A Great Time!

I just want to write about what a great time we all had with Ally when she was here in Kansas. You got to see some of the things we did while she was here and we got involved in even more fun when Mary Ann came to visit for the weekend. Our list of fun included lunch at Oklahoma Joe's (sorry Uncle Peter, they couldn't fit a Z Man in their suitcase), a trip to the Steamboat Arabia Museum, ice cream and strawberries at the Shawnee Mission Strawberry Festival, and many more things. I have to credit Ally's presence with Christopher's progress in walking this past week. He wanted to follow her everywhere! He really looked at her like she was his big sister. So cute... Anyway, we miss her very much and can't wait until she comes back to hang out with us again.

And yes, we are off again tomorrow on Christopher's fourth plane ride. This time we are heading to Albany and then driving to Oneonta to see Grandpa T, Nancy, Nanny (aka G.G.) and a slew of other Turicks, including my cousins Mary and Jack. We're looking forward to the trip! Due to the remote location of their home (and therefore slow internet speed) the blog will again be out of commision until we return. See you then!

Here we go my little one...

Although we attempted to get Christopher to walk to the song "Walk this Way," he was more cooperative to this song (in the blog post title) from his Kindermusik class. But our little man doesn't just want to walk... he wants to clap while walking, and later on, after this video was taken, he was walking, clapping and waving. Our busy boy also decided to say "Dada" today while we were enjoying the Z-Man sandwich at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ. It was a full day for CJ Wogs...

I'm walking all around the house
You really all should see.
I even like to walk and clap,
Because I'm proud of me!

Shelter Island

Okay, everyone, I've made you wait long enough. You know, with my busy schedule, filled with walking, playing, eating and such, it is hard to find the time to sit down and write on the blog. I wanted to put this entry together myself because I just had a fabulous trip to Shelter Island and wanted to make sure the facts of the trip were straight (Mommy can be a bit mixed up sometimes). So to start, I took my very first ferry ride and it was soooooo cool! Here I am with Mommy and Daddy on the North Ferry:
As you can see, it was a bit chilly when we got there. Although I prefer wearing no pants, I thoroughly enjoyed staying in my warm PJ's all day. The day after we arrived, Grandma came out to the island and took us to Sunset Beach. Now, in case you don't know, Sunset Beach is where all the hip people hang out so obviously, I had to go. My favorite part was not the overpriced cocktails. No, the best was sticking my feet in the freezing cold water!


(Notice how Mommy and Daddy are trying to be hip like me with their supercool shades). On Friday, I donned my preppiest shirt and we went to the Shelter Island Yacht Club for lunch and then we were sea bound on the Fat Frog! I loved my first boat ride!!! Mommy kept trying to turn me in to face everyone in the boat, but I showed her. I fussed until she turned me back toward the water. Notice how safe my parents and grandparents kept me by putting me in my very own life preserver.


Upon our return to the house, I immediately set to exploring the kitchen. This is by far my favorite room in any house I go to and when something opens, I must be there. This is true for dishwashers, cabinets, refrigerators and ovens.
Grandma and Grandpa brought all sorts of fun toys out to the island for me to play with. Good thing I have patience, though. Uncle Peter wanted to play with everything!
On Saturday evening, the thirty-somethings in the Woglom clan ran and walked the Shelter Island 10K. I made sure Mommy and Daddy were well prepared by waking them up that morning at 4AM. How was I supposed to know the race wasn't until 5:30 in the evening? No one tells me these things! Anyway, Uncle Peter won the little family competition and everyone had fun. After the race, Uncle Peter and Aunt Dabney got a fun metal barrel filled with "milk with a kick" for the Dads in the family. I still don't understand why they didn't give me any.


I really had a blast out on Shelter Island with my family. You know, my nursery has sailboats all over it as well as a garbage can with a map of SI on it. It's about time I got to go for real! Next time, I expect a spin at the helm of the Fat Frog.

Pet Peeve

Okay, so I officially have a pet peeve that I need to vent about: parents who don't pay attention to their little children when their little children are being obnoxious! Ally, Christopher and I went to the Parkside Cafe today for a change in scenery. As soon as we got there, this little two year-old kid came up to Ally (who was sitting in a chair) and smacked her. The teacher in me came out and I was like, "Excuse me, sir, we don't use our hands to hit." So he left. A bit later he came over and did a somersault into Ally's back. The mom came over and said, "Oh honey, we don't do flips into people's backs." Thanks... Later he went to hit her again. Of course she was okay because it was just a little two-year old but I was getting pretty P.O.ed and kept telling him "NO" with my voice getting more and more stern and hopefully loud enough so his mom would notice. She, of course, was busy yapping away to her friend. This little boy then went over and tried to pick up Christopher and take his pacifier out so I picked up my little man and said "NO" again. Finally the mom came over and moved him, all the while talking to her friend and barely looking at her kid. We decided we'd had quite enough anyway and left. Ally didn't seem too bothered but we both were talking about how annoying it is when parents don't pay attention to their children's behavior. Our outing was much improved by our stop at Sonic for lunch and ice cream! Ally has never eaten at Sonic before and enjoyed it thoroughly. Later we are planning on going swimming at the gym. Here are a couple pics from our day:

Look ma, no hands!

