Cleaning Adventures

While I was cleaning up dishes from dinner, Casey decided to go and do a little cleaning himself.  I called out for him once I realized he wasn't watching his normal night time cartoons and didn't get an answer... but I did hear splashing.  I also heard Casey saying, "clean it!"  So I go around the corner and into the bathroom to find Casey, toilet brush in hand, scrubbing the bowl of the toilet.  When he noticed I was behind him, he stopped, put the brush away (dripping water everywhere), and smiled a big cheesy smile and exclaimed "Casey, clean it!"  What a goofball?!

Thunderstorm Adventures

Last night we experienced our very first thunderstorm since we moved... and man was it a good one!  I waited for the storm to start all day, but it waited to hit until around 1:30am.  The wind blew hard all day yesterday and the sky kept getting darker and darker, but not a drop of rain spilled from the nefarious clouds.  Casey and I had an indoor day and watched Thomas & Friends: Splish, Splash, Splosh (a new addition to his Thomas library) and The Princess & The Frog (again).   We also bowled and made some gourmet sandwiches for lunch then chicken alfredo for dinner.  It was a good day... until the first *BOOM* sounded out this morning scaring poor Casey half to death.  I heard the clap of thunder, but really was awake when Casey began screaming "MMMMOOOOOMMMMMYYYYY!"  I had to rock the poor kid back to sleep while we listened to the heavy rain and thunder.  He'll get used to the storms and learn to love them as much as I do.  I'm excited that thunderstorm season is beginning!

Adventures in Egg Hunting

After Casey got back from breakfast with "Big Papa" we left to go to the town of Jackson to participate in the Easter Egg Hunt they were sponsoring this weekend.  Unfortunately, we got there just a bit too late and missed the hunt for Casey's age bracket.  That's okay though, mommy thought ahead and while Casey was at breakfast she went out and bought some plastic eggs.  We got back to "Big Papa's" house (he has a big yard, with lots of hiding spots) and Casey played inside with "Big Papa" while mommy hid eggs in the yard.  The first round I just scattered eggs throughout the yard and hid a few in planters and shrubbery.  Casey LOVED this game.  He wouldn't carry his basket with him though, he just left it on the patio and ran around the yard like a maniac picking up as many eggs as he could and carefully bring them back to the basket (he maxed out at three eggs per trip).  He had a blast shouting out the different colors of eggs as he'd find them throughout the yard.  He found all the hidden eggs and I took him back inside so I could set up for the second round of egg hunting.

(Casey dropping eggs in his basket, three at a time)







              

(Casey pointing to where the next group of eggs is)

Round two I decided to hide majority of the eggs and scatter two or three in the grass.  Casey's initial instinct was to run out in the yard and look in all the same spots the hidden ones were in during round one.  No luck.  So I gave him a hint or two on where to look.  This got his wheels turning and he started following the clues I was giving him.  Eventually I had to stop hiding eggs and help "Big Papa" out with some yard work, so we pulled out Casey's dump truck and he kept transferring eggs between the basket and the truck.  I watched him play his egg transferring game and he had me amazed because he was acting out a whole scenario of how important it was to transfer the eggs and to "BE CAREFUL, TRUCK-A!"   If an egg would fall out of the back of the truck, it was tragic in Casey's world and he'd go back and scoop up the egg and say "Oh no" very dramatically.  It was pretty entertaining.

This was our practice run for the big egg hunt next Saturday at the country club.  I think he'll do just fine now that he understands how exciting it is to go find all the eggs that he can.  Just wait until he realizes that there will be candy in the eggs the next time he does an egg hunt!  I can only imagine the reaction that is going to get.

