Wheels On The Bus

So, Ethan got a new toy this weekend. His birthday is coming up in a few weeks & I convinced Gramma & Papa that he should have this bus-slide toy from them early. He loves anything with wheels and he also loves buses so when we saw this on line at the Toys R Us website I knew he had to have it. Besides, the playground equipment gets SO HOT in the sun now that its summer so its not as fun to go to the park (except for swingin)

Lawrence & I put it together on Saturday night. I swear they want parents to fight when assembling these things. It looks simple but truly required reading the instructions & doing it step by step. The worst part was the labels. Those suckers were sticky! Try as I might, I couldn't get them to line up right without air bubbles. I let L finish applying them after he, um, remarked about my skills. Hmph! Why couldn't the stickers come on already mounted. *grumble*

Anyways, Sunday morning after breakfast was the big reveal and it was a sucess, just as we hoped it would be. He loved it. He doesn't go down the slide much yet, just gets in there & steers! And the attached wheels actually spin around. He loves that too.

So, every time I look at it, I get the melody to the song "Wheels on the Bus" in my head. In fact it has been going "round & round" in my brain all day long. Oh well, whatever keeps my little boy occupied is worth an annoying song stuck in my head.

And in case it isn't stuck in yours yet, here you go:

The wheels on the bus go round and round

Round and round

Round and round

The wheels on the bus go round and round

All around the town!

And Ethan's fave verses

The horn on the bus goes Beep, Beep, Beep

and

The baby on the bus goes Wah, wah, wahhh!

Funny About Feet

Mommy's Sockies!

My kid is funny about feet!  He is obsessed with socks, my socks in particular. If he finds a pair rolled up, he brings them over to me and says "sockies ON?" and figures I must need to put them on, even if I already am wearing some.  But he especially loves my extra soft or fuzzy socks. Nearly every day, he pulls a pair out of my drawer and happily cuddles it to his face saying "ohhh" like its some cuddly stuffed toy. But recently, he's decided that maybe he should also try them on. So Lawrence happily pulled these fuzzy socks onto Ethan's little legs & he marched around the kitchen in them like a half-Muppet child, probably sweating profusely.

He loves seeing other people's bare toes. Even a stranger. He'll usually point and say TOES or he'll go over to them and pinch them going "Eeeee" like we used to do when pinching his bare toes. So, if you come to my house in sandals, be prepared to have a toddler grab your toes with a squeal.

However, he is not fond of being bare foot. Oh, in the house its ok, but he really hates playing outside with no shoes on. He would prefer to play in his pool with socks & shoes on than barefoot. I think its the grass! If I do get him outside with no shoes on, he won't leave the patio. And then if he does go on the grass he does this high goose step like I've made him walk on thorns. It really is a funny site. 

We also can hardly get him to wear shoes without socks on. I thought sandals or water shoes would be the answer to solving his barefoot problem. But he screams like we're beating him if I try to slide on shoes without socks on.

Hopefully as the summer progresses he'll get more & more used to barefeet. He's going to look awfully silly at the beach with a swimsuit and socks & shoes on... but then, I've seen some grown men that still do that.

New Discoveries

I love all the new discoveries we get to experience as parents through the eyes and senses of our child. So far this year he's got to see & touch crabs, a frog, and now this baby robin (stuck running around in our yard) The look of wonder & amazement on his face just fills my heart. And no fear whatsoever. He grabbed up those teeny crabs without worrying if they'd pinch him or crawl away. (I don't like them, they're small so they seem spidery to me - bleah)

He's fascinated with bugs, beetles and ants. He likes to feel the bark on trees and touch flower petals (which he says "nice" or "pretty") and every day he picks a clover flower out of the grass and hands it to me saying "thank you mommy". So sweet!

We love all the new experiences we get to introduce him to. He's been quad & dirtbike riding, hiking along the river, rock lifting at the ocean, playing in the sand at the lake, chasing ducks at the park and we know there are so many more to come.

I want him to have a deep love & respect of the great outdoors. Not a 'tree-hugger' type respect, for we don't really fall into that category because we love off-roading & hunting & wood cutting too, but just a sense of awe, a sense of peace & tranquility of God's awesome creation, and a sense of adventure to be out there, filling his senses, exploring, trying new things.

Grocery Shopping - Toddler Style

Race car grocery carts. Are they a godsend or a royal pain? Whenever I take my son to the grocery store we MUST shop using this cart only. If I don't see one in the parking lot cart spots I am tempted to turn around and go home. He loves this thing.

I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about as many grocery stores have a few of these on hand to entertain active toddlers so moms can shop. They are usually huge, in a bright yellow, green, or red and often have a steering wheel or two that our crazy mini drivers can wildly steer in pure joy of being in control.

Yes, I am grateful that my local store got some in, but they only got two, so usually there are a few jealous toddlers gazing in fascination from their regular shopping carts wishing they too could be in the driver seat.

But these things are huge cumbersome behemoths to steer around! I can't see the front so I always bump into something, or someone and the store was not designed with these beasts in mind. All the delicate little grannies taking up the whole aisle in the store have nowhere to go when I come charging up the aisles. And its not like they don't know we're coming. The high pitched squeals of driving joy and Brmm Brrmm sounds can be heard three aisles over.

And yet, I can shop happily while he steers like a madman full of joy and so I keep my eyes open for these carts where ever I get groceries. Or... I leave him home with daddy and shop alone :) But then what fun is that?

The New Me

I decided I needed a second blog location to write about being a mom and our world as parents. So this is it.

This is our new blog, my new role, the new me as: Mommy!  A job I never knew how MUCH I wanted and a role in life that I never knew would be so amazingly wonderful.

How fun & exciting it is to see the world through new eyes. To find new ways of exploring, of being spontaneous & adventurous in a way that an "almost two year old" can experience too.

While some times it feels like a few hobbies are put on hold, a few doors are shut temporarily, so many more things have opened up to us. Our duo is a trio and we're having so much fun being a family.