Pictures from Alma

When Alma's car pulls up in front of our house in the morning, David almost always runs to greet her. He absolutely loves her. They play with our neighbors and go to the park, the library, the zoo and even downtown. It gives us such a peace of mind to know that he loves her and is happy while we're at work. Not only does Alma take good care of our monkey, she takes some really cute pictures for us so we can see what he's up to during the day. Here are some of this week's highlights...
At the zoo

Sharing apple slices with Fiona


Fiona reinvents the teacup ride

Katy, TX

David and I survived the first of three trips we have planned sans Kevin. We spent the weekend visiting Leslie and Stanley in Katy, TX, and Adams drove down from Austin to hang out with us as well. I was a little nervous about David and Kevin would deal with their separation and a lot nervous about how I would survive the flights to and from Houston, but David is a really great traveller, and everything went as smoothly as any reasonable person could hope for when flying with a 20 month old.

David loves dogs and made friends quickly with Apollo.


David had a lot of fun with Aunt Leslie, Uncle Stanely and Uncle Adams. He loves an audience, so he spent much of the weekend showing off his dance moves, yoga pose and lifting his shirt up to reveal his belly.


We spent a lot of quality time checking out the local park scene in Katy. David had a lot of fun running up and down one particular ramp. He got to see some fish, chase Uncle Stanley around and give high fives to anyone who was willing to participate. He also liked feeding the ducks bread until one bold duck took the bread straight out of his hand.

Bringing frantic dancing back

For some reason, it was very difficult to get David to sleep after this...

Weekend o' fun

Having been sick last weekend and well aware that an 8 month Chicago winter is bearing down on us, David made the most of his time this weekend. While I angered countless parents by diagnosing their children with colds and refusing to give antibiotics Saturday morning, Kevin and David went downtown. It was David's first trip on the "L," and he was so excited that he fell asleep by the second stop. They made their way to the Roosevelt stop and walked around the museum campus and played at a park until it was time to come home for a nap.
Saturday afternoon we went to our friends' Christy and Eric's house where we got to see a lot of our friends from my pediatrics residency. There was a swarm of children, and David had great time parallel playing with them. It's fun to see how far he has come. The last time we got together with this group of friends, David was barely walking. He is now walking, running, dancing, jumping and, thanks to some life lessons from the kids on our block, defending himself when someone tries to take a toy from him.
Today we followed up a disappointing Bears loss with a trip to the zoo with uncle Dave and Katie.
Pictures of the boys with the lovely Chicago skyline. David checking out a huge granite sphere in the park.


Another picture of David at the park. Snoopy and Pete living the good life.

David partying hard with his friends. (Also pictured Evie, Gus and Maya.)

Recovery

David's recovery is almost complete. He had a pretty miserable weekend with a lot of whining and sleeping. He did manage (in his sleep) to cheer the White Sox on to their only playoff victory. He refused all solids until Monday, and today is finally eating like normal, swallowing most of his own spit and starting to speak again. Here are a few pictures of him feeling sick and looking pitiful.


David's receptive language is excellent, but clearly he doesn't understand the word "swallow" just yet. (I was not kidding when I said he wouldn't swallow his own spit.)

David's first febrile illness

David is celebrating a beautiful autumn weekend with fever (up to an impressive 105 yesterday), diarrhea and what we believe is a wicked sore throat. I haven't been able to get a good look in his mouth, but he is refusing to swallow his own saliva about 90% of the time and cries whenever he tries to swallow solids. He is a sad little boy and has been crying in his sleep literally every 20 minutes or so. He's also a trooper and did manage to get some quality play time in as well as a family walk. This consists of me pushing David in the stroller at top speed while Kevin is dragged by the dogs. There probably won't be much in the way of pictures from this weekend, but our September pictures are now up for the hardcore David enthusiasts to enjoy (Mom).