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!