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 :)

Fun at the zoo!

Simon's First Baseball Game

Alan and I took Simon to his first baseball game on Wednesday. It was at Wrigley field and was Chicago Cubs vs. Cincinnati Reds. 

Taking it all in. So much to see.

Story and pictures after jump...

Park with Evelyn and Sarah

This past Sunday Simon and I drove our new car up to a big park and met a new friend for a play date. Evelyn is about a week younger than Simon and the two of them are very similarly tempered. They are great at playing together and often Simon takes the lead (he rarely does that with other kids, he's more a watcher). I also loved chatting with Sarah, Eveyln's mom. Sadly they will be moving to Colorado in a few weeks. Another friend we're running out of the city. 

Emily's awesome job at parallel parking the new car.

Our New Honda Odyssey 

Scoping each other out.

Posing for a picture after lots of bubbles, ball throwing and car racing.

Cheese! (Simon is facing Sarah and Evelyn is facing me. We were both taking pictures.)

Simon decided jumping was a good way to pose for pictures.

I love this one for Evelyn's face as she watches Simon jump again.