Camping in the house

Christopher received tent/house play area from a friend which he has loved playing in. He takes a blanket, a toy, a stuffed animal, whatever and plays, watches tv... he's too funny.

Looking at the tv and trying out big boy underwear

Watching tv, with the toy phone in hand. Can't miss any calls!

Oh, and the side of our sofa is the new play area I guess.

I guess when you are only 30 something inches, every new inch bring a whole new area into play!

I was playing with a cool feature on my phone that does black and white except for one color.

My silly boy....

Peppermint Bark

Peppermint bark... mmmm... you know the stuff.

Dark chocolate, white chocolate, peppermint.... yummy.

But not at the prices you see it at... like here. Crazy.

So what do I do? I made my own. So easy. 2 bags of dark chocolate chips, 2 bags of white chocolate chips, peppermint oil, some vegetable oil, and peppermint candies.

Line a baking sheet with wax paper or foil and spray with pam.

Put the dark chocolate chips, 1 tsp oil per 8 oz chips, 1/4 tsp peppermint oil per 8 oz chips in a double boiler to melt.

(or two pots on top of each other)

Once melted, pour into cookie sheet as evenly as possible. Put in fridge for 1 hr.

While it's in the fridge, crush the peppermint candy.

Then when near the hour mark, start melting the white chocolate, same way you did the dark with the same amount so oil and peppermint oil.

Pull the dark chocolate out of the fridge. I put some paper towels on top to gather any moisture that gathered. You don't want any since it will keep the layers from sealing.

Let the white chocolate cool a little bit then pour over dark chocolate, smooth out a bit. Sprinkle the peppermint candy on the top. Put back in the fridge for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, you can break it up and bag it (or eat it). Keep it in the fridge since it isn't tempered. So yummy and MUCH cheaper. 

Sorry, no after pictures, we gave most of it out as gifts and ate the rest :)

My boy's a geek!

One of Christopher's birthday gifts was the Leapfrog Laptop. We thought he might have been too young for it, but he proved us wrong. He loves it. I was able to personalize it so it says his name, now he's always playing with it. A little Geek, just like his daddy!

He sits in his little chair and plays on it. He now has started to cross his legs, put his left ankle up on his right knee to create a "table" and plays with it on his lap that way :)

"What mama? I'm working!"

It even has a little mouse

He is so serious. He'll have his own blog by the time he's three!

Then he discovered that you can change a setting to have the keys make different noises, animal and musical...

He loved it

He loves his laptop...

How Mommy Killed Halloween

Background: Christopher took a little pumpkin to daycare to carve for Halloween last month. He got to bring it home. It sat at the front door with our two big (un-carved) pumpkins. There had also been a baby pumpkin, but he took it into his bedroom so he could have it for himself. Every time we'd walk into the house he'd say "Hi Pumpkin!", every time we'd leave the house "Bye Bye Pumpkin" each with a full on wave. Background complete.

So, on to my story, I like to cook. I like to try new things and I hate for things to go to waste. I still had the two big pumpkins, still un-carved, at the front door. So I had just made Butternut Squash Soup using fresh Squash so I thought, I'll do the same with the pumpkin. Sounds yummy, I know!

So Monday night, I get Christopher all situated with dinner. He's at the table and he can see what I'm doing in the kitchen. As I've said before he's been very interested in what I'm doing so I moved him so he can see me.

So I grab one of the pumpkins and clean it up. I start cutting it up, first take the top off, then i cut down the sides like it was an apple. Then I pulled those off, cleaned out the insides then started carving off the skin/peel.

First, it was hard. It was MUCH harder than with the two little Butternut Squashs I had done before.

Second, Christopher was watching me. And watching me. And not eating. And the conversation begins...

"Momma, pumpkin?" with this look of concern on his face

Oblivious mommy - "Yes baby, I'm making soup, like we did last week with the Butternut Squash" (because he's 10 and can understand all of that... which he might have... )

Christopher, now twisted in his booster (with straps) so he is facing me "Mama, pumpkin!"

Still slightly oblivious mommy "yes! pumpkin! Dinner for tomorrow! Yeahhh!!!"

