Ben came up with a new game to play with the kids outside, where Eli stands in the Thomas tunnel and tries to stop Ben from landing balls in the tunnel. Eli was cracking up!
Eli in the Thomas Tunnel Playing Basketball/Catch Sept 2010 from Sarah on Vimeo.
I’m starting my ninth year writing for a newspaper in Chicago called The Gazette. You can view my latest article here about an industrial designer who is creating Chicago’s first vertical farm in the city. It’s a big story and the NYTimes will have a feature on this guy’s project pretty soon.
This month, I’m working on something a little more ordinary/less exciting – about a new Metra train station being built at 35th and Wentworth. I was out yesterday morning on a jog/walk with the kids when I finally got a call back from one of my sources, the Alderwoman from that area. I had called her six or seven times over the last week, hoping to reach her, but never hearing back… so when she actually called me, I knew I had to just ask her my few questions and be done with it. I scrambled to find something in my stroller to use for my notes and found a pen and an old (clean) size 2 diaper, probably from last summer. Works for me! I scribbled down some stuff and was able to decipher most of it when I got home.
It’s that time of year for the annual ward fun run… Ben has won three times now, so he was feeling the pressure!! In the end, Levi, a young college athlete took first and Ben came in second. I think they were neck in neck until the last block, when Levi burst off and left Ben in the dust (with the other runners not too far behind them).
Good job Levi! He’s a wrestler at Northwestern. He’s in good shape, but I think Ben made him work hard for that first place win.
Ahhh old Ben :) A few people in our ward have nicknamed him, “Young Ben,” but I think he was feeling his age with this race. I’m proud of him for getting second, despite not being able to train as often as he would have liked with work, church, family responsibilities.
It was pouring rain, but the kids and I stood outside so we could see Ben finish. Charlie was excited when Ben ran down the block.
Here are some of the other runners before I decided I was done with the rain and headed inside… Adam -
John -
Caitlin -
Charlie of course munched on his apple the entire time.
Eli held our soggy signs that we made for Ben:
Can you tell how hard it was raining?? Ben was soaking wet and we were close behind.
The rain didn’t stop the pancake breakfast either – they set up a tent outside over the griddle and Keenan was the master chef for the pancakes and sausage.
Inside, there were lots of people enjoying the food and chatting.
Eli was disappointed that he didn’t get to run in the race (there was a kids' race too), so I think next year we’ll do that with Eli. I just had no desire to attempt to run with Eli in the rain while trying to get Charlie to keep up (and we forgot to bring a stroller, which would have helped).
Later, we scored some Northwestern football tickets at the last minute, so Ben and Eli walked over and got to see the first home game of the season. Eli loves going to football games and said his favorite part was the band. And yelling, “GO CATS!” :) That same marching band woke our kids up at 7 a.m. when they started practicing out on the field… (It is LOUD!)
Our ward is joining up with the other ward that meets in our building to do a toddler time class once/month. Each mom takes a turn to teach the lesson. This month it was a cooking class, though the funny quote from Eli afterward when he was telling Ben about it was, “But we didn’t cook anything??” with his funny quizzical look. :) He is a very literal child.
The hour started out with circle time with songs. You’ll notice all the chairs set up – our church provides space for a local Jewish congregation to hold its services for the high holidays in our building.
Then they split into two groups to make some food crafts – one was cat’s eyes, with two crackers, peanut butter, and raisins.
The other table had a worms/dirt station with chocolate pudding and crushed oreos. Eli thought the dirt was real and refused to eat it. Funny kid.
Here he is, telling Charlie not to eat the dirt.
Josh B. had no qualms about the dirt/pudding though :)
