Onion

Christopher ate raw onion tonight... and requested more. I really don't think anything else needs to be said.

Plan B

This summer, the moms in our neighborhood have organized a weekly playgroup where each mom will host a particular morning with a particular theme. School is out and summer starts early around here, as in today. We were supposed to go berry picking with our neighborhood friends but the weather looked questionable. I didn't want to make a long drive only to get rained out so we opted to go with our Plan B, which was Monkey Bizness. (It turned out that we didn't get any rain... oh well!). It has been a while since Christopher has gone to MB, and what a difference a few months makes! He had so much fun! Chris literally played for two and a half hours straight, climbing, sliding, jumping and running. It was incredible. Here he is going down the little slide:

Really, that slide was okay but not as much fun as the crazy spiral slide!

Dancing to Thomas

Every time the old Thomas the Tank Engine theme song comes on, Christopher dances like crazy. This time he was dancing on the chair (probably not a good move on our part). The video below captures him the second time he did this so of course it was not as good as the first. But it will give you a general idea of the boy's crazy dancing moves.

Playtime

Christopher and Tristan got to play again yesterday and it is wonderful to see them together! They are playing so well and Tristan is a great role model for Chris, showing him how the big boys play. It was very warm yesterday and they spent a lot of time outdoors including a walk in the wagon around the block with Kasey. Tristan also brought over his dinosaurs and shared them with CJ, who particularly like the purple T-Rex (no relation to Barney). In the picture above the boys were using the exercise ball as a drum! Last night, Brian and I went back through some of the older blogs to see how our little man has grown. It was fun to see the older blogs of when Chris was younger and playing with Tristan. Both boys have just grown up so much! By the way, I highly recommend looking at some of those older blogs if you have free time on your hands because it is amazing to see how much Chris has changed simply in the last few months.

Number One Fan

I don't have a visual for this, but I came home from my first triathlon of the season and got the best hug ever from my little man! The boys were on their own for a bit this morning while I competed (and I use that term loosely) in the Kansas City Triathlon. Of course, when I came home I was also treated to some of the new games Daddy taught Christopher, including the game known as "Stand Up on Kasey's Chair and Have Daddy Pull Your Feet Out Quickly." This was a good one that Christopher then wanted me to participate in. I had to be the party pooper though and I told him that could be his special game to play with his pops. You may be wondering why the boys did not come to the race to cheer me on this morning, but would you like to chase our little speedy boy around a place that has thousands of people and no park to play on? (Or get up at 4:30AM and feed a hungry boy on the go?) Anyway, it was all worth it to get that long hug from Chris, even though I was sweaty and slimy from the (cold, cold) lake. It also made him laugh that I had numbers written on my arm. It cracks me up that those numbers cracked him up! The race was good. I wanted to go faster than last year but the swim was not my friend today. My bike and run times were quicker than last year but man, that swim! Mama has to get in the lake more. Maybe Chris will be my pace setter when we start swimming this summer.

Trains and bath time

Christopher and I set up some more of Brian's old (not to say that he's old) train set this morning and it is all our little man wanted to play with! He was concentrating very hard, as seen in these pictures:


He was also in a jolly mood for bath tonight:

Let them eat cake!

Contrary to popular belief, I did not deprive my husband (and son) of cake on his birthday. And not only that, we had pizza... with NO vegetables! As demonstrated in the earlier post, Chris and I were busy making cake today for this evening's festivities and we finished up in the nick of time before Brian returned home from work after we realized that we didn't have enough icing for a two layer cake! Here are some pics of the fabulous creation. Christopher chose what we would write and draw on the cake.

After warming up for a few minutes, Brian was able to blow out all the candles with Christopher happily looking on. And for the second time in his life, CJ had cake! While he ate, he kept saying "cake! cake!" He enjoyed his pizza and cake almost as much as his daddy. You will notice remnants of both on his face in the picture below.

To get a better sense of what dinner was like, we are including this video of Christopher enjoying his father's cake.

And here is Kasey, exhausted after all the partying and cake-eating:

Shhhh...

