Sailing

We had another beautiful weekend. . . and as anyone who has survived a Chicago winter can tell you, one must assume that each beautiful day in September, October, or November will be the last one for the year!  We were lucky enough to receive an invitation to join a partner in my office for an afternoon sail.  It was the first time any of the Shields had been on a sail boat.  While it was a relatively wind-free day, we still had a wonderful sail! 

This little guy was the entertainment for the four adults on board.  He was on good behavior and had lots of funny commentary to add to the conversation.  He was pretty excited that the hosts had brought juice boxes and chocolate candy to share! 

Update 10/3/2014:  This masterpiece came home from school yesterday! 

The page apparently just started as the two black dots, which William made into the portholes of the sailboat!  John and I are downstairs in the kitchen getting juice boxes (blue box) from the black cabinet, while William and our hosts are up on deck sitting around the fold out table.  Everyone is smiling and having a great time!

Master Baker

William and I baked cookies last weekend to celebrate the completion of the big part of the kitchen remodel:  we have cabinets and counters and a sink again!   As I looked at this photo, it made me think about all the other pictures I have of him standing at the island helping me bake.  I found the very first picture in February 2011 when he was 21 months old.  We did a lot of Bisquik recipes that first year. 

   Age 5

Age 4

Age 22 months

Age 21 months

Who's Who

Since both of my "boys" self-identify by different names than what I usually type, I have made a conscious effort to type their real names on the blog now.  Jason (John's middle name) and Will (William's nickname) are easier off the finger tips for me, but I have been listening to them for the past 10+ and 5 years, respectively, and will let them use their actual names.  You're still welcome to call them whatever you like or know!   They both answer to a multitude of names.  And they both answer when I say, "Honey." :-)

Six Flags

We enjoyed Deloitte Friends & Family Day at Six Flags yesterday.  Our four adult to one child ratio was perfect!  John, William and I got there about an hour earlier than Ryan and Tarek, so we went on few rides before the three big guys got in the LONG line for Superman and Will and I went off to ride dozens of kids appropriate rides - and bought Will's first cherry Slurpee! 

Post-Slurpee "selfie" when someone didn't want his picture taken, so of course Mommy did!  He was making that face on purpose since he didn't want a photo. He would have riden this "spider" ride indefinitely, but I had a one-reride (i.e. two times total) limit.   As it was, we spent 7 hours at the park and didn't get to ride everything.

After the guys finished their hour with Superman, Ryan and Tarek took Will while John and I rode the newest coaster:  Goliath!  It was great fun.  It has a huge drop, but the worst part wasn't the big drop. . . it was the many turns and twists after that with no recovery time!   Not sure if it was the sequence of the rides, but Goliath was easier on my stomach than Raging Bull.  Of course, I rode Goliath before my carb-laden Panda Express lunch and before our family's torturous ride on the River Rocker. 

While were were riding Goliath, Ryan let Will play a game on the midway.  He bought him 10 darts to throw at balloons.  He popped 7, including one dart that popped two balloons!  This was apparently quite a coup, because Ryan said the highest "point" prize was four.  For his 7, William picked three two-point lizards and a one-point ball.  This adorable boy clutching three bright lizards got lots of sweet smiles. 

After a late lunch and waiting out a rain storm, we did one last series of rides and coasters.   Will took three turns on Ricochet (trading off co-pilot duties were Tarek, Ryan and John) where he waved excitedly each lap to his adoring fans.

A full, fun day that according to my Fitbit covered more than 6 miles of walking!  We all slept great last night and the three prize lizards woke me up today at the very respectable hour of 8:30.

Catching Up

As is usually the case around here as we near "the 15th" of  a tax filing deadline month, non-essentials like blogging (and cleaning and reading the mail and grocery shopping) are abandoned.   And as is usually the case after April 15th and September 15th, I'm taking some time off this week to catch up on all those items.  Below is a sampling of what we've been up to (or what I have pictures of) in the past few weeks:

Playing with the neighbors.  We were lucky to have a pair of boys (and their Theta mom and dad) move in across the street last summer.  Now that the boys are older (almost 4 and 1 1/2) and love all things cars, the three boys enjoy playing together.  One Sunday we even took Rachel over to play in their fenced yard with their Labradoodle, Maybee.   Here are the dogs after they wore each other out.

