Happy Belated Veteran's Day & St. Martinstag!

Yesterday, we were returning from a wedding in San Diego for a U of I friend and as soon as we got home, Raj went directly to a Bears' game. So, we didn't have a chance to acknowledge Veteran's Day and St. Martinstag.  So, I thought we'd do a belated celebration today instead. 

Unfortunately, Shawn wasn't in the most cooperative mood today, so he lost the privilege of going on our traditional lantern walk around the neighborhood.  I had planned to just use the lantern I made last year, so at least we didn't spend a lot of time making a new one this year!

But, we did celebrate with some German food at dinner.  Using the cookbook, The Best of My Grandmother's German Cookery by Carmen Graves, tonight's menu consisted of:
Paprika Huhn (Chicken in Paprika Sauce)
Sauerkraut
Apfelsalat 3 (Warm Apple Salad - recipe #3) with pecans & vanilla yogurt
Kartoffelpuffer (Potato Pancakes)

No German beer or wine for me, but... YUM!
(Regrettable, a lantern walk would've been a good idea after that big meal!)

The Easter Elephant?!

Happy Easter!

Last night, Shawn went to bed easily... the Easter Bunny wouldn't come to our house if we were still awake and might see him! Before I tucked him in, we read The Night Before Easter by Natasha Wing. It was a fitting story for the occasion.

When Shawn woke this morning, he found a basket with just two Easter eggs in it. The rest of the eggs were scattered around the house, from the hall outside his room, down the stairs, and all over the living room and dining room. It was a lot of fun watching him hunt for hidden eggs and figure out how to get to a few that were out of his reach.

Finally, when all of the eggs had been discovered, Shawn found the last of the Easter Bunny's treasures waiting for him on the kitchen table: his dump truck Easter Basket filled with a bug net, Mr. Potato Bunny, a mini-pot with seeds for planting, a bath-time book, and, of course, a chocolate bunny. He was a pretty excited little boy!

The fun didn't end there! Next, we went to the circus! The George Carden Circus Spectacular was at the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates. Before the show started, Shawn and I rode a camel, While we were waiting in line for him to ride a pony (which stopped giving rides just as we approached the front of the line! Arg!), our friends Veer, Shrenik, and Heena called Raj. It turned out that they were at the circus too and had seen us walk right by their seats! They saved a few extra spaces so we could join them. While we devoured popcorn and over-sugared lemonade, we watched "enchanting elephants, tantalizing tigers, amazing acrobats, motorcycle daredevils, and performers from around the world." During the intermission, we had another chance to ride the pony and Shawn got his first face-painting.

 

Though Raj and I were sure that Shawn was going to fall asleep on the way home from the circus, he was still wide awake when we got back. While I prepared our Easter dinner, Raj and Shawn planted the seeds in the little frog pot. They played tackle-football in the backyard. Shawn got a lot of use out of his new bug net and almost caught the biggest bug I've ever seen!

Got him!

Later, we feasted on ham with pineapples, crescents, rice, and green beans. As usual, there were plenty of leftovers to last us (and the rest of the neighborhood) until the next holiday!

 

It was a successful celebration - I think the Easter Bunny would be proud.

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 Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

In the wee hours this morning, Shawn woke up and joined Raj and me in bed. Luckily, he went right back to sleep and there was minimal tossing, turning, or kicking involved (at least that I’m aware of)! Recently, Shawn’s been waking up and wanting to come into our bed or not wanting to go to sleep in his bed at all. We haven’t made a big deal about it, but we don’t exactly welcome him in either. Since this didn’t used to be an issue and, in the last week or so, it’s been a frequent request, I wanted to talk to Shawn about what was going on.

So, later in the morning, when Shawn was fully awake, I asked him why he didn’t want to sleep in his own bed ‘last night’ (since it was still dark out). “Because my bed’s too small!” he explained, “I need a bigger bed!” Huh – well, then! That sounds simple enough! I’ll make sure he tells Raj himself tonight! Meanwhile, I have no idea how he got this idea or even knew a bigger bed was a possibility. We’ve never talked about it. There really is still plenty of room in the toddler bed for him – it’s not like he’s bumping his head and feet on the ends. As far as he knows, all kids have beds like his (cribs converted with a toddler railing)! Weird. When I told the teachers at Gymboree this afternoon, Ms. Mary Beth suggested maybe tying a ‘big boy’ bed to potty training… hmmmm...

