Alison's version of a fun new "game"

Alison yells, "Let's play, Mama!" at least 50 times a day. I feel guilty because my response 75% of the time is, "Okay, right after I'm done washing dishes" or "Okay, right after I change Christopher's diaper" or "Okay, right after I'm done sweeping the floor." You get the picture.

So today, after a very fun playdate at our house with many of her ECFE friends, Alison once again said, "Let's play, Mama!" I said, "Okay, what do you want to play?" She must have been surprised by my response because she thought about that for a while. Alison then responded: "Ketchup." So naturally, my follow-up question was, "How do you play Ketchup?" She quickly responded, "First, we sit at the table. Then we eat it."

Simple enough.

A growing, happy boy.

Christopher had his 15-month well visit today. Big sister Alison came along for the ride, as always, and both were reasonably well behaved. Christopher now weighs in at 24 pounds (40th percentile) and is 33 inches tall (90th percentile). Slowly but surely, he is losing his "string bean" status. We love him so much and we are so blessed that God chose us to be this wonderful lil' guy's parents.

Oh yeah, and Christopher is now out of his high chair and has graduated to a big boy booster seat. He loves it!

Serious card players.

Alison and Christopher have taken up a new nightly game habit --- Poker. They're quite the card sharks.





But Christopher gets upset when he loses and decides the crash the game.

Start Them Young

I decided that the housework is just too much for me so I've enlisted the help of my one-year-old to clean the floors.





Alison is also taking an early crash course in babysitting. While changing her brother's diaper the other day, I heard her telling Syndey Cat (yes, our cat's name is Sydney but Ali calls her "Sydney Cat") to drink from her bottle. I found poor Sydney Cat, hiding behind a chair with a pacifier on her back and a doll bottle and sippy cup in front of her. She is a good, good kitty.

Paintin' with Puddin'

A package of generic $.25 vanilla pudding from WalMart + a few drops of food coloring = a very cheap, interesting (and tasty) art project. Alison enjoyed the art part...Christopher just ate all of his supplies.

MN Children's Museum

We met our good friends the Walkers at the Children's Museum in downtown St. Paul on Friday morning. What an awesome day with great friends! The kids had a blast and got very tired out. So tired, actually, that when we got home, Alison came up to me and said, "Mom, I need to put on a diaper and take a nap." Wow. This from a girl who has definitely been fighting nap time lately. Anyway, I was the crazy mom taking tons of pictures and here a few of them:

Christopher keeping watch over the other kids in the Habitot baby/toddler room:

Alison hanging out with the spider:

The Peanuts were excellent passengers on the city bus: (this has always been one of Ali's favorite attractions at the museum)

Alison and her good friend Claudia taking it easy in a dinosaur cave (and no, Rachael and I did NOT coordinate their outfits):

The Peanuts loved digging for dinosaur bones:

Christopher was keepin' an eye out for the young ladies:

Until he discovered a dinosaur that he fell in love with:

The cave slide was a huge hit:

A talker like his mom.

Christopher is growing up so quickly. Too quickly. He's walking everywhere now and quite proud of his new take on the world. His speed quickens every day and soon he'll be running circles around his big sister.

Christopher is also a talker. Lots of babbles, but also many words. If you ask him to say something, he'll almost always repeat it. Here are some of his current favorite words:

Dada (his first word)
Mama
Elmo
Cookie
Again
Pop
Backpack (from Dora, of course)
Cheers (don't ask)
Nana
Papa
Love you
Bye Bye
Hello

I'm sure there are more but this is what I can recall at the time. He not only inherited his mom's gift of gab, but he may also have a bit of my stubborn Aukes side. Christopher refuses to say one word: Ali. :-) Stubborn lil' guy that loves to torment his big sister.