Boys play...

in the back yard

and on the basketball court.

Harp Lesson

Listening to the sound board

Learning where middle C is

Learning to be gentle to make pretty sounds

Glissando with tongue and vigor

A Question

S2: Where did Aunt Jennifer go?

Me: Back to her home, Honey. A while ago!

S2: Oh, why???

Me: Because that's where she lives.

S2: Why can't she stay here?

Me: I would like that, too, but J2, E, & D would miss her and she would miss them.

S2: Oh, ok. Are we going to see her again soon?

Me: Well, not for a little while, but we'll see her at Christmas time at Oma & Opa's house! 

S2: With J2, E, & D??!!

Me: Of course!

S2: Ok. I can't wait!

A very busy Saturday (part 3)

Sister love

Raj got home minutes after us. When he brought in the mail I found a package from Hayjac Designs: a necklace from Jennifer with the kids' initials. "Sterling silver 5/8" framed discs with decorative scroll at the top. The discs are high polished silver and can be stamped with block, script or lowercase font. The discs are hung on sterling silver ball chain, which come in 16",18" or 20" lengths." Love it!

We missed the Itasca Village Oktoberfest in early September, which we go to every year. It was pretty disappointing when we realized that. So, I did some research to find another that we could still go to. As a result, this evening we went to the Lynfred Winery Oktoberfest in Roselle. There was grape stomping and cork throwing for kids. They had food, but not really what I think of for Oktoberfest, so Shawn had a hot dog, pretzel, and brownie and Raj and I nibbled when he wasn't looking. We agreed to go to Schnitzel Platz tomorrow to make up for it!

Lilly Annika from Roselle meets Lilly Annika from the Cabbage Patch

The 'Lilly Annika' doll was complete with adoption papers and a birth certificate. She was hand picked by Jennifer and Elise from THE Cabbage Patch in Georgia. She was born at Babyland General Hospital.

cheeks, cheeks

Eyes, eyes

She's just like ME!

Happy Birthday, Shawn!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHAWN!

Again, there was no rush to get out of the house this morning. I did think ahead last night and left the blinds and curtains in Shawn's room open so the sun could wake him naturally rather than me doing it. It worked nicely. Even though he had a very hard time going to sleep last night knowing that today was his birthday, he woke an hour earlier than normal and, most importantly, smiling and in a great mood! He was even awake early enough to see Raj off to work. Shawn's breakfast wasn't photo worthy this morning, but he was thrilled to have blue eggs and muffins (fudge and chocolate chip).


Once everyone was fed and ready to go, we headed to the Children's Garden at Morton Arboretum.  After coming almost half a dozen times already this year, I went ahead and got a membership to the Arboretum. If I had gotten it earlier, it would've almost paid for itself by now! Oh, well. We'll keep coming back. Maybe one day, we'll actually see what else is there besides the Children's Garden! Not today, though.


Shawn and Abby knew exactly where they wanted to go (usually together), while Opa and I tried to keep track of them. They worked their way through the Backyard Discovery Gardens and the Adventure Woods. In the Discovery Gardens, I think their favorites are the Curiosity Garden with a small waterfall and polished bronze frogs spitting water into a pool of smooth rocks as well as a tunnel and bridge that leads to two log cabin play houses and Every Which Way which is a playground looking area with a mass of cement tree roots to hide beneath, steep slides with a mulched cork wall to climb, a water pump to operate and guide the water down multi-tiered canals (though the pump has been removed), and a play structure with rain sticks to spin and a Plexiglas dome to ogle through. Of course, every single garden area also had a bright red water pump that was irresistible. They had no hesitation to stand directly under the spout while the other pumped the handle - possible trying to get a drink, but get doused in the process! (It's a good thing it was warm and dry today. I'm sure the water pumps helped cool them off.) In the Adventure Woods, their favorites were the Wonder Pond, which is swarming with tadpoles (and people trying to get a closer look at them), the tree house / rope net bridges that make up Under the Trees, the man-made Grotto and Secret Stream (though Opa and I would cringe every time a child would splash a small boulder into the water, hoping that no toes or fingers would be squashed in the process), and the Evergreen Walk and Lookout with another tree house / rope net bridge that led to view finders and staged critters in the trees. We stopped for a snack and drink break at the Lookout point before working our way back out of the Children's Garden. We did stop at the Central Plaza to marvel at the giant ball of granite (approximately three feet in diameter) with various leaves carved into the sides and spinning on a fountain of water. The kids had fun trying to change its rotation and felt very strong when they were successful.

