Fun at the Park

This is long overdue, but a few weeks back I decided to take John to our neighborhood park. I've driven by there 1,000 times, but I don't know why I hadn't realized that he would LOVE to go and play there. So, we took a special trip over there one day when it was still warm outside. He was definitely overwhelmed right at first, there were so many fun things to play with. He of course went straight for the flowers....all these fun slides and swings and he wants to play with the flowers. Oh well, admiring nature is a good thing! :)

While we were out there, some older kids went to the splash park area and turned the water on. It mainly just has little streams of water that come up from the ground and some buckets that fill with water and tip over. Well, our little Johnny Boy made a beeline for the water and wanted to play in it so badly. I wasn't quite sure what to do...he was in regular clothes and I didn't have a towel. But if you had seen his excited little face and eyes full of anticipation, you would have done the same thing I did. Stripped him down of his shirt and shoes and let him run through the water. :) He had SO MUCH fun...just couldn't get enough of the water. He was quite curious at the holes the water was coming out of, so he would stick his finger in it, which of course caused the water to spray everywhere, and then laughed hysterically. :) That's my boy! I knew it was time to leave when his soggy little diaper was practically dragging the ground! So we eventually had to leave the water playland.

Anyway, it was a wonderful day at the park and we had several more of those outings. The first picture is him after we left the park and got back into the car...is that a happy face or what??? Notice the lovely wet hair...and did I mention that mommy became the human towel for him? :) I did remember a towel and swim trunks the next time. Stay tuned for more of those pictures.

Clowning Around With Mommy

I'm sure by now you would all be shocked to hear that John and I act pretty silly when we are home together. I know..I know...who would ever think that I would sing silly songs, make fake sneezing noises, or anything goofy like that. Well, the other night, we were playing around in his room, and I always have my camera handy just in case something funny happens. Well, John is evidently getting more used to cameras, when I would go to take a picture, he would make this BIG smile and I would start laughing and so would he. So, I took some candid photos...even tried to do a shot of both of us while holding out the camera...his smile captures it all...that's his new "say cheese" for the camera look. I just thought it was adorable and had to share....you'd thinnk we were a bunch of clowns or something! :)

Mmmmm...cotton candy!

While we were at the state fair, we introduced John to cotton candy for the first time. :) He was a little skeptical at first....he wondered what the pink fluffy stuff was that we kept shoving in his face telling him to eat it. So, he took a little bite and then WOWSERS...he realized this stuff is pretty good! He started eating it and taking big chunks of it at a time...quite delicious! It's amazing how fluffed sugar and pink dye can be good....but there's something fun about eating cotton candy at the fair...not that I had any or anything! (wink..wink).

First trip to the Texas State Fair

We took John to the Texas State Fair and boy did he enjoy it. His favorite part was the petting zoo area. They had so many different types of animals...goats, sheep, buffalo, ostriches, and the list goes on and on. John was definitely partial to the goats...we kept having to take him back to those. We had a little cup of food (that you had to buy of course) and we would lean down and give the animals some to eat. John was a little leery at first, but when he realized they were sweet little animals, he dove right in and wanted to help out. I realized when we were there that that the only real animals he had seen were our two yorkies...so seeing all these different animals was definitely new and exciting.

The family picture we took shows how interested he was in the animals...we could not get him to look at the camera...go figure. Another "fun" moment was when Barry was feeding food to the ostriches...did anyone know that these birds are like vultures??? Barry held some food out and that bird's beak came down so quick and fast that Barry didn't have time to react to the pecking giant...good thing he didn't get one of his fingers! Seriously...those birds are vicious...so we quickly moved our way past the cannibalistic birds and went back to the sweet baby goats that John loved so much. :)

By the end of the day, John was sound asleep in his stroller...passed out from all the fun and excitement...and maybe the belly full of cotton candy. :)

Just a typical afternoon....

I thought I would just write about a typical afternoon when mommy picks up John from daycare...I'm sure most homes do these things. Well, it starts with me picking him up from school...which he is usually sitting in a seat at the table (it's a big table with seats down in the table so they don't fall out or anything)...well, my little boy is always in the same seat...and no, it has nothing to do with that being the only chair with a seat belt and John has been known to stand up in his chair and try to stand on the table. Really, it's just coincidence that he's always in that chair. Now that I have that clear, mommy walks in the door and his lower half always starts jumping up and down but can't quite do much since he has that lousy seat belt on him...we need to have a talk with the teachers on keeping my poor boy so restrained! Well, once mommy rescues him from the chair, he then immediately starts waving and chanting "bye bye" to the teachers before mommy can get her chat on. I don't think John quite realizes how impossible it is for mommy to walk in a room with other ladies and then turn around and say goodbye. What if I miss some great talk about the sale that is happening at Banana Republic or the awesome shoes they just bought at Dillards...this is some serious stuff here!

