Arts and Crafts

This Monday AJ and I went to our friend Lindsey's place for a group playdate. She and her 2 boys are so nice and sweet and we really had a fun time. Lindsey had a hat project ready for the kids, and here are a few shots of AJ wearing his hat and playing with his buds. (it's a laybug hat in case you can't tell!)



Then on Tues, we went to a "re-use" playdate in Lincoln Park. We took the bus, so here are the kids waiting at the stop.
AJ loved the wide open space to run around in, so he was not as much into the craft, but I went ahead and made a little book with Erin's daughter Violet out of things from the host's recycling bin...stickers from the mail, scrapbooking scraps, and old magazines. We colored on the books with recycled crayons made by melting down all the little broken pieces and nubs and it was fun. Meanwhile, Erin was kind enough to wrangle AJ and Jack while they roamed the open space. Channel 7 News was there to shoot our "green" meetup, so I'll let you know when that's to air and we can see if any of us made it through to the finished product.

Here's a shot of the group crafting, as well as another of AJ roaming with some borrowed sporting equipment.

Here's a bonus shot that just happened to be part of the day as well, but had nothing to do with arts and crafts:
For dinner Andy met AJ and I and our friends Sam, Kurt and Louis at a new place on California. It was pretty good, and AJ loved working on his drinking-straw skills.

The Shedd and the Beach (ie: AJ LOVES SAND!)

Today was AJ's Camp Field Trip to the Shedd Aquarium. In usual Payne/Holub fashion, we actually planned to ditch the group and packed our suits and gear for the beach. Our kids are just too young to last that many hours at most museums without falling asleep, melting down or puking (as in last week's episode at Science and Industry), so we have learned to plan accordingly. Erin figured out that there's a nice, small, clean beach just South of the Planetarium, so we decided we'd see what we liked of the Aquarium, have lunch there, and then head over to the beach before making it back to catch up with the group at the bus.

All went smoothly at the museum. We saw the Komodo Dragon exhibit in lieu of the crowded (and info-heavy) dolphin show, and since it was almost empty, we could let the kids run around a little. The dragon was right up front on a huge rock, basking in his lamp for us. I thought it was pretty cool. AJ thought the plastic bubbles that covered the fake samples of what lizards eat was better.

We headed downstairs and saw the dolphins, sea otters, beluga whales and penguins. That was pretty neat too! But AJ was still more interested in the stairway lighting, the glass connections on the tanks and climbing up and down on the carpeted riser/seat than in watching any of the animals. I think he'll grow into the Aquarium.

Next we got free tix to the Wild Reef exhibit since the Payne's are members, and it was beautiful. The coral and fish were so pretty and there was also a section with sharks and rays. AJ did show some interest in this area, but the natives were getting restless...he didn't want to sit in the stroller anymore, but I was afraid to let him out in the crowd, so it was time for lunch.

After eating, we promptly left the museum and headed to the beach...where for AJ, the real fun began! I will narrate the pictures I took, but also have you know that he also loves the water. He loved walking further in, letting the waves hit him, and getting soaked in general...then going back up the beach to recreate these shots again!


Here he is touching the sand for what he probably remembers as his first time.



And he starts to explore the bucket of sand a girl nearby has collected.


Oh! You can lay down on this warm stuff and scoop it toward you with your arms!


The end product...Sand Monster!


A regular old bowl becomes the coolest sand toy...




...and bringing toys helps you to make friends!


Since I didn't think AJ would love getting wet as much as he did, his clothes were a sandy disaster. So after rinsing off a little, I changed him into his swim trunks with no t-shirt to go home! What a great day.

Raspberry Pickin'

Yesterday I decided to head in to visit my mom and pick raspberries from her backyard patch. AJ and I got stuck in traffic from some construction, and I swore we would take the train next time! My mom (Omi to the grandkids) was already watching Kyra for my sister, so AJ and Kyra played with Omi while I made my first round through the patch. There were a lot of berries and they are so sweet! Kyra likes to try to pick and eat any berry she sees, even if it is still white. It's so hard to teach the concept of ripening to a 2 yr old!








