ATV-ing at Apex

Chris has a new ATV-ing buddy, Dave, who is my friend Donna's husband. Dave is a Metro Police Officer, and enjoys the opportunity to get out and quad with Chris. The two of them have breakfast and then load up and head out to Apex to ride for a couple hours. This past Saturday they took the camera with them to catch their stunts.

Here is Chris catching some air:


Chris again, making his son proud!!!!

Here is Dave:

And Dave again posing for ATV Magazine's October cover shot.

Here is Chris getting a little C R A Z Y . . .

Here is Dave hauling a@@ over the jump (Donna, don't get worried, Chris has only rolled it once . . .)

You Know You're A Mom When...

You have sold your gorgeous formal dining room set . . .


To make room for a play yard!!!


As you know I am juggling working from home with taking care of James. Well, I came up with a solution recently. Where before I had been barricading him into the family room with some ottomans, I decided to sell the formal dining furniture and use the space for a big play room for James.

The GREAT HUGE benefit of this is that my office is directly across the hall from the new play area, so I can keep an eye on the boy without moving my butt out of my chair. (Do they call that arm chair, ummmm . . . I mean office chair parenting????) LOL


Just an FYI, he LOVES IT!!! No more bouncing into the coffee table, plenty of room to run, the living room doesn't look like a battlefield of toys (well, I mean, yes, of course, if you walk in the front door I guess it looks like I run a daycare) but OH WELL!!!


So, for those of you who have joined us for the occasional formal meal . . . . ummm, don't forget to invite us over!!!

NOTE . . .

Ok, so, I had just finished posting this entry when I saw this from my desk . . .

TOO CUTE!!!!

Screaming & Spinning

James has two new funny things that he has picked up in the last few days. They are SCREAMING and making himself DIZZY.

I think he picked up the screaming thing from me, since I chase him around the kitchen shrieking at the top of my lungs and making him laugh. The twirling around until he is so dizzy that he can't stand up straight thing? I don't know!!

You can tell that the crazies are about to begin when he quickly goes from one activity to another. Here is a video that shows the beginning of the crazies. Note the sudden tossing of the sippy cup:



A close up of screaming:


Let's add a ball:
How about a ball and a construction hat?

And here we have the spinning:

PINKS ALL OUT- -Vegas Baby!

I was running on the treadmill (ok, not REALLY running, just sort of quickly walking) and getting my daily dose of the VH1 Top 20 Countdown when an ad for PINKS All Out came on. Anyone familiar with this show on the Speed channel? Well, of the people that read this blog, I am going to say probably not. Well, here's your primer on Pinks All Out.

Pinks All Out refers to pink slips and street racing. Think James Dean and Natalie Wood in Rebel without a Cause. Anyhoo, in this show, two cars edge up to the start line and the host, Rich Christensen, does an arm drop to single the cars to take off. The fastest one to the end of the 1/4 mile is the winner. In Pinks All Out, some 200 cars do this until they are narrowed down to 16 cars racing for a final purse of $10,000.

I knew Chris would be SO EXCITED that Pinks All Out was coming to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. General Admission tix were only $20, so we ordered ours on line and arranged for babysitting (thanks Donna and Dave!!!)

The day is a long one, with racing starting at 11 am and the final taping of the show not happening 'til 9pm or later (so I read on a Speed channel message board while trying to ascertain how long we would need James looked after for, LOL)

In between racing, the Speedway offers all sorts of fun "extras" like crazy people doing wheelies on the motorcycles with their girlfriends lying underneath them:


Here is a pic of the same guy giving us a "smoke show." Trust me--there really is a motorcycle in the cloud of smoke.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "What is Allison's attraction to the show?" The answer is simple: BICEPS. The host's biceps, to be specific. Here is a good shot of them:

Here is a pic of the famous arm drop. For those of you who know a little about drag racing, Pinks does alternate using the Christmas tree (now you're impressed, huh?) with Rich's arm drop. Personally, I prefer the arm drop.


Here is a mustang that Chris thought had a VERY nice paint job:


When we found out that the show was coming to Vegas, we were really excited and tried to entice Chris' cousin Chris (yes folks, that is not a typo) to come out. We even tried a free plane ticket--but parental duties were calling. NEXT TIME!!

Bazzano, here is the seat that you SHOULD have been sitting in!!!!!!!


Unfortunately Bazzano, since you didn't make it out, you missed a Willys . . . .


And some butt cheeks!!! Seriously, is there a draft in here, or WHAT!!!!????


Check out the guy in the blue t-shirt checking Butt Cheek Mama out:


A little pic of "The Strip" gates where the cars come through before they race:

Another video of Rich in Action:



And finally a REALLY SCARY FAST jet engine-powered car.

Labor Day

We went over to Bill and Gini's house for a little Labor Day Party in the afternoon. Here is the boy and his Daddy swimming.


A number of the swimming team kids and their parents were at the party too. The pool can get pretty crazy with all of the kids. Here is what it looks like, (and there are probably only half of the kids in this picture!)

A favorite activity in the pool is doing a variety of flips off of the back wall. Here Hannah demonstrates a picture perfect back flip:



Two tired cousins after swimming:


When we got home, the boy was full of the crazies! He was running circles around the island with his tah-doo (what my mom calls the empty paper towel tube) LOL

This video is pretty shaky, but VERY FUN as you can see me chasing James around the island and hear his hysterical shrieks of joy.



We hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend!

Tulsa- Part 1

We took James to Tulsa over Labor Day Weekend to visit his great grandparents. We flew Southwest and we ended up being able to give him his own seat!

Here he is reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar with his Daddy.

Cool! I get my own seat!


PaPa Okie and Jane and James and I:


We all took a walk around the neighborhood after dinner. The weather was beautiful the whole time we were there. It was in the mid-nineties during the day and a little breezy.

Here is James at breakfast the next morning, showing off with his utensil skills that he picked up while staying with his Auntie Gini:

PPO and Jane have a great big yard and James had so much fun playing in it!


Playing ball with his Great Grandfather James (his namesake):



Here he is with their poodle, Dooley:

Chris and I at a great little Mexican restaurant:


James claps for everything now and even says "Yay!!!!"


There was a little fountain outside the restaurant that he could splash in:


More to come in Part 2!

Tulsa - Part 2

We took the boy to a great local hamburger joint on Sunday called "Goldie's." It has the BEST burgers (the only better place is Shady Glen, back in CT.) Here is the flirty look that James was giving his blonde waitress:

Chris and I:

James ate all of his grilled cheese and french fries! I think PPO thinks that is all that my kid eats! LOL

We took James to Build a Bear at the mall after lunch. Here he is with Jane and PPO outside Build a Bear:

I love that he is old enough now to walk in the store and pick out his own stuffed animal. This time he picked a puppy, and of course his name is "Pup Pup."

Oh, SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM!!!!!



Pup Pup about to get stuffed and made "real."


Here he is getting his heart put in:

"Are you done yet?"

On our last night we had dinner at Zio's Italian Restaurant, one of our favorites. PPO kept helping James use his RIGHT hand, LOL. NO LEFTIES!!!!

Mommy and James sharing spaghetti Lady and the Tramp-style!




"I love spaghetti, Mom!"



We left Tulsa Monday at about lunchtime. Thanks for having us, PPO and Jane! The boy loaded up on snacks and Sesame Street on the way home.



It is good to be going home, Mom, I miss my bed!