Milwaukee Vacation: The Third Ward

Everyone told us, "If you go to Milwaukee, you have to see the third ward." So we did. I have to say I liked this part of Milwaukee best. It's located along the river, and has lots of interesting stores and restaurants.

 

The Milwaukee Public Market was amazing. I really wish there was something similar in the Chicago Suburbs. Basically it's a huge open building with food related vendors.

There was a spice shop, a wine shop, a fancy cheese place, a candy shop, a bakery, and a fresh flower shop.

We decided to try the seafood vendor for lunch, and they had an awesome lobster lunch.

Nothing like lobster dipped in melted butter to make an afternoon special.

I think I would go to the public market everyday if there was one around my house. I loved the chocolate shop. I think my favorite thing were the dark chocolate sea salt caramels. (Yum!)

After lunch, we went on a boat tour of the Milwaukee River and part of Lake Michigan. Though it was a cloudy day, we still got great views of the city, and learned about the architecture and history as well.

See the bridge in the picture above? Some of the bridges in Milwaukee actually raise up like that, almost like they are on stilts. That's how the boats can fit underneath.

The boat tour was really interesting, and also relaxing. We had a few drinks and sat up on the deck, watching the city and enjoying our freedom.

Milwaukee really reminded me of Chicago in many ways. It was, however, much smaller and easier to navigate. I recently got a new smartphone, an HTC Merge, and it has a GPS as well as Internet access. So we were able to look up any place in Milwaukee, figure out which places were closest, and choose that way. For example, Greg wanted to find a bookstore, so I found him one, complete with resident kitties.

Garden Update and a Dark, Handsome Visitor

I haven't posted in awhile as to the state of my garden. Thank goodness my plants seem to thrive on neglect, because I was gone for a few days in Chicago, and then it was too hot to go outside most of last week. I was outside on Friday, watering the plants (and Nick) with the hose, and I got some nice surprises. Let's start with the front porch. I planted way too many seeds, and thus I have extra tomato plants living here. I believe these are yellow pear tomatoes, or they will be when they're ripe. I bought both Roma and Yellow Pear tomato seeds from the seed saver's exchange, but most of the Roma tomatoes succumbed to either bugs or too much rain. Nature at work, I guess. I love this picture because of the angle. Greg's new camera rocks. You can see my sedum growing in the background, as well as my salvia.

Everything in the actual garden is bigger and greener, except for the carrots, most of which were eaten to the dirt by my bunny "friends." All of the empty spots in the garden were originally either carrots or spinach, and they disappeared due to rabbit reasons. I do have a few carrots left, at least for now.

I think you can see my peppers, basil, tomatoes, and broccoli from here. No flowers on the broccoli yet, but the tomatoes are doing well, and I have enough basil to last literally all year. Oh, and yes, I know that i planted the broccoli too close together. Live and learn. I'll do better next year. I just hope I'll get some broccoli this year. My peppers haven't made any peppers. Actually, I saw a baby one a few weeks ago, but it "mysteriously" disappeared. It was those bastard bunnies, I'm sure.

Here's what I think must be a Bushy Cucumber. Either that or it's some weird alien vegetable.

Oh, look at what's growing. It's. . . oh, it's junk leftover from the fireworks last week. Argh! I've picked up at least ten separate pieces of fireworks debris, and I'm sure there's more. I caught Nick playing with another one of these earlier today. Hopefully they're not harmful.

I love this picture because it catches the blackberries and the sunset at the same time. They're not ripe yet, but they are looking good. The raspberries, unfortunately, are not making raspberries. Just leaves. Sigh.

And here we have. . . (drumroll please) the first tomato of the season! It is a Roma, so at least one of the Roma tomato plants must've survived. It was small but delicious, and I hope that more are to come.

This evening, I had a dark, handsome visitor to my strawberry/catnip patch. He comes from next door and enjoys the ambiance of the mini-garden. I've let this part of my garden go, since the strawberries are done strawberrying, and I mainly just pluck catnip leaves for my cats, who are addicted. So this patch is filled with weeds and tons of flowering catnip. And one happy pussycat.

Here, Kitty-Kitty. . .

This is Molly. She is a 9-year old mixed-breed cat, and she has a thing for Nick. Our other cats are afraid of him, but she actively seeks him out. The feeling is mutual, as you can see above.

