Our weekend got off to an early and sort of rough start. Can you see how red Gavin’s cheeks are (and how sad his eyes look) in the photo? He had a nasty fever on Thursday and Friday with no other symptoms. We think it was related to teething, but it meant he had to stay home from daycare. I took long walks with him both days and worked a bit on Thursday afternoon when he took a monster 4-hour nap. We also went outside in the late afternoons and waited for Sweets to come home from work.

We wound up skipping our soccer class and cancelling Saturday brunch plans, because Gavin had a terrible night of sleep on Friday, meaning he was up from 1am-4am. So, when he finally fell asleep, we wanted to let him sleep as long as his body needed. By the time he woke up at 10am, he was feeling much better.

Sweets and I have been researching bike trailers for Gavin. We tend to buy bigger ticket sporting items from REI, because (a) they do a lot of research for us, so we can trust the products they sell and (b) they have an amazing return policy. We checked out one trailer at an REI store in the city, but it was on the (super) expensive side, so we decided to do a little more research and think about it a bit more before making the purchase.

Then came this weekend, when REI had a massive sale plus an extra 20% off one regularly priced item for members. We decided to travel to a suburban REI to check out another (much less expensive) model that they carry. This is Sweets’ domain, so I let him talk to the sales guy, while I picked out a helmet for Gavin (yes, that’s a big smiley face on his helmet!). After Sweets filled me in on their conversation, I left the decision up to him. We walked away with a new bike trailer, a helmet for Gavin and biking jerseys for Sweets and me.

We then headed out to Sweets’ parents house. Sweets spent a couple hours assembling the trailer. As you can see from the photo above, there are wheels on the front, too. Those wheels remain in the upright position when the trailer is attached to a bike, but can be easily switched down to make the trailer into a stroller (because, you know, we needed a FOURTH stroller to add to our collection!). Don’t let Gavin’s seeming indifference fool you, either. He actually LOVED the trailer, probably because we gave him a bag of Cheerios to eat while we rode.

Speaking of a ride, we went on a great 15-mile ride with Sweets’ parents on Saturday late afternoon. We followed portions of the Illinois Prairie Path and the Great Western Trail before finishing  up our ride at a local eatery for dinner (there’s nothing quite like a post-workout meal!). Although there were a few gaffs to the day—Sweets’ dad collided with another cyclist (thankfully both were OK) and Sweets made the trailer ride over the base to a lamp post (not once, but twice), forcing the trailer to do a wheelie each time (Gavin nervously laughed, but was fine)—overall, the ride was a blast and we look forward to more long rides this summer (let it be noted: since we decided to go with an expensive (to us) model, I told Sweets we are booking specific days each month for bike rides, to make sure we get as much use out of this trailer as possible!).

Sunday was a crazy whirlwind day (because, clearly Saturday was our relaxed day – ha!). We went to a huge neighborhood-wide garage sale looking for one thing (a tricycle with a post at the back, allowing parents to help guide the bike – they retail in the hundreds of dollars, which is ridiculous!) and wound up buying two things: said tricycle ($35) and a small collapsible chair for cookouts and camping ($5). I’d say that was a win!

After walking around the neighborhood garage sale, we raced over to a birthday party for one of the kids in Gavin’s class. They had a woman singing songs and leading activities for the kids, which helped divert Gavin’s attention away from the juice boxes (he’s never had one) and the cake (he doesn’t need it). Me, too! We left the party early, so we could go to Gavin’s music class. Apparently, a very tired Gavin = non-stop Gavin in class. It was a fun class. After lunch, Gavin crashed. Daddy did dishes. And Mama went grocery shopping. Near suppertime, Sweets went to play soccer and I took Gavin on a walk with our neighbor and her daughter to grab an early dinner.

Another weekend and another “where did the time go?!” come Sunday night. Seriously, I need a vacation. Good thing we have a long weekend coming up!!

Thursday, my parents flew from Boston to Chicago. On different airlines, arriving at very different times. My mom stayed with us Thursday night, while my dad stayed in a hotel. Weird, given they’re still married, still live together and are still on speaking terms. My dad stayed in Chicago less than 24 hours for a conference, while my mom spread out her stay until Sunday to see all her grand-babies.

