Yay Chris!!

So probably too much information for most of you, but I don't have any where else to write dates like this down, and this is pretty important...

Chris went pee pee in the potty yesterday!

Let the potty training begin! Any tips from seasoned Mamas would be greatly appreciated : ).

(No pictures on this post for obvious reasons.)

Happy Second Birthday Christopher!

Wow Christopher! What a year. If we thought your first year went fast, we had no idea what would happen in your second. I feel like we had your first birthday party, blinked, and now you're two.

This year has been so much fun. Words can not describe how lucky we feel to get to be your parents. We constantly look at each other and say, "he's such a good boy". (Not that you don't have your moments, but it's your birthday, so we're not going to go there today : ).

You are able to communicate so well with us now. Even if it's just two or three words put together, it is so much fun to know what's going on in that little head! Your favorite phrases? Wa wa, brr (the water in the pool was so cold, but please take me back); Daddy F wa wa, Elmo bar (Daddy fished in the water at the pond and I ate an Elmo bar); Daddy umb, Blackrock (Daddy took his umbrella to work at Blackrock). You always cheer Yay when we finish something, our water, a meal, loading the dishwasher. We hear Yay, Daddy, juice just about every morning.

You're starting to really play with other kids now. At the park yesterday, your friend Ava would give you hugs and you guys would both fall over laughing. It's so much fun to see you learn to play with your friends (and hopefully start sharing soon!).

We call you a little cheeser. When you want someone to smile, you get right in their face, tilt your head, and grin. Works every time. It's so hard to resist the Christopher charm. You love to dance. Anytime you hear any type of beat you start your moves. We've even watched you dance to the beat of the refrigerator running- of course Elvis is still your favorite! Jumping is your show off move. If you want anyone to be impressed you do your biggest one, and now you even do multiple jumps in a row.

You're starting to eat with a fork, and you love to make a mess at every meal. You would be happy as a vegetarian, but we're still trying to get you to eat meat. You do like hot dogs, in fact you ask for it at every meal. When we ask you what your name is, you reply "Hooot dooog". I never knew a two year old could have such a sense of humor, but boy are you funny.

You love to play. Everything can be turned into a game with you. You love taking baths and splashing all of the water out of the tub. You love to swing. You love to build the tallest towers you can. You love to read books (Dr. Seuss' ABC over and over and over). You love to go in the sprinklers. You love to ride the subway. You love to be tickled. You love to try to eat people's noses (don't ask me how that started!). You love to run to the opposite side of the hall when we get home so we have to chase you into the house. You love life. Never grow out of the way you live in the moment.

Now, bring on the 2's!! How much fun are we going to have this year? We love you so much. Happy Second Birthday LG!

Hugs and kisses,

Mom and Dad

Weekend in the Bronx (kind of)

Sorry for all of the posts at one time! After this I'm all caught up on pictures. I'm lucky Chris is taking a super long nap today.

A friend of ours had a run in her hometown a couple of weekends ago. It was a short train ride away, so we decided to go. Chris loves taking the train!

While it doesn't look like it here, he seemed to enjoy our walk (no way were we running with a stroller up those hills!). The town was just passed the Bronx and adorable. It had a cute town square and everything.

After the walk we found the nearby lake so Conan could go fish (we think legally :-) ). Christopher found the ducks. He loved looking at them in the water.

Then, the geese came out to see him. He was so excited to see the babies, until they came a little too close. I was surprised, but they came right up beside him. (No pictures of that, I had to rescue him!). He still asks about them, "Mommy, Daddy, baby ducks?".

The LG napped in the stroller while I walked him around the town and then we hopped on the train to go home. Until, the train stopped at the Botanical Gardens and we abruptly decided we needed to get off.

They had an adorable children's garden there. There were lots of cool plant structures like this one.

But Christopher was the most excited about the letters and blocks everywhere.

Chris just wasn't sure why he couldn't take the letters.

Success! He got out a little t. I'm not sure if you can see his face from behind the plant, but there was a major meltdown when Dad said no stealing letters from the Botanical Garden.

The nice ladies there talked me into getting a season pass there, and I talked my sweet husband into it, so you should be seeing lots of Botanical Gardens pictures from us this year.

Last day of class

Christopher's last day of class at our Y was a few weeks ago. I had resisted paparazzi-ing him there up until then, but when the kids all got in the boat together I had to get a few pictures.

Climbing out of the house.

Buds.

Pop goes Christopher!

Chris had so much fun taking this class. Now that it's done he says "Y?" all of the time, like when are we going back to the place where all we do is sing songs, play with fun toys, eat snacks, and climb on big blocks all while bubbles are being blown at us? I can't imagine why he likes it so much : ).

Wedding # 3 for the LG!

We took Christopher to one of Conan's coworker's wedding receptions a few weekends ago. The actual wedding took place in India, but the American celebration was amazing. Christopher loved all of music and dancing. He was not shy about showing everyone his moves, either.

Abby, Moll, JT

We have the best neighbors on our hall. One family has two little girls, and another has a 6 year old little boy. Chris plays ball, or whatever toys everyone chooses to bring out, almost every night out in the hall. I think this is his favorite thing in the whole world. He asks me about "Abby, Moll, JT" all day long.

