Blast from the Past

Friday night Carrie and I re-lived our childhood and went to the New Kids on the Block concert here in Chicago. We were both HUGE fans when we were younger and never had the chance to go to a concert back then, so when we heard they were getting back together and going on tour, we HAD to go. Since Rick had plans with one of his friends, I dropped Evan off at my parents' house Friday afternoon for his first sleepover there. (I am very thankful to say he did great there!) Then I drove up to Steve's parents' house to pick up Carrie, while Steve and Brett were able to stay there and visit with their family and friends. We then made our way up to Rosemont for the concert. When we made our way into Allstate Arena, we noticed that many of the people there had found their old New Kids shirts, buttons, and other paraphernalia and were proudly displaying them. Other people went all out and crimped their hair and wore neon, plastic jewelry. We felt like we were back in 6th grade! Needless to say, the concert was AMAZING! They sang all their old popular tunes and mixed in a few of their new songs. By the end of the night my voice was hoarse from screaming so loudly, and my ears were ringing from listening to the thousands of other 30 something year olds screaming along with me! After the concert we headed back to our house, picking up Steve and Brett along the way.

Carrie and I waiting for the concert to begin

My first love, Joey McIntyre

The next morning after I picked up Evan, we all went to breakfast then spent some time together before they had to head back to Indy. Right before they were going to leave, we put Brett (who is now 6 months old!) and Evan on a chair to take some pictures of them together. They kept looking at each other and smiling! Then they started having a little conversation between them. After a little while, we took Brett off the chair. Evan moved himself to the other side of the chair, then kept pointing to the empty place next to him and said "Baby." We sat Brett down next to him again and they started another conversation. It was SO cute! Looks like they're becoming buddies pretty quickly.

Our handsome boys

"Look Evan, I have a foot!""I have a foot too!"

Here is the link to a video of them talking to each other. I had trouble posting the actual video on here, so you'll have to follow the link to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFcFBgxzsMs

Halloween Warning

I received the link to this video in an email this past week along with another written email about this warning that is out about candy potentially tainted with melamine. I don't know how credible it is, but I don't think any of us want to take the chance with our children.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=R3dbBQPIFf0

Lake Katherine

Back a few weeks ago on Columbus Day, I went with Evan and my parents to a place called Lake Katherine, which is a nature preserve. I had just taken my students there on a field trip the week beforehand, and I thought Evan would love going there. In the nature building they have small animals such as snakes, fish, a guinea pig and a ferret. They also have a man-made waterfall and a huge lake with a trail going around it. The day was beautiful and the trees were just starting to change colors. Evan enjoyed looking at the waterfall and walking around the trails near it.

At the top of the waterfall with Papou

Feeling the cold water

Stopping to smell flowers in the herb garden

So excited he found a stick to play with!

A Toddler's Perspective

This morning I left Evan in the family room for just a few minutes to run upstairs to brush my teeth. This is what happens when a toddler figures out how to turn on a digital camera and what button to press to take a picture...

Looks like his hair/face in the upper left corner

Definitely his eye in the upper left corner

Our Yearly Pilgrimage

Ever since I can remember, at least once a year we would make a trip out to a place called White Fence Farm, which is a restaurant that is famous for its fresh fried chicken. The word restaurant is really not the correct word to describe it though. In the waiting area there is an old car museum, along with collections of all sorts of things... dolls, music boxes, holiday decorations, etc. There are also some games to play - a really old foosball table, a "fortune teller" like in the movie Big, and kids' rides like you would see in front of KMart. Last weekend we went there with my parents to celebrate my 30th (yikes!) birthday. Evan had a blast riding the kiddie rides, and he ate more food than he's probably ever eaten at once.

As soon as Evan saw the big chicken he kept saying "Ticka, ticka" (chicken, chicken).

Evan with Yiayia and Papou

Look at that grin

A Day at the Museum

Last weekend my friend Jen, who I've been good friends with since our freshman year at Butler, came to visit. Saturday morning Jen and I took Evan to the Museum of Science and Industry. The first area we visited was the Idea Factory, which was a kids' play area. Evan had a great time in there. They had the same Little Tikes house that we have at home, and he immediately went in there first. I had to laugh, since we drove all the way downtown for him to play with something he already has at home. He did explore other activities in the play area. They had a pretend pirate ship, an area with soft, colorful mats to crawl over, and a water area with tons of colorful, plastic balls. We visited some other exhibits in the museum, but I think Evan could have stayed in that area all day. We saw baby chicks hatching out of their eggs, and Evan kept pointing to the chicks saying, "Chicken, Chicken." Evan also showed a little interest in the electric toy train and the airplane display. Besides those, he was content in anything that had buttons he could press. Unfortunately all the pictures I took are just of Evan. We tried to get some with us in it, but Evan was not exactly cooperative that day.

Discrimination Against Working Moms

I am a working mom. I am lucky that over the summers, I can enjoy a brief amount of time as a stay at home mom, but for the majority of the year, I work full time. This is a decision we had to make, and it works for us. Unfortunately, other people often neglect to remember that some mothers do not have the ability to stay home. Let me explain...

Evan loves being active (as most toddlers are). Recently he's been trying to stand on his head, take dives head first off the couch, and flip over us when we're sitting on the floor. Although I really liked what Gymboree did for Evan, I am looking for something more. I would love for him to participate in more of a "gym" atmosphere rather than the sing-song methods at Gymboree. I want a place where he can jump on trampolines, roll around on mats, and jump into foam pits. The first place I thought of was an actual gymnastics gym. I looked into several in the area, and they do offer parent-child classes for infants and toddlers. I thought, "perfect," sign us up. Then I looked at the schedule. Every class for children his age are offered in the mornings, none in the evenings. Then I looked into a place called "My Gym," which is similiar to Gymboree, but it focuses more on the gym part instead of the muscial part. Again, nothing offered in the evenings. I enountered the same problem in Tinley's Park District programs. I know there are plenty of other working moms that want to do special activities with their child. Why aren't there classes available to us? I'm very annoyed and frustrated. I guess we may be heading back to Gymboree until next summer.

Speaking of Evan being an active toddler, he had his first major "boo boo" Friday night. He was running around in his room before his bath, tripped and fell head first into the leg of his changing table. It bruised immediately from his hairline to his eyebrow and swelled to the size of a ping pong ball. He only cried for a few minutes, and then we brought him downstairs to put ice on it. Surprisingly he sat really well and let us hold the ice, and then he actually held the ice pack on his head for awhile. The swelling went down pretty quickly but we were paranoid for the rest of the night that he had a concussion. He had a small bump the next morning, and he still has a nice sized bruise on his forehead. I'm sure this is the first of many more to come.

It's hard to see in this picture, but check out the bruise above his right eye.

Evan after his most recent haircut.