Sunny day at frying pan park

After class and the toy run we spent the rest of the afternoon at frying pan park. They have a new carousel; new as in a restored 1918 model. Energy was sapped from everyone in the noon day sun.

- Posted from my iPhone

Birthday wishes

We recently stopped by toys-r-us to buy a present for one of JTs classmate So it was a good time to scout out Some birthday presents of our own. There is a new Cars movie coming out which means new Cars toys!










The most random thing asked for was a remote controlled boat

Getting ready for bed

Here is JT getting ready for bed; he is happy because he just had a bath!














- Posted from my iPhone

Test of iPhone blog app

Testing a new iPhone app for JT blog updates


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Random Summer Photos

Here is a collection of random photos I just got around to downloading from my camera from September and August of last year. They are, in no special order:

• JT's trip to Thomas Town (a thirty foot section of Six Flags a.k.a. Wild World
• JT's trip to Great Country Farms a nice farm with activities in Bluemont Va.
• Isabella's visit from PA
• A few picks of JT and myself as we got ready for the first day of school.

Click over to the web album here to get a better look at the pictures in the slide show.

Christmas Ideas

Taking a page out of Max Perkins playbook I've created an Amazon wish list for JT. In my morning internet checks I was able to come by a good deal on some Thomas stuff at Walmart; they have a Thomas playset from the new movie for $10 bucks check it out at the shorten URL bellow:

Walmart Deal http://bit.ly/gVwpJN

JT's Christmas List http://amzn.to/e1xRqX

Max's Christmas List http://amzn.to/hPlXfa

JT's First School Pictures

Here is what a professional photog can get out of the little man





Ironically enough JT's buddies are mostly the back-row'ers as he tends to gravitate towards the older kids. Samantha and Jacob on the ends of the back row get mentioned the most when we talk to him about what he did at school that day.

JT and Ice skating lessons

JT lasted about four minutes before having a total melt down at his first ice skating lesson. It was the perfect storm of getting over being sick, not sleeping enough, not eating enough and cold hands. We are going to see how he feels about going back and if he is still not interested this weekend then we will pack it in (and perhaps be more realistic when a 3 year old tells us he wants to learn to skate).

On the plus side he has also been setup at the little gym finally with the gift certificate Uncle Bill and Aunt Mary got him for his birthday. We just missed enrollement when we originally got the gift; kind of forgot about it until we were recently there for a birthday party.

Sorry for no pictures at this time; add to the list of the "Disappeared":

Dad's Keys (although I think this was "Mommy")
Dad's Cell Phone
The Digital Camera
The Flip Camera
(i.e. anything that costs over $60 dollars to replace)

JT's First field trip

JT's first field trip at MSO was to Ticonderoga Farm in Chantilly. JT loved farm had a great time hanging out with his friends Maddy and John Patrick.



Click on any of the pictures and it should take you right over to a bigger version at Picasa; Where you can actually see his first black eye. He climbed up on a chair knocked it over and took quite a tumble. When he is asked about it he'll state "I was on the chair and then it moved".

2 Aunts and 2 Cousins

Katie, Summer, Aunt Kathy and Aunt Mary were all in town last weekend which was an excellent time to try out the new pizzaque pizza stone on the Grill.

In a word pizzaque was a disaster, with all the pizzas coming off the grill in various forms of under done. I will have to do some field testing before attempting to BBQ pizza's again. Mary was nice enough to send me some pictures from the event which are included here for you viewing pleasure.

The National Zoo

JT and I went to the National Zoo a while back but I neglected to post the pictures; here they are.

JT ended up getting too hot so most of the Zoo was enjoyed from the comfort of a stroller; no walking hills for JT. JT liked the mini farm they have setup a the bottom of the zoo (with cows, donkeys and goats) and was less interested in the more exotic animals. He probably would have enjoyed Frying Pan Park just as much as the Zoo, but I like t give him new experiences from time to time;

From Circus/Zoo

From Circus/Zoo

From Circus/Zoo

From Circus/Zoo

From Circus/Zoo

From Circus/Zoo

From Circus/Zoo

From Circus/Zoo

JT's birthday

Attention birthday shoppers JT has requested the following birthday items:


1. Anything Thomas the Tank Engine (however he has about all the trains). He is looking for wooden railways "Cranky the Crane"

2. Anything related to Cars; the Pixar movie. He has requested on several occasions that I play the songs from Cars while driving and additionally any of the actual toys would be a safe bet. Also the Step into Reading books would be a nice addition to the night time library.

3. A truck with a button that talks (his words not mine).

4. A real dog.

5. Dodoo; which is the answer to all questions lately since we have completed potty training.

6. A big cake that is shaped like a race car (this seems to be one of the more important requests, as it is repeated over and over again.

