So Let Me Tell You About My Christmas...

Christmas started early this year, in more ways than one! I got to go see my Nana D and Pap on Christmas Eve, and I got to open presents, even though it wasn't Christmas yet! Nana also made me lots of fruit salad and special cupcakes, which everyone kept saying were muffins, but I know a cupcake when I see one. I got to play with my Mom-Mom and Pappy, and my goofy Uncle Scott, Aunt Pam, and cousin Megan, and was so worn out from the morning that I was asleep in the car before we got home. I felt refreshed after my 15-minute car-nap, so I wanted to play with my new engine, Rosie, but Mommy and Daddy insisted I go to my bed and take another nap. This is where my stall tactics came in handy - they let me take Rosie to bed with me, so I had something to help me pass the time until they decided my quote-nap-unquote was over.

Our tree - I made my first Christmas ornaments in school this month, so we put them on the tree!

As for Christmas, all week long, Mommy and Daddy were talking about how Santa Claus was coming and that I had to be good and listen, and he'd leave me a bunch of presents while I slept on Friday night... well, then why were they surprised when I woke up at 4:15 a.m., ready to open presents?! I'd been really good all week, but they still made me go back to bed! But, at least I managed to go back to sleep in THEIR bed, hahaha....

Four hours later, they finally said it was time to go downstairs - and they were RIGHT! Santa Claus DID come, and he left me all kinds of presents to open! But of course, I can't do anything on an empty stomach, so the first order of business was breakfast. COOKIES!!!!! with chocolate kisses... yum! I'm beginning to like the "Christmas version" of Mommy and Daddy - they let me get away with eating dessert for breakfast!

Daddy helped me open some freight cars for my train set.

It was hard to be patient, but I managed to control myself! You'd be surprised at how distracting my Mommy's cookies are!

This was the coolest Thomas set I'd ever seen (and the biggest!) Once Daddy takes some pictures of the new-and-improved track, I'll post some pictures.

The only frustrating thing about getting Thomas presents is that I had to wait while Mommy and Daddy struggled with getting everything out of the boxes! I don't understand why every piece has to be locked down with four different steel ties, plastic bindings, and super-sticky scotch tape.

Anyway, Santa brought me lots of cool stuff for my Thomas the Tank Engine set - my Nana D gave me a little engine named Rosie the day before, and I got the big tender engine, Spencer, and some neat freight cars with aquarium and zoo animals in them. Santa also left me lots of supplies to do my artwork, including a big Ironman art book and an easel of my own!

This book has markers, stickers, puzzles, coloring pages, and all kinds of other stuff, and it's all about Super Heroes! Of course, I had to take a few of the IronMan and Spider-Man stickers out right away :)

This is my new easel. Priceless works of art forthcoming...

I LET the Grinch steal my bean bag - this is RoninGreyWho, waiting for the Grinch's heart to grow three sizes so I can get my bean bag back. In the meantime, I'll be playing on my living-room-sized Thomas track that my Daddy set up...

I had lots of fun playing with my stuff all morning, and then after I took my nap, we all went up to Nana K's house - we ate lots of yummy food (my favorite, of course - the dinner rolls), and I got to open even more presents. I had so much energy after dinner that my Aunt Michelle and I played "Ring Around the Rosie" in the kitchen about 100 times! I was the only one falling down, though, until Daddy joined in - he always has fun falling down with me :) We were having so much fun that we got home WAY past my bedtime. I still wanted to play when we got home, but since it was really late I had to go straight to bed. It's okay, though, because we've had a couple of days to play since then. It's going to be tough to go back to school tomorrow and away from my toys, but I get to see my friends and my teachers, and we can talk about Santa's visit!

Cheesin' it with Thomas...

Mommy and Daddy slacked on getting the Christmas cards out, so this shot will have to do... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope your Christmas was as fun as mine was, and if I don't see you before then, have a really Happy New Year! It's gonna be a great one!

A Long-Awaited Return...

Hi! Yes, I'm finally back! It has been a very long time since my last post, but I really do have a good reason for that - Mommy and Daddy got a new computer, and they're so busy playing Thomas the Tank Engine with me that they haven't really had a chance to set up the camera and download any of my latest photos until now.

