Sunny Days!

Tanner loves sidewalk chalk ("coch" as he calls it). He tries to say pretty much anything these days. If I catch him in the right mood, he'll repeat after me for a good 5-6 words in a row...its precious.

This was our 80 degree day on April 18th! You can't tell but Tanner is soaking wet here because he had just lobbed himself over the edge and into the freshly filled (freezing cold) pool. We were right there of course but he was in (shoes and all) before we could say boo! He stayed in the water(voluntarily) for a good 8-10 minutes at a time even though it was so cold he was gasping! Goofer.

In between "polar plunges", he would sit in this little wagon, which was also filled with (much warmer) water...He's still sooooo in to anything water...

Daddy showing Tanner how to use the remote control for his new Hummer toy (yet another tag sale find from LAST summer - $100 toy for $10!)

Our daily bubble session...one of Tanner's top 5 favorite activities!

Tanner LOVES LOVES LOVES bubbles. Nana and PopPop came to visit a couple of weeks ago and brought the greatest bubbles - they are so easy for a young child to use - the wand is designed so that almost any way you do it, bubbles come out. Its great. Tanner chases them all around the yard laughing and squeeling all the way...He's been saying "Bub-Bal" perfectly for a few weeks now...He asks for them all the time - I try to limit it to one bubble session a day because not only does he end up ingesting a lot of bubble liquid because he touches the wand to his lips each time and then licks his lips and says "num num" (uh huh) but he also gets the bubbles ALL OVER him because they drip off the wand down the front of him. But its so worth it.

Playing guitar on the playstation with dada. We also got him his own little guitar in hopes that he'd use that one instead - no luck there. They always want to play with the expensive "real" stuff...

The weekend after nana and PopPop's visit, gramma Va came for a visit. Tanner and Gramma Va collected rocks around the yard...Another one of Tanner's top 5 favorite activities...rock collecting. He puts them in buckets and carts them from place to place around the yard....sometimes for an hour or more...usually talking to himself the whole time...so funny.

Tanner's first T-ball! Neighbor/friend Christina (4) shows Tanner the ropes. Christina is very sweet and we are so glad to have them as neighbors...

Tanner uses a garden stake instead while Christina was busy with the T-ball set. Hmmm...very clever...

We've had some amazingly warm weather here in MA the past couple of weeks. Mid-summer in April. Its been fabulous to be outside every day with Tanner and it makes me wonder how we made it through the winter indoors every day...We've hit all the local playgrounds multiple times and as you saw above, even got out our kiddie pool on the first 80 degree day.

He's such a riot. Very outgoing and willing to try almost anything. Its a lot of fun. This week he has started calling us "mommy and daddy" about half the time in place of "mama and dada" - its so cute. I'm not sure why he started it but I like it. Today's word of the day was "Icky". It started this morning when I wiped his nose and I said "Ooo, a boogie - I got it." and He said "Icky". The Icky theme carried on all day - this was icky and that was icky...so funny...

Yesterday I took a bus trip to NYC with some girlfriends - so Rob and Tanner had a wonderful bonding Saturday together. They hit 2 playgrounds, made it home for a 2 1/2 hour nap, had the neighbors over for a backyard BBQ, and had an all around great day. I'm so glad I can get away and not worry about a thing. We had a fabulous time in NYC, by the way. We started at Rockefeller Center and worked our way down through Times Square, stopped in at Macy's on Broadway, Hit a Street Fair in Chelsea (bought a Yankees hat for Rob and a little yellow bus replica toy for Tanner) , Shopped boutiques in Greenwich Village (where I bought a pair of cute ankle boots on sale at a store called "Shoegasm")...stopped for a drink (or two) at Hogs and Heifers in the Meatpacking district (The Coyote Ugly Bar), ate a late lunch in little Italy, stopped for a Frozen Margarita at a bar in Soho, and took our one and only cab ride back to the bus with about 5 minutes to spare. All that from 9:30 am to 6pm. Needless to say I was extremely exhausted. And still am tonight. So off to bed! TTYL!