Back at the car, we had another snack and changed the kids into clean, dry clothes. I was absolutely certain that they would be snoring by the time we drove out of the parking lot, but they were still chatting away when I made a detour to pick up some newsletters for Mothers & More. Abby was fast asleep minutes later, while Shawn somehow stayed awake the entire drive home! I was even able to transfer Abby to bed without waking her at all. An hour later, I let Shelley know that Abby probably wouldn't be waking on her own at her usual time because of the extensive outdoor playing we had done, so unless she needed to be awake, there was no reason to rush home to pick her up by 4:00 pm. Shelley agreed and said to let her sleep. Bill came to get her at 5:30 pm and she reluctantly woke from her three hour nap.


In the evening, we walked to our local Frontier League baseball game to see the Schaumburg Boomers play the River City Rascals.  We picked a spot to sit on our picnic blanket at the top of a hill in the lawn.  Nearby was a kids’ area that had a bouncy tent obstacle course and inflatable slides.  Shawn ran through the course dozens of times and used a Boomer’s blanket to add some slip to his his slide.  While he was burning some energy, the New Jersey Hardwicks called to sing him Happy Birthday.  Raj arranged for the announcer to broadcast that it’s Shawn’s third birthday today.  We didn’t catch it displayed on the scoreboard, but we definitely heard it.  The game didn’t end in our favor (L 12-3), but the fireworks show made up for it.  Too bad that Shawn fell asleep moments before the pyrotechnics began.  The incredibly full day exhausted him to the point that he slept through all of the booms and bangs and half of our walk home.  I had hoped he’d stay asleep to I could put him directly to bed, but I knew better.  Shawn had just enough of a rest to keep him up well into the night.

On the plus side, he got to open a few birthday cards when we got home.  One card revealed that we are going to Disney World in a few weeks!

Happy Birthday, Shawn!

Posted on FaceBook:

Having a wonderful day celebrating my little man's 3rd birthday! Happy Birthday, Shawn! We love you so very much! — with Paul Demmert and Rajiv Puri at Schaumburg Boomers.

Mandy Nye, Sara Bellini Pandolfi, Mona Mann, Kristen Weller, Katie Stump Holt, Nicole Roof Robinson, Gina Kawell Snow, Edward Demmert, Reena Uppal, Leslie Demmert, Melissa Rubalcaba Riske, Kenny Thor, Carolyn Wilke Wojtal, Toni Marcinowski LoVerde, Jonathan Demmert, and Evelia Krzysik like this.

Shelley Veloz Powell Happy Birthday Shawn! Hope you guys are having fun!

Leslie Demmert Go Boomers Go doesn't quite ring like go Cubs Go, but I hope they win for you.

Joni Demmert Anderson Happy Birthday Shawn! (PS I like your shirt!)

Melissa Bujak Dresen Happy Birthday little guy

Lorinda Oertel Anderson Happy happy birthday Shawn! Have a fun filled evening ♥ Conrad & Miss Lorinda

Deborah Johnson Clemons Happy Birthday Shawn!!

Sara Bellini Pandolfi happy birthday!

Liz Ri Many sweet Happy Birthday wishes!

Edward Demmert A big happy birthday to Shawn from the CA Demmert's!

Hema Puri Happy Birthday Shawn, God Bless You. We will see you soon.

Bm Bär Happy Birthday, Shawn! Greetings from Germany!

Stacey 'Dunlap' Porter Happy Birthday Shawn! Congrats Shannon -sounds like a lovely time

Debbie Fairbairn-White Happy birthday Shawn. Hope you had a great day.

