C update

I've noticed that P has gotten a lot of web time on the blog lately, so I thought it was time to give C the limelight for a post. Here are some of his newest abilities:

Nowadays, C...
...will give you a kiss if you ask for one. He won't take his "pap pap" out to do it, though, so he turns his mouth to your lips or cheek and presses his pacifier on your face while making a kissing sound.
...has an expanding vocabulary. My new favorite is the phrase, "I love you" ("I la la").
...loves to talk on the phone! He walks all over the house with the toy phone from P's play kitchen saying, "Hi!" and babbling.
...has added to his party trick by grabbing available dinosaurs and using them to "attack" others in his vicinity as he roars.
...is sporting short hair after a second haircut.
...chews on anything hard and is loving popsicles.
...is probably cutting his one year molars (see above).

Watching my boys grow and change is one of the greatest joys and blessings of being their mommy!

Black Tap Shoes (and Ballet Slippers)

I don't think I've mentioned it (online) yet, but P has started taking a dance class at The Little Gym right after his gymnastics class on Fridays. He loves dance. He has the same teacher for both classes, and she says he does much better in the dance class. When he first started, he was using borrowed tap and ballet shoes from the gym. Since more dance students are girls, The Little Gym has mostly only girls' shoes for the borrowing. The ballet slippers are pink, and the tap shoes are decidedly, ahem, feminine. Fortunately, being a young three and all, P and his classmates were all blissfully unaware that the shoes he wore were intended for a different gender. And Daddy A and I didn't mind. We're open minded like that. (Well, we didn't mind that the shoes were for girls. We minded that the shoes were a little too tight for his - rather wide - feet. We didn't want his feet to hurt, because we're nice like that.)
But, probably also because he's three, P started asking for "special dance shoes" as soon as he started his "special dance class." So today, we bit the bullet. C, P, and I headed to the dancewear retail store. P is now the proud owner of some black (wide) ballet slippers and some lace up (boys') tap shoes. Oh, and some thin black "special dance" socks. The dancewear store is now the proud owner of some of our money. P has the shoes he needs for his summer dance "Prince and Princess" camp, and these shoes fit him more comfortably than his borrowed ones.
Before we left "the big city" to head home, we stopped at The Little Gym so P could show Mrs. Sara his new shoes. He just knew, "Mrs. Sara will like to see these." She was properly excited. His frog backpack is packed with his "special dance shoes and socks". Any guesses what P is taking to school for show and tell tomorrow?

P fought the sandbox...

...and the sandbox won.

Last Thursday, when I went to pick P up from school, I found Ms. Tammy completing an "Ouch Report." That's right. P's injury was serious enough to require documentation. P greeted me and our conversation went something like this:

P: Mommy, I tripped over the corner and I have a boo boo 'cause I hit my eye on the corner. I tripped. I fell down.

Me: Oh, I'm sorry that happened. Are you okay now?

P: Yes and I fell and Ms. Tammy's writin' it down. What that paper say?

Me: It says, "P tripped over the corner of the sandbox and fell. He hit his eye on the plastic dump truck." Is that what happened?

P: Yup. I tripped, an' it made me fall down. On the corner. And I have a boo boo. 'Cause I tripped. Outside. Oh, outside. I want to go outside and play.

Ms. Tammy felt bad for P. She said he fell hard, and he let her clean off his cut but did not want Neosporin. She reiterated that he wasn't doing anything wrong - he just tripped. She was so compassionate and sweet! (Have I mentioned that we love Ms. Tammy? We really, really do.)

P had definitely recovered when I came to pick him up. We had several repetitions of the above conversation throughout Thursday afternoon. At one point, he asked to go to the bathroom by himself. After he had been in there for about ten minutes, I knocked on the door and asked him if I could come in and see how he was doing and if he needed help. He replied in the affirmative, and I walked in to see him examining his cheek in the mirror. When I asked what he was doing, he responded, "Oh, I don't need to go potty, I just wanted to go in the potty so I could see my boo boo." I think he's kind of proud of his playground battle scar, if you want to know the truth. He even asked me to take a picture of his boo boo.

