Sulivan is all about Frains (Train’s) these days. Damon and I got him a little wooden set from Ikea and it is the first thing he wants to play with when he wakes up in the morning and after nap. Sullivan is also all about being “FRUSTRATED” these days. He so badly wants to do things on his own or manipulate toys and games just to his liking and when it doesn’t play out the way he imagined or would like he has a melt down….specifically, he cries out “please, please” to the toy that is not following his orders and when it does not respond he throws is across the room, drops to the floor while whining and crying “help me” or “come on”. I guess this is normal for his age….funny some days and also frustrating to Mommy on days like today. We went down to the Austin Children’s Museum and it was melt down after melt down when the slightest obstacle got in his way. So we left and came back home where he finally settle down to a nap. Here are some pictures of him with his new train set. Daddy finally showed us how to keep the trains connected which was a HUGE source of meltdown land for Sullivan. It’s hard to watch your child intensely frustrated with a new toy instead of having a good time….so glad we got past that. He is now in the back room watching The Incredibles re-creating stunts and superhero moves. Next it is off to the front yard and street for our night time “Go Go Go bike time”. I will try and catch some pictures and post later.

Granddaddy Jerry and Grandmommy Judy bought the grandkids a fancy battery operated car and Sullivan got his first ride in it this past week. It was precious. He climbed right in and Daddy pushed the start button and off he went round and round the back yard at Millhaven. He has figured out how to use the foot pedals and steering yet. Just kind of sits and holds on like he is on a ride at the amusement park. The pictures at the bottom are of his reaction when the battery died out and he had to get out of the car. Another amusement for us as well. Thanks Granddaddy and Grandmommy for giving our kids such fun memories.

A few weeks ago we had dinner over at Kirk and Carolyn’s and Ella Grace gave Sullivan a Woody doll to borrow for a bit. He saw it while playing up in their toy room and being a big Toy Story fan he was attached to it all evening so as we were leaving Ella Grace told Sullivan he could borrow it (what a sweet cousin).
Well Woody goes everywhere with Sullivan now but he’s been soo rough with it we worried that it would not make it back to Ella Grace in one piece or if Sullivan would even let Woody out of his sight long enough for us to give it back to her. So Damon began hunting for a replacement Woody on ebay. Well he ended up finding the whole Woody’s round up gang PLUS Buzz Lightyear. Here is a picture of the whole gang that Damon put on display for Sullivan to discover after his nap the other day. We have video of the discovery as well….and it is priceless. He takes the characters around with him all day. Makes Buzz fly in the air and tries to say “To Infinity and Beyond” and then Woody, Jessie, and Bulls Eyes take cowboy rides around the house and ALL of them get dropped from terrible heights only to survive and make the leap again and again and again. He also re-enacts many of the scenes from the movies with the dolls and takes them to bed where we often hear chit chat and talking with his pals into the late hours of the night.

I found a giant bead puzzle at a thrift store this week and Sullivan was hard at play with it tonight at his highchair. He loves to play with these bead puzzles. Whenever we find one at a store or playground, at grandmommy and granddaddy’s school room or even at the dairy queen it always takes the focus. I love the look he gets on his face when he plays with these things it sometimes reminds me of my cousin Scott…it is definitely a Leberknight jaw that emerges when he is serious with the beads.

We were all playing outside tonight racing Sullivan’s Lightning McQueen car on the driveway and he ran behind the car to do something and a few moments later we heard his voice and it sounded like he was in our neighbors yard so I ran around the car to see how he got over there and when I looked in the neighbors yard I didn’t see him. I could still hear his voice and so I began to panic a bit and turned back around to tell Damon that he wasn’t over there when I noticed this small figure in a green jumper half way up our big live oak tree. The little voice that sounded so far away was Sullivan up a tree. He climbed the first split of the big oak tree in the front for the first time all by himself. Guess another big boy moment for the record books huh?