Not happy to see me?

I am on call for work this week and we get off at 3 pm when on call so we can be ready to take emergency calls at 4 pm. I was excited about getting out of work a little early and picking up Christopher for some extra mommy and son time. So I get there at 3:30 and they were about to head outside, he sees me and breaks down in tears. He was oh so not happy to see me. Man, so glad I wanted to spend extra time with him. He did not want to go home with me. So I left him for a few minutes and went over to Trader Joes, then went back at 4. I really know better than to feel hurt, but it did hurt my feelings just a little. I picked him up early again today. No tears, but I did get an upset, “Why do you always have to do that, picking me up early?” He asked if tomorrow I would please not pick him up early. So I guess I get some me time instead. I can at least be happy that he enjoys his time in after school care, right?!?!

Love and Heartbreak already?

Christopher fell in love Friday with a 1st grader. He was so excited to say he fell in love with a little girl Kennedy, who is in first grade. She drew him a heart, they hugged three times. Well yesterday I pick him up and Kennedy wouldn’t play with him yesterday. She likes someone else, says Christopher. Last night on his chalkboard he asks me to write his name, her name, heart is broken, he drew a heart. How sad for him! This is much too soon for my son to be getting his heart broken by a little girl. He said this morning he did not want to go to school if Kennedy has a new boyfriend. He had pretty much forgotten about it by the time we left for the school bus, though.

Bus Rider

Christopher was very determined to ride the bus to school. It was one of those things that we had always said we would allow, but then when it came time to do it, we were scared and nervous. He begged and begged to ride the bus, so we gave in. It is an Express Bus, so it only stops at our stop and one other school and then goes to his school. The Kindergarten kids sit up front. He has a little Kindergarten girl that gets on at our stop, Jennifer, and they sit together. It was pretty hard seeing him get on the bus for the first time, but he loves it so much! He has now ridden the bus for three days and still wants to. I think it is great that he is so independent. It also allows for him to go into the cafeteria in the morning and buy his lunch. I would love to see him do that all by himself. He has taken a liking to Cocoa Pups (Cocoa Puffs) in the cafeteria in the morning. Thank goodness we are giving him a healthy snack before sending him off on the bus.

Here he is ready to get on the bus the first time:


Here he is excitedly waiting for the bus to stop for him to get on:

Yummy, Yummy Kid’s Meal

While my mom was visiting, we took a trip to Mad Hatter in Durham for lunch. The food was so good and ended up being a yummy treat for Christopher.
Mom and I had a Thai Chicken Hot wrap which is a wrap Chicken and Jasmine rice with a peanut sauce. We also had the fries. They are soo good, hand cut fries served a in soda fountain glass with three different dipping sauces, jalapeno ketchup, basil aioli, curry aioli. I like the basil aioli the best.
The yummy treat for Christopher was the Kid’s meal which is $3.95. He had fruit salad, chicken fingers, milk, and a Build-Your-Own Cupcake Kit. He was so happy about the kit. It came with a vanilla or chocolate cupcake, frosting in a pastry bag, and three mini cups of sprinkles on a tray. He can’t wait to go back and make another cupcake.

He was a surfer boy!