Friday evening, Sweets, Gavin and I grabbed dinner with a high school bestie, also visiting from Boston. Funny enough, our parents live across the street from each other. And my parents adore her. But, since they see her in Boston, there was no dire need to see her in Chicago. Trust me, though, my parents are likable people.  =)

Saturday, my mom joined us at Gavin’s soccer class. This was also the first time Sweets got to participate in class. Like last week, Gavin refused to complete one of the first activities, thereby exhausting Sweets (who did it for him). Other than that, it was a fun class and Sweets is glad we signed up. Once again, Gavin was exhausted by the end (so were we!).

We went to REI to go shopping without spending money (where’s the fun in that?!). We’re shopping for bike trailers, so we can go cycling with Gavin this summer. Gavin was immediately drawn to the bike helmets (no surprise, since he plays with Sweets’ at home all the time) and kid bikes (too bad his feet can’t reach the pedals). Did you know you can easily drop a grand on bike carriers? We’ve picked a model we like (hint: it doesn’t cost $1,000) and we’re waiting to buy it until next weekend when our 20% off coupon activates.

That afternoon, while Gavin was napping, Sweets and I decided to catch a quick nap. Assuming, Sweets would nap like he normally does (less than 30 minutes), I didn’t set an alarm. Bad move. Gavin woke us up over 2 hours after we fell asleep and, more importantly, 10 minutes before family and friends were supposed to begin arriving at our place for dinner.

Good thing they’re not a super prompt bunch. We managed to shower and clean up before anyone arrived. After dinner, we left Gavin and his cousins with a sitter, while the adults went to see a great rendition of Rent (so says the girl who doesn’t really like musicals)!

Sunday, Gavin slept until 9am (score!), allowing plenty of time for Sweets and me to clean the kitchen from our house full of guests the previous night. We met my mom, nieces and their mamas at my aunt’s house for brunch. It was a downright beautiful day, so we spent a bunch of time outside blowing bubbles, playing hide-n-seek and exploring the greenery. It was a fun chance to take out my camera for some official May photos.

After brunch, my mom came with us to Gavin’s music class, where he was essentially a non-participant until the teacher pulled out blocks for building (while singing London Bridge) and Gavin was the first kid to knock down the tower.

Our last stop of the day was Sweets’ parents house. We had a mid-afternoon cookout with them and lots more playing and exploring outside. I sort of checked out here and hung out inside by myself. I was utterly exhausted from coordinating and participating in all the weekend events. From there, we dropped off my mom at the airport, returned to the city and tried to get ready for the week ahead.

And that’s all she said. I leave you with a link (because I’m also posting today on Lisa’s Expandng blog) and a piece of Gavin from Monday morning, when I realized his new (to us) track suit fits well enough to wear to daycare.

But, that’s ok. Because, he’s the kind of kid who gets over things easily and moves on. Bath time is especially fun.

The early bird gets the worm. If the saying is true, then our family has an endless supply of worms, because we got an early start to both days this weekend. Saturday, we met Sweets’ folks for breakfast before we all got a sneak peak at the new children’s hospital they’re about to open downtown (Sweets’ current hospital is moving locations to a brand new building).

The hospital is really amazing. One of the things that stood out to me is how much they considered patients and their families during the design process. Private rooms are the norm. They have teamed up with local organizations to illustrate themes throughout the hospital, such as the underwater mural (thanks to the local aquarium) on a wall in the CT scanner room. There are train scenes, farm scenes, outer space scenes, zoo scenes and more built into the hallways, nursing centers and waiting areas of the hospital. They say if a child can focus on something that’s soothing, they’ll need less anesthesia and recovery times are shorter. There is part of a floor devoted to families, including a kitchen and eating area, large lounge, TV that will be hooked up to cable as well as games, business center and a meeting space for support groups.

There are amazing open spaces throughout the hospital, too. There is one lobby space on the 11th floor (I think) with floor to ceiling windows, a bamboo garden, amazing colored walls, benches made out of wood and lots of light. Gavin could’ve spent hours exploring this space. I was honored to be a part of the hospital’s extended family and to be allowed to take a look at the new space before it opens to the public in June. As we took the tour, I kept saying, “This space is really amazing; may this be the last time I ever have to see it!” At least I know, though, if Gavin does ever have to go to the hospital, he will receive top care.

