TOI-YYYY-Z!

Yesterday, I found the missing piece in Joe’s playtime repertoire: Sheriff Woody from Toy Story.

"I got Woody! It's a cool one," says Joe excitedly as he flies Buzz around the room and mimics what Andy does with the dolls in the movie.

It would have been the perfect present from Santa, but Joe was with me. Still, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. There were only two on the shelf and, with the Christmas shopping season starting, I didn’t want to risk losing out. (I’d been looking for the full-size Sheriff Woody since Joe scored Buzz from Uncle Jon and Auntie Tonya.) Besides, who knows when I’d be able to sneak out Joe-free to go shopping. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t sufficiently distract Joe from the basket contents to sneak it through the checkout lane and, ultimately, home. In fact, Woody was the only thing that seemed to wrench Joe away from Handy Manny’s workbench on display (which, though cool, is way too flimsy for Mr. Handyman himself. The kid stripped the plastic screwheads within minutes of being in the store! Oops. Maybe they shouldn’t have glued them in the display?). I even put Woody in the back of the car and purposefully didn’t unload our purchases when we got home. But Joe was having none of it. It was naptime and that kid wanted Woody. And he was going to nag and fight until he got it. He had already seen it in the store, held it during checkout, and, well, the Queen of Delayed Satisfaction (ha!) caved. (Surprise, surprise.) Two hundred little clipped plastic and metal ties later (don’t get me started), Joe was playing with his newest favorite toy. And just like in the movie, Buzz and Woody played together beautifully in the end. In fact, Joe is sleeping with Sheriff Woody right now.

Astronauts and Llamas

Yet another museum visit. Joe has been asking nearly daily to “go to zoo to see dinosaurs.” (The museum and zoo are next to each other and he hasn’t quite been able to articulate “museum,” but that’s what he means…) So, we went with buddy, Zack, to the museum today.

Joe wanted to get dressed and leave the house right away once he realized that we were going to the museum, but he insisted on wearing his "bap-pap," which he proceeded to stuff full of toy dinosaurs.

All that excitement boiled to a melting point once we got into the museum and Joe's latest obsession (Shawn) was there.

Of course, he eventually got what he wanted ("Shawn upee"). See, I'm not the only one who spoils him.

Because Joe gets quiet when he sees Shawn, Zack piped up and wanted to go to the space exhibit. And that's where we went. Here's Joe in the toddler room playing with some plastic connectors.

And acting like a total goof.

Both boys had fun picking up moon rocks with the "grabbers."

And somehow Joe ended up double-fisted. (I ended up buying him one of these at the gift shop that he can take to the museum on our visits. The last time we went on a weekend, it was crowded and the other kids wouldn't share.)

Moon rocks can be hot, you know, so you need to wear special gloves (like these oven mitts provided by the museum!)

Joe checks out the computerized animation of space.

On our way to the dino exhibit (we never made it), the boys ran around in the wildlife dioramas and found the llamas to ride.

Joe hugs the llama.

Post-sledding fun

After our sledding adventures, we decided to walk over to the museum’s T-Rex Cafe for lunch. Of course, you can’t go into the museum without the full dinosaur tour. It only delayed naptime by about an hour.

Joe's snowsuit was too wet and hot, so we left it in a locker, and Joe donned his underduds (jammies) and snow boots. Of course, he was sporting wicked hat hair. And behaving like a perfect angel. Ha!

Joe riding in style, thanks to Daddy, aka the pack mule.

The kids found the puppet room in no time.

Joe (surprise, surprise) was the T-Rex.

And Maggie was the shark.

In all of the excitement, Joe bonked his head on the corner of a bench.

And, of course, only Daddy could soothe him.

We finally made it to the main part of the dinosaur exhibit where the big fossils are located.

Dinosaurs really are pretty awesome.

Joe stopped at the bone bar. I love that he's showing interest in the details now.

Dan showed him a dino egg.

