Ready to Go Yet?

We are constantly looking for new places to hang out with Hunter. Especially now that the seasons have changed and we can be outside for longer periods of time, I feel so bad for the winters that he has to stay indoors (until we relocate to Florida!) that I usually comply and let the boy do what he wants.
Danny, Super and I were out driving one weekend and came across a great new park! It is a 5 minute drive from our home so we played for a while and left. A few days later I thought it would be fun to go again and get rid of some much needed stress after the challenging days following MIL Sue's heart surgery.
Little did I know it was going to be the longest park experience of my existence. We left as soon as I got home from work, so excited to get some sun shine and fresh air.......THREE AND A HALF HOURS LATER I was hot, sweaty and my feet hurt but the little ball of energy that is my son was still trucking along like we had just gotten there.
Finally I put my foot down and I dragged him to the car, kicking and screaming (really, how does he find the energy?) to the car so I could take him home and feed him.
Check this place out! It's called Taylor Brawner Park and it's on S. Atlanta Rd. It's on the same property as a behavioral center but they did a great job with this place. Kids can ride their bikes, there are bench swings and lots of slides.

Condiments...The 5th Food Group

I'm a girl that loves her food and I've tried to pass that love along to my son. Ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc all have their places in my palate happiness but Super has taken the love to a whole new level. French fries are just the utensil to bring the ketchup to his mouth, the hot dog transports the mustard and if there is a spoon and Ranch dressing...why eat the salad? It's fun to watch him chow down several ounces of hummus with one carrot and ask for more. Now I understand why mothers get so frustrated at their childrens food choices...they don't want to actually eat the food, they just want the condiments!

Shower....bath?

As Super gets older, he is more aware of what's around him. He loves bath time (most of the time), especially when we mention bubbles. Now he knows the difference between a shower and a bath but he likes both. When we plug up the bath but run the shower he couldn't be happier. Apparently its like a pool with a waterfall like we saw at Aquatica. At the park he was constantly going for the waterfalls until he realized that the water there was heavy and could randomly splash down upon you. He also realizes that it doesn't hurt so much when it comes from the indoor waterfall. So now when he feels dirty, he grabs my hand and leads me to the bathroom..."Showerbath, showerbath!"

Smile!

While at my parents house in FL, Super got his fill of activity.  One of his favorites though is coloring, on anything, with anything that can make a mark. Well, she is smart and stocked up on paper, markers and pencils to keep him in one place.  He got a few marks on the kitchen table but was pretty neat considering we spent a full week there.  On one page of his scribbles, my mom noticed something that was intentionally drawn there. It was a smiley face!

Aquatica!

We finally went!  Our first experience at this water park was a good one too.   I learned so much, including I don't much like
Super at water parks. Even in a life vest he still insists on clinging to my head if the water is too deep for him to stand in.
I will say, I don't like those life vests. They do their job and keep kids from drowning, and with all the activity there I can
see the NEED but Super has never been comfortable in one. He fought my mother to the point that she had to pin him to the
ground to get it on.  But once he learned that he could go in the water only when it was on, then it was a fight to take it off him!
Like other non-Floridians, we both got sunburns but not to the point of extreme pain. It gave Super a new appreciation for lotion
that I'm more than happy to support. Towards the end of our day, my mom saw how burned Hunters head had gotten and smeared him in
zinc oxide that took 3 washes to get out. I actually kind of liked it and could do funky things with his hair.
But on the brighter side...Super loved the slides. There were a few he could go on his own but one used a tube. We went on that one
at least a dozen times together. My little boy had a hard time with waiting in lines (hmmm, sound familiar?) but eventually he got the
point that mommy would take him down the slide if he didn't throw a fit.  I actually really liked that slide too. Its a kids ride so it
isn't super thrilling but the line is short if not non existent and its a quick little thrill, especially watching my sons face.
I'll admit I didn't spend that much time with him because I wanted to go on the adult rides.  I was with my younger sister and we had
a blast. There is one slide that is like a toilet bowl. You go down this slide and it shoots you out into a large round bowl where you
circle a few times before you drop back through another tube that takes you back to the lazy river. So fun! They have all kinds of
rides there that put you in total darkness or where you go down head first and scream without the ones that make your bathing suit stick
up your tush or expose you in any way.  Getting out of the park was difficult with my poor struggling, crying child
but 5 hrs there was enough and now we can't wait to go back!

Farewell More Friends

They are dropping like flies. In less than a month 2 of Hunter's best friends have moved and we're devastated. Goodbye good friends that were there for us through so much. We will miss you more than you will ever know!

Ok!