I picked Karly up from Vacation Bible School, and when we got back to Omi's, Kim was there with Grayson. He's such a sweet, cuddly baby! Check out this pick of him sleeping happily on Kim's shoulder. I think on this day he was 3 weeks old! I can hardly remember AJ being so small. Amazing how fast they grow, isn't it? I love that AJ has 3 cousins to see and grow up with. It's so nice that they are so close in age and can play together for years to come. Karly is sometimes bored by them, but in general, she likes to help and loves to make AJ laugh. I'm sure both sisters will amuse Grayson in the months to come!!









So, while Grayson slept on the porch in his carseat, the rest of the kids took a dip in the kiddie pool. Our family are a bunch of fishes, and these babe's love the water! AJ has started to put his face in the water and blow bubbles, and on this visit he started to go down the little slide. The bubbles are good, but the slide scares me. He is still not that good at moving his legs underneath his body to sit down at the top to slide down, so I ran over nervously many times. He never actually fell though, and maybe he was getting better by the end of the swimming session...AJ is also picking up so many new words. This day I realized that he knows who Elmo is and can say his name, and when we came home he learned how to say "arm" while grabbing one or the other. He can now say over 40 words and has about 10 signs as well. What a little communicator! Can't believe "truck" and "pool" have not made it on to the list yet! It's only a matter of time...

Busy is Fun! (and I might be crazy!)

Last week AJ and I had the busiest week of his (and maybe my?) life! I have no idea how all of these outings ended up getting packed into one week, but here's how it played out.

Monday my mom and Karly came in on the train. AJ and I picked them up and drove to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We saw the Seals, the Big Cats, the Polar Bears, Giraffes, Fish, an Aardvark, Penquins, and a few others. Karly was much more interested in seeing and pretending to be the animals than AJ, but I think he still had fun. The weather was pretty nice, and we had a picnic on the zoo grounds. There's a nice place to eat under the trees in the southern end of the park, and we laid out the blanket (thanks, Kim! I use it all the time!) and relaxed for a couple of minutes until AJ decided he was finished with his lunch and started visiting all the other picnic-ers. So, we packed up and decided to go for a spin on the Carousel before leaving. This was AJ's first time riding on a carousel, and I think he got a kick out of it. It made me nervous to see him going up and down, but his balance was better than I'd guessed. Karly picked a seal with 2 pups behind her seat, and AJ rode an Ostrich...or was it a peacock? After the Zoo, I dropped Karly and my mom off at the train stop (a bit early, sorry Mom!) and got AJ home for a nap!

On Tuesday, AJ's G-ma Cheri came in from Rockford and we took AJ to the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier. It was another sunny but hot day, and I was glad this museum was indoors, though we had a nice walk outside from the parking garage. This was all of our first time at this museum, and it was pretty fun. It was also very crowded, so I think next time we go it might be better if the bigger kids are in school. AJ got to pretend to kayak, cook in a little lodge, and generally run all over the place! In one area, there were these huge stuffed round pillows and he loved climbing on them. Here he is standing near one laughing with some of the new friends he made. G-ma Cheri got a kick out of how he sat down on one and laid back with his arms behind his head when I suggested he "relax". Funny! After the Children's Museum, we stepped into a Mexican restaurant and Cheri treated us to lunch. AJ liked his Guacamole and Quesadilla, and we headed home again for a nap. G-ma Cheri sat in the back with AJ to make sure he wouldn't try to take it in the car!

