Head Shoulders Knees and Toes...

This video was shot in the car after some serious playtime at Matt Ross Community Center today. Don't worry, we were not driving while filming! Yay Flip camera!

Another smiley day

Here is your CJ smile of the day. Aside from a few teething moments (as you can see from the finger far back in his mouth) and one or two "Hello, I'm almost two" moments, Christopher is a very happy boy. Now that he is not napping in the morning, we are always looking for something to do before our Kindermusik class on Tuesdays. Last week it was Toddler Time at the library, but he is still a little too wiggly for that. So now that the weather is nice, we are starting to sample the many wonderful parks that Johnson County has to offer. We met Olivia and her mommy at Antioch Park, which was a new place for us. What a terrific place! There were two huge playgrounds and a little "village" that the kids can pretend in. Plus there were multiple swings as well as a large pond full of geese and ducks. The other children were out if full force today too as everyone has emerged from their winter hibernations. It is truly amazing to see Christopher in action... and I mean action! He runs so much and has no problem running from location to location, regardless of how far away it is. I even have to run to keep up with him! It is no wonder that he eats as much as he does because he burns it all off within minutes. We were at the park for over an hour (a record for the Buds) and I was shocked that he didn't pass out on the way from the park to Kindermusik. The bonus was that he was pretty mellow and cuddly when we got to music class. All in all, we are very very glad spring has officially arrived!

Video Test

We have a new Flip video camera and we're testing it out with our laptop. The video is not of the highest quality but we're giving it a try to see if it works...

GO!

Here is how to play the game "GO!" (developed by C.J. Woglom):

STEP 1: Gather all available parents and dogs.
STEP 2: Make sure you have ample room to run at blazing speeds.
STEP 3: Hold arm up in the air, pointing your finger in the direction you want to GO!
STEP 4: Shout "GO!" as loud as possible and run run run, being sure to get parents and dogs to follow you.
STEP 5: Repeat as many times as possible, even if parents drop to the floor from exhaustion.

Variation: If you wear out your parents, grab old yet still cute bears, place them in a wagon and repeat steps 2 through 5.


Note: CJ is currently in negotiations with Nintendo to develop the Wii version of GO! Stay tuned for details.

Block Fest

This morning, we early risers went to the 8:30 session of Block Fest, a Parents as Teachers supported event. No, it did not include rock stars and pyrotechnic effects. Block Fest is a series of 7 block stations that children rotate through with their parents to explore and learn about different mathematical skills that can be taught with blocks. I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, blocks were just plain old fun. Now everything has to have a "learning purpose." But it was fun nonetheless. Chris was a little overwhelmed by the amount of children there at first. Then, after two diaper changes, he was ready to participate. Out of the many centers we visited, CJ enjoyed the big foam blocks and the unit blocks the best. A consistent pattern emerged at all the stations. Christopher likes to build things up and knock them down. (Demolition must be a boy thing because just about every boy his age was doing the same thing). Even the small blocks were not exempt.
He probably had the most fun knocking over Daddy's foam block structures. Sometimes, he would get really close to the blocks and act like he was going to knock them over, then stop himself and laugh as if to say "Psych!" He can be a real tease sometimes!

Trains!!!

"Hello, my name is Christopher... and I am a trainaholic."

Our boy loves trains. It's as simple as that. Apparently, this is a common phenomenon among the male toddler set and it holds true in the Woglom household. I don't really know how it started, but one day we put on "Thomas the Train" and the rest is history. Now, every time Chris sees a train, hears a train, or thinks about a train, he smiles.
Last weekend (in the midst of a "first day of spring" snowfall) we went to Union Station to visit the KC Rail Experience, an exhibit about (what else) trains! Even though the exhibit is geared toward adults, there were many opportunities for children to get involved. Here is Chris operating the switches. On the right, he is sitting in an actual replica of a conductor's station inside a real locomotive engine.

