Mo' Ritchie

We have a round window on the second floor of our house that faces east. Every morning, sunshine pours through it onto our stairway, inviting us to go downstairs and start our day.

This morning, as we walked downstairs through the sunshine, Charlie stopped, turned around and waved and said, "Goodbye, sunshine!"

Cuter every day!

We took Charlie to the World Famous San Diego Zoo. We have an annual membership because we're responsible solid parents.

Turns out, Charlie hates animals.

I guess I should amend that statement - Charlie hates zoo animals. Domesticated animals are fine. Animals in cages, that can't ever harm him or get close to him - he want to "do sumthin else".

He was super pumped to be walking into this cave next to water behind a pane of glass until an otter swam up to him to say hello. "All done, let's go, sumthing else!" as he shook his hands back and forth in front of him, waving the traumatic experience away. All the parents got such a kick out of my little neurotic Woody Allen, while their children ooohed and aaahhhed on cue at the "coot aminals".

Charlie was way into the telescope at the monkey exhibit though. And the elevator to the tiger swamp. He also liked this tunnel thing.



Good thing I sprung for that annual membership because I'm sure Charlie will be BEGGING to return.

The World Famous San Diego Zoo is located in Balboa Park, this huge, beautiful setting that houses probably 173 museums. Maybe not that many. But close, I'm sure. It also has an old fashioned carousel, a huge playground, and, Charlie's favorite, a miniature train.

The miniature train was everything the zoo wasn't - it elicited sounds from my son that most parents only hear on Christmas morning. $2.00 to ride. Way cheaper than the zoo membership. The pictures speak for themselves.

Tonight, when we were putting Charlie to bed, he started talking.

"Daddy loves Mommy. Mommy loves Daddy. Charlie loves Mommy and Daddy."

We had a group hug. Then he said,

"Daddy, Mommy very much. Mommy, Daddy very much. Charlie, Mommy and Daddy very much."

Every day, he gets the tiniest bit sweeter.

~~~~~~~

I go in to get a hi-res ultrasound on Thursday to try to figure out why my right ovary has decided to go on full-out attack. Oh, and hopefully someone can give me a clue as to when this miscarriage will actually be finished miscarrying. That would be nice to know. The not knowing how permanent this is, how this affects my fertility in general, the lack of basic trust I have in my health care professionals - all of it really shits the bed, as a friend said to me once, after miscarriage number 2, I think. Maybe 3. In any case, the longer this lingers, the longer it will be for me to put number 6 in that cobwebby card catalog drawer in my brain labeled "Misfortunes, Solutions Unknown". Until then, I walk around feeling like I actually still have it in me, and I have no way of getting it out.

Thank god for Charlie, man. We say it all the time. Thank god for Charlie.