The Syrup State

We went to Vermont with out neighbors over the weekend. As we were driving there we were talking about what we knew about the state. We determined that was about nothing. Ben said he thought it was the syrup state- you know, because of the maple every thing. I'm not quite sure that's right, but I still don't know what the state theme is.

We had a wonderful vacation. Our neighbors have two little girls that are close to Christopher's age. It was so fun to see him interact with them. It was a long drive, especially for the LG who is rarely in the car. We left Friday after work, along with the entire city. We were stuck in traffic for a long time. I pulled out all of my tricks to try and entertain him. Here I was taking pictures and then showing them to him. I caught him in action rubbing his eyes because he was so tired. He did finally go to sleep, so the last half of the trip was pretty peaceful.

We were staying right on the lake, so we had lots of fishing time. We took Christopher out on his first boat right on Sunday. He did well considering he had to stay in one spot for most of the time we were out and had to wear a big life jacket. Poor kid, every time he tried to walk he would either fall forward or back because he couldn't keep his balance in the jacket.
Here he is with a fish Dad caught. Note the camo sweats, my uncle and aunt from Ohio got them for him. Starting him young!

We tried to go to an apple festival, but it was over before we got there, so we went apple picking instead. It was lots of fun.

Christopher picked them all for us, with a little height help from Dad.

I was so proud.

We had an amazing vacation. We're so lucky to have such great neighbors to let us tag along on their trip!

15 Months

Christopher had his 15 month check up today. He's doing great. He was surprisingly better during the weighing and measuring this time than last. The nurse was so smart and gave him a couple of tongue depressors to play with. You know how he loves sticks. He weighed 21# and 11 oz which was in the 15%- moving on up from the 10% that he was in at 12 months when he weighed 19# and 4 oz (sorry for the details, I just want to remember these things and I haven't written them anywhere else). He was 32 & 1/4" which was 80%. At 12 months he was 31".

Dr. Julie went through the normal milestone questions with us. By the way, the words he knows so far our Ba for ball and ba ba for bottle, mama, dada, dog, light, and wawa for water.

When she got to asking us if he could scribble I said I wasn't really sure because I knew he would just put whatever writing utensil I gave him in his mouth. She then preceded to tell me a story about a girl she knew who's daughter ate a box of crayons without her knowing about it until she started pooping a rainbow. I laughed, but thought how could you let your kids eat crayons? You probably know what's coming... Yes, so I bought the LG a box of crayons on the way home. When we got home I let him color. Of course he just tried to chew on them most of the time. I wouldn't let him, he got upset, end of coloring (I thought). I was packing up for our vacation that's coming up and left Christopher in his room for about a minute. He was pretty quiet, so I went to check on him. He was in the corner with a completely blue mouth. As soon as I walked in he opened his mouth and bits of blue wax just poured out of it. The stinker had snuck a crayon! At least I had just had the conversation with Dr. J to know it was "safe" for him to eat. I cleared out as much as I could and made him brush his teeth and drink some water. I think I'll have some fun diapers coming up soon too.

Unfortunately I was too shocked to take a picture of the LG covered in blue. Here are some pics from our Long Island City trip we just took with Michelle and Max.

Melts my heart

We had a great day yesterday. Conan took me to get a Smithwich in the afternoon- a famous ice cream sandwich cookie that's amazing. Unfortunately we left one under the stroller and remembered it a few hours later when it was liquified.

On the way home we took Christopher to the playground. The LG decided to be the cutest thing ever. He started giving kisses through the bars on the bridge. I could barely stand how adorable he was. Don't worry, when he got home he went right back to the good old Christopher we all know and love. He went straight to the bathroom with the stick he had taken from outside and tried to throw it in the toilet. Gotta love my little boy!

Katana

I had to say goodbye to the good old Katana cell phone today. It survived being left on a Metro bus, left in the St. David's parking lot and then found miraculously at Highland mall a few hours later.

Unfortunately, it could not survive the LG. After he dropped it about 500 times, it stopped ringing and I decided it was time for a new one. When we were at Radio Shack I was letting him play with one of the model phones. I was telling the salesman that they should sell them for the babies. He was so nice and found one for the LG in the back. I thought it would distract him from my new phone. Not so much. It lasted about 2 minutes until he figured out it wasn't real. Then I got the point and grunt for my new phone. I think his favorite thing about electronics is to drop them until they fall apart and mom has to put them back together again. Stay away from my new phone, LG!

The Greatest Show on Earth

Over the weekend we took Christopher to the circus. It was quite a trek to get there, 20 subway stops out to Coney Island, but it was definitely worth it. We stopped at the famous Nathan's for hot dogs first. Here's the LG by the sign while we were waiting for Dad to get our order.Ok, this is just a photo op. I know hot dogs are a choking hazard. We cut it up in little pieces before he ate it. Unfortunately for dietitian Mom he was a big fan.
Here we are before we went in. Christopher didn't even know what was coming.
We walked into the tent and there were bright lights, clowns, and elephants. Here he is pointing to the elephant.
He wasn't so sure about the snow cone in the clown mug. We let him have a bite, but it was way too cold for him.
During intermission, Dad decided he needed a souvenir. He had to decide between the sword...
And the crazy light up wand.
Of course he picked the lights.
Here we are on the way home. We let him stay up way past his bedtime, but he did great. I think we all had a great time. We decided the Big Top is going to be our new summer tradition.