More than anything, though, Christopher loves Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas is a train character who lives on the island of Sodor and is very busy working with his other train friends like Percy, Gordon, and Henry. Anyway, it's a very cute show and has spawned an empire of related materials such as books, videos, and train sets. Being the suckers we are, Christopher now owns three books, a set of DVDs, and a figure eight train track complete with Thomas and two train cars. We got the tracks on Monday and he hasn't stopped playing with them since.

Somehow, the 6th Avenue Local ended up on the island of Sodor. Perhaps they were trying to revitalize their downtown.
Also this week, we have read a book called "Thomas and the Big, Big Bridge" at least 36 times if not more. Christopher requests it at nap time and bedtime as well as 4 other times during the day. When he wants me to read it, he says "big big." He also enjoys when I read it as he plays with the trains on his new tracks.
And (shhhh, don't tell CJ) in June there will be a "Day out with Thomas" in Baldwin City, Kansas, about 30 minutes from here. They have an actual train that looks like Thomas and the kids can ride on it, as well as participate in other train related activities. I can say with some certainty that we will be attending this event.

A Conversation

Mommy: Christopher, who do you have money on tonight? (Referring to March Madness starting).

Christopher: Me!

Spring break

You know, it's funny... Today at the grocery store, the bagger asked Christopher if he was on spring break (around here, the kids have spring break this week). My response was, "Are you kidding? Everyday is spring break for this kid!" But since it is officially spring break, let us fill you in on some of our activities. On Monday, Tristan came over to play for a couple of hours and the boys made themselves a little feast in the kitchen. As you can see, they invited the birds.
Then on Tuesday, we met Lahna, Liam, and Ms. Danna at the Ernie Miller Nature Center. In the opening picture of today's entry, Chris is looking out at the bird feeders they have set up outside the exploration room there. They even have speakers in the room so you can here the birds chatting away! While we were there, we went to a live animal presentation with a bunch of kids who were at the center for spring break camp. Christopher got to see a screech owl, a toad, and a black-footed ferret. He also learned about food chains, although I'm not sure how much of this information he actually picked up. (Ha!). After the presentation, we hiked outside on the beautiful trails there and saw a small turtle out for a stroll as well as a beautiful doe who was checking us out. Let me tell you about this kid of ours. He ran down the trails and he is fast! I'm not exaggerating when I say he must have run 3/4 of a mile and walked the rest. Unbelievable! Anyway, yesterday we hung out with Olivia and her mommy and the kiddos played a duet for us.

Ahhhh, they are so talented. It's so cute to see the two of them say hi and bye to each other now. Chris had a blast playing with Olivia's toys and visiting with her cats. Unlike Christopher, Olivia loves wearing hats. She is pictured below in her snazzy Dora the Explorer cap.

Throughout all of this, Kasey is on her eternal spring break as well and found herself a nice little patch of sunshine in the dining room to work on her tan.

P.S.--The Duren-Lubanski clan might recognize CJ's St. Patrick's Day shirt in the pictures where he is with Olivia. It's being handed down through the generations ladies!

For laughs...

Dear Christopher,

I would like to apologize in advance for any future embarrassment this video might cause you. However, it is just too stinkin' cute not to share with all of our followers! I promise to remove it from the blog (if you want, of course) when you are old enough to care.

Love,
Mommy

Pet World

I regret to say that I do not have any pictures to go along with our morning adventure so I will do my best to describe the experience... First of all, Christopher is pretty much done with his morning nap and this has resulted in fewer blog entries on my part. By the time he goes down for his afternoon nap, I either workout, shower and read or get things done around the house. And after a full morning of Christopher-ness, I sometimes don't feel like writing about the boy, as wonderful as he is. But I digress... Since Chris is done with his morning nap, we took a trip out to Lawrence to visit Pet World, a super cool fish and small pet store that Daddy located in his search for the perfect tank. Anyway, this place was like heaven for little CJ and when we entered the door, he booked for the fish tanks in the back. (Like father, like son!). There were tanks everywhere and one in particular caught Christopher's attention. It was full of rainbow fish and looked just like our tank downstairs. The whole time we were there, CJ kept going back to this tank and saying "Dad, Dad" as if to say "Dad, check this tank out!" Aside from the fish, this store had several enormous tortoises and there was a set of stairs and a kind of observation deck for kids to go on to get a better look. Chris liked this but he was more interested in climbing up and down the stairs than checking out the tortoises. He enjoyed the large red macaw and said hi to him. Then he had a chance to pet a small rabbit that I held (no we didn't bring Kasey). We also saw some snakes, tree frogs, lizards, bearded dragons, gerbils, and guinea pigs. And to top it all off, Chris nearly walked out with a tarantula! (It was in a small container, perfect for little hands). He also observed the Burmese python with interest, but I had to say "no" to that one, although it might make a good play toy for Kasey. Anyway, it was a fun morning and we all got our exercise chasing Chris around the store for 45 minutes. If they're hiring, we might have little buds fill out an application. It's time he started earning his keep around here.