Please do your part; we don't want the 19th to end up like this:

From Thomas day out

JT at Day out with Thomas

JT really enjoyed "Day out with Thomas" at the Baltimore Railroad Museum; although we ended up skipping the actual ride on the Thomas Train. We were too busy playing with the trains setup around the grounds that we missed our train. If you need to kill a day with a two to four year old that loves trains this is the spot. Here are some pictures of the museum which is quite expansive:

From Thomas day out

From Thomas day out

From Thomas day out

From Thomas day out

From Thomas day out

From Thomas day out

Zing Zang Zoom!

JT was mesmerized by the Circus; his favorite acts where the trained dogs and elephants. Unfortunately the Cannon PowerShot was a little over matched for the dark conditions of arena; most if not all pictures did not turn out well, except of course the one of the creepy androgynous ring master...

From Circus/Zoo

From Circus/Zoo

From Circus/Zoo

From Circus/Zoo

Zing Zang Zoom!

JT is going to the circus next weekend; specifically Zing Zang Zoom. He loved the big apple circus (which wasn't much of a circus), so we are all excited to be going to this one! We are having a little trouble completely mastering the toilet, so we'll try to use this a "reward".

JT: July to December

Ok so I'm lazy, Here is a photo Montage of JT, the family and even the deer that visited our back yard.



Here is a link to the actual pictures:

12-28-2009

The early returns are in...

JT's early favorite in the birthday gift department appears to be the Duplo/lego farm set from Aunt Kathy. To clarify it is not the whole set, rather it's just the cows and the blue tractor and they have been going to bed with JT every evening since the 19th. The cows and tractor have caused more than their fair share of "Mine" fights between JT and Caroline (the little girl that Christina watches). I will either need to get a second set of Duplo cows or convert them to at home only toys to keep the peace.

Thank you to everyone for the great gifts and we will see how the gift front changes over time...

JT in some new videos

Here are a few new videos of JT taken on the Flip Mino over the previous weekend. The first two are of JT playing with his new train table. Although it's birthday present, we decided to give it to him early as we were hosting friends with children and were looking for extra distractions. Parenting side note: never give your child something awesome at 8PM and expect them to go to bed a 8:30PM; calamity will ensue..

Next we have a video of JT playing with Isabella, Delaney and Gavin in an inflatable pool. We had the Lake/Paladino clans down from Philadephia for a wonderful weekend which was further extended when Shawn stopped by for dinner. Filming was cut short due to water hazards created by the children, however a good time was had by all. The visit was great and JT enjoyed having other children invade his "crib".

Last is a short Video of JT opting for cookies over a real dinner. To my surprise Areti actually gave him a cookie before eating a real dinner, a rare event.

JT and Benji Hughes

I cleaned out the truck the other day and I found a CD that Andy made me, god knows when, of Benji Hughes "A Love Extreme" down in the fries and toys under the seat. I've been listening to it on a loop ever since. JT and I like the Mummy song the most. It's certainly a nice break from listening to Jack Johnson's Sing Alongs for the billionth time...

Thank you Uncle Andy!!!

JT gets tubes!

We are happy to report that JT's surgery this morning went off with out a hitch. The little guy was grumpy all morning as he was woken early and then not allowed to eat. The wait for the actual surgery eas made even worse when JT got hit with an automatic door, which left quite a bruise on his left temple.

The actual surgery itself took only about ten minutes and Dr. Bahadori said it was a great success. We have a cycle of antibiotic drops which we have to complete and provided there is no abnormal discharge in the next couple of weeks the little guy will be as good as new.

From Going to the Hospital

From Playing with the Phone

From Prep

From about to go in

From Recovery Room

JT, Grandpa, tubes and Greeks

We were stuck inside on our latest visit to Winchester as according to JT "Too hot, no go outside", however a good time was still had by all. Here are a few pictures of JT and Grandpa "playing" at Grandma's desk. Playing, as in taking all the scotch tape off the roll and sharpening pencils down to nubs in the electric sharpener.

From Playing

It was a good visit, which is nice as JT is getting tubes put in this Thursday. After battling through countless ear infections we've decided the best option was to go ahead with the Surgery. Tomorrow in the early AM we head to the Fairfax Surgical Center to have the procedure completed. Details to follow.


Provided that everything goes well with the tubes, JT would like to invite all the locals to the Greek Fair this Sunday. One dollar off to all people showing a millitary/law enforcement ID (hint hint), that's practically free! The fair is somewhere near DTC and Route 28:


View Larger Map

JT goes to the petting zoo!

After getting scourched at Lake Fairfax, we were able to salvage the day at the Reston Petting Zoo. The three of us really enjoyed the goat and sheep feeding area; some of us because it was covered and others because of the actually animals. All in all the Zoo has quite the racket going and they seemed to be making money hand over fist on the actual feed.

From JT and Mom at Lake Fairfax

From Posed Shot

From Petting Zoo

From Feeding time