Horses and Ducks

We had a fun weekend with the kids! We had our weekly pizza night on Friday and John Harrison got to watch some Thomas the Tank Engine episodes while we were making dinner. On Saturday morning we went and fed the ducks and played on the playground at the park. Elise and John Harrison both loved letting the ducks eat from their hands. On Saturday night we told John Harrison we were taking him somewhere fun but that it was a surprise---he got so excited in the car and when we asked him where we were going, he would say in a giddy voice, "I don't know--where ARE we going?" We took the kids to ride a merry-go-round (a first for both of them) and dinner at Chick-fil-a (what more could you ask for??). Both kids seemed to have a lot of fun. On Sunday night, we left Elise with David's mom and took John Harrison to ride go-karts, bumper boats, and kiddie rides, and play arcade games. He said the go-karts went "too fast" and instead liked the miniature train ride best.
John Harrison continues to love playing with trains, Duplo, and cars and trucks. He is pretending more and more everyday--a few weeks ago he went through a pretend phase where he wanted to do oil changes and tune ups and put new batteries in his cars and trucks. He loves the Very Hungry Caterpillar book and often pretends he is a baby caterpillar. John Harrison is a music-a-holic and his current favorites are Taylor Swift, Adele, and The Script. A bit crazy, huh, for a 3 year old? David and I have never played baby/child music around the kids and so they seem to really like the same music we listen to (thankfully...I don't think I could handle more than about 2 seconds of Veggie Tales or the likes). He seems to have an ear for recognizing artists and can often (unprompted by us), identify an artist very soon after a song begins or will name off other songs a group sings after hearing a different song by the same group.
Elise started walking proficiently during her 15th month. She loves playing in the playhouse in our playroom, has started to take an interest in dolls ("baby"), and loves putting things in and taking them out...oh and did I mention her favorite pastime is seeing if the "don't open cabinets" rule still applies. She is such a sweet baby and loves to be on the move:).