We had a great Father’s Day – it was a rare day where we got to spend nearly the entire day together. The boys and I brought Ben breakfast in bed and let him sleep in until 8 a.m., which also never happens! I made blueberry pancakes and served them with fruit, hashbrowns, and orange juice. After church, Ben and Charlie took naps and later in the afternoon, we drove up to the Chicago Botanic Gardens for a Father’s Day outing. It was the most beautiful day – not too hot or humid and not rainy. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, so this was a treat!
Charlie was pretty out of it still after his nap :)
Eli was the exact opposite, despite not taking a nap. He talked non-stop and had so much fun running around the gardens.
Eli was so busy observing everything around us that he couldn’t bother with looking at the camera…
By this point, Charlie had finally woken up more and had a big smile on his face.
Sweet, sweet boys.
I’m so lucky to have such great dads in my life! Ben, my dad, and Ben’s dad are all great examples to me. Happy Father’s Day!
This afternoon we had some classic Midwestern stormy summer weather – for most of the day, it was 90 degrees and humid. Then around 4 p.m., the sky turned VERY dark, the wind picked up, and the rain came pummeling down.
Ben later joked that it looked like the Second Coming. Or a scene from a movie. Seriously.
There were severe weather warnings, a tornado watch, etc. as well as threats that we could have grapefruit-sized hail and up to 80 m.p.h. winds. We didn’t have the hail here at our house. But the wind was CRAZY. There are tons of branches down in the area.
But the craziest story of the day was from Ben – he was downtown walking to the train late in the afternoon… as he walked past the Willis (formerly known as Sears) Tower, windows blew out from the 25th and 29th stories. Thankfully he was across the street from the skyscraper, so he escaped unharmed from the glass falling onto the street and sidewalk.
It was eerily similar to when we were visiting Chicago in 2002 and had the crazy experience with scaffolding falling at the Hancock Building and shattering windows while we were inside eating lunch. Tonight there is still a ton of thunder/lightning, but the worst seems to be over.
I’ll post fun pics of the kids soon : ) I’m STILL catching up from the last few weeks!
Charlie is our agile little monkey whose curiosity sometimes gets the best of him. He’s a busy little guy who is fully in the curious but clumsy stage as a toddler. Here are some recent examples -
1. Last night we were eating dinner outside in the back yard. Charlie was standing on one of the lighter plastic chairs and somehow rocked the chair to tip it back (but he was facing backwards)… Ben and I were on either side of him and tried to stop the chair, but weren’t able to stop it completely from tipping (we just made it tip less abrasively). Poor Charlie fell face-first onto the brick pavement and ended up with a huge red bump in the middle of his forehead and a cut lip. It would have been much worse if we hadn’t broken the fall a little, but we still felt so sad for him.
2. Earlier today, Ben was outside with the kids. Eli was swinging on the swing set, and Charlie apparently ran up toward Eli without Ben realizing it early enough and Eli inadvertently kicked Charlie right in the chest and sent Charlie flying onto his back in the grass.
3. Tonight we gave the boys a bath, but pulled Charlie out first because he kept trying to climb on the sloped back wall and was slipping all over the place. I stayed in the bathroom with Eli while he finished his bath… all of the sudden, Charlie came running in, leaned over the tub, and tipped forward all the way into the bath, head first into the water!! He is crazy sometimes. I quickly pulled him back out and Ben had to change his pjs. We couldn’t believe he really dove in like that.
So if you see Charlie in the next couple of days, you may notice quite a few bumps and bruises all over his sweet little face… :) I have pictures from them doing the slip and slide last night, but I also have some editing I need to do from some recent photo shoots. Someday I will catch up!!
Here’s a video of Charlie climbing up the play set ladder (and Eli swinging on the play set frame). You’ll see his fast little run at the end too.
I can’t believe I’m blogging this three weeks later, but better late than never. So… I’ll dive right in :) It’s a lot, but I wanted this all down for our memory – feel free to skim!
Eli was thrilled to wake up on his birthday and open some presents before Ben left for work. I was up late the night before, so you can hear my tired voice in this dark video at 6:30 a.m. Here he is opening the scooter that he wanted -
The other big present was a wooden play house (a gender neutral doll house) that I found on craigslist for a really good deal. He loves pretend play and I thought he would have a lot of fun with this. Of course, the balloons were just as exciting (or more so).