Mona Mann Hi Shannon wouild u please give Shawn a big hug & some kisses from me tell him I wish him a day fill w/ fun, balloons & a big cake to taste Happy Birthday Shawn I love u bye baby

Easter Eve

Today’s swimming class had a substitute for Ms. Brittany. Though we really enjoy class with her, the substitute (I didn't catch her name) was wonderful! She got the students really involved in using swimming skills, moving their arms more, and being more active in the water. Normally, we spend a lot of time practicing on our own - and that's fine, but it was fun to have a different teacher's point of view and have new activities to try.

After swimming, we rushed home to clean ourselves up a bit and then headed out to a local bank to visit the Easter Bunny again.  Shawn recognized that this one looked different from the one we saw in the mall the other day, but we reasoned that the real Easter Bunny was much too busy getting ready for tomorrow, so these were just his friends helping him.  Once he got his picture taken, Shawn asked this rabbit if the Easter Bunny was going to come to everyone's house, because if so, he had a lot of work to do! Before heading home, the bankers offered Shawn a bag of popcorn - and a kiddie savings account. (Who can turn down free popcorn?!)

When Raj got home from work, the three of us got busy decorating Easter eggs. I had some hollowed out eggs saved from last year that we never got around to decorating. So, we decorated those as well as a handful of hard-boiled eggs that I had already prepared.

Shawn had fun dipping the eggs into the different colors of dye. It seemed like the dye took too long to get the color that he liked, so he got impatient. He did like playing with the little sticks that maneuvered the eggs in the bowls, but he had the most fun peeling stickers and piling them on in multi-layers. He also colored on some with crayons. I think he had the most fun adding stickers to them though.

Raj and I worked on the hollowed eggs from last year. We added some really neat designs and had a lot of fun coming up with new and creative ways to make patterns and designs on our eggs. We made a hollowed egg for Abby using her favorite colors - pink and purple. Shawn dyed it, Raj added the lettering, and I added the details. I can’t wait to give it to her. I also made a hollowed egg for Shawn – a blue egg, with his name and the year written in crayon, and silver stars and moons. I’m glad we have a few that we can save year after year.

Afterwards, we went to IKEA to look at some furniture for Raj’s office. He’s thinking about doing a little remodeling and renovating to give it a very comfortable, family feel. We didn't buy anything today, but when we got to the bakery / grocery area, we just couldn't resist a package of cinnamon buns and butterscotch filled chocolate eggs. (Shawn picked the eggs and I picked the cinnamon buns – Raj just couldn’t turn us down!) I think we all left happy.


Finally, we stopped at Gaylord's Indian restaurant to sample a few dishes that we plan to order for Shawn’s Mundin. Though we weren't very hungry when we got there, we still enjoyed the night out for dinner. When the bill came, Shawn was very excited that the waiter gave him the pen - he loves to "pay" for our dinner! (I wonder how long that will last...)


Jennifer sent me a text message today saying that she's on her way to Oma’s house with Jonathan and Elise. This is the first part of their trip before riding an Amtrak train to Chicago. I was able to borrow clothes for both kids so they can pack lightly on their trip. We also picked up diapers for Elise and Shawn was very proud to carry them around the store and then to the car, in honor of her.

I can't wait for them to get here!

Happy Halloween!

Shawn's Eggs

Abby's Muffins

We started our Halloween morning with a little fun with our breakfast.

Since we don't have any scheduled activities today, we ran to Meijer to pick  up a few last minute things for our costumes.  Back at home, we played with play-dough and did a mini-art project  (thanks to Jennifer for forwarding the idea!).  I traced the kids’ feet and hands onto white paper, cut them out, and then decorated the upside down shapes as ghosts.  So easy!  Abby loved being traced, so we made a few sheets of ghosts for her.  (Bill’s birthday is on Friday, so we’ll make a birthday card for him using her ghosts.)  Shawn liked having his hands traced, but I think his feet were too ticklish to keep from wiggling while I was mid-trace.  I got a couple, but I’ll have to be creative when cutting them out to get the wiggled lines to resemble his feet!