We attended Art Class this afternoon and I felt like we got a little more ‘bang for our buck’ today. After a few minutes of free paint, the kids colored a cut-out heart with chunky shaped red crayons, glued it to a larger piece of construction paper, and then added glittery foam hearts to it. Shawn was engrossed with the new crayons that were about the size of his whole hand and shaped as hearts, bowls, and simply over-sized crayons. On the other hand, after a few seconds of scratching them across his paper, he lost interest in the actual project. I got him to glue the large heart to his construction paper when I showed him that he could pour the glue from his dixie cup and then spread it around, rather than neatly apply the glue with Q-tips, like the rest of the class. The foam hearts were lost on him entirely. In contrast, Abby went to town! She colored all over her heart cut-out, used her Q-tip to carefully cover the back with glue, and then did the same to add the foam hearts. All. Completely. Independently.

Abby's

Shawn's (sort of)

Once the Valentines were made, we returned to the ‘Circus’ theme that we’ve been doing for a few weeks. The next project was more fun (even to me). The kids covered the back of a paper plate with yellow, brown, and orange paint using a sponge brush. Then, they glued on eyes, a nose, a mouth (a piece of foam that looked like a packing peanut - ??), and a yarn mane to create a lion. Shawn didn’t care for the painting (so I did that part), but he really got into it when we started added the other features. Again, Abby needed little to no help. She did a great job thoroughly covering the plate with paint, leaving barely any white showing even around the edges. She added facial features on her own, but needed a little help with the mane because the yarn stuck more to her fingers than it did to the plate! I think the final products are among my favorites of all their art projects so far!

Abby's

Shawn's

Then, Ms. LouAnn gave the grownups a choice of either doing a third art project, which she explained may be more challenging than our typical projects, or having more time to play with the toys in the sand/water table. Almost unanimously, we opted for the third project. (I’ve never really understood why there’s so much time at the end of class for play time – we could easily do more projects, or better projects, with that time!) The kids were to use colored foam peanuts to make an elephant on black construction paper. (What? How?) Ms. LouAnn handed out sea sponges and explained that if the peanuts got a little damp, they’d get sticky. (Ooookay…? Still, not understanding what we’re supposed to do.) She also gave us glue. (Alrighty, not sure about this one, but he we go!) Shawn was completely lost, so while he played with the peanuts, I worked with Abby. We arranged the peanuts on her paper trying to shape the body of an elephant, but we weren’t being very successful. Instead, we started over and focused on just an elephant head. We made a long trunk (highlighted with a strip of aluminum foil), big ears, and hopefully, the rest of the head would just emerge as we went. As Ms. LouAnn explained, “The important thing is that the children know it’s an elephant and can tell you about it.” Then, it’s perfect! She knew exactly what it was and could tell me where the ears, nose, eyes, mouth, etc. were. Great job, Kiddo – better than what I would’ve done on my own! It turned out that Ms. LouAnn took the opportunity to help Shawn make his elephant… though the few times I glanced over, it looked like she was doing most of the work. (That made me feel better, since sometimes I wonder if I’m doing too much of the project for him, leading to his disinterest. But, it looked like he was already aloof about it and she just didn’t want him to go home empty handed!)

Abby's

Shawn's

There was still time for Ms. LouAnn to read See the Circus, by M. A. Rey, while the kids had a snack. Rather than our typical Winnie the Pooh cookies, one of the other children brought in Valentine’s Day cookies for everyone. The kids even still had time to play in the toys in the sand/water table, which just turned out to be red air bean bags that they pretended were “Valentines” to exchange with each other…  Glad we did the third project!

Raj and I agreed that we weren’t going to exchange Valentine’s gifts this year. However, I knew he’d still bring something, so I made a present for him – without spending a penny. I took a verse from ‘our’ song (Wonderful Tonight, by Eric Clapton), printed it on velum, layered with some fancy scrapbooking papers, and framed it. I’m glad I did it – it was fun to watch him realize what the verse was.

Raj brought me a lovely bouquet of roses and a very sweet card. He also had a Mylar heart balloon and a box of chocolate turtles, but Shawn claimed them for himself right away. I gave Shawn new toys for the bath tub: a basketball hoop with squirting balls, a motorboat, and a waterproof bath book about opposites. Then, we went out to an incredible dinner at Redstone American Grill (courtesy of a gift card from the team at Artistic Smiles). YUM!  However, as cliche as it may sound, the best part was spending the evening with two of my favorite men.  Cupid's arrows have struck me hard!  (Wish I had captured my two incredibly handsome Valentines on camera, but it didn't occur to me until it was too late!)