On Wed, you would think we would have had enough excitement...but no! We hopped on the Park District Camp bus and headed to the Museum of Science and Industry! I love this museum for AJ. He likes so much of it! I know I've mentioned his love of wheeled things, and tractors fit perfectly into that category. In the Farm exhibit (which mostly went against all my feelings about growing and eating organic, grass-fed animals are better, etc) AJ loves to look at and climb on the life-size tractors. Such fun! But the camp days are long ones...when we got home, I circled all of the areas we'd been on the map and we had seen basically the ENTIRE museum! That's a LOT for a 15 mo old. Maybe too much. Especially after 2 previous big outings. We ran around a bunch with our friends the Payne's (see a link to their blog on the right), then stopped to eat our lunches. AJ surprised me by eating his whole lunch (usually he won't eat too much when there's a lot going on). He also drank a lot of water. He also RAN around a ton (did I mention he ran around?). So...he also puked a little! Oh, no, not on the Camp T-shirt! (Kidding!). Poor AJ. I think I might have been sick too, after running around in this mirrored hallway for so long. He made a quick recovery though, and even though he was mad when I made him get back into the stroller, he needed to sit still! Erin and I decided to ditch the group (how unusual) and we hitched a ride home with her in her car, since she missed the bus and drove to the museum. AJ fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the car, stayed asleep as I moved him into the car seat, and woke up just before Erin dropped us off. So we went upstairs, read our books, had a glass of milk, and slept for another 2 hrs! Ahhhhh...I took a nap too!

On Thursday the fun continued. We went to camp at the park in the morning, and then after nap headed to the Dr's office for a checkup and shots. Oww! AJ was very good though and mostly cooperated. He is now officially 29 lbs and off the cart for height and head. Doc said he's in the 50th percentile for 22mo olds! hahaha!

Friday morning was picture day at camp, and though we don't usually go on Fridays, we wore the freshly laundered T-shirt and headed over to the park. AJ was squinting in the individual shots and whining/wriggling in the group shot, so those should be par for the course. That evening our friends the Logli's came in from Rockford and we went out for dinner while AJ went to bed...a good ending for a CRAZY busy week! (We won't be doing that again anytime soon, but I have to admit is was fun!)

Home Improvement

This post is a little overdue, but better late than never, right? The last weekend in June, I worked at a convention in Schaumburg with my friend Kate. It was pretty much an all day thing, so instead of leaving AJ home with Andy, I dropped him off with my mom and Dad for the day. The lovely effect of this arrangement was this: I made a few bucks, my parents basked in the grandchild glow, and Andy got to work on a few lingering projects that are HARD to do with AJ around!

The first was our bedroom lighting. Since we live in a loft, our bedroom has no windows and only gets natural light that filters all the way through our home. The existing lighting was more like accent lighting, so doing anything there that actually required "light" was difficult. Let's say I have not been thrilled with this situation for the 2 years we've lived here! SO, Andy wired and hung these beautiful paper lanterns and installed a dimmer switch for them as well. He needed to use a 12' ladder and take apart our bed to put them up, plus borrow a hammer drill to install the hooks in the concrete ceiling, but what a difference. They look great and are practical too! Good job on project #1, Andy!

Project #2 involved solving a storage issue...our building's bike room is off the garage, but it's very dirty, very hard to navigate (lots of things are stored there) and there are a ton of bikes hanging there that I swear gang up on me when I try to get mine up or take it down! I had a hard time doing it by myself, let alone bringing AJ with me. Since GG Marcella and G-ma Cheri bought AJ's seat for my bike, we ride a lot and so storing the bike in the bike room was just no longer feasible. So the bike lived in our bedroom. Lame! So Andy's second project fixed that when he used said hammer drill and ladder again and installed a hoist over our entryway. Yay! It was hard to figure out how to get a picture of it, but here's the view from our bedroom. It's super easy to get up and down, and AJ thinks it's fun to point to.

This same day, Andy also installed guides and a thumb-pull on AJ's sliding door, which make using and closing it much easier. That was project #3, but there was really not much to photograph on that one. It's unbelieveable how much he accomplished in one day, so maybe I'll have to set up another day trip for AJ and I on a weekend...what could be next???

4th of July at Kim's

This year for the 4th of July Andy, AJ and I went to my sister Kim's house. Kim just had a baby boy, Grayson Thomas, on July 1st, so he had quite the homecoming with a little party the day after he left the hospital! He's a wonderful baby, sleeping much of the time, and when he was awake, he would just look around! I'm not sure I remember AJ ever doing that...is that what newborns are usually like?!? Anyway, here is Andy, the proud Uncle, with Grayson. Grayson's sisters, Karly, 5, and Kyra, 2, think it's cool to have a brother and I'm sure Brandon (my bro-in-law) is thrilled to have a son. Karly, of course, can say his name, but Kyra is so far calling him "bro" which is totally cute!

