Traveling to TN

My first trip with the kid this year was down to TN for a birthday celebration for Papaw! Lots of family and friends gathered to make his day extra special. We had a great visit and abram had a ball playing with his cousins and his little TN friend Judah! Here is a picture of Papaw with most of his grandkids and great grandkids...



I hadn't been home since Christmas and hate I don't get to go more often...

And here is Abram & Judah riding in the wagon together...

OUTSIDE!!

Abram is so so obsessed with being outdoors its almost ridiculous. Lately, he's been crying through dinner, refusing to eat, because he wants to be "ou-ide, ou-ide, ou-ide". We've tried eating the moment he gets home and then going out. Doesn't work. We've tried letting him play outside till late then doing dinner. Nope. Still doesn't work. We've resorted to complete distraction from the moment husband pulls in the drive with him. I run out and whisk him inside with promises of something 'interesting' and 'fun' and then launch right into ohhh "yummy dinner" etc... it sorta works. especially if its raining lol...! but we usually end up spending many evenings outdoors throwing ball, playing with the neighbor, hunting eggs (yes, still! ha), mowing the sidewalk....

collecting flowers...


waving to neighbors...


drawing with (but more often throwing into the bushes!) sidewalk chalk...



And another obsession of his - HATS. Sometimes he wakes up asking for his hat! A few nights when its time for bed, I remove the hat, and a meltdown occurs - "HATTtttttttt" he cries, as if I've just set it on fire!! He tries to put on hats that are way too small, way too big, and if it fits him just right, he won't take it off. He adjusts them, wears them backwards, and just adores being in a hat. Here are a few hat pics that I loved...




Under the hat, you can't see that huge blonde head of hair. Yes. He's still got the growing blonde hair that I still haven't cut. Its getting longer and remaining just as blonde. I suppose sometime soon, he'll get that first haircut!! well see!!

Happy Easter!

Easter morning was so fun at our house this year. Not that its usually NOT fun but this year was especially fun I suppose. I made homemade carrot raisin muffins for us to have before church and then when the kid woke (or ehh we woke him!) the Easter Bunny had dropped his basket on the back deck... the basket was filled with stickers, coloring books, an insect book, insect putty, a flashing squiggle ball, a shovel for yard work, a shirt for church, sandals, eggs filled with yummy candy, boo-boo cleaner, bandaids, and some Clif Bars the kids loves too. The Easter Bunny not only got things the kid could eat on but some practical things too - smart Bunny:)

Here he is - just spotting the basket...


waltzing out to take a look....


later posing with his basket... he's begun to 'smile' and say 'cheese' for pictures.... its hilarious because he holds his mouth all funny and squints his eyes so much you can't even see them! We have lots of pics like this these days haha...


eating some chocolate before church - yep! and that is some good organic fair trade chocolate that must have cost the Easter Bunny a pretty penny I'm guessing!


All of just after church... before changing into our 'grillin out' clothes and 'backyard egghunt' clothes...


Since the kid froze during the township egg hunt and ended up with 6 eggs that mom threw in his basket, we thought we'd do our own little backyard egg hunt for him and he loved it! He took his time pointing at the eggs, putting them in his basket, and saying more more more! we've actually staged a few more post-Easter egg hunts since, because he loved it so much!


i love how this pic makes it look like we live in the country haha...


he had great Easter!!!

Township Egg Hunt

Our township offers an egg hunt each Easter along with a visit from the Easter Bunny at the local park thats within walking distance from our house. We took the kid down this year with his basket to collect eggs, wrapped up in a fleece outfit, down vest, and hat! It was a chilly egg hunt day.

He was ready with anticipation... as you can see, the eggs were strategically placed, aka thrown all over the wide open grass area. This was for ages 1-3 so, not a challenging hunt per se. haha.



Though the kid was so ready to go pick up eggs, he froze when "GO" was yelled and a mad rush of kids raced for the eggs. He finally started moving and threw a few in his basket before it was over and all the eggs were claimed.



He finished up with 6 whole eggs and grinned at the sight of them in his basket.



Examining the eggs to see if he won the grand prize. NOPE. Just candy he couldn't eat. a bummer. but we replaced it with some good stuff he can have!



A quick visit with the Easter Bunny...



And finished up the afternoon with some park playtime with the other 400 other kids who mobbed the play areas. fun.

brights

The kid needs his 'brights' for car rides, walks outside, play time outside, and sometimes even while eating dinner too!

If I put on my sunglasses while driving, he yells "MAMA!"

I glance back, "brights!!" he says, grinning and doing the sign for sunglasses.





Just this weekend, he spotted our neighbor, Avery, outside wearing his sunglasses and all of a sudden, it became much brighter outside to abram and he needed his brights! Brights Mama!!!

