499

Friday night I was putting Clara in the car and Henry was at the end of the driveway waiting for Pete, whom we knew was arriving home any minute. I grabbed my camera because I thought he looked so sweet standing down there, clutching his hippo, waiting for his dad.

And then he noticed I was taking pictures of him, so he burst into a wild frenzy of dance...



We were waiting for Pete so we could get to member's night at the children's museum. They do this periodically, where they have special later hours for members only. This night it was to highlight their new temporary Brio Train exhibit. Henry gave me the obligatory thumbs-up.
The exhibit was pretty cool. It was a "life size" Brio train with buttons to push and other interactive things to do, which didn't all necessarily have to do with trains, as far as I could tell...
There were some life-size replicas of some of the Brio farm animals, which were pretty cute. Henry practiced his milking to show Grandpa Bill.
Clara is now big enough to take advantage of the baby play areas in the museum, which are set up so that you can still see and interact with your bigger kid, while playing with your baby.
Pete caught Clara and I looking in the baby-height mirror. She's starting to try to crawl....though mostly right now she just pushes herself backwards.

Saturday was lovely weather, which was great because I started the morning by participating (walking) in a 5K fundraiser for my school district. Later, during naps, Pete was doing some yardwork and discovered this guy:
Luckily, he was still there when Henry awoke from his nap. I'm hoping that he's proof that our praying mantis egg-sac from the spring actually produced some babies! This guy (or gal?) was about four inches long! Very cool.
I was feeling very Fall, so I recruited Henry to help me make an apple pie to have after our taco dinner. I know, kind of a strange combination, but Pete was making dinner and Pete makes tacos.
I also have been meaning to take the following picture. It's of the hydrangea plant that mom brought to the hospital when Clara was born. It was in lovely full bloom then, and I planted it with a small amount of hope. Much to my surprise, it's done well and just recently put out these gorgeous blooms! If anyone has tips on caring for it through the winter, I'd appreciate them.
And to wrap up our weekend, here are some pictures of Henry's afternoon art project. I put out our selection of small gourds (I can't help myself with the small gourds!) and encouraged him to draw them before painting.
Check out his cool, detailed drawing! His first one was the best. The gourd in the top left of his picture is the one on his far left in the upper picture. See how he made the bumps and the long neck? I love it! And the one on the far right of his picture is the small, round, green gourd in the middle. See how he made the lines coming out from the center? Brilliant.
When he went to paint them, he decided to stray from the realistic color scheme. He generally chose one main color, and then made a different colored dot in the middle for the stem.
I think I do have a picture of him with his tongue out, but I didn't include it here, there were just too many other good ones to choose from.
Here he is waiting on his dinner, playing a gourd-sorting guess-the-rule game. You can also see his horrible new habit of twirling his hair. I especially dislike it when he does this during dinner and gets rice or butter in his hair.
Pete loves to take photos of Clara while he's feeding her. Here she is enjoying some peas.

This morning at breakfast...

Henry was goofing around in his chair at the breakfast table. He had one hand on the table, the other on the back of his chair, and he was sitting up on his knees. When his chair tipped back and he almost fell over, he and I were both a little startled and I started to give him one of those "don't I always tell you to sit on your bottom?!?!" looks. But before I could say anything, he looked at me very seriously and said "I didn't die."
Good point.

Catching up again...

I know if I don't do a quick post now I'll have too much to keep up with...so...
Here's a quick look at Henry's excitement last week. Pete took him to a Cubs game, with some last-minute tickets. The Cubs lost, but Henry had a great time. The last shot is of him waving goodbye to all the fans as they file out early. That night he slept with his big foam bear claw right on top of his covers in his bed.






And here's a little video of Clara doing her new trick- clapping.

Plum Pooped

I apologize to those of you who rely on photos of my kids as if they were oxygen. I know you love my deep thoughts and witty words. How have you been surviving these last several days? I just really have not been in a blogging frame of mind. Mostly I've been in a sleeping frame of mind. I've been spending lots of time here:
And when I get home I am plum pooped. So after cooking dinner and getting the kids to bed I pretty much cash out myself.
But, sorry Dear Reader, the reason I blog is not so much to share news with you. That is merely a side advantage. It has really turned into more of a scrapbook and journal about our life. So when I don't blog I feel guilty that I'm letting things slide without recording them for posterity. One of these days I am going to use one of those book programs to turn the posts into something a little more stable.
Anyhoo....
Here's what we've actually been up to. New floor:
Clara is queen of the measuring spoons.
Last Friday I took the kids and went to Iowa. New Dad Will was in town just for the game. We went to Pagliai's- just Carrie, Rob, Will and I. We tried hard not to talk too much about politics. We missed Sandy and Pete, but we had a great time. The next morning we went to the Hamburg, pre-game. It was pouring and packed.
And they were out of chocolate chips for our pancakes! WTF? We enjoyed our breakfast none-the-less. Except for Rob who had to take a tired and cranky Eleanor home to nap.
Henry got to experience his first visit to Kinnick with Grammie. Pete and I were a little jealous, as we haven't even been able to go to a game yet this season....but we were happy for Henry. And he and his Grammie had a blast. Here they are pre-game.
Here's a shot Rob took after the game. The Hawks beat the Cyclones. Yay.
And even after a rainy game, during which Henry reportedly napped for an hour on her lap, Mom was still all smiles.
The next morning Joyce came up to celebrate her birthday. We just hung around Rob and Carrie's house and ate bagels. Russell was in town for the game too, so he came over for a bit. He's studying architecture (right?) at Iowa State and has a lot of drawing and design type classes right now. He drew Henry a picture of a robot, which I was pretty impressed by.
By 2:00 the kids and I finally hit the road back to Illinois. Henry really wanted to not be tired. He wanted to see the Mississippi again, and kept asking when we would cross it. As soon as we were across I looked back and saw this:
Sorry for the odd photo- I was taking the picture backwards while trying to keep my eyes on the road and my hands upon the wheel.
And stay tuned for more photos later. Henry and his Papa are at Wrigley Field as we speak. Pete got some tickets for today's game and took the boy down. The weather is perfect for it. The Cubs seem to be kind of stinking it up against the Cardinals, but I'm sure they're having fun anyway. Henry had been promised some Crackerjack.

So I guess I'll blog...

So...I guess I got it out of my system with that last pity blog. Now I'll catch up a little bit...
Starting a week and a half ago....Pete went to Berlin for work, so Mom and Joyce came in town to visit and help out a bit. Here's Henry and Franklin playing train.
Mom decided to take some pictures while I made blueberry muffins. It might have been more helpful if she had just taken the baby...
Clara has started to enjoy Henry's piano. She is very musical.
Rob, Carrie and Eleanor came to visit for a bit. Henry convinced them to play Box.
Then I worked for several days. Then Pete came home. Meanwhile the RNC happened and gave me a stomach ache. Friday the kids and I went to the library to meet up with our new friends from across the street . Helena and I chatted quite a bit and the kids played until they got too rowdy for the library. Then we took them to the park. Clara likes swinging much more than Henry ever has!
That night we ate up some of our fresh tomatoes on BLTs.
Saturday night Liz stopped over to show us her shiny new ring and tell us the story of her engagement. Hooray! We're fans of Van.
Liz also asked Henry if he would like to be her ring bearer. He's SO excited. She also left him her rose corsage- (she had just finished singing at a wedding).
Here's a picture of Henry and Clara, enjoying each other's company.
Saturday night Henry and I baked a cake and Sunday morning we decorated it for Grandma Mary. It was her birthday on Sunday and she was coming over to spend the day with the kids while Pete and I went off to a wedding. Henry chose the colors and the decorations....I think he did a lovely job!
The wedding was on an organic farm and the food was awesome! Here is a simple, but delicious salad that was served as a second course.
Here are Pete and I- happy to be out with grown-ups and grown-up drinks.
And here I am with Shannon, a high-school friend of Pete's and a former Wiggleworms teacher of Henry's. We wish she and the family didn't live all the way out in Oak Park.
And finally....here is a "before" picture of our dining/living room. This is last night, as we had just started to pick up the living room to prepare for the flooring people coming this morning.
Here is Clara, all dressed for her day...We were pretty pleased with her cute little outfit- a second-hand corduroy dress and matching shirt, with her leg-warmers from Ellen and her knit sweater from Samantha. The rock and roll shoes don't exactly match, but she didn't seem to care. She was busy playing with her second-favorite toy.
Here's the living/dining room earlier this morning, with the surprise tiles. We should have known they would find something unexpected....it just wouldn't be our house otherwise.
And here it is again, just a little bit ago, with the fake wood floor partially installed. It's getting exciting!!!

Woe is me...

I know I haven't been blogging....being back at school is kind of kicking my butt. Days like today are especially hard. We had a very busy day yesterday- ending with a wedding and getting home late. Then today I had to work. Both kids were fussy from less sleep and (on Henry's part) more sugar than they're used to. Then, while I was making dinner, Henry discovered a half-dead mouse on the living room floor. One of the pets must have gotten to it. And Franklin pooped on the rug (that we're not replacing) because he didn't want to go outside in the rain. Then I realized there was msg in the soup I used in the tuna noodle casserole, so now I have an awful headache and just want to go to bed. But I have lots of school planning to do for the week, plus packing bags so the kids are ready in the morning. Tomorrow is picture day for me at school so I'll need extra time to get ready. We also need to pack up our china cabinet and bookshelf in the next two nights because the people come to install laminate floor in our living/dining room on Wednesday.
So. Poor me. But now you know why I'm not blogging-or, for that matter, responding to your emails, probably. (How about that sentence formation?)
But the exciting news in the family is that Liz got engaged to Van (sparkly ring photos to come) and our new nephew finally has a name. Anders Wilson (insert last name here). We love him. His name fits his little towhead perfectly. Click on Sandy and Will's link for excess amounts of adorableness.

Hooray!!!

Henry was right....it's a boy! Just now, looking at the picture he said "Aw. Isn't he sweet?" We very much agree!!! We are very proud of our new little nephew AND his mom and it sounds like his dad held up his end of the deal pretty well too. More pictures can be found at Will and Sandy's blog.

Soon....

Send some good vibes for smooth and easy labor and a healthy baby and mom!!!
We should have news very soon!!!