The Chicago Children’s Museum is in the same neighborhood as the new hospital, so after our tour, we headed over to the museum to let Gavin have some play time. We went to another children’s museum in the burbs earlier this year and I’ve got to say I think I liked that one better. The Chicago museum is very vertical (i.e., spread out on a number of floors) and doesn’t really flow very well from one room to the next. Gavin was pretty tired by the time we got there, so we spent an hour playing and then headed home.

We wish Gavin napped more on Saturday, but he just wasn’t having it. He slept for 30 minutes in the car, ate lunch and slept for maybe another 45 minutes at home. Thankfully, our Saturday night plans were on the early side with friends. We checked out a new restaurant in our hood and all gave it thumbs up.

Sunday was another early rising day. We were off to meet Gavin’s preemie twin and his family for the March for Babies. Our team raised almost $1,400 in a matter of weeks. Last year, our boys were only 6 months old when we did this walk, so they were happy to be in their strollers. This year? There came a time during the walk (a little more than halfway through) when the boys decided enough was enough. They wanted out of their strollers!

We took what we thought would be a short break to let the boys stretch their legs. That short break became a longer break of playing along the waterfront, which led to a funny conversation about being the last people in the walk (seriously, no one was behind us) and how we could just walk back to our friends’ place and call it a day.  And, ummm, that’s exactly what we did. During our walk back towards our friends’ place, we might have come across an entirely different walk and had to cross the finish line of that walk. So, technically we did finish, even if it was for a different race. ha!

We realized our boys had both fallen asleep (as you can see in our photo above – we reclined Gavin’s stroller seat, so he could sleep) and wanted to find a place to eat where we could let them sleep (rather than a place that requires us to fold up our strollers and/or puts them in a coat room). As we were making our way towards the restaurant, our friend was stopped by the local NBC news to comment about the impact the NATO meetings will have on his neighborhood. We were all snickering, because none of us wanted to be interviewed (if you look closely, you can see Sweets smirking as he walked as far away from the camera as possible without being rude). Our friend took one for the team.

Lunch was a blast. The restaurant is huge and was practically empty. We chose a corner where we could park our strollers next to our table. Gavin’s preemie twin was up the entire time, but Gavin’s two-hour stroller nap meant he slept through half the meal. Though, once he got up, he was read to play!

Because lunch was a leisurely affair, we spent a couple hours at the restaurant. While we were at lunch, we noticed helicopters flying overhead, police blocking off the street and a bunch of news crews (including the one who stopped us a few blocks away). It turns out the subway (which is above ground at this location) jumped the tracks. We were there to see the passengers escorted off the train and a huge crane begin to right the two subway cars that were off the track. It was quite the eventful morning!

After we parted ways with our friends, we went grocery shopping and went home. I made Lisa’s chicken, white bean, tomato and spinach dish for dinner (yummy – though I might alter the recipe a bit for the next time), read a bit after dinner (I am getting down to the wire to finish my April book – yikes!) and went to bed a very exhausted gal. Sweets and I both agreed that it was most definitely alright to be the early birds in order to have such a great weekend!

]]> http://somispeaks.com/2012/05/01/worms/feed/ 11 http://somispeaks.com/2012/04/17/gas/ http://somispeaks.com/2012/04/17/gas/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:50:01 +0000 SoMi's Nilsa http://somispeaks.com/?p=5981 Our weekend started with gas. To be more specific, our weekend started with Major Gas. Not the kind of gas you put in a car. Nor the kind of gas you use to heat your home or to cook food. Nope, I’m talking about human gas. Yes, I’m going there.

When I picked up Gavin from daycare, there was an asterisk on his daily report … next to the asterisk was written “Major Gas.” I laughed and mentioned it to the teacher. I said, “So, I hear Gavin was toot toot tooting all day?” Her response was priceless: “Gavin wasn’t tooting all day. He had serious gas. Of the adult variety!” She was laughing as she said it, but I knew the underlying message was to cut out so much fiber in Gavin’s diet. hahaha.

Saturday was an insanely long day. We went to the suburbs and spent some time with Sweets’ parents. Then, his mom and I took off for a bridal shower in support of a family friend. Sweets picked me up early from the shower, because we had to race back to the city. We hosted good friends and my nieces and their mamas.

