Day Out with Thomas

Sunday Monkey woke up chattering and playing happily. The curse was lifted! We changed our plans for the day and drove about an hour to a historic railway museum where a certain blue tank engine was having a party. There was a train table, of course. And a super tiny electric train:
But all that was nothing compared to the excitement of seeing a real live Thomas come up the track:

And then we got to ride on the train! It was very hot. Monkey was in charge of the tickets:
A very good time was had by all (and a very long nap afterwards).

Graffiti, June 26 2010

Green marker on latex paint, 2010
Noncommissioned work courtesy of the artist

Hand, Foot and Mouth

Monkey is surviving his bout with Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. While this illness has wiped out all of our planned birthday activities, we have been spending a lot of time watching SpongeBob, playing trains, having Mrs. Z blow bubbles (too painful for the cheeks) and screaming. (Lots of screaming.) Poor Monkey. So far he is still drinking when he gets desperate enough, so we think we will pull through okay. His poor little mouth is visibly swollen, although it's starting to go down a bit today, and he has resorted to lots of grunting and hand gestures. We're hoping that another few days will see him eating and talking again. In the meantime, these were taken on his last day of being one year old:

His 2 year stats:
22.0 lbs, 33.25"
(weight is below 3rd percentile, height is holding strong in the 25th)
On or ahead of schedule for all his developmental milestones

Our Birthday Boy

Got more than he bargained for. :( Some sort of virus, we are guessing. We have our regularly scheduled 2-year visit tomorrow so we'll see what they say. Worst case, we will have to postpone some shots.

No worries though. Trains and tracks make all things better. And hopefully he'll be feeling much better for his birthday celebrations this weekend.

Blue Eyed Blonde

The other day we had a lovely trip to our local Museum of Children. Perhaps predictably, we spent over an hour in the train gallery. They have a neat set-up where you can climb up inside the train display. Monkey was in seventh heaven:He was very serious about the water table:
And he kept looking for the train in the dinosaur gallery, thanks to his tied-for-favorite show, Dinosaur Train:
And as always, we finished with a ride on the carousel:
Thanks to our friend E for coming with us and helping with her mad photography skills!

Backyard Hijinks