I know, if you're still around this neck o' the blogosphere and reading this, you're probably thinking, "Who is this consistent blogger that has taken over Chois-R-Us??"
But, as you can tell from the pun-tastic titles, it's me. You see, I still have a few posts from January and February that I never wrote. And I don't really feel like playing catch up again. So instead, I'm going to try to just keep up with things from now on. We'll see how long that lasts. (My bet is on 3 weeks. ;) )
Anyway, yesterday, we went to an Easter Egg-stravaganza sponsored by a local church. They had some great activities for the kids and Choi Boy had a total blast!
Of course, before we dove into things, we had to take the obligatory picture with the obligatorily creepy Easter Bunny.
Why does he (she?) look so angry??
Once we put our kiddo through the necessary EB torture, we headed off to the Egg Roll! (sidenote: before we walked over, I said, "Oooh, look! Let's go do the Egg Roll!" to which the hubs responded, "Mmm...egg rolls...I want one.")
At one point, CB thought it wasn't going fast enough, so he tried to throw the egg and bat it with the wooden spoon. That's my boy! ;)
And then it was off to the moon bounce! The moon bounces were divided up by ages, which was great, so CB didn't have to contend with any really big kids, and instead could really go at it!
After that, some parachute fun!
It was some serious "hare"-raising fun. ;)
Finally, some giant bubble blowing!
Phew! After all that, CB had worked up an appetite and spent some time munching on the candy he won and some pizza. And there was also some lounging.
Now that CB is a little older and able to really *do* things, we have such fun at these kinds of events. So thankful for the community members that put them together for families to enjoy!
And yes, despite his face here, CB really did enjoy himself. This is just his, "Quit with the picture-taking, Mommy!" face. ;)
Happy Easter to you and yours! He is risen indeed!!
To finish off our Spring Break, we headed off to the National Capital Trolley Museum with some dear friends. Quite honestly, the grown-ups' impression of the place was a resounding, "meh," but the kids certainly had a trolley good time! (Last time, I promise.)
There were model trolleys to "operate,"
Some trolley crafts to work on,
And some general running amok while waiting to ride the trolley!
And then it was trolley time!
I had envisioned an old school trolley from decades ago, but it turns out this trolley was a transplant from Toronto circa 1994 (which I suppose *is* decades ago...yikes, how scary is that?!). It also meant that the insides were plastered with ads for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Wings, and the Ricki Lake show -- hello, middle school!
Once we got on the trolley, we were told to remain seated for the entire ride.
Within a few minutes, that suggestion was taken very lightly.
And then the littlest member of our clan gave those hooligans a staredown,
And whipped them back into shape!
At the end of the ride (it was a short little loop with a break for a trolley lecture in between...seriously), we tried to get a shot of the 4 walking kiddos, and this happened:
Figures.
Then we went to go check out some old street cars (none were named Desire...sorry, I couldn't help myself),
And tried another attempt at a group shot before heading out:
Yeah, notsomuch.
Oh well, grateful for great friends and fun times with our kiddos!
I know, I can't believe it either. Here I am, posting 2 days in a row. Whaaa?
;)
So, yesterday I shared about the super cold and wintery March we've been having. As I mentioned, the weather pendulum has been swinging between warm-ish Spring-like days to full-on winter weather days. Of course, last weekend when we were scheduled to participate in an Easter egg hunt at a local farm, it was a full-on winter weather day. Yay.
When I signed Choi Boy up for this egg hunt, I had visions of him dressed adorably in sweet pastels, complete with a straw fedora. I thought we'd have fun hunting for the hidden eggs that would be cleverly placed in flower beds or between fence posts. And I envisioned us admiring and cooing over the sweet new baby lambs, chicks and calves over in the stables before we headed home to check out the loot in CB's eggs.
Yeah, not one bit of that happened.
First, it was FREEZING. Literally. We were bundled up in full winter gear, complete with boots because it was starting to snow.
You can see how excited CB was about being bundled up. And you can see my pretend excitement in my overly cheesy smile.
