Full Steam Ahead

A few months back I felt like Kip's interest in trains was finally waning. There were days when our living room floor was bare with no tracks. It felt like a bit of a milestone. But, for some unknown reason, Kip started requesting the train shows again and building again and it all just continues to ramp up. Again.

Kip is getting so proficient that he will build elaborate tracks all by himself with minimal to no help from us. And sometimes a lot of help from us and a lot of tears in the process. It depends, but the floor is filled again! And Ivy loves to join in when he will allow it. His favorite is still the small wooden tracks ("little trains" as he calls them) as they are the most open ended and he has a TON of them. He also really likes the Duplo Lego trains and then he has three sets of the battery powered remote Lionel trains. He also still pushes the die-cast "table trains" along the dining room table as well. 

A few weeks ago they had a theme week at school and one of the days was dress like your future career. Kip wore his train conductor hat. He talks often of how he will be a train engineer when he gets big. Although it is a bit of a dying/niche career, if Kip still wants to do that when he grows up - I'd be glad to climb aboard his train any day. 

We've come a long way with this little interest of his and I'm glad he has something he enjoys so much.

The other night, I asked Kip if he loved me more than trains. He paused and said, "I love trains and you." So, that's where I rank.

Crowded Bed

When I was in elementary school I slept with a ton of stuffed animals on my bed. They each had a specific place and I called them my Group. I tried to lay perfectly still and not move in the night in order not to disturb their placement on my bed. A yarn-haired Cabbage Patch doll named Mrs. Proctor watched over them all day while I was at school. I think I had at least 15 animals ranging from an oversized Easter bunny I got at the grocery store all the way down to a plastic straw from a Tropicana juice box. Yes, you read that right. A plastic straw. His name was Strawie and I loved him and was devastated when I eventually threw him away. Toy Story 3 is an emotional movie for me to watch, okay! 

I still have my baby blanket, Yellow, and my favorite stuffed animal, Cowie.

Anyways, when I was pregnant with Kip I bought a stuffed bear at a gift shop in Cold Springs, New York. The name he came with is Toothpick and he is adorable. I really wanted Kip to attach to that bear and I even took his one year old monthly photos with it and put it in his crib every night once he was old enough to have stuffed toys in his crib.

Kip still has Toothpick but he never took to it as a comfort toy. In fact, he never took to anything in particular despite accumulating many stuffed toys. On his third birthday Auntie Jess sent him a stuffed Racoon from Arizona and that is the first animal he really took to cuddling with and insisting on having to sleep. This past Christmas my mom gave him a stuffed dog named Timber and so Coonie and Timber are his favorite duo. See them at the bottom of this photo from Easter morning.

All of his other stuffed pals lived at the end of his bed or in a basket, until last week. For a week straight now he has insisted on having all of his stuffed animals crowd next to him in messy heaps all night long.

A couple of things about Kip sleeping. He flops all over the bed all night and he rarely has covers on. He has the "Johnson family hot feet syndrome" and cannot have his feet covered (same as his Dad and Grandma). He sleeps with his mouth open but breathes through his nose (it's a consequence of having a pacifier for three+ years).  I'm wondering when he will learn to sleep without the need for a bed rail?? 100% he would fall out of this bed without one.

Happy cuddling!

Bubble-rific Weekend

We did mostly chores, shopping, and errands all weekend. The weather is still pretty cool but tolerable to be outside. I got the kids little Paw Patrol bubble blasters from Target (in stores only). They are a hit, only trouble is you have fill them with bubble solution constantly.

Nothing beats the magic of little kids and bubbles.

Peeks from the Week - Spring Break

Kip has been on Spring Break all week and it's been so nice not to have to do the whole get-ready-drop-off drill. We had some really cold weather days but it is finally turning around and we've had the busiest weeks of day-ventures in over two years!

 

On Monday Mandy took Kip and Ivy to a park in a neighboring town. We've only ever been to this park when it is super hot in the summer. It was chilly this day but they had fun and got donuts on the way home.

On Tuesday it was cold again. They played outside for a little and Dan took them to the library in the afternoon. We had gone to the library multiple times over the summer but had not been back since the school year started. The librarian still remembered Kip.

 

 

Wednesday I took a day off of work and Mandy and I took the kid to the garden center. We had let Kip watch a couple of episodes of a Japanese show on Netflix called "Old Enough." The premise is little kids (ages 2-4) run errands for their parents all alone. Obviously, they aren't totally alone as multiple cameras follow them and they are in tiny little villages where everyone knows them. Anyways, it's funny and cute and also terrifying and would NEVER fly in America. But Kip was inspired by it and suddenly wanted to do things by himself, like clear his plate and put it in the dishwasher. He wanted to be able to pay for what we got at the garden center by himself so we felt like that was a fun idea. Well, once we got to the center he was pissed that we were following him and he wanted to be all alone and get whatever he wanted. It took some convincing that we can't do things like that here in America and that I needed to be able to see him. I tried to give him space and a sense of freedom but heck no was I letting him attempt to buy a flat of ground cover or a liter of hummingbird food. But we let him pick a few small things, walk around with a basket, and take the cash to pay at the counter. Overall, not a bad outing.

 

When we got home we played in the yard and our little neighborhood friend came over with her grandma and we did a small egg hunt and then went a played at the park to finish the afternoon. 

 

 

On Thursday I took the day off again and Dan and I took the kids to Turtleback Zoo nearby in the afternoon. It was Mandy's idea to try and it was a really cool area but unfortunately it was a mob scene. I have not been anywhere that crowded since before the pandemic started. I guess it being Spring Break and the fact that it was the first warm day all week just meant chaos. Kip wanted to ride the zoo train right away so we waited in line for about 35 minutes but it was worth the wait. They both loved it. 

 

Neither of the kids were that into the animals and Ivy only cared about eating the snacks in the wagon. 

 

As we were getting ready to leave we ran into Kip's classmate and "favorite friend" and her mom and dad. They are the family we spent Easter afternoon with and probably the only people we can call friends in NJ (besides our next door neighbors). It was fun to bump into them and the kids enjoyed vending machine Dip'n Dots before we headed home in rush hour traffic.

 

I'd love to go back to that Zoo again some day but we already decided we would take Kip out of school one day to avoid some of the crowds. 

 

I'm back at work today and Mandy is with the kids. I've really enjoyed this little break from school and a dip back into the good old days of exploring and going places. It is not without nervousness and anxious mask wearing with rising community spread in our area, but we try our best to live a little.