A visit to the museum wouldn't be complete without Joe trying to get into one of the exhibits.

But he wasn't the only one!

Joe thought the big, scary pig-like thing was pretty cool, though when he saw a photo at home, he said "That's a bear!"

I wouldn't want to meet up with this thing in the wilderness!

The kids take a gander at Australopithecus. Joe says, "That's a monkey!" Apparently, every time Dan takes him to this exhibit, Joe wants to know about body parts. He's sort of into pointing out nipples right now.

We finally coax Joe out of the museum with an escalator ride and Dad shows him how to take a big step to exit.

More fall snow = more sledding adventures

Yesterday evening the snowflakes started coming down in those big, puffy waterfalls of icy delight and it didn’t stop all night. This morning, we awoke to snow-covered everything and decided it was a good day to go sledding. So we met Maggie and crew over at the hill behind the Nature & Science museum and took our two new sleds.

Joe and Dan playing in the snow.

Joe preferred eating the snow over sledding at first.

We don't think he ate any yellow snow...

The kids had a blast with snowballs, and though we are trying to teach Joe not to throw things at people, he sure managed to toss a few good ones at us!

Maggie Moo poses for the camera

We tried to show the kids how to make snow angels...

...but I don't think they had that much fun.

Dan finally found a way to convince Joe to sled with him.

Maggie wanted to go for a ride with Dan. Joe got jealous and so they all went down the hill together.

And if you think that looks fun, check out the video!

Friday night date night

When you’re two, date nights have a whole different meaning. For Joe, that usually means a play date with one of his buddies and staying up late. Tonight was our turn to hang with Z while his parents got some quality time out of the house. The boys had a blast!

The kids were pretty occupied with their matching tractors. Until Z decided that he wanted Joe's. Or they both wanted the combine pointing up. Or down. Or backwards. Or forwards. Then it would fall off (they're LEGOs, so they come apart) and you'd think the world was ending! But they had fun despite all the drama...

We were surprised to see Joe so interested in the tractor, even when Z wasn't. (He actually took it to bed...aw.)

At one point, Joe demanded a snack break and Z decided to play hide-and-seek. I was trying to get a photo of Z hiding, but he went on a "Zack Attack" and tried to tickle me. In a split second, Joe jumped off his chair and they both went on a tickling frenzy. And they did a pretty good job tickling too. This is the best shot I could get of Joe while I was being tackled and trying my best not to pee my pants from laughing so much.

Joe likes Z's yellow mini. What cracks me up is that he hurdles the side of the car just the way you'd expect someone in the movies to jump in.

Joe found the hot dogs in Z's play kitchen and went crazy over them. He's been asking for (real) hot dogs for a couple of weeks now. Apparently they serve them at school on Fridays, but we don't buy hot lunches (because they're hot dogs - duh). I guess you can't shelter kids forever.

Why I have a love/hate relationship with TV. They are both glazed over, don't care that I'm sticking a camera in their faces, and Z was actually drooling.

A wild experience

Today, Joe and I accompanied Zack and Shawn to The Wildlife Experience (thanks, Shawn!). It’s a bit of a trek (to Parker) and similar to the animal dioramas at the Nature and Science Museum, but much newer and more animatronic. Joe loved it!

There was a lot to look at, from all angles!

The life-sized animals were pretty authentic, the backgrounds beautiful, and the kids really got a kick of how the animals moved and made sounds.

Joe really enjoyed looking at all of the animals, which made mommy really happy!

There were a ton of these interactive displays with animal sounds. The kids had a blast running from one to the next.

Both boys pointed out Dori and Nemo at the aquarium exhibit.

Sometimes the kids needed a boost to see cool stuff over the rails and Shawn was happy to oblige. Not that Joe would settle for Mommy anyhow.

Joe checking out the ice cave.

There’s a new (temporary) butterfly exhibit. It was intended for older kids, but Joe and Z had fun too.

Joe spins the wheel of butterflies.

