An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle but will never break. --Chinese legend

Monday, March 30, 2009

Picture from yesterday

Here are the birthday people yesterday (Kevin, Lil, Dave, David and me)

Sunday, March 29, 2009

What happened to out like a lamb?

Here are a couple of pictures from last week. David got to hang out with Alma's daughter Sabrina, which is always a treat for him. He loves Sabrina and asks for her pretty much every day for a week after he sees her. Alma got some really cute pictures of the two of them together. There is also a picture of David "helping" me cook. I'm making cheese grits, and he is scooping grits out of various containers and dumping them into other containers...and onto the counter...and onto the dogs. I'm not sure if you can tell or not from the picture, but Snoopy's entire back is covered in grits.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we took David to his first Bulls game yesterday. He absolutely loved it. He danced to the music and cheered during the game. We only had to leave our seats once during the game, and that was to take care of a poop situation and not because he was bored or antsy. We ran into a little trouble before we left home, though. I gave Kevin a small Jordan jersey as a wedding present imagining the day we would take our first child to see his favorite team. David had other ideas. He is madly in love with the shirt you see him wearing in the pictures below (thanks for that, Tracey!) and not only did he refuse to wear the jersey instead of the shirt, he flipped out when we tried to put it on over his shirt. You can see him crying in a puddle on the floor in the picture below. Once we took the jersey off, he was happy as a clam. The other pictures are him throwing down some homemade chips and asleep in my lap at the end of the game.

Today we drug ourselves out on a cold, wet, snowy day (ugh!) to go to church. Last time we were there, Kevin got so flustered while trying to hold David and take Communion that he somehow managed to bite our priest as she gave him his little piece o' bread of heaven. Today, she got to keep all her fingers, but I dropped my wafer on the floor, which she then ate and gave me a fresh one. Oops. After that, David sprinted down the middle aisle of the church at full speed. Does the Episcopal church excommunicate???
This afternoon we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Maas's house to celebrate the February and March birthdays. Sadly, we forgot our camera, but I can tell you that we had a lovely time and brought home a lot of good loot...including a new scooter for David. Expect a head injury post in the near future...

Saturday, March 28, 2009

David's first Bulls game

There will be more pictures to come, but here's some video from David's first Bulls game this afternoon. The game start at 1:00, which is prime nap time, so we weren't sure how it would go. He loved it. NBA games are perfect for little kids for all the same reasons I prefer going to college games. There is a lot more to do and see other than the game. There is always hip hop music or some weird mascot time out entertainment, and there is food as far as the eye can see. We managed to get away with only two trips to the concession stands today, which I think is pretty good. David enjoyed pizza during the first half and homemade chips during the second. He fell asleep with one minute to go in the game but woke up in the cold and the wind on the way to the car. He's going to be a beast tonight, but the game was a good time.
Looks like the video is going to be sideways. Sorry!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

San Diego


We spent a lovely weekend in San Diego visiting our friends the Mazhars and seeing the sights. We flew out Thursday evening and got to Sameer and Aemun's place around 8:30. David was completely wound up and had a great time playing with their son Sulaiman, who is only 6 weeks older (and about 4 inches taller).
Friday morning we were up with the birds at 5:30 (which is better than we'd expected given David's early rising and the two hour time difference). We headed for the zoo and got there right as it was opening. The San Diego zoo is absolutely huge, but in a matter of 3.5 hours, we covered the majority of the grounds. David rejected his stroller early on and walked/run-run-runned most of the way. He had a blast, and so did we. Here are a few of the many highlights:
Koala bears and a cute little meerkat

A well-trained elephant and a hungry panda

David and Kevin with the grizzlies and me and David with the Manchurian brown bear

David wore himself out at the zoo and was literally falling asleep in my arms as we left. He took a nice nap and then we headed to the park so that the boys could play. Here are David and Sulaiman. No surprise here: David is in run-run-run mode.

We had a very yummy dinner at a burger place in La Jolla that night and then drove around to see a few more sights.
On Saturday Sameer joined us for a trip to Sea World. David really enjoyed splashing in the water and touching the rays. He also liked watching Shamu and friends at the orca show, but he crashed and burned towards the end. He would nod off in Kevin's lap then wake up and point at a whale as it jumped and then nod off again. It was pretty hilarious. He napped in the stroller while we checked out the sharks, penguins and manatees afterwards.
Kevin and David petting the sting rays. The 3 of us (David completely out) at Sea World.

Post-nap that afternoon, we went to the Cove in La Jolla. It is a beautiful spot on the ocean with amazing views, shops, restaurants and a park. The boys had a great time running and playing, and the weather was perfect.
Sulaiman and David hard at play

Sameer, Sulaiman, David and Kevin. David ogling an ad outside a swimsuit store.

The weather today was pretty un-San Diegoish. It was cool and very very rainy. We toughed it out and made a return trip to to the zoo. (I wonder how many times I've typed "zoo" on this blog.) This time we were lucky enough to be joined by two of Kevin's cousins from the California side of the family, James and Christina. We were so excited they could come down and meet David. We had fun in spite of the rain, and we're pretty sure James and his friend Miles succeeded in being the oldest zoo guests to complete the Bear Bonanza scavenger hunt. They were both very happy with their prizes of suckers, stickers and a pencil.
James, Christina, David, Kevin and me

We flew home this afternoon/evening. We arrived early at O'Hare, and, as anyone who has ever flown in to O'Hare could guess, there was a plane at our gate. So after a 4 hour flight and almost 30 minutes on the tarmac, we were finally home. David was a good little traveller as always and finally made it to bed around 10:45. We'll see how long it takes to get ourselves back on central time.
A special thanks to Sameer, Aemun and Sulaiman for letting us invade their home, eat their food and play with their toys for 4 days. We had a wonderful time!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Zoo people

It's no secret that we love the zoo, and David has been taking advantage of the milder weather to get his zoo on. He went twice this week--once with us and once with Alma. He and Alma ran into Molly, a little girl Alma used to babysit. David and Molly became fast friends and went through the zoo holding hands. Here are some pictures.





