Story Time

After a busy morning of playing at the Parkside Cafe with Maddie, Christopher busied himself with his own version of story time. He acquired one of the books I just finished reading, and referred to it as "the book I just borrowed from the library." He then invited some of his inanimate friends (fire truck, rubber duckie, and the space shuttle included) to attend the story hour and proceeded to read to them himself.

Wise Guy

While eating breakfast this morning, Christopher and I had the following discussion...

CJ: Mommy, why do you and Daddy share the same bed?
Me: Well, because that's what mommies and daddies do. We share a bed together.
CJ: Daddy should sleep on the couch.

Well, okay then. Sorry Daddy!

Swimming with Nico

We went to this really great pool this afternoon with Christopher's friend, Nico. Here are the boys going down the shark slide:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4g6Mk9vPxc

That's Entertainment

So when you're helping your Grammy run errands to get settled in Kansas, you find myriad ways of entertaining yourself. Christopher really knows how to go along for the ride. The picture above is from one of the banks we stopped at. We were outside, and Chris found some really cool rocks to work with. Here is his story: First he lined them up and said, "I'm building a Toys R Us." Then, a few minutes later, "Now I'm going to use my scissors to cut the store. I'm going to knock it down." In typical boy fashion, he demolished his newly completed building and then said, "Now Lightning McQueen (see red car in picture) can go. He can drive." If Grammy hadn't come out of the bank for several hours, I think we still would have been there!

NY Dawg Pound

We met the Eakins today at the New York Dawg Pound, a hot dog joint in Overland Park. What were three vegetarians doing at a hot dog place, you ask? Well, believe it or not, they actually had veggie options, one of which was the "carrot dog" which was an actual carrot that had been grilled. Chris had that option and chose mustard on top, eating almost the entire dog. Brian and I both had the "veggie bit" which was a black bean burger that they cut in half, put on a hot dog bun, and topped with avocado, salsa, lettuce and some other things. It was really good! And the owner is actually from the city so it's not just one of those midwest knock-offs of east coast phrases (read: Mafia Mike's Pizza and Jersey Shore Bagels). We enjoyed ourselves very much and the boys had a nice visit too. Here they are!

Help!

Will someone pleeeeeeease get me a haircut?!?!?

Chillin'

After a long day of playing, dancing, and running, Chris loves to chill with his trusty dog Kasey...

Funny

Possibly one of the funniest videos to date. Not quite as good as little 20 month-old CJ running to the bathtub but definitely up there...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whVIYb9JJPg

Rocket to Mars

Dear Grammy,

Thank you for the big empty box you gave me! I spent the afternoon painting it. I am making it into a rocket ship and I am going to take it to Mars and then maybe Saturn. Any more big boxes will be much appreciated!

Love,
Christopher

Drop 'em

So we went to a place today called My Gym with Christopher's friend Luca to try out one of there classes. My Gym is where we will be having Christopher's birthday party next month and I wanted to make sure he was comfortable with the place. Well... he absolutely loved it (and so did his Mommy) and we ended up signing up for classes right on the spot. Added bonus: it's right around the corner from Grammy's new place! Anyway, I unfortunately do not have any pictures from our class but you can take my word for it that CJ had a blast. His favorite part was jumping into the ball pit! And during the class, he learned how to do forward and backward rolls and got to hang like a monkey from the high bar. Very fun. There may not be pictures from the class, but a funny story did emerge... After class was over, I was talking to one of the teachers about signing up and we were going over the class times, policies, etc. Meanwhile, Chris was standing over by Luca and his mom, Lindsey. As the teacher is talking to me, she glances over at Christopher and starts laughing hysterically. I also heard Lindsey laughing so I turn around and what do I see? My son, CJ Woglom with his shorts and underpants down around his ankles and the boy is laughing like crazy!!! And of course because we are all laughing, he wants to continue doing it over and over. I had to suppress my laugh and bust out my Mommy-is-being-serious voice but it was really funny. I guess he felt comfortable enough to expose himself at his new gym!

Welcome to Kansas!

After our usual morning routine, we went to the airport to pick up Grammy and this time she gets to stay. Yay! More on that later... Before we left home, Christopher made the sign he is holding in the picture above and it says "Welcome to Kansas Grammy!" complete with scratch and sniff stickers. He is doing his impression of a limo driver in that picture too. :) Anyway, we went to the airport early because Chris usually likes to watch the planes take off and land. Unfortunately for him, we live in Kansas City which doesn't have the busiest airport around. We probably saw four planes land in the 45 minutes we were there! Also, the windows to watch the planes was right next to the baggage carousel. Now, these days CJ is not really happy with anything that makes a loud sound (save the juicer!) and he did not want to stand next to the carousel to watch the few planes we could see. Soon we relocated to the chairs by the window that faces where the buses go by so we watched more buses than planes today. We also did some walking around the terminal and a nice lady, who is considered an "airport ambassador" stopped and gave Chris his first set of wings. You will see them below by the monkey on his shirt...