I got Molly in 2001 when she was a tiny little thing. She's always been the most vocal cat, and her personality is more human than cat. Molly makes all kinds of noises, and is especially attached to men, although she tolerates me. With four males in the house (two human and two feline), Molly and I are the only girls around. She genuinely believes she is in charge, and it is seldom that anyone argues with that. Our two other cats know that she's the one in charge, and they accept her dominance.

When Nicholas starts crying, Molly will go to him and yowl at us as if to say, "Do something about it!" I'm not sure if she does this out of love or because she can't stand the sound of his crying. She'll try to comfort him, too, by nuzzling him with her chin. A couple of days ago she sat under his high chair and he threw her pieces of roast beef. I was thinking maybe he didn't like roast beef, but then I fed it to him today and he liked it just fine. Babies are fickle, I guess.

Nick likes to show his affection for Molly with big hugs. Unfortunately, he often tackles her to the ground with these hugs. Other cats would run away, but Molly stands her ground and refuses to leave, even after having her ears pulled or her fur yanked. Molly's patience has increased in recent months, and she mostly just growls until Greg or I come and peel him off of her. It's not surprising that one of his first words is "Kitty." When I gave Nick a bath this morning, Molly sat on the toilet lid and watched, intrigued as to why someone would want to be sitting in all that water.

There was lots of time for cat-human interaction this weekend. Today we stayed home and relaxed, and the cats got plenty of exercise while running from Nick. It must be something about winter, but I never feel like doing much around this time of year. I'd rather just stay inside and dream of warmer days.

Funnel Cakes, Sign Language, and Grandparents Galore

On Sunday, Greg and I took Nick to Septemberfest in Schaumburg. My grandmother lives bordering the park district grounds, and I've gone every year that I can remember. They have a craft show, a carnival, and music. All I bought was a barrette, but it was nice looking around at all of the crafters and artists.

Nick loved crawling around my grandma's super-plush carpeting. Our house has mostly hardwood floors, and Nick absolutely loved the cushiness under his little knees.

Nick got to try his first funnel cake at the fair. No, we didn't give him a whole one. Actually, my mom, my sister, Nick, Greg, my grandma, and I all split one funnel cake. (The thing still enough sugar in it to last a week!)

He seemed to like it. You can see him using the sign for "milk" with his right hand. Nick has only picked up this one sign so far, and he's actually generalized it to mean "I want." He makes that sign when he wants milk, food, or more sugary fried goodness. To make the sign for milk, you just open and close your hand as if you were milking a cow. After munching on a funnel cake, I can see why he wanted a drink of milk!

Nick's grandpa got to play with him while we were all visiting. It's a good thing there were so many adults around, because Nick was bound and determined to crawl into something and cause himself bodily harm.

Nick is in only his diaper because he makes a huge mess when he eats. My grandma doesn't have a high chair, so we put him down on a blanket and stripped him. Finger food is developmentally appropriate, but horribly messy. Nude babies are easier to clean.

My mom has been making these cool hats, and we put one on Nick's head, just to see what he would do. Well, he takes hats off, and then plays with them. My sister, by the way, is responsible for most of today's photographs. She can make a picture look good, whereas I make photos look as if a 5-year-old took them.

It was an incredibly busy weekend, and there wasn't a minute to take a breath. I think I need a vacation day just to recover from this weekend!
Nick sure enjoyed himself, though, especially all of the new foods he got to eat. Here he is with his grandpa, after a bite of a chocolate eclair. Do you think maybe he liked it?

I swear, though, my kid eats very healthy. Special treats only happen on the weekends, and we try not to let him have more than a bite or two. Today he ate vegetable risotto, tuna with peas, green beans and brown rice, and sliced peaches.

Notice him again using the sign for "milk." It's pretty neat how he picked that up. Our babysitter uses that sign, but her two-year-old twins use it all the time, and that's where we think he learned it. We are trying now to teach him more sign.

We've also noticed that Nick signs with his right hand, and uses his left hand to eat and grasp toys. We're not sure yet if that means he'll be left handed, or if he's just ambidextrous now.

Below I'm posting a video of Nick chattering away and eating some finger foods. At the end of the video, he decides he wants his milk. You can see him making the sign for milk furiously. He does it faster and faster until he gets his drink. Molly, the cat you see in the video, has started hanging around Nick's high chair. She's realized that food sometimes spontaneously falls from it, so she watches him eat and lies in wait. No wonder she isn't losing weight on her kitty diet food. :)