p.s. Sorry Uncle Jason

Don't know why you got cut off in the picture below but I don't know how to fix it! If you click on the picture you can see the whole thing. 

A Christmas Story, Part 1

We’re back from Florida and you won’t even believe how much stuff I have to blog about. So much, in fact, I need to start by telling you about things that happened before we even left Illinois!! I had such a great first Christmas. I guess I was a pretty good boy this year because Santa was very good to me! I’m so excited about all my new toys, books, and clothes. Thanks to everyone for all my presents! I know Mom and Dad really enjoyed being home in Florida and visiting with everyone. They miss you all and can’t wait to come back soon.

Now, on with my news. First, I promised news from before we left. The day before we left for Florida, the three of us headed down to the city to meet up with some friends who were in town for the weekend. Despite a big snowstorm the night before we were able to make it down to Navy Pier for Winter WonderFest, where there were tons of rides and slides and stuff.

 We all went on a train ride:

I also went on the Ferris wheel with Mom and Dad—a real, big people Ferris wheel. We were so high up!!! I also loved sliding down the slides with Mom and Dad. Here are Dad and I atop North Pole Mountain: 

And then coming down:

We had a great time visiting with Mark & William at Navy Pier, but we were all a little anxious because the very next day was FLORIDA DAY!!!!  We escaped Illinois in between snowstorms and counted our blessings that we were able to get out.

 We spent the first few days of our trip at Yia Yia’s house. Yia Yia had some cool toys waiting for me:

I had a great time exploring Yia Yia’s house, especially the playroom. Yia Yia and Pappou even let me sleep in their room!! (Mom and Dad say thanks for that, by the way).  I was a great helper on our trip. Here I am helping Yia Yia wrap presents:

The first night at Yia Yia’s house we went to a very special party. A Chanukah party!! My cousin Caitlyn’s mom and grandparents are Jewish so they celebrate Chanukah each year. At the party we ate yummy Chanukah food like potato latkes and listened to the story of Chanukah. Caitlyn did a great job reading the prayers. Dad learned how to play the dreidel game. I even got some Chanukah presents. What a great thing it was to learn about and help to celebrate Chanukah!!

On Christmas Eve lots of people came over to celebrate with us.  Here are some pictures of our family before church that night:

After church, we went home to open presents. Knowing that Santa would be very busy that night, I decided to give him some help from Snurgle Claus:

I got lots of great things that night like a toy guitar and a red rocket for me to ride on! Mom and Dad say they also got some great stuff, most especially their new Ipod Touches from Yia Yia. Thanks again for all my great stuff, everyone!

By the end of night I was pretty tired so Mom and Dad and I packed up and headed for Grammie’s house where we spent Christmas and the remainder of our trip. 

I’ll blog about that and all the cool stuff Santa brought me in my next post. So check back and have a Happy New Years!

Happy Christmas to All!!!

Did you know those are the actual words to end The Night Before Christmas? (i.e. not "Merry Christmas...") Mom and I have been reading it and she has been noticing how a lot of the words we generally think we know are a little different in the original text. 

Our family is getting ready to go to Florida for Christmas. Mom and Dad say this trip could not come at a better time because we are COLD!!!! We had a big snow storm on Tuesday and Mom had to drive through it. She did great, though. We are looking forward to another storm tonight. Yikes!

I went to visit Santa Claus at the mall the other day. Mom and Dad told me all about Santa before we went and I really liked him. The picture isn't very good of me but Mom says she was just glad I didn't freak out!

I probably won't post anything else until we get back home after Christmas. I hope everyone has a great Christmas. I know mine will be. It's my first!!!

...and to all a goodnight!!!

Grammie, come back!! We miss you!!!

Grammie came to visit me this weekend. Her visit was way too short but we had a great time while she was here.  No worries, though, because I'm going to see her again in only 12 days when we go to Florida for Christmas!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a super Thanksgiving and thought a lot about what they're thankful for. We went to Minnesota for a few days and had a great time. I tasted lots of yummy Thanksgiving food like turkey, cranberries, dressing, and sweet potatoes. Dad even gave me a bite of pumpkin pie! (And I liked it, too.) 

Hey you know what I'm thankful for? Everyone who reads my blog! I especially like hearing about my readers who are friends of Mom and Dad (Hi Erin! Hi Eva! Hi Ann!). I hope everyone enjoys reading my blog as much as I like telling the stories and taking pictures. Speaking of pictures, here are a few pictures from our trip to Minnesota!