Finally, Grammy's plane arrived! Christopher was very excited to see her and vice versa...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvmB74WFGJM

After we grabbed some lunch at Ingredient, we brought Grammy to her new home. Now, Christopher seems to be a little confused. Usually when Grammy comes to visit she stays with us. When we left her at her "hotel" (as CJ calls it), the little man was slightly distraught that she was not coming back with us. I'm pretty sure he said, "I want to see Grammy again!" or some variation of that about fifty times on the way back to our house. I hope he catches on soon!

Grammy's New Home

A big event is happening tomorrow--Christopher's Grammy is moving to Kansas! Chris and his parents (and Kasey) are very excited and CJ and I helped receive Grammy's furniture today. Here he is testing out the couch to make sure it is comfy:

Later on, the movers were in the hallway unloading a few things and one of them said, "Here's Grammy!" Christopher, of course, thought for a moment that Grammy was actually here already but then he realized it was just her life-size likeness from the library. Here is Chris having some fun with that:

Christopher was a trooper throughout the morning. We were there for about 4 hours total and he entertained himself quite well while I helped check off all the boxes and told the movers where the furniture was supposed to be placed. In the beginning, the movers brought up the hose attachment for the vacuum cleaner and it is amazing what will keep a two year-old occupied! Now Grammy's house has been cleaned and detailed...

After cleaning, Chris worked up an appetite so we had a picnic on the kitchen floor. Without Kasey there to be the clean-up crew, we had to sit on a towel so Grammy would not come home to bread crumbs all over her new floor!

Grammy will be arriving tomorrow and we are so excited to welcome her to Kansas!

Fire Trucks

We went with our meet-up group this morning to the Shawnee Fire Department, Engine 72. There were a ton of kids that went and Christopher was among them. We did a similar tour last year with our neighborhood friends but this one was a really good tour. Christopher, being a bit older now, was enthralled with what the fire fighters were talking about and listened intently as one fireman explained every detail of the truck. Here is Chris checking out a really big ax!

He also got a chance to tour the areas where the firefighters live when they are on duty and he was able to sit on the truck.

And I don't care what anyone says about gender differences--they definitely exist! As the firefighter was talking about the truck and all the tools they have to use, all the boys were right in front of him, completely listening and all the girls were like, "Eh, that's nice." The boys were so excited to see this big machine with power tools and learn all about it, CJ included. He had a blast on the tour today and was asking to do it again soon!

Deanna Rose!

Today we took Grandpa Eric and Grandma Jan to Deanna Rose! There were so many baby animals today, including three new little pink pigs and baby turkeys. And of course the baby goats! Here is Chris feeding a bottle to the babies--some being more aggressive than others...

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

Later, we went into the general store and Chris danced to the player piano:

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

When we returned from Deanna Rose and lunch at Chipotle, Christopher decided to show us some of his ballet moves. Ever since I started taking ballet, both of my boys show me their moves before I leave to go to class. Today Christopher added a prop: a little swimming tube that he used at the pool yesterday...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqoiDWF0LLs

Chris likes the swimming tube so much right now that he doesn't want to take it off! Here he is with Grandma and Grandpa watching Wonder Pets and wearing his tube:

More fun with Grandma and Grandpa

Yesterday after nap, Chris took Grandma and Grandpa to the pool for some good old aquatic fun. Here he is getting ready to go into the pool with his Thomas and Percy toys...

This morning, we had some fun at home, celebrating Father's Day with a banana waffle breakfast and an iChat with Poppy and Elsie. Here is CJ with his Grandpa:

Later on, we went over to the Overland Park Arboretum and had lunch at Ingredient. Christopher loves holding hands with us and having us pick him up and swing him while he is walking. Today, he talked his grandparents into giving it a try!

After nap it is back to the pool to stay cool. Happy Father's Day everyone!

The Grandparents Woglom

Grandpa Eric and Grandma Jan are in from New York and Christopher (and his parents... and Kasey) are super excited! We went to a lovely dinner downtown last night at Blue Bird Bistro (yum!) and then spent this morning at Union Station at the KC Rail Experience. The first highlight of the morning for CJ was going down and then back up the escalator. Here he is with his grandparents...

