Shane’s new “thing” - Is it a bird?

Is it superman?
NO! It’s a plane!!! He LOVES to listen for, locate and point out each and every plane he can! And seeing as how the beach is literally across the streat for the local airport, he did a lot of this on Sunday!
Now that the skies are quiet, he can get back to playing!
Getting ready!

I have no idea what he’s running from, but he sure does look cute doing it!

After a day filled with errands and yard work on Saturday, we took Shane down to the beach yesterday to enjoy some time running around on the beach.

I shot most of these in black and white because it was so overcast and the colors down there were so blah. These shots appeal to me more in black and white.

Contemplating life . . .
Watching the soccer game with Daddy
Going down the slide with Mommy. Notice the “stop with the pictures and go already” look on his face! Not even 2 yet and already tired of the “black box”!
This shot totally melts my heart. I love how they love each other . . .
More to come tomorrow . . .

With our baby’s 2nd birthday 9 days away, I’m anticipating our next pediatrician well-visit. I know they’re going to ask me how many words he has now - and while it’s way more than the 4 or 5 he had at 18 months, I’m pretty sure Shane still won’t be where the Dr.’s would like him to be . So - I’m using this post as a place to put down all his current words, as I remember them, because doing it in my head just isn’t working out! At least this way I’ll have something to go back to and add other words as I think of them.

Bottom line, feel free to ignore this post!

Mama
Dada
Juice
More
Hat
Shoe
Sock
Good Girl
Uh-oh
Bath
Ball
Hot
Car (sar)
Dog (de)
Truck (ge)
Door
On
Tree
Book
Bubble

He can also tell you:
A doggie says “grrrrrr”
A cat says “moww”

We were very brave parents this weekend.

About two months ago we spent $125 on tickets to go to Sesame Street Live: Elmo Makes Music, for when they were in town this past weekend. $125. Talk about a gamble! Shane has never been to any type of event before because he’s not exactly your “model toddler”! He can barely sit still long enough to eat breakfast, let alone a 90 minute show! But, we figured if he was going to sit still for anything, it would be for Elmo. We also knew we were going to have to attempt this sooner or later - so we went for it!

75 minutes and an additional $60 on souvniers later, and we’re happy to report that it actually went amazingly well! We started to lose him towards the end, and did leave two songs early, but he did really great! And I think if he had that nap Chris and I tried SO hard for him to take, he would’ve done even better!

But he loved every minute of it! He clapped and pointed and smiled and danced - totally worth every cent! Actually, it was priceless!

Here are some quick snapshots from Grandma’s point-and-shoot that I borrowed for the event! We all had a blast and are keeping our eyes out for a visit from The Wiggles!

In the arena before the show started. Shane’s still a little confused at this point!
Standing at his seat waiting for Elmo to start. Notice he’s thumbing through his $7 program - one of many souveniers from the day!
We call this the “deer in headlights shot” - he just can’t believe what’s going on!

The stage setup. Bert was the first one to come out!

ELMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elmo, Elmo, Elmo, Elmo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He refused to look at me for a picture. Wouldn’t take his eyes off the stage!
Elmo, Cookie, Zoe, Telly Monster and Grover!
We really did have such a fantastic time and we can’t wait to do something like this again!

Chris did the grocery shopping this weekend. And when he got home, his little helper was there to help him put it all away!

As you can see he simply piles up the groceries on the stoop going into the kitchen!
Going back for more . . .
So proud!!! (Excuse the HORRIBLE kitchen floor, paint spatters and all, which is still waiting to be replaced!)

So daycare was closed last week and Aunt Kate has the week off from student teaching, so she was the lucky winner and got to spend the week with Shane!

During the week she discovered Shane’s love for chocolate milkshakes. This is something none of us knew existed because this kid isn’t really into sweets at all.

However, put a chocolate milkshake in front of him and he goes to town. He stands on the chair to get enough “leverage” and he places one hand on each side of the cup on the table to stablize himself. You’d think he’d been doing this for years!

And he’s off . . . . .
Time out for a breathe or two!
And then right back at it!
Needless to say we won’t be driving by Dairy Queen anytime soon! We don’t need Shane to think that chocolate shakes are part of everday life!

Still LOVING this challenge!

Would you like to know how much Shane’s family loves him?? Enough to give up an entire Sunday and spend 11 hours assembling a swingset for him - in the cold - in the rain (and then some!)

That’s right! Shane’s big boy swingset is up and running! Grandpa and Uncle Jay gave Daddy a hand on Sunday and Mommy helped, too, once Grandma and Aunt Kate came over to occupy the little guy.

There were some frustrating moments to say the least, but you kind of expect that when you have 85 individual pieces of wood that get put together with a bag of screws the size of a large cereal box!

However, in the end, when Shane took his first ride down his new slide - it was all worth it! He let out one great big “weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” and smiled, and giggled, and clapped!

It really is the small things in life . . .

Some “before” pictures. The, above mentioned, 85 pieces of wood!

All the plastic “play” pieces and the metal plates. Even the slide came in 3 pieces and had to be assembled!