After I took a few pictures, he amused himself by flipping through the files and examining his cheek and eye. The swelling is completely gone now, and there's just a small scrape on his right cheek. I'd say he's well on the road to recovery.

Phifer's third birthday

Last Saturday, one of P's friends celebrated his third birthday with a "train" party. In a town about an hour away from us, there's a park with a train and carrousel that guests can ride. There are picnic areas and playgrounds, and, hour long drive not withstanding, it's a pretty neat place.
I made the boys outfits out of Thomas the Tank Engine fabric. I plan for them to wear these outfits to Tweetsie Railroad this summer when we go to visit the little blue engine, but in the meantime the birthday party was a great place to debut their "train close".
P had a great time riding the train, once with Mommy and once with Miss Elllen (the birthday boy's mommy). C didn't seem too eager to ride the (small, fast moving) train, so he sat that one out.
The carrousel was not all that enjoyable as big of a hit. P watched his friends ride twice, and then I suggested insisted that he at least give it a try. We rode on one of the benches, because he was adamant about his lack of desire to ride a horse. P didn't mind the bench, but he wasn't sold on the fun of the carrousel. He saved his last two tickets for extra train rides.
After our riding, we headed to the playground. P had a great time climbing, swinging, and sliding.
At long last, it was time for cake. Let me assure you, the cake was C's favorite part of the party. By a landslide.

Before we knew it, it was time for the one hour drive back home. I had to follow some of the other party guests back to the main road, as my directional sense is somewhat almost completely lacking. Finding my way around new places is a bit of an area for growth for me. With a guide, getting home was easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I fixed the boys dinner, bathed them, and they settled into bed for sweet dreams of trains and cake.

Happy birthday, Phifer!

in which I confess to a love of Target and underoos

I don't know why I love them... I just do.



Target is undoubtedly one of my favorite places to shop. They lure you in with that "dollar spot" right by the entrance, and by the time you're done there, you're settled and comfortable. Ready to window shop spend money to past your heart's content. I'm going to be honest here, and admit that it's really, really difficult for me to hang around in a Target without spending money.

I guess I love it so much because all the cool kids shop there. See?








And underoos? I don't see how an explanation can be required... they're just awesome. One of my best friends when I was little had some, and I wanted a pair, too! Alas, they were hard to find for females. (I think there were Wonder Woman underoos, but I didn't find that out until I was in college, at which point it was decidely, ahem, too late.)

Underoos are back with a vengenance, my friends, because marketing folks have realized there is quite the market for them... a lot of people who loved underoos as kids are now parents. And just as the marketing folks hoped, I was jonesing for a chance to live vicariously through share my love of underoos with my child.

While I perused the underoos aisle at Wal-Mart, I realized that I might be a bit premature in my purchase... P isn't into the whole superhero thing yet. I saw a pair of Lightning McQueen underoos and was about to get those (even though they don't really fit the underoos mold, whether they're labeled as underoos or not) when Daddy A spotted something wonderful. "If I were you," he interjected, "I'd get those Buzz Lightyear underoos right behind you." And with the giddiness of a child on Christmas morning I jumped around and flung merchandise every which way turned around and began looking for a pair of Buzz Lightyear underoos in the right size.

Apparently a love of underoos is genetic, because P is now the extremely proud owner of some "Buzz close".




And apparently now that he and Woody are friends, Buzz's preferred footwear is a pair of cowboy boots.


Yup, I have definitely passed on my love of underoos. P wears his "Buzz close" a lot. And I wash them a lot. I guess this falls under the category of "be careful what you wish for..."

Happy Easter!

Easter morning started bright and early with a pancake breakfast at church. After church and lunch, we took a look at what the Easter Bunny had brought for the boys. P and C examined their gifts with gusto. P noticed his "chocit bunny" right after he opened a James Mega Bloks set, and C was enthralled with the wrapping paper on his presents.

P was happily engaged in playing with his new toys, as well as his little brother's. See that present C is unwrapping in the above photo? It makes another appearance in the photo below. Yes, that orange truck P is playing with is in fact the wrapped toy that was in C's Easter basket.

