Every so often over the past few months, insomnia hits. If I get too tired of just laying in bed wishing I'd fall back asleep, I get up and head to the living room to read, watch TV or surf on the computer. During one of these computer times, I came across all the first pictures and a few movies we took when AJ was born. Of course my current pregnancy was the reason for my looking up these old pictures, and also the reason why I got all misty-eyed looking at them! It jsut seems so unbelievable to me that AJ was ever so small, and how many changes these past 2 years have brought.

Here is one of the first videos we ever took of AJ. He was only 2 days old! This was a rare occasion when he was actually awake without crying or eating.

One of AJ's first yawns.

He still makes this furrow-browed expression, and this was taken just minutes after he was born!

AJ in the hospital room with his proud Daddy.

This is the picture we cropped me out of and used as his announcement shot.

Some things we like...

OK, so I think I've mentioned AJ's obsession with Thomas and Matchbox cars (unfortunately, I have not become obsessed with either and wonder how long these "phases" will last...weeks? months? years? oh, help me!). But there are some other things that AJ likes that I'm much more into, or at least tolerant of.
One is these rain boots. We inherited them from our friends Mike and Heidi's son, Ronin, and AJ loved them from the start. When he puts them on, he often reminds me that Ronin gave them to him, and I think that might be part of the appeal. He loves when I actually allow them as an outerwear choice, but on most dry days will settle for wearing them around the house. Here he is trying them on over his PJ feet. It was so funny I had to take his picture.
Another favorite time to wear them is after his nap. This is only especially funny because a lot of the time I'll take his jeans or pants off and let him nap in his shirt and diaper, but when he gets up he does not want to put pants back on...just the boots. Someday I'll try to capture this image. It will crack you up!
 

Another love of AJ's is music. He likes to help me play my guitar, and has gotten pretty good at strumming gently with the pick. (I think he's over trying to drop the pick into the guitar...good times.) He requests songs in the car from the CD's I like to play, which makes me happy, and his recent favorite is Weird Fishes by Raidohead. If given the choice of a sung song, he will usually want me to sing one of my made-up verses to "the Wheels on the Bus" such as, "the fork on the Forklift goes Up and Down...". He loves all the verses that I've made up about construction vehicles. Go figure! He also likes rhymes like Barberry Cross and Humpty Dumpty and usually wants me to repeat them over and over and over...and over! 

Here he is at the Storytime/Singalong that my guitar teacher does at the Lincoln Park Zoo every Monday. (Note my teacher's cool outfit when he dresses up to be Professor Boonie for the occasion. I told him he should wear it tonight to our guitar class' graduation.) AJ loves boppin' around to the music, and stayed in one spot much better than I had expected!  Since this is a free, drop-in event held every Mon and Wed at the Zoo, we might start to go more and more as it warms up outside. (also, the special verses Prof. Boonie is singing pay special homage to the recent rate hike and service cuts on the CTA)

AJ at the Art Institute

This whole month (Feb), admission to the Art Institute is free, so even though my parents are members, we took advantage of it and went on Valentine's Day with AJ. We met Omi and Pa there and they got us in to see the Edvard Munch exhibit too.  

On the way to the Munch exhibit from the Michigan Ave entrance, one would usually pass through the hall with all of the armor, and we thought AJ would like to see the "knights".  But since the renovations (which are almost done!), that hall is now filled with Indian and Hindu archeological artifacts. Originally, I was bummed, but it turned out that he loved what was there!  He liked looking for all the animals in the carvings and for people too. He learned how to say "buddha" and made great "roar!" sounds at the lion statues. Also new in the section since the construction is a great bank of windows that overlook the train tracks beneath the museum and let in tons of natural light. My mom was holding AJ and looking out at the trains when I took this shot. (also note that in these pictures, AJ is holding a little green toy.  This is Alfie, one of Thomas' friends. Thomas is AJ's latest obsession, and we almost never leave the house without one of these toys. Thank goodness we haven't lost one...yet!!)

Andy and I walked through the Munch exhibit with AJ at record pace. I usually like to read all the captions and really LOOK at the paintings, but with AJ, that was not really possible. He liked some of it, like this banned shot I took of him looking at Paris Street, Rainy Day by Caillebotte. (I forgot to turn off my flash so my illegal shot was definitely not as inconspicuous as I had hoped, and I was reprimanded by a guard. Oh well, at least I still got the picture!)  We asked AJ questions about the art and he was OK with it for a while, but then some of the rooms were darker and really crowded and he started whining to go. Since the crowds were also so silent, we didn't want to ruin anyone else's experience either, so we left and headed down to the Kraft Kids area. Down there, AJ colored a great accordion book and I think was excited to get to use markers and colored pencils since at home he usually just gets crayons and paint.


A couple of days later, I went out to the suburbs to my mom's house and Kim came over with Kyra and Grayson. Here is the cute and fun picture of Kyra and AJ snuggling together in the recliner. They have been getting along better and better as they both practice how to share Omi's toys.

After Kim left, my mom and I took AJ down to the All Aboard Diner in Downer's Grove and my dad was able to meet us there for lunch. AJ LOVED it! They had train stuff all over...our food arrived by a little train that ran along the big horseshoe counter, and they had a little train set with parts that moved when you pushed buttons. On 2 tv's they were playing Thomas episodes without sound and there was a track around the ceiling with another train making the rounds. He was in heaven. So was I since I got a chocolate malt. ;)

AJ and his new friend

OK, so this is old too, but like I said, I'm catching up and only able to upload the video clips sometimes.