This past weekend we took a trip down to the beach with some of our friends from our playgroup. We stayed down at Carolina Beach, NC. The house was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath with a yard, patio, and grill. It was all right, probably wouldn't stay there again, but it was CHEAP and walking distance to the Beach and Boardwalk. We got down on Friday and ate dinner and then put the kids to bed and stayed up playing cards and listening to music. Saturday Elysia’s kids woke us up at the crack of dawn yelling and playing and then proceeded to go back to bed until ten. (Yep, I am totally hating on her because her kids are such good sleepers). Mine would not go back to sleep so I cooked breakfast while Christopher and Stefan watched TV. After breakfast we got ready for the beach just in time for Lita to arrive with Malaya and we all headed down to the beach. It was a lot of fun. The kids played a lot and then we went back for lunch, nap, and dinner. After putting the kids to bed, we played cards again and went to bed too late. Sunday was much the same, got up, cooked breakfast, then beach time. The rain storms threatened our beach time, but thankfully passed in time for us to go. The kids loved being buried in the sand, playing on the shore, playing in the sand, and running around. Christopher loved all that, but loved being in the water the most. He had gotten a boogie board for being a good boy at camp all week. I wanted him to have it so bad that I was really hoping he would behave so he could get it. The water had been a little rough Saturday and Sunday, but we still had fun.
Then Monday came and we trekked down to the beach one last time before leaving. Chris and I took Elysia's kids with us while they slept in. We hit Britt’s Donut Shop on the Boardwalk for some of the best donuts I had ever had in my entire life. Christopher totally agreed, albeit in his shorter life. Then we headed to the beach. This was the earliest we had gotten out there all weekend, even after sleeping until 8:30 am, woohoo! The water was so calm. Christopher stayed out in the water probably two hours surfing on his boogie board and loving life. He kept saying stuff like: "I have been surfing my whole life", "I am such a good surfer", "I love surfing", "I am going to be a surfer when I grow up". It was adorable. I loved being at the beach. I am also so proud of myself for going to the beach for three days and not getting sunburned. Thank goodness.

Hubby's Birthday Cake

I hadn't made a cake (decorated) since C's 3rd birthday. At the last minute I decided to make a cake for Chris' birthday party, so I thought I would share a picture of the cake. It is an North Carolina State Basketball Cake. I used a great recipe for the frosting called Magnolia's Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and it tasted soooooo good. The cake was a moist pound cake type cake that was made with a cake mix with added pudding, eggs, flour, butter and more. I really like the taste of Edible Art cakes and while I could never decorate a cake that well, I swear the cake tasted as good.

Here it is:

Freak?

C had an accident at summer camp. It was bound to happen at some point. Poor kid, made it to the bathroom but didn't get his peepee pointed in the right direction at the right time and boom! pee down the pants. Unfortunately, I guess a few kids saw that he had peed his pants before the counselor could figure out that for the last three weeks I have been packing a pair of extra pants in his backpack on the small chance this would happen. So Christopher is telling me about it and says, "They laughed and teased me and made me feel like a freak!". Um, excuse me, what did my 4 year old just say? Freak? Really now, he is growing up way too fast, he sounds like a 2nd grader. Of course, just like the dodge ball incident, I got all protective and was sad for my little guy. Chris was not so understanding and sad for C. He said, see, maybe next time you won't pee your pants, they won't tease you if you don't pee your pants.
The dodge ball incident was that they play dodge ball at camp. This is a completely new game to C. He told me he got hit in the head and his head hurt. I remember dodge ball and how much I hated it and wanted to get all protective. Chris told him, you need to get out of the way of the ball. Luckily the situation resolved itself the next day when C came running to me and tells me he knows what he was doing wrong in dodge ball, standing too close to the line. Problem solved without mommy's help.

Two More Wedding Pictures

We got some more wedding pictures and I had to share two that I absolutely love! My little man looks so grown up! I knwo I am partial, but he is one handsome kid. Almost every picture he took at the wedding was great. Everyone commented on how photogenic he is.

Patching

I had said a few weeks ago I would update on the patching and well, forgot. We went to go see his eye doctor and find out how his eye was doing. He had surgery about 15 months ago for strabismus. For about 6 months before the surgery and ever since we have needed to patch his left eye. Before the surgery we needed to do it 6 hours a day, 7 days a week, which was kinda hard with a just turned 3 year old. Then after it was more like 3 hours a day, 7 days a week. Chris and I got real lax with it and hadn’t done it consistently before this last appt . Well, his eye sight is now 20/40, possibly 20/50. He can see really good out of both eyes at close distances but one you get to far vision, his right eye misses a line that his left can do that would put him at 20/20. The doctor really thinks he can get his eye sight closer to normal with patching and training his right eye to see by patching the left. So, I went and got some new patches which I really like more than the OrtoPad we had been using. I saw a little kid with a cool patch and asked her mom where she got them. The poor mom barely spoke English and I thought she kept saying Fresno Prism, but the beauty of the internet is that you can find anything is you remotely know what you are looking for. It was Fresnel Prism and their designs are just slightly cooler than OrtoPad, but they stick soooo much better so I have a feeling that we can get our 20-25 hours of patching in each week. We have remembered almost every day since the last eye appt. Here is a pic of the little man with a patch on.