Five kids all under the age of five were racing around our house with an energy I’m not sure I could ever replicate. There was banging and screaming and crying (only a little) and lots and lots of taking turns. There were marching bands and chauffeured wagon rides. And, somewhere in there, the adults tried to chitty chat and eat and have a good time. (BTW, this photo was taken at the end of the night as meltdowns were imminent – I don’t know how one of the nieces’ mamas wrangled the kids to cooperate for this shot!)

Everyone left by 7:30 and I was asleep with Gavin by 8:30. Sweets woke me up at 10, when I brushed my teeth and promptly went back to bed. I was exhausted!

We tried to balance out a lazier Sunday with our chaotic Saturday. We had plans to hang around the house Sunday morning, until Gavin decided he wanted to play with the dirt of my potted plants. Totally not acceptable … unless we rounded up the troops and headed out to the yard, where I could do some much-needed weeding and Sweets could introduce rollie-pollies and milipedes to Gavin. We also made it to Gavin’s music class, which is always fun. After class, Gavin and Sweets napped while I went to the gym (where I got my butt whipped by a new workout routine) and went grocery shopping. After Gavin’s post-nap meal, we spent a little more time outside (at Gavin’s request). Sweets took off for a soccer game; Gavin and I had dinner together; and, I let Gavin watch a few Rodrigo y Gabriela videos before starting his bedtime routine.

Gavin is teething (again!), so my sleep at night has been very much interrupted. I started off the week tired. But, even when he’s sleeping well, that seems to be the norm. Our weekends are full … full of activity, full of loved ones, full of fun. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Friday after work, I was supposed to meet up with a girlfriend to go for a run (we are both re-entering the world of running and were going to suffer through a run together). Of course, margaritas sounded much more fun than running, so that’s what we did.

Saturday, we were up and out of the house by 8:30. As we were heading out to see Sweets’ family, we saw this billboard:

Ummm, yeah. Do you get it? It was hard to contain my giggles.

After brunch with Sweets’ family, we met with our tax accountant (sounds super official, doesn’t it … does the tune change if I tell you our accountant is one of Sweets’ childhood friends?). And, then we headed out to the far suburbs to see friends. It was wonderful watching Gavin follow our friends’ two-year old, marching on the fire pit wall (no fire in the pit, thank you very much). It was also hilarious watching friends of our friends – their son putting vinyl dinosaur stickers up on the window, only to have Gavin take them down. At one point their son said NOOOOOO to Gavin and shook his finger at him, though it might have been unrelated to the stickers.

When we got home, we didn’t forget to change our clocks.

Sunday, we had a lazy morning (Gavin seemed unphased by the time change). We went to his noon music class and let him nap in the car afterwards while we dropped off donations, dropped off recycling and went grocery shopping (one of us stayed in the car with him while the other went shopping). After a late lunch, we could not deny the weather. It was in the 60s and sunny – that never happens in March in Chicago! So, off to the park we went – it was a great day for a walk (turns out it was 68°!).

Gavin and I went to the playground, while Sweets and SoMi loitered around the perimeter (dogs aren’t allowed within the gated playground). Gavin loved the slide. I cursed them – they’re plastic and I kept shocking Gavin if I’d go down the slide with him. I guess it’s better than the alternative, super hot metal slides in the summer. After a bit, I walked SoMi around the block while Sweets played with Gavin on the playground.

Once we tired of the playground (that is, Sweets and I – Gavin could’ve stayed there for HOURS), we took out Gavin’s new soccer ball and let him play with it. Unfortunately, the dog and other kids were way more interested in the ball. We made our way over to an open field to let Gavin explore. It was here, we ran into one of the families in Gavin’s music class. The boys played and we chatted with them for a bit – turns out the husband and I know quite a few people in common (small world!).

On our way home from the park, we ran into one of our neighbors walking her dog (the dog is one of SoMi’s favorite buddies). She turned around and walked home with us, so we could let the dogs play in the front yard. Gavin did his best to avoid the two rambunctious dogs, though he did get knocked to the ground once.

By the time we walked in our front door, it was 6pm and we had been outside for over 3 hours. What a day! We’ve decided that one of our goals this summer is to do something outside every weekend. Whether it’s spending time at the park, going to a local beach or going for a bike-ride … it’s important for all of us to get outside more. (Plus, last night? Gavin slept like a rock – we like nights like that!)