Quite a bit has happened since I last wrote - I went trick-or-treating for Halloween in TWO different costumes (Thomas, and Clinton Portis, my favorite Washington Redskins football player), I visited a pumpkin patch and a fire station with my class at preschool, and I got pneumonia for Thanksgiving... don't worry, Mommy made sure I got some turkey a few days later!

Do you see how small I look on this slide?! It's not an optical illusion. That slide was HUUUUGE!!! And as you can see I did it all by myself!!! Pretty sure I scared the you-know-what out of Mommy and my teachers. Hehehe.

This is me in the maze at the pumpkin patch. It was pretty awesome. Again, I didn't have to hold anyone's hand or anything. It was such a blast. I was pretty worn out after all that running and laughing with all my friends from school. After the maze we went to pick out our own little pumpkins, which was cool with me 'cause I was able to chill out a bit.

I also got to visit my school on a Saturday night to see the Christmas Light Show! Mommy and Daddy and I drove through thousands of lights and they blinked to the Christmas music on the radio - but the best part was when we got to go inside and have s'mores and lemonade.

We ended up wearing some of the s'mores on our faces :)

I've also been making a lot of time for my indoor hobbies, now that the weather has gotten colder (and I've been sick recently with pneumonia, which is counterproductive to my efforts to go to the playground).

Daddy lets me play his drums once in a while - I'm getting pretty good!

Mommy and Daddy sometimes let me play on this cool new iPad thing - it's got animal flashcards that make the actual animal noises! I really like to listen to the lion and the fish (which sounds like water bubbling, hehehe), and it even spells the name so I can practice my letters. Oh, and by the way, my latest obsession is singing my ABC's ad nauseum to the girls in my preschool class :)

And, of course, I always make time to play with my Thomas and friends engines.

You can see some of my school artwork in the background of this picture. I had to get my hands messy for that one, but that's not such a big deal anymore.

You can see one of my latest "engines," Alfie, who isn't really an engine, he's a front-loader friend of Thomas's. He likes to feel included with the rest of the engines, though, so I make sure he gets some time on the track, too!

Mommy probably took this picture while I was watching a really exciting part of a Thomas story... he and his friends seem to get into trouble all the time!

Well now that Mommy and Daddy got the camera set up on the new computer, and are figuring out something called Red Eye Reduction, there will probably be a lot more pictures in my next post. Until then I think I'm gonna catch some Z's. 'Night.

Yay for Fall!

Fall is starting to be one of my favorite seasons! The weather's cooling off, I get to eat apples all the time and wear my big clompy boots, and I'm having such a good time since I started preschool!

At preschool, I sing songs with my friends and my teachers, and we get to jump around and play all the time. We also have story time and nap time, but my favorite part of the day is lunch time! We do artwork, too - Mommy and Daddy said that we may need to get another refrigerator for all my paintings! :)

We also get to go on field trips at preschool. We went to the fair last week, and we're going to the orchard for my next school field trip, so I get to see how they make apple cider out of all those apples I saw on the trees when Mommy and Daddy and I went today. We're also going to the pumpkin patch for a field trip at the end of the month, but I saw some pumpkins today, too!


Mommy and Daddy said that this picture reminded them of the song that was playing when I was born - "Here Comes The Sun" :) This is when we were walking through the apple orchard.


I thought this sign was pretty funny!


This is a picture of me LAST year when we went to the orchard - I was so little back then!


And now... I'm a lot bigger!! ;) Haha! Just kidding... but I like that this picture makes me look like a giant!


I was trying to see how strong I am by picking up all the biggest pumpkins I could find!


The wall of pumpkins they have is really cool - it's very tall!


Here's me and Mommy with what she called a "nice, Ronin-sized pumpkin."

I really like being outside when the weather's cool. Mommy and Daddy and I have gone to the playground a lot lately! I love to go down the slides, and I also like to swing :)


Daddy pushes me really high on the swings!


It tickles my tummy sometimes when I swing :)

It's also been raining a lot, though, so sometimes we can't go to the playground or be outside. That's when Mommy and Daddy put the iPod on and we have dance parties in our living room! Check out my cool moves!







