Friesencold

We’ve got some cute video of Cash eating his little bowl of ice cream tonight at Sweet Tomatoes and saying he’s two when we asked him how old he is. TJ just put the video clip on Facebook so check it out!

As a way to celebrate Cash’s birthday and spend time doing something fun as a family, we spent 4 hours earlier today at Raging Waves water park in Yorkville, which is about 45 minutes away from our house. It was our first time there and it was a lot of fun!

We got home around 2:30 and both kids were asleep in their beds in no time! While they napped, I enjoyed writing up a little blog post about my friend Lauren’s great video that she entered in a contest and that might be about to win her and her husband a year’s worth of their mortgage paid….so make sure you don’t miss that post, especially if you want to win a Starbucks gift card.

Ribfest is one of the many things we enjoyed over July 4th weekend, my mom being the main attraction. As always she was a tremendous help with the boys and Bauer loved having Gigi here to share in all the adventures of the weekend.

On Thursday night we went to hear the Naperville Municipal Band give their 4th of July themed concert. There were so many people there that we had to sit way around on the side where we couldn’t even see the band. But we could hear it just fine. Happy Birthday wishes went out to a 108-year old member of the audience. That was cooler than the music to me!

On Friday morning we went to Bauer’s last swim lesson (more on that later) and then took the Naperville Trolley Tour. We had done this tour one time before when TJ’s parents were in town, but I wanted my mom to experience it, not to mention I was looking forward to a refresher course on some of the history of Naperville. We invited some friends along, which made it even more special for Bauer.

Friday afternoon/evening, we attended a BBQ at the house of some friends of ours. Because I knew the kids would be fully occupied by the excitement of playing with other kids and because I know my mom loves to visit Anderson’s bookstore when she’s in town, I suggested to her that she take a break and enjoy downtown Naperville, just walking around and visiting stores and having dinner at her leisure. She loved the idea and had a great time doing that, while we were talkin’ and eatin’ and chillin’ with friends. The best part for the kids was the improptu game of Bumper Cars they came up with toward the end. You should have seen all the Cozy Coupes and similar vehicles in action on the driveway! Or maybe you did if you saw TJ’s Mobile Upload to Facebook that afternoon.

Saturday was the BIG DAY as we went to both Toy Story 3 and Ribfest. My mom joined us for the movie because she was wanting to see it too. That was fun to be there all together and know Cash could be as loud as he wanted at home with our great babysitter. My mom brought a Toy Story 3 art pack to Bauer this trip and he enjoyed spending lots of time over the weekend coloring with Gigi and working on the cover page of his Toy Story booklet.

On Saturday afternoon, my mom offered to watch Cash for us so we could go to Ribfest with just Bauer (and Jaime and Branton again!). It was pretty hot that day so I was glad Cash didn’t have to be out in the heat and fussing cause he’d want to do everything Bauer was doing but wasn’t quite big enough to do. You’re probably thinking Cash got a bum deal on Saturday but my mom said the two of them had a blast and Cash was perfectly content to be home with her, running around and doing all his funny antics that he does.

The first thing we did at Ribfest was the free kids area, with tons of inflatables.

Then it was time for ribs! TJ and I both got the pulled pork sandwich plates from Desperado’s and TJ also ordered a “teaser” of 3 ribs from there. The food was delicious! My once-a-year splurge on the worst meat ever (but it sure did taste good, not to mention the energy I had the next morning for swimming laps!).

Branton and Bauer (and Tucker) are good little buddies.

After we ate, it was ferris wheel time. Not part of the free rides, but definitely a fun, new experience for Bauer.

After the rides, we let the boys do one game each, the one where you pick a rubber duckie from a pool of water and the duck either has an S or an L on the bottom for Small or Large prize. Both of them got S’s but it’s good they did, because I know the Silly Bands (a small prize) were what they both wanted more than any of the other prizes.

As we were walking home after Ribfest, Bauer asked if we could stop and get ice cream like we did last year. He remembers going to the gelati place in downtown Naperville with the friends who we went to Ribfest with last year (different friends than this year). It was crazy that Bauer brought this up after a year had gone by, but he was right! So we thought it would be fun to continue the tradition.