C was really good natured about the whole thing. He's laid back and chill like that. (He really is.) But, he also had a new pacifier that was taking up most of his attention.

It's going to be a sad day around here when it's time to wean C off of his "pap pap." It's a challenge I'm not really looking forward to embracing. But I digress. This is a post about our celebrations of the commercial side of Easter. (We embraced the spiritual side, too, of course. Remember this post?)

We had a wonderful day, and I hope you all had a happy Easter, too!

Short Pump Town Center

During Spring Break, Short Pump Town Center in Richmond had a petting zoo. We took the boys to see the animals and met up with Grandma Hen and Granddaddy Rooster so the boys could spend some time with them while we were in Virginia.

Both of the boys enjoyed feeding and petting the animals.

After lunch in the food court, Grandma Paige, Aunt Tiffany, and I went off for some shopping, while the boys had fun on the train with Grandma Hen.

The eight of us met up for a snack and some more shopping. Shopping and family togetherness... what a great day!

Carl's Ice Cream

While we were visiting Fredericksburg, we had to make a trip to Carl's.

A landmark of Fredericksburg, I remember trips to Carl's when I was a child. Poppa Fred and I used to put the tailgate of his truck down and eat our ice cream in the parking lot.

P and C both enjoyed their ice cream. (The rest of us did too, but I didn't take any pictures of us.)

I learned my lesson at the zoo, and you'll see that both boys are wearing bibs.

C's Rollercoaster Ride

Not to be outdone by his big brother, C decided to give the rollercoaster in Poppa Fred and Grandma Paige's front yard a try. As you can see, he loved it!

Tiger the lion and bears, oh my!

We hit the National Zoo in DC on Wednesday. We had lots of fun watching animals. C's favorite animals were the elephants. He smiled, waved at them, and tried to scale the fence while Aunt Tiffany held him up to see them.

You'll notice in the photo on the far right above that P has a Sprite. Daddy A bought him that from a vending machine for $3.00 because he's nice like that. Not, ahem, because P wanted a Sprite, and he was crying for a Sprite, and he couldn't seem to pull himself together. We certainly aren't pushovers...
Anyway, because we are nice like that (as I mentioned above), and because it was hot, and because we were on vacation, and because we don't visit the National Zoo every day, and because we wanted P (and everyone else in our party, and at the National Zoo, for that matter) to enjoy the zoo and the animals and such, Daddy A did purchase said overpriced Sprite. P perked up considerably.

The zoo is in the process of renovating, and they're adding a "make your own animal" store. Right now, it's a "make your own animal" tent. We visited the tent. C made a giraffe, and P chose a lion. You can see the "play by play" below.
P was very clever with his lion's name. I discovered his name in this conversation.

Me: I like your animal. What animal did you choose?

P: This is a lion. I like him.

Me: Oh! What's your lion's name?

P: His name Tiger.


Tiger the lion is up in bed sleeping with Parker even as we speak I write.

As the day wore on, I noticed that P began to get a bit droopy.
Fortunately, the zoo had on some water sprinklers throughout the park. A dance in the cool mist brightened his spirits considerably.
We ended the day with a chocolate ice cream cone for P. I didn't take any pictures of his "nack," but let's say this: it was hot, he wasn't wearing a bib, and his shirt is bright yellow... with brown polka dots... I've tried a few stain removal ideas already. Anyone got any ideas for getting rid of chocolate ice cream stains?

Ready, Set...

Go!

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Yes, it was. Hot, that is. It was in the nineties when we visited Elmo and his buddies at Busch Gardens on Tuesday. However, I was referring to the popular song Elmo and friends danced to in the title of this post. When we dined with Elmo and friends, P joined in the conga line at the close of their show. Keep an eye out for him - he's between Ernie and Cookie Monster.

fun with Elmo and friends

Tuesday we headed to Busch Gardens, Williamsburg for some fun with Elmo and his friends. We went twice last summer, and this year it was lots of fun for Daddy A and I to see C have fun alongside P. (I'm sure he had a great time last year, too, but reallistically, he could have napped in his stroller somewhere closer to home.) We ate lunch with Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie, and the Grouch.

