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