Fletcher Augustus DeRouen

A diary for our son, by Joe and Andrea DeRouen

Friday, August 22, 2003

Tomorrow Fletcher will be 22 months old. It's amazing how he is changing and turning into a little boy from a baby. His legs just seem to get longer each day and he uses them to run and climb and generally get away from us.

He is working on talking more. He babbles lots of sentence-sounding things but also says some things we understand like "bunny" and "puppy." Not a surprise that he learned animal names first considering how much he loves them.

Fletcher also identifies his two favorite buildings every day when Joe and he take me to work. As soon as Chuck E. Cheese's giant face looms into sight, Fletcher says something like the word Cheese. Then a block later he's exclaiming about Ronald McDonald. I think we may have some choices there for his second birthday.

.: posted by Andee 7:48 AM

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

On Sunday, we took Fletcher to see a performance by The Wiggles. He absolutely loves the Wiggles so we thought he would enjoy this. The show was at Next Stage in Grand Prairie so we had a 45-minute drive there. When we arrived there was a huge line of everyone going in with lots of kids around Fletcher's age.

He mostly looked amazed and when we went to take our seats (not too close, not too far from the stage) Fletcher looked curious. When the voice came over the loudspeaker and the curtain went up, Fletcher looked stunned. I could almost hear his thoughts, "those are the Wiggles. What are they doing here?"

After about 20 minutes, Fletcher relaxed and started clapping after the songs and then doing the arm movements and dancing to the tunes he already loves and knows. He flapped his arms like a duck and stood up waving his arms in the air.

We enjoyed the very energetic show (how do those guys move for over an hour without passing out) and Fletcher seemed to get just enough Wiggles.

Then we stood in a long line to get souvenirs. Fletcher went home with a Dorothy the Dinosaur hat and a t-shirt. He was happy to have the hat on his head and clutched the t-shirt all the way to the car.

All in all, we had a great time and as soon as Joe can find time to, we'll put pictures from the event up on the website.