I did have Shawn tell Raj what he thought about his bed and why he didn’t want to sleep in it lately. Though a little surprised, Raj agreed that if it’s something Shawn thought he was ready for, then we may as well go for it! Looks like we have a project for this weekend…

St. Martinstag

To celebrate St. Martinstag yesterday, I made a German-ish twist to a Creamy Beef Stroganoff (see the recipe below), sauerkraut, and green beans. Raj & I had some beer from the Galena Brewing Company (not German, but good). We finished the frozen store bought pretzels I had left from Oktoberfest (not the greatest, but they did the trick). I was going to make Apful Kuchen for dessert, but realized too late I only had one apple. It wasn't a big deal, we were full after the pretzels anyway!  We could've done our lantern walk last night, too, but I didn't feel like the lantern was quite done yet and it simply got too late to go before we realized it! 

Creamy Beef Stroganoff (from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

1 (10.5 ounce) can beef consomme 1 tablespoon prepared mustard 8 ounces wide egg noodles, cooked and drained 1 cup sour cream

Directions:

In a skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in flour and salt until blended. Stir in soup, consomme and mustard. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir in the noodles and sour cream; heat through (do not boil).

However, as it usually happens with recipes, I really didn’t follow this too closely.  I left out the extra salt, only had beef bouillon crystals, added some garlic, chopped onions, sliced mushrooms, and parsely, and had to substitute for a lack of sour cream (with a mixture or cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, and lemon juice - thanks to my very handy book Substituting Ingredients: An A to Z Kitchen Reference by Becky Sue Epstein and Hilary Klein).  And, to help boost the German-ish feel, I swapped the wide egg noodles for Spaetzle.  Even with all of the substitutions and deletions from the original, the final dish seemed to be intact.  It turned out pretty well and it was nice to try a different recipe.  (I should’ve reduced the amounts in the sauce though, I have waaaaaay too much left over and no more Spaetzle!)

So, we waited until this evening for the lantern, but we did that part of the St. Martinstag tradition, too. I used a guide to help get me started on a balloon and paper mache lantern, but once I read through it, I remembered that it really is pretty easy.  I only made one lantern, since *ahem!* NO ONE else was interested in helping and I didn't think it was quite reasonable for me to make three alone! (grrrr...) I tried to get Shawn excited about making or at least helping me make a lantern, but he was absolutely not interested at all.  (Sometimes he’s all about getting his hands messy, but lately it seems to turn him off completely. Bummer… in a way.)  Raj used Shawn as his ‘out,’ too.  Oh, well!  I had fun doing it!  Once it was done, Shawn (finally) got excited about it.  He helped Raj find a stick that we could use to attach to the lantern. 

(No, I didn't draw any of those pictures myself, they are clip arts that I've used on our lanterns for the past few years.
Wish I could claim them as my own, but not even close!
After paper mache-ing them onto the balloon, I used permanent markers to dress them up a bit.)

Once it got dark out, Shawn got really excited about going on a walk with the lantern.  Raj did express a little concern about looking strange as we paraded around the neighborhood, but I made sure to point out that Shawn and I had just returned from a short walk and only saw one person the whole time, and besides, who cares?!  The weather was still holding on to a few warm degrees before dropping into Chicago's sub-zero winter that is looming just around the corner. (Though, the gusting winds were a bit tricky at times.)  In past years, we've kept the lanterns inside due to weather.  So, we took advantage of the evening, and it was a lot of fun!  Shawn got even more excited about the lantern when he saw the green glow stick to put inside of it and then watched the whole thing turned into a radiant orb!

 My camera's flash was too bright to get the full effect!

Gusting winds and an excited 2 year old swinging the lantern around made it a bit tough to get focused pictures!

Shawn carried it for the majority of the walk, but I think the long stick got a little awkward to hold and maybe even a little heavy after a few blocks.  When we were almost home, and Shawn was starting to lose interest and slow down, I took the glow stick out of the lantern and the three of us took turns tossing the gleaming rod a few feet ahead of us and then watching Shawn squeal, giggle, and race to retrieve it in the darkness.  NOTE: Glow sticks + outside + night time = FUN!  (Duh!)  Once that happened, there was no way I was going to get the glow stick back into the lantern – even back at home!  So, Raj had fun teaching Shawn ‘light-saber’ sounds and Shawn was his fully-attentive student.