This was taken in late January right before we took down our Christmas decorations, so we were still talking about giving presents and stuff. AJ has taken an interest in my old ceramic sculpture titled 5" Baby Hatches from Giant Egg that was based on a tabloid heading. He calls the baby "boy" and talks to him and gives him things. It's interesting and funny to hear what he comes up with sometimes, and it's also fun to see his imagination develop...

AJ loves snow!

One of the first big snowy days in December, I took AJ up to the rooftop deck to see what he'd think of the snow. He really liked walking in it with his boots, and pushing it around with his arms with his arms and mittens. He reminded me of Ralphie's little brother in "A Christmas Story" because he was so bundled he could hardly move, but it was really very cold out. That's also why the snow was so fluffy.  Definitely not snowman-making stuff, but I think that is a little beyond us this season anyhow. 

We were probably only up there about 20 min, but that was enough since we came in with very red noses. Thanks to the snowsuit from G-ma Cheri, at least AJ's body stayed nice and warm! 

Now, at 22 mos., AJ likes to step in the snow whenever there's some nearby, and he also likes to touch it and play with it. Next winter should be great when he can actually understand how to make a snow angel and a snowball!  Look out!!

it's been so long...

I know, I know...it's sadly been a really long time since my last post. I have no great excuses other than some computer storage space issues, so I'll just put it behind us.

Moving on! I have tons of pictures and videos to share here, but for some reason I'm having trouble getting the videos to upload, so this post is going to be more of an image-montage. I hope you enjoy!

Here's AJ on his daddy's shoulders in the Big Cat House at Lincoln Park Zoo's zoo lights. We went with our friends the LaSalle's and their son's Wiggleworms instructor was singing carols there.

This is a little bit of what the lights looked like at the LPZ that night. AJ thought it was neat. We thought it was freezing!

A few days before, we had gone to the Brookfield Zoo's wintertime night with my side of the family and my sister's friend's family. The lights were much more decorative than "showy" but we had a good time. Here are some of the pics from what we did there:

AJ learned how to use a sprayer with 2 hands. 

He and his dad gave all the plants a good squirt!

AJ and his cousin Kyra found the birds nest area of the Hamill Family Zoo and decided to be birds together. They were so cute!

AJ liked checking out this family of Lemurs. 

He thought their long striped tails were interesting.

Here's my 2 guys all bundled up. There was a lazer show that after being to Disney World/Epcot was not super-impressive, but after that we headed into a rest station for hot chocolate and snacks. I think this was AJ's first time drinking hot chocolate!

I took AJ to an event at the Nature Museum where they had 5 activity stations and it was awesome!  His 2 favorites were this one above, where they pretended tons of shredded paper was snow (getting those little shreds everywhere is my worst nightmare, so I'm glad he got to experience it there as he'll NEVER do this at home!!!) and the other was 2 bins, one with filled with water and one filled with snow. He thought it was SO cool that when he put the snow into the water, it would "disappear"! We love this place.

So, in preparation for baby #2 this summer, Andy has started working on and planning the construction of AJ's new space upstairs. The black space upstairs is the wall Andy opened up, and the space behind will be where AJ will sleep.

AJ likes to pretend to be Andy, and here he is wearing 

Andy's new safety vest he got at a safety training day.

My mom and I took AJ to the Museum of Science and Industry and got a tour of the Zephyr train. AJ has not stopped talking about the Zephyr, 

and even asked to go there again today, in fact!

I recently bought AJ a Thomas the Train backpack. 

He likes the backpack, but LOVES Thomas!

In mid-January, we went to Galena with Omi and Pa (my parents) for a weekend. Here is AJ at the burger place we had dinner one night. He has a love-hate relationship with pickles since he always wants them, but then makes a sour face and spits them out after he chews them up. Yes, I know, it's gross...but funny!

Here he is as the hillbilly son of Dirty Gert, whom the place was named for.

Since it was VERY COLD during our weekend, we did some indoor art activities. My mom brought watercolor paper and AJ was pretty into it. He "painted" almost the whole picture before saying it was done.

Here is the family of wild Turkeys we saw walking down the road near the house where we stayed. I never knew they were so huge!

Even though it was freezing out, we decided to try to take AJ sledding. I took these pictures and headed back to wait in the car. I guess my son is smart, because he apparently said no thank you to the sledding attempt (and wouldn't leave his mittens on, argh!) and the rest of the family soon joined me and we headed back to our home base.

Look how cold and grey it looks...would you want to go sledding?

I finally get why my dad was the one who played with us most in the snow and my mom always seemed to have other things to do!

On a slightly warmer weekend, Andy took AJ sledding in Chicago with our friend Jeff and his daughter Izzy. (I stayed home...other things to do! ha!) This is the view of the hill from the bottom.

AJ and his huge mittens. I guess we won't need to buy a new pair next year!

AJ loved the sledding this time, and so did Izzy. She's the one in the pink coat to the right of AJ. I think next year winter sports will be even more fun with AJ!

Here's a good shot of our little rap star. He's all, like, "yo, yo, YO!" ;)

And here's a cute little video clip of AJ and his friend Jack looking at Turtle Eggs at the nature museum...