To my readers without live journals - please feel free to write. You can post an "anonymous" comment, but please tag them with your name so I know who you are!

This past Saturday, we took C Raz bowling for the first time. He's played Wii bowling several times, and when he heard that Daddy had gone bowling for real Friday night, he wanted to do it too. Because of the bumpers, he calls it "bumpin bowling." I was impressed with how easily he lifted and toted the 4 lb ball....but man, does it go down the aisle ssslllloooooooowwwwwllllyyy. He's man enough to handle a pink ball, but next time I think we'll go for the 5-pounder. He was bound and determined to do it himself.

( Strike! Click here for more pix and final scores... )

A couple of weeks ago, C Raz came with me to Praise Team practice. He enjoyed dancing around and checking out the different instruments. Our drummer, Jeff, was kind enough to let him sit at his drumset and play for a little while. Little drummer boy was thrilled. Ever since, strange configurations of toys, furniture and other things have mysteriously arranged themselves into drumsets around the house.

Here he had been indulging in a different pastime and had asked to put on his Chef Halloween costume. However, somewhere along the way, his two wooden chopping knives became drumsticks....

He has even made a up a song or two that he sings while he drums. My favorite consists of the words "Mommy's a princess, Mommy's a princess." Who am I to argue?

So far, C Raz has made two requests for his Halloween costume this year - first it was doctor, then it was a dinosaur (tricertops or a saurus, Mama). So I'm taking wagers on how many times it will change before Halloween and how many options there will be.

Of course, in the back of my mind, I'm in party planning mode...."what will the birthday theme be for each costume choice"? I think both of those could be fun. If he's a doctor, the theme could be "what do you want to be when you grow up?" (which even adults could have fun with) and dinosaur could be "make believe" or something like that.

"Let's put on your gloves. It's very cold out today."

"No, Mama. It's reeealllly, reallly, reeeeeeallllllly cold. Say that."

C Raz's birthday was one of unseasonably warm weather, of which we were happy to take advantage. I had taken the day off to get things ready for his party the next day, so I raked the leaves while he was at daycare and made him a giant pile as a surprise. He was so excited to jump in them and open his presents. It was great to be able to go trick-or-treating with just an extra t-shirt under his costume and not have to put a coat on top and cover up the great chef costume that Meemaw made him and Aunt Min's mom embroidered. He got gyped in the costume contest, but I guess he can't win every year. Everyone said he was the cutest.



Can I open them yet?


( See his costume and more birthday fun here.... )


Party pix to come soon!

Tuesday night was C Raz's daycare Halloween party. It is a cute event. They have different crafts or activities in each of the rooms, as well as some candy and some other yummy snacks. The main event, however, is the magician, who the children call Dumbledore. C Raz had a lot of fun - his favorites were getting his face painted, eating gummy worms and petting the magician's rabbit. The one downer about this event was they passed out glow-in-the-dark safety whistles...which many of the older children then annoyed the rest of the attendees by blowing way too much the rest of the evening.



"Dumbledore" uses distraction and slight of hand.


( Say Hocus Pocus and click here for more photos.... )

More penguin fun tomorrow!

This morning, C Raz got up onto my spot at the table with a big stack of papers and some markers.

"I'm paying the bills!" He said.

If only you could, sweet boy.

C Raz learned a new song last week, to the tune of "Oh My Darling Clementine" -

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

It's very cute when he sings it, but I can't get it out of my head.

This morning C Raz wouldn't put on the pants I chose for him because he said they hurt.

Sound familiar, Meemaw?

1) C Raz has memorized his first book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, although he occasionally skips the white dog and black sheep.

2) Facebook is addictive.

3) I really hope the little pond next to the fire station does not flood with all of the rain we are getting.

We went to Sushi Hana last night for my birthday dinner. C Raz always has chicken teriyaki there, rather than sushi, but has to have the little bowl of soy sauce for dipping, like mama and daddy. I turned away for a minute, and when I turned back, he was drinking it. Blech! But apparently he liked it, because a couple minutes later, he did it again.

_______

Bonus story:
Sunday, C Raz would not cooperate with taking his nap. First he climbed over the gate in his doorway and we found him playing in our bedroom. Then he was playing "kitchen" in his room, so we just left him because he was at least being quiet and low energy. After a while, Andy went up to check on him. He came back to report that he had fallen asleep, but asked "Did you put sweatpants on him for some reason?" I hadn't, so C Raz must have gotten them out of his own drawer. Later, when C Raz woke up and came downstairs, he reported, "I all wet. I change me." Not only had he taken of his shorts and put on the sweatpants, he had taken off his pull-up and put on a Little Swimmer.

So it's the day after the wedding. Everything went well. At home trying to do as little as possible as we are exhausted from the activity and not getting to bed until after 3 in the morning. Except of course for C Raz, who decided it was time to get up at 7:30 this morning.

Photos to come soon!

Last fall, three days before Paul and Amber's wedding, our favorite ringbearer tripped and fell, bruising his face.

Well, guess what? Ringbearer duties resume for Kris and Susan's wedding on Sunday. So of course C Raz fell and bonked his eye on a chair at daycare, giving himself a nice little shiner.

It's still pretty swollen this morning. Hoping it goes down by Sunday and we can put a little makeup on it.

C Raz has a blue fleece pullover with a pawprint embroidered on it.

I put it on him this week for the first time since April or May because we've been having cooler mornings.

His new reaction? "A clue! I'm a clue!"

"Threemorrow" is one of C Raz's latest word inventions. They are actively working on days of the week at daycare, along with the concepts of tomorrow and yesterday, which he does seem to be picking up. But he also insists that we are going to do things threemorrow.

I'm not sure if threemorrow is sooner or later than "twomorrow" in his mind, or just better. But it's cute.

....but hard to have all cooperating for a photo at the same time!

Why is it that you can somewhat easily take a good photo of two children, but when there is a third child in the mix, it becomes almost impossible? Someone is always making a face, wiggling away or just looking off in a different direction. (Yeah, so good luck with that, pregnant sisters of ours.)


Here, C Raz hangs out with his Toledo cousins while we are attempting to get a nice horizontal shot for Busia's picture frame.


Aunt Cheri bought cool "Cousins Unite!" shirts for this photo op with his Maryland cousins. Unfortunately, due to certain uncooperative individuals who will not be named, it turned into "Cousins Untie!"

( Click here for more pix where children are somewhat well behaved! )

I will continue the efforts to post some long overdue photos next week!

C Raz got a big boy bike on Saturday. Originally we just planned to get him a tricycle, which we had never purchased last year because his feet hadn't reached the pedals yet. During this shopping trip, we discovered that he could operate this one just as well as a tricycle. Hopefully this will last longer. Also, we hadn't planned to get a "character" bike, but the Thomas one was just so much cooler than the other ones available.


First ride! Don't worry, I figured out how to properly adjust his helmet before he got much further.


Demonstrating his ability to share, C Raz allows his "deetaball" to ride his bike.

C Raz will be sad that the "pennins" are gone, but it feels nice to have a less wintry background!

The form of discipline used at daycare has been catching on with C Raz. When Daddy is bad and misbehaves, C Raz tells him "Tie moat, Daddy!" It's quite humorous.

Upon us opening the cupboard to figure out dinner, he said "Want Roni Cheese."

N'uff said.