This hall playing may seem strange to non- New Yorkers, but it's kind of like having the kids all play in the driveway in a normal city. We just have to worry about elevator doors opening and shutting instead of traffic. At any rate, our neighbor, Molly, asked Chris to her three year birthday party. Here he is all dressed up.

They had craft projects that were super cute. All of the kids had a great time.

And, cupcakes. I think he's starting to get over his fear!

More... Texas

Okay, just a few pictures from our Texas trip left (I wrote that before I actually downloaded the pictures- correction- a TON of pictures left). A certain someone is having Birthday Eve today, so I want to catch up on my blogging!

Before we left for Austin, we stopped to see my Grandpa again on our way out. Did I mention how much fun Chris had on that piano? I'm sure the other residents were thrilled.

We were all a little unsure how Chris would do in a car seat all of the way to Austin. He decided to put all of his stickers on himself. That took up about 5 minutes, only 2 hours and 55 minutes to go!

We met Lisa for lunch at the Hobbit Cafe on our way out of Houston. It was so nice to get to spend time with her.

It took about 5 minutes in the car after lunch and he was out, whew! You like how he insisted on holding the map? Better him than me : ).

We had a few minutes once we got to Austin before we met up with the Trovalls, so we stopped at a Walmart (that was our 4th trip in about 3 days). Conan needed to get a fishing license, and Christopher needed to ride on Daddy's shoulders and buy an orange ball. I completely forgot to take pictures there, but we ate some amazing Mexican food with the Trovalls and Bonnie. So great to catch up with everyone! (Bonnie, I need you to come to NYC asap, so I can make up for lost picture taking!)

We stayed with Lauren for the first couple of nights we were in town. She was so brave to let us in her new house with a 2 year old. It was nice to be able to stay up after we put the LG down and chat with her, unlike in hotels where you have to be quiet as a mouse because the whole fam is sharing a room. Thanks Lauren! Again, I can't believe I didn't get one picture of Chris with Lauren. Geez, bad blogger!

We met up with Mary, Matt, Noah and Isaac at the Domain one evening (our former stomping ground!). It's expanded a ton since we moved. There are double the stores, water fountains for the kids, and a... TURTLE. Noah and Chris had so much fun!

Family shot + turtle.

The fountains. Chris didn't waste any time getting completely soaked.

After that (and a trip home for some new clothes), we met up for dinner with Lauren for dinner at Pluckers. It was oh so good. Christopher was more than excited to try a corn dog.

Here's a picture of us before the rehearsal dinner. Chris did great hanging with Ga Ga and Bob (he renamed my parents with words he can actually say). This was one of the first times we've left him to go out.

We decided I would take him to Tim's wedding. Kristi's wedding was right after the ceremony, so I wasn't going to be able to go the ceremony. Here's the one picture I got- you can kind of see Conan's head. Weddings are a little difficult with a toddler. He was pretty good until Dad came out, and then he really wanted to yell Daddy throughout the wedding.

So we decided to check out the outside of the church. After Tim's wedding, I thought it would be a great idea to take him to Kristi's wedding. She is his Godmother : ). Kristi's wedding was in her gorgeous backyard, that has a little stream running through it, that Christopher thought would be amazing to play in. So, we didn't last long there either. I took him to the front during the reception and he managed to step into a little pond in the front yard. We both ended up soaked, and I decided it was time for Chris to go hang with Ga Ga and Bob. My parents were nice enough to take him to dinner, so I could spend some time at the wedding. Kristi looked gorgeous, and besides a sopping wet two year old there, the wedding was perfect : ). No pictures of that one, for obvious reasons.

Our last day there was Mother's day and my mom's birthday.

We went for breakfast at Hickory Street, right down the street from our hotel. He totally picked this shirt out all by himself .

Here he is with the Grandparents.

Being silly with Mom.

Chris and Ga Ga.

Family shot before we had to leave (on our plane that was delayed 5 hours!)

Here's Christopher after we got back to NYC. You could tell he missed TX, he was trying to walk around in my new cowboy boots (awesome Mother's Day present from my guys).

Texas, the beach

Conan and I took Christopher to the Galveston beach during our big trip. We had to start off our morning with something that we can't get in NYC... Jack in the Box!

I can't believe it's been almost 2 years since we took this picture...

The more things change, the more they stay the same, right?

That was before I started blogging, but long story short we had to escape our apartment because we ran our self clean oven before our move here and our place got so smoky we were afraid for our child's lungs. Thus, we ended up at Jack in the Box, with a 2 week old, who had just peed all over his Dad.

Okay, back to Texas!

Here's Chris in his carseat, telling us all about it. He was not so sure about being buckled in a seat for our half hour drive to Galveston. I think he was saying, "I want to ride the subway!"

Okay, now he's free. Dad was putting on his fishing gear, so Chris decided to take control of the radio. I didn't get any fishing pictures. The LG was not feeling the watching Dad fish. He desperately wanted to jump in the water so bad he couldn't stand it.

So, we took him to the beach! He loved the sand. The water was unbelievable, I forgot how warm Texas beach water is. It was the perfect day. (Minus a sunburn by my poor husband who waited about 5 minutes to put sunscreen on after we got to the beach). Texas, your sun is brutal!