Hey you!

Now that he has your attention, Christopher would like to fill you in on his excitement this week... This kid is getting so busy, he's going to need a Blackberry! (I'm just kidding, I promise). Anyway, on Wednesday, we met Olivia at the Johnson County Museum for a little Pop n' Play and a visit to Kidscape. Pop n' Play is just this room they set up every once in a while with toys and activities for the kids. It was fun but it was mostly crawlers and early walkers there so Chris and Olivia were a little old for that. Kidscape, on the other hand, was WAY fun! It's this miniature city with different "stores" that the kids can play and pretend in. There is a "park" as well as a theater, clothing store, library, fire station, doctor's office and a little room with trains in it. I'll let you guess where Christopher spent most of his time. On Thursday, we met Maddie and Braden at a Parents as Teachers playgroup in Olathe. It was the first time we went to one of the PAT playgroups and it was so fun! It was essentially this big preschool classroom and the kids have free reign for an hour and a half. Hmmm, I wonder what area Christopher spent most of his time in? (Hint: it has a stove and a microwave in it.) On Friday, Mommy met Ms. Danna for coffee (HOT!) at the Parkside Cafe and Chris made himself at home there playing with random other children. And for the first time, Chris was big enough to use the gymnasium there which he essentially had to himself. He got some good run time in for sure. Last night, Ms. Kay came over to hang out with CJ while Mommy and Daddy went out for dinner. She really enjoyed her time with him and said she can't believe how much CJ likes to read. (Oh, and when we were leaving, he took Kay's hand and said "Bye bye"--as in, "Okay, you guys, get out of here so I can play.") Today we met Tristan and his parents at, where else, Fritz's which was insane. (Grandpa Eric, I hope you like eating lunch at 10:30 in the morning because that might be when we go when you are here!). Saturday is, well, a very busy day at Fritz's. The boys did great waiting though and we had a nice visit. Chris gave Tristan his birthday present and they enjoyed watching the trains deliver everyone's food. They were even out of high chairs so Chris got to sit in a booster seat like a big boy! Then it was home for a little quiet reading time with Daddy...

We had a lovely week visiting and playing with all of our friends!

U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Let me ask you a question... Is it wrong to reschedule your son's haircut appointment because of a hockey game? Let me ask you another question... Is it wrong to request that you take a college final earlier than scheduled because you (eh-hem) have an "important appointment" to go to (i.e.--the U.S. women's national team playing against the Princeton women's hockey team). Well, this fanatic has done both of those things and I'm going to go with "No, they are perfectly fine" as the answer to my questions. Christopher is in need of a haircut, although it is nothing that can't wait, at least until the gold medal game is done with tonight, and the U.S. women defeat the Canadians. Chris doesn't mind and he proved it to me by going crazy when we practiced our "U.S.A." chant. As I would say the chant, Christopher would bop up and down, laughing and clapping. He is getting fired up to cheer on the women tonight. I was even able to locate my old national team jersey that I got before the 1998 Olympics! Amazingly, it still fits. :) Go U.S.A.!

Hi!

Just a quick something that is so cute. Christopher has mastered saying "Bye" whenever we leave a place. Well, the other day at church (during the greeting) he said "Hi" to about three people! It was so cute, and of course the people he said hi to thought it was cute too.

Dancing and eating

These two things mentioned in the blog title are what Christopher like to do best and they are what we did for much of this snowy Saturday... First of all, Christopher's newest "thing" is dancing (or having us dance) to the three songs that play on his little house when you open the door. While we are hoping for some video in the near future, here is a picture of him busting a move to "I've Been Working on the Railroad."
The boy definitely knows how to have a good time. Anyway, when he had enough of the dancing, he decided to climb the stairs. CJ has been doing this a lot lately, and he does not have the time to go up and down the stairs on his hands and knees. He now insists on holding my hand and also holding onto the railing and walking like a big boy. (It's an amazing feeling when your "little" boy starts holding your hand as you walk). Here he is making his escape. You can see that he got pretty far on his own:
This was not your typical Saturday as someone else was in charge in the kitchen tonight. Brian took it upon himself to cook dinner for me this evening. He must have been inspired either by CJ or by Grandpa Woglom. Here he is caramelizing some onions for our appetizer. (That's right, our dinner consisted of an appetizer, main course, and dessert).
Chris wanted to make things extra challenging for his dad so he unloaded "his" drawer and created obstacles for Brian to navigate while he cooked. Daddy did an amazing job, even with these landmines all over the kitchen!
Christopher, in turn, was inspired by his Daddy and whipped up a little birdseed casserole for his backyard bird collection.
Kasey, of course, was utterly confused by the role reversals that took place this evening and just looked on trying to figure out what this was all about and why we didn't retire to the living room after our entrees were finished. We don't usually have elaborate brownie sundaes with olympic red white and blue sprinkles, after all. (In this picture, she is trying to figure out why Brian is preparing food and not giving her any).
Don't worry, Kasey, Chris will be sure to give you plenty of his leftovers next time!

