Um, there's a tent in the basement

So let me give you a little background here... Six years ago, when Brian and I first moved to Michigan, I was planning on going camping with some of my new friends up in the northern part of the state. In preparation for my trip, I purchased this nifty little three person tent and brought it along. Of course, other campers brought bigger tents that made more sense for the the 12 of us to use so my little tent remained stored in its original box. In fact, it remained in its box until this past Monday morning when, out of boredom and a stroke of creativity, I decided to bust it out and create a little cavern for Christopher to play in (what can I say--it's been raining like crazy and I didn't plan many outings this week!). Initially, Kasey was the biggest fan of the tent and proceeded to jump around inside it. With a little coaxing, however, CJ was game and began to play with his toys inside the tent. It is a little tricky to get in and out of for him because there is a six inch lip on the bottom (probably to keep the snakes out of it in the wild) that he must navigate but our coordinated boy has become an expert at this obstacle. Here are some pics from inside the tent:



Something that is so cute that Christopher has been doing recently is giving big hugs! When I'm sitting on the floor, he comes up to me, stands in front and starts bouncing up and down (to get me to make room of course). He then runs in and practically tackles me, putting his arms around my shoulders and resting his head right below my chin. As you can imagine, this is one of the highlights of my day! We have been having so much fun recently. Today is Christopher's first day with his new babysitter Kristen. She is coming to give Mommy a little break this afternoon so we'll see how he does. It appears that the rain has finally stopped so maybe they can play outside, Christopher's favorite place to be. Here is a picture of Chris watching the rain, an activity he really enjoys doing:
And just a post script to Grammy and any of you other Tom Chapin fans out there (Duren-Lubanski family, you know who you are!). This morning we were listening to a playlist of Tom Chapin songs on the iPod and Christopher was dancing big time to "Don't Miss the Bus" and "The Happiest Song I Know." It was so cute! I know, I know, I'll try and get video.