Crozet Fireman's Parade

Kyle, Liam and I went to the Crozet Fireman's Parade last weekend and had a blast. Luckily, Liam did not learn that what was being thrown by the parade participants was candy (nor does he really ((yet)) no what candy is) so we were able to just sit back and watch, rather than fight off the 6 year olds around us :) Here are a few photos from the day.

Somehow none of my photos of the fire engines

were blog worthy, so here is one that I found,

very similar to what we saw at the parade

and another, likewise stolen from the Crozet

fire department's website :)

The actual fire engines were pretty loud, so this is how Liam

spent some of the time, while waiting for the "Wee Ooos"

Oh but how excited, if not just a little amazed we were!

There were plenty of his favorites...

In a variety of colors

and even some horses too

We saw lots of old cars

And an ambulance or two

(see all the 6 year olds, ready to pounce :) )

I couldn't get away with posting a CARS ambulance

and not a WARS one,

so this one is courtesy of the WARS website

And just because I couldn't resist,

here is Mr. Independence himself, headed home

after a great time at the parade :)

Tractor gifts

Earlier this week Liam received a special gift in the mail...

And main did he love it! (I couldn't get a picture of him looking up

because he wouldn't stop staring at it)

He wanted to take it outside to try it out with his big tractor

Yup, there it is :)

All ready to go now

Thank you Aunt Lois! As you can see, Liam loved it :)

tractors, donkeys and rubber boots

It's an almost wordless Wednesday. This is what I heard as I was cutting up watermelon in the kitchen tonight: "Liam, don't put the watermelon in your belly button!"

In non-belly button related news here are a few pics from the week.

This is the tractor that Mary brought over for Liam to play with.

Liam thought it was fantastic, as evident by the wagon holding

Liam's most prized possession: his sippy cup of milk.

My beautiful boy, almost unrecognizable since he is clean after a bath :)

Other evidence of us living in the country: We feed donkeys in our PJs.

This is no ordinary donkey by the way, this is Poncho,

who is actually a burro rescued from the Grand Canyon many years ago.

Liam loves Poncho and does a lovely impression,

which sounds very similar to someone faking an asthma attack.

I saw these boots at target a few months ago, and Liam has been interested, but a little afraid to put them on his feet and actually walk in them, until tonight that is....

ahhh, have you ever seen anyone look so pleased

with a pair of rubber boots?

Children's museum in Short Pump

Two weekends ago, while Kyle was busy in the MICU, Liam and I took off to Richmond for the day to visit Noah and Michelle. It is always fun getting the boys together, and something we don't get a chance to do nearly enough. We realized it had been six months (!) since we had seen each other last, and oh, how the boys grew in the time between!

This was Liam at the last play date with Noah. Check out that hair! So red! We're soon going to have to change the name of the blog as blonde as he is getting lately!

Michelle and I always have a great time, and tend to pick up just where we left off. Hopefully we won't let it be six months between visits next time.

We spent the morning at the Children's Museum of Richmond in Short Pump, which is right near the Short Pump mall and a fun way to spend the morning with toddlers.

The museum had many different "exhibits," for different play areas for toddlers, and in the middle a safari train ride.

No, we don't know these kids, but as I did not get a picture of the train,

I was forced to borrow the one from the museum's website.

When Liam spotted the train, shortly upon walking in the doors, he was 100% done with the rest of the museum. Needless to say, we rode the train, many, many times. I unfortunately did not get any photos of Liam on the train as I was always riding with him, but I did snag a few photos of the boys at the museum and a bunch of them at Michelle and Allen's house after.

Michelle and Noah on the train from a few cars back.

See the animals?

I told you it was fun!

Whoops! Forgot to mention that this was how Liam spent a good portion of the day. See... the museum makes the kids wait in line, and then, every 30 minutes or so they take a fifteen minute break. The museum's brochure touts that this is to help the children develop self-regulation. Hmmm... I don't think we quite managed that on our two hour visit, but it was a nice thought. Perhaps a repeat visit is in order.

On the (rare) instances that Liam was not on the train, or pouting that he was not on the train yelling "choo choo? choo choo?" over and over again, he did have fun doing other things. Here's Michelle showing the boys how the water exhibit works.

After the museum we headed back to their house for lunch and the boys' naps, and so that Michelle and I could catch up. Here's Noah having fun taunting Basil from behind the baby gate!

Aw, but they both love it!

having fun in the kitchen, and see how blonde Liam is from 6 months ago!

Check out that beautiful face!

In other non Adventures with a Red Headed Boy News, I have started back to school full time, which means three 8-10 hour days doing clinical of some sort and my regular (thank goodness it is) part time schedule. Kyle has begun his in-patient rotations for the year, and is pretty much on every other two week block until after Christmas. We will try to keep our heads above water and keep providing pictures of the boy in the mean time :)