Next year, maybe Shawn will be more willing to get his hands gloopy.  Or, maybe I’ll find another way to make lanterns.  Either way, it’s fun in the end and I’m thrilled to be bringing back some of our old family traditions!

Diwali

Shawn and I started our morning with the last swimming class of this session.  He had a hard time waking up this morning, so I started him easy with a 3-float belt to give him a chance to wake up and enjoy the fun of swimming before making him work too hard.  He was hesitant to get in the water, but once he did and realized he was buoyant, he grinned happily and kicked his feet vigorously to maneuver himself around our lane in the pool.  After a while, I took off the belt to give him a chance to practice more on his own.  He slowed down a bit, but still showed that he could kick and splash with the best of them!  Ms. Brittany gave us a new trick to work on getting Shawn to lift his arms up and out of the water – giving high fives!  He loves high fives, so it worked pretty well to get his arms moving more.  (Though, I think it would work even better if he was working with his favorite, Ms. Becca!)

After class, we played a little while with Tanner and his mom, Kathy, before warming up in the showers.  I think that’s Shawn’s favorite part of the whole swimming lesson!  Once we wrestle his wet swimming shirt and trunks off, he nestles his head onto my shoulder like a newborn and just relaxes as the warm water massages his back.  We cuddle for a little while under the shower and when I ask if he’s all done, he asks for more!  Eventually, we get back to our locker to change into dry clothes.  Shawn loves taking responsibility for throwing away his swimming diaper while I get dressed.  We’ve also started a routine of drying our suits in a centrifuge-style machine.  (When the lid is pressed closed, it spins the water out of the suits.)  As we hold it closed together, we count to ten in English, Spanish, German, or French – Shawn’s choice.  It usually takes a few tries before our suits are reasonably dry, so we get to practice our multi-lingual counting three or four times.  Love it!

After class, we picked up a Freecycled double stroller for a Mothers & More friend of ours.  I also printed two wedding pictures in preparation for an anniversary gift to Raj on Friday.  (I wish I had done this earlier, so I could’ve gotten higher quality prints, but they’ll work for now.  Maybe I can get better prints made and swap them out later.)  When we got home, Raj gave Shawn a real bath before naptime, so he’d be fresh for our Puri Family Diwali party this evening.  Meanwhile, I went to The Great Frame-Up to have our wedding pictures matted and framed.  The choices and combinations were a bit overwhelming, but the woman helping me was very patient.  I think the final products will look really nice.  I’m excited to put them on display!  (Stay tuned!)

In the evening, we went to Kusum Auntie and Gulshan Uncle’s house for Diwali.  (The actual date isn’t until Wednesday, but Saturdays are much easier for large family parties.)  We gathered in the basement for a ceremony of readings and rituals.  (Raj gave cousin Amit the camera, so there's almost a full memory card of pictures!)  The children rang bells and read (or had help reading) verses about the triumph of good over evil.  Then, the food began!  The appetizers alone were enough for a full meal, but of course, there was more!  Shawn was content with the fruit platter from the appetizers, but I was able to sneak in a few bites of dinner, too.  Kusum Auntie distributed gifts to each child (Shawn got a black and white Nike suit) and then set up a row of folding tables for them to work on a project.  The project involved painting a wooden picture frame (Shawn’s was a car) with a palate of paints, a very small paintbrush, a glitter pen, and then decorating it with stickers.  I helped Shawn hold the paints and tried to avoid getting anything on his nice clothes, but I wasn’t completely successful.  Luckily, he listened pretty well as I carried him upstairs to the bathroom sink not to touch anything with his paint splotched hands.  We cleaned off our hands pretty easily, but his shirt will need more help at home or at a dry cleaners.  Oh, well!  He had fun working on his project and that was the whole idea.  (I just wish I had known ahead of time, so I could’ve changed him into a spare outfit I keep in the car!)  The rest of the night, Shawn played with toys and (sometimes) cousins, Raj played poker, and I switched between watching the kids and chatting with the aunts and female cousins who weren’t playing cards. 

I was sure Shawn was going to fall asleep on the way home, but when he didn’t, I was glad I was able to change him into pajamas and brush his teeth before going to bed.  He buried himself under his blankets and listened to a few classic poems from Now We Are Six by A. A. Milne before goodnight kisses and falling asleep. 

[adapted from In the Dark]

We’ll play a lot tomorrow…

We’ll think a lot tomorrow…

We’ll laugh…

a lot…

tomorrow…

Goodnight.

Party 'Till We Drop!