Here is last year’s picture:

And here is this year’s picture:

I actually put this year’s picture in the R section of Bauer’s alphabet book and called it “Rice” Cream since that is how Bauer says ice cream. I had to explain to him why I was putting it in as an R picture so as not to confuse him since I had previously explained to him that ice cream starts with I.

Also for R, we read a couple good books:

and made a couple cute robots:

For S, we read 3 terrific books, all highly recommended if you are looking for good children’s books in general. Swimmy is one of those that just lights up yours and your kid’s face the first time you read it.

We also planted Sunflower Seeds in a fold-your-own paper pot that came with a Wal-Mart gift card I bought ages ago. I hope they will grow! It takes 6-8 weeks, which Bauer really has no concept of, but he enjoyed digging up some dirt from our garden to put in the little pot.

Another fun S thing we did was build a Sandcastle from a mixture of sand, cornstarch, and alum. Here’s the recipe if you’re interested. It was kind of like making something out of Playdough. After a week the sandcastle will be completely dry and hardened so we can keep it for a good while (but not forever, as Bauer would hope).

S is also for Swim Lessons, which Bauer really enjoyed. I know I already posted a few pictures in an earlier post, but TJ took a few more great ones on Bauer’s last day.

Gotta buckle my life-vest.

I love my goggles!

Gettin’ in the water.

Working on floating and kicking.

High-fiving the teacher.

Bauer’s group joined up with another group for some kind of circle game in the water. First Bauer watches:

Then he takes a turn in the middle:

He’s a brave boy.

And he loves going under.

The lessons are all done now and Bauer gets a lift out of the water.

Treats await the kids.

And Bauer gets his Starfish Swimming School Achievement Book.

And now back to my mom’s visit since I never quite finished telling what we did. On Sunday morning we went to Centennial Beach right when it opened at 11 and were there for a couple hours. Cash got sunscreen in his eyes near the beginning so that was a bit traumatic for him, but we survived. Once I stuck him in the shower to clean him off, put his clothes back on him, and got him distracted by Bauer’s Silly Bands, he was all set to hang on the blanket with Gigi.

Bauer had a great time in the water jumping off TJ’s shoulders.

And then I taught Bauer that game called Categories. I picked the category, like Colors or Fruit, and then he had to guess what I was thinking. Each time he guessed wrong, I dunked him under and when he got it right, I flipped him over backwards. He loved it!

I like this picture of the three of us in a row.

As you can see, the beach was a popular place to be on the 4th!

We wrapped up the day (and Gigi’s visit) with the fireworks display in downtown Naperville, but I don’t have any pictures to show of that. I’m sure you saw your own fireworks and felt the same feelings of wonder and joy that we did. Hope you didn’t get as many mosquito bites as we did though!

This morning, Nadia Bloom was found alive! We knew her family when we lived in Orlando and had been following the story since we learned of her disappearance on Friday evening.

Bauer and I spent over an hour watching the live news coverage of her rescue online this morning. I was doing other things as we watched but Bauer was pretty intent on watching until they brought her out. He never passes up the chance to watch any kind of video. Cash was having rest time in his crib, and just as the news reporter said that the team bringing Nadia out of the dense woods was 100-200 meters away, Cash started crying. Not just a whimper, or I would have left him a bit longer. He was clearly agitated, so I went to quickly get him to bring him out with me and Bauer, only to find Cash pantless and diaperless, with a pile of poop in his crib and him holding his poopy foot up in the air like it was bothering him.

At the very same instant as I was discovering the poopy mess, and wanting to get back to the computer as soon as possible, the timer in the kitchen went off the brownies I was baking for a friend today. I already had Cash in my arms, trying not to let him touch me with the poop foot, trying to decide what to do to clean him up, trying to hear what they were saying on the news coverage about Nadia, trying to figure out how to get my brownies out of the oven. I ended up letting Cash walk around naked for a few minutes while I got everything sorted out. Yeah, that was pretty much our morning.

But I cannot complain because Nadia is alive and back with her family! I really am so thankful to God about the good ending to this story.