Remodeling the kitchen.  I'm saving the before, during and after pictures for another post, but this is a perfect example of William's role in the kitchen.   While I worked in the office and John worked in the kitchen, William made himself a fort in our closet to enjoy his favorite video (EvanTubeHD) in relative quiet. 

Driving to the office.   There is major construction around our neighborhood, so getting to/from the train station is a major ordeal.   And, frankly, I just prefer to drive during busy season so I can get home quickly at night when the trains run infrequently.   Unfortunately traffic that is usually bad was horrendous the past two weeks as summer officially ended.  It was taking 90 minutes or more to get to the office in the morning versus the normal hour.  On one of these slow traffic mornings, I got hit rear-ended in near stand-still traffic and pushed into another car.  My car went in for repairs today.

Playing with Legos.   Here William is showing off the new Iron Man playset he got at Legoland on a Saturday afternoon trip with Daddy.  He was so excited to get up on Sunday morning and put it together!  They went for Star Wars Days, so he's wearing his Storm Trooper shirt.  Yes, he's still wearing the same clothes on Sunday morning.  His choice.  Not a battle I am remotely interested in engaging in. 

Playing tennis.  We've had three weeks of lessons and his hits are pretty good.  I love watching his left handed hits!   His concentration level still leaves a lot to be desired, but it's a small class and the coach is getting a feel for the kids now and realizing she needs to be firm with them. 

Playing with Rachel.  The dog is so tolerant of him!  And he loves her so much.  I don't think she will last the winter if it's very snowy or icy.  Her back legs don't have"brakes" anymore, so she slips and slides a lot.  I'm surprised she comes upstairs to our room, but I know she likes to lay in the sun we get through our skylight.  We take her for very short walks - up the block and back - because she grinds down her back toenails beyond the quick when her legs get tired and start to cross over as she walks.  I was so freaked out this summer when I took her on a long walk and didn't realize this was happening.  We got a few blocks from home and her toenails started squirting blood with each step.  She never makes any cries when she slips around inside or drags her toes outside, so we're not sure if she's just lost all feeling in her back end.

Walking to school.  Yesterday was the first time I had been to kindergarten since the first day, so I got to watch William walk right into school without looking back.  Took my breath away, and the tears welled up in my eyes.  He looked like such a big boy walking the halls of the school while I stood out on the sidewalk.  I also got to pick him and and per his request rode John's bike with William's tag-a-long connected.  He was a mini celebrity leaving school and riding the couple of blocks to the park we went to play at.  The tandem bike is so much better than the trailer.  For one, he can help pedal it, but the best part is that you can have a conversation since you're close enough.  Yesterday my heart was warmed when he just started singing the Chicago Bears fight song without any notice!  He told me the music teacher had taught them that!  Love it!

 

Kindergarten

After the let down of Tuesday's short day, William was ready for a FULL day on Wednesday!   He was ready about 15 minutes early, so we played in the driveway and took some pictures before walking to the school.  That was his other thrill:  walking!  We had to drive on Tuesday since it was raining; thankfully the weather was nice for our first day.

He is VERY proud of his Darth Vader lunch box.   Turns out lunch boxes and backpacks are good ice breakers when meeting new kids.  We were happy that we found one he loved (from the bazillion choices on Amazon, how could he not?!) and that he could use it as a segue to his love of Star Wars and Legos when meeting people this week.

The PTA gives the kindergarteners school t-shirts to wear the first day (and week) of school.  They're color coded by classroom (KT is bright blue and the other three classes are yellow, light blue, and gray.)  It is designed to teach the kids who is in their class and help people direct the kids back to their class if they're lost.  It made it incredibly easy to see who was in his class when we lined up on the playground!

Come on!  Let's do this! He marched us all the way to school.  Amazingly, he also held his own backpack and lunch box the entire time.  He had been asking me for a few days whether I'd carry his bag as we walk.   Since we had dropped off supplies already, all he had was a water bottle and his snack box (Kashi bar and apple) inside the backpack.   For his lunch, he took peanut butter & jelly sandwich, strawberry Greek yogurt, mozzarella cheese stick, and a water bottle.  They have snack at 11 and lunch at 1:15, so we've been told to pack a generous snack.  Thanks to my sister-in-law Amy's advice, I made my own "uncrustable" PB&Js using up an entire loaf of bread and freezing them, so packing lunch (and grabbing breakfast for me!) have been a breeze this week.   I think Will is super excited because we bought "real" sandwich bread!  We usually use sandwich thins for bread, so this white, soft, square stuff is quite exciting!

