An open letter to Mother Nature

Dear Snow,

We are SO over you.

I know I speak for east coasters and midwesterners, mothers of young children and Grammy's who have to shovel their own driveways alike when I say enough is enough. It hasn't even started snowing here in our fair city but I just know that we will have had enough of each other come Wednesday. Not only have you dropped 55 inches of yourself on New York, now you have devised a storm of epic proportions that is about to strike almost half of the country. And here's what really irks me, Snow: you are arriving tomorrow. You know who else was supposed to arrive tomorrow? My best friend Chrissie and her adorable little man, Baby Bennett. But alas, you have plotted a blizzard attack on both KC and Chicago and so it is not going to happen (at least not this week). The only route in the country that American Airlines is offering free flight changes to is the one Chrissie and Bennett were supposed to take (ORD to MCI). What, do you think we can all just change our plans at the drop of a hat because you decide to drop in? Hmph.

I supposed we can all forgive you for your dastardly ways; perhaps in the midst of a week-long summer schorcher we will dream of you. You're just lucky I used to be an early childhood teacher who can come up with a million and a half things to do with a toddler on a snow day (or two). Take heed, though. Come Tuesday, Christopher and I will be out in full force wielding shovels and ice melt. You will be no match for our skill and cunning!

Sincerely,
Those of us longing for Spring

On the ice!

We did one of the most exciting things that we have ever done with Christopher this evening. We took him ice skating for the first time! As many of you know, I grew up playing hockey so you can imagine my delight at seeing CJ in skates and on the ice. He was so thrilled to put on his rental skates (and very disappointed that we had to return them at the end) and get going. Of course, "going" for him was having Mommy hold him under his arms while he shuffled his feet back and forth. I remember MaryAnn telling me the first time we take him skating, my back was going to hurt like crazy. Yes, she was more than correct! We went around the small rink about 4 times and I had to stop a couple times each loop because bending over while holding a 37 pound wiggling child is not easy. Anyway, we had a great time and CJ's biggest thrill was seeing the zamboni ("I want to see the pony, Mommy." "No, Chris, it's a zamboni."). Here are a couple more pics:

And after the skating, we went to Ingredient for dinner. Watch Christopher enjoy his pizza and comment on his evening!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUvzbJXoRHE

Daily Buds

Why Kindermusik is the best thing we've ever done...

When I signed our papers this morning at Kindermusik check-in, I realized that we have reached our two year anniversary of going to this fabulous class. And I have to say that this just may be the best semester we've ever had. First of all, Amy is Christopher's teacher. She is the director of InJoy Music, the studio that runs our Kindermusik class. She is fantastic! To add to her greatness, the curriculum this semester is all about animals. Even better, the first class had songs that were all about dogs! You can imagine Christopher's delight. Not only that, but the home materials come in a little box shaped like a dog house and your can open the little doggie door on it. Precious! And as if that weren't enough, Christopher is in class with Olivia, Emily, Lucy, and Sam his very good friends (which means Mommy is in class with all of their mommies and so we all have a great time!). To top it all off, on our way into the building today, we ran into Ms. Heather, CJ's very first K-musik teacher and her baby, Henry. Chris was very excited to see them both. Class was so fun and we are looking forward to the rest of this semester!

My Christopher

Here is a list of 10 things that have amazed me about Christopher this week...

1. Listening to him sing Tom Chapin songs in his bed in the morning before I come get him.
2. Seeing how much he loves little babies and how gentle he can be with them!
3. Watching him point out the letters of the alphabet and telling me people's names who start with them.
4. Beating me to the punch when we say "I love you" at night before bed time. (Last night: "I love you, Mommy." Awww!)
5. Watching and listening to him fly his planes all over the house. ("Taxi, taxi, slow, slow, take off!")
6. How willing he can be to give up train playing to try using his big boy potty.
7. That he can distinguish a pinto bean, from a kidney bean, from a black bean, from a chickpea.
8. How good he is at finding all the tornado sirens in Lenexa!
9. Listening to him count 1, 2, 3, etc. until he gets to 14 where he says: "13, 14 maids a courting" from "1, 2 Buckle My Shoe."
10. How he will sit and listen to stories for a... very... long... time!

Body Mapping

Today, Christopher joined Olivia and some other new friends at her house for a play group and body mapping. The kids got to lie down on big paper while we traced the shape of their body. Then they colored in some of their body parts. Chris was really looking forward to this all morning and couldn't wait to get started! When we started laying out the paper, he laid right down and waited for me to start tracing. It was a lot of fun! It was great to meet some new moms too and considering it was a play group with all 2 year-olds, there was amazingly little conflict. Here is Chris coloring himself in...

J-E-T-S

Getting ready for the game...

Booster seat

Christopher has graduated to a booster seat and we will soon put the high chair away! Here he is tonight getting ready to say grace before eating at the big table.

A new helmet

We took Christopher to the bike store today to get him a new helmet to use for both his bike (when it gets warm) and for ice skating (which will be soon!). We thought we'd start him off on the high end since he'll probably enter his first time trial (for kids under 3) this April. Don't forget, Kansas 70.3 is in June.