That morning he had a special birthday breakfast of… Cocoa Crispies! (gross, right??) He always wants to get chocolate cereal when we’re at the grocery store, but I’ve told him he could have some for his birthday for the last few months now.
The funny thing is that after a few bites, he said he felt sick and switched to a bowl of Cheerios instead. Hopefully that cured him of his need for chocolate cereal for at least another year.
After breakfast, he had a call from the Christensens in Denver. Here they are singing to him (Eli was using the potty when the phone rang, so I brought the phone into the bathroom). I love hearing Eli describe his presents to the boys on the phone. He was VERY excited about them.
Eli loooves chocolate, so I had to bring chocolate cupcakes. He liked them more than the Cocoa Crispies.
Eli with Nancy, one of his teachers. He loves Nancy and has had a great year! (Rebekeh was out of town, so I didn’t get a picture of her)
Later, we played outside in the back yard. Here’s Eli showing his rope ladder climbing skills. His climbing has really impressed me lately! It’s fun to see him growing and getting stronger.
In the early afternoon, Eli was tired from the fun morning he’d had. Rebekeh and family called from their vacation in Hawaii to sing a fun Happy Birthday song (that goes to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”). Eli was a total stinker and not very nice on the phone. Not one of his finer moments, but I tried to keep in mind that he is three after all. I’m including the video so you can hear the cute song! (please ignore his sour response). It didn’t help that I had paused his tv show when they called.. he wasn’t in the mood to be interrupted :)
Here’s Charlie watching his big brother rule the roost :) Poor Charlie starts running when Eli charges toward him with the intention to ram into him and knock Charlie down. I’ve told Eli 1,000 times not to push his brother down, but he still does it when I’m not looking.
Eli making a silly face -
Eli had a fun surprise visit by his favorite babysitter, Grace and her fun sister Maggie. They dropped off a darling present (rocket popsicle molds) and I thought it was so thoughtful and sweet. We’re going to miss Grace when she heads off to college at the end of the summer!!
Here’s a video of Eli opening a few more presents (I swear my house isn’t usually this messy). He REALLY wanted the game Bingo and I’m not sure that this version was what he had in mind, but that’s okay. I got him a book called, I Love It When You Smile, which fits him really well (sometimes Eli can be such a grump!).
This last video is for his California grandparents, who made this birthday banner, which Eli pretends is a car wash! They also sent a cool wooden transformer, which he absolutely loves.
At age 3, Eli is a storyteller, using lots of vivid details and funny characters. He loves to play tag, race, ride his bike and scooter, play games like Candyland, Zingo, Chutes and Ladders, Go Fish, and Bingo. He’s still doing physical therapy once/week with the fabulous therapist Lisa to work on his gross motor skills, but he’s made great progress in the couple of months that he’s worked with her. He has had preschool twice/week, but school is almost over. This summer we have plans to go to the pool, beach, and parks as often as possible.
Here are some of his current favorites:
Breakfastfood: Honey Nut Cheerios
Lunchfoods: Turkey, apple slices, yogurt
Dinnerfood: Tortilla soup
Color: Blue
Stuffed animal: Froggy (but he loves his dolphin and some other stuffed animals too)
Indoor activities: Climbing on the couches (much to my dismay), building with legos, playing with trains or cars, and racing from the front of the house to the back of the house
Outdoor activities: Climbing on the playset, throwing balls around the yard, playing with the sand table and watering the plants.
Times when he tortures Charlie: In the mornings when I’m in the shower – Eli will boss Charlie around, and if words don’t work, he resorts to pushing. It will be interesting to see what happens when Charlie is a little bigger and pushes back. And also in the back yard, like I mentioned earlier.
At night, his favorite routine is: Read one book, say a prayer, read a second book. Climb into bed, then we cover him with his blankie and say, “Snug as a bug, loose as a goose, and now just normal.” In the last month or so, we’ve added new variations, mostly coming from Eli. I’ll say, “Snug as a bug… in a mug.” and he’ll say, “Snug as a bug… in a cozy helicopter.” And then I’ll say, “Loose as a goose… or a moose in a caboose.” And he’ll come up with some other rhyme. I love snuggling with this sweet boy. He is growing right up.