Husband bought him a pair for one dollar since he was insisting on using husbands! they lasted about two days. maybe. I since purchased him some at H&M for 5 dollars. They seem to be more sturdy and are holding up for almost a whole week now.

On another sad note (for us), the kid's best bud from daycare had his last day a week or so ago. Ryan's mom is able to now work from home so Ryan no longer needs to attend La Petite. What a bummer for abram but great for ryan and his mom! To be honest, I'm JEALOUS! And i emailed her saying so haha.

She responded and we both agree the boys will still be little friends, and we have play dates in our future.

Her email also had a picture attached. She said, "we visited abram last week at daycare and wow, was he fascinated with ryans sunglasses! he would not take them off! haha. so i snapped a pic!" and this is what i saw.



Ah, if she only knew!! and what a picture haha. doesn't he just look like the coolest cat in this pic. shades on, shirt unbuttoned, macho tough guy look on his face, as if to say "yo baby. whatsup?"

a little shoppin'

We heart Trader Joes. They have the best stuff. at good prices. and huge bonus - customer in training carts!! This place is usually SO crowded though. I won't dare let the kid get his hands on the mini carts on a busy shopping day in TJ's. That is a nightmare just waiting to happen! But we stopped in late one night awhile back. The place wasn't too too crowded. Actually, they were slow! Weird to say that - TJ's is never slow around here! But it was close to quitting time and late for grocery shoppers I suppose.

"Go ahead," I told the kid, motioning him toward the 'customer in training' carts, all cute with their little signs and tiny wheels.

He started to sprint towards them but stopped, looking back at me as if to say "Really Mom??! Really?!"

I nod and he runs on, grabbing the first one, and turns back to the vegetable section, full speed ahead.

He marches forth as if he's done it a million times before. Scanning the shelves, staring at other customers, but mostly, grinning and even sometimes laughing. He loves it!

Husband and I whip out the good ole cell phones, photo capable thank goodness! We fight over getting pictures on our individual phones as the kid tears up the cracker and chip aisle. After many photos, we actually did complete some real grocery shopping. The kids cart carried essentials such as hummus, salsa, organic blue corn chips, larabars, and avocados! Here he is at his finest.



After checking out and completing our evening shopping, I was hesitant on how 'returning' the cart was going to go down.

"Okay. All done now," I tell him. "Return your cart. Right over there," I say, as I motion to the other mini carts.

He whisks the cart right over to the return area, barely missing a few displays, and slams the cart into the other minis.

"All Done!" he exclaims, as he marches to the exit to join us, as if his work here is done. Well. That was - easy. and fun:)

Valentines Day

The kid has a party at daycare for all sorts of occasions. Seems like there's a Christmas party, a valentine party, a spring party, a first day of summer party, a halloween party, the list goes on. It's a good excuse for the kid to eat junk and dance to music with his friends so they all seem to really enjoy it! For valentines day, we worked on his valentines for his classmates that morning before the party. He enjoyed decorating them with a pen and red crayon.



Not sure if you can see it or not, but the valentines we picked were rainforest themed, very cute, lots of birds. the kid loves to say the word "bird!" over and over. but these valentines came with "stick on tattoos" to go with each valentine. What? Tattoos? really? I don't know. Maybe I'm not with the times but i just found this to be - weird? or - different? stickers would have been nice. but tattoos? hm. we tried a few and to top it off, the tattoos were complete junk! so not only was it weird, but they didn't even work. they went in the trash. But the valentines were made of 100% recycled paper and part of the price went to some sort of 'save the rainforest' foundation. probably about ten cents worth since they only cost like two bucks. ha. so though the tattoos were crappy - some money went to a good cause i guess. you win some. you lose some. and what do you know - abram didn't care about any of this!



Here he is at the party with his two best buds, Ryan and Danny. Yes, the kid's hair is slicked back but hey - he's decked out in red for the party and was feeling all fancy. so we went with a new do!



Last year we went to Lemongrass in King of Prussia for our Valentines dinner out as a family. It's pretty kid friendly for a dinner place and we never get to go there because we rarely go out to dinner anymore. So we decided to make it our valentine tradition and went again this year. Needless to say, Abram was a bit more umm - is tame the word? - last year. This year he was rather um - high maintenance - is that the word. yes those are the words. There are many interesting decorations at this thai restaurant and he was very um - whats the word - inquisitive!! 'WHATS THAT??!?!' was said - A. LOT. we tried to use tour 'whisper voices' to no avail. but we had fun. and didn't disturb too many people. well, we don't think. i didn't notice any evil looks from other patrons so i take that as a good sign.

But boy how things change. One year. Thats all thats passed. Here we are last valentines and then below is this valentines. same table. same restaurant. last year we went with a baby. this year we took a toddler. wow. time flies.