Shawn completely lacked confidence during his swimming lesson today. He clung to me, the wall, or any floating device he could reach – practically white-knuckled. I’m not sure why. Ms. Becca and I agreed, since there’s only one class left in this session, Shawn needs another round of practice at this level, then we could revisit moving him up. Even though there are kids at the Pike level who can’t do some of the things that he can do already, because he’s so young, the director has higher expectations of him in order to move up. Oh, well. I’m disappointed, but I understand, especially after his ‘off’ day today. Another session of Pike with Parent certainly won’t hurt!
After class, we dropped Baron off for grooming. I made beer bread and spinach and artichoke dip (both from Tastefully Simple boxes) for a Mothers & More party this evening. While Shawn finished lunch with Raj, I picked up Baron from grooming. (They got out lots of his shedding fur out of his coat – phew! The fur balls he’s been leaving on the floor were big enough to sprout their own legs!)

I quickly showered and got ready for the Gymboree Pumpkin Patch Party, the first festivity of the evening. Shawn wore the Dalmatian costume that he picked out from the Mothers & More resale. (He’s been reminding us that he didn’t want the lion costume that I showed him that day because he liked the ‘Dalmatian Dog’ better – how does he remember this stuff?!)

At the Pumpkin Patch Party, we saw our friends Andrew (the cow), Alex (the pirate), and a few other faces that we recognized from various classes, but most of the attendees were pretty young in comparison to Shawn. (Probably because the party took place in the late afternoon, so little ones with early bed-times could come to this one.) There were a lot of really cute costumes, including three Tiggers, a Pooh Bear, a dragon, a catepillar, a fire fighter, a lion... the list goes on and on!  Not surprisingly, a few parents (and even a teacher) asked where Abby was and how odd it was to see us without her. We sang songs modified for the Halloween season. Even though the equipment was still set up in the same configuration as the ‘Animals in the Zoo’ theme from last week, they re-named each station to be associated with the holiday and season. We visited an arts and crafts table where Shawn decorated a foam pumpkin and Raj decorated a real one. A little later, we came back to the same room for Halloween cookies and water. On the way out, we said our thank-yous and good-byes to the teachers, who then gave us the rest of the party balloons to take to our next shin-dig!

Then, we headed out to Naperville to the DuPage Children’s Museum for a Mothers & More Fall Family party. We got there an hour early, so we visited a park around the corner to kill the time. It was a little odd having our little Dalmatian running around the playground, but it was a nice day to be outside and his costume kept him warm.

Once the party started, we had the whole place to ourselves. Shawn remembered being at the museum with Oma and with his friend Anna before. (Again, his memory amazes me!) It was fun to show Raj around to the different exhibits, since he’d never been there before. Shawn had no trouble jumping right in to all of the hands-on play-learning. Since it was a private event and we didn’t have to battle the crowds of kids who are normally there, we got to play in the bubbles area and work in the carpentry/handyman room, which we’ve never had a chance to do before. (Raj commented how fun it would be to host Shawn's next birthday there, but was disappointed when I told him that it wouldn't be a totally private event like this was.  We may still look into what a party would entail and if it's even possible, private or not.)  The kids lined up for a costume parade, which zig-zagged around the main floor. (Yet again, we never made it to the other floors, but I heard that there’s not much there and what is there is more directed towards older kids.)

It was a lot of fun. Even without a nap, Shawn did amazingly well. While we were refueling in the snack room, Shawn finally hit the wall. Raj and I joked about him falling asleep before we would get out of the parking lot, but Shawn even beat us to that! He fell asleep before we got out of the museum (~8:00 pm)!

Like last weekend, I wasn’t able to transfer Shawn to bed as smoothly as I had hoped, but since he woke up, I was able to change him from a Dalmatian back into a boy (wearing pajamas). He had a hard time settling down for the night and woke up a few times upset and screaming, but each time, he was later able to tell me, “I’m okay now, Momma.” When he was finally able to fall asleep for the night, it was still just about 9:30 pm.

I’m starting to wonder if we should cut out naps in order to get the early bedtime… 8:00 pm is much more reasonable than 11:00 pm!