Breakfast Adventures

Every Saturday "Big Papa" goes out to breakfast with his friends, Frank and Bob.  Casey has recently started attending this Saturday morning ritual.  It's a guys-only breakfast so I can't go into to much detail about what goes on with Casey at these events, I can however tell you that Casey gets really excited to go on this outing.  Last night he woke up crying because he thought he missed breakfast.  I ensured him that breakfast hadn't happened yet because it was only 2am and that "Big Papa" wouldn't go to breakfast without him.  He went back to sleep and upon waking this morning told me he needed to get dressed to go to breakfast.  He refuses to leave for the boys breakfast without his airplane hat.  I guess all the guys wear a hat when they go to breakfast.  So we had to search high and low for his hat before we could leave.  He gave me a kiss and said "stay here mommy.  Casey go breakfast with Big Papa. Bye-bye." 

I guess at breakfast he likes to sit next to Frank ("F is for Frank" as Casey likes to remind me) and eat pancakes and bacon.  They don't have any juice at this restaurant, so Casey takes a juicebox and tells "Big Papa" to open it for him when they're at the table.  "Big Papa" also gives him $5 to pay for his own breakfast.  Casey loves having his own money to pay. 

Sorry I don't know too many more details about this adventure... but when he gets home we're going to have a practice run of Easter Egg hunting.  The big egg hunt is next Saturday at the Country Club. 

Working Adventures

(This post is a couple days late, been too busy to write)

On Thursday we had a business expo to attend.  Casey, naturally, was the poster child for Blast Off.  He ran around the event with balloons and a name tag that read "Casey- Future Boss."  He entertained the masses that showed up at the event.  He got to jump in a big bouncy castle, which scared him half to death.  I don't think a kid could have ran out of that thing any faster! 

In the afternoon his friend Amy showed up.  Amy is nine, and loves playing with Casey.  She's the daughter of my yoga teacher and keeps Casey entertained when I'm at yoga.  Well the two of them ran around with balloons, by far the two cutest kids there.  People would see them playing together and bring them more balloons, jelly beans, cake... everyone loved them.  It came time for Amy to go home, and Casey had a meltdown.  He started crying and screaming out, "Amy, I love you!" to try to get her to stay.  Unfortunately, it didn't work. 

We were packing up to leave the event and Casey noticed a big cardboard cutout of an Army Soldier.  It was at the veterans booth.  He stood there and pointed at it and said "Uncle Josh."  I told him that it was like uncle Josh 'cause they were both Army, but that soldier was a girl.  So he then identified the cutout as "Uncle Josh girl."  The man running the veterans table gave Casey a bendable ruler that had the President's on the back.  Casey saw the Presidents and points and says "Thomas Jefferson."  The man that gave it to him stopped and gawked in amazement that this two year old had just pointed out T. Jeff.  We went home and Casey continued to play with his new ruler and 6 balloons that he gathered at the event.  It was a big day for him, but he did a good job on his first day of work.

Adventures of Monster Baby!!!

Casey and I go for walks (on the nice days) when I get off of work.  Normally on our walks we have to play "Zombie Mommy" where I chase him around the block so we can move a quicker pace.  Today Casey told me he was a "Monster" and started making growling noises and chasing me.  Once he would catch me I'd grab him by the arms and spin him around a couple of times, and then it was right back to "monster baby!"  He ended up chasing me (while I ran backwards) for about half a mile- impressive for a two year old.  Not only did he chase me, but he decided to growl at other people out walking and try to chase them; he chased a squirrel for quite a while (he loves squirrels); and we had to bark back at any dog that barked at us.  It's always fun being chased by a cute monster.  The picture is of his monster face.  Scary, huh?

As for the squirrel, I think he was in on the game too.  Instead of scurrying up a tree like skittish squirrels normally do, this one ran around a tree over and over again with monster baby chasing him.  It was pretty entertaining.  The squirrel would stop to let Casey catch up, and as soon as he'd get within monster range the squirrel would bounce out of reach.  If Casey would stop chasing the squirrel, the squirrel would turn around and look at Casey and wait for him to catch his breath.  Eventually the squirrel ran into a bush and we couldn't find him.  It was still entertaining for all parties involved. 