We saw lots of characters,

rode some rides, but not as many as last year, (I'm pretty sure this was not because P was tall enough for the Grover roller coaster this year and someone I scared the pants off of him with the first ride of the day.) and...

...played in the water. P (literally) jumped right in, and C warmed up (or should I say cooled down) to the idea pretty quickly as well. I suspect it was P's favorite part of the day.After a delicious lunch and lots of splashing around, P was more comfortable with the rides. Bebe even rode his first ride, with his big brother by his side!

The Great Vigil of Easter

Tonight we had the service of the Great Vigil of Easter at church. This was a very special service for lots of reasons, but in particular because this is the first year that this service has been held at our church (at least in recent years). It's a favorite service of both Daddy A and I, and there were six baptisms tonight. The baptisms were the reason that P was so excited about this service. "Baby Piper" and Happy were both baptized tonight (along with a few more church members), and P couldn't wait to watch his friends "get God." "Mommy," he explained, "they will get water on their heads and a cross. The water will come out of a special bowl. Their heads will get wet, and they will get God. I want to stay and watch."
I had mixed feelings about the situation. While I was thrilled that P already recognizes on some level that baptism is very special, and while I am excited that he wants to attend church, I had my misgivings.

• The service began at 8:00pm. Typically, P goes to bed at 8:00pm.
• P attended a birthday party this afternoon. He was outside running around in 80 degree weather for almost three hours, and he ate approximately twice his body weight in candy (an estimation based upon what I actually saw enter his mouth and what I can guess also entered his mouth - and what didn't - based upon the state of his clothing following the party).
• The service is longer than an average Sunday service for our church. P typically stays in church through the children's sermon and then leaves to play in the nursery.

Both of the boys did really well tonight, even without extenuating services. (That said, please review extenuating circumstances above as needed for a refresher. While reviewing, please note that C attended the same party and that he typically goes to bed around 7:30pm.) Given the extenuating circumstances, I would most assuredly label their behavior tonight as rock star level.

C went to bed in one of the cribs in the nursery. It took him abut ten minutes to settle down, and he slept from 7:40pm or so until I picked him up at 9:28pm. Upon his arrival home, he went straight back to bed and is sleeping as we speak.

P went to church. During the first reading, he did ask to leave. We went all the way to the nursery. I dropped him off, agreeing to come back and get him before the baptisms so he could watch. At the last minute, he said, "No! I might miss it. I need to come back now!" He not only stayed for the baptisms, he then asked to remain in church until the conclusion of the service. I think he did well.

I want to reiterate that, while he wasn't by any means a silent participant in the service, P did just turn three, and I offer the following humorous - and true - accounts of our time in church as just that. They will be funny memories of this Easter season, but they do not diminish the great job an exhausted three year old boy did in worship.

Here is a sampling of some of the things I said duiring worship tonight:

"No, P! Do not even tease Mommy by pretending you are going to burn the pew with your candle. It is not okay to light parts of the church on fire."

"Oh, you want a snack. That's good, because it's almost time for a snack of bread. Watch Daddy; he's getting ready to pour some juice. Watch closely, and be very quiet."

"Yes, sweet boy, I realize that Easter is a happy time and that 'Happy Birthday' is a song that makes you happy. I still think it would be best if you did not sing it - especially very loudly - right now, because Daddy and Pastor Michael are leading communion. Other people are trying to hear them."

"The water is still in the bowl up there, yes! And I know you really want to look at it. When the service is over in just a minute, we will walk up there and look in the bowl." (Yup, we did go up there, the water was still there, and he really did just want to look at it.)

Upon our arrival home from church, I helped P change into his pajamas, and offered him the choice of either one bedtime story or going straight to bed. He initially tried to decline both choices, asking for candy instead. When I explained that we would not be eating candy at 10:00 at night, but that the Easter Bunny might bring him some candy tomorrow, he sighed. "Straight to bed, then," he said. He went right off to sleep, and is probably dreaming now of "chocit rabbits." Happy Easter!