Christopher with obvious concern in his voice "Mama, no! Hurt!"

Momma, now understanding what is becoming painfully obvious. I, Momma, have chopped up the precious pumpkin. It wasn't his pumpkin he carved, that one had long ago molded and gone out with the trash (without him noticing), however, he appears to have developed an attachment to the big pumpkins in the meantime. Oops... perhaps him watching me cook isn't always a good thing.

I tried to distract him with the fact that it was going to be Yummy!!! But it didn't help. He wouldn't eat after that so I got him out of the chair and let him over to see what I was doing...

He helped me drizzle the olive oil, put the salt on and the cinnamon and then we (translation=ME) put it in the over (while he stood back and watched). He seemed much better after that.

I cleaned up the aftermath of the pumpkin murder

and we went on to play for a bit.

I did lean my lesson with the second pumpkin and did it while he was in the other room. I also ended up just cutting it in half, cleaning out the insides. then I laid the both sides on a cooking tray. Drizzled and rubbed in olive oil, then salt and cinnamon, then baked in the oven. After they had cooled, I scooped out the pumpkin. MUCH easier than the cutting.

I also learned my lesson with Christopher, let's just say he'll be somewhere else when we are chopping the Christmas tree into pieces come January!!!!

No longer a baby

So after Christopher had dinner the other night, I put on Sprout for him while he played for a bit before bedtime. I was cleaning up when I looked over and saw this...


Out little boy had climbed up on the sofa so he could watch and just relax.

And then it was teeth brushing, bath and bed...

Birthday Parties!

Sunday we drove up to Redwood City for a friend's daughter's 5th birthday party. Christopher had so much fun. So many of our friends from the Bay Area now have kids it's such a different experience.

Of the kids that were participating in the activities, Christopher was the youngest (this is besides the babies under one). So it was interesting to see him interacting with the other older kids.

Story time:

The birthday girl

He loved playing with the trains (duh!)

And the helicopter

Participating with the other kids...

So then they decided it would be fun to play a game of hot potato with the pink dolphin (they said it's a dolphin). They would play music, and the kids would pass the dolphin around the circle. Whoever was holding it when the music stopped, was out. But they HAD to pass it...

Christopher really liked the dolphin

But he did as he was asked and sat in the circle with Aiden right next to him

And waited patiently... (look at his fingers)

And they started

So obviously, the two youngest didn't quite get it. Aiden wanted to hold on to it, so Asha tried to go around him by tossing it to Christopher. However, how Christopher thought you had to "throw" it to the next person, which he kept doing right into their head. Lovely.... But you can tell my his smile, he loved it.

And then back to the trains

They had a bell that they'd let the birthday girl ring to bring the kids together. Christopher would go running from where ever he was. Then... he found the bell...

Then he found this little toy to play on...

He loved it

Then they blew up a jumpy house for the kids to play in. Christopher got in...

But he was too small to get up on the slide by himself...

So he cheered on the other kids instead :)

He was so good, just as happy cheering them on, wasn't upset at all that he didn't get to go down it.

He'd stand there and yell "go go" as they went down.

We headed home at nap time which was a perfect ending to such a fun day.

Dinner

Saturday night, Christopher had mac and cheese shells for dinner. I hung out with him and we played around while he ate. We had some fun and I got some fun shots.



Mmmmmm, pasta...


Then I played with the camera and shots of him through the glass table.


Then my son decided that it was MUCH easier to eat shells with your finger than with the spoon he had been using...


And gone...


Any anything can be a choo choo at anytime!

Saturdays

Saturday was a nice relaxing day. After the morning activities, Christopher played with some of his toys. And he was a little more camera shy than usual this time around.

He's telling me no to the camera.

I obviously didn't listen to him

He got over it fairly quickly

(And yes, that's a potty next to him. We have a few and they end up everywhere, empty and clean of course!)

And proceeded to play with more toys. He especially is loving this puzzle pull toy right now.

Later that day, we ended up going over to our neighbors for a quick visit. He had been bbqing all day. We didn't eat over there, but we grabbed some watermelon for Christopher on the way out which he loved!

(yes, that's another potty in the background!)

He devoured that thing!

And then he colored for a while.