a CD of Peter and the Wolf. Mom and Dad and I were walking on the Plaza one night and I lit up when I saw a street performer with a violin. As for the Crouches, that’s a reference to Dad’s cousin Carolyn and her family. I met them for the first time this month when Mom and Dad and I went to the beach in North Carolina. Oh yeah, the beach! Perhaps I should explain. |
For our family vacation, we spent a little more than a week with Mom’s family at a beach house in Topsail, North Carolina. Mom and her family used to take family vacations there when she was growing up. The whole crew was there, as you can see from this family photo. Also there, but not in the photo, were Mom’s friend Jodie and my cousin Nate’s girlfriend Jackie. Click on the button below to go to the ’beach’ page to see all my adventures, including playing in the sand, blowing bubbles in the ocean, and listening to sea shells!
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The vacation kicked off with my cousin Mike’s college graduation. At left is Mike with his dad (my uncle Chris). At right, my dad is prepping me for about twenty years down the line. |  |
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The trip to the beach was the big highlight in May, but I wasn’t exactly bored the rest of the month. Grandma Whitaker celebrated her birthday at the end of the month. Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Mark all came over to our house and we made shish-kabobs and listened to Grandma’s kind of music (the cast album of Camelot, which Mark and Dad gave to Grandma). Grandma also tried out her new digital camera’s video component. If Dad can figure out how, we might have to add a video clip to the Website of me doing the Hokey Pokey. |
| At the beginning of the month, Mom and Dad and I went to Family Night Out, which is an activity sponsored by Parents as Teachers. Dad is on the Famiy Network Board which plans such events. Anyway, the Stone Canyon puppets appeared and here, the dog puppet is coming out into the crowd to say ‘hi’ to me. |  |
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Mom and I trekked out to the Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead at the end of the month with her friend Angela and Angela’s son Alexander. I’ve been out there at least a half dozen times, but I never tire of seeing the animals. I love seeing the goats; Mom was pretty fascinated with the prairie dogs they’d added since the last time she’d been out. |  |
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The final highlight of the month is the interest I’ve taken up in drawing, writing, and letters. I get upset if I see Mom or Dad writing something down and not giving me any paper and pen to do the same. I want to write letters, but haven’t got this dexterity thing mastered yet. I can recognize the letters B, C, D, E, M, O, and R and am working on A, S, and T. Believe me, Mom and Dad aren’t drilling me with flash cards or anything. I’ve just become very excited about picking out letters whenever they read me stories or I see something printed anywhere. |
| Mom even got me a computer keyboard that I could ‘practice’ on. Look for my soon to be published Toddler Memoirs, coming soon to a bookstore near you. |  |
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