Raising Watsons

two minutes of playtime in the Watson household.

Over the holiday break we took a venture out to the Long Beach aquarium.  Tucker really enjoyed getting to pet the sharks.  They were by far his favorite of the day.  I think mostly because he got to play with water, which amuses him to no end.  A true Pisces in that respect, he never tires of pools.   At home if he’s not under foot, 9 times out of 10 we will find him standing on our bathroom toilet leaned over the sink playing with the running water.

We brought home a little stuffed shark (featured a few pictures down) even though Tucker hasn’t shown the slightest bit of interest in a single stuffed animal, not even the stuffed Muppets hold his interest.   Much to our surprise, he sleeps with it every night under his arm.

Tucker and Mom at 2011 WFTDA Champs in Denver, CO.  Mom’s favorite team, the Gotham Girls from NY, won it big.

Bringing Tucker’s travelogue to: New Jersey (twice), Mexico (twice), Chicago, Seattle, Florida (Naples & Ft. Lauderdale) and Denver, CO.   Not bad for a two year old.

Nap time while Oly Rollers stomp Philly.  Mom could’ve napped too.

All weekend Tucker was very interested in putting on his Sesame St. knee and elbow pads (for about five minutes) and melting the heart of every derby girl in the vicinity.   Barely seen here parading around with a picture of one of my league-mates, Kat Espinoza.

From about two months ago when we moved and our lives got turned upside down (again). Things are finally calming a bit, but as you see here Tucker had a pretty nice day of playing at MyGym and in baskets.

Tucker is the ultimate Muppet fan. Maybe because Mom & Dad like them too, but our nightly routine is this- dinner, 1 hour of play time, 1 episode of the Muppets, bath and bed time. Before he could say Muppets Tucker would just say “Bum Bum” we believe referencing the theme songs first few notes. So when the Muppet movie came out we were pretty excited to make an event of it.

With Grammy and Bumpa Watson visiting for the holidays, we booked VIP seats for Christmas Eve at Disney’s El Capitan theater in Hollywood where they were performing a holiday sing-a-long by Kermit & Piggy before the movie. We were in the sixth row orchestra, great seats for the show. There were jingle bell bracelets that Tucker loved but his face was sheer awe when canons went off filling the theater with snow. As the lights dimmed and the movie started his expression was priceless when he realized we were about to watch the biggest Muppet Show ever.

Mom went to regionals (HH EDIT: Mom COMPETED at Regionals), Tucker and I stayed in LA.  These are the records of what happened on those 4 days and nights.  OK, it’s just some good parts, but know this:  we actually had a great time.  I can’t wait until he’s older and we can stay up late, order pizza, watch movies we’re not supposed to.  It’s going to be great.

Tuckers favorite game is to play “Beep Beep” where he gets in the car and pretends to drive.  Recently, he pulled out my cell phone and started talking on it while pretending to drive.  Apparently, I have some bad habits to work on! -HH

I know these are late, but my wife decided we should move a few days after this and well, it was a crazy time.  So thank your stars we’re finally settled and done with traveling for a while, cuz here come the updates!!

Our costumes for 2011: The Incredibles family.  We were the hit of the neighborhood.  Tucker was a little shocked that people would allow him to take some candy out of the bowls they were holding out, so he would take one piece suspiciously and hand it to us for safe keeping.  We made it two blocks from home and one back before he decided he had had enough of this trick or treating stuff, it was real work.  Dodging the packs of greedy kids rushing to their next score, the dogs freaking out at every person that came to the door (PUT YOUR DOGS AWAY ON HALLOWEEN STUPIDS), and all that costumed walking.  And for what?  Well, I enjoyed the candy anyway.  After we got back I rushed to set up the tripod and snap a few official remembrances.

So, this is exactly what it looks like …  the pony handler picked up tucker out of heather’s arms and plopped him on the pony.  that may have set him off, but once the pony started walking around it’s sad little circle, tucker just couldn’t contain himself.  he was NOT into the ride.  I would start making a fool of myself on the sidelines trying to snap him out of it.  It would look promising for a few seconds and then he’d be right back into the sobbing.  *sigh* at least it was a short ride!

Then we went for a walk in the maze of hay bales, this was much more popular.  Tucker didn’t realize he was in a race with the shrimp batman, but he had a great defense and kept the kid squarely in the rear for the remainder of the course.

i just love these contemplative moments.  “Wait a minute, are we all just running around in a maze of our own creation? What am I racing towards?  What am I running away from?” Oh Bub,  these are questions we are all trying to answer every day.  the best you can do is see the maze for what it is and try to enjoy your trip through it.

And then, just when you have your head down and your pushing forward like everyone expects you to, you come across to gigantic pumpkins just sitting on the maze itself.  If you hadn’t looked up right at that second you might have missed those orange globes, but you did look up and now you get to enjoy them!

And by enjoy them I mean crawl all over them and roll them this way and that.

And then when you can’t crawls no more, you bring in your peeps to keep roughing up those pumpkins you just happened upon.

Masks.

Footie Pajamas.

Mac N Cheese.  Lots and lots of Mac N Cheese.

Movies with Mom.  (YAY)

CARS

(okay, actually, anything with wheels)

Every year St. Michaels has a Halloween parade of all the kids in school.  By the time I arrived Tucker was already loaded up in to a stroller with his special lady friend, Lily.

It’s probably about time we introduce Lily, they have been an item for quite some time.  The teachers tell us that they are best friends and play in a most un-toddlerlike fashion.  Which, at this age most toddlers engage in “parallel play”- playing by themselves but next to their friends.  Not Tucker and Lily.   They like to eat in high chairs next to each other, hold hands, share toys and frequently steam roll over each other on the play mats.

More family pictures to come, but I couldn’t help but post these!  My Heros!