AJ was decked out in his most "patriotic" outfit, and was excited to run around the party. Just like at home, he thinks going outside, then back in, then out again, over and over, is really fun. I see the draw, but I also dislike flies in the house, so we try to keep this game short and then pick one side of the door for a while...outside won at Kim's house, and AJ thought her garden was very pretty, especially the american flag pinwheels.

After a while, AJ had to take a breather. He climbed up in this chair and hung out for a minute, just long enough for me to take his picture sitting still. That's getting harder and harder to do these days! An increasing number of my pictures of him are of the back of his head while he's running here or there. I had forgotten what he was holding, so I blew this picture up and remembered it was a big piece of sidewalk chalk. He doesn't really get how to use it yet, but hey, at least he wasn't eating it!

After dinner at Kim's and a lot of running around, AJ was tired. His normal bedtime these days is around 7:30. On this night, however, we let him stay up later. At around 8:15, Andy and I decided that we'd try to see if AJ would sleep in the Pack N Play in the girls' room. He screamed for a couple min, but quieted down quickly and passed out! We were able to stay and watch the Roselle fireworks display from Kim's driveway (she has a perfect view, being very close to the HS where they are set off) and even the huge bangs didn't wake him up! After the show ended, we scooped him up like a sack of potatoes, put him in the car, and we were off. The transitions were easier than expected, so maybe we will be successful again next time! (for any of you who know about my trials and tribulations with AJ not sleeping at other people's places, you'll know this was a BIG deal!)

Pizza Pizza!

Here is a picture of Aj and his friend Izzy at one of our favorite pizza joints, Piece. We met for pizza there with Izzy's parents, Jeff and Nancy, and had a good time, as usual! The kids are so cute together now and it's fun to take them out to eat. In this pic, AJ was working on covering his face with guacamole. Luckily he gets more in his mouth than on his shirt! He liked the pizza too, as well as all the extra food we brought from home, but most of all, I think he liked sitting next to his friend! AJ kept reaching over and touching Izzy's arm...was he flirting? Izzy kept looking at him like, "what are you doing?". Good instincts, Izzy!

Then we took a short video of the kiddos giving each other "five". They were both pretty pleased with themselves. What cutie pies!

Tall Stack

AJ has just started to stack things and it's really cute to watch him try to balance one piece on top of the next. Blocks are naturally a good choice for stacking, and here's a picture of one of AJ's tallest so far! He did this without Andy or I even watching him. We were in another part of the room and when we turned around, there it was. I ran to get the camera before he knocked it over, which unfortunately is more fun to him than building the stack in the first place!

When Andy and I got all excited about this little tower, AJ was very pleased with himself and went and sat next to it. How cute! Since I took this picture, he's been practicing stacking other things too...parts of other toys, pieces of his food, and of course his nesting blocks too!
He also loves these PJs he's wearing in this picture. He likes to make his barking sound when we put them on at night and he always cracks me up! When we put on his car PJs, he likes to go, "vroom, vroooom!". haha!

Cherry Pickin'

A few weeks ago AJ and I went up to Roscoe for the day to visit Grandma Cheri and pick cherries from her laden sour cherry tree. Cheri had the lawn all set for summer fun...the kiddie pool was full of water and fun toys, the cool sprinkler was on, and the coupe was out. Andy's grandma Marcella was there too, and we're calling her GG for Great Grandma. AJ's adding words to his repetoire like crazy, so maybe soon he'll be able to say the names of all his grandmas!

The Coupe is always a hit, as AJ loves to get in and out, open and close the door and of course turn the steering wheel and BEEP the horn. The steering wheels on our local park's equipment don't have horns, and AJ has to say "beep, beep" himself, so he thinks this little car is the coolest when he can push the horn to make the beep. I'm not sure if he was moving the car around on this trip or not, but that's a new skill he's working on. Both my mom and Andy's mom have this exact car, and our good friends Sam and Kurt have a police car version, so he's getting plenty of practice.