They have a fantastic model railway setup at Union Station and Christopher could have looked at it all day! Here is a small portion of it:

Part of the "experience" is a full-size model of a BNSF locomotive that visitors can go in and pretend they are driving. Christopher and Daddy fully enjoyed this part of the day!

We also got to check out the interior of an old caboose and stood on the back platform of an old train car. Christopher was practicing his campaign speech here with Mommy's help. I guess he'll have to wait until he's tall enough to see over the edge to run for office!

We had a wonderful morning topped off with a delicious lunch at Eden Alley Cafe. We are looking forward to the rest of our visit!

Well, we got up to the park today before the rain came. After a while of swinging and then some climbing and sliding, Christopher took to the soccer nets. Here he is scoring his first big goal:

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

New PJs

Thank you for my new pajamas Grandma Jan! I think they look terrific! And I love that the orange PJs match my stuffed animal from Aunt Dabney...

The Woods

Question: So you're out for a nice 3 mile run on the trail on a beautiful June day. You've been running for about 20 minutes, pushing your almost-three-year-old son in the jogger and holding onto the leash attached to your super awesome running dog. Suddenly, at mile 2.5, the little voice emerges from the stroller and says, "I have to pee!" What do you do?

Answer: Get him out of the stroller, find a good tree, and let him go in the woods. But wait! Before you do that...

Extra info: As you stop to ask your son if he really has to go, you notice a nice woman with her three daughters walking toward you. They get closer and you realize you know the woman because you taught one of her daughters at the school up the road. What do you do now? 


Extra answer: You take your son out of the stroller, make small talk with the woman and her kids, wait until they are out of sight and then let little man go in the woods. Phew!

Fun at Debbie Howard's

Christopher and I returned to Debbie Howard's Gym this morning for some crazy, fun open play. If this gym was open all day, Chris would probably stay and play the whole time. He loves it! And it is always good for a little boy to burn off some energy. Olivia met us there today and as you can see from the picture above, these two best friends had a blast together! When we left and I asked Chris what his favorite part of the gym was, he said the balance beam. Here he is doing it all by himself:

He was even brave enough to try the high balance beam while holding my hand. CJ did spend a lot of time running and jumping into the foam pit and I certainly got a nice upper body workout lifting him out of the pit! We tried a couple forward rolls, hung from the rings and, in the picture below, climbed over the horse and rolled down the slanted mat.

And just in case there was any excess energy after all this playing, we got it out by having Chris jump up and down on the big mat (see video!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRgN8OxLQcw

You could tell by the end of our play time that this little man was tired! We sat outside and had a nice lunch date at Noodles and Company and by the time we got home, Chris actually asked me to go to sleep. It was a good workout for the buds! 

Super Fun Playdate

So we had a wonderful group of mommies and kids here today for a playgroup at our house. Party at CJ's!!! Anyway, a group of us from Kindermusik decided to get together for the summer so the kids could play and do the things that two and three year-olds do. Today we had Olivia (with baby Elliot), Luca, Aidan, Lucy, and Emily (with baby, soon-to-be one year-old Connor) here for snacks and playtime and it was so fun! They all know each other very well so everyone gets along pretty well. The trick was getting Christopher to stop running around so he wouldn't trample any babies. You will notice in the picture above that Chris is impersonating a lion. That is because Olivia decided that her buddy needed to dress up as something fierce today! Meanwhile, the girls got to dress as princesses. Anyway, we had a blast and Christopher is still talking about Connor. He loves that little boy! Here are some pics from our day. The first one is with little Connor.

We had a wonderful time with all our friends and Christopher had such a good time that he is still talking about it in his bed, 45 minutes after I put him down for his nap. Hmmmm...

Quote of the Day

I dumped the clean and dry laundry out of the basket and onto the floor in order to fold it and Christopher starts rolling around in it, as he usually does and as I've learned to just, well, go with. As he was rolling around in it, he said, "I'm having a good old time Mommy!"

A Funny Story

So awhile back, my friend Randa told me a funny story about her daughter Maddie... One night, they were sitting at the table having dinner and Maddie happened to be, well, very gassy. Every time she was gassy, Randa told her to say "excuse me." This was happening quite frequently on this particular night and one time, Maddie forgot to say those magic words. Randa said (as we mothers always do to get our kids to use their manners) "Maddie, what do you say?" to which Maddie replied, preacher style, "Can I have an amen?" Hahahahaha! I enjoyed this story so much that I repeated it to other friends of mine several times. Everyone else that I told it to enjoyed it... including Christopher who, of course, overheard me telling the story to everyone and he loved the phrase "Can I have an amen?" So he started saying the phrase too, with all of his Christopher energy. This first happened several months ago and it hasn't stopped since.... So tonight we had Olivia and her parents over for dinner and Matt got Christopher going with his amens. Finally, after several "Can I have an amen"s, Olivia joined in on the action. Here is a little clip of the dinner time fun!

