Chicago River

I finally braved the cold and commuted by train today.  The other days this week I have carpooled with a friend, driven myself, and worked from home.  As I walked across the river from Union Station to my office, I was amazed at the beautiful, iced-over river and had to snap a quick picture.

Sledding

Schools are closed again today due to incredibly cold temperatures and wind chill forecast for the next two days.   In anticipation of being stuck indoors for a few days, we tried to get lots of fresh air and exercise yesterday.   It was almost 30 degrees; that's practically spring!

First up was a sledding adventure.  Everyone had done a nice job of clearing their sidewalks already, so we mostly pulled or carried the sled on our way to find a "hill" to sled on.  A few houses had snow covered pavement, so I pulled Will past those houses for fun.

Ready to launch down the hill!  He is terribly afraid of getting frost bite (the school has been drilling that into the kids' head to get them to bundle up for recess), so he has his face down in this photo to keep snow from getting on it.  His cheeks were the only part of him exposed.

The snow ended up being too thick and soft for this sled, so we had a little snow ball fight and some fun climbing on this mountain that many weeks of snow plowing had left behind.  I got a decent workout hauling that sled, and later that evening we went to the indoor trampoline park for the first time.  Will was still asleep when I left for work this morning, so I think he got a good workout, too!

The frostbite fear is both good and bad.  I'm glad he's aware of the need to button up, but it does make him afraid to go outside sometimes.  He also had a breakdown when we were outside after leaving Ryan's house a few weeks ago.  He saw black on the palm of his hand and started bawling because he was certain he was going to lose his hand.  We reassured him it was just marker smudges from their drawing time, and that he should pull his hands up into his coat until we walked the one block to the car.  

Children's Museum

We made a quick trip to the Children's Museum before it closed on Saturday.  After the required stop at the train table, we moved on to the wind tunnel and the energy bike. 

Afterwards we finished our afternoon with hot chocolate and a muffin at Starbucks.  We sat at the counter and watched the barista while we ate our snack.

Odyssey Fun World

Sunday afternoon we had a play date with one of Will's school friends and his family at an indoor play place near our house.  It's 5 minutes away, but we had never been.  It was a little rough around the edges and showing its age, but it kepts the boys entertained for nearly 3 hours.  The top picture is a zoom of Will piloting the "rocket ship" and the bottom one is a shot to get a feel for the overall size of the structure. In this picture you can see about 1/8th of the whole thing. Now Will wants to go back to play the arcade games!

Liam has a new baby sister, Emma, who is three weeks old. You can tell it's the second kid, right? The baby gets to go to the germy play scape?! To be fair, she slept in her carrier the whole time. The boys played all around in this maze of tubes and slides by themselves while the four parents and the baby sat on a bench and chatted.   It was nice to catch up with them and to see the baby!

Paddle 1

Will passed out of the first level of swimming this week.  He advances from Paddle 1 (Water Adjustment) to Paddle 2 (Basics of Swimming).  The skills he had to master were:

• Cub Paddle:  paddling with face in the water and kicking with flotation
• Cub Float:  floating on back with assistance for 30 seconds
• Tummy Pool Exit:  using elbows and tummy to pull self out of pool

In Paddle 2 he will move toward swimming without wearing a box on his back.  The back float moves from floating with a noodle to floating with just a box on his back.  And he starts learning the basics of the breaststroke ("pizza arms"). 

I am so impressed with how well he's doing with actively participating and with putting his face in the water! 

Holiday Party

Last night was my office holiday party at the Stadium Club at The Cell (home of the Chicago White Sox).  Will spent the evening with Uncle Ryan and Ernie where they ate dinner, watched videos, and groomed Ernie with the vacuum - which he tolerates and may even enjoy.  (Actually, the funniest thing Will said was, "We played lots of games with Ernie, but he didn't really like any of them.   We vacuumed him, too.")

Since I was working all day Saturday and today at the office, we all stayed downtown in a hotel for the night.   Our slumber party was fun - who wouldn't love a game of balloon volleyball to end and start the day?  And although Will was initially discouraged that there wasn't going to be a water park or pool, he brightened up at the mention of waffles for breakfast!   The boys headed home after breakfast to check up on Rachel who was being tended to by the neighbors. 

So Much Snow!

Snow started on New Year's Eve and didn't stop for nearly a week!  Yesterday the newest round of snow came down and temperatures dropped below zero.   Today was supposed to be the first day back to school after Christmas vacation, but the schools are cancelled for two more days.  Daycare is open for shortened days.  Will and I never left the house yesterday.  We stayed in our pajamas most of the day and had a nice afternoon snack of hot chocolate (or chai tea latte) while coloring. 

 Comparison of the snow accumulation between Thursday night and Sunday morning.

I took these next two photos from Will's bedroom windows.  I just love the winter wonderland look!  Not sure when a warm-up will come through and melt this foot of snow. . . .

 

Wrapping Up 2013

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day brought another round of fun family time - this time with Jason's parents.   Will was excited to open up this present.  He guessed it might be a truck. . . . hey, it IS a truck!

Will enjoyed walking Grandpa Ed and Grandma Hilary through the details of the truck.   He also showed them his Disneyworld autograph book and told them all sorts of stories about our adventures.  I just love listening to this kid tell stories and hear what he details he chooses to share.

With the grandparents in town, and volunteering to baby-sit, Jason and I hit the town to celebrate New Year's Eve!   We had snacks and drinks at Bar Louie - including this yummy S'mores martini - before heading to our reserved recliner seats at ipic theater to see Saving Mr. Banks and have more snacks and drinks there.  That's right; on our night out we chose to see a movie about the making of Mary Poppins!  We really enjoyed the movie and our date!  We managed to stay up until midnight by stopping by a friend's house on the way home for snacks and champagne. 

Today we've spent most of the day lounging around in our pajamas watching TV and Despicable Me 2 while it snows and snows and snows.    We also spent way too much time taking down the Christmas tree (whoa, those 1,000 points of light take a long time to unwind!) and cleaning up bazillions of dry needles. I'm seriously considering starting an artificial tree tradition next year!   But I shouldn't complain; we had a wonderful year, full of wonderful memories and adventures whether with our family of three or our extended family and fantastic friends!