Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Today we trekked down to Swank Farms to visit their pumpkin patch! What a great time. Anthony jumped in the bouncy house, jumped off a pile of hay bales into a pile of hay, fished for goats, ground corn, explored the maze, drove a (toy) tractor and even picked out some pumpkins to take home!

Thanks Auntie Jessica!

The fingerpaints that Auntie Jessica ordered for Anthony's birthday arrived yesterday.

In retrospect maybe I should have hidden the package until the weekend. But, I was eager to give him his birthday present irregardless that it was 10 minutes until dinner-time. He had a lovely time with really no mess at all!

An Unwanted Milestone

I'm actually surprised it took this long.

Bob and I were just waking up when I heard the pitter-patter of little feet.

Yes, Anthony finally climbed out of the crib and came to join us in bed!

Okay, he's been climbing out of the crib after naps for awhile now. At night Anthony sleeps in a sleepsack and he hadn't quite figured out the zipper--its trickier than on a sweatshirt.

I'm actually moderately impressed that he came to use rather than yelling for us to come to him. More than once I've heard him say, "Mommy, can you help me with the dark."

I'm not sure what the next step is:
a. Embrace his newfound freedom (yeah, right!)
b. Add a safety pin to the bottom of his sleepsack so he still can't get out
c. Put a child-lock on his bedroom door to keep him inside.

Thoughts??

Anthony's latest tattoo

Really, what more can I say?

Happy Hollow with Grandma and Grandpa

For Anthony's birthday we took Grandma and Grandpa to Happy Hollow Zoo. We did the full zoo tour--all the animals down in the hollow, our favorite rides and the puppet show. Grandpa helped Anthony ride the bald eagle on the carousel--Grandpa's favorite. I think that Grandpa's wingspan was a bald eagle as well!

The puppet show that day was "Elephant's Child." At the end of the show Anthony turned to me and asked me to pull his nose like the crocodile did. I did, but Anthony didn't grow a trunk.

The best part of the day came at the meercat enclosure. The meercats put on a good show digging madly. Then Anthony bent in two, pawed at the ground and announced, "I'm a meercat."

Our Playborhood

This was the scene that greeted Bob when he got home this evening. There are five different families represented here, all from our block!

(And yes, there are five children in the wagon. There were six a few seconds before the picture was taken.)

I had a weak moment

Okay, why on earth does the ice cream truck have to come down our street at dinner time?

And how is it that Anthony instinctively knows that something good is on the truck? (That one is pretty easy, there were a bunch of other kids running for the ice cream truck, too.)

And yes, the shirt that is now covered in orange sherbet was brand new this morning.

Three Years Old

Anthony is three years old today. I guess its time to wax philosophically about how my little guy is growing up. Well, enough of that.

Let's see, the vital stats. I think he's about 37" tall and weights just over 30 pounds. He's tall enough that they don't measure him for the roller coaster which requires 36". He's on the verge of outgrowing 2T clothes--his little belly is almost hanging out, though 3T seems huge. He's quite fine boned; the days of "Mommy's fat baby" are long gone.

His favorite toys include his tricycle, his scooter, his fleet of airplanes, his dress-up clothes and his magic wand. He loves play-dough, though he still eats it. Legos get a lot of play, too. He's also ridiculously fond of Mary Poppins. He enjoys some of his fine motor toys--his latch board and lacing cards. We do all sorts of pretend play--flying the airplanes in formation, loading up the doll stroller and running from the dragons, and of course cooking in the kitchen.

Speaking of cooking in the kitchen, we need to do more of that. Anthony's a pretty good helper in the mornings when we make pancakes. He really wants to crack eggs, though my nerves aren't quite strong enough. I do let him pour in the ingredients and help stir.

He loves to read and has figured out that those letters on the pages make the words I read. Some of his favorite books right now include Corduroy, Martha Speaks, and his name book. He definitely prefers books with plot to those with just facts and pictures.

His best friends are still the same cast of characters--Robert and Ciaran in the neighborhood and William and Courtney at daycare. He adores Hannah across the street, though I'm not sure the love is mutual. He plays with all the other kids at daycare, there are now FIVE 3 year olds, plus three 2-year olds who follow them around. He's only been in preschool for a month, so I don't know too much about his pals there.

Unfortunately, he isn't all that well behaved right now. In fact, he can be downright defiant. Key misbehaviors include running, throwing away contraband items, and letting the cat out. We're still dealing with hitting and kicking when he doesn't get his way. Hopefully we'll improve there soon.

A few more party pictures

One other thing... Until dinnertime tonight, Anthony had eaten a grand total of 3 cupcakes, one lollipop and some strawberries. (He'd been offered an array of healthy food that all went untouched.) I'd promised him a cupcake before the party. He came out in the morning, greeted grandpa and then mid-sentence announced that he wanted a cupcake.