Ms. Troemel brought her KT line leader sign out to the blacktop to meet the kids.  We were the second KT family to arrive at the school thanks to Mr. Excited.  We were only beat by Will's new buddy, Gavin.  Here they compare lunch box features in great detail.   

 

The wait was about 10 minutes longer than it needed to be in the humid weather, but William showed no apprehension until about the last 5 minutes when the less enthusiastic kids arrived - including several crying boys.  He seemed a little bothered by that but went right in when his class marched inside.  One of the moms of a daycare friend saw him right before he went inside and gave him a high five.  She told me later he was so excited!  The report he gave John at the end of the first day was that school was "fun."  I talked to him last night quite a bit about school and his YMCA after school program, but the details have been relatively sparse.  They've all be positive though, so that's good! 

Meet the Teacher

At William's school, the first through fifth grades started on Tuesday with the kindergarteners starting on Wednesday.   On Tuesday, each kindergarten family was invited at a specific time slot to meet the teacher, drop off school supplies, and get some handouts from the teacher while the kids played.   Our time slot was 11:30, and we hadn't done a very good job of explaining to William that he wasn't going to school the whole day.  He was pretty disappointed when he couldn't go to school as soon as he woke up.  And even more disappointed to hear it wasn't the whole day.  (At least he's excited about school, right?!)

There are 21 kids in his class, which should be a manageable number.  We know one family, but the boys haven't played together recently, so I don't think they recognize each other.  The teacher, Ms. Troemel, has been at the school for over 10 years and comes well recommended! The board below is for "KT" as Kindergarten-Troemel is short-handed.   We're supposed to label his backpack; lunch box; and snack box all with "KT" so if they get lost they can be relocated.

 

Since we had all afternoon free from school (and daycare is long gone since Monday!), William and I had an afternoon to play at a play place called Ball Factory.   (Side note: I was totally playing hooky from work and stayed off my computer and phone from 10-5.  Of course since it's busy season, that meant I worked 16 hours on Monday and on Tuesday evening but we sure did have a fun afternoon!) My favorite was the air cannons!  We each hit each other a few times with direct hits.  And many more glancing blows.  Boys are fun!  Watching him drive the tractors was fun, too, but I'm glad we went back for a second round of ball blasters!

 

 

 

Tennis

William got his first tennis racquet last Sunday.  It was $14.99 well spent! He has already played outside with me in the driveway five times - including twice the first day we bought it!  He's a lefty, so it's fun to hit against him.  I'm left-handed, as well, but I play most of my sports - tennis included - right-handed.  He starts lessons in another week at my tennis club, so I'm excited to see how he does with professional coaching!  

 

Now it's going to be a race between Jason and me to see whose sport he embraces the most:  tennis or golf!  The guys went to the driving range with their golf clubs one night this past week, and Jason admitted that he checked into their youth lessons.  They'll have to wait since we already have swimming, soccer and tennis lined up for the fall, but I'm sure they're not too far behind. 

End of Summer

Summer is rapidly coming to an end.  William starts kindergarten in less than 3 weeks!  It's been very busy at home (still working on that kitchen every once in awhile!) and work (taxes again?!), but we've done a few outdoor activities:

 

Summer soccer wrapped up July 29th with a final practice, game, and medals.   We've got about 6 weeks off before fall soccer starts.  Will told me (after I signed him up for fall) that he doesn't want to play outside soccer anymore.  So. . .we'll see how it goes. 

Our friends Dana and Tyler and their kids hosted a cookout complete with bounce house.   It was pretty humid that night so the kids got super sweaty.  At one point, only 2 1/2 year old Carter wanted to play in the bounce house, so I went in with him.  Luckily when I (temporarily) collapsed the thing he was already out of it!

Last Saturday we got free tickets to an after hour event at the zoo.  All of the extras were free (carousel, butterfly garden, stingrays, etc) and they had a behind the scenes tour of the animal hospital and nutrition buildings. 

And, finally, after searching the entire house to locate it (inside his Napa Rose treasure chest which was sitting on the train table), Jason took Will to Toys R Us to spend a birthday gift card.  He is obviously proud of the Max-D Monster Jam that he selected!