A reflection of Joe doing the butterfly mating dance. I told you the exhibit was for older kids!

All Zack cared about in the butterfly exhibit was the "big bumblebee tent."

Joe gave the butterfly exhibit a standing ovation.

The museum also had a (school-age) kids’ interactive exhibit, kind of discovery museum-ish.

Joe really liked the avalanche "game" where you dump foam "snowballs" in the top and watch them crash down a mountainside.

Joe and Zack carrying the snowballs.

Joe tried pushing all of the buttons on the exhibits, but they were a bit advanced.

So he decided that the exhibits were better to climb on. (He didn't get caught, whew.)

The boys took a split-second break in the movie room.

Not sure what the possessive "tree" hugging was about.

There was a craft center with crayons, glue, and scissors. Joe found the only pair of non-rounded scissors in the place. Greaaaat.

Z and Mommy colored. The craft of the day was peacocks.

We ended the morning in the tots room, where the boys had just as much fun as the rest of the museum.

Joe found a stick in an outdoor activity area. He couldn't be happier.

Z tried some rockclimbing.

The kids had great fun with puppet play.

Joe must have tried out every puppet in the place.

He was pretty good at it.

Z decided that the snake needed to wrap around Joe.

We ended our morning venture with a walk outside, because, well, that’s what little boys do.

Taking a walk around the little "ampitheatre."

Our walk pretty much ended in a roll. On purpose, of course.

Looking for rocks inside rocks. Duh...

Tools and trains

Zack and his mom came over to hang out since Zack’s daddy was out of town. In the morning, the boys played in Joe’s playroom with trains. I can’t remember why we lingered inside all day. It must have been cold out.

Joe gets pretty serious about his tools.

Joe knows what each tool is and what it's supposed to do. Zack, on the other hand, normally doesn't play with tools often, but he enjoyed playing with them at our house...until Joe got super serious about hammering the Weebles castle when Zack said it was broken. Joe doesn't exactly have a light touch.

Zack came back over to the house for dinner that night and found Joe’s wooden train. He played with it for awhile, but when they started fighting over it, I dug around and found the duplicate downstairs. (Dan made these when he was a teenager and did woodworking projects with his dad.)

Joe pushing his wood train.

Zack was sad because he wanted Joe's engine. Though they were identical, the one Zack had been playing with had a broken funnel (which I learned because Z told me what it was...Z knows every part of a train--he's one smart cookie!). Before I pulled the extra train set out, he was perfectly content with it, but when he realized that Joe's wasn't broken, then itl was the end of the world. Two-year olds!

Joe wasn't willing to trade engines and neither of the kids were happy about the situation, so we ended up putting all of the trains away.

Joe’s new hat

Joe got a new hat today, quite by accident. I bought a bunch of hats for Dan and I to try on.

Yo, baby.

I didn’t realize that this cute purple hat was a boy’s hat. It was in the women’s section and fit me perfectly. Of course, it fit Joe too, since Joe and I can share hats (…between my pinhead and his big ‘fro!).

Joe says "CHEESE!"

I’m so glad I have a hubby who appreciates fun and funky fashion and doesn’t get intimidated by colors like purple and orange…

"Yeah, mama! I like it!"

I love dressing Joe in fun colors, especially the ones I can’t wear nicely (like yellow and orange, yeah baby!). But I do wonder if I’m going to look back on these photos someday, get a good chuckle, and wonder what I was thinking?! (Like my purple polyester bell bottom jumper that I wore when sitting on Santa’s lap when I was 5…thanks mom!)

All done.

How to keep 2-year-old boys busy all morning long

Joe was completely stir crazy from being at home all day yesterday (waiting for our freezer delivery), so we met up with Zack at City Park. Shawn called just before they left to warn me that they were bringing a “giant” dump truck, so we packed one of Joe’s too. I had a hunch I should have packed both of Joe’s trucks, but didn’t. My bad.

