Christopher's Christening of His "Big-Boy" Bed

It is a momentous day in the Kane household...Christopher Michael has officially christened his "big-boy" toddler bed. Daddy was prepping his "old" room for the soon-to-be addition (hopefully) to our household. The cleaning and straightening and other touch-up things that were going on were taking longer than he had originally though...long past Christopher's usual nap-time hours. So Daddy decided that now would be as good a time as any to get him going in his new bed. It wasn't a completely clean run without any hitches, but it went much better than I had thought it would. He had mistakenly, but appropriately, shut himself in the room playing when Colleen asked me to put him to bed for a nap.

"Christopher, it's time for your nap okay?" I said, opening the door after he'd shut himself in.
"O-tay"
"You're going to sleep in your new big-boy room so go ahead and lie down in your big-boy bed."
"O-tay." he replied pouting.
"Okay, give Daddy a kiss and I'll see you in a bit. I love you."
"I yuvoo"

I then felt it necessary to check on him three times. The first time because the wind had shut his door and he had apparently rose from the bed to try to open the door again. The second was just to check on him. This time he was rustling around and starting to wrap himself into a blue-Christopher burrito-like-creation. Once he does that move, "lights out" is certain. Lo! and behold! He was asleep within 5-minutes, when I checked him the final time before la-la land. It really is a proud moment for me as a parent, although somewhat bitter-sweet as I'm reminded that he no longer a baby...officially. Time just seems to move too fast sometimes.

Christopher's New Room and Our New Kitchen (both about 85% done)

A look at Christopher's new bedroom and our new kitchen floor and paint job. The old kitchen is the last picture, and I never took a picture of the "old version" of Christopher's room. I admittedly paid or the kitchen to be done (painting walls and ceiling and new floor installation), but I did Christopher's room myself...aside from the new carpet. Obviously, no curtains or blinds have been installed yet...that wil happen this week, I might update the pictures at that point, but who knows.

4th of July with My Cousins

The first part of our 4th of July festivities involved us going to New Jersey to visit some of my family...namely, my Aunt Jennifer and her kids, Tommy, Jeff, Justin, and Michael. Jeff was kind enough to extend an invitation to me and my family to come to his girlfriend's (Tara) house. It was cool to see them and chill with them. We really should do it more often. We also got to see my cousin, Mike, former Marine MP Canine Unit and son to my godfather and godmother/Uncle Mike and Aunt Debbie. It was a good visit with my family....this is a good thing I think.

Hanging Out with Charlie

Our friends Kristy and Mikes' daughter, Charlie, came over to visit with Christopher last Friday....they had a great time. They played some piano for a little while and then swam for an hour or so before they both took very long naps (separate beds, of course). It was a good time for them.

...and I must apologize for the messy house, we're getting some work done in or kitchen so everything that was in our kitchen is now in the corner of our living room next to the piano...thanks for your understanding.

Christopher Swimming

The second half of our 4th of July festivities took place at a friend of the family's house in Bensalem, PA, which is about 5 miles or so south of Levittown, wehre I live. The family has an in-ground pool. Christopher was more than excited about getting to swim in it.

Now, the significance of this post? I mean, Christopher has certainly swam before, so this is no reason to triumph or celebrate, no? So, the signficance is that Christopher has graduated to being able to swim with his swim-tube without having to be held...swimming all by himself (sort of). So this post is to mark this point in his life. He was proud as a peacock about it, yelling "I'm swimming! I'm swimming! Good job!" repeatedly. He swam for over 3 hours without and had to literally be forced out of the pool because he was so tired he was being obstinant and wasn't listening. It was truly a great day.

Jamming

In keeping with the "making sure my child has some culture" process, may we now introduce:

Christopher M. Kane's rendition of Bob Marley's "Jamming"...

please hold your applause until the end and I apologize for messing up the lyric.

Our Little Mini-Vacation

The Kane's took a little vacation last week. One of my coworkers was extremely kind to us and allowed us to use their little house down by the shore for 3 days for free....which was fantastic. The house was about a mile away from Sea Isle City, so it wasn't right on the shore, but we were okay with that. Our goal was to get out of Levittown for a while for a couple of days away from everything. It was a very nice trip...we really had a good, relaxing time...aside from Christopher being a complete disaster for much of the trip (mostly when we went out to eat). (For the record, Christopher and I had a few "come to Jesus" meetings...which were effective at least in short-term situation....which was nice.) He did have some fun though. I, being the person I am, forgot to pack the digital camera, so we were unfortunately relegated to using my cell phone and a Kodak disposable camera....we eked out some pictures of two of the highlights of the trip. We did a lot more, but its very hard for me to get pictures on my cell phone sometimes...I really need to be able to manipulate both hands freely and, with Christopher on the loose, that's pretty much impossible. It was a good time and we did a lot of neat stuff, which was cool and very much needed.

AT THE BEACH


Christopher and Mommy






The ocean taunting Christopher, and Christopher retaliating with a frisby




A couple of nice scenic-type shots with the cell phone

AT THE FREE ZOO

Cape May, NJ, located at the southern-most tip of the New Jersey shore, has a free zoo...its actually about 5 or 6 miles north of Cape May city. If you're ever down there for any reason, its actually a very impressive zoo for being free-of-charge. They do ask for a $1.00 donation, but that is it. Definitely worth it...but, again, only if you're in that area in the first place. Now on to the story.

Again, unfortunately, I didn't have an opportunity to effectively take cell phone shots so we were stuck using the Kodak disposable camera...which, as anyone who's used one knows...is kind of hit-or-miss depending on environmental variables. Colleen, who, by the way, is 8 months (and some change) pregnant, couldn't be much help with Christopher as she was having a hard time ambulating. She was a trooper throughout though...no worries. About an hour into the zoo excursion, Christopher began another volcano-esque melt-down. Before that went down we got to see the lion and watch him roar at the crowd, some tamarins (Golden Lion and Cottontop types) jumping around their cages...which he really loved), an aviary...he wasn't a fan, and a bunch of other animals. He had the most fun feeding the goats, and, of course, it was the only activity at the zoo where we could bust out any sort of workable shots...

Above was the orginal goat that Christopher was feeding. Everything was all good until the big bully showed up and pushed the little guy off to the side. When the goat was queried he replied, "Its not my fault being the biggest and the strongest".