Thanksgiving morning:

Our family before Thanksgiving dinner:

Uncle Jason and I getting pumped for the Vikings game:

Clearly, my cuteness helped spur the Vikings to a decisive victory:

In the 2-0-5

Remember how on American Idol, Reuben Studdard always used to wear those shirts that said 205 on them? Well I ought to have one because that's where I spent my weekend. Birmingham, the 2-0-5. Mom and I went to visit Granddude and Grandma Sherry and we had a great time!

I got lots of practice eating like a big boy in a restaurant highchair and waiting patiently while the big people ate their food. Okay, maybe I'm not that patient but Mom and Granddude always knew what to give me to keep my happy (BBQ anyone?). 

The weather was kind of crummy on Saturday so we went to the mall (Mom says "thanks guys!") and I got to ride the carousel. I rode a giraffe and Mom helped me stay on. Mostly, I wanted to eat the pole and all the grown ups thought that was really gross. 

On Sunday, we went to the Birmingham Zoo to see real giraffes! It was my first trip to the zoo and I liked it pretty well. I really liked seeing the Spider Monkeys swing from the trees and the flamingos march around squawking at each other. Granddude and Grandma Sherry must like the flamingos too because they have a lot of them in their house!

It's almost my granddude's birthday, so Happy Early Birthday!

A Whole Mess of Pictures

I had such a great time this weekend and I thought you might like to see some pictures. Friday, of course, was Halloween and my first trick-or-treating. I didn't get to eat any candy but I went to two houses and everyone thought I was so super cute! Don't you agree?

Saturday was Dad's birthday and do you know where we went? The WORLD'S LARGEST CORN MAZE!!!! And if that isn't cool enough, the maze design was all political-themed so we got to go through a republican elephant maze! You can see the whole design at http://www.richardsonfarm.com/corn-maze.asp. I also got to play  in a sandbox filled with corn--a cornbox! 

Today, I did something very important. I voted in my first election. Okay, so I really only helped Mom and Dad to vote, but they say that voting is a very important and special thing to do and they're so proud that I got to help them vote. I did a little campaigning at the polling place. My shirt says "ME for President."

Last, but not least, how about a few pictures of me playing around in my crib?

Happy Halloween

I am going trick-or-treating later tonight (well, sort of--there won't be any candy involved) but I thought you might like to see some pictures of me in my costume before then. Am I the cutest scarecrow you've ever seen or what? 

p.s. Mom says the last one is my "scary halloween face."

p.p.s. Aunt Jamie is coming into town today!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

I am going trick-or-treating later on today (well, sort of) but I thought you might like to see some pictures of me in my costume now. Enjoy!

p.s. the last one is my "Scary Halloween Face."

p.p.s. my Aunt Jamie is coming today. Hooray!!!

I Got Skills

Did you hear? I  can crawl!!! How cool is that?!? 

But before I tell you about crawling, don't you want to know about me and the big pumpkins? Last weekend, Dad went to Minnesota to go hunting, so Mom and I needed to kill some time. We decided to go to the Botanic Gardens to see how much different it looked in the fall than in the summer. One of the coolest things was the fruit & vegetable gardens where we saw all kinds of food growing, like tomatoes, squash, radishes, cabbage, and of course REALLY BIG PUMPKINS. I couldn't resist a closer look:

Mom was a little disappointed because most of the trees in the garden were still green. The garden is only about 10 minutes south of us but the difference in the leaves was remarkable; that is, until we rounded a corner and found this beauty:

Alright, enough about the gardens. I know what you really want to know about. CRAWLING!!! Check me out in action:

The Rays are in the WORLD SERIES!!!!

Told you so.

Do You Believe in the Rays?

You may have heard that the Rays had a slight set back on their way to the World Series the other day. Don't worry, however. They're still going. I know it. 

Several years ago when Mom and Dad first started going to Rays games in St. Pete they would get Dippin' Dots in miniature Rays baseball caps to eat at the games. The first time they brought the caps home so that Bushie Cat could wear them. After that they managed to scrape up a pretty good collection of them. Mom said back then, "If the Rays ever go to the World Series, I'm having a party and we'll serve ice cream sundaes out of these Rays caps." Dad just laughed and said, "I think that's gonna be awhile." Maybe not so long after all. Now those caps are used to feed me my baby food and unfortunately we don't have any fellow Rays fans up here to invite to our World Series Ice Cream Sundae party, but Mom says she's still going to do the sundaes if they go. One more game and she can.

So do you believe in the Rays? You better, 'cause I do!!! 

A Halloween Trivia Question

What's sweeter than those little orange candy pumpkins?

Me in a pumpkin outfit, of course!