Camera phone

 Smile, John! 

Let me snap your picture with this old land-line phone that I just found in my toy bin!

2 years, 8 months & 5 months

We had our monthly photo shoot before school today and both John and I were just too excited to sit still. Here's the best of the lot:

 He's going for my hair!

Ok, Dad. We can all be done now.

News from the past month:

The biggest news in John's life is that he started at my Montessori school last week! He's in a room across the hall from me and he seems to be enjoying it. He's been smiling a lot and playing with all sorts of new things.

He's starting to try some new foods, as well. He's not an expert at eating quite yet, but at least most of the food is getting swallowed instead of spit back onto his chin! He tried avocado for the first time last night and seemed to enjoy it. Apple sauce, bananas and rice cereal are the other things he's had so far.

Mom and I haven't seen it yet, but Dad and the teachers at school have all seen John roll from his back to his stomach. It seems as if he really enjoys spending time on his side, too. He likes doing that in the kitchen while Dad is cooking at the real sink and stove and I'm cooking at my play kitchen.

I've had a busy few weeks, as well. For the past three weeks I've had swim lessons each Tuesday and Thursday evening. This week is my last week of that cycle, but I told Dad that I wanted to sign up for the July session, too. I'm getting a bit more comfortable with putting my head underwater. Of course, by "comfortable" I mean I don't cry every time I do it now. And the other treat that comes with swim lessons is that I get to go home and take a shower instead of a bath. I'm not totally convinced about how awesome they are, but I continue to pick a shower instead of a bath especially when asked questions like:

Tess, do you want to take a shower and then watch a movie or do you want to just take a bath and get ready for bed? Or: Tess, would you like to have this cookie and then take a shower or just take a bath and get ready for bed? You get the idea.

John and I hosted our first sleepover this past Saturday night. Mom and Dad went to a wedding near Winter Park so Erin and Mary came to watch us. I knew things would be ok when Erin arrived and let me open her bag of goodies featuring: Cookie dough mix, pizza supplies, popcorn, water toys and a movie. I was excited to see Mom and Dad when they got back on Sunday morning, but was also sad to see Erin and Mary leave. Sources tell me that Erin had to take a nap on Sunday afternoon to recover.

The biggest news of the month doesn't involve me or John. It's that our cousin's Zoë and Wren have moved from South Carolina to Denver! They live about 25 minutes away and we've seen them a lot in the past couple weeks. It's so much fun!

NY Times

So I was outside playing with my water table on Saturday evening and got completely soaked. I was dripping wet, so Dad removed my clothes on the porch. He then left me in the living room while he went to get my bath ready.

When the water was nice and warm, Dad returned to the living room to find a naked toddler reading the New York Times on the couch. 

Rockies

The day after frozen custard at Culver's, Erin took us to the Rockies' game! She received free tickets in the 4th row behind home plate through a work connection. It was amazing.

After the first inning, the ushers were kind enough to offer us seats a little higher up but in the shade. Still amazing seats!

Eating a healthy lunch before Erin took me for a treat.

The treat.

(Dad ate most of it!)

Coming down off the sugar high.

John was entertained for a few innings, but then had to rest for a bit.

Even though it's been a week since we went, I still like to tell Dad about the big purple dinosaur who waved to me! (For the out-of-towners, it was the Rockies' mascot, Dinger).

Culver's

We made a family trip to Culver's last week and I got to try frozen custard for the first time. I quickly finished mine and then asked for some of Dad's and then some of Mom's and then more of Dad's and more of Mom's and so on...

Relaxing

John helped wake me up yesterday morning and we were having lots of fun until...

He started going for my hair!

Hands off, Johnny!

McD's

After church Dad often takes us through the McDonald's drive-thru so I can get a McDonald's water and he can get adult beverages (sodas) for himself and Mom.

For some reason, this past Sunday I asked to go inside to get my water and I got to pick out a table and everything. I loved it!

Unfortunately, Dad wasn't quick enough with the camera to capture me spilling my full cup and then trying to mop it off the seat with my hand. 

Rice cereal

It's finally time to feed this kid something other than milk or formula!

He's had some rice cereal each of the past several days and continues to get better at keeping it in his mouth. As you can see in the above picture, he loves having something to do at mealtime!

I helped out by showing John how to open his mouth with his tongue in the right position.

Arm rest

More John from last week!

Hanging out with his buddy on the couch.

Toes

I love taking off my socks and picking between my toes. And just recently I realized that I have access to ten other tiny toes that need picking!

John! Please hold still!

#34

John's a big fan of Nolan Ryan, Walter Payton, Bo Jackson and Kirby Puckett.

He's also a fan of baseball.

Reading to John

The ABC book in the picture below is John's favorite book. And by "favorite" I mean it's my favorite book on John's book shelf. So that's the one I typically choose to read to him.

Attitude

I threw a fake tantrum when Dad told me it was time to pick up the chalk and to start thinking about getting ready for bed...

Then I got up and picked up the chalk.

Scooter

I've had my new scooter at home for a few weeks now, but I really just started to get interested in it last weekend. 

And I love wearing my helmet so much that I refused to take it off even when I moved on to my next activity!

More gardening

Dad and I planted our vegetables a couple weeks ago and then Mom needed some help last weekend with our perennials. 

Dad kept asking me to stop putting the plastic pots on my head. 

I kept saying, "Huh?" while I continued to do it. 

Yes, I got to take a bath that evening.

Tandem swinging

Remember, you can always click on an image to enlarge it a bit.