Singing, Coloring and Socializing

This video was taken a few weeks ago when AJ was eating dinner.  So, maybe we should be focusing more on polite eating habits, but for now, talking/singing/laughing with your mouth full is still somewhat acceptable.  My favorite part is toward the end where AJ does his fake "ho-ho-ho" laugh. :)

Much more recent are these cute pictures of AJ coloring. He has been requesting his crayons for a few days straight now, sometimes more than one session per day!  He knows how to say Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Brown and Purple so far, and we're working on Orange, Black and White.  AJ's favorite thing to do with the crayons is to make dots and narrate them, "Dot! Dot! Dot! Dot!!!) He can also make great circles, and both the dots and the circles are visible in the shot of the picture. He is also less interested in eating the crayons lately, but still needs to be reminded not to eat the green crayons. I don't know why he only still tries to eat the green ones, but I am telling myself it's because he likes green veggies so much!? ha!

This past week, we watched AJ's friend Emilio for a couple of hours, and the boys played so well together!  They were so funny.  Emilio's a couple months older than AJ and the age difference is becoming less and less noticeable as they get older.  They are pretty much on the same page now, as you can see from this cute little clip. Enjoy!

Andy's Work Picnic (AJ plays "bags")

This weekend Turner Construction had a family picnic for the employees and their families at Discovery Day Camp in Indian Creek (a small Northern Suburb).  Walking in from the parking lot, it didn't look like much so I was glad Andy had thought to pack a bag of AJ's toys. But when we got to the party, we saw that this place was great! In addition to the food and drink, they had a balloon artist, face painter, stage with a DJ and contests, playground equip., moon bounce obstacle course, basketball, tennis, soccer, croquet, horseshoes, tether ball, etc. You name it, they had it!  But the game that AJ seemed the

 most interested in was "bags". He really loves

picking these beanbags up and walking around with them, tossing them, dropping them into the hole and stealing them from people already playing the game. Here are a few pictures of him in action, and one cute one of father and son. They had fun playing together and we were cracking up. AJ was very happy to run around this huge place and made friends with several of his dad's co-workers.

The video at the end of this post is from the playground equipment where AJ loved to repeatedly go down this orange tube slide! Oh, what fun!

AJ Voices His Opinion

AJ's been doing his research over the past couple weeks. His opinion is in...

Brookfield Zoo

I took AJ to the Brookfield Zoo last week with a free pass I got in the mail. Since Kim has a family membership, she and my mom (Omi) met us there along with Kyra and Grayson.  It was a really nice, warm, sunny day. Perfect for seeing the animals!

When we got there, we decided we'd head over to the petting zoo portion. Along the way, we saw the bears, and they were active! Unusual, I guess, since they tend to sleep and lay around a lot normally. The polar bears were walking around, and here is a short video of the brown bear walking over to eat his "salad".

When we got to the petting zoo, Kim's membership got us all in for free (thanks, Kim!) and the kids loved running around. We did get them both to sit still for a few minutes to watch part of the duck presentation...here's the duck and a shot of my family checking her out. She walked up a little ramp and jumped right into this little pool, while the presenters talked about how ducks walk, swim, etc.

Kyra and AJ sat pretty still and watched for a bit, but then AJ decided running and climbing beat out watching the duck, and we moved on. We'll have to learn more about ducks next visit. AJ can also say "duck", but we are still working on "quack".

AJ worked his way around the petting zoo and found sheep, goats, geese, pigs, horses and cows. Sometimes now when he sees these animals in his books, he says, "zoooo!" Maybe I have to take him to a farm soon.  I can remember growing up and driving past farms with cows and horses pretty regularly, but I don't even think that's so common anymore in the suburbs, and definitely not in the city!  Our next big stop was the area where you can pet and brush the goats. Ohh!  What fun!! AJ loved touching the goats, and did pretty well at being gentle.  These goats were also VERY tolerant of the kids, probably why they were there in the first place.

