All in a morning's work

You might be asking yourself, "I wonder what Christopher does in the morning between the time he gets up and the time he goes down for his morning nap..." Well, I am here to give you the answer. Aside from eating a hearty breakfast and usually going for a walk with Kasey (weather permitting) our boy is on the move--working, exploring, playing, and training... Once he is sure all the neighbors are up and at 'em (not everyone can be an early bird like our little man) Christopher sets to work, tidying up the mulch and mowing the lawn. After all, if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself!
Next, Chris helps Mommy (who is not so big on seasonal decor) and selects only the best of the pine cones from our outdoor collection for a fall/winter pine cone basket to be set out for the holidays. Just so you know, the cones must be taste tested as well. Pretty soon, it is time for our little man to fit some big training in before we go downstairs to play. After all, the NYC marathon is coming up! Today he only ran 5 miles, but you can bet he will be fitting in at least one long run this weekend. Someone has to train around here.

When we go inside, Christopher (multisport athlete that he is) works on strengthening his throwing arm. Sorry Daddy but it looks like he will be throwing with his right arm after all. We're not quite sure which sport he was training for this morning (baseball or football, possibly javelin throwing), but judging by the stance he is in, I would go with football. Can you say Christopher Manning?
Finally, after more playing, CJ gives a big stretch and a yawn that lets me know it is time to head upstairs for a nap. After so much activity, this little boy needs a man-size nap!

Back to normal

As wonderful as this past triathlon season has been for both Mommy and Daddy, Christopher is very excited that it has come to a close. (After all, it is now football season and there are many good games to watch!). Today was the first Saturday in a looooonnnnng time that we didn't have either a race to go to or a multiple-hour ride to do so we celebrated with a pancake breakfast. I'm sorry to say that no chocolate chips were involved (I still need to go to the grocery store) but they were good, nonetheless. This being CJ's first pancake experience, he decided to shove all the pieces in his mouth at once, hence his overflowing mouth below.
Our little man was very pleased with his flapjacks but was disappointed that there was not more sugar involved... After a mega morning nap, we packed up the car to go to Deanna Rose, a local farmstead that we went to earlier in the summer with Maddie. Today was way more fun because of the fact that Christopher can now walk and get around really well. Building on last week's zoo experience, Chris was fascinated by the animals he saw--goats, ducks, prairie dogs, peacocks, cows, chickens, you name it.

The best, though, was when Christopher saw the ducks. He says a good number of sounds and several words but his favorite sound is "K." Well, when he saw the ducks today, he said "Kak, kak, kak."
After seeing a bunch of the animals, Christopher requested some climbing and sliding. The farmstead has many different little playgrounds but the one we found was a perfect size for a tiny toddler.
And of course to the shock and horror of this former early childhood educator, Christopher (like every other kid I ever taught) enjoys climbing up the slide rather than the stairs.
When we returned home from Deanna Rose, Christopher was so excited to tell Kasey about all of the other four legged creatures he saw, as you can tell from the picture below.
Kasey needed some definite alone time after that little wrestling match. And as if the pancakes, ducks, and farm were not enough for Lil' Buds, he is going to spend the evening with his favorite babysitter, Ms. Kay while Mommy and Daddy go out to dinner and a movie. We are going to check out "The Informant" with Matt Damon at the fork and screen we did that last time we saw a movie (you can't get confused and say, "Wait which movie?" We only see two movies a year!). Should be fun!

Places to go, people to see

If there is one comment I've gotten repeatedly this week about Christopher, it is the shock and amazement of people when they note that this little boy runs everywhere! For example, when we are playing in the house, he will sit with me in the living room then hear Kasey drinking from her water dish and run run run over to where she is. Then he runs to the front door to look outside. Then he runs back to me. The other day at Kindermusik, he was running all over the room from one person to the next. Miss Heather commented, "I love how Christopher runs wherever he is going!" I can't begin to imagine just where he gets this whole running thing from, but I hope it continues for a long time (although I have to say that I do feel much more tired at night these days because Chris is a little mover and shaker and, therefore, I am too)... Today we went over to Maddie's house and played at their neighborhood park. It was so fun because there were lots of other kiddos there and Christopher was very interested in watching the big kids do their big kid stuff. He and Maddie were both swinging away on the baby swings and sliding down the slides with their mommies. Here are some pics of the little ones:

Christopher also found this really cool hippopotamus that he decided to give a dental checkup to.