Cheri's cherry tree was really FULL of cherries! I felt like I had picked all the cherries in one area, only to go back and find more. It was almost like they were ripening as fast as we were picking! They were pretty tart, perfect for baking, but AJ liked eating them straight off the tree (after we pitted them, of course). When I took my share of the bounty home, Andy and I stayed up one night to pit them. Andy kept saying, "don't we have a tool for this?". There is a tool, but I don't think it would have made the job that much faster, and we just powered through it and stuck them in the freezer. I'll have to let you know how the finished products turn out when we actually use them! I'm thinking tarts/pies...yum!

The day was very humid, so after picking and splashing commenced, we headed inside for a nice lunch in the A/C. Here is a shot of AJ trying to steal GG's cane. He thinks it's really neat, and likes to inspect it and try to take it for a joy ride. It probably resembles the stick of the swiffer and I can just see him wanting to use it to bang on things! Luckily, GG was able to keep it in her possession and we distracted AJ with other more appropriate books and toys.

On the way home, AJ fell asleep immediately in the car, with his hand still in the Snack Trap! Too funny. All the fun and sun at Grandma Cheri's really wore him out! (and it was like and hour past his naptime when we finally got on the road, so that may have had something to do with it as well...) Luckily the drive home is almost as long as his normal nap, so I just drive slow and try to get the whole nap in in the car, since he always wakes up when we get home.

Dirty, but Neat?

Any of you who have been outside with AJ know that he is not scared to taste dirt, wood chips, leaves, etc. If there is a muddy puddle within a 30 yard radius, he will find it and splash in it (with his hands!).

This first picture of our dirty son was taken after it rained at Jeff and Nancy's block party (see the post below with the 3 Amigo's). We (unfortunately) couldn't keep AJ in the wagon the whole day, so after the rains came through, keeping him from getting wet and muddy became a losing battle. He doesn't even look that dirty in the picture, but those who were there can attest that Andy and I were wiping him off every 30 seconds. Why are those puddles so irresistible?





On the other hand, AJ also loves to "clean" for/with me in the house. I think I've mentioned this before, but he loves the push around the swiffer when I unscrew the handle to make it his size, and he also likes when I let him carry around the broom or the dust pan. He's not really as "helpful" with these last 2 items, but I figure it's good to encourage his interest in them, and maybe over time he'll get more adept at using them before he figures out cleaning isn't fun. Here is is trying to sweep himself into the dust pan...and succeeding!

Current Fav's

As all children probably do, AJ has some definite favorites these days. These are thing AJ plays with, uses, or at least "talks" about every day, at 15 months old:

The book is The Book of Things that Go. It's got a ton of pictures and descriptions of "things that go"! AJ loves looking at this book with someone or all by himself, and I think if one could have a fav within a fav, the page with the road construction vehicles would be it. In this picture, he's also holding another favorite thing, his bear.



This shot's got 2 favorites too! TheSnack Trap and his sunglasses. We lost this specific snack trap over the 4th of July holiday, but since then, Kim has lent (given?) me hers and AJ doesn't seem to care...he gets excited whenever I take it out and fill it up, such that if I'm prepping a snack for later in the day, I have to make sure I do so very stealthily unless I want to hear a lot of whining!! The sunglasses are great, and I can't believe he actually keeps them on! They are size 3yr, but fit his melon perfectly, and sometimes he even wants to wear them around the house.





This is AJ's bike helmet. He LOVES it. One day leaving the park I accidentally pinched his neck with the strap buckle and was afraid that would make him not want to wear it, but so far, it's still a fav! I think he likes it most of all because it means we're going for a ride, but now that he can no longer reach it by himself, he points to it and then pats his head and says "hat"...I'll post an entry about where we keep my bike now sometime in the near future...one at a time, people!





OK, these are the last 2 favorites for now...being on our balcony and eating popsicles. Since the balcony (or the porch, and Andy refers to it) was babyproofed (see previous post), AJ is allowed to be outside much more frequently. We go outside to water and visit the plants, to talk to our neighbors, or to hang out and have a popsicle! The popsicles began when I was told to go over to the Long's and look through the fridge to see if there were any foods/condiments we'd like. (see previous posts about how they have moved to Singapore...we normally don't raid our friends' refrigerators!) Along with a bottle of sesame oil and some soy sauce, I brought home their popsicle mold to borrow for a few years. I blended up some blueberries, strawberries, a banana and some yogurt, poured the mix into the molds, and voila! a healthy and tasty snack! AJ got the hang of holding onto the plastic part pretty quickly but sometimes likes to feel the popsicle with his free hand...which brings us back to a love of the balcony!

