Oscar’s Musings

Hi Folks!

I'm so sorry for the delay, it has been ages!  I'm not sure whether we have been so busy that I've neglected to write, or whether I just haven't had a lot to share, but at any rate I'm back.  We got home a bit ago from a trip to Phoenix to visit grandpa Steve, so that is an event worth writing about.

First, there was the airplane.  How exciting!  Mommy and daddy brought special snacks and tiny presents for me to open when I got bored, but I have to say I was a VERY good boy.  Perhaps it was the DVD player we borrowed from Kathy and Nick   "I Love Toy Trains" is even better when it is on your lap!  Anyway, we arrived without a hitch (except that I forgot to take a nap) and arrived at grandpa Steve's house to find new toys!  And cowboy clothes!  And boots!  Don't I look smashing?

I had an all-around good time playing with grandpa and Ann and Ozzy the dog.  Who knew they had more in store?  Then we took a trip to the race track (the first of many on our trip) and I got to feed carrots and apples to the horses, and ride Dune!!!  I'm still talking about it, it was so cool.  Actually the very best part was the black horse in the shed row that shook his head up and down over and over again.  Sometimes now when I'm playing I shake my head up and down and when mommy asks what I'd doing, I say "playing black horse".  Good times.

On Sunday we hooked up with our friends Cristen, Kurt and Harper at the train park, which would have been really great except that I was in a bit of a foul mood.  Food helped a little, but I think traveling was starting to get the best of me.  Anyway, we got to ride the mini train (with several sets of gates!  hurray!), and the carousel, and then we played at the park for a while before heading back to grandpa's house.  Harper and I were in our mommys' belllies at the same time, so although we've had our pictures taken together before, this was the first time we had met

Anyway, all in all it was a really great trip.  Unfortunately we scared the sunshine away and it was busy shining in Seattle while we were in Phoenix, but otherwise we had a blast.  Grandpa did some yummy cooking and I did some great strutting around in my boots!

What else?  Well, I've been playing tricks on mommy and daddy with the potty training   They thought I was nearly done, but I'll show them!  Ha!  This is my body and I'll pee all over it whenever I want to   Sometimes, that's never.  Sometimes, that's all day long.  Eventually I'll get there, but it is fun to make them crazy in the meantime.

It has been so long since I have written that I haven't done a good job of remembering my cuteness.  A few things mommy is sad about: I have finally mastered the word "blueberry".  It was "booboorry" for a long time and mommy loved it, but I decided it was time to sound like the big boy I am.  I'll keep "breafkast" a while longer though, just to make her happy.

And here is something that mommy thinks is cute but I don't really get it:  my bottom teeth were hurting the other day so I told mommy, "mouth owy.  Go dentist".  She asked if she could see and I showed her, but she just laughed and pulled the bits of carrot out from between my bottom teeth.  Problem solved

Oh yeah, and I got my school pictures taken the other day.  I'll scan one in once I get them back.  The proofs are pretty cute if I do say so myself. 

Well, that's probably about it.  I'm going to try to post more often, but no promises.  Typing takes a long time and I would rather be playing!  Oh, but I should tell you that there are a few other photos in my gallery.  Some of my friend Zoe's 1st birthday party, one of me with a valentine cookie I made with mommy, and some others.  Enjoy!

Wow!  What a wonderful couple of weeks I have had.  Christmas finally came and it was wonderful!  First we went to Swanson's Nursery the day before Christmas Eve because some of Santa's reindeer were visiting (along with a camel and a mini-donkey).  What a cool place!  I loved trying to feed the animals straw, and watching the model train whiz around the track.  They even had a pond full of the biggest fish I had ever seen up that close.  They were kinda freaky.

Christmas Eve we packed up all kinds of presents and headed over to great uncle Rick and great aunt Kim's house to celebrate with daddy's cousins.  What a pile of presents!  I could hardly contain myself.  Daddy had to keep reminding me that it wasn't quite time to open gifts until everyone arrived; and I shouldn't grab ALL the cookies off the table until I had a little dinner   Anyway, I LOVE CHRISTMAS.  Each time it was my turn to open a gift I ripped right into the paper and said, "its a book!" or "its a toy!".  Although, once the toys starting appearing I became less interested in opening non-toy presents   I received some great things including a gas station/car wash toy; a Thomas the Train talking book with buttons to push and a stearing wheel; and set of play food (with a lollipop!); a lego set; a game…. I could go on and on, and that was just Christmas Eve!  Thanks so much to everyone who gave me such lovely things.

Then we came home and put out some milk and cookies for Santa, a carrot for Rudolph, and a little note reminding Santa about the lollipop request, and then I went right to sleep.  In the morning… what a treat!  Santa had come in the night, eaten the treats, and left me a whole parking garage with an elevator and a gate and a gas station!  It is SO great!  We had a fun morning playing and then packed up to head over to grandma Deane's house.  But guess what?  Santa left me a present at her house too!  Another parking garage!  The man knows what I like.  And grandma had some "Christmas pirate bootie" ready for me too.  What a nice time.  In the afternoon Uncle Ryan, Aunt Emily, and Buck came over and we opened our stockings from Santa and as you now know… he came through on the lollipops!  Hurray!  Among many other wonderful, fun and delicious things, that is.  Then we opened more and more presents (a fire station, a great train set (with gates!), finger paints, books, etc.  It is overwhelming to think back on!  Grandma made us a delicious dinner and we spent the night at her house.  Mommy and daddy went to great uncle Ron and great aunt Carrie's house later that night, but I was too pooped to come.