I finished my costume last night.  With black pants, a gray sweatshirt, a bunch of scrap fabrics, and a glue gun, I’ve ‘built’ a building ablaze.  (I hate to admit that I burned myself more than once in the process!  …I guess that’s appropriate…)  I altered a red night shirt (also with a glue gun), added stripes with electrical tape,  and Raj added Chief Baron for our Fire Chief’s costume.  Shawn’s dog was store bought (from our Mothers & More Resale) and I’ve been working on his fire truck for the past few days.  It started as an apple box from Costco, but with the magic of paint, the glue gun, and some random materials, a fire truck has been manufactured.  I put some finishing touches on fire truck during naptime (the hose, drivers, lights, and siren).  DONE!

 

When Bill picked up Abby, I thought I had a little time to wake up Shawn, get him changed into his costume and truck, put my costume on, and then get Baron ready to go, but I didn’t have nearly as much time as I had hoped.  It seemed like only a few minutes later, Abby (Lady Bug), Bill, Viola (Olivia the Pig), and Heidi were at our front door ready to go.  I had my outfit on, but hadn’t done the flaming make-up or false lashes that I had planned.  I quickly tossed Shawn into his suit and then belted him into his truck and we left Chief Baron behind.  I almost forgot to grab Shawn’s Trick-or-Treat bucket as we rushed out the door!


Shawn loved being able to put on his fire truck, though I wasn’t sure he’d ‘wear’ it for long.  It didn’t make walking very easy, bumping into his legs with each step.  In fact, as we were rushing out the door to join the gang for Trick-or-Treating, Shawn took a massive tumble over the step at our front door.  I think the fire truck got caught up on either the step or the door frame, which threw off Shawn’s center of gravity, tipping him forward, over (and off) the front stoop, into the void where there should be bushes (luckily, there aren’t any right now!) where he landed on top of the fire truck completely shocked, disoriented, and scared by the mid-flight somersault he had just made.  Though the fire truck caused the accident, I think wearing the cardboard box actually prevented Shawn from getting hurt at all!  Thank goodness!  But, what a way to start the adventure of Trick-or-Treating !  It can only get better from here…

And, it did.  I was able to adjust the length of the arm straps to lift the box out of the way of his legs a little, but then Shawn said they were too tight.  So, we just walked slowly and I helped him up and down the front steps at the houses we visited.  Surprisingly, Shawn wore the fire truck the whole time we were out with Abby and Viola.  He even insisted on holding onto the fire hose, rather than tucking it into his arm straps, and preferred that I carry his treats bag.  (So, just to get this straight, you want to carry a pretend hose, while I carry candy?  OOOOOOKAAAY!)  We stopped at a handful of houses of people that Bill knew, but then Abby and Viola were ready to go home.  Shawn and I decided to go back out and visit some more houses.


As we past a group of other trick-or-treaters, one little boy stopped us and, with total exuberance, asked, "Did you make that?!" pointing to Shawn's costume.  Needless to say, he was in an entirely store-bought, plastic, one-of-a-million-just-like-it costume.  In fact, I hate to admit it, but I don't even remember what it was!  Maybe seeing us will inspire him (or his parents) to be a little more creative next year... maybe...  I can hope...


We tried finding our dog park friend, Ms. Katie, who would have really appreciated Shawn’s Dalmatian costume, but I only had a vague idea of which building she lived in within the neighboring townhome association.  It was really difficult to tell which residents were welcoming Trick-or-Treaters in her neighborhood, since some buildings had communal front doors.  Though we didn’t find Ms. Katie, we did stop at a plenty of other houses before heading home (well past dark).


I wasn't overly surprised, but still a little disappointed, that I only saw one other parent dressed up (a very elaborate witch) with the kids.  It's a fun excuse to do something silly with your child and there are only so many years that they'll let you get away with it before they're too old to tolerate having that kind of fun with Mom and/or Dad!  I say take advantage of the time while we have it!