Our Ironman

After one of the fullest days of both Brian and Christopher's lives, Christopher is proud to say that his daddy finished his first half ironman today! That's right, 70.3 miles of swimming, biking and running that almost didn't happen due to the torrential downpour first thing this morning. More on that shortly... First, we all woke up rather early to prepare for the big day. Although Christopher is an early riser, 5AM is still a bit much for him. However, every time we wake him that early it is usually to do something fun so he didn't seem to mind. When we got to the transition area, Christopher began his own mini ironman and ran back and forth just about 50 times. When he decided to take a break, we managed to get a picture of him with Daddy:
As little man and I were walking around awaiting the start of the race, we suddenly noticed raindrops coming down with increasing speed. We ran for cover under an overhang and chatted with some very nice ladies who were helping me entertain CJ.
Initially, the race director was considering making the race a swim-run-swim because the bike course was seeming a little treacherous. Fortunately, they decided to go with the original race plan and only made the racers dismount at a point where the water was really deep on the road. Brian had an awesome swim time of about 37 minutes and we saw him get on the bike with a smile on his face. And then it was all a waiting game. When the athlete you've come to see has to bike 56 miles, a spectator has a bit of time to kill. Christopher and I did a lot of walking, a little eating, and an even smaller amount of napping in the car. Most of all, we tried to avoid this:
As you can see, there is a good reason why this race is called the Redman. And after several hours of rain, it was nearly impossible to avoid walking in the mud. Therefore, my running shoes are officially red and out of commision! When Christopher and I went back to the car for his nap, I removed all our shoes and socks, turned on the heat in the car and laid our apparel out to dry. It was quite a sight to see! After we dried off and napped a bit, it was back out to the course to look for Brian. Christopher did a lot of running in the rain, inspired by the athletes running past him. Because of the rain, I had to leave the camera in the car for a bit of the race. But when the sun came back out, we were able to retrieve it and snag some finishing pictures of Brian as he completed the race:

Speaking of the sun, Brian did become an official "Redman" after the sun finally decided to make an appearance and leave its mark on our triathlete. It was a truly inspiring and exhausting day for all of us and we are so so so proud of Brian's accomplishment!

I finished!!!

Just a quick update (from Brian). I know there were some issues with the online results, but I wanted everyone to know that I finished. There was a lot of rain (causing a delay), more walking than I had hoped, and plenty of pain. Not sure of my exact final time, but it was around 6:39. We'll try to update more later.

A trip to the zoo

Hello from the Oklahoma City Zoo! This morning, after sleeping in until 7AM and having a hearty breakfast at the hotel restaurant, Christopher was ready to venture out into OKC to see the sights. While Daddy was resting up at the hotel for his big race, we went to see the lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). Let me begin by saying that at the rate Chris is going, he is definitely going to have a job in the future that has to do with animals--perhaps a zoologist or a veterinarian. The boy is happy, no, ecstatic around animals! I think he laughed almost the entire time we were at the zoo. His favorites by far were the sea lion (who was playing peek-a-boo with our little man) and the orangatan who was hanging upside down in the window and knocking on the glass. But CJ is definitely his father's son--he absolutely loved the acquatic center and really didn't want to leave. After seeing so many animals, we decided to take a ride on both the carousel and the train. We had a very fun morning and even decided to forgo a morning nap because we had more important things to do. Here are some more pics from our trip:


And what trip would be complete without a little fun on the swing?
Later this afternoon, we will all be going to the Redman Expo where Daddy is going to check in and drop off his bike for the big race tomorrow. Daddy also has a meeting he has to attend, during which Christopher and I will be checking out triathlon gear for when our little man is ready for his first race. Do you think tri bikes come with training wheels?

Made it!