A few pictures from last week:

I had a Free Adult Admission and a Buy One Get One Free for the kids so we went to the children’s museum one afternoon last week for about an hour and a half. We could have stayed longer but it was almost dinnertime and I thought they closed at 5 anyway, although I found out they stay open till 8pm on Fridays. This was Bauer’s favorite thing there – building a house, of course!

Another building project for Bauer was taking this pile of Legos….

and making this little truck and trailer with boat all by himself. He did look at the directions but I didn’t help him at all. I find it pretty amazing what 4 year olds can do.

Did you notice Bauer’s smile in the above pictures? It’s still his underbite smile due to his loose tooth. This particular morning, Bauer said he couldn’t eat his cereal and toast that he first said he wanted, so I told him I’d fix him a bowl of soft fruit. I asked what kind of fruit he wanted and he said he wanted every fruit in our house. So he got bananas, oranges, apples, grapes, pineapple, and strawberries. He said he wanted the most grapes and grapes are the one thing of all the fruit that he chose not to eat. Why are kids like that?

This was from one of our several recent visits to a nearby park. Cash has a fondness for the ride-on bumblebee. And he needs a haircut. Thankfully, TJ took him yesterday morning for the haircut but I haven’t taken any pictures of him since then. I guess a picture of the poop mishap this morning would have been funny now that all the drama has passed.

First, check out the new quote I posted on the Books page. I just finished reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls this afternoon. I really want my sister to read it so I think I will mail it to her to read next. It was one of the most interesting and unbelievable stories I have ever read.

After we returned from being out of town, I had no choice but to take the kids grocery-shopping with me the following day. I usually go to Meijer by myself on Mondays when TJ has the day off, but we got back from vacation on a Tuesday night and I knew I couldn’t wait until the following Monday, or even the weekend, to go. So off we went.

I let Bauer and Cash ride the free horse ride inside Meijer after we bought our groceries. Can you tell it was Saint Patrick’s Day?

I participated in Miss Amy KR’s most recent mission on the WBEZ Vocalo blog. It was posted on the Monday when we were out of town, but we got back home in plenty of time for me to participate. We went nowhere fast together.

In other words, my friend Jaime and I took the Metra from the downtown Naperville train station to Union Station in downtown Chicago. Then we walked to the “L” and got on the Brown Line to Belmont. We then used my iPhone to find the nearest Starbucks so we could bring our own coffee, as the mission stated to do.

Doughnuts were provided by Amy and crew. This is Amy’s producer Justin holding the doughnuts. I put in my request for a cake doughnut, and that’s what I got!

After getting our coffee, Jaime and I walked back to the Belmont “L” stop to meet up with everyone who was participating in the mission. There were probably 50-60 people there and we all climbed aboard the front car of the train. We literally went nowhere, just rode the train from Belmont, down to the Loop, and around back up to Belmont. Probably a 45 minute train ride with a bunch of strangers who were all the nicest people, just excited to be together and be with Amy.

On the train ride, Amy asked us to think about one question: Where will we go from here?

Do you want to go to the park? she said. Do you want to go home? Do you want to go visit a friend? Do you want to go on to be a rock star? Are you gonna go with your gut?

I knew my answer immediately. The whole process of me getting there, to participate in the mission that morning, had been such a struggle. The weather forecast was predicting a rain/snow mix and wind for Saturday, so that was my first big deterrent to going. Also I was just unsure I wanted to go. I mean, my heart was wanting to go, but when have I ever lived out of my heart? I had gotten so excited upon first learning about the mission when were out of town on the previous Monday, that I said to TJ right away that I wanted to do it. But after having a week to think about all the reasons why not to go, I had convinced myself I didn’t want to. I didn’t completely know what to expect, for one thing. I knew we were supposed to meet Amy at the Belmont stop at 9:45, but I didn’t know where we’d go (to which TJ responded, But that’s the whole point!), how long it would last, how many people would be there, or whether Jaime and I would actually find our way around on our own as neither she nor I had ever taken the “L” before. I was in tears on the night before the big day. I felt a lot of anxiety about going and kept telling TJ I didn’t know why he was trying to convince/encourage/push me to go when I didn’t even really want to go. He reminded me of how I’d felt when I’d first read this week’s mission, and also encouraged me to think about if I’d read the mission while living in Orlando, how I’d have said to him that I wanted to buy a plane ticket for a quick weekend trip to Chicago so I could participate. I knew he was right, but I still didn’t know how to not feel like I was out of control if I decided to go. I slept fitfully that night, but woke up ready to go on Saturday morning. I knew I had pushed through the hardest part of the experience, just getting myself mentally psyched that I would go and not have to be in control of what would happen.