Bedtime Adventures

Every night when Casey is ready to go to bed, he looks at me and says "read Duck?" I always respond with "of course we will read Duck."  Duck is a character in the Thomas the Tank Engine series and the story The Close Shave features Duck.  Casey knows all the words to this story and it is always adorable to hear him tell me the lines that come next.  Throughout the day he'll think of the story and start telling me bits and pieces practically verbatim.  Whenever I try to catch this feat on video, he gets shy and starts acting silly.  Sometimes I mix it up and will read him a couple other stories, some Thomas related, some not, but we always have to end with the story of Duck's Close Shave. 

Casey knows that my favorite story is Where the Wild Things Are, and will ask me to read "mommy's favorite."  After I finish the Sendak classic, he will then ask for "Casey's favorite. Read Duck please."  He can be on the brink of unconsciousness and still recite the words in the book.  I've heard him in the middle of the night saying lines "Mad Duck! Bad Trucks!" or "Soapy Duck! Dopey Trucks!"  and then giggling in his sleep.  I'm amazed every day at how well he is starting to speak and how brilliant he is.  

Adventures from the weekend

Finally, a weekend where we had nothing planned and the weather couldn't have been nicer.  The first day of Spring turned out to be close to 85 degrees and we spent the day outside.  We headed to the park by the river and started off by playing with a group of kids on the playground.  Once Casey had enough of that we walked on the trail through the woods and along the river.  Of course we had to stop to throw rocks, kick pine cones, and admire squirrels.  We found a cove which had ducks and turtles, so naturally we had to stop to check that out too.  Once we finally made it back to the car, we decided to head to the skate park for a little bit so Casey could imitate the tricks that people were doing.  He also loves to walk up the ramps and then run down them.  It was a long, hot day, but Casey and I managed to stay up and watch Snow White that night.  Casey loved the movie, and kept exclaiming "Silly Dopey!"  We finished the movie and went to bed. 

Sunday morning, Casey managed to sleep in until 10am.  It was a nice start to the day.  We got up, had bacon and eggs, then decided to head out for the adventure of the day... exploring Historic Halifax.  For those of you who don't know (I didn't know this), Halifax, NC was where the "Halifax Resolves" took place.  That was the beginning of declaring independence from England. So Casey and I checked out some of the historic buildings, the old cemetery, and the woods near town.  Casey had fun asking about different buildings, and was by far most interested in the Jail.  He kept telling me, "bad men in jail. BIG time out!" 

All in all, it was a relaxing weekend and we enjoyed being outdoors in the beautiful weather.

Adventures in body discovery

Last night after Casey finished his bubble bath he asked to "brush teeth, mommy. Watermelon toothpaste please."  So he stood in the bathroom, buck naked, brushing his teeth.  He started giggling while brushing... he'd pause, look between his legs and wouldn't see any movement... so he'd go back to brushing and giggling.  Finally, it clicked that the movement between his legs was his dingle, dangling.  So he'd go back to brushing and giggling.  At this point in time, I could hardly control my laughter, which encouraged Casey to keep brushing and dangling.  Eventually it go to the point where he realized that the brushing motion wasn't causing the dingle to dangle... that his body moving was in fact what caused the rest to move.  So he started swiveling his hips back and forth and began laughing hysterically.  Once I could control my laughter for longer than a few seconds, I moved him in front of a full length mirror so he could see what I was finding hilarious... and there he stood... in front of the mirror... dingling his dangle and in hysterics.  Boys are so entertaining.

Looking forward to the weekend of beautiful weather and to see what adventures we can get in to- maybe catching some lizards, skateboarding, or perhaps we'll head out to the beach.  He's been asking to see the new Disney movie, The Princess and the Frog.

Adventures in History

Last night after dinner we decided to pull out the Presidents place mat.  Casey pointed at different past Presidents and would ask "who's that?"  I would answer him.  His first impression was that he liked Thomas Jefferson, since he had recently been to the Jefferson Memorial.  We spent a few minutes pointing at and identifying Presidents before I started quizzing Casey on where different Presidents were located on the place mat.  The attached is a video of Casey pointing to Jefferson, Washington, and Reagan- and of him asking who other Republican Presidents are.  I figure if we spend a little time every day, he'll know majority of our Presidents.  Click on the link below to watch the video.
Republican Baby

Adventures in DC

Casey's recent trip to DC was a lot of fun. We were planning on going to the National Zoo, but unfortunately got rained out... We had plenty of other adventures though!