Easter Egg Hunt at Loretto Convent

We slept in until 9:30 today - WOW!  When we did wake up, we couldn’t believe how warm and bright it was already.  Raj had the wonderful idea to go out for breakfast, so after quickly getting dressed, we headed to The Brunch Café for… brunch.  It’s the first time we’ve been able to get in because our other attempts have required an hour (plus) long wait for a table.  Though it seemed pretty busy this morning, we only had to wait for fifteen minutes.  Our food was fantastic.  Raj had stuffed potato pancakes with a side of sausage.  Shawn had a bowl of mixed berries (can’t go wrong there!), a bowl of Fruity Pebbles, and bites from our plates.  And, I had a huge Mediterranean omelet with feta, spinach, and sundried tomatoes, with a side of pancakes.  Everything was delicious.  We will definitely be going back… next time we get out in time for brunch!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day today.  It was a perfect day to be outside at the Easter Egg hunt at the convent where Mona works.  (Although, it turned out Mona had a family emergency and wasn’t going to be there this year.)  Actually, it was even a little warm - the thermometer in my car read 86 F!

In the basement of the convent were two rooms set up for the festivities.  One room had various prizes for a silent auction as well as dozens of gift baskets for raffles.  There was also a table of pizza and salad and cookies, but most of that was already gone by the time we got there – it’s a good thing we ate a big breakfast! Down the hall was a room of activities for children.  A series of Easter themed games wound around the room (putt-putt, buckets, ring toss, dig for prizes, etc.) and the Easter Bunny was set up in a corner for pictures.  Shawn was a pretty reluctant about going near the Easter Bunny.  Each time we reached for his hand to encourage him to move closer, he’d duck out of the way.  So, Raj held him and they took the picture together.

Outside, the children lined up by age groups so the youngest ones could have a few moments of a head start so they wouldn’t be trampled by the bigger kids.  There were hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic Easter eggs scattered across the yard of the convent.  The plastic eggs had candy inside, so of all the chocolate ones had turned to mush after baking in the sun for an hour or so before the hunt started.  Any attempt to handle them just resulted in the chocolate seeping out of the wrappers.  Though I suggested putting them in our fridge, Raj didn’t think they’d make it all of the way home without turning to puddles in the car first, so all we brought home were a couple of lifesavers and Tootsie Rolls.  I was disappointed to see the chocolate wasted, but it’s probably for the best.

A little girl, who looked not quite a year old, lost interest in collecting the Easter Eggs when she found a mud puddle created by an old tire track to be much more exciting.  Taking no notice of her mom in the distance making desperate pleas for her to stop, she ran right to the juicy puddle and kicked her feet about making fantastic, brown, sludgy splashes all over her brand new Easter dress.  In her puddle splashing merriment, she lost her balance and toppled over, landing with a great splosh! in the middle of the puddle, covering any remaining inch of her Easter dress with brown goop.  The little girl’s mom was completely frozen with dismay, while she giggled with delight in her glorious mud bath.  Seeing her mom virtually distraught, all I could offer her was a partial pack of wipes that I had in my purse.  I wanted to get her a towel and some clean clothes for her daughter to change into, but my well stocked purse wasn’t quite that accommodating.

After the East festivities at the convent, Shawn napped in the car on our way to Melissa, Tom, and Blake’s house for dinner and a playdate.  We hardly ever see each other since I’m not at Blackhawk anymore, but we’re trying hard to get together when we can.  (It doesn’t help that we live 30-45 minutes away from each other now either!)  Shawn had a great time playing with Blake – and his toys.  Raj and I had a great time catching up with Melissa and Tom.  And, dinner was delicious.  Sure wish we could do it more often!

At bed time, Shawn and I traded places and he "read" me one of his favorites stories, Happy Man and His Dump Truck.  Obviously, he was just looking at the pictures and remembering a few key phrases, but he even read some of it with the same expression that I do.  It was really cute.  I’m hoping to catch it on video sometime!

'Hel-talk-oos' in 'Ooo-neee-nee'

During breakfast, we watched airplanes coming in to land at O’Hare. Even though this happens virtually 24-7, they thought it was pretty fun to announce, “Another airplane!” when they saw a new one in the distance.  Abby kept asking for a “hel-talk-oo” (or as Shawn would say, “het-top-ter” or as I would say, “helicopter”), but we were much too late to catch the traffic copters in the air. 

After breakfast, Shawn and Abby held hands and ran around the living room saying, “Whooo wooo! Choo choo train!”  They were giggling and beaming the whole time.  These two are something else!  Later, they helped me put up Spring and Easter decorations.  We stuck window clings on the front window and mirror, poured plastic eggs into various vases and containers around the house, and hung some miniature decorations of bunnies, birds, and Easter eggs from the dining room chandelier.  They had fun checking out the new décor.