After five hours of prairie grass, cows, and a whole lot of flat, we have arrived in Oklahoma "City," Oklahoma. I put "city" in parenthesis because I've yet to see anything other than a whole lot of strip malls and chain restaurants. Perhaps we just haven't seen the actual downtown yet... The trip went well with Christopher sleeping for about 1 and 1/2 hours (not as long as expected) and fussing a bit, albeit only when I was sitting in the back with him. Once we got everything checked in at the hotel, we had to search for a quick dinner. Although Brian suggested Hooters because of its close proximity (just kidding! just kidding!) we ended up at On the Border, eating the world's fastest sit down dinner as it was well past CJ's bedtime... It is exciting to be here (really!) because you see a ton of cars with bike racks on the back and stickers proclaiming their racing accomplishments (70.3, 140.6, or simply "run."). Plus we are once again in a state we never thought we'd be in (and one of only 3 states my Grandpa Clyde never went to). We have no idea what tomorrow will bring other than Brian needs to get himself checked in at the expo in the afternoon. CJ and I may go exploring at some point because there is only so much you can do at the Crown Plaza hotel in OKC. Sweet dreams!

Road trip!

The Kansas chapter of the Wogloms will be departing in a few hours for our first midwest road trip since the birth of our little man. We will shortly be on our way to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for Brian's big race! That's right, on Saturday, Brian will be racing in his first half ironman (the Redman!) which, for those of you not familiar with triathlon distances, consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run. Christopher and I will be attending as the support staff for our lead triathlete and we will also be cheering hard for all the other KC Multisport athletes as our local group competes in the club championships at Redman. If you are interested, you can track Brian online Saturday as he races. Just go to the website www.redmantriathlon.com and look for a link that says "athlete tracker." You might be able to either plug in his name or his bib number, which is 571. We're hoping to update the blog while we are there so check back for more stories!

Dog Rules

Ho hum, here I am again waiting at the top of the stairs for someone to come pay attention to me. Anyway, I wanted to share my new favorite song with you all by Tom Chapin that pretty much explains my life. If you can't open it, I apologize in advance. My paws are still trying to figure out this computer thing. P.S. you might need to copy and paste the link below into a new address bar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDMjHS26jlk

Barack

You may have been following recent news that President Obama's ratings are falling among certain demographics, especially because of the health care debate. Well, this may be so... but not in this household among certain almost-14 month-olds named Christopher. I can't remember if I've ever mentioned in this blog the picture we have in our basement of the president that we received from Nancy for Christmas. If you are not familiar with it, here it is:
Well, every time Christopher sees this picture, he stops and smiles and/or laughs. Today he also happened to add in clapping! It has become so popular with him that wherever he is in the basement, as soon as you say "Christopher, where is Barack?" he comes running and laughing. And when I say running, he is literally running like a pro. For some reason Chris felt like going crazy today (as seen in the picture at the top of the post) and was running all over the basement cracking himself up. But most of all, he had a ton of fun stopping to check out his favorite president.


Also, check out the comparison between these two pictures. I think the first one was taken last November...

Mall rats

What to do on a rainy afternoon in Kansas when you've been trapped inside with a walking machine named Christopher... hmmmm... Eureka! You do what every good girl from Jersey does--go to the mall! That's right, upon returning from my afternoon out, with Kristen watching Little Buds, I found him awake and eating his snack. The clock said 4PM and all I could think was, "Man, if we have to stay in this house until 7PM (aka, "bedtime), I am going to go crazy." So we packed ourselves up and headed to the Oak Park Mall. We weren't really going to shop, mind you. First, we headed to this little enclosed play area where kids can run around and be crazy. Sounds great right? Well, apparently it's not enclosed enough because after CJ got comfortable, he headed for the exit. He was not running away from me (I don't think!); he was going for the adjacent carousel. Fair enough, I thought, let's go! Christopher got to ride one of the horses that goes up and down just like a big kid. He was even so cool, he held on with one hand (I of course held onto him with two hands). After our ride, we headed to the kids section of Barnes and Noble to play with the train set and check out the books. Chris was fixated on "Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear" and asked me to read it at least 4 times. Once our reading was done, we traversed the mall back to the car. I have to say, after walking past and through many stores, that I will finally be ahead of the fashion curve this season as everything is purple. That's right, purple is the color this year and I am now in style! At least 85% of my wardrobe is some shade of purple so I am covered. Now if I can only get Brian to wear that fabulous color...

