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.

Working Boy

Jason was gone most of the past week, and between the two of us we'll be gone for work most of August.  That means Will gets to accompany us for more errands around town.  Last week, I took Will to "Tennis Preschool" for the first time.  He usually only goes to the gym when we're swimming together, and he stays home for dinner with Daddy on tennis nights. It took him a few minutes to warm up to it, but he didn't want to leave when I came back at closing.   He has already asked if he gets to go with me this week.

Will also accompanied me to work this weekend.  We made a big adventure out of it by packing his briefcase (i.e. Thomas suitcase) and riding the train.  It's not at all efficient to ride the train on the weekends, but it sure is fun for little boys!  He worked so hard (watching cartoons on my computer) that he slept in my lap the entire train ride home.  The funniest part was all the groupies he got at the train station while we were waiting to ride downtown in the morning.  Three different little boys came up to admire his suitcase.  Will told them about it's features:  "That's Thomas.  This suitcase has wheels!"

We've also been working recently on getting Will to be more "regular."  We're not sure if he's holding it because it hurts, or if he's constipated due to his diet.  He's been getting Miralax in his water the past few weeks and things are moving better and softer.  We've been talking to him about how it's important to drink water (thank you Doc McStuffins for your Engine Number 9 dehydration episode) and to "get the poopy out."   

Happy Birthday to Me

We had another relaxing weekend that included celebrating my birthday!   Ryan baby-sat on Saturday night so Jason and I could go to a grown-up restaurant for dinner.  Hooray!  He stayed over and made us brunch on Sunday, too!

On Sunday afternoon, Will and I went to the Children's Museum and then had a snack and a short play session at the park.  We couldn't stay long because the sun came out and we didn't have hats or sunscreen. 

Nothing on the Calendar

What a glorious weekend we had. . . .because we had nothing that we had to do!  Saturday was our normal mix of farmer's market/train watching, which we followed up with the not very original trips to Starbucks and the Children's Museum.  That took us right up to lunch time, and we stayed within the same single square mile!  We got creative in the afternoon and cleaned the basement storage room.   Will also discovered his love for a new movie that we saved to the DVR (Tangled; it's a princess movie, but we're happy to not be watching Curious George for the 30th, 31st and 32nd times).   

The air station is one of Will's favorite.  He loves watching the balls float.

On Sunday we packed our breakfast and biked to the park for a picnic and play time.  Our afternoon was groceries and other errands and then more lounging around in front of Tangled on TV.  Sounds like an outstanding weekend to me!

Farm Trip

We made a quick trip to the farm this weekend to see Jason's parents.  It's only a 3 hour drive, but we hadn't been there in a year!   Now Will is the perfect age to enjoy all sorts of small town and farm fun!  When we got there on Friday night, Will read Jason and me "The Little Red Caboose" while we were unpacking our bags.  He knows the words to the entire book! 

Saturday was (hopefully) the last day of this horrible heat wave.  With the temperature over 100, we didn't play outside too long.  We borrowed the horses' pool for ourselves!  Buddy likes drinking from the water hose just as much as Rachel does.   

After a trip to the art store and the farmer's market, we went to Mr. Happy Burger for lunch.  This place was awesome!  It had burgers, hot dogs, a pizza and salad buffet AND an ice cream counter.   Oh, and I can't believe I forgot to mention the Coca-Cola knick-knacks on display and the trains circling the room.  Little boy heaven!

Back at the farm, Will watched the horses and donkey eat and then got distracted by Grandpa Ed's tractor and riding lawn mower.    He sat on each for a test drive.  The real fun came today, though, when Grandpa took him for a tractor drive! 

After a fun-filled and hot day, Will crashed after dinner (with a little help from Thomas video on Grandma's Kindle).  We let him sleep here for awhile so we could play Apples-to-Apples.  Such a fun weekend!

Weekend Getaway

We did a short roadtrip to the St. Louis suburbs on Friday and Saturday to pick up a new car for me.  It was a quick, but fun getaway.  Will did a great job on the drive Friday and was super excited about getting to swim at the hotel pool once we arrived.  After swimming, we got dressed and walked across the parking lot to a restaurant for dinner at a place called Brick House Tavern.  They had a very tasty deviled egg appetizer that had jalapeno and bacon as part of the filling.  After dinner, we all crashed for a mostly restful night.  As expected, Will wanted me to sleep with him.  He really needs to learn to sleep with his feet toward the bottom of the bed instead of sleeping sideways across the pillows, so I can get more sleep! 

Will finally had a reason besides a day trip to Mommy's office to pack up his Thomas suitcase!  The picture doesn't do justice to how adorable he was rolling it through the hotel.

Father's Day Fun

We had a fantastic Father's Day Family Fun Day. 

Will and I slept in while Jason went for an early round of golf.  Around noon we loaded up on our bikes with Will in the bike trailer to check out the newly completed trail linking our neighborhood to our city's downtown.

The halfway point is a park, so we stopped to rest (me) and swing really fast and really high (Will).  In the middle of our playtime Will told me he needed to use the bathroom.  Uh oh.  He hasn't had a single accident since we did our potty training weekend and he's been wearing underwear ever since.  Luckily the park is in a (somewhat) wooded area, so he got to go behind a tree for the first time!

After an hour at the park, we rode the rest of the way downtown and locked up our bikes near the Riverwalk.  We watched the ducks and ducklings then got lunch.   Thanks to a diverse kid's menu, we all got what we wanted:  beer battered fish tacos; grilled fish tacos; and mac and cheese.  I'll let you decide who ordered what!

The ride home was tough in the heat of the day (by now it was 2 p.m.) but we made it home.  I shouldn't exaggerate our efforts - it's only 3 1/2 miles from downtown to driveway - but it was hot!   My friend has been talking up a storefront downtown that sells egg-free (i.e. edible!) raw cookie dough, so that's got to be our next downtown bike designation!