Actually, we got him a good kids helmet that should last him a while, given his head doesn't grow exponentially in the next few months. The model name of the helmet is called "Small Fry" which I just think is so funny. That might be his new nickname!

 And of course, you can never be to safe when playing trains the buds way!

Today's train set up

Our train set up today is brought to you by CJ Woglom and his track-making abilities. He pretty much set up the whole thing while I made lunch and has been playing with it ever since! I had to help with some connections but otherwise, it is all his doing. Ah, the things you can come up with on a snow day!

Snow Day!

This little man in white is all dressed up in his new thermals from Grandma Jan to go outside in our fresh, new 7 inches of snow. In fact, Christopher had his first official snow day of the school year! You can imagine how excited Mommy was about this, especially since Thursday is the only day of the week Chris goes to school. I will just have to wait til tomorrow when Ms. Kay comes over to babysit! Anyway, we had a great time out in the snow this morning as Buds entertained himself very well while I shoveled the driveway. The snow was absolutely beautiful and powdery. If I was a skier, I would assume this would be fabulous snow for the slopes. And now we are going to have some yummy soup for our lunch to warm ourselves up!

Happy first birthday!!!

Christopher and his mommy and daddy would like to wish Poppy, Elsie and Bennett a very happy first birthday!!! You guys are the best and we love you very much. Enjoy your party and Chris says to eat lots of cake!

Railroad Tycoon

Buds is a railroad track-making machine! No longer satisfied with the tracks being on his train table, we have now moved to the floor. Pretty soon, the dining room table will have to be moved to the garage and we will be eating amongst the trains. Chris has been coming up with some very interesting set-ups all by himself and it is very interesting to watch how he links all these tracks together. Fun stuff!

Good friends

Christopher had a very fun Saturday evening with his friend Olivia! She came by to play for a bit while her mom played music at church tonight. Chris and Olivia know each other so well and are so relaxed with each other. They listen to each other when the other is speaking and they laugh at each other's jokes (and believe me, the two of them have some really funny jokes to tell!). CJ and Livy saw each other three days in a row this week and we have to wait to tell him that she' coming over until right before she gets here or he will be asking about her all day long. Here they are playing with Christopher's railroad track creation from earlier in the day...

You will notice that Chris has his Thomas costume hat on. Olivia came over today wearing her cat costume (she loves to dress up!) so CJ wanted his costume as well. It is so cute to watch the two of them grow big together. They've gone from images on a sonogram, to little babies, to toddlers, to little kids! It is amazing to watch them grow up together!

Potty update: Chris is enjoying using his little potty. In fact, he has gone everyday since Thursday and even contributed a #2 today. That's right. I knew you all wanted to know that. This is what mom's talk about. Hehe! It's my blog so I get to say whatever I want!

Running around

Just when you thought there weren't any more open, indoor gyms for Chris to play at... We met some friends from my mom's group today at Debbie Howard's gym, not too far from our house, for some crazy running around time. CJ had the best time! More than anything else, he loved running back and forth (and back and forth) on this bouncy runway. Occasionally, he would run and jump into the foam pit at the end, but mostly he just did back-and-forths. In fact, he was on the thing for over an hour... straight... Thing is, the runway is elevated about 4 1/2 feet so I too had to run back and forth to make sure little man didn't fall and land on his head. And I only needed to enter the foam pit once to retrieve a missing sock. Here is some footage...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD9szia9atI

Hahaha! You know what' funny? I just watched this video again for the first time since I took it, and I noticed that there is a "one way" sign on the wall! Of course, it is pointing in the opposite direction that CJ is running in. Oops!

The Potty

Just so you all know, we haven't officially started potty training Christopher. Just thought we'd give the little potty a try today and....

...he peed twice! Woohoo!

Dancing machine

Dear East Coast,

I apologize in advance for any of the snow heading your way that may be coming from the midwest. Please accept this video of Christopher dancing to "Don't Miss the Bus" as consolation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DArzR-CpEZQ

Sincerely,
Mommy Woglom

PS--Please vote in our poll, located in the upper left hand corner of the blog!

Later that afternoon...

Buds attempted to mow the lawn, despite the snow. Such a devoted landscaper! Here he is, trying to figure out why the mower won't move.

And afterwards, he supervised the creation of our very first snowman. It would have been bigger but it's been _______ years since Mommy made one and without an extra set of hands, this was as big as it was going to get! Notice the Yankee hat...

We even had a carrot for the nose! And later we added sticks for arms. 

The Snowy Day

We finally got some real snow today here in Kansas... probably about 6 or 7 inches I would guess, and little buds was super excited about it! We played for awhile in the house, filled up the bird feeders so we could watch all the different birds have their breakfasts, and then suited up to go outside in the white stuff. Christopher was having a ball running and diving into the snow ("Crash!" he would shout as he landed face first in the snow, laughing hysterically). He also enjoyed tasting the snow.

Mommy: "Chris, what does the snow taste like?"
Chris: "Like snowflakes!"
(Duh, Mommy).

