Oscar’s Musings

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!

Ok, so it is November.  Apologies to my fan club, I have no excuse.  I am just a busy boy I suppose.  I certainly have lots of nice photos to show you but it is hard for me to remember all the cute stories and things that have happened since I wrote last.  I’ll try.

First of all, GO SEAHAWKS!  It is football season and I am pumped!  What I really mean is I love Sundays because that’s the day daddy and I sit on the couch and mommy makes us kettle corn!  Yahoo!  Popcorn is my new obsession.  I have been known to wake up at 6:30am and immediately throw a full-blown tantrum, screaming POPCORN!!!!!!  I just can’t get enough.  Actually, what I really like is the ritual.  1) we get to use the whirley-pop, 2) I get to stand on the stool in the kitchen and listen to the pop pop pop…, and 3) I get to eat it on the couch in front of the TV   Hmm, when I write it out like that I realize that my parents rock.  Thanks mommy and daddy for being so cool.

Oh, and here is my yearly 12th man photo with daddy.

As you’ll see in my pictures, I had a great time at the pumpkin patch this year.  And I got to wear my Halloween costume several times.  Actually, since it is the same costume I wore last year, it really has a lot of miles on it now.  The bumblebee served me well.  I had a little party with my PEPS friends (we had a "no-smile" rule), and I also got to wear my costume to pre-school.  My buddy Emma was a bee too!  On actual Halloween grandma Deane came over and we (big surprise!) got to have popcorn.  Daddy and grandma took me trick or treating which was really fun.  The one thing I didn’t understand was why we kept going to our neighbors’ houses but not going IN.  I kept trying to go in and check the places out but they just gave me candy and sent me on my way.  Back at home the beauty of trick or treating was revealed… in the form of a grape tootsie pop. YUM.  I love lollipops!

Speaking of Halloween that reminds me of a story.  Several weeks ago mommy drove me through the car wash.  I was VERY nervous and even a little scared, but I didn’t cry and was actually quite obsessed with it afterwards.  I have been asking to go back for ages but mommy doesn’t want to go now that it is raining so much.  Daddy to the rescue!  Daddy and I made up a great game with the couch cushions called "car wash" where I walk through and daddy makes the brushes go and the sound effects.  On Halloween, we put grandma through the car wash   FYI – I have also been known to play this game by myself by walking behind the curtains and waving my hands and making a "swish swish" noise. 

Other than that I guess I’ve just been doing the usual stuff.  I’m practicing my potty a lot and am slowing getting more successful.  I use the potty nearly all the time when Melissa is here, but with mommy and daddy I resist.  Just ‘cuz I can.

We went to the zoo the other day and took some pictures as potential Christmas card pictures.  This is the closest we got, but mommy looks kind of silly so we are going to keep trying.  If only I would smile for the camera on command…

I don’t think I have much other news.  I am talking all the time and singing songs too.  And I am scared to DEATH of sock fluff in my bath water.  Perhaps since I only ever had white socks it wasn’t a problem until now, but my dark socks leave fluffies between my toes and when I get in the bath and they float out I freak: "get fluffies out!  get fluffies out!".  I guess I can be a bit dramatic at times  

Happy November!