Play!

Christopher says...

It's sunny out

And warm today.

What are we waiting for?

Let's go play!

Oh what busy days!

Grandpa Eric arrived yesterday and Christopher has been keeping him very busy! Fortunately, the weather has been nice so we've been able to make a couple trips to our local parks (more on that later). Yesterday morning, Daddy and Mommy took CJ to Little Monkey Bizness for some serious playin'. Chris had fun but he is going through a phase where he doesn't like it when any other kid comes near him on the equipment. It finally got so bad while we were there, that we had to leave after his third tantrum of the morning. I heard this will pass and I hope that is true! This morning, Chris took Grandpa (also known as "Pa") to Cabela's to see the big fish. Here they are looking at the catfish:
After wandering through the store to see the other animal displays, we discovered the boat and ATV section. Chris is a true Kansas boy and found himself a nice (blue, of course) vehicle that he can take on his hunting trips. He is still negotiating on the price though so we didn't actually come home with one today. But little man does look mighty fine driving it, don't you think?

Next we traveled to Fritz's for an early lunch. We were the first ones there! After our experience waiting last weekend, we wanted to make sure we got there before the crowd. At first, we were worried that there wouldn't be enough trains to keep Christopher interested but the place filled up quickly and he enjoyed a nice hour long lunch. All this activity made at least three of us very sleepy (not Daddy though!) and Chris ended up napping for 3 1/2 hours. When he woke up, Grandpa gave him a nice snack to fuel up for some serious playing at the park.

We visited the park next to the train tracks which was great because we saw two freight trains while we were there. Grandpa counted the cars and said that one had 135 cars while the other had 128! Chris was very happy to climb up the stairs (he just walks right up now holding the handle) and go down the slide... until the other kids got there of course! Sigh... Chris decided that he wanted to race us on the trail so we went for quite a walk/run. One day I think I am just going to let him run and see how far he will go on the trail. My guess is at least four miles at a 7:30 pace. Anyway, we had a lovely time playing outside (finally!!!) and came home for some dinner, more playing, and bedtime. Oh and P.S.-- Christopher is saying like 5 new words a day if not more. I can't believe the things he is coming up with! I guess we really need to watch what we say now, don't we?

Daily Smile

Now that you have had your "CJ smile" for the day, I will fill you in on some of the goings on in the like of Christopher. You might notice from the picture above that Chris got a haircut recently. Let me tell you--it took Mommy and Daddy to hold little man down during that whole ordeal. He was fine for the first 2 minutes and then it was all downhill. I have not seen him fuss like that in a very long time. (Note: Becky, our Parents as Teachers woman, told me today that around 18 months, kids go through a period where things make them fearful and haircutting is one of those things.) Fortunately, nothing was cut but hair and little buds looks pretty darn handsome. You will also notice that he is wearing short sleeves in the picture. That's because it is GORGEOUS here today and we spent much of the morning outside. In fact, I am planning to run with Kasey as soon as I finish this entry. Today we noticed that one of Christopher's 2 year molars has broken through. Yay! Finally, Christopher is so excited to see Grandpa Eric tomorrow! We talked about how Grandpa will fly to Kansas in an airplane and Chris pointed up in the sky. Then he found an airplane puzzle piece and was flying it around the room (seen here):
Okay, I need to go running now....