Don't tell Daddy, but CJ made him a 'prise for him for his birthday. After spending the morning at Deanna Rose (running between the raindrops) we ventured to the grocery store to prepare for Brian's special request dinner birthday. When I got Chris out of bed this morning, I told him we were going to have a surprise for Daddy and that (shhh) he had to be quiet. Then Brian came in while I was changing little man and CJ told his daddy, "Shhhhh... prise!" He even told the cashier at Price Chopper what we were going to be making ("Cake!" he said). This video is of Christopher contributing to Brian's birthday surprise:

The Rocking Horse

We have taken out another toy that used to be mine when I was little: the rocking horse! We took it out a few months ago but Christopher was still a bit too small for it. Now he can practically get on it all by himself and he loves to rock himself too. He looks a little shocked in this picture but he usually is all smiles.

Aiyaiyai!

These days, Christopher is coming up with all new words, phrases and sayings. His favorite of late is "aiyaiyai." I say that phrase sometimes when I make a mistake or drop something or spill something. The first time I said it, Chris laughed hysterically. And ever since then, he can't get over what a great phrase it is. We captured him saying it at dinner tonight. And then.... well, keep listening to the very end of the video because CJ threw in one more word (and no, there was no prompting--it just came out of nowhere).

Down on the farm

Christopher loves his new farm so much that he can't decide which animal is his favorite. Whenever we are about to go somewhere in the car, I let him know that he can choose to bring a toy with him. Pre-farm, he always took a train to join him in his car seat. Now, however, he has so many choices that he doesn't know where to start. Should it be the pig on Monday? Perhaps the horse on Tuesday? But what about the moo cow? Decisions, decisions. Anyway, I came across his sea lion yesterday that we got at the Oklahoma City Zoo so he joined us when we met Olivia at the park this morning. That sea lion enjoyed the swings almost as much as Christopher! Here is some exclusive footage of little man enjoying his farm:

CJ had been sick in the beginning of this week so today was the first day we were able to play with other kids and let me tell you--what a relief! As much as I love our house and our dog, it was so nice to get out and participate in civilization again. Chris had a double ear infection, a cough, and an upper respiratory infection. And just to rub it in, another 2-year molar came through. You can imagine how much sleep we got the night that all happened. But now he is almost fully recovered and we are back in business. Have a great weekend!

Kasey in the AM

Kasey is in much need of rest after I wake her up early in the morning to go running with me. (Don't worry, I will hopefully have some CJ videos/pics at some point today).

Our Second Mother's Day

As I did last year, I would like to start by wishing all the moms out there a very happy mother's day! This goes especially for my own mom Cathleen, who has taught me so many things including how to be a good person, and Brian's mom Jan, who raised Brian to be the wonderful dad and husband he is today. And as Kasey reminded me, mother's day is for all you moms out there who have furry, four-legged kids too! Anyway, my original plan of "sleeping in" today morphed into a new plan of running the Mother's Day 5K in Overland Park at 8AM with 3500 other crazy women. I also thought I could bring Christopher along in the jogger but you could only walk with the jogger. The thought of walking a 5K sounds pretty painful to me! Brian was going to bring Chris to watch but when little man woke up this morning, he was coughing and very congested. Being that it was like 45 degrees and windy out, we thought it best for the boys to stay home. And unbelieveably, they don't let you run with your dog so Kasey had to stay home too! When we registered yesterday, the woman signing me up convinced me to get this adorable shirt for CJ, which I thought he would wear at the race.
If you're having trouble seeing it, the shirt says "My First 5K." I couldn't resist, but now we'll have to find another 5K to jog with Christopher. Anyway, it was a good race and I set a PR! My time was 23:26 and I finished 37th out of 3500ish women and 5th out of 338 women in my age group. (I'm allowed to brag a bit... it's mother's day!). It was a great start to the morning. Even better, when I got home, my fabulous and wonderful husband made me chocolate chip pancakes (don't tell my "Healthy for Life" blog). They were yummy and we had a nice morning hanging out together as a family. More than anything today, I am so proud to be Christopher's mother. It is the best job in the world and it is amazing to watch him grow every day of his life!

Can't Stay Away

So we cannot stay away from Lawrence, Kansas. Brian and I had our date night there last week and we returned today. It ended up being another beautiful day here, although a little cool. After Christopher's nap, we drove out for a repeat performance of little man's last trip there. We stopped to play at the park and then enjoyed a nice dinner at the Tenth Street Bistro. Here is a video of CJ playing on the "fire truck."