A Visit from Grandpa John

Andy's dad, AJ's Grandpa John, came in for a recent visit and got to see AJ again in action! He hung out with us and the three of us went out for ice cream (for John and I) and to the park (for AJ). It was sooooo hot and humid out, so Grandpa John helped AJ out and wore his hat for a while while AJ swung in the breeze.


I should have taken a picture of the play train at the park, but here AJ is inside it. He loves going in and out and "driving" it by turning the little red steering wheel. He makes driving noises, saying, "vroom, vroom", and pushes the center of the wheel and says, "beep, beep". (even though there is not really a horn!)




We really enjoyed having Grandpa John visit, and I love that AJ has a chance to get to know all of his grandparents!

AJ's First Field Trip

We have AJ enrolled in a Chicago Park District "Camp" this summer. 2 days/week where we go to the park and do a craft or activity, play with the toys, climb on the equipment and if it's hot, run through the sprinkler or play in the kiddie pool. Then on Wednesdays, we go on a "filed trip". The field trips are to great places like the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Filed Museum, Museum or Science and Industry, the Shedd Aquaruim, etc. AJ loves it. The first field trip was to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Here are AJ and I on the bus (oh, did I mention we all go on a big yellow schoolbus??!! It's loud and crazy and we sit in the back...). AJ usually likes me to sing the Wheels on the Bus song (Today we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo and he fell asleep on my lap on the way there!) while we ride, which I think is cute.








Here he is exploring the Extreme Green House exhibit. He's apparently learned all about worms and composting and has moved on to how to recycle huge Campbell's soup cans! This was a neat exhibit and AJ really liked running around and seeing all the things that were at his level. It had actual plates of food with the dates they were set out to show how slowly things decompose, and in the basement there were actual roaches in a drawer! (sealed in, of course!) It was really gross...right up the little boys' alley! Somehow I got nominated to keep our little group on schedule, so it was hard to really enjoy myself, but at least AJ had a good time!



The Nature Museum also has a butterfly sanctuary that's pretty neat. AJ didn't care about the butterflies at all, as much as I tried to point them out, but he loved exploring (read: getting into and climbing onto) everything. He loved walking over the little bridge, climbing the rocks that surround the koi pond and walking around the various paths. I loved the butterflies! I used to collect butterflies as a kid, and seeing that many varieties all up close and personal was pretty cool. I took this picture in a brief moment AJ was still, and it shows that butterflies like to eat fruit, especially if it is cut in an appealing way. (ha, ha)





So after we visited what seemed to be 100 exhibits at warp speed, we broke for lunch in the group lunchroom. There AJ discovered Vending Machines! Some of the older kids were asking to buy candy and chips and stuff from the machines, so AJ moseyed over and liked the looks of all those brightly-colored packages...can you blame him? That's marketing at its finest! The part I thought was funny was when my friend Erin pointed out the Advil nestled between the plain and peanut M&Ms. They must know what being on a field trip feels like to the moms and group leaders! I'm only half-joking this time, since I did leave the Advil where it was, but Erin and I proceeded to ditch the group after lunch and take a walk along the lake while the kids napped or rested in the strollers. A fine way to end AJ's first field trip ever.

Rudy's Farm

My mom's friend Rudy lives on a little farm and we brought AJ there one weekday recently. He has llamas, goats, sheep, rabbits and a dog, and from his property we could also see his neighbor's horses! AJ like the animals and it was really neat that he could hear the actual animals making their noises.



The llamas were the most friendly, or at least inquisitive, but the goats and sheep definitely tried to keep their distance. You can see them in the background of this picture. There were lambs and kids in a pen near the fence, so AJ got a better view of these young sheep and goats. AJ really likes animals and this was an easy, fun and free way to get to know some of them. I'm sure we'll be back for another visit this season. Baaa, baaa!