Busy Bees and Words!

Sorry for having missed a few blog days but Christopher and I have been quite busy recently. Aside from catching up on watching the Olympics, little man has been doing some major playing! After Grammy left, Christopher had a blast with all of his Kindermusik friends (it was very busy because of several visitors to our class). Then on Wednesday, we met Tristan and his daddy at one of the Johnson County community centers. There are several of them that are convenient and they have open gym time for the little ones. Chris was enjoying his play time, but it got even more exciting when Tristan got there and he recognized his friend. He wanted to follow Tristan everywhere! (What could be cooler than following a 3 year-old around?). Yesterday, the weather was nice enough to allow for some outdoor play time in the sun. And this morning, we met Christopher's friend, Emily, at Monkey Bizness. You might recall that Emily is a friend from Kindermusik. It is so cute now because he recognizes her and gets SO excited! He points to her and smiles so big... As you can see from the picture above, Chris is also busy around the house. When he is not cooking in his kitchen, he is either helping me throw the folded socks in the laundry basket or swiffering the hardwoods. (I'm training him now... his future wife can thank me later). As previously mentioned, Christopher has been saying some words and now it just seems like he is saying new things everyday. Some of my favorites are "more," "egg," "eat," and "affable" (ha! just kidding, he hasn't quite gotten that one yet). The best though is that he is finally saying "bye bye." Sometimes it is just "bye" but we'll take it!

Cabela's and T-Rex

Despite the Arctic temperatures we are having in Kansas, Grammy, Christopher, and I went out to a couple fun indoor spots up at Legends today. First, we braved the frigid parking lot of Cabela's and checked out this hunting haven (i.e.-Grandpa T's whole reason for wanting to come to Kansas). No, we were not looking at getting Chris his first tackle box--we simply wanted to find something fun for him to do inside. Cabela's has an enormous freshwater aquarium with mega-catfish that Christopher found fascinating.
There were also different areas of the store set up like various habitats such as the African plains, Arctic tundra, and the forests of Maine all complete with the appropriate (stuffed) animals. Somebody found it way cool! We also found a new mailbox for Grandpa T:
After Cabela's, we went to eat at a dinosaur-themed restaurant called T-Rex. Even though Chris was getting toward the end of his wake-cycle he still thoroughly enjoyed his lunch, triceratops and all.

Ski Jump

Christopher is now going through his second round of Olympic competition. The 2008 Beijing games occurred just a month after his birth, and now we are beginning the 2010 Vancouver games. Although he didn't watch the opening ceremonies last night, Grammy watched the ski jump competition with CJ while we were out around lunch time. She reported that as the ski jumper went down the slope, Chris watched very closely. Then, as they prepared for the jump by squatting down, Christopher also squatted down and lifted himself up as the competitor jumped! I can't wait to see what he's going to do when we put some hockey on. We'll all have to get out of the way as he hip checks everything in sight!

Fritz's

Hold onto your hats, people! We finally found something that will slow Christopher down in the eating department. It is called "Fritz's" and if you are an 18 month old boy (or girl or man or grandma), it is quite possibly the coolest place on earth. It is a train-themed restaurant with many fun features. Here's how it works... First, you arrive at your table, peruse the menu and decide what delectable dish you are going to have. Here is little buds taking his seat:
Next, you pick up a telephone located at your table, press the magic green button, and place your order with the kitchen. Then you wait. Under normal restaurant circumstances, Chris would be humming for his food and milk, but not at Fritz's. Christopher was so busy looking at the trains (and you'll understand why in a moment) moving around the restaurant that he barely noticed his usual hunger pangs. After a few short moments of waiting, a small train makes its way from the kitchen to your table, stops before your very eyes, and actually delivers your food right to you. Here is CJ watching the magic happen:

It may appear that Chris is concerned in the above picture but he was simply fascinated by the whole process. And while he was eating, all he did was look around the place, point to the trains, and smile and laugh. It was difficult to get a good shot of the train delivering the food because it actually keeps moving while your tray of food is dropped on another tray that lowers down to your table (seen here):
(People probably thought I was nuts taking pictures of all this but they do not understand the coolness of the blog.) Anyway, the food was delivered and satisfied us all and CJ even had some leftovers if you can believe it. There was one more thing: each kid that goes to Fritz's gets a conductor hat. While he likes trains a lot, I don't know if conductor will ever be his future job description. You decide!