What a wonderful experience it turned out to be! Of course, TJ knew this would happen, which is why he pushed me to go. Jaime and I enjoyed talking all morning and we found our way everywhere just fine. The CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) App for my iPhone was so helpful, as was the lady working at the “L” station. She gave us tips and advice on how to get where we needed to go and back, and save money in the process. I had noticed she had an open Bible on her desk and we later found out she works as a pastor in addition to her job with the CTA.

It was great meeting Amy (even though my picture turned out blurry) and being a part of something that she likes to call a “shared experience.” It truly was cool to see all the people along for the ride, people of all different ages, with all different aspirations and all kinds of reasons for being there that day.

Our final assignment from Amy before departing the train was to take a piece of chalk from the boxes she passed around and as we continued our day, to take the time to write a message somewhere for someone to see. Our message could be anything we wanted to share with the world, but it only seemed appropriate to me to write what I had learned that day.

Here’s a picture of the rest of our groceries for this week. I usually go to Meijer once a week and Trader Joe’s once a week, and then fill in every now and then with a few things from Whole Foods, Target, and Michael’s Fresh Market.

Here’s a list of what I got at Trader Joe’s and some notes of explanation:

-Orange Juice with Calcium – We have never been an OJ-drinking family until very recently. TJ used to get sick anytime he would drink orange juice, and I only associated orange juice with having a cold and needing to get extra Vitamin C. But lately TJ has discovered he can drink OJ just fine and now he really likes mixing it with the Peach Juice from Trader Joe’s. Cash and Bauer will have a cup of OJ every now and then, but I still don’t really ever drink it. I just buy it.
-Organic Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup (regular version)
-Organic Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup (low-sodium version) – I like to mix the 2 versions of this soup together so it’s neither too salty nor too bland, but what I’d like even more is to make my own dairy-free version of this type of soup. I have a recipe that looks good but haven’t attempted it yet.
-Raw pecan halves – I haven’t bought these before, but plan to use them to make my own version of the Pecan Pie Larabars.
-Kalamata olives – I haven’t bought these before either. I guess you could say this was an impulse purchase today, but I really like kalamata olives and thought these would be something good to let the kids try. I enjoyed having the olives on my hummus and veggie pita today for lunch. Both Bauer and Cash tried them and neither reached for a second
-2 containers organic hummus – I used to buy the regular (non-organic) hummus from Trader Joe’s, but they stopped carrying it in the small size. I had started buying the larger size of the non-organic, but we kept having to throw out partially-used containers because it would start to go bad before we had eaten the whole thing. So I figure it’s cheaper to spend a little more on the organic small one and use it up, than to buy the larger non-organic and have to throw some away. I was making my own hummus for a very little while, but could never get it good enough that Bauer would happily eat it. I may try again in the future. I still have some frozen chickpeas in the freezer.
-Whole wheat pita pockets – I usually buy the smaller ones, but today they were out of those. They taste the same, of course, and made a delicious lunch today.
-Flour tortillas and whole wheat tortillas - I’ll use these tomorrow night for making Super-Stuffed Tortillas, which have quickly become one of our family’s favorite recipes!
-Organic Reduced-Sugar Blackberry Preserves – This was another brand-new item for us today. We usually buy the strawberry version of this but Bauer saw the other kinds today and wanted to try blueberry. I convinced him to get blackberry just because I thought it sounded better and I know he likes fresh blackberries a lot.
-Organic Raisins – Bauer eats raisins nearly every night as part of his bedtime snack while we read books. It’s usually a banana and a little container of raisins.
-Brown Rice Bread – We mostly use this for making toast to go along with certain meals such as spaghetti.
-Grape Tomatoes – I love these! And Cash is quite fond of them too. Trader Joe’s is the cheapest place I know to get good tiny tomatoes.
-Snow Peas - Bauer is the one who loves these. They are the veggies he always picks first from the veggie tray.

