Swingin' and Dancin'

Greg found our baby swing in the basement this morning. We have the deluxe version. It has a mobile, a vibrating seat, and multiple swing speeds. It plays classical music, nature sounds, white noise, or a mother's heartbeat. Henry is very cool with the swing.

It was way too hot to take the kids outside today. It was 96 degrees and humid, with a heat index well over 100. We had to find other ways to entertain the boys. For Henry, the swing was enough.

He looks so little buckled into the swing. Nick was even smaller, but he outgrew the swing in just a few months. It's crazy to think Henry will be too big for this swing, probably before the year is out.

My younger son has the strangest facial expressions. He's a very serious baby, but sometimes his expression almost seems to be mocking us. Is this perhaps a sneer?

Poor Nick didn't get to swing today. No park for him--we didn't want anyone to overheat. Nick goes nuts when he can't run around outside. He was generally well-behaved today, but it was clear that he was ready to explode with energy, much like the illegal fireworks our neighbors procure and use improperly every July.

Observe his energy, and you will feel exhausted just from watching.

I'm not sure if you can hear it in the background, but Nick has his little drum playing music in the background. Lately, he likes to set this toy to "Spanish" and attempt to copy their words. That is the gibberish you hear him saying as he frantically dances and spins. Oh, and lest you think that this was a momentary burst of energy, please know that Nick danced like this for nearly 45 minutes.

Nick is not the only one who got some exercise today. Henry was practicing his baby push-ups. He can stay up for longer and longer periods, and he always wants to look into my eyes.

Greg thinks his eyes will be green. As he grows, though, I'm thinking Henry will have blue eyes, even though his daddy says it isn't fair that both of our kids have my eyes. I suppose time will tell.

He is definitely getting stronger. I've been giving Henry lots of tummy time to practice. 



Keeping Cool

Nick adapted pretty well to his new schedule. In fact, I think he is happier during the school year, because he has more to do. When I picked him up from his babysitter's house on both Wednesday and Thursday, he threw royal temper tantrums because he didn't want to leave. He was having too much fun with the other kids! It makes me feel good to know that Nick doesn't mind being away from me. I loved my summer break, but we'll be just fine now that school has started. Honestly, I think the time we have together in the evenings is more special when I've been working all day.

This year, our schedule will be a little different because Nick's Grandma Toni will be taking care of him two days of each week. When I told Nick she was coming, he ran to the window, shouting "Toni! Toni! Toni!" So I think he'll enjoy his time with his grandma. It's really nice that they'll get to be so close. Last week she took Nick on a nature walk and read him about a million stories. These pictures are all from this week. :)

I guess I don't mind going back to school so much. In fact, I always get excited at the beginning of the year. I am one of the few lucky people in this world who really loves work, at least most of the time. In my opinion, I have the best job in the world, and I get a lot of satisfaction from working with my students.

What I'm not enjoying is the heat. My school doesn't have air conditioning, and lately the heat has really been stifling. Hopefully the heat and humidity won't last too much longer, because we were pretty much melting all day yesterday.

Today, we stayed inside until it was almost dark and then took a walk, in order to avoid the heat. It was nice walking around in the twilight, with Nick running ahead of us in his squeaky shoes. Lately he likes to say hello and goodbye to animals and things. For example, he'd say "Hello moon!" and then when we walked away, "Bye-Bye Moon." He did that for bunnies, cats, and even cars we saw as we walked down our street.

Wordless Wednesday: Captions Please!

Naper Settlement, Complete with Heat and Mosquitoes

Last summer, we had planned to take my mother in law to Naper Settlement. It kept raining everyday we planned to go. So this year we tried again, and yup, it rained. Thankfully the rain was done by the time we got to the parking lot, but the humidity was still there, and the air was heavy. Too bad the early settlers of Naperville didn't have air conditioning.  ;)  The temperature and humidity were really bad on Sunday, and we were covered in sweat within three minutes of being outside. This summer has been really bad, at least as heat goes.

Nick loved walking the paths, although he didn't necessarily want to go the way we wanted to go. I love the expression on Grandma Toni's face in the above picture. Nick always seems to take three times as long to walk to any given destination, even though he practically runs everywhere.



















Anyway, Naper Settlement was just lovely, despite the crushing humidity. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Naper Settlement is a living history place where you can learn about the early settlers in this part of Illinois. I'm a history buff, and I really enjoyed this visit. My minor in college was actually history, and social studies is always one of my favorite subjects to teach.

I think my favorite part was the tour of the Martin Mitchell mansion, and the stories of the strong women who lived there. I did feel bad for the people dressed in historical costumes in 90 plus degree heat, though.We want to go back and visit Naper Settlement again, on a less humid day, because we didn't get to see all of the buildings. They have limited hours on Sundays, and we figured a few hours would be enough. It wasn't. This place is gorgeous, and the grounds are meticulously kept. The beautiful sunflowers in the picture from yesterday's post (with Nick and Greg) are from the grounds of Naper Settlement. Check out the giant garden below. I asked Greg if I could have a garden that big, and he said sure, because it'd be less grass to mow. I was just kidding, though. It looks like a lot of work.

Actually, visiting Naper Settlement reminded me of when my mom and my sister and I used to volunteer at Kline Creek Farm in West Chicago, back in the early 1990s. We dressed in those heavy petticoats and bonnets and worked in the chicken coops and the kitchen and on the grounds. Cleaning out the chicken coops was my least favorite job. My mom actually worked the old wood stove in the kitchen, and I remember leading tours in the dining room around Christmastime one year.

Volunteering was kind of fun, and got me into history. But I remember how uncomfortable those dresses were. I'm on the left in the picture above, standing with my mom. I was probably in junior high, which is why my bangs look so hideous. They were long because I usually wore them sprayed four inches into the air. When in costume, we had to wear our hair traditionally. I remember that the chickens were really mean, and I was glad when they killed them for a chicken dinner.

Nick really enjoyed walking around the grounds of this place, because there were no cars and he could roam free. The only issue we had, other than the heat, was the mosquito problem. Has anyone else noticed that there are more mosquitoes around than ever before? I can currently count at least twenty four mosquito bites on my body. The little buggers tend to prefer me, and I believe it has to do with insulin resistance (IR). My body is a feast for mosquitoes. Sigh.

I'll end with one final picture--this is Nick with his Grandma Toni at Heaven on Seven, a restaurant we go to quite often in Downtown Naperville. We went there after our trip, and had a delicious dinner while we cooled off.

An Afternoon of Onomatopoeia at the Zoo

Tuesday, after summer school, Nick and I went with my friend Gardenmom and her son to Brookfield Zoo on a very hot and humid day. Gardenmom did a post about our visit too, if click here. Nick was having tummy trouble and nap issues, but I think he enjoyed himself anyway. The afternoon did not start out well, and Nick screamed more than he was quiet. Note his expression of toddler attitude and the binky in his mouth. He usually isn't allowed to have the bink unless it's naptime, but this week Nick was such a crab I broke the rules so he wouldn't drive us completely insane.

After a leisurely tour around the zoo on the tram, which Nick called the "Choo-Choo," (Close enough. Hey, he's only 1.) we checked out the Australia house and the camels. That's where the onomatopoeia comes in. Lately, Nick has been trying to learn the names and sounds of different animals. He has a tiny stuffed zebra he likes to carry around, and he calls it "Moo." Usually, I'd correct him, but heck, I don't know what sound a zebra makes. Predictably, Nick said "Moo," for the zebras and for these camels he was pointing at so eagerly.

Nick saw the elephants and immediately started stomping his feet. In one of his favorite books, Wacky Wild Peekaboo, by Tim Bugbird, the elephant makes a stomping noise. Nick has done that everytime he's seen a real or fake elephant since last winter. When Nick got to the giraffes, he just wasn't sure what to think. We don't know what sound a giraffe makes, but the one in his story says, "Munch, Munch, Munch," as he's eating leaves from the treetops. Nick just looked, mesmerized, at these huge animals. They were beautiful.

We went in to my favorite exhibit, The Living Coast, to see the fish and the penguins and the arctic birds. If you've never been to this exhibit, you should totally see it. There's this neat wave that goes overhead every 30 seconds, and you can feel the salt spray on your face and look straight into the glass. It makes me jump everytime. I even got some video. First, I took video standing in front of the wave area, looking up at the glass blocking the wave. Here is what the wave looks like:

I also took video of Nick's reaction to the wave. This video is from his 2nd or 3rd time seeing the wave, and he was really liking it by that point. He wanted to see it "Again! More Water!" My boy really loves the water. One of these days I'm going to have to take him to a real beach.  

Nick liked the birds flying overhead in the penguin exhibit and kept pointing up and saying, "Birdie!" and "Tweet!" At one point he looked like he might be trying to waddle like a penguin, but he might've just been dancing with excitement. He was truly stoked to see the flying birds and the penguins, too.

This penguin was a total ham and was showing off for all of us. See him in the window of the fake boat?

He was pressing himself right up against the glass and when Gardenmom's son moved his finger, this gregarious bird would move his beak back and forth. The penguin even posed for this picture. My friend said that it was like this penguin was telling his buddies, "Hey, man, look at all of these crazy people. They're coming right up to the glass." It was kind of like we were the exhibit, and the entertainment for the penguins. The animals were very active during this day, and I saw more animals up close than I usually do at Brookfield. We saw a polar bear totally hamming it up for the crowd. He was playing in the water and you could totally see his cute polar bear toes kicking around. I didn't get a picture of that, but Nick was able to easily recognize a "bear!"

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Last Saturday we took Nick out for Mexican Food, and he really enjoyed it. I'll write more about it tomorrow, but for now, enjoy Nick sharing his new word. He definitely knows what "hot!" means.  : )

I've been trying to catch Nick talking on camera for some time now, since he started talking more. He tends to stop talking when he sees that I've got the camera out. But not this time!

Tomorrow I'll show pictures of him playing peek-a-boo with his tortilla.

The Naperville Farmers' Market

Every week this summer, Greg and I have tried to take Nick to one of the local farmers' markets. This week we went back to Naperville for one of our favorite ones. The Naperville Farmers' Market is in the parking lot for the 5th Avenue Train Station, and runs on Saturdays from 7 a.m. until 12 p.m. Our biggest complaint is that it ends at noon.

Some of them have plenty of vendors but few farmers, but this one seemed to have plenty of produce as well as other kinds of food. They must have strict criteria for vendors, because we didn't see any wacky stuff for sale, only the traditional farmers' market stuff: produce, herbs, fresh flowers, meat, seafood, cheeses, baked goods, and some specialty food products, like salsas and olive oils. There was a very nice selection, and we actually ran out of cash since we found so many things we liked.

Since we visit farmers' markets often, we have noticed a disturbing trend at places like Downers Grove and Plainfield--rather than produce and homemade food products, some vendors are selling things like tupperware, purses, and even clothes. These farmers' markets end up being more like craft fairs. Not this one--in Naperville, the farmers' market is very similar to ones that you would see in Europe. Here is a picture of Nick posing in front of the cucumbers.

Today it was incredibly steamy and sunny, so we kept Nick well hydrated and in the shade as much as possible. He was having fun checking out the ladies and waving at every baby or child he saw. Greg stuck to only "checking out" the produce, and he picked out some nice carrots and mushrooms.

We ended up with quite a haul, and will be feasting tonight. I think my favorite purchase was the fresh peaches, which Greg needed for the white sangria. I used the potatoes he is picking out below to go with our bison burgers with portabello mushrooms. (Plus, a salad and some fresh green beans. Yum.)

While I am interested in local and organic produce, I am in no way naive about the realities of farmers' markets. I know that unless food says it is organically grown, it probably isn't. But the farmers who sell at farmers' markets are often small farmers who use less pesticides, and I feel better buying from local farmers when I can. The vendors at this market clearly labeled their products and told the buyers where each item was from. I do tend to frequent the local farmers over those selling, for example, tomatoes from Kentucky. I also made a point to buy some organic potatoes from the one farmer who was selling organic produce.

So here is our haul.

Total spent? We brought $60 in cash, and all of it was gone. However, Greg bought some extravagent crab meat that cost $26, so that was half of our money right there. Tomorrow he's going to make a fancy crab cake dish from his new Bobby Flay cookbook, and I told him that for $26, they'd better be the best darned crab cakes we've ever had. I will report back about that.

Oh, and we also bought Nick a delicious scone that was eaten long before the picture was taken. I can tell you that the portabella mushrooms were divine tonight, sauteed in a little bit of butter with some of the garlic.

Hey Mommy?

It's kinda hot and sticky today. That big drink looks mighty tasty. Would you mind if I. . .

Had just a little sip? Or maybe a really big sip? Hey, this is a strawberry pineapple smoothie. This is good!  Mmmmm, don't mind if I do. . .

Don't worry, Mommy, I left you a sip.