Stay at Home Dinosaurs

Before I get started on the insanity of toting a toddler around on holiday errands, and digressing down the story slope of what happens when you SHOW the toddler the train table, then attempt to get him to move along so you can get some shopping done, I'll share this dinosaur stuff.

As reported in the Washington Post this morning, the journal Science printed an article today detailing evidence that points to father dinosaurs sticking around the nest, doing the "brooding and incubating", while the Moms are out, you know, doing what Moms do best--everything else. In the female dinosaurs case, eating a LOT. Scientists discovered this studying the fossilized leg bones. Who knew they had it in them? Would the average 21st century dad find incubating fulfilling? Food for thought.

In other news, possibly my favorite sound at the moment is happy toddler chatter (this is not, however, to be confused with bored toddler chatter.. which is like devil music.) Happy toddler chatter seduced me into giving my toddler the privilege of replacing the toilet roll onto the holder, and he pulled the 'ol bait-and-switch on me.

I got the ol' bait-n-switch at Barnes&Noble, where said train table had gotten the better of our attention. Using what I like to call "the hand off", my 18-mo old toddler, whom I'll call the Bear, took a bunch of stuff off the shelves nearby, as soon as I started to hunt around the close vicinity for gifts. When I bent down to replace the items, he turned to me and started to hand me all the Thomas the Train trains. Having no choice but to accept them (so as to redistribute to the other toddlers playing at the table,) the Bear turned right back around and began unloading the shelves again. Mission accomplished!