You might wonder, what kind of fancy vacation are brother and his wife having without their toddler in tow? Well, apparently they're just at home. They weren't even able to get off work so soon before the holiday weekend, so it's only half a vacation. Nevertheless, they're enjoying the simple things in life, like coming home after work and quietly enjoying each other's company without having to talk all the time. And openly eating snacks before dinner without hiding in the pantry. And not having to wrangle a wailing kid through bath time and changing clothes.

Meanwhile, over here:

*Grandpa opens a bag of popcorn*

BB: Don't eat it all. Sharing is caring.

*Grandpa pours popcorn on BB's plate*

Me, to BB: Can I have one? Sharing is caring.

BB: No. Get your own.

It's hard to believe just a year ago we were lowkey stressing about this guy not having 50 spoken words. These days he talks non-stop. I feel like I speak more in a day with him than in a normal month. He picks up language so fast. Today at the Korean market, Mom asked if I wanted to get shrimp chips and BB spoke up: "We have those at home."

He's working on the concept of time. His perception and memory are top-notch, but I get the feeling the shelving of events is not so organized. "What did you do today?" generally gets a blank look in response, because what is today? After he's had his afternoon nap, he sometimes refers to pre-nap events as "yesterday." For another example, on Wednesday we went to Costco for lunch and they had no ice cream because the ice cream machine was broken. BB said, "And yesterday they had no straws." This is great memory. I had forgotten about the lack of straws. Except it wasn't yesterday, it was the last time I was at Costco with BB, three weeks ago. I suppose it could be a vocab issue rather than a conceptual issue - maybe he thinks "yesterday" means anything in the past. Who knows. This is complex stuff. I’ve encountered this usage in kids of this age before, where “yesterday” is used for “the last time this particular kind of event happened,” e.g., coming to church, or in this case Costco.

He's also learning about time in a micro sense. He knows if you look at someone's phone or watch, there are numbers. He can read those! Mom has started using times as toddler crisis prevention. For instance, at the playground, "At 12:30, we have to leave." (I show him my watch, which reads 12:15.) So there is nothing to be concerned about yet, he can still play, but he is slightly primed when the time does come. And maybe it feels more objective/authoritative because there's a number attached to it.

That was also on Wednesday. Due to the infernal heat, Mom had the great idea to bring BB to the mall with its indoor playground. There was a girl there, maybe about six years old, who was very good at running and hopping and climbing. I noticed her. She noticed me noticing her. We exchanged grins a few times in passing and then we were friends. (Everyone likes having their Very Cool playground feats appreciated.) So then I was playing with her, and also playing with BB, meaning the three of us were playing with each other. Mom said it's the first time she's seen BB playing with another kid at the playground.

Anyway, since I'm talking about time, I should at least try to write a chronological narrative. Wednesday, as mentioned, we went to the mall playground in the morning and then went to Costco for lunch. We also planned to shop at Costco afterwards, but BB was so loud (even by his usual standards) we just snagged like two items and hustled out of the store.

On Thursday morning, we went to the park to feed the fish. The water teemed with colorful koi and giant catfish, and they were FAT. You can tell everyone's been feeding them. Good inspo for fish month: the sinuous motion, the multitude swirling beneath the gray-green waters... Then we came home to make cupcakes, since one of BB's favorite books is Stir Crack Whisk Bake. We thought he'd be super excited. In fact he was only medium excited, and pretty much lost interest once they went in the oven, but after lunch he got to frost and eat his own cupcake (with sprinkles) so that was quite cool.

Thursday also saw the evolution of a classic game: cat. BB likes pretending to be a cat. This is his earliest game of let's pretend, and it predates his being verbal. He just meows and it's up to you to notice and play along by saying hi to the kitty and petting him. But on Thursday, the game became this: He starts meowing. "Oh, it's a kitty," I say, reaching out my hand to pet the kitty. Then he growls and I yank my hand back, startled. It wasn't a kitty at all!! It was a tiger!! As you might imagine, this is SO funny and we did it like 20 times.