Cs and Z

Colin and Charlotte had so much fun having their Aunt Zoe here for the weekend!! 

Charlotte was a big fan of her aunt, even letting her hold her while I left the room.  This is groundbreaking. 

Colin, of course, had to ensure he got equal treatment by demanding that Zoe "carry him like a baby" ... even here at the farmer's market...

We all had a great time.  Colin was SO sad yesterday after Aunt Zoe left.  He is already asking when we can go see her again.. "and her cat."

8 months!

Here's our little gingersnap at 8 months.. in her rumpled jammies and a sticker that got eaten twice before the picture was taken.  But, you can't stop that smile!  

I cannot believe she is 8 months already.  We spent the weekend cleaning out lots of baby gear she doesn't use anymore and it just seemed impossible that she's outgrowing her baby stuff already.

At 8 months, Charlotte is so much fun.  Here's what she's up to:

• She loves standing and this weekend pulled herself up from my lap to standing at the ottoman!  She really seems to want to walk.  She hates being on her belly and is showing no interest at all in scooting or crawling. 
• She's eating three meals a day of oatmeal and fruits/veggies and still nursing like a champ.  Our little piglet just loves to eat.
• After some rough nights, we're back to (mostly) sleeping through the night, though she often still claims to be hungry at 3 am (I think she just wants a visit from mommy, but that's ok).
• I see no sign of teeth but poor thing is drooling like crazy and tends to bite down on her arm in frustration so I think they are bothering her.
• Definitely having some separation anxiety - she wants to be attached to me at all times and flips out if I try to leave the room... that's super fun.
• She is just the happiest little girl though.  She loves music - if you sing to her she'll start babbling like she's trying to join in with you, and she has such an easy laugh and smile.  What a happy 8 months it's been! 

my daredevils

These kids had an active weekend...

Ok, this is not that daring, but Charlotte watched intently as Colin tackled the big kids' equipment at the park Saturday.
 

and then enjoyed her first time in the swings!

back at home, she enjoyed standing (forever) on the ottoman, even pivoting to try and grab my legs.  I swear she is going to walk before she crawls.

Here she is trying to pull up / climb her toy.  I hear she's trying to pull up on the toy bins at daycare too.  Oh my.

Meanwhile, her brother spent most of the afternoon jumping from the ottoman onto the couch.  We need a house with a basement like yesterday.  

It's important to wear safety gear when you're treating our house like a jungle gym.

All this activity conked someone out!  

"camping"

Colin and Daddy have been having lots of fun adventures this summer.  I'm glad he's making memories with him since I feel a little guilty that I, and my little barnacle Charlotte, can't always do all the fun stuff with him.  This weekend they camped out in the backyard.  

They roasted marshmallows over the "campfire"..

Someone asserted he didn't like smores.. but what do you know, he came around...

I predicted they'd be back inside by 930 ... but as this "nightvision" pic attests... they stayed out there all night long (with the help of Finding Nemo on the computer :)

Colin's already asking to go camping again... maybe next time they can even leave the yard!

labor day weekend

Better late than never (that's our new theme around here), here is a ton of pictures from our trip to the QCs for the long labor day weekend..

Colin and Charlotte had a blast with tons and tons of family time!  We had such a nice time seeing everyone.

Colin and Shelly are best buds...

and Colin and Junior got re-acquainted...

(had to give Junior a hug good-bye too)

Charlotte got lots of cuddle time on her first trip to the QCs...

Colin hitched a ride with Aunt Laura :) 

He took many laps around Grandma Pat and Grandpa Ron's block on his "motorcycle"

My babies.  They are related. 

Then the family time continued as we visited with Grandpa Doug and Grandma Karen.  C&C's cousins were there too - first time for all the grandkids in one place!  

Charlotte was quite taken with her Aunt Nikki.  No stranger anxiety there!  Must be the redheaded connection.  As Nikki said, "only a ginger can call you a ginger." 

 A picture in which Colin is actually not wearing orange, go figure...

Colin had so much fun running around with Graham and Lukas.  Here they are inventing some weird game.

Charlotte and Lukas decided to become friends. 

so cute to see all the boys together

pretty girl enjoying the day outside

When their moms told them no swimming, the boys decided instead to throw all the toys into the pool.  They had a blast.  Sorry Grandpa.

 Lady was happy to go on another road trip... as long as she had Mommy in the backseat and was allowed access to her cell phone.

What. Is this not the way you travel?

We had so much fun on our weekend trip!  Thanks again!

1st Cubs game

Hey Everyone! Mike here, writing my sort-of-annual blog post! So, many of you may have already heard about Colin's first Cubs game, but here's the official story along with pictures.

The day was Thursday, August 22, and it had been sunny and warm for weeks, so what did the forecast have in it for that day? You guessed it...rain. As usual with the weather these days the severity of the forecast changed by the hour, and when we left that morning all the rain was expected to be out of Chicago by the end of the morning. Our first stop was breakfast at Fair Oaks Farms on the way to Chicago. Colin ordered French Toast and Bacon (what else?) and fresh chocolate milk. It was FREEZING inside there, and Colin huddled up next to me while we ate. However now Colin claims that he liked it cold in there and doesn't want to bring a jacket or hoodie for the next time we go there. Revisionist history if you ask me.

Our next stop was Uncle Adam's new house in Chicago. We arrived and Colin immediately set out exploring the new location, and unintentionally torturing Adam's new cat Cheese. After chasing Cheese around with a laser pointer, Colin took some Foosball lessons from Uncle Adam.

Colin really enjoyed this, almost as much as he enjoyed commandeering Adam's tape measure (pictured on couch above) and pretending it was a sword.

The real test will be to see if Uncle Adam can lose to Colin the next time they play!

Did I mention the weather was supposed to clear up by the end of the morning? Yeah, it didn't...we camped out in our seats (which were JUST good enough not to be covered by the upper deck) and wore our ponchos while waiting for the weather to break.

Somebody was having fun watching the ground crew roll up the big blue tarp!

We're still working on smiling naturally when taking pictures...

 Uncle Adam was the preferred grown-up of the day!

The "Thinker"...is probably thinking about what kind of snacks he can ask for next!

I figured I'd get about 2 good hours out of him at the game before he got tired. Unfortunately, those two good hours also corresponded with the rain delay, so the poor guy was worn out by the time the game started. Some rest on my lap, along with peanut butter crackers and an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on my phone helped him rally though. We actually made it through the 7th inning, what a trooper!

Yes, Colin is already talking about the "next time" we go to see Uncle Adam.

And finally, we explored the stadium before leaving, and Colin's favorite seats were ALL THE WAY at the top. Colin said he could see all of the field and the players, as well as the El, Downtown, and the "Serious" tower. ("Look! It's the El!" every minute or two is really fun to hear...) Colin like it up top so much, he asked if we could sit there next time. So um, yeah, we way overpaid for our seats this time!

Finally, on the way home this kid didn't even make it out of Chicago before he was completely cashed out in the backseat. A very fun day for Colin, Daddy, and Uncle Adam, and hopefully one that we can make an annual tradition. (As long as the Cubs start winning the games!)