AJ really liked the brushes too, but not so much for actually brushing the goats.  He was more interested in taking them out of the buckets and putting them back in, and a few times he tried to take the buckets too! Eventually we got him to see that other kids were using the brushes to brush the goats, and he did start to participate. In the meantime, he also brushed himself (gross!) on the head and across the tummy. Good thing they had a station with Purell right outside the goat pen. He can't be the only toddler to ever do that, right? hahaha.  In this pen, they also had chickens and roosters, who were sometimes brave enough to enter the open area. You could say they were "cocky"? (sorry, bad joke!)

After our fun in the petting zoo, we walked around a little more and Kim wore Grayson in the sling to take a nap.  I thought I'd include a shot of her doing so since I am proud of her for doing it a bunch of times now after I only showed her how once (and it's not quite as straight-forward as the Bjorn). Good job, Kim!

We headed to the other side of the Zoo and ate our lunches in an open air enclosure. It was great since we could put AJ and Kyra into highchairs and stay out of the sun. I have to say it was a relaxing and uneventful lunch!  How nice.

On the way out, we saw real elephants and Kyra got to push the button and run in the fake elephant's water fountain spray.  Good thing the spray was on a timer and we were able to lure her away with a promise of the Carousel, or she might have stayed there all day! AJ and Kyra both chose the Panda on the Carousel, so luckily for us there were two of them and we could please them both. We had a fun ride and Omi stayed on the sidelines to take pictures. 

AJ was falling asleep in the car before we even got out of the parking lot. What a busy day!

First Flight for AJ and JP

My friend Melissa and I took our sons to Walsh Park a few Fridays ago...the forecast called for scattered showers, but since it was sunny out, I disregarded the weather report as usual, and AJ and I rode there on our bike. (I still need to post about the bike-riding!!  Before the biking season is over, I promise!) It was a nice, easy ride and Melissa and JP were waiting for us when we arrived.  The weather was HOT that day, but the boys didn't seem to mind. AJ loved all the different equipment, and a really cool "slide" made up of rolling tubes that you slide down (imagine how boxes might roll down on a conveyer belt). He also really liked this little 2-seater airplane!  

He was having a ball steering it and touching all the "controls".  JP is just about a year old and he liked the plane too, but was really more interested in AJ! Here are a few shots of them interacting. They were so cute!

Then, as the boy's cheeks started to turn red, Melissa and I decided that it was just too hot to eat our picnic at the park as we had planned.  Though it was getting cloudy, it was about 90% humidity and we were all getting overheated! So we walked over to her place and had lunch in the A/C.  Well, AJ proceeded to take control of all of JP's trucks, and since he is taller and faster, he was successful.  Poor JP kept crawling over to AJ to touch him and/or the trucks, and AJ would yell, "noooo!!" and run the other way. It would have been funny to me if it were not my kid.  So I decided it was time to go, and AJ was very sad to say bye-bye to the trucks, but such is life.  Hopefully JP was not scarred by the experience and will invite us over again someday. 

 We hopped on the bike to head home right as it started to drizzle...and then sprinkle, and then RAIN!  By the time we were at Western (almost home) there was thunder and a full-on downpour!  I was soaked through, and AJ kept exclaiming, "wa-wa! wa-wa!".  He seemed to be fine with it though, and since it was so warm out, it did feel kind of good.  When we got inside, we both changed into dry clothes and had a nice nap!

Our Little Singaporean

When our friends, the Longs, went to Singapore for a visit to check it out before making their 2-4yr move, they had a gift for AJ upon their return.  They bought him a precious little outfit, a blue traditional shirt and pants set. It may have fit him then, but the pants were supposed to fit like capri's I was told, so we waited for our son to get (even) bigger before trying it on.

Here are a few shots of AJ dressed as a Singaporean (or at least as a good friend of an ex-pat living there!).  He liked touching the fabric, which is silky and feels different from all of his cotton clothes, and he also thought the frog-style buttons were fun. He was on the move, though, so these shots were the best I could do! The second one shows AJ running around with the shoe he wanted to wear with the outfit.  I failed to convince him that his brown leather sandals were a better choice. ;)