The Aquarium

My friend shared a killer deal with me this week: $1 admission to the aquarium! That beats the $18 they usually charge adults. Seriously?! Rooke and I headed down to enjoy our deal of the day and had a great time together. Some of the highlights included: the playful sea otters, touching a star fish, and the stuffed animals (which are all "doggies") in the gift shop.

"This way, Mom!"

Taking a little lunch break

This sums up my son right now: he found a "wheel" (anything circular) in the most obscure place and was attracted to that instead of the mass amounts of brightly colored underwater creatures swimming in the tanks just above his head.

The sun came out on our way home, so we had to put on our sun glasses. He kept wanting to wear mine, so I found some his size and he loves them! Thank you, Target dollar bin.

More fun with Family

KayeK and Big Daddy made a stop in the Northwest before heading back to London. They flew in the day we got back from Oklahoma, so Rooke has had two full doses of grandparent love these past two weeks. He was a little shocked this morning when he woke up and didn't have any of his grandparents around to love on him (and pick him up whenever he wanted to be held!).

Rooke, Big Daddy, Evelynn, and KayeK

We headed to Canada for a couple days to be with the McTaggarts and to take part in Evelynn's baby dedication at church. Is my niece beautiful, or what?

Before putting the air mattress away, we propped it on the sofa and turned it into a rolling mat. Rooke loved it!

Too cool

Back home and playing with KayeK. You'll see how much fun they were having in the video. I can't decide which is better: watching Rooke or my mom!

Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains

We left early one morning to head down to see some family and friends. Rooke slept most of the way and I caught, what must have been, a pleasant dream!

Once again, Rooke was the star of the show at his Great Gramma's residence

We enjoyed lunch at Aunt Sara's house. Rooke is holding his Big Daddy's old teddy bear!

We got to spend some time with our dear friend, Callie, on our way back to Tulsa.

Rooke got a little time to practice his jumping skills on the Campbell's trampoline!

He loved Grammy Deb and Grandaddy's stairs

We were going, going, going most of our time in Oklahoma and Rooke was always ready for his nap(s) and completely worn out at the end of each day.

Ooooooooooo - klahoma

Last week was Ryan's spring break, so we headed down to Oklahoma to spend time with family and friends. Rooke was a great traveler. Our days were packed and we had a great time!


The Payne men enjoying the beautiful weather

Rooke LOVED being able to play in the backyard! It was such a treat for our city kid to step out the door into a yard. He was pointing to the neighbor's dogs here . . . "doggie!"

"Let me out!"

Struttin' his stuff . . . big gut, no butt.

Grandaddy and Grammy treated us to an Oklahoma favorite: Ted's (mexican food). I brought chunks of tofu for Rooke, but upon seeing all the other food options, he wasn't as interested in his own dinner. Who can blame him, right?! So I gave him his own little dish of queso and let him dip his tofu in . . .

. . . that's more like it!

Rooke had a great time at our friend, Everett's, birthday party. We were at a park with a playground just his size.

Uncle Konnor and Aunt Tana came by for an evening!

Visiting Ryan's grandmother with Grammy Deb. She won Rooke's heart with those two stuffed animals.

Rooke is totally obsessed with wheels. Anything circular becomes a wheel and he loves saying, "wheel, wheel, wheel" when he sees one.

We met some friends at a playground and Rooke started going down the slide by himself! Corbett was a great encouragement.

More pictures from our trip coming soon . . .

This Little Light

Rooke and I do a lot of singing together. Well, mostly I sing and he boogies. This song has a special motion that Rooke has mastered:

Friends

Several weeks ago, Rooke and I went to visit our friend, Scott, and his grandparents. Scott's grandparents are visiting from China and I love getting to spend time with them (not to mention that I hope Rooke picks up a little Chinese while we're with them!). It's hard to tell in these pictures, but Scott is almost as big as Rooke at half his age!

Earlier this week we met up with Averie and James and had a great time! I got together with their moms for a little cooking (go here to see what we made), and the kids played, and ate, and played, and ate, and Rooke ate, and ate, and ate . . .

We played the "drape game". James and Averie were pros, but Rooke needed a little coaxing to hide-and-pop-out.

One of their snack breaks . . .

In an effort to win the attention of the only little lady, the boys tried to convince Averie of their manliness:
James: "Watch this, Averie . . . I have perfect aim and can smash and cram the oranges directly into my mouth with accuracy and speed!"
Rooke: "Oh yeah, well check this out - I just put seven orange slices in my mouth all at once!"

Evelynn comes to town

Aubyn & Scott came to Seattle earlier this week to attend a conference at our church and let me watch Evelynn for two whole days! So much fun time with my beautiful niece!

Just chillin'. Rooke's signaling that we should all live long and prosper.

Hugging cousins

While Evelynn was sleeping, Rooke worked on his first art project! We started small with just a couple crayons. He stayed interested for a bit as I helped show him how to color . . .

Then he started focusing more on the crayons . . .

And into the mouth they go!

The finished product:

Rooke loves getting up on the couch, and I get a little tired of the up and down game we play each day, so I gave him this step stool to climb with and he loves it! He'll use it to climb on the couch, but he also just likes to stand and look at books, or look around as if he's become the king of the living room.

This picture may seem a little random, but it was the first picture I took when Rooke actually smiled for me. I looked at him and said, "Smile, Rooke". He just stood there and when I put the camera up to my face to take the picture, this is what I got!