As you can see, Ally is having a lot of fun here in Kansas... But she's not the only one saying "no hands!" Christopher is walking up a storm today all by himself. Not only has he been taking many steps, but he has also been stopping, turning, and continuing on as he walks. The boy is very impressed with himself, as are we. He must be trying to impress his guest. It is (once again) a million degrees outside so Ally and I got an early catch in before the sun started to beat down on our backyard. After Chris got up (which wasn't long after he went to sleep), Jaime and Olivia came over to play for a bit and Olivia brought Christopher his very own blue wiffle ball to practice his infamous "slow ball." He is very grateful. Our afternoon is going to be quiet (we hope) for a while so Ally and I are just chilling on our respective computers. More updates tomorrow!

Today from Kansas

Lots of fun was had by all today in Lenexa... First, Christopher had a lovely few hours hanging out with Miss Kay while Ally, Sierra, and I went to lunch and a movie. For those who do not know, Sierra is my little sister from Big Brothers Big Sisters and it just happens that she and Ally are five days apart in age. Not only do they have that in common, but they are also lovely young ladies and a pleasure to spend the day with. We had lunch at Granite City and went on over to see "Night at the Museum 2: Battle at the Smithsonian." It was fabulous to be inside today as it was over 103 degrees outside. Yikes! When Ally and I returned home, Chris woke up and we played for a bit before filling up his little baby pool for some good, splashy fun. Ally and I were sweating just sitting out there while little man was in the pool. I hooked up the hose to the head on the turtle pool because it supposedly sprays water all over the place. Well, when I came back from turning on the water, both Ally and Christopher were soaked because the spray went about seven feet in the air and ten feet in all directions! No one was complaining though because it felt really good... We spent the rest of the evening in the basement of our house playing and reading. Ally has been such a big help with Christopher--reading to him, feeding him breakfast and playing. And as you can see, Kasey is also helping to educate our son.

Our day was made complete when we looked out the kitchen window during dinner and saw a hot air balloon soaring over our house!

Back in Kansas

We survived our journey back to Kansas this afternoon. Our good fortune was probably due to our dear friend Ally coming back with us. Christopher actually slept an hour and 45 minutes on the plane--an unheard of feat for our little man. Perhaps it is also due to the fact that he was up at 4AM. (Let's just say, this was not the best of sleeping trips for CJ!). But the lengthy plane nap certainly made it easier on everyone... Ally is staying with us for the week and as you can see, Kasey is extremely thrilled! Yes, that is her "extremely thrilled" face. ("Finally, someone is paying attention to me," she said). Ally was giving Kasey the best back rub ever and our furry friend left a nice coating of her hair on Ally's bed. Anyway, we have lots of fun pictures from our trip to Shelter Island which I will attempt to upload tomorrow to share with you. All in all, we had a fun trip, got to see lots of family and friends, and were thankful to be back in beautiful eastern Long Island.

There's no place like home

Look out! We're coming back to Kansas. And this time, we're bringing company...

Dog N' Jog and a Trip to the Pool

The title of this blog would suggest that we have some fun pictures to share with you all. Unfortunately that is not the case. (Sorry to disappoint!). Anyway, we awoke early this morning (but later than usual) to travel down to the Plaza to take part in Dog N' Jog, a benefit race for the Kansas City Humane Society. Last year I was uber-pregnant and it was a million degrees, so when we got going this morning, felt the cool breeze and I weighed a boat load less than last year, we were all relieved. Given Christopher's love of dogs, we were anticipating that our little man would just be laughing the entire morning. The event involves hundreds of dogs and the best weatherman in Kansas City, no, the whole world, Gary Lezak. I believe Christopher enjoyed himself but the whole thing seemed a little overwhelming for him. The look on his face said, "You know, I love dogs but this is insane!" We only did one lap around the Plaza and decided to hit the road... Since little man only slept about 15 minutes in the morning, he had some major fuss in his pants and Mommy and Daddy had to get creative. It has turned out to be a beautiful day so I suggested a trip to the neighborhood pool. We got Chris into his stylin' suit, lathered him in sunscreen and were just about to head out when we realized... oh yeah, we don't have a key to get into the pool. Plan B: off to the gym to use the indoor pool. We had purchased a little float that CJ can sit in so we brought that with us and he had a great time! CJ was kicking his feet like he was ready to do the Ironman! Since it was a new experience for him, he didn't realize that it is not exactly the best of ideas to just plant your face directly in the water without knowing how to hold your breath. This did not ruin his swim though, just shocked him a bit. All in all, he had a fun time as did we.