ETA: They added 4 new designs when I went to look just now, so next time footballs and lizards. This past time we got flames, stars, spiders, and trucks.

Photography Blog

I was looking at a photogrpahy blog of a girl I know, I had only just now realized she had a blog and started her photography business. I always knew she took great pictures, just hadn't realized she was doing it professionally now. In her blog, I happened on a picture of Christopher and is it so cute. She specializes in weddings, maternity, babies, kids, and children's birthday parties. Which is a great idea, so you're not running around trying to get pictures at their birthday party and can enjoy it more or like me for his second where I forgot my camera. Doh! The picture was from his patching days (which are not over, will update in a new post) at a birthday party for his friend Mari in September. She really captured a cute shot of Christopher, his cupcake and the best blueberry gelato ever on his lap and his hand in his mouth.
Check it out on her blog: Amanda Olson Photography
Amanda is a great photographer, she took the Father's Day pictures of Christopher from last year. They turned out so cute despite my grumpy boy that day. She put them in a montage and emailed them to me. I added a poem and printed as an 8X10 and it was a great present for hubby. Hmmm, she is running a $50 special right now, I might need to get some pictures of Christopher done.

Ah, Pool Season

Our pool opened up before the trip to California, but we did not manage to get in before we left. So yesterday Christopher finally got into the pool. I left him there with the neighbor and went home to finish steam cleaning the carpets, joy, not! He is such a little fishy, I am sure we will continue our tradition from last year and visit the pool almost every day now. Last year we went every weekend and almost every day after school. And, the bonus was he slept SOOOO good last night! He plays so hard in the pool, it always makes him sleep well. Yay! He had been off since our return from Cali/Las Vegas and not wanting to go to sleep at night and then being dead to the world still at 845/9:00 am. It was pretty hard getting him up.
Funny for the day (yesterday) is our neighbor asked us what we did in Vegas and he said, "We visited the casinos." No mention of the family picnic or the family dinner or anything, just the casinos, how embarrassing. Just makes me wonder what he tells his classmates at school.

The pic of the day is a flashback from the fist time Christopher was at the neighborhood pool:

This is toward the end of that first summer:

Brother's Wedding

My younger brother Aaron got married this past weekend. He married his long time girlfriend Patty. Christopher got to have the honor of being the ring bearer. He really wanted to marry Patty, but settled as the ring bearer. Christopher has been saying for over a year that Patty is his girlfriend and that he was marrying her. The colors were fuschia and black and the wedding was very pretty. Christopher wore a black suit with a pink fuschia bow tie. He was one of the cutest ring bearers you will ever see, of course I am biased.
They got married in Lancaster, CA at Cascades at Rancho Vista. Lancaster/Palmdale area of Californis is where I am originally from.

Me and Aaron:

Chris and Aaron:

The Wedding Guys:

Chris and Christopher:

Quarter Update

Christopher is fine from the quarter incident. He had a belly ache for just a day. We never actually saw the quarter again, but we assume that all is okay. I am wondering if maybe he either 1) swallowed something other than a quarter, perhaps a dime or nickel, 2) never swallowed anything and it was all a rouse to get to come home from school, or 3) really did swallow. Who knows?!?!

