The Park, Slippers, and Nursery Rhymes

Calder loves it outside.  It doesn't matter how grumpy he is inside, once we get into the fresh air, he is happy.  We love happy Calder!  He especially loves the park and has recently decided he is big enough to walk there.  You will notice Hugh has the stroller.  Calder will NOT leave the park on his own free will.  It doesn't matter if we are there for 15 minutes or an hour.  When it is time to go, there is usually a sceaming boy and a fight to strap him into the stroller.  If we don't have the stroller, we have to carry him.  This is increasingly difficult as he gains more and more weight. Not to mention the fact that he will kick and scream the entire way home!

At the park he will spend time on the swings.  Calder loves when Hugh makes noises as he pushes him.

Hugh has taught Calder how to fire his cars down the slide.  This started in the backyard during the summer and now consists of picking a car out of his toy box before we leave the house.  This special car gets to be launched down the slide at the park.  Only one car has been lost at the park so far (It was on Grandma Fritshaw's watch and she felt so bad, she bought him a new semi to replace the matchbox van the very next day.  It was a great upgrade for Calder.).

If you look at the photo in the top right of the collage below, you will see Calder using his new favorite word "WOW".   Almost anything will get his most enthusiastic, "wow", whether it be the cereal we place in front of him in the morning, or a commercial with an all-terrain vehicle.

Calder hates socks.  He removes them as soon as we have his shoes off in the entrance way.  Sometimes he even removes his shoes in the van, or on the lawn, just to get his socks off.  Because of this, it was quite a surprise to us how he loves the new Thomas the train slippers his Aunt Abbey purchased.  He has worn them non-stop for 24 hours now.  There is no doubt in our mind, that if they weren't Thomas slippers, he wouldn't be wearing them.  He has an obsession with trains and anything Thomas.  I hope Santa reads blogs.

Calder has become obsessed with a nursery rhyme book that his Great Grandma Fritshaw bought him.  He LOVES to read it.  This morning he pulled it out of his room and insisted Hugh read it to him (above).  Later in the afternoon, he pulled himself and the book up onto the chair in his room.  He flipped through all the pages, then found a spot at the tub on his floor to have a second look.  After he was done looking there, he pulled up some carpet to take one last look.

I have been working on this blog for almost 3 hours.  YIKES.  There have, of course, been interuptions...playing with Calder, chatting with Luke and Brittney, and a few computer malfunctions! I don't think the next post will have quite so many pictures!