I also like to play with my Thomas the Tank Engine trains when we have to stay inside (in my favorite Thomas the Tank Engine jammies, of course!) I'm even learning to read with my Thomas books :)



For those of you who may need a translation, I'm saying, "Thomas [the] Tank Engine... picture of Ronin!" :)


Nana K got me these cool jammies for my birthday - I'm glad Mommy and Daddy said it's finally cool enough at night to wear them! They have Thomas all over them!


I love playing with my Thomas engines, so it's usually not so bad when it's raining outside and I have to play inside.

Sometimes, though, I get really sad when it rains too much and I'm cooped up inside for too long!


Mommy got this picture of me at my worst! She and Daddy keeping talking about something called "the terrible two's," but what else is there to do when it's been raining for THREE WHOLE DAYS but CRY?!

Anyway, I hope the weather stays clear for my field trips coming up - I'll try to get some pictures so I can post again soon! I'm going to go eat some yummy apple pie with Mommy and Daddy... until next time!

Not-At-All-Terrible Two's

Being two years old has been AWESOME so far! I got to have a birthday party, I started going to preschool, and best of all, I discovered Thomas the Tank Engine!

Thomas is so cool - I love to play with my little wooden trains and pretend that Thomas and his friends are going, "Choo-choo!" down the track. That's why I haven't posted anything for a while - I've been too busy "playing Thomas." :)

I really liked my birthday party this year. Mommy and Daddy put lots of balloons around, and a few even had Thomas on them! I got to eat hamburgers (one of my favorite foods), and some really yummy birthday cake, and my whole family came over to play!


Mommy and Daddy helped me blow out the candle on my Thomas cake!


These are some Thomas trains that I can actually play with in the bathtub... so awesome.


I even got to wear a bandanna and my very own conductor's hat!


I had fun playing with the balloons for days after the party. It was fun to pile them all up on the couch and then sit in them!

Since I'm a big boy and not a baby anymore (which Mommy and Daddy get sad about sometimes), I can go to preschool now. I've only been there a few days, but it seems to be really fun. There are lots of other kids to play with, and I'm making a few friends already - it's really fun to sit and listen to the teacher read stories with them!


This is me, telling my Nana on the phone all about my day at school.

Anyway, I'm anxious to get back to playing with my trains, but I'll post a few recent pictures, and I promise I'll post more soon. Until next time, big squeezes and big kisses!

I Love Summer!

Wow - summer is a busy time...but I've been busy having lots of fun! I just went to my first birthday party for my friend, Allison - she has a swingset that we played on for hours, and I even got to eat a bright orange cupcake! I also got to see my Mom-mom and Pappy, which is always fun because they give me lots of hugs and toy tractors to play with. But speaking of birthdays, Mommy and Daddy have also been busy getting ready for my birthday party, which is in a couple of weeks. I can't believe I'm almost two!

Anyway, here are a few photos that I took to show you!


Here I am enjoying one of my favorite summer treats: blueberries!


I think it's funny when the blueberries turn my lips purple :)


When the weather's nice, I still really like to go for walks outside...


and I like to point out airplanes flying by to Mommy and Daddy!


When the weather's no-so-nice, I still have fun indoors playing with my toys... and Mommy's mixing bowls!


And I like to express my "inner Picasso" via Mr. Ironman-Potato Head :)


When snacktime comes, I like to relax on the steps... and sometimes our cat, Puff, joins me for some Cheerios!


I also enjoy some Goldfish crackers from time to time :)


And of course, I've been hanging out with Mommy and Daddy a lot - they're pretty fun!


See what I mean?? :)


Well, I need to go clean up my toys and get ready to have my bath and go to bed. I wonder if I'll still have to clean up my toys when I'm two...? Anyway, good night! Until next time!

Fun on the Fourth of July!

I'm not feeling too well tonight, so this will be a short post - but I wanted to share some pictures we took from our 4th of July mini-celebration at home. Daddy got some fireworks and sparklers - it was awesome to watch them! Mommy and Daddy even let me play with some sparklers :) I also wanted to put up some pictures of some other fun times I've been having lately.












I like to help clean up! Especially since I'm the one usually making the mess - I guess it's only fair!

Well, I'm going to go get some rest - hopefully I'll feel better in the morning. Goodnight!