Children let you know what they need in one form or another. My son likes to try to make me think all of his suggestions are mine. "Mommy, milk!"..."Did you want some milk, baby?"..."Ok!" He doesn't say it in a way that shows he's excited most of the time, it's more along the lines of "ok, you can give me milk, I guess" Sames goes for outside, food, TV, car rides and the park. Yes isn't a part of his vocabulary yet (I guess he doesn't hear it often....oops!) but I'm going to work very hard to try and make up for that. He is fantastic at saying please and thank you so I don't have anything to complain about but I would like a positive response instead of a lukewarm affirmation (I know that isn't my example there, I'm overly excited about most things). It will come with time but that time seems to be speeding up so I have to speed up with it or I'm going to get left behind.

Road Trip!

We recently went to visit my parents and siblings down in Orlando for a week. We had a blast and got to do a lot of fun things. Super may not realize it but I had a great time on the drive down there. No, sitting in a car for 8+ hrs isn't the most entertaining thing a 2 year old can do but we got to sing, talk to each other and enjoy exploring the stops along the way. Lately I've been giving Super my change from any cash transaction and I tell him to put it in his pocket (thus the reason for my blog post Sweet Confusion). However, we made a few pit stops at various places that had a soda machines....these are Hunters favorites. I don't think he likes soda so much as he enjoys putting the money in the machine, pressing the buttons and watching it fall out of the machine. In fact, I'm sure that if we had enough change on us, we'd walk away with a dozen sodas before he even got tired of the game. We have this issue everywhere we go but it's especially hard to say no when I tell him on this trip because when I would say no, my words were more specifically "We don't have any change, baby" to which he automatically dives into his pockets in search of coins. After watching that, I had to dig change out of my car and let him get a soda or two.
My sweet boy being a doll was short lived though. We got to my parents home very late so we basically pulled up and went to bed. Since he got to sleep in the car, he wasn't as tired as I was at 7am the next morning....I didn't wake up until 8am. Needless to say, he took that hour to survey this new place he was in and found the most destructive item he possibly could...a sharpie marker. He didn't do TOO much damage to the room but he managed to completely black out both sides of my glasses so they were worthless afterwards. Thank goodness me and my mother have almost identical prescriptions and I was able to take all of her disposable contacts she won't use!
We also discovered that the green thumb has been passed along. We spent hours a day in the back yard playing in the garden. He loves fresh picked sweet peas, watering lettuce and carrots and all of the other yummy veggies that my mom grows. He helped with the chickens and made the cats uncomfortable enough to hide the entire time. Overall we had a great trip and I'm so glad everyone had a good time with my son. It was so much fun watching Hunter and his Uncle Mike playing at the park together and I'm thankful that I got to reconnect with my Bro after a few years of us having busy lives and no time to hang. He didn't get a lot of time with Hunter as an infant but I think the kid is more fun as he gets older anyways.
The trip home wasn't as eventful. Super slept pretty much the whole way home due to complete exhaustion from a week spent never sitting down and exploring new horizons. I can't wait for our next trip to FL!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Yes, that was the first song my son sang to me (not including ABC's, I don't count that). We were driving home from a play date, me singing along with the radio and occasionally attempting to engage Super. I heard him singing softly and after a few minutes of listening I realized what it was! Tears filled my eyes, if my kid can sing, he is just that...a kid... and not my baby anymore. We sang the song a few more times until we were home, me choking on every other word as I attempted to keep pace with him while trying to control my mommy emotions. I'm so proud of that little man, he just keeps growing and getting smarter and more handsome by the day.

Sweet Confusion

I'm having a blast teaching Hunter to talk right now. He is at that point where whatever he hears goes right into his head and sticks. We kill lots of time by going around the house, pointing and naming things and he is really talking up a storm. There is one thing that frustrates me though. For a while now, I've tried to...not teach Super about money... but what money is... coins, right? When I make a purchase, I'll give him the change and tell him to put it in his pocket so it can go in the Froggy Bank when we get home. He loves taking all of the coins out and putting them back in. We have spent hours emptying and filling up that bank. However, there was a spot of confusion. Instead of calling coins by their name, he calls them pockets. I found this adorable! Until he decided that should be the name for those small metal discs. He knows the words quarter, penny, dime and coin but will he use them? Noooo. No matter what, whenever I try to prompt him the first thing out of his mouth is "pocket!" (it is still especially cute when he finds a penny in the street and shouts his exclamation for the world to hear, they just don't understand what he's talking about) I know he'll figure it out sooner or later. He tends to make up his own words for things but what kid doesn't? My mother still laughs because for some reason, as children, we called molasses "bin-ah-kee-ears" (I would have no idea how to correctly spell our made up word). Now I'm a little worried about what he's going to call his actual pocket...