Is this January?

Three signs that winter is going to be mild this year... 1) Brian got snow tires on his car; 2) We bought nice boots for Chris, not the usual Target special; 3) Chris actually fits into his super cool red snow suit. Now let's be clear, I am not in any way shape or form complaining! 65 degrees on January 30th? Seriously? I will take it any day of the week. And so will Christopher! We played outside after school for well over 2 hours without coats on. We played for a little while by ourselves and then our neighbor Suzie and her son Braydon (who is just a few months older than Chris) came over to play in the sandbox and we, in turn, went over to play on their swing set. CJ enjoyed running around the backyard in his socks (which are now in the garbage--there was no salvaging them after he ran around in the pile of leaves that I never raked up) and playing with the other kids on the cul-de-sac. I wish I had some footage but Chris was moving too fast today to catch him!

Beans, beans...

Christopher has been sick the past couple of days and since we don't want to spread his germs, we've been looking for things to do in our house. Today, we ran over to Target and picked up some dry pinto beans so Chris can do some construction work with his trucks. He also decided to put his cars in with the beans and when they got "dusty" he brought them to the "car wash" to clean them off. Thus far, this has provided hours of entertainment for him! And thanks to Pinterest, I have been putting together all kinds of Valentine's Day activities for us to do together. We've been having a great time in all our craftiness!

Smile of the day

This is a good one...

Half Birthday

At breakfast, I was telling Christopher that today is his half birthday. After the questions about when he was getting chocolate cake, he began to muse about how he was growing bigger and bigger everyday. He told me that now we have to measure him every single day. Then he told me the following...

"Mommy, when you measure me all the time, I will grow bigger and bigger and bigger, and I will be as tall as Grandpa Eric and then I will need more leg room!" 


I love his observations!

Meet the Author

Christopher wrote his first book today! When I was teaching, I used to put together these little completely blank books that the kids could make up their own stories in. Well, we had some time this morning so I thought Chris might be interested in such a book. Coloring and writing is not really one of his first choices in activities so I thought this would be a good way to encourage him and so far, so good. It is called CJ's Picture Book and is filled with his own illustrations and a very simple text that he can "read." It fun to see what he actually can do. Here he is holding up a picture of himself!

This was super fun for both of us and I am looking forward to what our little author will come up with next!

Musings of a 3 year old

At breakfast...

"Mommy, is it cold in a rainbow?"

Artiste

So to change things up a little bit this semester, we signed Chris up for an art class with his friend Luca. It is at the Shawnee Civic Center once a week and it gives the boys an opportunity to play around with all types of art materials and projects. Last week, they made a penguin and this week Chris put together a cloud with raindrops and a rainbow. He really seems to enjoy it! In addition to an art project, each week they get to play with different things like play dough, blocks, and (today) rain shakers. Here are some more pics from today...

We've started a Wednesday tradition of going back to Luca's house to play after class since they live about 3 minutes from this place. Some of you know this, but in case you don't, Christopher is obsessed with Luca's dog Bailey. He was more than happy to pose with Bailey for pictures today, and Bailey was more than happy to be on the couch, which he does not ordinarily get to do!

Dawg

We love our doggie too!

Workout

Sometimes I get exhausted just watching Christopher move. Today we went to Sylvester Powell Community Center to play at their indoor gym and Chris did a workout of epic proportions! He runs, he jumps, he runs, he rides, and he runs some more. The boy, like most boys his age, never stops moving... Well I wanted to upload some videos of him participating in this activity but You Tube doesn't want to work for me right now. If it decides to shape up later, I'll put up some videos.

Winter Classic

Since Mommy and Christopher's favorite team was not represented in this afternoon's Winter Classic, we felt the need to represent.

I'll have everyone know that we did actually root for the Rangers this afternoon because we cannot possibly bring ourselves to root for a team from Philadelphia!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2012! We rang in the new year with our friends MaryAnn, Sheryl, Ally, and Julia by having a little Mexican fiesta at our house. Chris was excited to dress up in his holiday attire...

... and spent the day hanging out with his buddies, Ally and Julia.

With the exception of the youngest of the kids, we amazingly stayed up and made it to the midwest new years celebration and had a great time playing cards and making fun of Ryan Seacrest. Our friends headed out this morning to go back to New York and we will miss them so much! We all had a great time, especially Christopher who got used to having two big sisters around for awhile and Kasey, who got more total attention in a week than she has had in the past 3 1/2 years!