Our Friends Visit from Singapore

Over the second week of November, the Longs, our friends and neighbors who moved to Singapore earlier this year, came to visit in Chicago for a week after spending a week in FL for a family wedding.  It was so neat to have them right back in their home next to ours, and I quickly reverted to my old ways of calling them to see if they wanted to hang out after naps. Though some illnesses kept us from really seeing them for the first few days of their stay, we did get some quality time in.  

One of the nights we organized a "mom's night out" with Emily and the moms from the 'hood.  It was so fun to get out of the house and just relax, talk and catch up together.  We went to Crust on Division and it was a perfect place to hang out (though they had a brand new bartender on duty that night and when asked to make a Jack and Coke he asked, "what's in that?".  OK, that's an exaggeration, but only a slight one!). The organic pizzas and apps were yummy and Emily was happy to be back in the neighborhood and spend time with her good mama friends.

On Saturday, the Long's organized a double birthday party for their kids (who were born 2 years and 6 days apart!) and to see their friends and family. We were so happy to be able to attend! They had Kaya's Wiggleworms instructor, Tim, from the Old Town School of Folk Music come and play for the kids, and he had the room rockin'. The kids loved him! Here are a few choice clips of AJ dancing and generally doing his own thing during the performance.

Emily was like a kid magnet at the party. Here is a shot of her on the floor with both of her own kids along with our friend Erin's daughter all on her legs. They were so cute, and everyone really enjoyed the music. Thanks, guys, for a great party!

On Sunday the Holubs decided we had not had our fill of the Longs, and we crashed their place again (OK, they did invite us over for waffles...). AJ loved seeing his friend Kaya again and it was cool to see that he recognized Ashwin as another kid instead of a baby. All the kids had changed so much in these 5+ months. It was really crazy!  Kaya got some cool Dr. sets for her birthday and AJ got to wear one of the scrub caps. I'm not sure how long he kept it on, but my guess is it came off shortly after this picture was taken.

It was a full house since Emily and Eric also had Eric's mom & dad and sister & brother-in-law over, plus Emily's dad and stepmom and their son Fernando were there too. Here is a shot that shows a little of the busyness with AJ and his bike, Fernando, Eric and Ashwin's head making it into the shot. (I am conveniently hiding behind AJ) We did eventually leave and let them have some pure family time, but we really did love milking the visit for all it was worth. We can't wait for their next visit in '09!

AJ also liked reading some of Kaya's books over on the couch with Andy. I love to take pictures of these father-son moments, and they were having such a good time together.  I also noticed that AJ is starting to look older and older with more hair and all those teeth. For the record, I think he has 12 teeth now!  His 1st molars came in before the eye teeth, but I've asked around and I guess that's pretty normal. Just as I noticed how much more of a "big kid" Kaya is now, Emily and Eric mentioned numerous times how much bigger AJ has gotten as well. It's just so much fun to watch them grow and change!