Best thing...

Just wanted to share the best thing Christopher is doing these days. First of all, instead of always pulling his hand away when I try to hold it, he actually requests to hold my hand (not all the time, mind you, but I'll take it). Well, when Mommy, Daddy, and Chris are altogether somewhere, he requests to hold both of our hands by saying "both!" He then happily takes both our hands, walks in between us and says "both" some more. We are going to enjoy those moments for as long as they last!

Crazy fun

It was a rainy afternoon today so after Christopher's nap, we had some crazy running around fun. Chris ran laps around the house, got thrown around by Daddy, and had us in stitches. Here are some highlights from the craziness...

Spinning!

We spent the evening with Dan, Mary, Tristan and several other friends. Chris played some major trains but finished off the evening spinning with Tristan...

Lenexa Parade

Christopher attended his very first parade today as our town celebrated Lenexa Community Days with an Independence Day parade through the "downtown." It was a beautiful day for a parade, although a little hot. Chris waved to all the floats and marchers as they passed by and really enjoyed the "Louie Louie Band," a hometown favorite! A holiday celebration would not be complete without the Eakin family, who joined us to watch the parade. What made the day especially cool was that our spot along the parade route was exactly ten feet away from the freight train line and we saw two huge trains go by while we were there! Needless to say, Chris was ecstatic. He could actually see the conductor waving to him. Chris really like the fire trucks and the Corvettes that revved their engines. We could have done without all the political soliciting, however. CJ proudly told them that he is an independent voter and will not be swayed by the candy they were handing out. Here are some pics from the rest of the day:


And here are my wonderful boys... Daddy, behave yourself!

Busy Bee

So sorry for the lack of blog entries recently. We have been all over the place these last two weeks and updating the blog has taken a backseat... Last weekend, we went to a local train show where Christopher saw all kinds of cool model train set-ups. There was also a rep there from www.trainparty.com who has now supplied us with everything we need for a certain "about to be 2 year-old's" birthday party. (Shhh, don't tell CJ about all the Thomas supplies that are in the box on the counter!). Chris also has a new babysitter on the weekends named Ms. Amanda so they hung out while Mommy and Daddy went out to dinner and a movie, yay! She will also be here again tomorrow so we can go out twice in one week! This week, we met friends at Deanna Rose on two occasions, hung out with Liam on Tuesday and went to a different Kindermusik class Wednesday because we missed our Tuesday class. We also had the Johnson County Mothers and More family picnic Tuesday night, which was fun for all of us. CJ got to swing, play in the sand, eat a blue cupcake, and climb with the big boys while we looked on. If we have nothing planned in the afternoons, Chris and I will mosey on over to the neighborhood pool which has been pretty busy of late. We usually end up seeing someone we know and I get much needed advice about what to do with a toddler swimmer who wants to do everything by himself. (And today at breakfast he said, "Self please" when I tried to feed him his yogurt). The highlight of our days, recently, has been running around the house with Chris and Kasey. Last night, we were all in stitches as Chris would run, I would hide and then he would try to find me. Here is his reaction when he found me hiding behind the bed.

Videos!

Here are a couple videos from our trip to New York/New Jersey. I'll start with my favorite--Aunt Dabney pushing Christopher on a swing at the park in Dumbo.

Okay seriously, is that not the best place in the entire world to swing? If we lived there, I would take Chris to those swings every day, rain or shine! We also have some exclusive video of Bennett and Poppy getting their exercise on their play mat. Once Bennett gets going, I think he might give Chris a run for his money!

Finally, here is Grandpa T playing the accordian and Christopher trying to play along with him. One cannot complete a song uninterrupted when little CJ is around!

Zoo Train

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!