Mommy and I took an adventure last week to the Everett Children's Museum, which was absolutely fantastic!  Why didn't we know about this place?!  First of all, it has the best train table EVER.  But that's not nearly all.  There is a dark room with glow in the dark toys, and a water room, and an airplane, and a farm scene with a cow to milk (I squirted my own pants ) and too many things to remember.  It was so good that I had to have a total meltdown when it was time to come home, but it was worth it!

Then it was time for New Year's Eve, which honestly doesn't mean much to me, as my tradition so far is to sleep through the action.  This year we went up to the cabin which is always fun (and which means there wasn't too much snow and none of us were sick!  Yeah!).  We got to play outside a little but the snow was mostly wet and slushy and not that good for playing, but hopefully we'll see some more before the winter is over.  Unfortunately I don't have any photos to share with you of the cabin this time.

New Year's Day we went to grandma Deane's house for a special dinner… king crab legs!  Actually, I went shopping with her to buy them a couple days earlier and was impressed by the "big animals. not moving."  Grandma explained that they were crab and we were going to eat them.  So at dinner mommy let me hold one and said to be careful because it was spiny.  I proceeded to try to take a bite of what I now know is shell.  Thanks mom.  Anyway, I did get to taste the meat eventually and it was yummy!  And hey, no shellfish allergy

I guess the last bit of news is our total rearrangement of the living room.  I helped daddy put together some new furniture for storing my toys and mommy and daddy moved everything around.  It looks great!  And I have my own space to play now.

Any other news?  I guess one important thing is that I am out of diapers in the daytime now!  Yahoo!  I just have to wear them to bed and at nap time.  And even then I often wake up part way and yell out, "take diaper off!" or I call for mommy to come in and I tell her my diaper is wet.  Unfortunately I can't stay dry yet while I sleep, but I sure am looking forward to it.  Diapers are so 2009.

Here I am snuggling with my new elephant and elephant blankie (and wooden lollipop) while I watch a toy train movie.  Happy New Year! 

Hello!

Oh my goodness, I can hardly contain myself.  Christmas is coming and I am excited!  Christmas trees!  Lights!  Advent calendars!  Presents!  Before I get to that though I should tell you about a few of my adventures and events.

In November we had a special night time pajama class at school so daddy could come with me to play.  We had so much fun!  We played with toys, sang songs, and even played with the parachute.  I was pretty pooped by the time we got home, but night time school was great.

We also celebrated Thanksgiving at our house again this year which is always fun.  I love cheesy corn souffle!  Then on Friday I went shopping with mommy and grandma Deane and met daddy and uncle Ryan downtown for dinner and light-looking.  How exciting!  We saw the carousel and the Christmas tree and the train set in the window!  I loved it.  I also forced mommy and grandma to hunt all over the city for a "gate".  I have developed an obsession for gates like the ones in parking garages or train crossings… so we searched for a parking garage with a gate we could see from the street.  Mommy spotted one finally and all was well

Grandpa Bob’s 60th birthday was the next week so I helped daddy make a special beer for the occasion.  We got to see lots of cousins, play with ice in the fountain (go crunch!), chase the cat, play with the pet door… and eat cake!  YUM.  I like cheesecake.

Last weekend we really got into the Christmas spirit and got to go on a train ride to see Santa with grandma Deane, Uncle Ryan and Auntie Emily.  It was fantastic!  At first I was not at all pleased with the train whistle when we first saw the train approach, but our seats were far from the engine so it wasn’t a problem at all.  Did I mention I love gates?  I watched out the window the whole ride in hopes on seeing the gates go down at a train crossing.  Then when we arrived at our destination, Santa Central, I got to sit on his lap.  He asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I finally spilled the beans…. lollipops.  I told him I wanted lollipops and I would eat them in this way: "suck it like a susu (pacifier)".  I had one at Halloween and have been thinking about it ever since.

Then later that night we walked to a nearby neighborhood called Candy Cane Lane to see the beautiful Christmas lights!  What fun!  Some people really go all out on the lights.

So those are my adventures. 

And these are my interests:

• Playing car wash (see photos from kelp forest at Children’s Museum)
• Gates.  Did I mention gates?  Anything with diagonal stripes can be a gate.  A sawhorse.  A baricade. A bumper on a semi truck.  I heart gates.
• The dry cleaner.  I love to see the sweaters go round and round.
• Chocolate from my advent calendar.
• Singing songs (Jingle Bells is my current fav)

That’s about it for now.  I keep asking to "go Christmas", but mommy keeps saying we have to wait for Christmas to come to us.  I don’t quite get it, but I’m really excited!