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

Can we do that again?

Every time we do something that Christopher thinks is fun, he asks (repeatedly! repeatedly!) "Can we do that again?" Today was one of those days. We went to the 24th annual Dog and Jog to support the Kansas City Humane Society. This was CJ's second time participating (third if you count when he resided in my belly) and he definitely appreciated it more this time than when he was almost 1. We signed up for the one mile run but according to our son, "Next time we will sign up for the run." Yes, that is a direct quote. Anyway, we got to the plaza and had some time to kill so the boys and Kasey did a warm up run down a side street...

Chris was not the only one who was excited for this race. Kasey was fired up! As soon as we stepped out of the car, she started pulling and wagging her tail like crazy. It was a fun morning walking through the plaza with all the doggies and as Christopher said, next year we will be running through the plaza with all the doggies!

Blast off!

In case you haven't heard, Christopher's latest interest is space travel. We have watched many a shuttle launch and landing on You Tube! Now that he has his very own space shuttle, Christopher has his own launches, directly from Kansas. Here he is pretending to be mission control...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRIRpGCN3I

Notice the fancy solid rocket boosters...

Virtual Snack

The above picture is what you get when a smile is requested from Christopher! What can we say, he was having fun in his sandbox last night...

In other news, we got to have an iChat this morning with Poppy, Elsie, Aunt Dabney, Uncle Peter, and a sleeping Bennett. It was so cute to have the kiddos talking to each other. Poppy didn't nap so we got to talk with her for a long time. Chris was very excited to chat with little Poppy. The kids had virtual snack together too! Later, Elsie joined Poppy and Chris for snack and we got to see Bennett still napping in his crib. Here is the virtual snack:

It was so nice to talk with our Brooklyn family! Later on, we went out to run a few errands and came back to have a picnic out on the deck on this absolutely stunning day. Here are my boys getting ready to chow down:

We had a beautiful day enjoying the weather and Mommy and Daddy are going to escape for a few hours tonight while Chris has a date night with Ms. Kristin. Yay!

Swing Batter Batter!

Christopher showing his baseball skills...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUvoA9U443M

Baking

While we were waiting for Nico to come over to play this morning, Christopher and I decided to make zucchini muffins because Nico enjoyed them so much the last time we made them. This morning, Chris donned an apron that Great Grandpa Clyde made in the Navy during World War 2. Here it is:

Here is the little baker hard at work mixing the batter. Notice the look of concentration on his face in the second picture! That's his mixin' face!

While the muffins were cooking in the oven, Chris decided that he wanted to read Little Bunny Follows His Nose to Kasey because "it is about bunnies." Not sure how interested Kasey was, but buds really enjoyed their story time!

PS-I saw a great movie last night called "Forks Over Knives" and wrote about it on my other blog. Click on "Healthy For Life" on the blog list to the left to read my review and get out to see it!

Swimming with Luca

Ah, the dog days of... summer? Wait, isn't it still technically spring? Well someone had better tell that to Kansas because it is, once again, 95 degrees today. No problem for the buds though! We were off to the pool with his buddy Luca this morning to cool off. The boys had a fun time and Christopher is rarely happier than when he is in the water. We had a lovely time and Chris loves playing with Luca! Here are the boys relaxing after their swim:

After the pool, we had a nice lunch at Luca's house and some good play time in his nice, cool house. The boys played great together and we are so grateful to have met Luca and his family!

Fireman Chris and Science City

This morning, we ventured downtown to re-visit Science City. On our way in, we noticed that the Kansas City Firefighters Museum was open. Finally! Every time we've been down there it's been closed. Today, Chris was able to don their dress up uniform and "drive" his own fire truck--just his size! Here is Fireman Chris, ready to save the day:

Christopher's other dream job in life is pilot of the Space Shuttle. He'll have to hurry up though as the program will be ending soon. Anyway, Commander Daddy and Pilot Christopher brought the shuttle to a safe landing at Science City today.

Little man has always been fascinated with planes and for the past few months, he loves rockets too! We have watched many a shuttle launch from the You Tube archives. After visiting many of the exhibits at Science City, we got Chris his very own space shuttle to take home with him. He would be napping with it right now if it was up to him! Here he is...