A few Simon baseball videos

Some Baseball pictures from the past few weeks... 

Last day of baseball. Simon has absolutely loved it. They had a base ball bouncy castle and did a baseball obstacle course!

Last weekend they used the skills they learned to play an actual game of baseball. This video is of Simon CRUSHING the ball first throw. Most other kids need to use a T to bat - but the coaches throw to Simon. 

This isn't his best showing, but he loves throwing at the cones. Every time he knocks them down he laughs! 

Restaurant Visit 2: Seafood market

All 20 kids from Simon's Pre-K class went to the Seafood Market on Lincoln Ave. They opened just for his class and gave the kids a comprehensive tour of the kitchen and basement and gave each kid an amazing meal of fish and chips. Below are some excerpts of my pictures, many more pictures after the jump.

Touched a live lobster

Checking out the menu...
Simon in front left. Fallon is behind him in pink and glasses (Simon talks about her a lot),
then Addie is up front on right smiling at the camera (we went to her bday party last week)

Checking out all the parts of a fish - TEETH!

Look at all the parts of a kitchen.

AMAZING lunch.

Videos of Lillian at 15 months (Simon is in one too!)

Some videos of Lillian at 15 months (with a special appearance by Simon in the last one).

She was so sick in this video - I put some ointment around her nose to prevent it from getting super chapped (so she isn't snotty in this video). At the end, she's ready to go to bed so she does her goodbye routine to get me moving. 

I was sneezing and she started saying Ahh-Choo! I think it's adorable and wanted to get it recorded. She had lots going on and finally humors me at the very end.

Yes, we totally bought this red light just to tease the kids. Best 3 dollars I ever spent. 

Lillian at 16 Months

Lillian is a bit more than a year and a quarter and she is a rock star. She is so fun and happy and really a joy to be around. Here are some things she does now.

1. Lillian is so cheerful and happy 90% of the day. She objects strenuously to getting her diaper changed or similarly her clothes put on - there is definitely screaming and kicking. She also crashes hard if we push her late on nap/bed times. Like a light switch she goes from happy and laughing to crying inconsolably. She sometimes will ask for bedtime (hands on both side of her face, head tilted sideways and saying shhhhh while tears course down her cheeks) or will just cry until you promise her bed and then she will nod while she cries. It is so very sad and makes us not push her bedtime very often.
2. She will put away toys in to boxes if you ask her to help
3. She eats everything and is a bottomless pit
4. She takes one nap from 11-1ish, though occasionally she'll sleep for 3 hours!
5. Bed time is at 5:15pm or so, She wakes up around 5:45am and we get her out of bed at 6am. She sleeps through the night and usually doesn't wake up at all.
6. She is currently teething. She has 4 teeth left to come in, all 4 are molars, and at least some of them are coming in now. She has started putting everything into her mouth again.
7. She is very adept at making animal sounds. Moo is her current favorite, and her baaaa comes out like a growl.
8. She is favoring words over signs, and acquires a new words every week. 
9. She will hand people objects and then remind them to say "thank you."
10. She is becoming an adept climber. One of her favorite moves is to climb up her little chair and jump from it to the couch, then crawl/roll/tumble across the couch to the table that houses the remotes and other electronic goodies.
11. She gives wonderful hugs. If you ask for a hug (and she's in the mood) she will run across the room with her arms stretched out and give you a huge squeeze. Then she leans back and makes a mmmah! sound (which is a kiss sound) and then usually will give you a little lick in her attempt at a kiss. The sound and action aren't always at the same time so you can sometimes get surprised by the kiss.  

Happy Tuesday morning Reading to Lillian

She Loves Socks

Reading to Lillian

This week with Simon and Lillian

Some pictures from the past week or so.

Valentine's Day 2015

My awesome Valentines! We made pasta carbonara and everyone loved it. It was the first time the kids have had really tiny noodles like that and they were a fan. Alan got me TWO sets of flowers - tulips (my favorite) and lilys (so we could all see the flower named after Lillian). We also had chocolate cake and strawberries for desert - YUM!

Lillian Hip X-Ray

At Lillian's 15 month visit they wanted us to get an xray of her hips to make sure they are developing properly (the fat rolls on her thighs don't line up and that is an early indicator of a problem with the  hips). As a result we went to Lurie's on Tuesday morning. She cried the whole, slow way to the hospital as we fought through traffic. She was better in the waiting room where there was a tv, other kids and coloring. What she really hated, more than anything else was getting strapped to the board for the x-ray. There was much screaming and many, many 'all done's. After they let us go I let her run around the halls for a while because I felt simply evil having to strap her in to the car seat for the trip home.

Update: She is totally fine. This was cautionary and her hips look perfect.

Sickest baby

Lillian caught the cold that we all had last week. She was so tired she fell asleep in my arms as I was singing her a song before nap. She hasn't done that in a really long time. Poor sleepy baby.

Snow day - February 2nd

Chicago got the 5th biggest snow storm in it's history. These pictures were taken before the real snow storm (of about 20 inches). We've gotten more snow in Jan/Feb than we normally get for the whole year. 

Simon learning to pack a snow ball.

Snow is wonderful - we just walked outside.

Daddy's snow ball is bigger!

Simon and Emily went for a sledding trip down the sidewalk.

Realizing that the snow is very cold, almost done.

Got the hang of snow balls - hit daddy with it.

After the main snow storm - we had been out in it this morning
and you can see the handle of Simon's shovel that he left in the snow hill we made for sledding.

On his way to school on Tuesday (Monday was a snow day)

The first half of the storm, we didn't take a picture after the main snow storm.