And although I did not get it on video, there was a funny incident when Christopher got on a bouncy horse (one of four horses, all attached to this one metal circular piece in the middle that a father was standing on and bouncing the kids). The dad slowed down when Chris got on but I said it was okay to go fast and I just held onto him. CJ was laughing SO hard. And one of the other kids started saying something like "aiy, aiy, aiy" and Chris loved that so he said (as loud as he could) "aiyaiyaiyaiyai!!!" and then laughed hysterically. He thoroughly enjoyed himself. In addition to this, he was on the swing for a record-setting 20 minutes and then showed off his balancing skills, as seen in the next video.

Wild Fridays

When I was fresh out of college, Friday nights meant going out on the town with friends. Ah, how times have changed! And I have to say, we have just as much (if not more) fun now spending our evenings with The Buds... Look at how happy he was to discover his new farm:
And here is that bead rollercoaster I was talking about in the previous entry:
I believe that Christopher's favorite new toy was the airplane. He flew it everywhere! The plane also joined us for dinner and helped us water the plants outside.
After a lot of active play, the boys settled down for story time. They read (what else) Curious George. (Notice the airplane joined CJ for this activity too).
And then, of course, it was time for bed. Here was Christopher's reaction when that fact became apparent to him:
Night-night, everyone!

Garage Sale Season

Oh, you know what time it is in Johnson County, Kansas, don't you? You guessed it, garage sale season!!! Kristen was watching Christopher today and Mommy got to go and scope out the scene. The neighborhood next to us had their sale start today and I found some great pants and shorts for the buds. I also located a cool bead "rollercoaster" (pictures to follow if you're not sure what that is) that Chris was very interested in. I also visited a great store today called "Once Upon a Child" that has all second hand clothes and toys. I found a fabulous farm set that Chris has been having some fun with. Here he is playing with the farm animals:

I also went to a fun toy store on the plaza today and found Christopher a little model plane. He has been talking about our plane trip to Baltimore since we returned a week and a half ago and now he has a prop to help him tell his story:

Fun with CJ

When you spend the day with Christopher, you cannot help but enjoy yourself! We started the day with a beautiful walk with Kasey through the neighborhood. This was followed by a trip to yet another one of Johnson County's fabulous community centers to see a storyteller named Priscilla Howe. We met up with some of the moms from my mother's group and listened to some stories, watched some puppets and sang a few songs. Christopher was especially happy when we sang "5 Little Monkeys!" Then this afternoon, we spent over an hour and a half at the trail near our house and boy was there a lot to see today! First of all, we saw five trains. You can imagine Christopher's excitement from this fact alone. More than the trains, CJ is fascinated by the gates that stop the cars when the trains go by. He will talk about these gates whether we are near them or not and will say "gate...down, down, down" while moving his hand down and do the reverse for up. Then he will open and close his hands while saying "flash" (talking about the flashing red lights). I'll try to get that on tape because it's really funny. Anyway, after playing on the slide a bit, we walked through a tunnel and over a bridge to the big pond where we saw white ducks, a blue heron, and many geese. We even saw two geese that had babies! They were so cute and Chris was talking to them saying "honk, honk" and laughing. Then he said "mack, mack" to the ducks (his version of "quack, quack"). On our way back to the car, Chris said hi to at least 6 people walking and riding their bikes. He also tried to join a nice man for a jog. We stopped to check out the stream before returning to our car to head home. Then, when we finished dinner later, Christopher took his little watering can and helped me water all my flowers. This might be the first year I don't kill my flowers because little man will not let me forget to water them for a minute! Anyway, here is a little clip of CJ watching one of the trains go by. It's not very exciting but you can see the intensity with which he watches the train and the gate. Enjoy!

PS- We should take a video of Chris watching this video because he loves it and just says "ding, ding, ding" over and over. (He also loves the sound of the gate!)

Cooking with Christopher

I would like to propose a new show to the Food Network in which a 21 month-old toddler prepares scrumptious meals for his mother, an alligator and his puppy. What do you think?

And here is one more excerpt from our new cooking show...