We also got our usual balloons from Trader Joe’s, but today Bauer was lucky enough to get 2!

Note the Lego booklet in Bauer’s hand and his toothless grin.

My little man, Cash, loves playing with the little men from the Lego sets we have. He will walk around holding them in his hand for a long time. I have to pry them out of his little paws when it’s his naptime, but then I distract him by letting him flip the light switch on and off a couple times and he forgets that he was upset. Works like a charm every time.

We had a great time on Saturday morning attending the birthday party of one of Bauer’s friends. We all met at the fire station in Oswego and took an hour long tour, which included lots of free time for the kids to climb and explore the big fire trucks. Then we went to Portillo’s for lunch, where Bauer truly enjoyed having some meat (and french fries). After the party, Bauer kept exclaiming how that was the best time he’d ever had. I think it was one of the highlights of his life so far. You should have seen how his face lit up when he first climbed aboard the vintage fire truck in the lobby. It only got better from there. You’ll see what I mean when you take a look at the following pictures.

Did you notice Bauer’s and Cash’s Vancouver 2010 shirts they were wearing that day? Nana and Papa got those for them for Christmas and we thought they’d be especially appropriate on Saturday since that is when the Olympics started. We (especially TJ) are enjoying the Olympics a lot so far. The Olympics holds a special place in TJ’s heart since he was in the opening ceremonies of the ‘88 Calgary Olympics. He said he still has the electric blue costume to prove it! I have yet to see it, but I have seen the up close footage of him performing his part in the opening ceremonies. So I can vouch for the story. He’s just now telling me he is going to put up the video of him on the blog. So stay tuned for that!

You may also have noticed that yes, I’m eating a Portillo’s Italian beef sandwich in those last couple of pictures above. Yum, yum! I just couldn’t think about whether those cows had happy lives or not (you’ll know what I mean if you have seen the movie Food Inc). I just had to go for it and enjoy it this time. The Oreo dirt cake with gummy worms was pretty good too!

Legos are the all the rage around our house lately. Or as TJ would say, Lego. I always called them Legos – did anyone else?

Bauer has also been pretty excited lately about putting on his Kenny Chesney outfit: jeans, button-up shirt, cowboy boots, and cowboy hat. No pictures of that, but here’s Cash trying on the garb.

TJ has gone skiing today to Devil’s Head in Wisconsin with his buddy John, so it’s just been me and the boys around here. I had planned for us to get back to church today (we have missed a lot this month due to various sicknesses), but yet again we couldn’t go. Cash was running a fever of 103.8 last night and was just not himself at all yesterday. He is a lot better today but I still didn’t want to put him in the Toddler room at church. I am not feeling well myself, in fact (go figure, with all the sickness I’ve been around). It’s a head cold and it’s gettin’ old. I feel like if I could go outside and breathe in some of that fresh cold air, it would really feel nice about now.

We ran out of facial tissues unfortunately so we really needed to make a trip out this morning. The roll of toilet paper just wasn’t cutting it for all the blowing we were having to do around here. So I took the boys out for a couple small errands and we bought 12 boxes of Puffs at Target (we are not fans of the Kleenex brand, which is why I said facial tissues above), along with some Dove Dark Chocolates, sponges for the dish scrubber wand thingy, 12 oz blackberries on sale for $2.99, and a few avocados for a buck a piece.  Isn’t it fun to know what’s in someone else’s shopping cart, besides 2 little boys?

Lots of pictures and lots to blog about. More to come in the next few days. I must do it in stages.

The week before Christmas, Bauer had a little Christmas sing-a-long program at his Parents Day Out. He didn’t do much singing along, but he and Cash sure did look cute in their matching sweaters. I love how they are looking in opposite directions.

Also the week before Christmas, Bauer got really into his Geo-Trax stuff again. He hadn’t played with it in months so it was very entertaining for him and even for TJ. Shown here are two amazing tracks these two amazing guys built.

The Sunday afternoon before Christmas, we went back to work on the Christmas Stocking Project. Bauer’s job was pushing the pedal.

TJ was the man with the plan, and he did a great job figuring out where to do the stitching of the white cuffs to the red stockings to make it all turn out right.