Z took one look at Joe's big Tonka dump truck and we knew that an all-morning battle would be inevitable. So I just ran home and picked up Joe's second truck. Five minutes later, I was back with Joe's other dump truck. I do love living in the city!

As I arrived with the other dump truck, Z yelled “thank you” over and over as he ran to greet me…er, I mean, greet the truck!

Boy meets truck.

It was a first! For once, they didn’t argue over who got which truck, even though the trucks looked just a little different.

And they're off!

Buds

They even took turns being in the lead spot as they tooled around (and around and around) the park.

Z's in the lead!

Joe's in the lead!

The boys spent nearly two hours “driving” around the “roads” in the park, picking up pinecones and leaves (and, of course, dumping them out), following each other around, and traversing the hills. They only stopped for one quick snack.

Dump truck races. And, yes, the flames do make it go faster.

They had a really good time, but apparently boys take the whole truck thing pretty seriously.

That's a man on a serious dump truck mission.

They probably had the most fun sending their dump trucks down a steep hill to see which one would get to the bottom first.

Ready, set, go! And they actually let go at the same time...for once.

Dump truck races are quite exciting, don't you know?

And they showed great sportsmanship no matter whose truck "won!"

They even retrieved their own trucks at the bottom of the hill AND climbed back up.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a good dump truck play date if they didn’t find the mud puddle.

What you don't see is the mommy just out of the frame racing to rescue the kiddos before they got covered in mud!

The boys also had fun playing hide-and-seek and running around without the dump trucks.

Hiding in the rose bushes!

We recently clocked Joe at 5.1 miles per hour at the health exhibit at the Museum of Nature and Science (which, coincidentally, was only a few hundred yards behind the boys while they were running.)

It was an absolutely gorgeous day and a beautiful reminder why we live in Denver.

The view we were able to enjoy while the boys played in City Park, which is walking distance from our house.

A colorful day of peacocks and pirates

It was a bright, beautiful, sunny day for our annual trip to Boo at the Zoo. Joe had been really fascinated by peacocks this summer and even has an Eric Carle pillowcase with a peacock on one side and a hippo on the other. So, this year, Joe dressed up like a peacock and, naturally, he was the beau of the ball!

You can't exactly go to the zoo on a dress-up day in such a showy costume without the expected stares and compliments.

Actually, when we first arrived, Joe didn’t want to wear the costume. Of course, halfway through the parking lot, Joe insisted that he had to be a peacock since all the other kids were in costume. So, back to the car we schlepped!

Goofing around in the back of daddy's truck gives a good back view of the costume

Joe is such a good sport. Hopefully we’ll get many more years of mommy’s crazy costumes!

Joe was in a great mood and ran through the parking lot flapping his tail fan.

He took great pleasure in "hiding" too!

Joe had fun trick-or-treating at the zoo, especially since he had the hang of it after the previous night’s festivities.

Mom was happy because a small lollipop kept Joe occupied and out of the other candy for quite awhile.

When we finally caught up with buddies Zack and Landon, who weren’t in costume, Joe insisted in taking his off. Two-year olds are such natural-born leaders, aren’t they?! Then, after a quest for Dots candy (LT had some, so Z, then Joe, *had* to have their own), we caught up with more friends.

Sofia didn't want anything to do with the boys and skooched as far away from them as she could.

Z decided to go on the offensive and started headbutting, tickling, and chasing Joe, who tried to ignore it at first, then simply ran away. Not your usual Joe behavior! Maybe Z has figured it out?

Z leans on his bud. The start of the Zack Attack!

Z tickles Joe

By the end of the morning, when the sugar lows hit, the daddies turned into instant pack mules.

The boys were *almost* too tired to trick-or-treat at the end of our venture.

A tired but happy Zack

As we were leaving, the boys got free Astro Boy posters. Joe decided that his was a pirate’s spyglass.

Dan did not show him how to do this. Joe just did it on his own.