Currently we are talking about our neighborhood

Cole is...

Talking about all of the abandoned houses in our neighborhood. Whenever we go for a bike or stroller ride, he usually stops in front of a house he knows is abandoned and asks "Is THAT an abandoned house? Why is it abandoned, Mama?" Lots of interesting conversations come from this topic and it must be exciting for him to think about why no one lives there anymore and wonder what will come if some of these houses. What's sad though is that these houses are in disarray, what's annoying is we now live next door to one, and what's gross is that the rodent population increases exponentially with each house that is abandoned by its owner. 

Pouring his milk for his cereal, his syrup onto his pancakes, his salad dressing onto his salad. Even of he just touches the bottle as we pour, it makes him feel like he played a role in doing it and I think he feels important. It's very sweet. The other thing he poured last week was dirt on his head. He sat in the middle of the site and just went to town. 

Wishing: we could camp again with Juni, he could watch just one more episode of Curious George, do tricks on his balance bike, pet the cat without them jetting off the bed, go down hills with his balance bike, he could sleep with his light on and his door open, that Mommy and Daddy could play with him more. 

Loving the new double jogging stroller I bought. It's by no means a state of the art jogger, but we don't jog or run- just walk- so I couldn't justify spending upwards of $600 on a BOB dualie. Instead I opted for a Baby Trend Navigator. It has exactly what I wanted and an added perk I didn't even think Cole would care about: a jack and speakers for my iPhone. Now when the three of us go for a morning walk, we can listen to the birds, the crickets AND music. He's also loving marshmallows (come on, who doesn't?) -roasted or raw-, the MidHudson Children's Museum, getting dirty when we go camping, talking about random things like the jellyfish at the aquarium we visited during our last camping trip, and reading Llama Llama books by his new favorite author, Anna Dewdney, hanging out with his cousin, Emmie. 

Here Cole contemplates the Onceler and wonders what Anna Dewdney's old house in Vermont looks like...

Here Cole serves as Emmie's lawyer, explaining to his aunt that Emmie doesn't want anymore squash...

Pouring dirt on his head...

Cole had a fun time with the "Crazy Drains" part of the construction site exhibit at the children's museum.