The boys studying the instruction manual while sorting through all of the hundreds of screws that would be used!

This is how Shane occupied himself during the day . . .

Eating lunch with Aunt Kate

The manual said you would need one adult with one adult “helper” in order to put this together. There were many times when it took 4 (or more) of us to do one task!

“Daddy, I don’t think this is level . . . “
“And these washers don’t taste very good either . . ” (this is when Shane went down for his nap!)

Helping out the big boys!
His first ride down the slide!

The is the best “after” picture we have for the moment. All the swings, gliders have been put on. There is a tarp that goes over the top of the fort/slide area that we didn’t get a chance to put up yet (but will this weeked). To the left of the slide is the rock wall and the monkey bars and underneath the “fort” is an area for sandbox, that we’ll use for playing with geeeeeeeeeeeeeees (trucks!)
All in all, Shane is thrilled with set (and so are we) and at the end of the day it really was very easy to assemble, just time consuming.

Just one more “baby slide” picture to share - love his expression in this shot as he anticpates the ride ahead of him!

Check back tomorrow for pictures from this past weekend - we installed Shane’s “big boy” playset!

Shane just can’t get enough of the dogs lately! And since Zoe is the only one who will stand for it (most of the time anyway) she’s usually the one getting all of his “lovin’”!

I’ve shared similar pictures in the past, but these are too stinkin’ cute not to share! I love the look of glee on his face in the 2nd shot as Zoe kisses him back!

I love how he loves these girls!

We have a weekly morning routine in our house. We get up (whenever Shane happens to wake up), we eat breakfast and then we all start to shower and get ready for the day ahead. As we’re in the bedroom getting ready in the mornings, Shane always likes to be in there with us, watching Elmo. So we went out and got a DVD player for our room, just so we could watch Elmo movies in bed! It’s actually kind of nice, having him in one spot for more than 20 seconds!

These shots are far from being technically correct, but something about them is cool to me. Maybe it’s the coloring (we get really cool lighting in our room in the mornings), maybe it’s the weird angles - but I like them. So I thought I’d share a part of our day with all of you.

One night last week as I was making dinner after we got home from work/daycare, I happened to walk by one of the doors into the playroom . . . and this is what I found!

There he sat, on the couch, with the evening sun pouring through the windows behind him, and he was reading - just like his Daddy! The kicker? The book he’s “reading” is one of Daddy’s history books - it’s not even a cutie little book about trucks!

This kid is more like his Dad than any of us care to admit!!!

Shane has discovered the computer. And now we can’t get him away from it!

I’m always posting photographs and stories of our precious bundle of joy, but I’ve never actually dedicated a post to my wonderful husband (who would SO love that, by the way!) So this, my dear, is for you. Thank you for all you are and for all you do, both for me and for our family. Thank you for being you, and thank you for being the other part of me. I love you always.

Shane and I have been spending many of our evenings playing, and walking, outside. Last night I took a few pictures to document all the fun that we have out in the back yard! We’re REALLY looking forward to the summer at this house!!

Sometimes sunflare can be a good thing and it can really make a picture . . . however, that didn’t happen for these next two shots! They are really cute pictures of Shane though, so I had to include them - darn sunflare!

Climbing up the slide and giving me the “enough with the camera already” look!
Mission completed! We made it to the top!
Getting into position . . .

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Cutie!! Just wait until he sees the “big boy” swingset we’re going to start assembling this weekend!

Up and down. Open and close. He’s a busy little bee, this kid!

Taking a time-out to give Zoe a big old hug!
And of course, fair is fair, we couldn’t leave Kylee out!
Our (very generous) next door neighbors gave us their old “club house” for Shane to play with. Their kids had it for a few years and it’s in REALLY good shape. We gave it a good scrub down on Sunday and plan to do the same this weekend. He LOVES it!

Again with the open and close. In and out.
I think the door is his favorite part of the whole house!
“Didn’t I already tell you enough with the camera?”
This time he means it!

Until next time!!!

What more can you ask for really???

I was cleaning the kitchen Saturday morning and things in the playroom were awfully quiet!

I peeked my head in the room and this is what I saw . . .

He’s sitting in his chair watching Elmo and having a little snack. Way too cute and I just had to run and grab the camera!

Shane LOVED helping Daddy out in the yard on Saturday!! Once he figured out how to hold the rake the right way he was all about helping with the leaves!

****Please excuse the outfit! He was just up from his nap and I just threw a sweatshirt on over this jammies, I promise this isn’t an everyday occurrence!!

LOVING this challenge! I love getting new pictures of Shane and I every week!

Notice the bag of BAKED Wheat Thins - his new favorite snack!!

It was GORGEOUS outisde on Saturday. We all spent the day out in the backyard doing some yard work, soaking up some sun, having some fun and just plain old enjoyed being a family!

While Shane was napping we pulled his picnic table out of the shed and set it up for him. We thought we’d try to get him to have his first meal outside when he woke up from his nap looking for lunch.

He enjoyed every minute of that meal and loved having his own personal table that was just his size! I think we’re all looking forward to many more meals out in the yard this summer!