Anthony's Birthday Party

Today was Anthony's THIRD birthday party. We had five friends over for a nice low-key party. We played in Anthony's new bounce house (Thanks Grandma Kay!) and with the other yard toys. I especially liked watching four kids play in the playhouse together with no fighting!

Anthony's party had an airplane theme this year. The sign on the front door announced "Anthony airlines flight 3 is boarding in the backyard." We had airplane tattoos and for lunch served fleets of pb&j airplanes. The cupcakes had red airplanes on them and the goody-bags included an airplane whistle and an airplane lollipop with a sticker that said, "Thank you for flying with us." I had fun with those little touches. Bob was the genious with the cookie cutters and got pretty good at not wasting too much sandwich.

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa Moragues are here visiting this weekend for Anthony's birthday. As far as I can tell, the entire weekend is going to be airplane themed. Today they all went to Hiller Aviation Museum and sat in the 747. (As if Grandpa didn't spend enough time on an airplane yesterday!)

Mowing the Lawn

Anthony is SO EXCITED to help Daddy mow the lawn. Hopefully he'll remember this 10 years from now when its his job!

"Can I have a shot?"

Yes, Anthony asked Dr. Babcock for a shot today.

We had an appointment to discuss Anthony's asthma medication (after his last flare-up he is now taking Singulair and Pulmacort). Dr. Babcock gave him a few bandaids to play with while we talked.

Anthony opened up his Snoopy bandaid, played with it for awhile and then asked quite politely for a shot. I, of course, had already informed the nurses that Anthony needed an influenza vaccination, carefully avoiding the use of the "s-word".

The nurse came back and gave him his shot. Anthony happily applied his own bandaid and we were good to go.

Strange. But who am I to complain?

Fun with Lego

In the past few weeks Anthony has been really enjoying playing with his legos. Left to his own devices he builds towers of squares as high as he can reach. With dad's help he builds more sophisticated structures like this house/castle. Anthony deconstructed it a few minutes before the picture was taken. It used to have a pitched roof and a slide, too. Once his creations are built he incorporates them into imaginary play. We have about a dozen little lego people to play all sorts of roles.

Big A. Little A, What Begins With A?

A few weeks ago, Bob was reading Anthony his "name book" and Bob came to me all excited that Anthony new most of the letters in his name. I told him that Anthony was just demonstrating remote memorization. Later that week they were playing with alphabet blocks and Anthony could clearly identify an "M".

Anthony is very interested in letters now. I opened up a box of (Honey Maid) graham crackers the other day and Anthony yelled "H". Where ever we go he picks out the letters he recognizes.

He also seems to have made the cognitive leap that the letters on his books make words. Now when he picks up books to browse he complains that he doesn't know what the words are.

Neighborhood Picnic

Today was the Cuesta Park Neighborhood Association annual picnic. It just gets bigger and better every year. Anthony had a grand old time. He got his face painted, ate all sorts of treats (and little lunch) and had a great time visiting with some old friends.

One of the neighbors came dressed up as a clown and made balloons creations for all the kids. A lot of the little ones were intimidated by him, but not Anthony. It took him about 20 seconds to decide that he wanted to say Hi to the clown and get a balloon.

Palo Alto Airport Day

Today Anthony and Daddy went on an excursion together to Palo Alto Airport Day. Sounds like they had a good time. They got to watch "The Beech Boys" fly in formation. (Those would be Beechcraft airplanes, Bob is learning a little formation flying from them.) He decorated an airplane cookie AND got a dirigible cookie. The plane Anthony is flying is a Bonanza, just like daddy flies. Well, Daddy flies a V-tail Bonanza, which Anthony will proudly tell anyone who listens.

More Fun

A few more pictures of the fun we had in Colorado.

Trip to Tiny Town

I dig alliteration.

Anyway, while Grandma and her siblings were off at "A Taste of Denver", we took the little ones up to Tiny Town. It was the cutest little place. Its a mineature town and most of the buildings were recreations of historic Colorado buildings. Some like the Saloon above were large doll-houses complete with models inside. Others were large enough to go inside and play. Anthony and Joshua had fun exploring.

We finished our day at Tiny Town with a train ride. I need to get pictures from Julie.

The Cousins Together

A few of the best cousins moments from our trip:

1. Watching Anthony teach Joshua to play "Ring Around the Rosie". (top picture)

2. Watching them ride the doggy.

3. When Anthony gave Joshua his "thank you present". He peeked in the gift bag, saw a die-cast airplane, grabbed the airplane and handed Joshua the empty bag. We insisted that he give the toy to Joshua too, and then the boys proceeded to fly their airplanes around the family room together.

4. Anthony kept feeding Joshua treats. One chip that he picked up to give him had a bit of dip on it. Anthony stopped and carefully wiped the chip off in the grass before giving it to Joshua to eat. How's that for service??

5. Just watching them be together, enjoying each other's company. Such sweet little boys!