Friday (Day 1): We got up early to head to DC, Casey did not want to wake up. I woke him up and told him we were going to go see the animals today, his response was "No way, mommy! No animals! Back to sleepy!" Eventually I coaxed him out of bed and into the car where he slept most of the drive to DC. Once we were in DC, we decided there was way too much rain to go to the zoo, so we walked around downtown and checked out the sites. Casey had a disposable camera, and took plenty of pictures of the sidewalk and the sky. He would approach strangers, point the camera in their general direction, and say "CHEESE". He also told statues, pictures, birds, and buildings to say "CHEESE". Casey got to see the White House and Washington Monument the first day there.

Saturday (Day 2): Museum day. We started off the day going to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Casey wasn't sure what to think of the wax figures. We took pictures with Hilary Clinton, Julia Roberts, Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. We went from the wax museum to the American History Museum.
The first display we viewed was "America in Motion"- the ultimate display for a little boy. Casey was in awe of all the locomotives they had inside. He probably could have spent the day staring at the trains. We continued through the museum and I introduced Casey to words like "Independence," "Constitution," "George Washington," and "Thomas Jefferson." Casey was a little overwhelmed with all of the people in the museum, so he spent a lot of time being carried.
After the American History Museum we walked over the Natural History Museum. On the walk over, Casey befriended a squirrel. People stopped to gawk over how cute Casey and the squirrel were. This little critter literally sat at Casey's feet looking up at him, while Casey talked to the squirrel. It was adorable. The squirrel eventually ran away because an older kid ran up and scared it off. The Natural History Museum was beyond crowded, but we worked our way through the crowd. Casey really enjoyed the bug display. There were buttons to push, termite holes to crawl through, and live bugs to view. Casey got a little overstimulated while at the museum and was ready for a nap- so we viewed the Hope Diamond and did a quick pass through the mammal exhibit. I walked the ten blocks or so back to the hotel in the pouring rain with a sleeping Casey in tow. His short nap was enough to revitalize him, and back at the hotel we watched a couple movies- Kung Fu Panda, which Casey LOVED, and Monsters vs. Aliens.

Sunday (Day 3): Yet another rainy day. We decided to keep it simple and just drive around the city to check out the sites. We stopped to check out the Jefferson Memorial... and Casey had a blast. We had to walk a few blocks from the parking area to the memorial, and Casey felt it was necessary to jump in every puddle we encountered. Casey climbed all the stairs to the memorial on his own and once inside he kept saying "Thomas Jefferson" and pointing at the statue. He also noticed that inside the marble chamber, everything echoed- so he proceeded to yelp his infamous squeal. We went to the Capital Building after the Jefferson Memorial and then started our drive home. Casey fell asleep almost immediately after his big, educational weekend.

Adventures in Potty Training

Anyone that has kids has had to potty train at some point in time... or if their kids are young, they will have to potty train eventually.

Let me explain how entertainingly frustrating potty training is:

I've been working on potty training with Casey since about November 2009. At first I wasn't really consistent with having him sit on the potty- but now we're getting a lot better at mastering this medial task. Casey enjoys sitting on the potty and watching cartoons, reading books, drinking juice, perhaps pondering the meaning of life (I can't be completely sure what keeps him so entertained while sitting with his pants at his ankles). But when it comes time for him to actually do his business in the potty, that's when he's ready to get up. So far he has successfully pooped in the bathtub (multiple times), in his potty a few times, and the other night he almost got one on the carpet (that would have been awesome to clean up). Other times he'll sit on the potty and then ask to put on a diaper so he can "go poo-poo ucky" as he explains. I'm not positive as to why he won't poop in the potty when he has no issue peeing in the pot. He really enjoys peeing in this musical potty; because once he tinkles, music begins to play and he gets to dance and cheer. He knows the music plays if he poops in it too... but in his world pooping in the potty is overrated.