Note to readers: We will be on vacation this coming week so I'm not sure if the blog will get updated. Stay tuned for fun stories when we return on the 22nd!

Meeting Chrissie

Wow, what can I say. No, I didn't meet Chrissie Chen Pariso. This evening I had the opportunity to meet Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington, who is in town to do the Kansas 70.3 (half ironman) this Sunday. Aside from being an incredibly talented athlete and nice person, Chrissie is also a spokesperson for GOTRIbal and is so enthusiastic about promoting the sport of triathlon among women. Maria (the woman on the left) is also in GOTRIbal and I just met her for the first time this evening as well. She and her husband are racing on Sunday and we had a great conversation. When Chrissie saw my shirt, she gave me a big hug (which I did not expect!) and we all talked for a while about the group and the upcoming race. I don't know if it is my age or shift in priorities (or just her warm personality) but I felt like I was talking to one of my friends as we spoke. It was way cool! I could go on and on, but since this blog is typically about Christopher I will stop right now. It was just very inspiring for this mama to meet an athlete of her caliber. I want to lace up my shoes right now!

Walk this way

Okay, grandparents and all other blog followers... we are totally spoiling you with two videos in one week. Christopher continues to take one or two steps here and there but now he has taken an interest in pushing his wagon all over the place! Initially, he wanted nothing to do with the wagon except for his close examination of its hubcaps. Now he can't get enough of it. Of course, he becomes majorly frustrated when he runs into something and cannot continue forward. Little man is slowly figuring out how to turn the wagon but he can't back it up yet. Here he is pushing his wagon around the house:




In other news, I am excited to announce that I am having dinner with Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington this Friday evening in Lawrence. Well, I guess it's not just me having dinner with her--the event is through our multisport group. She is in town competing in the Kansas Ironman 70.3 event on Saturday. I'm really psyched to meet her because she is an awesome athlete and she's also a spokesperson for my GOTRIbal group. (You can check out her blog in my blog list to the left). Hopefully I'll get some pics too! Unfortunately, I cannot take CJ so he and Daddy are going to have a boys' night in while Mommy has a girls' night out. Yay!

The hits keep coming

Christopher decided that he just wants to do everything this week! In addition to taking his first steps, he did the sign for "more" today at lunch. Since it is difficult to tell if our little man is ever full, I wanted to teach him the signs for "more" and "all done." We've been doing them both for a couple months now and today at lunch, I was feeding him bread, showing him the "more" sign when, at first, he imitated my hand motion. I made a big deal out of how happy I was when he did this. Then I asked him, "Can you show me more?" Sure enough, he did the sign again! All of those really hard early months are starting to pay off big time. Now if he will just figure out "all done..."

Oh and by the way...

Christopher took his first steps yesterday! He was holding onto the wall, turned toward me and took two little steps. Then as we were waiting for our company today, he took two more steps from me to Daddy. So fun!!!

Sunday in the pool... with the ladies

We had a BBQ today and Christopher invited his friends, Maddie and Olivia, over to share his toys and to have some fun in the pool. CJ was in a great mood when he woke up from his nap, but as soon as the girls started eating their lunches, he fussed like it was nobody's business. We kept trying to remind him that girls really don't like when guys complain, but he was having none of it. In fact, he was even fussing after he got his lunch and some extra Cheerios. Anyway, he didn't change back into "Sunny Christopher" until this happened:



BBQs are very interesting when you have young babies that still take two naps a day. We were joking about how such gatherings used to be fun and relaxing, full of adult conversation, full meals and good drinks. Although they are still fun these days. the "BBQ of the Parent" has changed dramatically. Now we sit around at the beginning of the day holding the kids while they play together with toys (which I guess is a good thing because we don't have time to snack as much!). While this is happening, the moms are talking about the developmental milestones of the day while the dads are in the kitchen or at the grill talking about... well, I'm not sure. All alcoholic beverages must be placed on high ground so we don't have any underage drinking in the house. All the parents eat in shifts. And all the fun must take place before the inevitable meltdown that occurs before the afternoon nap. Instead of being offended when people have to leave right away, everyone understands that it is imperative to get in the car and leave in the hopes that the baby will not fall asleep in the carseat on the way home. But BBQs are still tons of fun because of scenes like the one you saw above... A great time was had by all this afternoon with great friends and great babies!

Yay Garage Sales!

