First Garden Tour

This weekend our Arboretum Unit went on a tour of the Kruckeberg Botanical Garden in Shoreline.  They were very kind and allowed George to tag along.  He spent about half the tour in his stroller, but when we got down to the meadow I thought it'd be good for him to get out and walk around for a while before he had to get back into the car and head out to lunch.  He must be a gardener in the making.

The above fir tree has rabbit soft needles and he thought it was fun to feel them.  The one below has really tiny pinecones, which he also found very interesting. 

He was very pleased with his freedom, and had a lot of fun picking up sticks and rocks.  He'd pick up more and more until his hands were full, then throw them all down and start over with new rocks and new sticks.  And he had to say "woc" and "tic" each time he picked a new woc or tic up.

He was also very pleased with himself for unzipping and taking off his jacket.

I love this "who me?" expression when I ask him to join us as we walked away...

Free of his coat at last, he enjoyed exploring the meadow!

At the end of the tour, he found his way back to the cookie table and convinced me to give him one more cookie.  He'd had 2 an hour before.  I think that's more cookies than he's had in his life (except, perhaps, at Grandma's house)... 

But near the cookie table George found some froggies to play with (look at).  He took the napkin he had in his hands (which mommy used to wipe cookie crumbs from his face) to "clean" the frogs.

He then spent the next 5 minutes "cleaning" the dirt off of the potting benches.  I don't suppose this desire to help clean will last much into when it's actually useful, will it?  But for now, it's pretty cute.

Happy Child

George got a little stroller/push chair for Christmas that he loves to push around.  Lately he loves to push it into things too.  Such a little boy.  Here he is pushing his sippy cup around Grandma and Poppa's driveway.

Another day he was playing with the new truck his Daddy found for him at a charity shop.  

George discovered a very fun thing to do, with Poppa's help. He can push the truck under Poppa's legs! Poppa better watch out as George is getting taller by the day...

A Spring Day

We had a beautiful afternoon Monday.  George had his surgery that morning, was pretty groggy the rest of the day until after his 3 hour and 10 minute nap.  Then he was fairly raring to go.  It was beautiful out, and in the high 60s, so we walked over to Grandma and Poppas to explore the garden.

He loves garden statuary.  We have an angel at home and two "babies"-little cherub twins.  At Grandma and Poppa's he saw another angel and wanted to say hello.  When we looked over and saw him tromping down the flowers in the garden to get to it, Grandma said, "Don't walk on the flowers, George!"  His response, good boy that he is...

That's right, he got down on his knees, then crawled.  He didn't walk on Grandma's flowers!

He loves exploring the garden.  I know there are treasures to be found everywhere.  Wait til you see what he found in the Children's Garden...

See, magic time for a little boy.  He is working so hard on finding new ways to integrate his stick, his rock, and his plant pot.

Then Grandma showed him more garden angels.  I love this picture of my boy with my mom.  It is a wonderful photo of a boy and his Grandma, the gardener, in her garden.

Then he went over to say hi to the angels.  I love how he always touches their noses.  Of course, then he touches his nose, and says, "Nose."

Here are a few more pictures I liked of my, hopefully, budding gardener.

Finally, after some good play in the garden, he decided it was time to take the tea trolley for a push.  He nearly pushed it home.  Grandma thought that was pretty funny!

Quite a fun afternoon for a little boy who had surgery that morning!

Surgery-finished and successful!

George had his ear surgery today. We got to Children's Hospital really early. He was a bit confused by it all.

He began to explore though, and curiosity got the better of him.  He had great fun hiding behind the curtain, and flirting with the doctors and nurses on the other side of the glass.  After the anesthesiologist came in to see him, George said, "Bye doctor!" 

The little outfit they gave him to wear was very funny.  The gown was tiny, as you can see, and the socks were huge!  It seemed as if they had gowns for infants and socks for teenagers, and nothing in between.  But he looked awfully cute.

His Teddy also got a bracelet so he could take it with him into surgery.  Whenever he tried to pull off his bracelet, we just told him he had to leave it on and that Teddy was leaving his on.  He was pretty fascinated by that...

The surgery went well.  His left ear was very full of fluid, so it'll be interesting to see if this makes a difference with his enunciation.  I think things have been muffled for him for a while.  As soon as the doctor told us he was fine, Chris left to head to work.  We were then surprised how quickly we were buzzed back to recovery...not more than 5 minutes later.  George woke up calling for momma, and the nice nurse who carried him back to us said he'd counted 41 times that George had said, "Momma."  I got him settled into my arms and we cuddled and I nursed him.  He was so groggy, but hungry.  When we finished nursing he looked around and started calling for Daddy.  He got a bit teary eyed when he realized Daddy wasn't there.  Perhaps it was because Daddy had been there when they took George away, he was sad to find him not there when he returned.  It was very sweet.  He started to get pretty fussy as I got him dressed.  But when he got into the car with Mommy and Grandma, he seemed to settle.

Once we got home, we snuggled in the big armchair and read books together for a couple hours.  He played a bit, but was still pretty wobbly on his feet, so I had to stick very close.  Then he had lunch (his favorite scrambled eggs with spinach and goat cheese, with apple slices on the side), and went straight down for a nap.  He's been asleep now for 1.5 hours, and I expect he'll sleep a bit longer still.
 

Washing is so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I've shared, washing at the sink is something new and wonderfully fun for George.  The other night our drains were clogged in the bathroom, so there was going to be no bath before bed.  I decided I'd wash George's hair at the sink while he "washed."  He thought that was pretty great and so I let him go for it!  It's only water after all, and easy to clean up.  My the joy he found, my water baby.

The look of concentration is fierce.  It's hard to hang on to slippery soap!

It's also fun to lick the soap...ugh.  We're trying to stop this habit. 

His sleeve slipped down and he got his shirt awfully wet.  It was a challenge to roll the sleeve back up...

Then he decided it was pretty fun to put water on his own head and "wash" his hair.

Next he managed to pull the towel off the rack to dry his hands, dropped it in the sink, and decided that was too fun to quit.

He tried to put the towel back on the rack, but it was far too heavy! 

And he was pretty excited about that!!!

Finally, he discovered how good it tastes to drink water right from his fingers!

Surgery...

We got the call from Children's Hospital.  George checks in for his tube/grommet surgery early Monday morning.  This is such a common surgery with such low risks, that we know it will go well.  At the same time, the choice to have your child undergo anesthesia is not one made lightly, especially a child with asthma who constantly has a cold.  Chris and I are both pretty tense as we await the surgery, both anxious for it to be over.  George does have another goopy nose, so there is a chance that they'll send us home after we check in, and postpone the surgery to another day when it would be safer for George.  His safety is our number one concern, but we do hope that he can have the surgery on Monday so it will be behind us.

Then we'll relax as we enjoy more moments like these with our wonderful little Monkey...