Always Exciting

Another exciting day. Christopher was at day care yesterday and decided it would be a good idea to swallow a quarter.
I was in training all afternoon, so they ended up getting hold of Chris to pick him up. I got the call after Chris was almost at the day-care. He was complaining that his belly hurt. Really, huh? Ya think! Well he took him home while I finished up at the office. The doctor said as long as he can eat/drink normally there is not much we can do. We need to make sure he passes it, but not anything else.
Christopher and I had a long talk about not eating/swallowing things that don't belong in his mouth and that if it had been worse he might have missed his trip to California. He wouldn't have been too happy about that.
He is back to normal today, thank goodness. Not sure that he learned his lesson as I caught him this evening putting a water bottle cap in his mouth. We never had these issues when he was a baby, why now?

Last T-Ball Game

Christopher had his last T-Ball game of the season Saturday and he played pretty well. Much better than the first game. The first ball he hit really well and made it to first, they played with outs this time, so thank goodness he made it. He made it the second time, too and hit it even further. They switch positions up, so the first time out he played on the pitcher mound. He had almost every ball hit to him. He missed two, but the rest he managed to stop and throw to first. Here is my first video I am posting with him getting the ball and throwing to first, first baseman caught it, too! The next time out he was in the outfield and no balls made it to him. He really enjoyed the T-Ball season.

Safety Violation

We were down in South Carolina visiting friends this past weekend and one thing that totally cracked me up was the kids went to rides bikes and scooters and Christopher asks for his helmet and when the little girl said I don't have to wear mine, he said "That is a safety violation!". It was hilarious. I guess I am a little over protective and paranoid, but I do always make Christopher wear his helmet. I *think* it is the law in NC, but not 100% sure. I do know when they have bike rally at school, helmets are mandatory. I am thinking that school is where he learned the whole safety violation thing. I guess it is just so habit now, I don't even think twice, we have two, a bugs one and a Buzz Lightyear one Mimi got him for his birthday from the Disney Store.
Here he is cheesing on his two wheel scooter that he had to have since he was "getting too big" for his three wheel scooter:

We had a blast with his little friend Callie. They are so cute and fun together. Callie is just five weeks older than Christopher. I actually am embarrassed to say I did not take any pictures this weekend, but here is one of Callie and Christopher from the Fall at the NC State vs. East Carolina game in Greenville, NC. (Notice again the cheesy grin)

Park Playdate

We got together with some friends at the park this weekend. The weather was great and the kids had a great time. My entrepreneur son and his friend Aiden started a rock business. They gathered a bunch of rocks from around the playground and were selling them for 79 cents. Not real money, but each kid that wanted a rock had to pretend to give him 79 cents. The kids rode the boat, carousel, and train and played for a long time. We then went and had Mexican Popsicles, Mexican Paletas. They are so yummy. I tried Jasmine Green Tea and Elderberry Lavender. Of course, I got to try other’s paletas, like Pomegranate Tangerine, Hibiscus Strawberry, and more. Christopher had two Chocolate Brownie ones and we even brought a puppy pop home for Calvin, it is frozen chicken stock wrapped around a raw hide.
Here are the kids riding the boat and the train:

Please ignore Christopher's juice stained face ;-)

Daycare Lunch

We get a daily report of what is served at the school for lunch. I know there is a menu posted but I don't ever remember to look at it. Bad mommy, I know. I really should so I don’t have to worry about what he ate for lunch or if an alternative was available. Compared to other daycares, they feed him really well and very healthy. They try to use mostly fresh foods, then frozen, then canned. Whereas most centers feed mostly canned. I worry though when I get the daily report and see that there is only one item he eats, like today. Wonder if he is going to be starving when I pick him up. This was today's menu from the report:
For lunch we had cheese and pepperoni pizza, tomato and cucumber salad, bananas, and Milk.
Skills: Sharing, Taking Turns, Self-Help Skills, Following Directions, Responsibility, Table Manners
Of those items, he eats bananas (an drinks milk). He doesn't eat pizza (for the most part, sometimes he will, mostly not, or will take off all toppings and just eat the crust). He claims he is allergic to cheese, but really he just doesn't like it. I overheard another kid say he is allergic to celery, so all the kids in his class claim allergies to things they don't like. It really is funny. Now Christopher is not picky when it comes to eating, there are just a few things he just won’t eat, cheese, hot dogs, and salad to name a few. The other day the menu was kielbasa, rice, melon, green beans, and milk. Now that I am sure he ate a lot of and ate everything that was offered. For most kids it would have been the other way around, mom didn’t have to worry about the pizza, but maybe about the kielbasa and rice.