When it was my turn to do some of the sewing, I told Bauer he had to find something else to occupy him besides the pedal-pushing. I was afraid he’d go too fast for me. TJ said I did just fine.

Cash got in on the action, and was as happy as a lark with that orange Sharpie in hand.

You thought the next picture would be the finished stockings, but alas, they still didn’t have our names on them yet. That would be closer to Christmas before getting done. Stay tuned….In the meantime, TJ and I got away to downtown Chicago for the night of the 22nd to celebrate our 9th anniversary. The kids did great with our amazing babysitter, and we had a nice time taking the train, walking around the city, having dinner at Bandera, seeing the movie “Up In The Air,” and doing some shopping.

TJ asked me the other day how many PINK shirts I have now? He wasn’t referring to the color pink, but to my PINK by Victoria’s Secret line.

“Not enough,” I said.

The real answer is 6.

I just got a new one for $6.50 with a coupon. It is one of my favorites. I am wearing it today.

Here are my other 5.

On Saturday I found it in me to do a little project with Bauer. I had been wanting to attempt to make playdough again. The first time we tried a few months back, it didn’t work so well. For one thing, I didn’t have the right kind of salt. I ended up using my nice Real Salt, and I think that is one reason it didn’t work because the granules are so big. I bought the “when it rains, it pours” kind, plus I used a different recipe, and this time it worked much better. Bauer could hardly wait for the chance to put in the food colorings.

Also on Saturday, we walked (and Bauer rode his bike) downtown for lunch. I really love Pot Belly Sandwich Works again. I used to crave it all the time when I was pregnant with Cash. I am not pregnant now, but the reason I like Pot Belly now is because they have cole slaw to go on the sandwiches. That is what I like so much about Which Wich, too. Cole slaw really completes a veggie sandwich. TJ is in full agreement.

We got our lunch from Pot Belly and found a nice grassy sunny spot to sit and eat on our picnic blanket. After lunch was Bauer’s usual time to play rough. I was glad we had his bike along because he really enjoyed riding it up and down the pavement by the big fountain. Cash was walking all around and was almost run over by Bauer only once. We got a few good family pictures before we had to walk back home.

We already realized that the chores we picked for Bauer last week aren’t going to work out that well, mainly the setting the table and helping clear the table. Not that he can’t do those, but it’s really more inconvenient for me than anything else to have to pull him away from being entertained by TJ and Cash while I’m in the kitchen preparing our meals. It just works a lot better for me to set the table as I’m getting the meal fixed and clearing the table is often a gradual process that I hate to rush him to do until I’m ready to have all the stuff brought into our small kitchen. Anyway, TJ and I decided we are going to just have setting and helping clear the table be chores that we will expect of Bauer anytime we ask, as opposed to being a chore for his allowance. That way, I can ask him to do it when it would actually help me out, as opposed to making it even harder to get everything on the table. Not sure if this makes sense, but you’ll have to trust me.

So this week, Bauer’s chore chart is as follows:
1. Put away laundry – 3x
2. Vacuum floor (using the dustbuster, mainly around the dining room table) – 2x
3. Put away silverware – 2x
4. Wash mirror

We’ll see how that works out.

The way I worked out yesterday was to run the New Thing 5K that our church put on. It was a chilly morning but nice and sunny. TJ walked around with the kids in the stroller during the race, and he also took some official pictures and video footage. It was a fun thing to do as a family. We got to hang out with a few of our friends after the race so that was fun. I surprised myself by running the 3.1 miles in 24:14. I actually won 1st place in my age group, but I got a lot more excited about the 30 bananas I got to bring home after the race than the medal.

30 because I’m 30.

I did not in fact count them when I was filling up my box with some of the leftover bananas and oranges that were for the runners. But I liked that when I counted them, there were 30.

Bauer is always saying “4 because I’m 4.”

Bauer is also always playing Monopoly Junior these days. Well, just for the past 2 days, since TJ bought him the game at a garage sale. It seems like a great game for his age. I haven’t played it yet, but I am actually looking forward to trying it out with Bauer.

I am also looking forward to going to bed early tonight (I’m fighting off a sore throat) – getting in bed and reading my book The Help. It has been a busy but good last few days and I’m looking forward to some downtime.