Free Happy Meals for a Year and other Random Pictures...

As most of my blogs lately, this one will consist of random photos.

Wally lives in Iowa. Here, he is a tornado. Hopefully, this is as close as we ever get to one.

I had a lot of editing to do the other weekend, so Joel took Wally fishing without me. They apparently had a great time fishing (for a little while), then went hiking, and finished off the morning watching some boat races.

Wally can't wait to go to the lake with Daddy again. That afternoon, Wally and Daddy flew his kite for the first time. Can a smile get any bigger?

That night, I was in charge of Wally while Joel watched his cousin pitch on TV. I took Wally to a birthday party at the park. While there, Wally of course fell on some huge climbing rocks and dinged his eye pretty well. I got the bleeding stopped (mostly), and he went on playing. After the party we stopped at the drug store and bought some tape to tape his boo-boo closed. I'm trying some "non-scarring" medicine to try to decrease the scar. It'll add character, right?

He's pretty proud of it...

Yup, very proud...

We got Wally a sand box. I figure it will be a good thing to have to help with Brother and Sister's development when they come home. Wally sure thinks it is a blast though! This is his first time playing in it:

Working hard without getting dirty.

Working really hard (notice the tongue).

He quickly got over the "not getting dirty" thing. What you can't see well in the picture is that the flower pot on his head was full of sand.

What sand?

Oh, you mean this sand.

Wally's explanation of what he is doing in his sand box:

We took Wally to a Kids' Fair at the local mall. McDonald's had a booth with a spin the wheel game. Wally was the big winner and won free Happy Meals for a year. Each month he should get coupons for one a week. Lucky kid! Here he is enjoying his first one. Like Papa Randy, Wally did enjoy it.

We took Wally to a park and watched him run. He actually had a method to his madness in that he was trying to catch birds. He's about as sneaky as Moose, but not nearly as fast, so he never caught one.

Wally also likes to scare Mom. He always needs to be on top of the highest thing at any playground and rarely feels the urge to hold on. I try to not be a helicopter mom, but you've seen the kid's dings!

The 3- and 4-year olds sang "Jesus Loves Me" in church last Sunday. Wally wasn't too into it, but I didn't have to be up-front with my arm as a horse this time!

Wally decided watching himself on the big screen was more fun than singing. His buddy Sam sure can sing!

I finally got Wally's room painted and we moved Grandma and Grandpa's bed in there for him to start getting ready for Brother and Sister. Wally loves his new bed and will just play and play in his room now. He also likes to read books to himself. I tried to be sneaky and get a picture of him reading, but he noticed and did a Wally pose.

Easter

We had a great Easter. I think Wally had a total of 4 Easter egg hunts. He first had one at school. On Saturday, Wally and I went to an Easter egg hunt at a nearby nursing home. They had cupcakes to decorate, crafts, and of course, the Easter Bunny! Wally sure thought it was cool to see the Easter Bunny. He had no fear and just wanted to keep hugging him.

Then the hunt began! Wally found several eggs, but with just a little encouragement, he re-hid some so that other kids could find them. He really did seem to enjoy watching the other kids find (and keep) the eggs that he had hidden and given up. Seems like a good Easter lesson.

Ah, he found the Easter Bunny again.

That evening, we decorated Easter Eggs. I know Wally, so I made him strip-down to his underware for the occasion. By the time we were done, I think 3 of the 12 eggs weren't cracked, but that's ok!

I kinda screwed up one of those plastic-shrink wrap things and got the dipper shrink-wrapped to an egg. Hey, we were having fun though!

The Easter Bunny left Wally an Easter basket with some books, stickers, and some markers during the night. He also left a letter for Wally. And the letter was on Pink paper!

The markers were Crayola window markers. They are specially made for glass and just wash off with water. Here, Wally is tracing his name on the front window. After church (at which there was another Easter egg hunt), Wally and Daddy went on a little trike ride. When Wally got back, he realized he had just missed the Easter Bunny again!

But, finding eggs (with the appropriate protective gear) was a blast. It becomes obvious at times that he really needs siblings. An Easter egg hunt with no competition is just not as fun. Maybe next year.

He made a pretty good haul though!Wally has really been into speaking Spanish (and a little French). He has a friend at school who is bilingual. Tiago and his daddy are teaching Wally some Spanish. Here is Wally counting his eggs in Spanish.

And he so kindly emptied all of his eggs in to a candy dish for Mommy to eat from all day!

We had our big meal at dinner so that I had time to cook during nap time. It was pretty tasty!

Happy Easter!

Our First "Real" Vacation

At the end of March, we went on our first family vacation that didn't involve visiting family. Not that we don't love visiting family, but a trip somewhere when it is just us, is something different. We only drove to Des Moines for the weekend, but it was fun. We first went to the Blank Park Zoo. It was cold (low 40s), so most of the outside animals were out of sight, but we had a great time anyway. There was a great jungle room that was nice and warm. We were all in awe of the jellyfish.

Of course, Wally loved the pink flamigos.

We got to watch the trainers do some tricks with the seals. Wally thought that was cool, so cool, in fact that he starting singing, "I love you seals!"

There was a neat area where we could actually walk in the enclosure of wallabys. I did this in Australia, but I've not seen this in the US. This Wallaby was on the otherside of a little rail. These poor ducks just wanted food from Wally, Wally didn't have food to feed them, and only wanted to chase them. The parrots were pretty neat.

Wally thought staying in a hotel was pretty cool. Here, he was ready to take Daisy on a walk. Dad took the dogs, Wally and I went swimming instead.

In the morning, we went to the Children's Science Museum in Des Moines. There was a huge pendulum clock.

The museum was impressive-looking, but many of the activities didn't work or were poorly-designed. Wally didn't seem to care much. We also got a private show with Stuffee (we just happened to be the only ones there). Wally learned all about the body's organs.

More fun...

A local tv station had their weather station in the museum, so any kids around when they went on-air could be on tv too. Not sure Wally really knew what was going on, but he was pretty cute.

After the museum, we made a little trip to the Federal Building to get finger printed for the adoption. Then, we headed home. It was a great vacation. Short, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Photoshoots of Wally and His Cousins

I had some really cute photo shoots with Reder and Ruby while we were in South Dakota, so I wanted to post them. However, I figured I might get in trouble if I didn't include pictures of Wally. The kid typically bolts when he sees a camera right now, so photo shoots are kinda out of the question. I tried though...

My cowboy My bookworms

My daredevil

My horse jockey (notice the scrawny legs and helmet)

My baby (3.5 years old)
My baby (2.5 months old)My ? (the kid has my fashion sense)

My Wally (on Papa's little truck)

And now...The Many Faces of Reder!

Are those Papa Randy's eyes?

Ah gum...

Hopscotch in action

How to Eat According to Ruby