Playdate with Kiera and Xander

Saturday morning we invited Kiera over to our house to return the favor and her baby brother Xander tagged along.

 pushing each other in the car

 making soup

the three musketeers!

Elmo!

So, at Nibbles on Friday, we met up with a bunch of moms and kids in a meetup group we are a part of.  The big surprise that I was not expecting was that Elmo showed up too!  I expected Josh to either be frightened by this humongous Elmo, or Super Excited.  But neither, he took it in stride and played ring around the rosy like he was any other kid.  Elmo or Mo-Mo as he is known around here is a pretty good friend.  We watch Sesame Street at least once per day and love to cuddle with the Tickle Me Elmo Josh got from Mimi or PaPa Ben when he was born, so I was actually a little disappointed he wasn't more excited.  I guess I should be happy he wasn't scared.

A morning in the life

Yes, he has rain boots, sweatpants, and a pullover on. He put the boots on himself and insisted on vacuuming.
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Reading*

I caught Josh red handed Monday morning.  he had pulled down quite a lot of toys, just to read this one book.  probably a book on trains, I don't remember.

After Gymboree, I finally broke down and Josh got to ride the train that goes around the mall.  It's on the upper level, and you can see it from the free play place we often spend time in before Gymboree.  I bribed Josh that if he stayed in Gymboree the whole class, we would go on the train.  Sure enough, he asked for the train after class.  He was quiet and sat still the whole ride.

*the double entendre is a reference to one of the railroads in my favorite board game.  2 points to the person who can name the game!

guitar!

Josh's new favorite toy a is guitar, which is actually impressive because it plays songs already for you, and also has the tremolo arm.  (yeah I had to look up what the term is for that, i didn't know!)

Bounce house

after a make-up soccer lesson, we moved to the other side of the soccer field for the bounce houses they have set up on Fridays.  Well, Josh actually tried going over there about half-way through the class, and I spent 20 minutes bringing him back each time.  This kid is very curious and appears to have no fear.

Drawing

We got Josh some markers for the holidays.  these are markers that only work on special paper, so coloring has been a fun activity this year.  One afternoon Jared drew a picture of Elmo and Josh thought it was so funny. So then Jared added Josh (with a pacifier in his mouth.  I'm not sure if Josh had shoes on at the time).  Anyway, this was also met with hilarity, so Jared then added the cat in the hat.  I'll let you figure out who is who, but I thought this was such good drawing (I could never do this well) that I had to share.  Happy Thursday.

Family Portrait

We had these pictures taken in Florida while on vacation.  Since they weren't digital, we had to scan them in, and we had some technical difficulties.  But finally they are here.

Thomas!

Thomas, the tank engine has started appearing in our lives lately.  Josh got a train for the holidays and ever since, we've been interested in trains.  We've checked a couple of train books out, and of course some of those have been Thomas.  My mom says my brother was a big fan too, so when I saw that the Barnes & Noble had a free storytime and today's stories were Thomas, it went on the calendar and we were there!  The coloring afterwards and especially the train table were bigger hits than the books.  

Josh is really into transportation in general.  He can say car, bus, truck, plane, boat and "choo-choo" and he'll even say something that is supposed to sound like the sirens of emergency vehicles when we see the flashing lights. He knows these all "go-go" and is insistent that I "go-go" when driving, even if we are at a red light.  I think

Children's Museum

we revisited the children's museum and Josh had a great time.  I bet if we went first thing in the morning he could spend all morning there.  As you can tell, we went after soccer and so we only got about an hour and a half before the hunger and tired crankiness set in.  We'll definitely go back, though I haven't decided if I want to get a membership yet.  

 Josh loved this car.  In fact, he took the brush and sponges and "washed" it too.  There's also a car wash the children can walk through, behind.

 Josh loves buckling himself in, even in the real carseat, stroller, and high chair.

 he wasn't quite sure what the deal was at the vet,

 but he did have fun with the phone!

 he worked well with the other kids to move the bean bags through the lift and back again.

I think he would have spent more time in the music exhibit, but he was getting tired.

Silly!

GaGa and PaPa came over for a bit on Sunday and we caught this shot of my dad and Josh being silly, right before bed.

Car show

Monica and Adam were in town from Nashville, so we went to the car show!  we didn't really catch that many great shots because Josh was running everywhere!  We went to Emilio's Tapas for dinner afterwards and had a great time!

This one's for you Carl

Josh has been in soccer lessons this spring, mostly so he can have a place to run around.  there's an indoor soccer place and it does a great job of tiring him out!

GOOOOOOOOAL!

First Shave?

Josh was enthralled when Jared was shaving this morning, so we gave Josh a little shaving cream to play with...he didn't like it once it was on his face!

 Later, we went to story time at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, and while waiting, he let me take this picture!

Dinner at Madden's

Madden and his parents invited us over for dinner and the boys had a great time playing!

Lunch, he got the chairs himself!

Josh brought the chairs into the kitchen from the family room, asked for help with the table and asked for "be-buls" which meant meat balls. He's also eating apricot!

Snowpocalypse 2011

Well Chicago finally got some major snowfall, and though I think the TV stations are referring to it as Blizzard 2011, I like the more dramatic "Snowpocalypse" that is going around on the Interwebs! We got about 20 inches so far, but with the blowing wind, some of it was taller than Josh!

 I'm only 5 feet tall but you can see it was past my knees!

 Having some fun in the snow.

 Josh even got in on the fun. 

Enjoying some homemade hot chocolate afterwards.