A Quick Visit to Chicago

Over memorial day weekend we got to go out to Chicago for my sisters wedding. I was excited to see my family, but less excited about the 3+ hour flight. Thompson isn't really the hold-still-in-your-lap-type of kid. Despite this, he did great for his first plane trip and even fell asleep in my lap as we were taking off. By the end of the day though, he was exhausted and ready for some snuggles from his grandma. 

After a nap on the way home from the airport, he was ready to play with his cousin Ethan and uncle Jonathan.

It was amazing how much fun he seemed to have in a crazy noisy house. He would just sit and watch the other boys play all day. Sorry kid, you won't be getting a sibling anytime soon.

We were only there for the long weekend and it was a little busy with all the wedding stuff going on, but we loved every minute. I even found time for the outlet mall, Steak n' Shake, and Panera (Portillo's - I am coming for you at christmas time). These are the foundations of any good trip back to the Naperville. And of course there was lots of time with the fam. Even though he hasn't spent a lot of time with them, Thompson seems to have a special place in his heart for my family and always warms up to them right away.

We were sad to leave them so soon. The only good part about leaving - an extra seat on the flight home! That was something we were all happy about.

Spiders shouldn't be allowed to exist.

Here's a horrifying story for you.

Yesterday I was taking a shower while Thompson played in the bathroom by me. When I finished, I got out to dry off, and looked down to see what my little boy was up to.

And then I screamed. Because when I looked down, instead of just seeing his cute little smiley self, I saw a GIANT spider crawling across his cute little smiley self. Not some tiny little thing, one of those huge, hairy, nasty guys. The kind I normally make Trevor deal with because they creep me out. Trevor was at work though, and this spider was crawling ON MY BABY. I don't like touching spiders with my bare hands, but I guess my maternal protectiveness outweighed any disgust because without thought I went to get this spider off my child. When I went to flick it off his tummy, the spider ran up his chest, back to his neck, and started crawling down his shirt.

At this point, I was screaming again. I was also dripping water all over my child because I hadn't dried off. The poor boy had a look of terror in his eyes, not from the the spider, but from seeing his mom act all crazy. I thought back to the 5th grade when we learned about brown recluse spiders and how my teacher showed us nasty pictures of people who had been bitten by one and how I was afraid of any spider I saw for like a year after that. What if it was a brown recluse on my baby? What if I angered it by flicking it and it was going to bite him now? Irrational thoughts - maybe. Being a mom makes you irrational sometimes. While I thought all this, I grabbed Thompson and knocked the spider off just before it disappeared under his shirt. Then I smashed it a million times under the rug and calmed down my baby.

I am not afraid of spiders normally, there was just something about one crawling on my little boy that really freaked me out. I made Trevor spray for spiders the second he came home. If spiders have to exist in this world, at least they shouldn't exist in my house. 

All you need to know about U.S. geography.

I stumbled upon this most accurate of maps on pinterest the other day. I am saving it so I can one day teach Thompson all he really needs to know about U.S. geography.

It must be summer...

...because we went swimming...

 

...and the little boy tried to drink all the pool water...

...and because we are loving us some watermelon...

...and because we can finally play outside and enjoy some warm weather...

...which is good because the little boy loves being outside...

...even if nature makes him go a little cross-eyed.

This is what happened when Thompson spent a day playing with his cousin and uncle.

We went to Chicago this past weekend for my sister's wedding. More on that later. But I discovered why I should keep Thompson away from other children. After about a day of watching his 4 year old cousin and 11 year old uncle playing and moving all around him, he decided he wanted to move around like them too. So he did. He might not be the most coordinated yet, but luckily we got him back to our boring one child house before he wanted to run around like the other kids. And yes, our child is easily bribed by a cup of water.

You're killing me, smalls.

This little boy wants to move. Bad. He hasn't quite figured out the whole crawling thing yet, but he has figured out ways to move around enough to get himself into quite the predicaments. More often than not I set him down only to find him a few minutes later like this:

Or this:

Or this:

He has developed quite a skill for getting himself stuck under furniture. And bonking his head on the furniture. And the wood floors. So I am little nervous about what will happen when he actually learns how to crawl.

Luckily, he has yet to figure out the secret to moving forward. He can move in circles and scoot backwards on the wood floors pretty well, but moving forward seems a little too complicated for now. He can stay on all fours if I set him there, but lunges forward to move almost immediately.

And he can't figure out how to get on all fours by himself either. Believe me, its not for lack of trying though. Unfortunately, the push up position isn't helping out his crawling skills any, but it is one of his new favorite tricks.

For now, I am okay with him not being able to figure out how to crawl. He is already getting himself into too much trouble. I wish we could work on hand-eye coordination a little more though.

Spring Breaking and Tulip Festivaling

A few weeks ago Trevor's students had spring break, which meant he got to take spring break too. He also had finished up another semester of his graduate program and had some time before spring term started, so he was both school-less and work-less for the week. It was pretty much an amazing week full of doing nothing but spending time together. I want spring break to be every week.

On one of the days when the weather was actually semi-spring like, we went down to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. We had been 2 years ago together but we thought it would be fun to take the little child this year.

It was still a little chilly and a some of the tulips hadn't bloomed yet because of how cold it had been, but it was at least sunny and there were still tulips aplenty. We also had lunch at the cafe there, which had some really delicious food. Grilled cheese sandwich with avocado, tomato, and goat cheese. Yum.

Thompson loved being outside too. When he is in a new place, he is really good because he is so fascinated by new things that he just quietly takes it all in. And when he is outside, there is a whole lot of newness to take in.

 

 

Some more tulip festivaling goodness:

Could this boy be any sweeter?

Seriously, he is the sweetest little boy. Every morning he greets me with the biggest smiles and snuggles. Unless he gets too tired or hungry, he is a happy wiggly little goof.

Adding to the happiness of all 3 of us - his bottom teeth finally popped through! I feel like he has been teething for a few months, so a few weeks ago when we first noticed a tooth coming through we were pretty relieved. The second one showed up just this last week. I am going to miss his gummy smile, but I think a smile with two little teeth showing is going to be pretty cute too.