Bits of Downtown

Charlie and I went downtown and strolled the pedestrian mall of 16^th street.

Charlie met a homeless guy on one block and had his picture taken with Barack Obama on the next.

We watched four men in hard hats and orange vests behind a chain link fence working on stimulus project. We saw a man sleeping on a bench in the park, dreaming of a stimulus job.

We waited until the white man appeared along with the green light before we crossed the street. The orange hand meant proceed with caution.

I taught him the words, clock-tower, dumpster, crane, alley, graffiti, headdress, parking meter, and indigent.

We rode on the bus. I parked the stroller in the space reserved for wheelchairs.

We overtook a man carrying a tubular radio playing metal music. It was actually tubular shaped, not awesome. We saw smoke rising from a hot dog cart and from a man's pipe.

We ate at Corner Bakery. It was on the corner. I wondered if all Corner Bakeries are on the corner. We sat on the patio. We shared a ham, egg and cheese Panini as well as a fruit cup. Charlie tried cantaloupe. He spat it out. Charlie accidentally dropped a red grape on the ground. It rolled under the guard fence and into foot traffic. We watched a man in skinny jeans and kick it with the toe of his European shoe and in the other direction, a woman squashed it. Neither was aware. Charlie intentionally dropped a cracker so he could get out of his chair. I noticed Charlie shifts constantly in his seat. He stood in his chair too. I told him to sit down once. Then twice. Then three times. I didn't bother subsequently. I kept my foot on the cross supports of his Chair to keep it from falling over. Charlie's Diego cup rolled onto the sidewalk. A man with gray hair and aviator shades picked it up. I asked Charlie to say thankyou. He said "no".

We walked along the picture window of an "All things Colorado" trinket store. We saw a bear, a bear, a bear, a moose, a bear, an Indian, a deer.

We walked some more after lunch. Charlie became fussy in his stroller. I gave him two choices. One, hold Daddy's hand and walk or two, go home. He said, "Home". I said, "That's not a choice" because I really didn't think he would choose to go home. Then I gave him the choice to walk or ride in the stroller. He chose to walk.

I purchased a coffee at Starbucks. I gave Charlie a straw to play with.

I gave Charlie a bottle of milk on the couch today. We practiced counting. One car. Two rabbits. Three balls. Four bowls. Five strawberries. Six chickens. Seven candies. Eight crayons. Nine? Ten fish. With his index finger extended, I guided his hand over the objects and he counted. He has difficulty with the number one, but can finish the rest in the series to twelve without error. I let go of his hand. He could count to three by himself, pointing and counting. Three balls.

Charlie put a bucket over his head and said, "Dark!"

Charlie stuffed a huge piece of apple bran muffin in his mouth and said, "Huge!" With his mouth full it sounded more like "Oooch!"