A visit from my buddy Jack

This past weekend my good buddy Jack game up for Superbowl weekend. We had a great time! Unfortunately Jack wasn't feeling well and kept his mommy and daddy up most of the night. I tried to show him how instead of a tissue, it's best to wipe your runny nose on your sleave. We spent a lot of time playing with my trains and trucks. We also took a trip to the zoo Sunday afternoon. Jack and I tried to figure out what our favorite animals were. My favorite animal is the giraffe...or maybe the monkeys...or snakes.

Dr. Fisher to the rescue

The last couple of weeks have been a struggle as we have all been fighting colds. Daddy was sick all last week and eventually I decided that I needed to step in and play doctor. I began my examination by telling daddy to "open your mouth" so that I could look at his tongue with a stick I found at the park. I quickly realized the problem and told him that "you've got bugs on your tongue, daddy." I then informed daddy of my final diagnosis which was "daddy you can not eat poop anymore!" If that doesn't take care of the problem I don't know what will.

Hide and seek with daddy

I could play hide & seek all day long. Daddy is good, but no match for me.

My new favorite food...CAKE!

Yup, I'm hooked on cake. Particularly the frosting...actually only the frosting. Daddy gave me a bite the other day and the next thing I knew my mouth was full of cake. The next day I tried to improve my cake eating efficiency by just licking the frosting off the cake.

Movie time on a rainy afternoon

Is there anything better then sitting in your favorite chair on a rainy afternoon watching some "Elmo in Grouchland?" I like to snuggle up with with my blanket and watch Elmo work his magic. That Elmo is pure genius.

I Love Snow Apples

Here are some pictures of me in the wonderful Wisconsin snow. You would not believe how many snow apples I found (and ate). For those of you who don't know a snow apple is a small ball of snow that looks like an apple...and boy do they taste great! Some people call them snowballs, but I prefer snow apple.

Hey guys, where did my voice go?

Hello everyone. The last couple days have been tough. I got bad cold and have been barely able to talk. It was really scary because I could not figure out where my voice went. In addition there was lots and lots of "bugger nose". I don't know how many times I had to tell mom or dad "I got the bugger nose." My checks and nose are also really red. It looks like I've got Santa's red cheeks and Rudolf's red nose. I had to miss two days of school. I hate to miss school because who is going to take cars away from Kaliche in my absence? As the video details, I did manage to do some magic while I was sick. I have not been able to make my blue chair disappear just yet, but I'll keep working at it.

Hey, where did everyone go?

Rice anyone? How about some Uncle Ben?

Uncle Ben always has the coolest hats!

Uncle Ben looked a little tired so I offered him a drink of my juice.
I tried to sneak as many Uncle Ben hugs in as possible.

One of the best surprises this Christmas was Uncle Ben's "secret" trip back for the holidays. We got to play a lot together. I really tried to maximize my time with Uncle Ben and I think he was pretty spent by the time I was done with him. My favorite game was to run and dive off the bed and have Uncle Ben frantically try to catch me.

Trains and Grandpas!

Do you know what is better than one train...TWO TRAINS!! In case you didn't know I love trains! I mean LOVE trains. It's pretty much all I think about (other than firetrucks and ambulance trucks). This Christmas I hit jackpot and got train sets from both grandparents. One was a "Thomas the Train" set and the other was a GeoTrax. Both are awesome! As you can see from the two pictures, I spent a lot of time playing with my grandpas and my new trains. It doesn't get much better than that.

My Christmas Vacation

Greetings everyone and sorry for not blogging much lately. We have just returned from our annual Christmas trip back to Wisconsin. I will post some pictures of everything I did later, but you can trust me when I say I had a blast! I spent much of my time playing in the snow. It is amazing how much fun the snow is. I don't even mind the cold. However, the best part of the vacation was all the alone time I had with my grandparents. They took such wonderful care of me. I was very careful to be on my best behavior. For example, I didn't poop in the tub once (well maybe once, but that was it). The above picture is from the bathroom at grandpa and grandma Treps. That guy in the mirror sure looks a lot like me.

27 Times

Yup, last night I climbed out of my crib 27 times between 8:30 and 10:00pm. Mommy and daddy always responded by simply picking me up and putting me back in my crib with no feedback (positive or negative). The theory is that eventually I will learn that there is nothing to be gained by climbing out of my crib. We will see. They read about it in some book. Nevertheless, 27 crib escapes is pretty impressive.

No crib can hold the Fish!

Today was big. I finally did it. I had been planning my escape for weeks maybe months. But I was either lacking the perfect plan or the necessary agility to pull it off. Today was different. Everything came together perfectly. My technique was to first throw my right leg over the end of the crib while balancing my body on the front of the crib. (see picture 1). Then I would hold on to the top of the end of the crib and slowly shimmy my way down. The perfect plan...perfectly executed. It all went down today at nap time. When daddy put me down I didn't make a peep. I was quite as a mouse. The beauty of this technique is that I can pull it off without making any noise. After I escaped I slowly walked out to the front room and open the french doors. Daddy was sitting on the couch when I walked in and calmly asked "have you seen the Wiggles dvd?" He looked like he had seen a ghost. I could not contain the giggles and I laughed and laughed. Daddy put me back in the crib, but it was too late, I had mastered the technique. I escaped 6 more times before mommy and daddy took me for a ride in the car and I fell asleep. Daddy caught me in the act one time and took some pictures for the record. My mistake that time was trying to bring my monkey along with me (see picture 2). The final picture is me breaking through the french doors after one of my escapes. Look at that smile I am wearing...true joy at a job well done.