You all know I am not much of a shopper. I especially don't like going out of my way to buy more "stuff." So when our very own neighborhood has a garage sale, I like the idea of close and am excited about the idea of cheap kids things but I still need a lot of pushing with the idea of shop. The nice weather was definitely helpful and the chance to socialize with our neighbors was also nice so Christopher and I set out yesterday and today in search of toys and clothes. We didn't have much luck in the clothes department as it seems that only the parents of girls are getting rid of clothes these days. However, we did see some toys and books for a dollar and picked them up. As you can see in the picture above, Christopher has been enjoying his new busy box that we got from a home around the corner from us. Due to the high volume of girls clothes, we called Jaime yesterday and she and Olivia are going to come over this afternoon to check everything out... In other news, I am excited to announce (and Brian is going to make fun of me for putting this in the blog) that we just purchased tickets to see Dave Matthews at the Sprint Center in September. The last concert I went to (and the only one Brian and I have been to together) was Dave Matthews at the Garden in 2002. We felt old then, how are we going to feel this time? No matter, Dave definitely covers the 30-something generation so I'm not sure why 19 year-olds are going crazy. They were like 4 years old when his first hit came out. (Can you tell I'm already excited for a "parents night out" even though it's 3 months away?). Have a nice weekend!

Parents as Teachers

As some of you may know, we have been participating in a program through the Olathe Schools called "Parents as Teachers." They basically come every six weeks and give you ideas about activities, inform you about development and do periodic screenings in case there are any developmental delays. I enjoy these visits, first because our lady (Ms. Becky) is nice and I enjoy visiting with her and second because Christopher is so social that even when he is in a bad mood, as soon as Ms. Becky gets here, he is all sunshine again. Today was fun because she did a 10 month screening on him about language, motor, and cognitive skills. Some of the questions she asked me, I honestly didn't know the answer to. For example, she asked if when I put my hand out will Christopher give me a toy that I am asking for. I really had no idea because I can't actively remember ever doing this with him. Later on in our visit, she gave him a Cheerio to see how he picks up food. As he was holding it (he wasn't eating it because he had his pacifier) she put her hand back out and said, "Christopher, can I have the Cheerio?" And what do you know... he gave it back to her! I was shocked, especially considering that the object in question was edible. After he gave it to her, he of course took it back, and when she asked for it again, he took out his pacifier and ate it. That's my boy!

The Farmer's Market

This morning we ventured out to the Overland Park Farmer's Market to get some fresh produce for both CJ and Mommy and Daddy to enjoy. Initially I thought the market opened at 6AM and we got there at seven, but when we arrived I realized that was only on Saturdays, not Wednesdays. Oops! No matter, it seems that farmers will sell you their goods regardless of the time as long as you have money. Several vendors commented about Christopher being up so early. One lady asked him if I woke him up to come to the market. I, of course, just laughed and said it had been the other way around. Maybe our boy will be a farmer when he grows up since he likes the early morning hours... I made an appointment for Senor Buds to go to the kids part of the gym today thinking it would be too hot for me to run outside with him in the stroller. Turns out it is just about 68 degrees and sunny right now, so to the trail we will go! Kasey is especially happy about this turn in events. Arf, arf.

Jump in!

It looks like Christopher wants to follow in the footsteps of his triathlete parents because he took a dip in his very own pool yesterday afternoon! The weather was perfect for swimming so after he woke up from his PM nap, we stripped him down, put on some swim trunks and hit the turtle pool. (Yay for Target!). At first, I put CJ's feet in to get him used to the temperature, lest he believe this body of water was as toasty as the bathtub. He was fine with the feet but when I put him in to sit down, the cold water took him by surprise because he gasped for a moment (you know, like when the cold water hits your stomach for the first time?). I put the water in a couple hours before CJ went swimming thinking that the sun would really warm it right up. Apparently not. Anyway, after he adjusted to the temperature, Chris was ready for fun! He spent the afternoon splashing, crawling around, and pouring water with the measuring cups. Kasey wanted to get in as well but she was hesitent to share the pool with, in her opinion, "a little crazy baby." She did drink out of the pool, however, assuming that it was just an oversized water dish. A fun time was had by all!

Here is "Senor Buds" (Daddy's current nickname for him) in his swim trunks waiting for the fun!

I carried a watermelon

Now that June is upon us, so too is the heat of Kansas. I think it is going to be something like 90 degrees today. When the weather gets warm like this, and thoughts of the perfect summer food enter my mind, all I can think of is watermelon... well, ok, and ice cream, lemonade, and Slurpees! For Christopher, however, we have started with watermelon. Let me tell you, the boy loves his watermelon. I believe this is due in part to the fact that he can pick up the little pieces with his fingers, but the watermelon is sweet and juicy and just plain old delicious. I tend to keep a few pieces nearby and help myself while he eats his fruit. We are beginning to experiment with more and more finger foods and our little "subject" seems to like everything we give him. This afternoon will be kiwi. Yum!

(I know someone out there is going to recognize my reference in the title. C'mon, who is it going to be?)