Saturday, March 14, 2009

Good times, dirty river

This morning, the three of us took the green line downtown to meet up with our friend Nickie and watch the city dye the Chicago River green in honor of St. Patrick's Day. David got a little impatient during our wait but really seemed to enjoy himself once things were under way. Basically, some guys in a little boat ride up and down the river dumping an orange (that's right, orange) chemical into the water that turns the river a bright green (as opposed to its usual dingy green). Sadly, this is probably the least of the river's pollution worries. David liked watching the boat, and every time it would disappear from sight, he would say "again!" until it came back for another pass. Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice Irish lunch at PJ Clarke's, and David fell asleep as we walked back to the el.
Here we are with Nickie. The boat making its first pass with the orange/green dye.

Posing in front of the day-glow river. David asleep at the State and Lake stop.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

David's weekend

Just a quick post to get my mother through Monday. We had a great weekend. Friday was absolutely beautiful--warm (actually warm not Chicago "warm") and sunny. David and I went to our magical mornings class, which was once again less than magical and included a very very long song about the 3 little pigs complete with hand puppets that left most of the children bored and either crying or aimlessly wandering the room. After that, we hit the zoo. David literally ran from animal to animal, half the time he was yelling "Run! RUN!" just in case it wasn't clear to everyone what he was doing. He enjoyed a lunch that included pizza and a fruit roll up (he picked this out himself at the food court). After lunch we spent some time enjoying one of the zoo's little playgrounds. It's amazing to see how far he has come. When we brought him home last may, he couldn't walk or even crawl. Friday, he was climbing up and down the equipment, sliding down slides, jumping and running like an absolute maniac. He crashed in the car on the way home and slept for 2 1/2 hours, and that is why we love the zoo.
Yesterday was back to typical March weather (cold and wet), so we spent the morning at the Field Museum. We checked out their special exhibit on the Aztec civilization, which is a lot of sculpture and other things not geared towards toddlers, but David was very well behaved and actually enjoyed parts of the exhibit. He pointed out the different animals and body parts. After that we visited some of the more interactive parts of the museum. David got to beat on drums from all over the world and harvest, grind and cook fake corn. Last night, Alma and Sabrina came to watch David while Kevin and I double dated with Dave and Katie at Second City. We had a great time (and so did David, no doubt), and it was lovely to get out of the house and be grown ups for a night.
Today we spent the day in our pajamas. It was a perfect day to be lazy as there was a torrential downpour outside most of the day (as in more than 3 inches of rain in 24 hours downpour).
This computer is being a beast, so I think that's it for now. Here are a couple of pictures: David status post fruit roll up and David with Sue the dinosaur

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Happy Birthday, Great Grandma Lil!

Tonight we celebrated Lil's birthday with a delicious dinner. David ate plenty of bread, crackers, portobello fries, regular fries, croutons and butter, which he licked straight off his knife. Who could ask for a better time than that?

Sunday, March 1, 2009

In like a lion

Tom Skilling, whom my late grandmother would have you know is never wrong, says that today marks the beginning of meteorological spring. I know it's snowing my homeland, and it hasn't gotten out of the 20s here all weekend. So much for spring, though I do see highs in the 60s and 70s in the Columbia 10 day forecast, so easy on the complaints about the cold. Anyway...
While I worked late Tuesday, David and Kevin headed to the Srokas to celebrate Fat Tuesday Polish-style with paczkis (which is really pronounced more like "poonch-kies"). For anyone not familiar, they are essentially Polish donuts. They come with a variety of flavors and fillings, but Kevin's Uncle Rog makes them from scratch and puts apples in the batter. They are delicious. Roger got stuck at work until the wee hours Tuesday, but I heard that Barb stepped in and did a lovely job of making the paczkis. David had a lot of fun and...surprise surprise...loved Patch the dog.
David and I started our Magical Mornings class on Friday. I'm not sure how magical it's really going to be. It's run by a retired preschool teacher who brings a bunch of old toys. The kids free play for a while, can take part in a craft if they want (David lost interest in making his lion after about 60 seconds) and then sing about 4 songs. He had fun, though, which is all that matters. The class is mostly boys, and there is a lot of run-run-running, so hopefully this will help him burn off some of his trapped inside winter energy.
While I spent Saturday morning saving the world from the common cold and explaining to parents that 4 days isn't actually too long to be congested, Kevin and David went to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the choo choos, airplanes and submarine.
Today we partied at the Swansons. Their son Eli celebrated his first birthday. David got to play with the usual suspects--Gus, Eli, Maya and Evie. Here are a few pictures: David with Maya, David actively involved in a game of run-run-run and Eli with smash cake. Happy birthday, E!
David's story finally got posted on http://nohandsfamilystories.blogspot.com/, so check him out there. I would also like to share that one of the words David has trouble pronouncing is "you." He says "woot." It cracks me up every time. He looks at me very seriously gives me an instruction and says "WOOT!"