It’s deceivingly pretty outside today: crystal blue sky, hardly any clouds, bright sunshine, little/no wind – but 25 F.  It’s a bit chilly for a walk to the park today.  Rats! Looking forward to the days when we can play outside without going numb - though I’m not a big fan of heat stroke either!

This evening, just to see what would happen, I told Shawn that we live in Chicago, Illinois.  Now, we’re practicing, “Where do you live?” “Ooo-neee-nee”  If he’s ever faced with telling someone where he lives, he’ll definitely need a translator!  Too bad we don’t live somewhere easy like… Hawaii!

When I was putting Shawn down to sleep for the night, he pointed to the freckles on my cheeks.  I told him, “Those are Momma’s freckles.”  He gently tapped them a few times, then leaned in and kissed them on both cheeks!  He made the pucker sound and all!  I couldn’t help it - I almost teared up.  My sweet little man.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Shawn and I dressed in green in honor of today’s holiday.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very green day outside though – it was nice and warm (low 60 F!), but it was grey and threatening to rain all day.  At least we didn’t need coats again today!  But, rather than risk getting caught out in the rain, we played inside and listened to lots of Celtic music!

The Drop-In Story Time at the library resumed this week, so we were excited to get back to it.  We recognized another mom and son from a Northwestern Suburban Families playgroup at the Elk Grove library a few weeks ago, though we had to re-introduce ourselves.  The other mom, Sandra, mentioned that maybe this could become an event for the NWSF members to come to, since free events are always nice to include.  I haven’t been a very active member, so it would be nice if this could be an NWSF event!

The theme for the next few weeks is ‘Going Places’ and today we focused on ‘Going to see Grandparents.’  I thought it was a little odd they didn’t do anything for St. Patrick’s Day, like ‘Going to Ireland’ perhaps! They observed Valentine’s Day and other holidays in the past, but we certainly can’t complain about honoring grandparents on any day of the year!  Anyway, Ms. Nancy read:

·         Grandparents are the Greatest Because… by Adele Aron Greenspun and Joan Swartz

·         Grandfather and I by Helen A Buckley

·         What Grandpas Do Best / What Grandmas Do Best by Laura Numeroff

·         The Grandma Book by Todd Parr

·         The Grandpa Book by Todd Parr

We learned two new rhymes:

Here are Grandma's Spectacles.

Here are Grandma's spectacles, (make circles around eyes)
And here is Grandma's hat, (place hands above head to form a hat)
And here's the way she folds her hands, (fold hands)
And puts them in her lap. (lay hands in lap)

Here are Grandpa's spectacles, (make circles around eyes)
And here is Grandpa's hat, (place hands above head to form a hat)
And here's the way he folds his arms, (fold arms)
And sits down just like that. (lean back and put up feet)

Do It for Grandma/Grandpa
(to the tune of Did You Ever See a Lassie?)

Let’s clap our hands for Grandma, for Grandma, for Grandma,
Let’s clap them this way, clap this way and that way,
Let’s clap them this way, clap this way and that way,
Let’s clap our hands for Grandma,
Let’s clap them this way

Repeat:  Let’s stomp our feet for Grandpa…

Ms. Nancy did a good job on the topic of grandparents, but I was still surprised that St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t even acknowledged!

Abby, Shawn, and I returned home to rekindle our Irish spirits.  We danced to some Celtic music and I found some books about Ireland, St. Patrick, and (of course) harps.  (Ms. Nancy, let me know if you need to borrow anything for next year!)  I even had Celtic music playing in the background while we had lunch.  After dancing our sillies out and then filling our bellies, it was nap time.

Abby woke up and was back to her home before Shawn even woke up.  I went into his room to wake him from his very long nap, only to find him already standing at the railing of his bed, “I had a good nap!”  (I love when he wakes up like this!) 

You could hear some neighborhood kids playing outside, so Shawn said, “I want to play game with boys outside!” and then asked for his football that was on top of his bookshelf, his shoes, and his Spiderman hat (which is in the laundry).  He was quite the determined little boy!  We went outside and he looked at the boys playing football, but didn’t go further than our sidewalk.  Instead, we tried out his tricycle, which has been waiting for him in the garage since he was born, but his legs are still a little too short to push the peddles.  I pushed him instead and that was just as fun.  When Raj came home, Shawn mentioned he wanted to play with the boys again, but this time he actually walked all the way over to them – by himself!  Luckily, they saw him coming and paused their game so Shawn wouldn’t get tackled.  He and Raj watched for a few minutes from a safe distance before getting the mail and delivering it back home, as their usual routine.

