Lightning McQueen Bike

Will is thrilled with his new Lightning McQueen bicycle.  These pictures are from the first ride.   He'll probably wear the thing out before winter. 

Inspecting the attached bag.
Obviously you're supposed to pack Cars cars to go on your bike ride!

This doesn't seem too hard.

Struggling with momentum.
He didn't realize moving his feet backwards applied the breaks!

Fun Weekend, Broken Camera

As the title indicates, we had a fun weekend; and I have no pictures because the phone on my Blackberry is malfunctioning.   And I'm too lazy to take and upload photos with the "real" camera. Jason took some on his phone, so I'll have to get them emailed to me.

This week I took off Tuesday and Thursday as my Labor Day holidays (we had Friday and Monday of actual Labor Day weekend as holidays, but I had to work both days).  I enjoyed some retail therapy on Tuesday including a mani and pedi (ironically running into the woman I sit next to at work who was also enjoying her Labor Day holiday).  Thursday the only shopping I did was at a neighbor's for a Lightning McQueen bike for Will!  This is the same gal that I bought the tricycle from last year.  When I went over a few weeks ago to go through her boys' fall clothes pre-neighborhood garage sale, she told me about the bike.  She wasn't expecting her youngest to outgrow it until spring, but at 4 1/2 he's already riding his older brother's bike without training wheels!  $35 later and the Cars bike is ours!   Will rode it tonight for the first time.  He didn't "get" that if the pedals went backwards there were brakes.  The result was that he's try to coast, and would jerk to a stop. 

Yesterday our neighbors had their second annual (well, second year we were invited at least!) "Grape Stomp" which is a combination of games, potluck dinner, and wine tasting  For the second year in a row, the wine we brought won.  This year's winning entry was Josh cabernet sauvignon.  I'd never tried it before Saturday, and I agree it was the best on the table.  Jason said he's just got a knack for picking out good, cheap wine!

Today we ventured to the north suburbs for a cookout at a co-worker's house.  Will was very popular with the other 3 and 4 year olds in attendance, as he brought his Elmo backpack full of trains.  They played in the corner of the yard for quite awhile.  I never realized how close in age my peers' kids all are.  We had 9 little kids and five were 3 year olds. 

First Trip to the Dentist

Thanks to watching many, many episodes of Doc McStuffins, Will has a positive attitude about doctors these days.  So we spun his first trip to the dentist as a check up for his teeth.  He'll tell you all about the dentist - "the doctor that looks at your teeth and tells you how to brush them better."  

He actually did a fantastic job!  He was shy for a few moments when we first got there, but opened up right away to the dental hygienist.  Here he's all smiles as the chair gets reclined.  He did a great job opening wide and letting her count, scale and polish his teeth.  At the end when the dentist came in the do a quick peek, he got shy again with her.  He was confused, because he thought the appointment was already over, and he probably thought the woman he'd been dealing with all along was the dentist. 

Will went back to school, and then I had my appointment.  Ironically, the dentist ended up being my hygienist that day!  They had someone out sick, so she scaled and polished my teeth in addition to my exam.  I could tell she didn't do that every day; she didn't have the smooth touch that her hygienists do! Not too surprising.  I don't know how to do what my staff do anymore either!

William

I read an article the other day about baby names and how they change from generation to generation.  But one name has stood the test of time:  William.   It was #3 in 2011 and #2 in 1911.   I didn't know the exact placement, but did think it was probably a top 5 in American history.   We're not the unconventional type, and our baby name selection reflects that!

While we regularly call him both Will and William, when he introduces himself to people (yes, he does that, but not when prompted to do it), he says, "I'm William Shields."  In the past few weeks he has learned his middle name and now says his full name when he's speaking in third person about himself.  It's adorable.   

Zoo Day

Sunday was Shields Family Fun Day!  Mommy didn't work and we played all day.   In the morning Will played in his sandbox and with his batting tee. After lunch we loaded up for a trip to the zoo.   We got there just in time for a dolphin show, then checked out the lions, gorillas, penguins, bears and giraffes.   (That's a polar bear in the background above.)   We had an early dinner on the way home at a gourmet burger bar.   Fancy burgers and fries and adult drinks for the adults.  Grilled cheese and fries and a Starbucks strawberry smoothie for the kid.  We rounded out the day with a quick stop by the park.  A really, really fun day to wear out our bodies and energize our souls. 

Sandbox Fun

It was overcast and drizzling yesterday morning but warm, so it made perfect Building Sandcastles With Daddy While Wearing Pajamas weather.  The rain eventually came, so then it was time for lunch and Madagascar 2 movie viewing inside.

