Summertime

I love summer in Chicago. Everything is green, lush, and it just feels so alive outside. Yes, we still have crazy weather (what has felt like constant thunderstorms lately) but this week has been perfect - not so humid and in the 70s and 80s. I've tried to get us outside as much as possible while the sun is shining. My poor kids seem to suffer from allergies though, so we have constant runny noses, itchy eyes. Poor little guys.

I had some drama getting a new computer, but I've officially switched to a Mac and am loving it. This also means that I have to switch my blogging software, which stinks because I LOVE Windows Live Writer. I'm doing a trial of Mars Edit for now to see how it goes. So I apologize in advance if there are any problems - let me know if you notice anything strange.

I had a photo shoot this week at the beach, and while we were waiting for the family to arrive, I took the boys around to my favorite secret spot that most people don't know exists - a fun area with a teeny waterfall and pretty landscaping.

(I know these pictures are huge, but the choices in this software are small, medium, large. Medium seemed too small, large seems a little big. But I figure bigger is better than too small, right...??)

And toward the end, the last picture is back at home - Charlie's had a lot of tears this week as he seems to be getting new teeth. My arms are getting stronger because he ends up in my arms quite a bit when he's sad like this. He just wants to be held and will snuggle right up to me when I hold him on my hip. Love this boy, tears and all.

Some random quotes from Eli this week - he spotted a box of Ben's Mike & Ike's on the kitchen counter from Father's Day and said, "Daddy, I know something you could share with me... you could share some of your fruit snacks with me!" Fruit snacks are a rare thing around here, so anything that resembles them is exciting to Eli :) We were impressed with his thought process there.

And poor Ben got on the wrong train line this evening (the station where he leaves from has TONS of trains and this particular train was parked in the usual spot of his normal train... it's a long story) and it took him an additional hour to make it back to our neck of the woods. It was crazy. We had plans to go out to eat tonight, so I just took the boys by myself and it was fine. It would have been more fun with Ben there though! So the boys and I were at this thai restaurant - Eli looked at the nicely shaped mound of rice on his plate and said, "My rice looks like a rice bush!" It was pretty funny in the moment. Charlie was sitting next to me and kept stealing my chopsticks and trying to pick up the long, flat curry rice noodles in my bowl one at a time. We were both very messy by the end :)