Well, after picking him up from the classroom, we proceed to head out of the school..although this takes awhile. John likes to point at all the stuff along the way which includes the pictures on the wall, the Halloween decorations hanging in the hall, the door that leads to the outside playground, the lighthouse decoration in the front of the school, the fish tank, and the Frankenstein that's at the front door. Then, when we get outside, we go see the Halloween decorations out there, the many trees in the front, and sometimes even a swift walk by the huge bushes. Who knew there was so much interesting stuff from his classroom to the car? Then of course when we get in the car, he wants to play the "stiff back" game and make it impossible for me to get him in the car seat...no wonder it takes me 30 minutes to pick him up and drive the 0.2 miles to my house! :)

Now, the real fun begins...once we get home, John starts getting all excited because he can hear the dogs barking. So we make a beeline for the back door, mommy turns off the alarm, and he heads towards the puppy room. This used to be the laundry room, but they seem to have claimed ownership! John will bend down to their crates and try to open the latch and then mommy helps so they can come barrelling, and I do mean barrelling, out of there. John then chases them to the backdoor where I let them out to potty. After that, we head to our closet so I can change and put on some frumpy, oops, I mean comfy clothes to hang out with at home. Come on...sweats and a t-shirt that's too big is way cool! :) While I get dressed John works on finding all the little treasures in the closet. So far he's encountered golf balls, water bottles, an empty shoebox, mommy's flip-flops, a swim cap, and a few other crazy things he loves to run off and play with. After I finally catch him and put away everything, we then head to do some real bonding time since none of that really counted. ha! :)

Well, yesterday the joy of the afternoon came when we pulled out something to drink. John was begging for juice, or should I say "jish" and so I pulled out this little Tigger drink thing he has and filled it up. He was loving drinking out of it and decided he should share with the puppies. (hence the photos below). I thought the first one was great in showing how he downs that juice....big boys are tough if they drink from their Tigger cup right??? :) Then, once he took a drink he decided Sal should have some too...although Sal was a little uneasy about Tigger staring him down like that.

After juice it was snack time. Well, mommy was hungry so she grabbed an apple and John decided he needed some of that too. I began eating on it and he was making all sorts of sounds for me to share, so I let him bite into it and he LOVED it. He really enjoys eating "big boy style" so we chomped on it together. Once we finished our apple, the remainder of the evening included playing with cars that play songs like Rock Around the Clock so we could shake our booties to that....then threw balls around the house and chased some from the dogs....read several books....pulled everything out of the toy box....climbed under the kitchen table like it was a fort....played in the dog food....found fun ripped paper in the trash can...climbed on the couch and giggled as mommy chased him back and forth....and ran around the house with balloons scaring the dogs! This doesn't even include bath time and all the fun that comes with a bubble bath! Whew....what an afternoon...but it's just a typical afternoon...RIGHT????

Who Knew?

Who knew that the simple task of sliding shoes down a slide could be so fun?? Yesterday, I took John in the backyard to play on his climber. He likes to climb up the slide, but couldn't quite do it with his slippery shoes on, so I removed them and let the monkey go. He climbed up as usual, acted all proud and then turned around to go back down the slide. After several times of going up and down the slide, I thought it was time to put the shoes back on and do something else. Well as I was putting his shoes on, he started laughing and trying to kick them off. This eventually lead to one sliding down the slide and he thought that was so funny. Hey, wait a minute...I thought mommy was the hilarious one...not shoes!!! :) Anyway, the shoes falling down the slide became a great game and he loved enduring that over and over.

Why is it that you can give your child a brand new toy that you spent a considerable amount on because of the flashy lights and crazy sounds and they will play with it for about 5 seconds and be bored. But give them a $5 pair of shoes and a slippery surface and they are good to go for at least 30 minutes!! I've been contemplating filling all the toy bins with kleenex boxes, remotes, tupperware, ripped pieces of paper, sports bottles, toilet paper rolls, and q-tips...all of which are more entertaining and fun than actual toys!

Crazy sock day...oh boy!!

Yesterday was "crazy sock day" at the daycare. The kids were supposed to wear fun socks to school....seeing that it's not very easy to find "cute" socks for a boy, I was thinking he would have to wear his "crazy" tan socks I just bought him. Ooh, he will be the talk of the daycare with those! Ha! Well, over the weekend, we went in the Life is Good Store and lo and behold they had some cute boy socks in there, and they were even on sale. SCORE!! So, I bought these precious socks...the motto for them is always looking at the glass half full...and in this case, it's looking at the sippy cup with milk half full. :) John had a hoodie earlier this year with that symbol on it, so I thought the socks were super cute. I just wanted to share. :)


This is John the morning of going to school, doesn't he look so excited for crazy sock day? Ok, maybe he just looks like "hey mom...thanks for the great socks, i promise I won't pull them off within 10 seconds of being at school and then flail them around the room...seriously....don't I look innocent?" :)