S.J.

For those of you who did not previously meet Swim Jacket the Wolf (S.J. for short), he is a wolf that we brought home from our weekend at Great Wolf Lodge over Labor Day. C.J. and S.J. have certainly bonded over the past couple days so Chris decided to bring his new friend to the park to meet his old friend Olivia today. Here he is with S.J. swinging...

Lazy bones

What a life these two have! I mean, seriously... 

Correction

Okay, seriously, the doctors office must have been hallucinating. Christopher is not 42.5 inches tall. More like 40. We stood him up next to the measuring tape at Great Wolf Lodge to make sure he was big enough for certain slides and he still has a way to go. So maybe he'll run cross country instead of playing basketball...

Great Wolf Lodge

Well we all look like prunes on this fine Labor Day because we spent the last two days in the pools of Great Wolf Lodge! This was Christopher's first trip to the indoor water park/hotel/kids heaven and he had an absolute blast. When Chris first entered the water park yesterday, he was amazed at all the fun things he saw...

We spent the next two hours swimming in the pools, going down water slides, getting splashed, and floating down the lazy river. It was fun for all (and brought back memories of Action Park for Mommy and Daddy--c'mon Jersey readers, I know you've been to Action Park!). Finally, Christopher announced that he was ready to dry off so we went up to our room and got cleaned up for dinner. The restaurant was really fun; we got to eat in a pretend tent!

As dinner drew to a close, Chris reflected on his trip so far and talked about his favorite parts. Then he transformed into a wolf!

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

Once he became a wolf, he needed a wolf of his own to add to the pack so he got to stuff his own pet wolf (a la Build a Bear). He named his wolf "Swim Jacket" (don't ask) and S.J. proceeded to join us everywhere for the remainder of the vacation. 

After a proper treat of ice cream, we hung out downstairs in the arcade where Chris made his first attempt at playing skee ball. Let's just say he needs a little more practice! Then, before bed, they have a mass story time for the kids staying at the hotel that we attended. Many kids were in their PJs and brought blankets but we were such party animals that we didn't have time to change into ours. Here is Chris listening to the story...

After a "good" night's sleep, we were all ready at 9 AM when the pools reopened this morning for another few hours of water play. One of the highlights for Christopher of any swimming experience is wearing his life jacket (or swim jacket--do you understand now?). Here he is proudly donning a Great Wolf Lodge swim jacket.

There was so much to do and I think Chris would have stayed at the water park all day long if he could have! One of his favorite things was this huge bucket on top of this play structure that fills up every five minutes and dumps a huge amount of water on everyone. At first he was a little cautious but then he wanted to get right in the middle of the action with all the big kids! Also, there were some bigger water slides for older kids and adults. I wasn't sure if Chris would go with me but after a while, he said he wanted to go. We had to climb quite a ways up and then the two of us went flying down on the big slide (which, of course, also got really dark at one point). It was super fun! I think one ride was enough for buds though. This slide was more his style...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQoJMJrN150

All in all we had a great little Labor Day weekend trip and for once this week, Chris did not fight his nap when we got home. He was ready for some sleep!

Official

It's official. Christopher's full size bed is now put together and Kasey has a new bed to curl up on too!

Party Time!

Happy birthday to Christopher's friend Nico! Nico had his 3rd birthday party today and it was rocket themed, which made our child very happy. The kids had a blast playing in Nico's backyard. There was a bouncy house and a sandbox so Christopher was thoroughly engrossed in both of those things. We are so excited that Chris and Nico have become friends this year and we are looking forward to playing with him more in the near future.

Yesterday Christopher took a good nap and was in a singing kind of mood when he woke up. He really enjoys a Bob Marley song called "Trenchtown Rock," a song that his daddy really likes too. He especially likes the part that goes "groooooovin', groooooovin'." Here is Chris showing off his reggae skills...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfmkf5vdAtc

Big Kid

Christopher is becoming such a big kid, as you can probably tell from recent posts. A couple days ago, we said good-bye to the crib and moved Chris to his big kid bed.

Most kids I knew (myself included) grew up sleeping in a twin bed. Well, that would have been my preference for CJ but his crib converts to a full size bed so there you go. For the first part of the transition, we just put the mattress and box spring on the floor to see how he does. This weekend we'll put the actual frame together to make it official. But regardless, Chris loves his new sleeping arrangements and is telling everyone about it!

We also had Christopher's 3 year check up today and after hearing his numbers, Daddy can't decide whether to make him a goalkeeper, a center, or a pitcher! CJ's weight was 37lbs. (90%) which is really where it has stayed for the past year. His height was 42.5 inches (99%!) which blew us away. And do you know they actually do BMI for little kids starting at 3? Christopher's was 14.5 which is in the normal, healthy range. Crazy! We know Chris has some height running on both sides of his family so we'll see if this 99% thing continues. But our "little" man is certainly growing up!