Our Stealthy Boy

Nick keeps losing Henry around the house. Where does he disapear
to? Henry's the only one who's really fond of those curtains.

Living On The Edge

He likes to dangle his legs, then most of his body over the edge but he doesn't like to drop down. He thinks the floor is very far away.

My Boys

Brookfield Zoo: Success!

We went to the Brookfield Zoo with Dallas and the boys when they were here. It was hot, crowded, and reminded me of the fact that I don't really like zoos. Today was the coolest day in a couple weeks, and it's getting hot again starting tomorrow so I thought H and I should give it another try. We spent all of our time in the two special children's zoos. The first is a play zoo. He played in the Fisher-Price corner, which is full of toys and is pretty much like going to play group at someone's house who has a lot of Fisher-Price animal themed toys. He loved it.

Eventually I tore him away from that and we went through their greenhouse, but he only wanted to throw gravel so that didn't last long. We went to the "Zoo at Home" section where he pet a guinea pig. Once the guinea pig was bag in its cage, Henry loved looking at it up close. He wouldn't stop talking about how great those little white furry animals were (although I didn't understand a word of what he said.) He was very excited to point to the animals in the cages and he loved their goldfish.

He was a interested in the lemurs, but he was more interested in climbing on everything.

I finally removed him from the play zoo, kicking and screaming, and we stopped by the petting zoo on our way to the car. We caught the very end of a horse grooming lesson, and he pet the miniature horse. Once he pet one of the goats, he was very excited and had to pet each of the goats. He loved it. We even got to feed the goats out of our hands, but Henry was more confused than excited by that process.

Even though it was nap time, we would have stayed a little longer if my pants hadn't been falling down. I wore a pair of Capri pants I haven't worn for a couple of years. They fit just fine as I put them on this morning, but as our zoo experience progressed they were getting looser and looser. I couldn't go three steps without pulling them up. By the time I got to the car, I couldn't get Henry in the carseat with both hands, because one hand had to be holding up my pants. I remember thinking this morning, "I don't need a belt with these pants. They fit great!" I now remember why I don't wear these pants. They stretch out and fall down as your day goes on.

From our first experience at the zoo, I wasn't excited to go back.  But now that we know how much he loves these children's areas, we will return soon.

Parking In Downtown Chicago

I think this may be the worst parallel parking job ever. The curb they
jumped is particularly tall, maybe 9 inches. It ended up ridiculously
close to the pay box and a pole. The pictures just can't do it
justice, but you'll notice the Cadillac has damage on the front left
bumper. I'm not sure if that's from this or a separate incident.
Either way I'm guessing this person is a bad driver. I heard a city
employee radio someone and say, "You gotta come see this one."

A New Milestone

Water Attempt 2: Fail

Kiddie pool was not so hot. We had a hard time convincing him to go in. Once in, he had fun for about a minute. Then he slipped and got his face underwater. That did not go over well.

Party Moocher

Henry following Don, begging for brownies.

Get a load of this little moocher.

We had Nick's cohort over for a barbecue (minus the one that was on call). It was one part party and four parts team meeting. When they were still in orientation we all went out to dinner, but the restaurant was the loudest I'd ever been to, so we couldn't really talk much.

When the guests arrived, Henry immediately attached himself to Don and followed him around and begged for his food. Don (an intern's spouse) was easily manipulated by Henry, and ate dinner with Henry on his lap while giving him bites of hamburger and pasta.

We got a patio set at Aldi. It is made in China and its quality matches the expectation that brings. However, it looks good and providing it doesn't collapse when someone sits on it, I think it will be fine. We only got to use it for about fifteen minutes because shortly after we sat down to eat it started raining. We quickly moved things inside and the party continued.

Playgroup: Fail

Our ward here is not consistent about holding playgroup, but they did have it last Friday, so we went. Our ward is very spread out, geographically, so there's going to be a considerable drive to attend any activities. It took a long time to get ready. We went to the store and bought snacks, sunscreen, and swim diapers. I put Henry into his swim outfit, which effectively covers about 80% of his body, put on the swim diaper and lots of sunscreen. I thought he would love the splash pad since he loved the flooded sidewalk so much.

His outfit is not that ridiculous. But that's only because he won't wear the hat and sunglasses I want him to. His sun protection isn't up to snuff without those accessories.

He was not so fond of it. He played with it for a minute. It was cute how he tried to grab the water. But after the variable height of the fountain surprised him in the face once, he was done with it. The kid does not really like to get wet, and he certainly doesn't want to get his head wet. He spent the rest of the time playing with the $0.99 beach ball I threw in the cart when I bought the swim diapers, or crying because other kids were playing with it.

When we got him dressed, his shirt was a little wet, but his shorts were still totally dry.

Our Boring Life

There has been very little blogging because there has been very little action around here.  For one thing, we're in a quiet little neighborhood where things are generally clean and well-maintained.  This means there's very little in the alley to report on, and nothing weird is happening for me to tell you about.  Our next door neighbors just moved in before we did, but on a whole the neighborhood is very stable.

Our backyard neighbors, Paul and Paula, mentioned that the couple in the corner house hadn't lived there very long, "just a few years."  Turns out "a few years" is something like fifteen years, so we know we're going to be the new guy around here for a long time.

My home improvement projects are stalled.  The repairs that need to take place are beyond my skill-level (because I have no skills) so I need to wait until Nick has time (which may never happen.)  I'm going to paint the living room, but I can't pick a color.  The current color is a badly executed green decorative sponge finish we inherited from the previous owners.

Nick is quite busy with his internship.  He is gone long before sunrise, and certainly a long time before I'm out of bed.  He gets home about 7:30 (when he's not on call), eats, studies for about an hour, then goes to sleep.  Repeat again and again, except that sometimes he's on call.  Those days he leaves here about 5:00 AM and works until about 11:00 AM the following day.  After about 30 hours of working, he's pretty tired and sleeps the rest of the day.

All the shopping I could even want is very close to us, which is very different than in St Louis.  There are two ALDI grocery stores within a mile on either side of us.  There's an entire mall, a shopping center, and a strip mall within a half-mile.  The Target and Home Depot are 1.5 miles away.  So here I can just run to the store and it's not a big deal.  In St. Louis, I would wait until we REALLY needed something, then I would drive out to the county and go to several different stores while we were out.  You had to marathon shop to make it worth the effort of getting to the stores.

Henry has definitely entered a new stage of development.  In this stage, there is a lot of screaming (him screaming at me) and he's being mean to the dog.  I'm frustrated by both of these things and am feeling a little lost in regards to parenting. 

Caesar's Favorite Spot

Now that Henry weighs more than the dog, he thinks he can take over
the dog's favorite spot and bed.

Surprise

wait for it . . . . .

Peek-a-boo!