If you've been following the blog for a while now, you already know how much fun Christopher (and his mommy) have at Kindermusik every Tuesday. Well, yesterday we began our summer session and Chris has moved up to the next level called "Our Time." It's truly amazing to see my "little baby" in a class with two and three year-olds. And there is such a difference between kids in that age range that sometimes you can feel out of place! But little man fit right in with the big kids as they began the summer theme called "Zoo Train" (is there any wonder why CJ enjoyed it so much? animals? trains?). Even though the mommies come to this music class, we play a less involved role as the kiddos are so much more independent. Chris even got to make a craft (see monkey above). If you know me as an early childhood educator, you might know that I am not a big fan of these cookie cutter crafts but it didn't really matter yesterday as I watched my little boy color the body of his monkey blue and purple. So cute! Summer session is only 5 weeks and I think we will savor every class... Today we joined some friends from the 'hood over at the OP Farmer's Market for some food, fun, and music. CJ donned his bathing suit and splashed with the big kids in the sidewalk fountains while we listened to some banjo music in the shade. One time, Chris got drenched and then walked up in front of the performers to show off his dance moves. He even got some props from the lead singer! While we were there, we ran into a couple old friends and got caught up on the goings on in the lives of our children. Post splashing, we joined our neighborhood friends at Papa Keno's for some yummy (yes, even by east coast standards) pizza and a recap of the US victory in the World Cup. It was a fun morning, but now we need to savor the air conditioning for a few hours!
... certainly melted away during the past ten days. The Kansas Wogloms ventured out to the east coast to spend time with our families and we had a fabulous trip! It was so much fun that it will warrant several entries on the blog. Plus we've already been so busy since returning that I will have to backtrack and play catch up as the week goes on. First of all, there were many highlights to our trip back to NY/NJ. Chris was very excited for yet another trip on a plane and received several compliments for his outstanding plane behavior from other passengers. (It helped that we got upgraded to first class on the way to NY!). When I told Chris where we were going, he would say "New York, New York." But when I asked him to say New Jersey, guess what his response was? "NO!" Don't worry, I'll set him straight eventually... We spent some time with Christopher's paternal grandparents and he got to meet his brand new cousins! It was hard to get a picture of the triplets with Christopher so here are some pics of the adorable bundles of joy--Poppy, Elsie, and Bennett:
That is how Otis enjoyed the World Cup soccer game when we visited. Anyway, Chris had a great time with his new cousins and his grandparents. This trip, he grew especially attached to his grandfathers and referred to both of them as "Pa," always asking where they were. Here he is with Grandpa Eric:
Later in the week we went to Grandpa T's house so here they are too:
As you can see, Grandpa T plays the accordian. He was trying to play Chris a song and the little man just wanted to join in. For a boy who loves to press buttons, an accordian is like a dream! While we were upstate, Christopher also got to spend time with GiGi, his great grandmother. Here he is giving her a hug:
And of course, Nancy and Grandpa T always have an abundance of New York Times hanging around the house. Chris decided to catch up on his current events:
One of Christopher's favorite parts of being at Grandpa T's house was the dogs! Grandpa has named one of the dogs for our little man. Her official AKC name is "CJ's Nadia." Christopher spent much of the week playing with her and would not stop saying "Nadia" the whole time! The two of them got along great and both got adequate exercise chasing each other around.
It also happened to be Grammy's birthday while we were home. Her house looks fabulous after being redone and she had a very fun party to celebrate both her home and her birthday. Chris got to spend some time with his old friends Ally and Julia. I'm going to do an "earlier" and "present" picture so you can see how much they've all changed.
This boy eats his greens... Well, most of the time. So this shirt (a gift from cousin cousin Liz--thank you!!!) is highly appropriate for CJ Wogs. I'm not sure which green vegetable Christopher likes the most, but broccoli is certainly at the top of the list. It's a good thing too because this little boy needs to keep up his energy with everything he gets up to! The beginning of the week found us at Wonderscope (new favorite room=the water play room!) and Monkey Bizness (where he spun in circles, ran around like crazy, and took out a small baby). This morning, we were hanging out at our neighborhood playgroup around the corner from us with a bunch of other kids. The theme today was butterflies, birds, dirt and worms. Christopher got to dig in dirt and actually picked up a worm in his hands. He made a bird feeder out of a bagel, peanut butter, and bird seed. (Oh and we now know he doesn't have a peanut allergy as he proceeded to stick his finger in the jar and directly into his mouth!). Then we went inside for a snack and some train table play. It was so cute to see all the 2 year-old boys crammed around the train table claiming their stake of the tracks! Later, Chris was in our neighbor's backyard playing in the sandbox. He was digging a bit when another little guy came over and started trying to bury our little man in the sand! He didn't seem to mind, but we did find some leftover sand in his diaper later. Anyway, a good time was had by all and we are looking forward to future neighborhood playgroups... Tomorrow morning, we will be heading back east for a while so maybe no blogs until we get back. Happy summer!
What is it about little boys and their trains? Today we went to Baldwin City, Kansas and spent a day out with Thomas the Tank Engine (or "Pas" as Christopher calls him). Although we participated in a previous day out with Thomas while we were in Baltimore, this time, we got to actually ride on the train. This was Christopher's first train ride and he loved it. We received some great advice from one of our neighbors who told us to sit in the open air car. It's funny because everywhere you turned, there were boys between the ages of 1 and 5 with maybe 3 or 4 girls scattered throughout. I think the girls were just along for the ride with their brothers. Here is little buds on his first train ride!
They had some other fun activities, including a tatoo parlor (it's temporary!) where Chris got a tatoo and is now proudly wearing a picture of Thomas on his forearm, a model train set-up, and a hay maze. Interestingly, there was a petting zoo complete with goats, calves, and donkeys, but Christopher wanted nothing to do with them. I guess he wants to remain loyal to his flock of goats at Deanna Rose. Here he is in the hay maze devising a plot to take over the world a la Stewie Griffin (click on the picture and check out his face).
There was also a big bubble area with an electronic bubble blower and a do-it-yourself area. Here is Chris trying to do it himself:
And in unrelated pictures, Christopher was very excited to try on Daddy's Yankee hat yesterday. Here is the little man wearing the big man's hat:
First of all, our boy needs a haircut. However, the last time we attempted a haircut, Brian and I both had to hold Christopher down and we were all sweating by the time the woman sort of cut and trimmed! Fortunately, with the warm, humid weather, little man's hair is curling up and is not yet falling in his eyes so we are able to hold off a haircut for one more day. But this is what it looks like after naptime.
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