Adler Planetarium

Ryan invited us to be his guests at a family and friends donor event at Adler Planetarium on Saturday hosted by the Chicago Community Trust.  This was a fantastic event! I was impressed by the kids meals at the lunch:  Will's bag was PB&J, chips and a cookie.  My adult box was tuna, pasta salad, fruit and a cookie.  After lunch and a cool presentation by Adler's director of "Citizen Science, " we headed to the Planet Explorers section to watch will run around.

Ryan and I each took our turn at a cut-out, but we couldn't get Will to stop and do one.

Finally Ryan just had to grab Will for a quick photo as they were "driving" the rover.  It did move, but I don't know that Will was really directing it so much as just throwing levers around.  Will's biggest contribution was to collect all the "moon rocks" in his arms that he could.

This kid loves to build!  He spotted the PVC pipe from across the room and ran right to it.  He's an accomplished pipe-fitter thanks to his time at the Children's Musem.

The event was from 12-3, so Will was exhausted by the time we left.  He was asleep before we made it out of the parking lot.  Jason and Will dropped Ryan off near the El and me off at my office before heading back home to the burbs.  

Day Out With Thomas

This morning we set our alarm clocks (not our normal weekend routine. . ) to head to Day Out With Thomas at the Illinois Railway Museum.   We were there when the gates opened at 9 a.m. tickets in hand!  Will was handed a "map" (actually a paper to collect stamps) and he took his navigation responsibilities very seriously!  I should also mention that although we could have all used more sleep, Will got ready easily and quickly this morning thanks to his excitement.  It also helped that he packed his own backpack, which he did a good job of wearing.  It has a Thomas book and a half dozen Thomas trains.

 First sight of Thomas down the tracks

 Official photo with Thomas. 

We forgot to go back to look at the photo booth, but I'm sure we would not have purchased it.

 Side view of Thomas and some random people

 Sir Topham Hat

Will is actually doing well here to just be laying his head on my shoulder. We ran into our neighbors right before this, and we watched their photo while we waited in line. Their girls were trying much harder to get away!

 

 Waiting on the Thomas train ride to start.

On the advice of the Topham Hat handler, we chose the last car on the train. She correctly told us that we could see Thomas when we went around the bend if we were on the left side.

 This was a well-run operation.  The volunteers offered to take family pictures of everyone as we waited to get going.

The train ride wasn't as cool as I was expecting - just forward - in a very slow and rickety fashion - for 10 minutes and then backwards on the same path.   But, if I want to ride a fast train for a half hour, I guess I can just wait until my commute tomorrow morning.  Plus, Will enjoyed himself, and we enjoyed watching Will, so it made for a great day! 

We didn't  participate in very many of the other activities since we wanted to leave before lunch time, but we easily could have spent the afternoon there.  They had bounce houses, a tent with train legos, a giant pile of sand, and mini golf.   We'll know better next year now.  We're just working our way into this kids stuff slowly. . . .We're spoiled by having so many things to do so close to the house like the children's museum  - or even the zoo - where we can just drop by for an hour and can go again another day.  This was the first time that I can remember doing an "event" that we had to plan in advance, buy tickets for a specific time, and drive a ways to get to.  I guess we'll be ready to tackle Disney next month!

August So Far

Wow, almost three weeks without a post!  I blame working too much and poor picture taking.  I need to break down and get an iPhone so I can get better pictures of Will when we're out and about.  This one, above, is the best shot I could get of Will (left) and my friend's son at their cookout last weekend.  I had a cute one of the kids eating cupcakes (all of them with frosting mustaches) but I accidentally deleted it.  So what have we been up to in August?

• Trips to Seattle and NYC for my work
• Trip to Asheville for Jason's work
• Cookout with my co-workers
• This was so much fun!  We had four families:  8 adults and 7 kids.  Each family has a three year old, and the kids mostly entertained themselves on the swingset or with toys while the adults sat around talking.  The only bad part was driving nearly an hour to get to the north suburbs.  Two couples live in the same city up north while we and the other family live in the same city in the west suburbs.   
• Swimming at the pool at the gym
• Playing at the children's museum
• Watching Toy Story 3 and Tangled dozens of times
• Playing trains and in the sand box

Last weekend I also did some pre-garage sale shopping at a neighbor's and scored a bunch of fall shirts and winter pajamas - all for $10!  This, coupled with spending my birthday Old Navy gift card on 5 pair of $10 jeans means that Will is fully outfitted for fall at a cost of $14!  Well, I guess I did spend $36 at Target.com to get him two new pair of shoes (which I can hope last a few months).   I'm keeping my fingers crossed that his existing winter coat fits all winter.  For anyone interested, he is currently wearing 3T pajamas, 3T shirts, 2T pants and shorts and size 8 shoes.  I just bought him 3T jeans (since I know his existing 2T jeans won't last him until May when it's warm enough for shorts again) and size 9 shoes since I bought two pair.