Mini Vacation

Jason and I just got back from a wonderfully relaxing mini vacation thanks to the awesome baby sitting provided by Grandma Hilary! Hopefully I'll have some cute pictures of Will from his fun trips to the Children's Museum and shopping with Grandma to show off in another post.

We were originally planning to go to Las Vegas, since we had a special deal for a Hilton there. But, when we got the days lined up and Jason went to book it, there wasn't a room available. But don't feel bad for us! We did the next best (I say, better) thing: we spent the weekend in Chicago's Gold Coast at The Elysian (www.elysianhotel.com). Here's how we spent our weekend:

Saturday:
*Brunch of French crepes at La France Cafe & Crepes in Lombard
*Shopping on State Street
*Snack at XOCO by Rick Bayless
*In-room couples massage
*Dinner at the hotel's Michelin 2-star rated restaurant, RIA

Sunday:
*Sleep-in
*Brunch at Goddess and Grocer
*Elysian Cleanse spa treatment for me (rated by ELLE magazine as a top 10 best spa service in the world)
*Dinner at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab
*Cocktails at Signature Lounge in the Hancock Building (photo above)

Monday:
*Sleep-in
*Work-out, lap swim and hot tub at the Elysian spa
*Lunch at Burger and Butcher in Lincoln Park

I thought we were going to Vegas until the last minute, since Jason was in charge of all the logistics. I'm actually thrilled that we got to stay "home" and enjoy the city! What a great way to unwind after the past three months at work. . . and get refreshed for the next two-and-a-half months until April 15th.

Potty!

Mark it in the blog book: tonight Will went pee pee in his little potty for the first time by his own initiative - and really the most measurable time ever. Even more amazing, he took off his pajamas and diaper, went, and came to tell me all in about five minutes from the time I left him in his room to sleep. Hugs all around, and the reward of wearing a Diego Pull-up for the rest of the night (or until he gets up and throws it away and tries the potty again. . .which I'm guessing will happen now that he's wide awake and I can hear him sneaking around upstairs.)

Storytime and Snow

In case you haven't heard, we got quite a bit of snow in this area last week. The major snow was on Friday, but the snow blower came out at least one day earlier in the week. By the way, I am quite thankful for snow blowers. They make nice, clean sidewalks and driveways, and they encourage my husband and neighbors to get after the snow right away!

I'm not sure if it was running through the sleet on Monday night to catch a train when I lost track of time; walking in the cold on Thursday afternoon because I thought I wanted to be in the sunshine and stretch my legs; or trudging through four inches of snow wearing dress shoes on Friday night for an hour trying to find a cab; but I seem to have caught a cold. After I got home from work on Saturday afternoon, I snuck past Will and into my room for a "quick nap" before dinner. Four hours later I woke up and Will was already in bed. So, Sunday we stayed close to home. Will wanted to go to the zoo to see animals and play outside in the snow, but Mama was only willing to take him to the public library and the grocery store with 5 minutes of snow time in the driveway while unpacking groceries.

Our library is really first rate. In fact, there's a banner outside proclaiming it the best library in the nation (or something like that). The entire basement is for kids. The books are organized by character (BOB for Bob the Builder; DOR for Dora; REY for Curious George - ok, that one follows the author). We picked out some Thomas, Bob, and Curious George books, as well as the one I was looking for ("Good night, Good night, Construction Site") and then sat down to read a bit before checking out our books. Will found several board books in the rounders to peruse.

On Monday morning, I promised Will that we would make cookies for dinner. I ended up having to stay late at work, but on Tuesday night we did it. It was delayed an entire evening, and we used "break and bake" batter, but as you can see a good time was had by all! :-) Get a look a his super chapped lips. He wipes off chap stick, Vaseline and Aquaphor, so they have looked like that for a few weeks now.

Guest Room Redo - Part 1

Starting New Year's Eve weekend, we have been updating the decor in our guest bedroom. Of course due to work schedules, it became a three weekend project (even with Jason's mom here to help the first weekend). First up was stripping the wallpaper! That took nearly a full day. Then it took a second full day and some very sore bodies to patch and sand (and sand and sand) the walls and ceiling. What wasn't wallpaper that left behind rough patches was glossy paint with multiple imperfections. Then we primed everything before the actual painting. The ceiling is a new, bright white and the walls are a lovely medium neutral called "Temperate Taupe." This is what Will did while Jason painted the walls (and I worked at the office).I will post some before and after pictures in another post. The before pictures are on a different computer, and the after pictures aren't ready to be taken until we put all the furniture back!

Our Version of the Beach

So what's a kid to do when he lives in the cold midwest with no beach for miles? Why load up his wagon with his buckets and scoops and head to the playground, of course! The sand was actually the perfect moisture content from recent snow and cold weather that we were able to make turtles, pyramids, and cars from our little cups in those shapes, as well as buckets from our red and blue buckets. My fingers were too cold to get the camera out at that point, but trust me that we had a good start on some sand castle art!

Will was not willing to wear either jeans or his winter coat that afternoon, so we couldn't stay out long. I did spread out a fleece blanket on the cement so at least we didn't have to sit on the cold ground! He wasn't bothered by the cold, but I was!