Secondly, those clever hiding places? Didn't exist.
Look at how the eggs were "hidden":
I suppose this could also be called the Lamest Easter Egg Hunt ever, too.
But, regardless, we tried to make the most of it, and CB did have fun running around and putting eggs in his basket.
All of that took about 8 minutes. And as soon as we were done we made a beeline to the car and drove home through the snow.
And the eggs? We came home super excited to open them and found that they didn't contain one bit of sugary goodness and instead, each egg held 1 thing like a tattoo or a tiny eraser or a fake coin. Lame.
Oh well. CB did have fun and he loves playing with now empty plastic eggs...We have another egg hunt we'll be going to this weekend, and hopefully we won't have to wear snowsuits this time!
If you know me in real life, you've probably heard me complain about being cold. Like, once every hour. Winter is definitely not my favorite. And this winter has been chock full of blah. We got weird weather patterns where it would be sunny and Spring-like and then the next day it would snow! We didn't have any major snowfall this year, but just lots of little showers of wet, fluffy snow.
Of course, the most significant snow we got would happen in March, when winter was supposed to be on its merry way. You know how they say March comes in like a lion? It did. We had our one and only snow day during the first week of March:
So, naturally, we got out the beach toys and went out for a romp in the snow!
And of course, hot chocolate was to be had afterwards!
You know how the rest of that saying goes, "...out like a lamb"?
Yeah. Not so much.
Because on our first day of Spring Break, we second biggest snowfall (a measly 3 inches, but whatevs) of the season.
Yup.
Choi Boy woke up squealing, "It's snowing! It's Christmas!" It really did feel more like Christmas Break than it did Spring Break! At least we got a fun snowman out of it...
My boys had a ton of fun outside, especially when they ganged up on momma and pelted me with snowballs. And the shifty-eyed snowman? He promptly melted after the temps got up to 40 degrees and 2 days later, there is no snow in sight. Hopefully, we won't see more the white stuff again until next Winter!
But, alas, Choi Boy is growing up and is now halfway between 3 and 4. And here are some things that our 3 and a half year-old is up to...
The Basics
First up, some stats: our little guy is still on the little side at just under 38" and about 32 pounds. He wears a toddler size 8 shoe and is mostly in 2T clothes, but also has some 3T pieces he is starting to wear and even has some 18-24 mos stuff he still fits into! I think we're hitting a growth spurt, though, because my good eater is suddenly a phenomenal eater and has been eating as much as I eat (and I EAT -- I am not one of those "just a side salad with dressing on the side" girls! ;) ) at meals!
Thrilling Threes
To be frank, three has been a challenging age. CB knows more and understands more and therefore wants more -- more independence, more stuff, more everything...and the defiance and tantrum that will sometimes ensue when he doesn't get more ain't pretty. But, this is neither the time nor the place to go into further detail about CB's less than awesome traits, so that's all I'll say about that. (Also, I don’t believe in the Terrible Twos. Someone recently told me that whoever coined the phrase “Terrible Twos” hadn’t yet gone through the Threes with her child yet. Ha!) However, there has also been so much about 3 year-old CB that is loads of fun! My friend once told me that as her son got older, the hard times definitely got harder, but the sweet times also got so much sweeter. So far, I'm going to have to agree with that!
Chatty Choi Boy
When we're out and about, the thing that people comment most about is how much CB talks. I am not kidding when I say that he talks ALL. day. long. He will talk to anyone and everyone about anything and will narrate pretend play situations when he's playing by himself. He'll say things like, "'Don't go down there!' he cried. 'But I'm stuck!,' she shouted back." It's actually very cute, but can sometimes drive you slightly nuts in certain situations (like, say, when you're driving around looking for a place you've never been to and your child keeps talking over the GPS lady. Not that that's ever happened or anything.).
I sometimes wonder what people think when they overhear snippets of CB's conversations. Like yesterday when we were dropping off a prescription and CB wondered aloud, "Mommy, whose husband am I?" or when we were at the autobody shop and he asked, "What is this giant phone for? Where do you see the emails?" (He was asking about a fax machine) or when we were grocery shopping and he wondered, "Does everyone have a butt? Even Moses? Even Jesus?" or when we were at the shoe store and he squealed, "Oh, Mommy, look at those adorable leopard print shoes! Are they your size?" (I *might* take him shopping with me too much...)
Never a dull moment with this one!
Ciao, Choo-choos?
CB's love of trains seems to be slowly
waning. While they have provided hours of independent play (usually
daily!) for CB, I can't say I'm sorry to see them make their final
departure. There is only so much (annoying, whiny) Thomas a momma can
take, you know?? I think they'll still be around a little bit longer,
but they're definitely of less intense interest than before. It seems
that superheroes might be next on the obsession list, and I am
not-so-secretly excited for that -- I mean, c'mon, Superman is SO much
cooler than Thomas.
(Cue the awesome Clark Kent/Superman montage, please.)
Music Man
CB is also big into making up songs and singing songs lately. He is embarrassingly obsessed with "Gangnam Style" and will break into the dance at any given moment. This is especially embarrassing at church. Other favorite songs include, "I Like to Move it, Move it," "Three Little Birds," "Jingle Bells," "Father Abraham," and "Jesus Loves Me." It should be noted that he sings none of these songs with all of the correct lyrics! "You are My Sunshine" holds a special place in our hearts and any time CB hears it, he turns to me and says, "It's our song, Mommy!"
Here's a sampling of CB's singing "skillz". Please ignore my stage mom attitude as I press him to keep singing:
Mock Jock
Choi Boy still loves all sports and is always on the move. However, we've learned over the last 6 months that he is not quite ready for organized sports. He took a weekly soccer class in the Fall and while he really is quite good at handling the ball and kicking and dribbling it, he spent most of the class not doing what the teacher was asking and trying to play basketball instead. We also sampled a gymnastics class and it was the same story...He totally thought he was hilarious, though. (Me, notsomuch) We were going to hold off on more classes, but CB has asked to take swimming lessons, which we want to start sooner than later any way, so we'll see how it goes when we start in May! My dad also wants to start working on CB's golf skills once the weather gets warmer, so perhaps more individualized sports are the way to go for our ball of energy!
School Dude
Choi Boy continues to love school and is having lots of fun with his "school buddies," as he calls them. He loves learning and still has a deep love and appreciate for books (lately, his favorite is his Jesus Storybook Bible), which makes this teacher momma's heart burst with pride. CB also seems to know all his uppercase letters, most of his lowercase letters, numbers 1-10 (he actually learned these from the numbers on the Thomas trains...I suppose they *are* good for something!), and has recently become very interested in letter sounds. He's been really into saying a word, isolating the first sound, and then telling me the letter it starts with. He's also been listing things that (he thinks) start with the same letter -- he doesn't yet believe me that kitty and cake start with different letters. CB loves spelling his name and my name out loud and has also taken an interest in writing his name. But because I've been insistent that he write lowercase letters for all the letters after the capital C, I don't anticipate that he'll master this for a while longer.
Shortly after he turned 3, CB started drawing people with a face and legs and arms coming out of the head. His drawings are so cute! This one is my personal fave, from a birthday card for his "girlfriend". They are holding hands:
(I love that they have eyebrows!)
Thrilling Threes
I know I started this post lamenting the woes of parenting a three year-old, but after writing all of this out and really thinking through what CB is doing lately, I have to admit, it really is a lot of FUN, too! It's so awesome to have actual conversations and inside jokes and to hear and see all the things the CB is able to say and do. He loves to reminisce about recent (and even not so recent -- his memory is amazing!) events and pray for people he's thinking about. He can be so tender and kind and has developed a serious love for babies. He loves to create imaginative play scenarios and he really is never bored. Yes, there are tantrums and moments of sheer preschool irrationality, but hanging around a three a half-year old really is thrilling...
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