A belated birthday gift

So we finally got around to buying Christopher his first birthday present from Mommy and Daddy. Yes, the scrapbook was our sentimental gift, but he will probably not get to enjoy that until he is a bit older. I do not expect a thank you note from our little man for this gift. However, I do expect a thank you note from Fisher Price for our part in keeping them in business during these challenging economic times. This little house (the front of which you are looking at in this picture) is yet another example of the genius that is Fisher Price. We have other toys from them including Christopher's original bouncy seat, the Playful Puppy, his bike from Grandma and Grandpa Woglom, the car garage from Dan and Mary, the glowing seahorse, the "borrowed from Olivia" zoo, and even the CD that we play 3 times a day for rest times. I have to say that this house is by far the most fun toy that we have acquired to date. It's got shape sorters, a talking mailbox, rolling house numbers, a ticking clock, a house radio, a mega light switch, etc. etc. It is battery operated so when he opens the door it creaks and says "open!" and when he rings the doorbell, it has a very fancy ring. The house even comes with a doggie dish that has bones in it (how did they know!?!?!). It has officially become our "when in doubt" toy, as in "when there is nothing else that will settle Christopher down or keep him entertained, bring him to the house! I love Fisher Price! Senor Buds has also been practicing getting in and out of his chair and he is quite the perfectionist (hmmm, I wonder where he gets that from). He will get in and out of the chair over and over again until it becomes second nature to him.


Shout outs: And now a new and special section of the blog I like to refer to as "shout outs." Good luck to all my grown up and kid friends starting school this week! You are all growing up so fast! Congratulations to my cousin Mary Jane for completing the Disneyland Half Marathon. Woohoo! Liz, the check is in the mail. :) Yay Michigan for stating the season off with a win. Go blue! Daddy we miss you and we're sorry you have to go to the home of the Red Sox for three days.

FOOTBALL!!!

Can you feel it? Do you smell the burgers on the grill? Can you hear those Ohio State fans boasting about how they're going to "win" again this year? Well, our little Christopher can feel all of these things and more. You might recall that CJ would be enthralled last year anytime football came on the television. For some reason, this sport, more than others, would capture his attention and make him very happy. Yesterday, we happened to be downstairs while Daddy had on ESPN and little buds was watching preseason football highlights and laughing. I said, "Christopher, do you just love football?" As if on cue, he said "Yeah." I don't know if he really meant to say it, but it was hilarious and perfect timing. Summer is officially over now that college football has begun.

Update: It appears that my little illness from last week was not food poisoning but was, in fact, a stomach bug. Christopher got sick all over his crib on Thursday morning and poor Daddy was very ill all yesterday (hence the 12 hour ESPN-fest). Chris recovered quickly and Daddy is still working on it today, but he is doing much better than yesterday. Wash your hands, people!

Start 'em young

What took them so long to get me playing hockey? Notice how I hold both sticks in the lefty shooting position. All the cool kids shoot lefty, right Sheryl? By the way, Mom, where are my skates?

Exploring

Christopher is a natural explorer. Whenever we venture outside, we never need to bring toys with us. Whether it is a leaf, a stick, or a rock, our little man will investigate it with all his might! Often, the object in question will also make its way into CJ's mouth which calls for some quick action from Mommy and Daddy. We have practiced this intervention so many times that as soon as one of us says "Yuck, yuck," Christopher takes the object out of his mouth. Of course we still have some practice to do on this, but at least he knows to stop on command. Below you will see some other pictures of Christopher's exploring adventures this afternoon... A funny thing happened this morning upon CJ's rising--funny if you like the topic of toxic waste! Chris slept until 7 AM this morning (I think?) which is quite late for him. When I finally saw him stirring in the monitor, I went into his room to get him out of bed and dress him. When I entered the room, however, something did not smell quite right. "Long story short" (that one's for you Liz!) Christopher had a major accident that required a morning bath. Yes, it was that bad. AND the pajamas and sleep sack were not salvageable. They just went into the trash with the diaper. There are some things that are not worth cleaning! Anyway, I was filling the bathtub and Chris was standing next to it in the buff, and what do you think he does? Go ahead, you know the answer. That's right! He pees on the floor. That was just the start of the day. We hadn't even had breakfast yet! Never a dull moment.