Playing on the freeway

I-64, to be specific. They just finished a section of it, so my mom and dad and I went to try it out on our bikes. The ride was pretty nice. I especially enjoyed the cookies at either end of the road. And I saw Santa Claus, riding his bike. He WAVED at me. I'm sure I'm getting James the Red Engine now. Maybe Gordon, too.

hosting a dinner party

I had my buddies Jared and Joseph over for dinner the other night. Those guys actually eat stuff like mashed potatoes and turkey. ? I just nibbled on bread until they brought out the pumpkin pie - with Cool Whip. Then it was time to eat.

Frosting Cookies

Mom baked Christmas cookies. I helped with the frosting. I'm really good at sprinkles, especially cleaning them up and telling someone which cookies need more. "how 'bout . . . this one!" "right here!" Mmmm mmm. Frosting cookies is much tastier than baking cookies.

Exploring ancient history

The largest ruins in North America, outside of Mexico, are just across the state line. Before it got really cold, we took a trip over to Cahokia Mounds to check things out. They had a pretty nice museum that you're not supposed to run around in and yell, evidently. We watched a little movie, that you're not supposed to provide your own narration for, so I was told. But best of all, they had a lot of stairs to climb. I climbed up the tallest mound on my own legs.


And back down, too. And then we had a snack.

Unpacking

You guys know that we moved, right? That's what all the boxes are for. That was a while ago. We're still working on unpacking the ones in the basement.

Eating Out

Dad says I'm a cheap date. If you know my Dad, then you know he's proud to call me that. This is what I like to eat at restaurants:
Water - with ice and a straw.
Little tubs of butter. Yummm. Keep your chicken fingers, grilled cheese, and noodles. I'm eating butter.

Singing

Due to the limitations of the video function on my parents' camera, some of you might not be aware that I can talk. Actually, I talk a lot. Not that it does much good most of the time. A typical situation: Mom offers me oatmeal in the morning and I don't want oatmeal. I say "No oatmeal! Nini want Whoppers." I know, I know. That's not the nice way to say it. So, I can say it nicely - "please have Whoppers, please." It still doesn't work. Try something else - " . . . how . . . 'bout . . . candycorn!" Nope. Why did I even learn to say all these things if it doesn't get me what I want?

Anyway, I've been paying particular attention to the lyrics of these little songs I hear and I'd like to share a couple with you all now. For your listening pleasure, we have today
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

and the second verse from
Three Little Monkeys

and a coerced and rather dramatic version of the 4th verse from
Five Little Monkeys

Ricker Reatin'

The best night of my life happened last week. Have you all heard about this deal where you knock on a door, say ricker reat, and then you get CANDY? I really like candy. I did have to wear some funny outfit, but it WORKED. First we met up with my buddies Jared and Joseph, also wearing funny outfits. Then, we went up to a door, said "Ricker Reat" and, as promised, we got candy in our bags. We did this again at every door we could find and what I discovered is that there are little ways to increase your candy collecting.
1. Get your dad or other adult to carry you between houses so you can move faster.
2. Let someone you TRUST carry your candy bag (probably not your dad)
3. When you get up to the person with the candy, jog your feet up and down and yell "CANDY!"

Here's us at our last house. Jared lost his shoes.










Before the actual night I had to try out a couple costumes to see which was more tolerable. The lion outfit won. I can't wait to try this again.

Hanging out with my Maamas.

Both my Maama Cookie and my Maama Coffee came to visit for my birthday. We had a great time - just like in Italy.

We even went to eat Gelato!













We had a sunny day at the Botanical Gardens.


I helped Maama Cookie get across this scary bridge.

Eatin' bar-b-que

Mmmm. It's good. I like the beans, but most of all, I like the sauce. Just a big ol' puddle of sauce. Yummmm yum.

Getting ready for my career in modeling

Check out this pose - am I ready for a top-tier fashion mag or what? Yes, that's me showing off the latest style of Big Boy Pants. Mom thought that just because I didn't want to wear a diaper that I needed some Big Boy Pants. Actually, I just wanted to pee on the floor. (it's fun). And now I can tell you why models often strike poses like this and have pained expressions - tags. Right there. I'm back to diapers. They're so much more practical, even if they're not as cool. And no tags!

Getting Older

That's right. TWO. Don't make me throw a tantrum to prove it. I'm going to count to three and when I finish I want you to give me my way. OK? One, two, three. Just kidding. I'm a nice two-year-old. I almost never cause any trouble, as long as I get exactly what I want.
I had a great birthday. TWO grammas were there and they brought me some neat stuff to play with. At lunch time we got to go get french fries with my buddies, Joseph and Jared and then played on the french fry place playground. What a blast! We wore hats and mom won some more french fries!
Later we made birthday cake. I sat at the table where the cake was and said "cake? cake? cake?" but it still took forever until I got to eat some.





But, I did finally get some cake, with ice cream.





And I got some really cool presents, too. Here's one of my grammas helping me (and my cat) open a present.




Yeah for TWO!

Playing in the Rain

Last weekend, the weather system formerly known as Hurricane Ike passed through our neighborhood. We stayed inside for most of that. Eventually it calmed down a little. My mom found my neat-o boots and we all went out to splash at the park a little.














There were some good puddles,
but you have to look out because some of them have MUD and if you put your feet in those, then your boots can get dirty and we don't want that to happen.






It started to rain again and that was good because we got to use an umbrella - just like Winky! It was so fun.




But then it wasn't very fun to get so wet, so we went back to the house.

Playing with Cat Toys

My gramma sent a big box of cat toys to our house. Most of them were really small. There's a little mousey that my cat, Awilo, likes to kick. It's SO funny.






One of the cat toys is big enough for both me and Awilo to play in.








It's a good place for a snack, too.

Introducing some of my friends

Do you guys know the Beebies? I think some people call them the teletubbies. They are the BEST. In green there's Dipsy with his hat. One time his hat was too big and then it got too small and then finally it was Just Right. Lala (in yellow) is one of my favorites. She always plays with her ball. She is so funny. Po is in red and she's OK. She rides a Scootah. My other favorite is Winky, in purple. Some people call him Tinky Winky, but those who really know him just call him Winky. One time, Po spilled some custard on the ground and then Winky stepped in it and fell DOWN! And then he slid UP the slide and when he came back down his bowl of custard was empty. He wanted more, so Dipsy gave him some of his custard. That was nice. Winky always says "oh deah". And they all say "EH oh". I love the beebies.

Playing in the Garden

The Missour'ah Botanical Gardens has a special garden just for kids and they don't even charge for it until you're 3. It was a lot of fun. There were slides and tree forts, a general store with lots of real-looking fruits and vegetables. I really wanted to take a bite out of those bananas and limes and apples. Yummm. The best game they had there was this one where you take the carrots, climb up on a crate and then throw them into the basket. I'm pretty sure that's what you're supposed to do. I mean, it only makes sense.












We put paddle boats in a river and had a snack in the gazebo.
I also discovered that water squirting from the ground is not scary, but actually FUN. But those water squirts are tricky. I was waiting for one to squirt and was looking down at the hole where the water comes out and SPLAT! My face was so wet. My clothes, too. Can you believe my mom didn't remember to pack extra socks for me?

Letting Dad cut my hair

But only if Mom feeds me M 'n Ms while he's doing it. What do you think, should I let him do it next time or go back to Great Cuts? Also, what do you think of my "on demand" smile. I've been working on it because sometimes people tell you to smile and I do try to be cooperative when at all possible.



If he cuts it just a little shorter in front then we'll REALLY look a lot alike.