Cotton Bowl

Well, that football game didn't turn out like we hoped! Except for digesting the final score, we had a fun time on Friday night hosting a small watch party at our house with one of my co-workers and her husband and daughters. The kids got along great! We've each been to the other's house one other time each, but I wasn't sure about the girls' love for trains and trucks which are Will's current favorites. (His favorite at their house is their toy kitchen.) But, I should not have worried, the older girl (almost 5) and Will spent a lot of time drawing pictures and the younger girl (2 1/2) liked driving and pretending to repair the Cozy Coupe, as well as doing puzzles. I got some video of the two 2 1/2 year olds belting out some preschool favorites like "ABCs" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Unfortunately, I'm too impatient to upload videos to Blogger.

Will surprised us with how outgoing (and a bit of a show off) he could be. When the girls got there, I asked him to show them his toys so they could share and play together. He walked them into the living room and rattled off all of the choices and showed them the various toys and activities. Amazingly, he actually shared most of the toys, too! But the show off was when the girls were playing and the adults were sitting down talking/watching the game. He grabbed one of his trucks that talks when you "open" it and stood in the middle of the family room saying, "Look at this!" until he had our attention. Then he pushed the button to launch open the truck which made it say its catch phrase. He was laughing and so proud! And then he repeated it a few times. . .

He also drew several pictures for my friend and would tell her about what he drew (usually trucks). He also sat next to her and walked her through his Thomas paper naming off the trains. Very cute!

The picture attached is my exhausted and defeated (but still cute) guys before bed that night. Our guests stayed for the entire game, so all of the kids were awake (but in jammies for the second half). Will rewarded us for letting him stay up until 11 p.m. by getting up at 5:30 a.m. We let him sleep with us from 6 a.m. until he woke for good at 8:30.

Imposter Art

Much to my surprise when unpacking Will's backpack last night, there were snowman and reindeer art projects. . . . .ones that "matched" a set that I already had hanging in my office! The mystery was solved this morning when I took down the imposter artwork - and saw the name "Eli" printed on the back of each page. See the comparison below. Will's are on the left; Eli's are on the right. That three year old has some serious skills! :-) But I'm happy to have the authentic artwork hanging in its place!

I had already questioned the large handprint relative to my other hand art hanging in the gallery, but I just figured he spread his hand out really well for this one. Or that he's growing like a weed!

It's Thomas!

If you have seen the Thomas and Friends cartoons, you know that every show starts with an aerial of the Island of Sodor and as we zoom in to the island, we see a train coming out of the tunnel and the narrator (and little fans) see (and say) that "It's Thomas!"

Besides the roughly 20 hours of Thomas watching that Will did over the past three days, he was also treated to several new Thomas toys from Grandma Hilary and Grandpa Ed. In the picture above you can see two toys: the Tidmouth Tunnel and Dieselworks Take-and-Play sets. Will played with these all weekend - including into the wee hours of Friday night until Mommy took them out of his room which caused a world class tantrum. Grandma and Grandpa also got him a Thomas fleece hoodie, a Thomas DVD (which thankfully runs on a loop and was helpful for nap time) and a Thomas roller bag for all of his travel needs! His favorite may well be "reading" the page that shows the pictures of all of the trains available in the set. He goes through and names off all of the trains, "That Thomas. . . .That Percy. . . That Emily. . .That Harvey. . . That James. . .That Gordon. . . That Spencer. . . That Diesel. . . That Troublesome Truck they bump and bash. . . .That Flynn. . . .That Belle. . . Who That?. . . .(Me reading: That's Arthur. I haven't seen him before). . . .That Arthur. . . .That Douglas. . . any so it goes. He even gets the "twins" right. Douglas has a twin whose name I can't even remember; he knows which one is which. Sigh.

It's been fun listening to him narrate his train play. Usually he tells stories about the TV episodes that we've seen, stories from the books that we've read, or from the Day of the Diesels iPad app.

Christmas Weekend

We have had a great three day weekend celebrating Christmas with my parents and brother. They got here on Saturday morning and Will quickly walked them through the nuances of train operations. We gave Will another set of tracks and trains for Christmas, so now his table is even busier! Grandpa Roger's giant balloons were a huge hit. After the red one got popped, an orange one replaced it.

After playing hard all day, we let Will open one present before bed. He chose a present from Uncle Ryan: a matchbox car and stickers! The car went to bed with Will. The adults stayed up and continued our pool tournament.

Look at this special surprise waiting under the tree on Christmas morning! It was greeted with a "Whoa!" and many smiles. We opened up presents and then enjoyed a delicious brunch!

The grand finale gift was from Daddy: Will's first set of golf clubs! He's been playing with our clubs this past year - mostly my lefty clubs - and clearly demonstrated that he is left-handed, so we could finally buy him his own.

Here he is giving a putting demonstration. Looks like he's used to using a belly putter and will have to redo his grip with the smaller clubs.

Super excited about the tractor! He scooped up his blankets and cup and dumped them out (and repeat).

The afternoon was seasonably cold, so Will bundled up and took Grandma and Grandpa on a bike ride. They hadn't seen him ride his bike before this trip.

On Christmas night we used our new ping pong paddles and balls (gift from Ryan) to have a playoff. Ryan also made up a batch of his famous egg nog. Delicious! A very fun (and filling) weekend was had by all!