Reading

Have you ever seen a kid get so excited about reading? Christopher really enjoys his books, much to his mother's delight. Here are some more pics of the boy reading with Grammy. Notice his super cool new fleece (thanks Grandma Woglom!).

We are also including a picture of our new floor lamp (thanks again Grandma Woglom!). Hope all you tri-state area readers are bundled up and staying toasty in your blizzard today.

Runnin' Man

It's funny because when you look at this picture above, Christopher's expression could go either way. He could be smiling with joy to be in such a great picture or he could be saying "Eeeeeh" in an attempt to break free from his mother's arms. You decide... You will notice that the proud parents of CJ Woglom were a little dressed up in this picture. When it was taken, we were on our way out the door to celebrate an early Valentine's Day dinner out at Piropos, a fantastic (fantastic!) Argentinian restaurant in North Kansas City. Thank you to Grammy for watching the Buds while we had a nice night out. And let me tell you, this vegetarian had one of the best peppercorn encrusted filet's she has ever had! Here is a pic of the escapees sans Christopher (we don't take many "couple" pictures now that we have a child so I thought I would include it in this post):
Today, Chris really needed to get out so Grammy and I took him to Monkey Bizness for a little "crazy kid" time. He got to run and jump and climb and slide for an hour and a half. It is really fun to see him climbing on so many things all by himself now. He is one busy little man! He was so busy, in fact, that he wore himself out and took a solid three hour nap for us. And the pictures below will show you what a three hour nap can do for you:


That's right, Christopher just ran around the family room area for almost an hour. He has been doing this quite often now. He will just do laps back and forth forever. Sometimes he'll ask me to say "On your mark, get set, go" and other times he'll just want one of us to chase him around or he'll chase us and laugh hysterically. When I watch Chris run, I think of some of the times when I griped about "having to go for a run." I look at him and see the utter joy he gets out of running and use it as inspiration the next time I go out to do the same. I mean, look at his face! I want to be able to run a marathon with that expression on my face the whole time... While all this was going on, Kasey (who was dying for a little attention) was playing with Grammy and her yet-to-be-chewed-up Hillary stuffed animal.
The playing didn't last long, though, as a good belly rub sounded like a better idea.

J-E-T... wait, what?

I am sorry to inform our voters that neither the Colts nor the Jets (the two top choices) won the Super Bowl this year. You still have time to change your vote, if you're one of those people who likes to be right. We were pulling for the Jets too but unfortunately, they did not show up... Chris and his parents had a lovely evening watching the big game at Olivia's house so thanks to our friends Matt and Jaime for having us over! Pictures of recent CJ events will be showing up in the coming days. Stay tuned.

Coincidence?

Okay, east coasters. Why is it that whenever someone from the tri-state area comes to visit us, it just happens to snow in Kansas? Hmmm? We understand that you all like to have massive winter storms that bring two to three feet of snow but do you really have to bring it out this way? Yesterday, Grammy flew in from Newark and her arrival coincided with the arrival of 6 inches of snow in our yard. Not to worry though. The snow kept Christopher thoroughly entertained throughout the day and Kasey has had multiple crazy sessions that usually begin with her sticking her entire snout in the snow and finish with her jumping on Grammy's bed in the guest room. It is good to have Grammy here and Christopher just can't believe that both of his grandmothers have visited him in less than a week!

Happy birthday to... ME!

I hope you all have taken the day off from work today. What do you mean, why? It's only the most important day of the year, that's why. I am turning 5 years old today, and you know what that means? If you take dog years into account, I am now officially the oldest member of this household and now everyone must respect my authority. Being 35 and ruling the house is pretty cool you know. I get to eat whatever stuffed animals I want (regardless of who they belong to) and I get to hang out in the backyard and protect my turf and nobody will mess with me. Mom even let me be in charge of watching CJ today and putting him down for a nap while she went out to register him for his Children's Day Out program. Can you believe it? Now, if only she will get me a cake to match my superior age...

(Yes, CJ is officially registered for his first CDO program and in keeping with family tradition, he will be attending a Methodist school--Lenexa United Methodist. It is so crazy to think that he will be starting a preschool program! My little man is getting so big!)