For dinner, St. Patrick returned!  I made corned beef, potatoes, and carrots and we drank Harp beer.  For dessert, we had homemade Shamrock Shakes w/ homemade whipped cream and green sprinkles on top.  YUM!

Happy Fasching / Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday!

Happy Fasching / Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday!

I completely forgot today was a holiday until my sister, Jennifer, emailed me pictures from Jonathan’s German school party.  We’ll have to whip something up for dinner to celebrate the occasion… not sure I’ll manage to do (or find) any other traditions for the day.  Maybe I can find some jelly donuts at the grocery store…

I actually heard birds singing outside this morning as Abby, Shawn, and I were on the way to Spanish class.  I’m not convinced that winter is over yet and that the snow is done for the season, but it was a nice change of pace from the howling wind, tip-tap of snow flakes, and grinding scrape of the snow plows that we’ve become so accustomed to this year!

Shawn mentioned Diego’s name a few times this morning while he was getting dressed.  It’s a good thing we had Spanish class today so he could see him!  Today’s Spanish class was about transportation.  (One of Shawn’s favorites.)  We focused on car / el carro, truck / el camión, airplane / el avión, train / el tren, boat / el barco, and bicycle / el bicicleta.  Diego came prepared with a bag of toy cars and little foam airplanes that the kids could play with.  We practiced identifying the colors of the toys and talking about if they went fast or slow.  Diego led us through an adapted version of “The Wheels on the Bus” (one of Shawn's absolutel favorite songs) that covered each of the different modes of transportation:

The Wheels Of The Car / Las ruedas del carro

The wheels of the car go / Las ruedas del carro dan

Round and round. (3x) / vueltas y vueltas. (3x)

The wheels of the car go / Las ruedas del carro dan

Round and round / vueltas y vueltas

All through the city. / por toda la ciudad.

Diego even brought out a large plastic sheet with a town drawn on it, so the kids could drive their cars… “all through the city / por toda la ciudad.”  I think Shawn and Abby recognized the tune, but they weren’t so sure about the words to this version.  Just before snack time, Shawn was right on cue when we played hands up (manos arriba), down (manos abajo), in front (manos al frente), and in back (manos atrás).  They got pretty excited about playing the game today.  Both Abby and Shawn were funny, as usual, when Diego was checking their hands to see if they were clean (limpio) or not (sucios) before snack time.  Each student in turn would stretch out her hands for Diego to “smell” them, to which he’d respond, “[Snif, snif, snif] Ewwwww… yucky, yucky!  Las manos están sucias!”  That always gets a round of giggles from the kids.  Then, he helps the parents ask the kids if they’d like a wet-wipe napkin to clean their hands.  We sing a song to clean our hands and then to clean the table because “la mesa está sucia!” To the tune of Hurrry, Hurry, Drive the Firetruck, it’s something along the lines of:

Clean, clean, clean the hands (table) / Limpie, Limpie, Limpie las manos (la mesa)

Clean, clean, clean the hands (table) / Limpie, Limpie, Limpie las manos (la mesa)

Clean, clean, clean the hands (table) / Limpie, Limpie, Limpie las manos (la mesa)

Then eat! / Entonces comer!

Once the table was clean, Diego handed each student a picture of a bicycle.  Then we helped them attach construction paper circles with brads, so the wheels could “go round and round / vueltas y vueltas” as we sang the song a few more times about a bicycle / bicicleta this time.  (I felt like it was a bit of a tongue twister, though that could’ve just been me!)

Diego forgot to end class with the nursery rhyme song, See You Tomorrow / Hasta Mañana.  Though we always want class to go a little longer than it actually does, I wasn’t about to bring up the song that I stumble over each week!  It was a nice break.  I’m looking forward to when a new nursery rhyme is introduced.  It feels like we’ve been working on this one for months!

Dr. Booth called today from Aurora University to ask if I'd teach a course this summer - Reading in the Content Areas. The problem is it's 8 am - 4 pm for a week about 45 minutes away, so it completely conflicts with watching Abby and I’d need someone to watch Shawn the whole time, too.  She knows that I'm babysitting/nannying, so I mentioned that if they could give me 6 classes in order to get benefits, I'd have more to consider. She's working on schedules and placements now, so she said she'll see what she could come up with, but wasn't sure she had the availability right now. We'll see if that gets me anywhere - I won’t hold my breath!