Shawn did great and I had fun going out with him in costume, too.  He managed to find a just-loud-enough voice to say some combination of “Trick or Treat!” “Happy Halloween!” and “Thank You!” at each house.  He wore his fire truck a lot longer than I had ever anticipated and even when he was tired of wearing it, he still held on to the hose! The fire truck’s lights and siren were fading just about the same time that Shawn and I were.   It was time to go home.


Raj had been home for a short time handing out candy and his customary (and now requested!) toothbrushes.  He dressed as a crazed dentist… hmmm…


After Shawn changed out of his Dalmatian suit and into little boy pajamas, he continued to play with the fire truck and hose.  He was frustrated that the lights and siren wouldn’t work anymore, but at least the hose still stretched!

He and Raj greeted the last of the trick-or-treaters while I made dinner.  Our menu for the evening consisted of crocodiles’ eyes, lizards’ skins, owls’ tongues, rats’ hearts, frogs’ toes, and vampires’ teeth stirred in a cauldron of orange monster blood and topped with spiders and webs.  And, we nibbled on witches’ hats and severed fingers.

 

 In other words, we had carrot, cashew, and ginger soup (orange monster blood), to which I added meat stuffed tortellini (crocodiles’ eyes), diced onions (lizards’ skin), corn (owls’ tongues), diced red peppers (rats’ hearts), diced green peppers (frogs’ toes), and pine nuts (vampires’ teeth). Then, I garnished it with swirls of plain yogurt (webs) and cheese cut-outs (spiders). On the side, we had baby corn (severed witches’ fingers) and garlic dusted crescent rolls (witches’ hats). (Raj helped me come up with a couple of the Halloween-y names for the ingredients.) We had fun eating the ghoulish concoction and Shawn has now renamed baby corn as "witches’ fingers"!


We put the fire truck in the basement, since it’s still being played with, but I don’t want it to be run into the ground!  Raj thinks we might be able to use it for something next year, but I have a feeling Shawn will be ready for something different a year from now.  (It was a relief to see it last longer than a walk around the block.  Still, I kind of wish we could’ve used it at the Gymboree Pumpkin Patch Party, the Mothers & More Fall Family Party, or the wear-your-costume-but-no-accessories-please Language Stars class next week.  Oh, well.  It served its purpose.  I’ll totally admit I had fun making it, and I’m just glad it was worth all the effort and time!)


However, now that the festivities are over, I’m ready for another weekend!

A Sick Day - Abby's Turn

Abby hasn’t been feeling well the past few days, so this morning, when she still wasn’t feeling well and her fever returned, Bill decided to keep her home.  We have nothing on the schedule today, so I let Shawn sleep in and wake on his own.  He’s still getting over the tail end of his icky-ness from last week too, so I figured that the extra sleep would be good for him.  (As Oma reminded me, “He is his mother’s son, afterall!”  We do love our sleep… in the mornings, at least!)

Once he did wake up, Shawn met me at the top of the stairs with a big smile.  Nice!  I like those kinds of wake-ups!  After I helped him change out of his clothes from yesterday that he fell asleep in and into fresh clothes, I asked him what he’d like for breakfast.  “Eggs!  …and yogurt!”  That was easy.  We shared a double egg omelet, though I would’ve preferred to add cheese or something to it he politely requested, “Just eggs, please.”  Afterwards, Shawn helped me clear the table.  Then, while I was emptying the dishwasher, he helped me by sorting and putting away the clean silverware.  When he was done, he gave me a hug for being such a good helper!  (I'm not sure what I said to get him so excited about sorting silverware, but I hope I can remember it for next time!)

 

A little later, we tracked Oma down at work via Skype and chatted for a little while.  We wouldn’t want her to accomplish too much in one day!  We also figured out how to add email subscriptions to our blogs.  This will definitely help me stay on top of the news from the Barony and the NJ Hardwicks (if we can get her to join the bandwagon) better. 