Mother's Day

Today was my 5th Mother's Day. My little guy woke me up and snuggled and said Happy Mother's Day. I was going to sleep a little longer and he said, "we can't cancel Mother's Day". I told him we won't and I did get to sleep in, that was nice. I got coffee made for me and a new coffee mug that him and Chris had gone to crazy glaze and made. It turned out cute and says "I love Mom".
We went out to lunch at Bonefish Grill and ate a yummy lunch. Christopher was the only one that ate healthy. He chose the kid's meal of grilled chicken and veggies. I had chicken in a light cream sauce that probably had nothing remotely light in it, but it was yummy! We also had the Bang Bang Shrimp, mmmm!

After lunch we went to run a few errands and got Christopher a new pair of shoes. They are super cool and we got a great deal on them. He got a new pair of Merrell's. He loves them and Merrell is a great shoe. He was so excited he put them on as soon as we got in the car. He is going to summer camp and has been really rough on his shoes so we wanted something that would last all summer and look decent.
We then went to an inflatable jump place for him to do some jumping. He had so much fun and played for two straight hours jumping and sliding. While we were there I realized the ring he had put on his finger earlier that day was getting more stuck. We tried to get the darn thing off and it was not coming off. We tried soap, ice, lotion, etc. There was a pediatrician there for the play date and she said we would probably need to go to Urgent Care. I called around to find one open and couldn’t, so quickly went home for an internet search and found one that would be open. I had 24 minutes to get there and we pulled up at 7:56 pm. They closed at 8 pm. They took him in right away and sawed the ring off. It had started to turn purplish and was very swollen. They used a ring cutter to cut it off. The doctor then gave him a Popsicle, coloring book, and crayons. Way to motivate him to want to go to Urgent Care again. Tomorrow he plans to wear his doctor suit (a hospital gown) and bring his ring into class for show and tell. He still claims all the time he wants to be a doctor when he grows up. He did say he wants to work in an office and see kids and will only work in an office that gives out toys. But, only the kids that are good will get a toy.
I think I deserved my Mother's Day, right? Especially since we had our first trip to Urgent Care with Christopher.

T-Ball Game

Christopher had his first T-Ball game today. It was so cute. He is a Lugnut. They name the teams after minor league teams. They did pictures ahead of time and then played. The pictures were cute and the photographer had a pretty easy time doing the individual shots, but the group shot was hilarious. One kid had his hat down so far you couldn’t see his face and one kid kept trying to pick his butt. Christopher had his big cheese grin and looked pretty cute!
So a few people asked me what it is like for 4-year-olds to play t-ball. Honestly, it is just getting them used to playing, all for fun, no outs, no score, all get a trophy. I will give you a few highlights of the game, starting with Christopher highlights. He played right field first time out and no balls came to him, so he was busy asking Chris where he got the camera from while Chris was videotaping the game. Then he played first which was pretty eventful with the second hitter hitting the ball and Christopher running to second. Hey at least he ran to the correct base, albeit at the wrong time. Then as he was trying to throw the ball home, once it fell out of his hand and landed behind him and another time hit the coach in the back of the head. The rest of the game was pretty uneventful and he hit the ball three times and got to run around the bases. Some of the team highlights were the three kids on his team who were picking grass and throwing it at each other in left field. The kid who was too busy picking his nose and the ball went right past him. The other kid who was assigned to the pitcher mound and he thought he had to stay right there, so the ball went right past him several times.
Here he is waiting to bat:

Here he is in right field, he always crouches like that waiting for the ball: