Day at the children's museum

Smoothie for breakfast

Simon asked for a smoothie for breakfast and upon reflection I realized that was totally doable. We had yogurt, banana, mango, raspberry smoothie with a bit of coconut water to thin it out. Then cheerios on the side. Simon was pretty thrilled.

Local fire truck

On Saturday afternoon Simon and I went for a (very slow) walk down to Scooters to give Alan a chance to get the computer/desk in the basement and the cradle/crib upstairs. While Alan did a million trips up and down the stairs we passed a firetruck that was invited to a block party. Obviously we pulled over to look at it. There were a ton of kids crawling all over it but Simon refused to get out of his stroller for a while. A fireman even came over and let him try on a hat and he seemed a bit more comfortable. Finally, I picked him up and, with many reassurances that it was ok, put him in the front seat hoping that we'd get an awesome picture and he would realize how many buttons were up there. He freaked out. I was so surprised! It took me a while to realize (through the tears) that he thought the fire truck was going to go speeding off at any second and didn't want to be stuck on it when it left. Poor kid. We tried standing near it but that still wasn't ok, so back into the stroller we went to just watch for a while longer. Then off to scooters for an ice cream. 

Look at how big!

Simon's view of the fire truck.

Cautiously enjoying the hat.

Note my hand holding him up in the seat. He was not pleased.

Very nervous about being so close to the truck.
He backed up and climbed back into his stroller right after this.

Oranges are hilarious!

So helpful

Alan had picked Simon up to put him to bed and before they could start to walk upstairs Simon asked: "You need anything, Mama?" He proceeded to ask if I needed a drink or a blanket or some pretzels or a pillow or my knitting. Just covering all the bases to make sure I was good. It was obviously a stalling technique but super sweet and well done. I think he has our number.

BGB Baby Shower!

Last weekend my Wonderful Sister Colleen threw us a Baby Shower. Even more than the coordination required for a normal baby shower, Colleen decided that Alan deserved something special too and made it a Surprise Baby Shower for him and invited the out of town family! Alan had absolutely no idea (because we are all such great secret keepers).

Bart, Kiki, Ken, Cindy, and Lisa all flew into town and helped Colleen set up the house for the shower. We were even surprised by a visit from Chris, Erika, Casey and Darby from Madison! Our Chicago friends also made a strong showing and it ended up we were surrounded by all the love and well wishes you could hope for. It was a pretty wonderful day. Thank you, Colleen!

Family, Friends, Balloons, Cake AND Presents - my kind of party!

The Sweeney Contingent

The Basque Contingent

Full story and tons of pictures after the jump....

Simon's first boat ride

I promised Simon back in June that I would take him on a boat by the end of the summer and I came through on my promise this Monday! We rode the train downtown and met my best friend Resha (I thought back up might be nice). After fueling up on coffee and bananas we went on the Chicago water taxi. It was a 15 minute boat ride from one branch of the river to Michigan ave. We had a blast! Then while walking back to the train we walked past a fire station and the sweet fire fighters asked if we wanted to see the trucks....that was almost better than the boat! Good summer day :)