Charlie vs. Chicken

NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

• It's not as easy to take pictures of Charlie as it looks. One of these days I'm going to post all of the not so good pictures of Charlie, so I can finally get the recognition I so humbly deserve.  
• Charlie is starting to look like me.  He's also getting more and more handsome.  Coincidence?  I think not.
• Charlie has started to recognize that I am leaving in the morning.  He and Nilda walked me to the door one Monday morning and he started to cry.  I heard him crying behind the closed door as I went off to work and I loved it.  That's wrong, right?
• That coffee cup in your hand belongs to Charlie.  So does that newspaper.  
• Charlie loves reading the newspaper, and by "read" I mean ball it up and make it crinkle and then rip it apart like coyotes going after a buffalo.  
• Charlie flops all around during the night.  I take pictures of him to document the many positions he can take just moments apart from each other.  He hates the flash, but it's worth it.  It's for the blog, Charlie.
• This kid is getting some hair.  It looks strawberry blonde, but Nilda tells me that there is a low likelihood that he will remain a strawberry blonde, and she read that on the internet so it must be true.
• Empty milk carton = Charlie's new favorite toy.
• Charlie has learned that if you splash hard enough in the bath, you may be rewarded with a cool and refreshing drink.
• Charlie crawled backwards and freaked himself the fuck out.  Nilda and I watched a Sesame Street episode about Elmo giving up the binky and keep talking about how brilliant it was. 
• I don't like Jason Mraz or his song, but I love what Sesame Street did with it.  Seriously, this show is awesome.
• Charlie has started speaking in complete sentences.  They begin with "Na" and end in "na na na na NA NA NA na NA NA NA na NANANANA!!!!"
• Andrew, Harley and the kids came up last Sunday and we had a wonderful time in the park.  Charlie luuuuuuvs Lilah.  He could not stop staring at her and was so excited when she wanted to play with him.  I always thought of Lilah as a little kid but now she's the big cousin. 
• We finally hit 10,000 miles in El Carrito. 
• Charlie loves visiting everyone in Philadelphia, which we know because he doesn't bitch when we're there.  My parents still can't get how any human being can sleep as much as he does.  It's the Mommy genes.
• If there was one thing I would want Charlie to know, it's that he is loved and wanted.  But if he doesn't start teething soon, we are going to have to have a serious conversation. 
  

Long Form Journalism

Steve has gotten me into reading long-form journalism articles on the subway.  Think National Geographic length articles, that end right when you're getting bored.  It's like the short story of the non-fiction world.  I load up articles onto Pocket on my ipad and read them on the subway.  Here's a bunch of endorsed articles:

• How the Olympic Village is all about athletes partying and having tons of sex 
• The jumpers from 9/11 
• Part one in a great series going through music in each year of the 1990s
• The author of "Up In The Air" writes about growing up as a Mormon 
• An automotive journalist goes undercover as a car salesman and writes about it
• An oral history of the making of "The Godfather" 
• Why Difara's pizza is the best pizza ever 
• Part 1 of a walk-through of the making of Parks & Recreation, Season 4, a great insight into how TV sitcoms are made
• An oral history of the making of "Goodfellas" 
• The Story Behind The Doors Making The Album "LA Woman" 
• Should a 33-year-old man who killed his parents when he was 15 be released from prison?

You're thinking, "Wow, a boring post and not one picture of Charlie!"  I'll try to get to it tomorrow, Mom.  

Why God Invented Air Conditioning

Who's ready for disjointed thoughts about things I should have blogged about weeks ago? 

• Charlie is a big hit at the library.  I'm told all the kids want to play with him.  This may surprise you, but Hellers have not always been this cool. 
  
• Charlie seems to like women especially.  He smiles at all the ladies and they love him for it.  He's like the Jewish Gerardo.   
• Charlie believes that everything in the refrigerator is a magical toy that is unfairly being denied to him.
• The fact that Charlie dives out of my arms and to the ground to get whatever toy or piece of trash he wants has convinced me that man was meant to fly and is not naturally inhibited by gravity.
• We have all these toys for him to play with and all he wants is the clear bag of q-tips that we got from the hospital.
• Charlie finally got to spend a protracted period of time in Philadelphia at Mommom and Poppop's with Nilda.  Charlie loved it, especially watching his cousins and looking at trees.  
• I missed Nilda and Charlie terribly when they were away.  It was hard having the place to myself and being able sleeping as late as the alarm clock would let me.  Nilda's making plans to spend more time in Philly later this summer.  I'll miss them so much I don't know what I'll do, but it will probably involve alcohol. 
• The best part of being in Philly was that my parents finally see that Charlie actually sleeps this much, and that we're not forcing him to go to sleep when he doesn't want to.  
• How much more could Charlie sleep?  The answer is none.  None more sleep. 
• We got to go out THREE TIMES without Charlie!  Grandparents really are the best.  
•  My inexplicable knowledge of both the screenplay and score to Flash Gordon has finally been validated by the movie Ted. 
• My father has still not changed one of Charlie's diapers. Poppop is wise.
• I like face-timing with my dad, where I'm looking at either (a) the top of his forehead at the bottom of the screen, (b) his thumb covering his camera, or (c) the side of his face as he's watching the tv.  Charlie sees my dad on the ipad and wants to know where the hell the elephant game went.  
• Back in New York, we haven't been outside much because it's been too hot for Charlie, which is a nice excuse to spend the day inside.  I'm going to start using this reasonable explanation more often.  "I'm sorry, I can't help you move this weekend because it's too hot for Charlie."  "Sorry I couldn't read that email about the sale at Buy Buy Baby, Nilda, it was too hot for Charlie."  "You have to change Charlie's diaper because it's too hot outside for Charlie."   
• We did manage to resume our drinking in the park last Sunday for the first time in two summers, since Nilda was pregnant last summer.  Charlie has learned that if you grab handfuls of grass and pull hard enough, you are rewarded with copious amounts of dirt. 
• Charlie's getting so big and looks different every day.   But he's still not allowed to shave until he's 20 months.