Pool, pool! Swim, swim!

Our child is a fish! When I was nearing the end of my pregnancy with little CJ, I did a lot of swimming around the same time of day, several days a week. There was a nice old man who usually ended up in a lane swimming laps near me and he said, "That baby is going to come out swimming like a fish." He couldn't have been more correct. Christopher loves the water. The title of this entry is what he says every single time we pass the pool, see a pool, think about a pool, or make an obscure reference to the pool. In the picture above he is wearing the new suit that Grandma Jan recently sent to him as well as his super cool swimmies (since he wants to do it by him- "self please"). And below, as we were getting ready to go to the pool today, Christopher is flexing like his Daddy...
The swimsuit also came with a cute tee shirt that says "No shoes, No problem" which could easily be Christopher's motto for the summer!

After spending a fun morning playing at the park with his friend Lucy (from Kindermusik), Christopher took a great nap and was busy in the backyard. Notice the utter curliness of his hair and you can understand the humidity going on outside (don't worry east coasters, we're not complaining... we know how ungodly hot and humid it's been by you!). Here is the buds standing on top of the world (otherwise known as the rock wall)!
Chris and Kasey, always the best of friends, love investigating together. He is also a big help when it comes to watering the flowers. Notice the top notch watering can from Target!


And after all his hard work outside, Christopher has to check out his "do" in the mirror to make sure it is curly enough for his liking...

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.