During lunch, Grandma Fanny showed up at our doorstep unexpectedly.  In her very broken (yet improving) English, she explained that her passport issues were finally resolved and that she was on her way to O’Hare Airport hoping to try to get on a stand-by flight back home to Hong Kong.  Needless to say, she wouldn’t be coming over for our English lessons anymore, as long as she could get on a flight.  (This summer, she was planning a trip to meet some friends in Toronto.  The night before her flight, her daughter was helping her get ready and realized that they had let her passport expire – by. ONE. day.  So, she couldn’t go on her trip.  For the past three or four months, her family has been trying to get her passport fixed.  The winters here are very hard on her, there’s a big family wedding back in Hong Kong coming up, and her husband, who she hasn’t seen almost a year, is still in Hong Kong. She got her new passport today, and she’s very excited to be able to go home again.)  We gave each other a big hug and I wished her a safe trip home.  Though I don’t think she understood the words I was saying, I’m sure she understood the idea.  She turned around and hurried back to her daughter’s house two doors down from us. 

I’ll miss our twice weekly sessions, deciphering her attempts to tell me a story in English, trying to explain certain spelling patterns or grammar rules in as simple and basic language as I can manage, and (mostly) interacting with a student who is so incredibly motivated to learn something that is challenging (ahem - foreign!) to her.  I’ve had a lot of fun dabbling into teaching / tutoring again and I feel like I’ve actually been able to use some of the things from my Reading Specialist program, which I haven’t needed a whole lot in the past year.  I’m happy that she finally gets to go home again, but I’m sad to see her go.

A few minutes later, our doorbell rang again!  Grandma Fanny came back just to give Shawn a pack of his favorite orange flavored yogurt drinks that she picks up for him each time she shops in Chinatown.  They’re the perfect size for little hands and little mouths.  He loves to guzzle them down and since they’re small servings, I don’t mind too much that they’re really mostly sugar.  After I thanked her profusely for being so thoughtful and generous, I was able smuggle the drinks into the refrigerator without Shawn seeing them.  They’ll be a nice surprise for dessert or something later.  I'll need to ration them out, since we won't be getting any more!

When Shawn started to slow down at lunch time, I asked him if he wanted to finish lunch or if it was time for his nap.  The first time I asked him, he said he wanted more lunch.  The second time I asked him, he admitted he was ready for a nap.  WOAH!  I think this is a first!  I can’t think of a time he’s ever been ‘ready’ for a nap or bedtime!  Put this day on the calendar!

While he napped, I intended to accomplish a list of jobs around the house.  Instead, I emailed more with Oma, Skyped with Jennifer and Jonathan, and blogged a bit.  Before I knew it, hours had past and I heard Shawn rattling his doorknob, announcing that he was awake.  Darn!  Well, maybe I’ll get to those things later!

After a bit of play time together, we went to Staples to pick up a few supplies for a gift certificate that I made for Mothers & More.  We are contributing to two new mom gift baskets that will be put into a silent raffle.  I’ve created a glossy card that opens to reveal a free year membership to our chapter.  I also wanted to attach our business card to the inside, but I didn’t want to be permanently affixed.  That’s what led me to Staples, in search of temporary, repositionable glue or tape or something.  Luckily, I found some!  The dispenser looks like white-out tape, but it basically turns paper into Post-It notes!  Now, our business card is inside the card and won’t fall out, but can be removed without destroying it or the gift certificate.  Perfect!

We also stopped at Costco before meeting Raj at home for dinner.  At the end of the day, I didn’t get done nearly as much as I had hoped (especially for having only one child and no scheduled events today), but now that I see it all in writing, I guess it wasn’t a total blow-off of a day!

I got a text from Shelley saying that they took Abby to the doctor, had a throat culture, but everything is clear – even her ears.  She just has a cold.  That’s great news.  Therefore, she’ll be back with us tomorrow!  Shawn will be very happy to see her again.

Extra! Extra! at Gymboree, the Farmers' Market, and of Summer Days

We took advantage of two Bonus classes at Gymboree today.We started with Level 5 Play and Learn.(I prefer Level 6, but this fit our schedule and a Level 6 didn’t this week.)The theme was ‘caterpillars and butterflies.’After looking at pictures of them, the kids crawled all over a ‘tree’ structure and ate its ‘leaves.’They also made a cocoon (crawled inside the fabric tunnel) before emerging as a butterfly with brightly colored scarf-wings.  