After some more time playing in the back with Kasey, we returned to the front and I was actually able to shovel the entire walkway and driveway as CJ entertained himself. He even brought out his mower, which became a snowblower, and he loved to make it get stuck in the big piles of snow. Finally, the snow started coming down a bit harder so we came inside to defrost. We did a snow melting experiment, flew some play dough planes, and christened the easel. Here is little man working on his very first painting!

And then, of course, there was the plane flying, complete with the sound effects from our last post's entry. For this shot, he actually told me, "Take my picture, Mommy!"

The Boy Who Would Be a Plane

I think it's already been established... Christopher loves planes. Actually, if it has wings, rails, or wheels or it flies, he's game. Transportation is his fascination. For Christmas, Olivia gave Christopher this great play dough set that has pieces to make cars, helicopters, trains, and, of course, planes. Tonight, our post-dinner excitement included a half hour of Chris flying his play dough plane and making the appropriate aviation noises to go along with it. Check out this video of him flying in circles!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtfTl2dA7uI

At school this month, Chris and his little friends are learning about transportation so of course he is in heaven! He walked in on Thursday to find a table full of new toys including two really big planes. When I left him that day, he was flying one of the planes all around the room... Christopher has always been fascinating to me but he gets more and more interesting every day. The things he says and comes up with make me laugh and amaze me at the same time! For example, yesterday morning I saw him with his shoes on his hands, walking his hands (and feet) across the floor. When I asked him what he was doing, his response was, "I'm walking like a crab Mommy." Obviously! And after nap yesterday, we filled up the sink with bubbles and water and let him use the measuring cups to play. After about 15 minutes, he turned to me and said, "This is really fun Mommy!" He is also working on saying "Excuse me" when he wants to get by and one of us (or someone else) is in the way. When he does say it, it is so cute! He also notices everything. We were playing trains a couple days ago and he stopped, saying totally out of the blue, "It's getting dark outside, Mommy." And then later, "Look at the sunset, Mommy." (Of course, everything ends with Mommy!) We are having a blast with our boy!

Backup Plan

Well, we were all set to meet some friends from one of my mother's groups to see Funky Mama (children's singer extraordinaire) when we arrived only to find the show sold out! It was jam-packed and we had to park across the street from the museum. No worries though. We went to Kidscape instead and played with the trains they have there while working on Christopher's sharing ("No sharing, Mommy." Sigh...). Here is the boy with his trains. Notice the concentration:

Even though it's pretty cold here, it hasn't been windy so we've been getting outside as much as possible. Across the street from Kidscape is a great playground that we've been to before. After a few (endless) pushes on the swing, Mommy and Christopher put on our imaginary cleats and ran bases on the nearby baseball field! Chris enjoyed this very much and also proceeded to run the warning track as well!

Happy New Year! and our trip

Happy 2011 everyone! We had such a wonderful time with our family and friends back in New York and New Jersey and we are happy to be back in Kansas. I'm probably only going to post a few pictures here (as there are hundreds to choose from) but I will give you all a link to a kodak gallery where you can see the rest if you want... Our trip back east was so fun! CJ and I left a week before Daddy so we would have enough time to see everyone. Chris, as usual, is a professional traveler and he thoroughly enjoyed his time on the "white plane." Grandpa Eric picked us up from the airport and we made our now-traditional stop at the Mamaroneck Diner--what could be better? We then spent the weekend with Grammy and got to see lots of family and friends. Cousin cousin Liz stayed with us (CJ actually calls her that now--too cute!) and we visited with Lauren, Aunt Dette and Uncle Al, and the Duren-Lubanski ladies. Here are Ally and Julia with our little man...

After Grammy's, Chris and I drove up to Grandpa T's house in upstate NY where we got to also visit with G.G. and Nancy. Much to Christopher's delight, there was snow upstate and he got to go sledding for the first time on a Flexible Flyer which was probably manufactured in the 1950's. Ignoring all safety warnings, Mommy and CJ went sledding down Grandpa T's driveway. Little man loved it! He also got to play with his other favorite dogs, Nadia, Jane Blue, and Maggie.

We had a wonderful time and, as you may have seen in our previous post, Chris enjoyed his grandpa's accordian playing very much! After a few days upstate, we returned to NJ and then set off to Westchester to see the cutest triplets in the world! Poppy, Elsie, and Bennett had a sleepover with CJ on Christmas Eve and Christmas night. Words cannot explain how excited Chris was to see his cousins and if I had a dime for every time he said "Poppy, Elsie, Bennett" Brian could finally retire. Here are the babies getting ready to see Santa Claus at the mall...

We all had a wonderful Christmas together. One of the highlights was mentioned a couple posts ago but I'll go into detail... On Christmas Eve, Grandma Jan made the most fabulous margaritas for us (the adults!). Chris repeats almost everything anyone says so when Aunt Dabney said "Who wants a margarita?" Chris said (so clearly) "Margarita!" The next night, we were all hanging out after the kiddos took naps and Grandma was preparing Christmas dinner. Aunt Dabney told Chris to go in the kitchen and tell Grandma "Margarita time!" And, of course, he did just that! Overall, our trip was great and Christopher and his parents are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends!

Here is the link to the kodak gallery slide show. I think it should work, but if you have trouble viewing it let me know in the comments.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharer