Kansas, Part 4

Nick and Brenda's wedding. That is, of course, the whole reason we took the trip. It was a lovely wedding, or so I heard. I was in the cry room with Anthony. Wasn't terribly condusive to paying attention to the ceremony I'm afraid. Anthony enjoyed the reception for awhile and then we went back to the hotel to nap. I pretty much let him run around being social for a good part of the time.

In a classic case of the shoemaker's family going barefoot, we don't have any family pictures from the wedding. Bob was the official photographer and took hundreds of shots, just none of us. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of Anthony and Joshua together in their matching shirts, either. Worse than that, we didn't get any pictures of the two boys together, period!

This is one of the few pictures of little dude. I think he had a decent change of catching the garter but the bride's younger brother REALLY wanted it.

Kansas, Part 3

Grandpa took us for a nice ride on his boat. Anthony liked it best when we went fast, I think he liked the wind in his hair!

Kansas, Part 2: Swimming in the lake

Anthony's version of the story: "No kidding, I was dying of thirst. I just kept shouting "water" and what does Mama do but throw me in the lake! Its even wierder than that, Daddy jumped in first!"

Our version of the story: Anthony was fascinated with the lake. He kept pointing at it and talking about the water. We went for a short boat ride (pictures to come) and even walking back up to the house he was still asking for water and gesturing towards the lake. So, we went swimming. Lasted about a minute.

Our trip to Kansas--Part 1

Anthony was an amazingly good sport on the airplane. We did spend a fair amount of time walking up and down the aisle. But, we also spent a lot of time in our seats, too. I brought lots of good toys including about a hundred stickers. We flew Frontier and had DirecTV at our seats. Even though the bottom picture shows Anthony sitting nicely watching cartoons through Bob's Bose noise cancelling headphones, that only lasted a few minutes.

The top picture was taken while we were still boarding. For the Kansas City to Denver leg of our trip there were empty seats so Anthony got his own. It made things a little easier, but not as much as one would think. There was still the issue of him wanting to WALK. Or really, do anything but sit. He did enjoy looking out the window when we were on the ground.

Words!

Anthony was relatively slow to talk (though he has friends who are even slower) but is catching up fast. He probably gets a new word nearly every day now.

Current count:37
Hi (his very favorite)
Up/Down
Hot/Cold
No/Yes
Bubbles (pronounced buggas)
Bug
Wet
Cake
Raisin
Thank you
Mine (another favorite)
Mama/Dada
Woof
Baa (he is very insistant that the cow says Baa)
Whoa
Mmm
Hat
Walk
Rock (as in, rock a chair)
Rock (that which my sister studied)
Okay
Light
Plane
Hug (another favorite)
Yeah
Buckle
Ball
Water
Headset (as in an airplane headset)
Button
Paint
Anthony (pronounced Ahn)
Night-night (his newest)

I think he's working on "You're welcome", too.

Hat

Lately Anthony has been experimenting with a variety of hats. Yesterday evening he put an empty yogurt container (a big one) on his head and declared it a hat. Then this morning it was a torn-open envelope. And tonight, a diaper. Don't worry, its clean.

I was a little bummed I didn't get a picture with the yogurt container. He looked like a little organ-grinder's monkey!

Paint!

Another new word, we're getting almost 1 a day!

Anthony made this t-shirt at Mikayla's party on Sunday. When I saw the t-shirt painting activity I assumed Anthony wouldn't like it. Anthony didn't like doing our handprint flower a few months back when we were doing our adoption study.

We did the red prints first. It took a few minutes for Anthony to understand how to put his hand down on the shirt right and after re-doing the one on the right I thought it looked okay. We washed the red paint off his hands and I assumed he was done. Nope, he sat right down and started trying to squeeze blue paint on his hands. Daddy took over and we did the blue prints. He immediately came back to the table to do another set. I was pretty impressed at how much he enjoyed the activity. Of course, all the "big kids" were doing it too.

We brought his shirt home from daycare yesterday. He immediately yelled "paint" and started mimicking the handprints.

Jumping Bean

Anthony is now a bounce-house pro. Last Friday (a week ago) we came home from work to discover a bounce house at Robert's house. Anthony pretty much went bonkers and spent well over an hour jumping away.

Yesterday was his friend Mikayla's birthday party. I wish I'd gotten video of him jumping--bounce, bounce, bounce, flop, giggle! So much fun!

A few more pictures

1. Helping sweep out the tent. There is nothing like a good helper....

2. Sticks. What better toy can you have than a stick? Except maybe a rock.

3. Talking on the magnifying glasses at the nature center.

4. Anthony's fine motor skills have really improved. His current trick is opening containers (water bottles, etc.) and dumping their contents. Mama is so proud....

Interesting things from our trip

In no random order:

The baby's stroller. Anthony really enjoyed pushing it.

Bugs. I hope Andrea got a picture of him bear crawling around watching the ants. That was a gentle day, the previous day he was squishing them.

Rocks. A new word. Anthony climbed on ALL of them.

Our Trip to Sequoia National Park

For our summer vacation this year we went to Sequoia National Park with my sister Andrea and her family. It was SO much fun.

Highlights included:
Three "hikes". Each kid slept through one of them. Anthony was a pretty good walker. Our Crescent Meadow walk was about a mile and a half and I think Anthony walked close to half of it. Maybe a little less. He tends to be a little too much about the journey.

Watching Anthony and Kurt play together. This is the first visit where they really enjoyed each others company. They played in the tent together, climbed rocks and just giggled.

Filth. All three boys were beyond filthy but poor Erik got the worst of it as he wasn't a very skilled walker. He's the only one who actually ate dirt, too.

Sleeping. Doesn't sound like much but Anthony slept great in the tent. He took a nice long nap and got a good night's sleep every night. Kurt was a little too excited to sleep the first night. We watched him play "shadow games" in the tent for probably a full hour.

Meeting new people: Anthony said Hi to EVERYONE who passed us on our walks. Everyone! He also made instant friends with a park ranger. Ranger came into our campsite to tell us about that night's campfire program. Anthony immediately ran up to him shouting "Hug". Its the funniest thing I've seen him do in awhile.

Very little crying. Really, very little.

I'll totally do it again. Only problem--it was a really long drive. But, it was equally long for both of us! Generally Anthony was a good sport in the car. Very little unhappiness on the drive there. The drive home was another story--he kept asking for "up" or "walk". At first he was polite and we made a stop at a McDonald's playplace. He wasn't so polite after that, though.

Another airshow picture

Robert's Daddy was at the airshow too. He took this picture for us!

Somehow** Daddy managed to get everyone comped into one of the chalets. Anthony enjoyed his barbecue lunch. Daddy says that Anthony can get a chili-cheese dog when he gets a little bit bigger.

**Daddy considers it karmic payback for spending Saturday flying Young Eagles. That's where he hooked up with the Bonanza pilots who sneaked him into the chalet.

Salinas Airshow

Bob (and his friend Bennett from work) took Anthony to the Salinas airshow today. Generally Anthony had a good time watching all the airplanes, flirting and dancing with "the girl in the pink shoes". He was a little afraid of the Blue Angels--they come in LOUD. Daddy took good care of him, though.

Afternoon nap didn't really happen. He slept in the plane on the way down and on the way back. Notice his current reading material: AOPA Pilot.

Anthony's Balloon

The saga of Anthony's balloon starts two weeks ago at the downtown concert. Anthony got a helium balloon as we were leaving. We looped it around his wrist and he was having a grand old time. Then, tragedy struck. He pulled it off his wrist and watched it float off into the sky. You could actually see on his face the exact second that it registered that the balloon was gone. Heartbreaking!

Yesterday at the downtown concert, Anthony got a balloon when we arrived. I tied it securely to his belt loop to prevent mishap. Anthony was still petrified at the idea of losing his precious balloon and pretty much had a death grip on the string. Picture him eating dinner with one hand while clutching his balloon with the other! I ended up taking it back for awhile so he could relax.

This morning he woke up to discover that his precious balloon was deflated. He was swinging it by its string saying, "up, up". No luck, balloon stayed down. He ate breakfast with one hand while clutching the balloon with the other. (Then we succeeded in getting it back from him and it disappeared into the garbage.)

Roger Wilco, Ready for Take-off

Daddy and Anthony are going together to the Salinas airshow on Sunday. Anthony is REALLY looking forward to it! They will be flying together without me!

I've seen fire, and I've seen rain

I've seen stormy days that I thought would never end.
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend.
But I always thought that I'd see you, one more time, again.

Rainy season really doesn't start for another FIVE months, but we're ready! Robert's mom gave me the heads-up that Costco had toddler raincoats. I pretty much rushed right over there. Good thing as they were already getting picked over. Then I scored the fireboots at Target. He's swimming in both of them. I assume he'll grow at least a little between now and January!

New Haircut

Charming, huh?

It has come to my attention that Anthony might be getting a little shaggy again so we went back to Snip-Itz this morning. Anthony was an amazingly good sport. He sat nicely in his chair the whole time and got his hair cut with NO crying. Of course, I was handing him a steady stream of cheddar bunnies as a bribe.

I think it looks much better than the photo shows. We'll have to try again. We took this one just before bed and he wasn't completely cooperative.