Emerging from the tunnel cocoon.

Another butterfly hatching from the cocoon.

Then the toddler butterflies ‘flew’ off of a foam block and landed on a squishy mattress.

Flapping her pink butterfly wings - and wearing the perfect shirt for it!

They also got to find finger-puppet butterflies that were hiding all over the main room. It was a lot of fun and we even got to play with our friend Andrew and his mom, Stacy, who used to be in our Family Music class. Even though I got her to join Mothers & More, it’s still fun to run into her at Gymboree.

When Level 5 was over, we got to hang out for an extra few minutes before the next got started.  I saw Meghan, a harpist friend from U of I, and her 18 month old!  It turns out that she recently moved to Lombard, the town where Shawn’s second birthday party was, and now she’s enrolled this Gymboree.  Small world!

When her class was ready to begin, I ushered Shawn and Abby outside to the car for snack time.  I contemplated finding a park during our Gymboree break, but they had actually worked up a sweat from running and playing so hard in class and the transition time!  Besides, I was a little nervous about how easy it would be to tear them away from a new park, to bring them to music class.  So, we relaxed in the car with the doors and windows open, listening to music, snacking, and coloring some wipe-off boards.

Ms. Wendy led the music class today.  (I think she’ll be doing it on a semi-permanent basis now).  It was a country and folk song theme, but I've forgotten them already, so I'll have to get the names of all the songs next week.  Ms. Wendy read She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain by Philemon Sturges and Ashley Wolff.  At one point, Abby did a ‘fall of faith’ (that’s the best way I can describe her act of plopping into my lap without looking, much like those trust-building exercises).  Normally, she falls into my lap backwards, so we’re both facing the same way, but today, she came at me face first.  Actually, teeth first.  She bumped her front teeth right on the bridge of my nose.  At first, I was worried that she hurt herself too, but she didn’t seem to notice that anything was any different from her past ‘catch me – ready or not!’ moments.  Meanwhile, I’ve got a bright red mark in the middle of my face now!  Note to self – catch sooner!  The final song of the day was a song about falling leaves that I found online and shared with Wendy:

Guess What's Falling From the Trees?
(To the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star")

Guess what’s falling from the trees?

Slowly, slowly come the leaves!

Red and orange and green and brown,

Twirling, swirling to the ground!

Guess what’s falling from the trees?

Slowly, slowly come the leaves!

©Ashley K. Alaimo

It was a good day to go to the Schaumburg Farmers’ Market.  I found the parmesan bread that Raj liked so much and when I bought it, the vendor gave me three free muffins.  I stopped by an apple vendor to buy a gallon of apple cider and we each sampled free apple cider donuts, we said hi to the Olive Man and he gave Shawn a free pack of black olives, even though I offered to pay for them!  AND, when we got our habitual crepe (strawberry and Nutella this time), Shawn and I were filmed for a promotional video!  (They were interested in Abby, too, but I didn’t want to give permission for something like that without talking to Shelley first.)  I had no idea what to say, but I stumbled through some blabber, hoping they’ll be able to use a second or two of it to help promote their business.  On the way home, Abby informed me, "I'm sticky.  I need a bath at my house," and I promised to let her parents know!

Weather Underground claimed that today reached 84°F and, after sitting outside for our break between Gymboree classes and perusing the Schaumburg Farmers’ Market, I believe it!  However, it’s hard to believe that we had a 30° swing in temperatures today!  Mother Nature just can’t make up her mind about what season we’re having!

When Raj came home, he and Shawn put up Halloween decorations in the front yard and in living room.  I took the opportunity to Skype with Oma, Jennifer, Jonathan, and Elise.  (I'll fully admit to a twinge of jealousy that they all get to see each other this weekend without the aid of video-conferencing, but I guess I should be happy that we at least have that!)