Moving to Barnes & Noble

Well it appears that some big changes are in store. After a lot of long discussion between mommy, daddy and I we have decided to move back to the Midwest; Chicago to be specific. Daddy asked me if I wanted to stay here or move to Chicago. I told him I wanted to move to Barnes & Noble. Barnes & Noble has the best Thomas the Train set up you will ever find. But after some good discussion I told daddy that I thought the move was a good idea. Here is the way I see it: I'll be able to see both grandpa and grandmas a lot more...which is awesome! And I will be close to the 2 coolest cats in Nape-town...kelly and julian. Not to mention all the other friends and family that will be close by. It seems like a no-brainer to me. And I hear rumors that Chicago has a Barnes & Noble. I just hope that one has a Thomas the Train as well.

I am not done sleeping!

As you can see from these pictures I was clearly not ready to get up from my nap. I don't know about you, but I have the hardest time getting my bearings after a long sleep. For instance, the other day when daddy came into get me up for school I told him "go away-I'm not done sleeping." He did not go away and I had to get up. Sometimes I can't make up my mind if I want to get up or not. My body wakes me up, but my brain doesn't want to come along for the ride. Those days are particularly tough. It is funny, because when I was little I was always an early riser (just like grampa muck). But now I love my sleep. I guess I take after mommy after all. It is crazy how things change as you age.

The Battle of the Banana!

Let me begin by noting that I am NOT in the best mood today. It all started this afternoon when I asked mommy for a banana. She gave me the banana but I promptly threw it on the floor. Mommy picked up the banana and gave it back to me. But I threw it on the floor again and announced "I do not want a banana!" Then mommy took my banana away. And even worse she wouldn't give me another banana. You should know that I have been doing this a lot recently. I decide I must have something (banana, cookie, piece of bread) and then decide I don't want it, and then decide I want it again. It's a pretty complex thought process. So back to the battle of the banana. Mommy told me that because I threw my banana on the ground twice I could not have it any more. Well, I let her have it!! I started yelling and screaming about how much I wanted a banana. It turned into a real tantrum...pretty ugly. I yelled so much about it that soon enough it was nap-time. Well. I was in no mood for a nap. I proceeded to tell mommy in the sternest of voices: "Mommy you will NOT take my banana away!" I must have yelled that into the baby-monitor 200 times to no avail. Eventually I got tired and fell asleep, but I'm still not happy.

Christmas Ornaments…better on the Door Knob

Happy Holidays! What an exciting time of year. Yesterday we got our Christmas tree and who knew a tree could be so much fun. But what I don’t understand is why you put ornaments on the tree? As you can see from the pictures I much prefer to put the ornaments on our front door. When mommy would put an ornament on the tree I would immediately grab it and stick it on the front door. I think they look GREAT on the door! Mommy didn’t always agree. I’ve also been watching a fair amount of Christmas shows. From what I can gather, this Santa Claus guy sure seems like something special. Daddy and I have been singing “Jingle Bells” and “Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer.” I am really good at singing “Jingle Bells.” And you might be wondering what I am doing in that third picture with my eyes closed. Well, mommy told me to say “cheese” when she was taking the picture…and that’s how I say cheese.

Blueberry doctor gets no presents for Christmas

Yes, that is correct. As I told daddy on the way to school this morning, it is my firm belief that the blueberry doctor will get no presents for Christmas. After I said it daddy couldn't stop laughing, but I got the sense that he thought I was joking. Quite the opposite, I am extremely certain that the blueberry doctor will be looking at an empty stocking this year. Why would someone dedicate their entire life to shoving tools up the noses of good little boys (yes, I consider myself a good little boy)? Why does he care if I put a blueberry, M&M, or even some play-doh up my nose. It's not his nose! And those tools...how barbaric. You may be wondering why I am just now talking about the blueberry doctor...and to tell you the truth I don't know why. It just popped into my head this morning on the way to school. Other than the silly blueberry doctor everything is great! I have been watching the movie "Cars" the last two nights before bed and it is GREAT! Those cars are super cool. O-yea, I almost managed to sneak my way into the elephant pen at the zoo yesterday. I had sneaked through the first fence before mommy corralled me. You should have seen how agile mommy was flying over that fence. She could be in the Olympics. She wasn't real happy with me, but I wanted a closer look at the elephants. Hope everyone is doing well.

Singing in the Shower!

Hi guys. So I took a poop in the tub yesterday. I told daddy I was going to do it, but he didn't take me seriously. Given my warning, I don't see how it was my fault. After we cleaned up the tub, mom and dad made me take a shower. I used to be really scared of showers, but I've grown to like them. As you can see from my video, I particularly enjoy singing in the shower. My favorite song is "shower, shower, shower, shower, shower, shower shower. shower." It's a good one.

The Big Boy Swing...and my mittens

Hello everyone. As you can see from the picture, the weather has cooled a bit. I was not happy about having to wear my hat, but what can you do? Mommy and daddy were persistent and I wasn't in the mood for a fight. But more importantly did you notice that I was swinging on the big boy swing? This was a monumental breakthrough! Yesterday daddy and I went to the park with my good friends Taylor, Wesley, and Alison and I decided that I was finally ready to try the big swing. As many of you know I am a big fan of swings, but up to this point I had always used the baby swing. However, yesterday I was feeling adventurous (maybe it was the two bananas I had for breakfast) and decided to step it up. Daddy made sure I held on to the chains really tight and off I went. By the end my face was red as a cherry, but it was worth it. For those of you who do not swing on a regular basis, I highly recommend it. It is so relaxing. The world makes a lot more sense when you are on a swing.