Hangin' out

Chris and I dropped off Kasey today at Pawz at Play for some good old fashioned puppy fun. Because of this fact, Christopher wanted to make sure Kasey's deer did not go hungry while she was away. He whipped up a nice dish of whatever it is that deer eat and fed her until she was full.
It's been nice having Daddy home for awhile and Christopher is taking full advantage of everything Brian has to teach him. This morning, the boys were examining a fish tank layout book and planning the design of Christopher's future 120 gallon tank. Here they are, heavy into discussions:
Not much more to report other than that. It was nice enough today for Christopher to run around in the sunshine and fresh air for awhile today, and run he did! Mommy and Daddy had a nice Tex-Mex lunch today at the Salty Iguana while CJ hung out with Kristen, his babysitter. And Daddy gets to escape tonight for dinner with his friend Matt at one of our fine local establishments. More updates to follow!

"I like blue!"

Some of you know the story referenced in the quote above, but for those who don't, let me share. It's not a very long tale but when Brian was young (help me out Grandma and Grandpa--preschool? kindergarten?) he waltzed into his class and announced to the teacher, "I like blue!" Well, folks, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Last week, Christopher pointed to a blue crayon and said "blue." We were so excited and he said it a few more times that week. Now he points to everything that is blue and says "blue" (or in his pronunciation, "boo"). Today at Kindermusik, the kids were playing with sensory balls. Although he received the yellow one from the teacher, he later "traded" with another child for the blue one. Then he kept bringing it over to me and saying "blue." When you look around our house, it's really no wonder why the kid likes blue; it's everywhere from our dining room table decor to his straw cup to Brian's cool coat (I promise he doesn't really wear it anymore!) to, well, Christopher's room. Although he does enjoy pointing to the purple train car in "Freight Train" I do believe there will come a day in preschool when Chris will make the same proclamation as his father once did.

BAM!

Is anyone out there a fan of Emeril Lagasse? If you are, then you understand the reference in the title of this blog. If you are not, it is simply the exclamation that he says when he adds a little kick to whatever he is cooking (usually in the form of garlic). Well, it appears that we have a mini Emeril living in our house in the form of CJ Woglom. That's right, if there's something brewing in the kitchen, Christopher wants to be there! Over the holidays, Chris enjoyed watching all the moms and grandmas cooking in their respective kitchens. When we returned to Kansas, that fact did not change but our little man took it to a whole new level. One day, I dropped him off at his friend Emily's house for a little playdate. When I returned to pick him up, Emily's mother informed me that Christopher had been playing with Emily's mini kitchen for the past hour! If you know Chris, you know he doesn't stay in one spot very long so this was truly phenomenal. Long story short, we now have the same mini kitchen in our house and it is a huge hit. Here is our boy cooking up some yummy grub for us.

The cutest thing is that Christopher is now doing a bit of pretending when he plays. In the mornings, I heat up my coffee a little extra in the microwave. His kitchen set came with two little coffee mugs and Chris puts them in his own "microwave," presses the buttons, and heats it up himself. Then he takes the cup to his books and feeds the characters their nice hot coffee. He follows this up by saying "Ahhh" after they drink. So cute! Here he is with Grandma in the kitchen when she came to visit last week. He was watching her every move... Do we have a future top chef on our hands? Perhaps he will open a gourmet restaurant in the city called "Christophe." You better get on the reservation list now!

Not to be outdone by little buds, Kasey also received a new toy. Brian got her a little deer with a squeaker in it and she loves her little deer, dearly. So far it is in one piece but give it a week and we'll see what happens.

So much has been happening in our little man's life since the holidays so let me fill you in on a few of them... Christopher had his 18 month doctor's appointment and he is now 33.5 inches tall and nearly 29 solid pounds (just ask my biceps)... He is saying many new words including cheese, fish, green, and blue as well as the old standards like Mama and Daddy (and Kasey of course)... He's also saying animal sounds like moo, meow, and ssssss for snake. Chris runs everywhere--oh wait, that's not new! Mommy has been looking at Children's Day Out programs and I think I've found the one we are going to send him to in the fall. CDO is kind of like preschool but you only go once a week. When I was looking at this one school, it was weird for me to be on the parent end of the spectrum rather than the teacher end. I can already sense my "teacher-ness" coming through when I look at these classrooms. I just hope I don't turn into that annoying-parent-who-used-to-be-a-teacher (any teacher out there knows what I'm talking about!). I will leave you now with one last smiley face from our happy little boy.