The Day-Trip to Chicago

We went to Chicago last Wednesday for a Cubs game. As any of you who know me might know, I'm a huge Cubs fan. It was going to be a late night, so we left Christopher at home (although he WILL make a Cubs game before he's 4) and headed off to the windy city. We had a few opportunities to get tickets for the game, but we opted not to spend the $80/ticket it would have cost us to get in. We were happy with that decision for a few reasons:

- the Cubs got rocked 12-3 by the Phillies
- we were able to see and spend time with my wife's cousins from Indiana and some from Philly
who were there to watch the Phillies
- I got to spend a lot of qualty time with my cousin, Janense

So we chilled out at Captain Morgan's outside of Wrigley Field's right field corner, had some good food, some overpriced drinks, and excellent catching up and conversation with friends and family. It was really a good time.

Below: Pictures of Chicago's skyline from the interstate


Below (clockewise from left to right; all pictures from Lake Shore Dr.): A sign for Lake Shore Dr., the busiest, but most beautiful route through Chicago. Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears. The Shedd Aquarium, located next door to Soldier Field. The Field Museum. The fountain at Grant Park. Navy Pier and the HUGE ferris wheel.


Pictures from Wrigley Field
Clockwise from top left: The front of Wrigley Field (you'll see they were off to a great start), Captain Morgan's Club outside of Wrigley's right field bleachers, The Wrigley Rooftops (located across Sheffield Ave. behind right field), The Cubby Bear (locally famous Wrigleyville bar), Harry Carey's (another locally famous Wrigleyville Bar), and the statue of Harry Carey outside of Wrigley Field (its honestly a bit on the creepy side).



Below (clockwise from left to right): Colleen, Me, Ducky (hopefully a nickname), Barb, Theresa, Jim (not a family memeber, but we apparently included him in the picture), Kelly (Col's Indiana cousin), Ed, Janene (my cousin who lives in Chicago), and Trish (Col's other Indiana cousin)

Below: Me and my cousin, Janene

Below (left to right): This was a man with duct tape. He spent about 2 hours setting up a booth selling those stuffed monkeys with long arms that velcro together so you can wear it around your neck. He was knelt behind me with a very long extention chord and duct tape, which initially creeped me out until he told me his motives (using an outlet that was located in a post behind me). He plugged in the extention chord, then drug it about 20 feet along the ground, laying 2-feet at a time, then covering it with duct tape to prvent tripping (I suppose) -- repeating this action until he reached his booth. He got his booth all situated, openned for business, and sold maybe 3 stuffed monkeys. It was quite a display to behold. A Philadelphia Phillies fan's t-shirt...so what? 2 more Phllies fans that my wife's cousin randomly took because she liked their jerseys.

A Day of Food

Today started off with a nice breakfast with the Keenan family. I went out and got bagels from Panera and some cream cheese. I made some coffee and we all sat around catching up and conversing.

After breakfast and Christopher's crazy 4 1/2 hour nap, the three of us had to get out of the house. We opted for a late lunch, a trip to the local mall (University Park Mall), and a dessert at one of our favorite local shops. But before all that went down, we had to make sure he was looking sharp.

(above: pre-hair gunk, below: post-hair gunk)

Lunch was at La Fiesta Tampatia. We used to go there weekly for a good-tasting and inexpensive dinner. We were regulars there and most of the wait staff remembered us and were surprised to see our new edition. Of course, he's so cute that no one can resist his infectious charms. We discovered that he really likes Mexican food...at least thus far.

(pictures in order from left to right: Christopher signing "eat"; unable to sit still, we've learned adaptive methods for making sure Christopher gets food in his gullet; Christopher eating like a normal child - I suppose we should let him try to feed himself, but we're not doing it so much in public because he's still a hot mess with the fine-motor skills; Christopher showing the waitress his "belly", and then Christopher showing us his "belly")

After that we went to the University Park Mall and got Christopher a Chicago Bears and Cubs outfit respectively. We didn't have much opportunity for any photo opportunities there, so there will be none. We then visited the South Bend Chocolate Company...I know you'll never believe this, but Christopher apparently loves sherbert, cheesecake, AND chocolate covered fruit. Crazy, no?


Oh, and guess who found his nose?

South Bend Trip - 1st Leg

The first day of our trip to South Bend, IN, was mostly driving the 12 hour haul from Levittown. Christopher did pretty well on the long drive...slepts a little, played a little, screamed a little, ate a little, drank a little, and pooped a lot. He got to enjoy the wonderful comfort that was offered by his new luxury car seat (we got on clearance at Babies 'R' Us for almost 50% off!). We met up with my wife's family in Indiana (we're staying at one of her cousin's houses) and, at least thus far, good times have been had by all. We'll keep some postings coming as things go....

Cute Pictures, Touchdowns, High-Fives, and Bye-Byes, and Bathtime Excitement

A 1:00 video of 1.) his progressive destroying of our house, 2.) Daddy's love of baseball, 3.) Christopher having some fun, and 4.) How quickly Christopher changes moods...he is his father's son. (that was more complicated than it really needed to be, wasn't it?)


We've had some milestones...Christopher, not showing much success in adapting to the difficulties of "scooping to the mouth, was transitioned to the use of the fork. He did show much more success with that as it doesn't require as many finely-tuned and intricate movements to find success.

The Spoon = scoop food, bring non-secured food to mouth being careful to syncronize the movement of the wrist and forearm towards the mouth. We found little success with the spoon thus far. (See earlier blogpost: "How to Use a Spoon", July 1, 2009, 6:33 p.m.)

vs.

The Fork = stab then insert in mouth, then celebration. We found a much higher degree of success (not to get too excited...its not like he's twisting spaghetti around the fork or anything). He does still require some assistance with the actual jabbing part, but he's got the bring to the mouth and eat part down pat!



!!!!TOUCHDOWN!!!!

!!!!YYYYEEEEAAA!!!!

Here are just some pictures I thought were comical....

1.) He looks like some kind of television talk show host who has just asked someone on a panel a tough question as if he's all ears...well, aside from the fruit gunk all over his grill.

2.) "This one's for my peeps" Enough said.




A video showing his excitement at bathtime. The boy loves his bath, what can I say? Note, again, his toys all over the place. Daddy got in some trouble, too, for not putting the new roll of toilet paper on the roll after finishing the old roll....and he's man enough to admit that.


He's also learning his animals, although this is an admittedly slow process. He can bark like a dog
("oof"), buzz like a bee, and growl like a tiger (depicted below). Of course, it takes a lot of prompting on our part and cooperation/desire on his part, but he is abile to make the sounds when he chooses to do so.



And, finally, just some cute pictures...note the 3rd picture in this series (orange t-shirt). He's got 1 molar through completely, another pierced this morning (his lower right and lower left respectively). We think the upper 1-year molars might be trying to push through too. He's been a drool machine.

After the Hazelton, PA, visit, we headed straight away to a fire pit party held at Aunt Bet's house. Christopher got to stay up a bit later than usual because his naptimes were all askew due to the traveling (Hazelton is about a 2-hour drive from Levittown). We arrived at Aunt Bet's around 8 p.m. and hung out for a bit. Christopher and I left the swaree around 10 p.m. (we were both plum tuckered) or so. Colleen opted to stay for a bit (she had apparently had a second wind). Here are some pics from the party after the party.

Hazelton, PA Graduation Party

Saturday, we drove up to Hazelton, PA, for a graduation party. My father-in-law's cousin's oldest daughter graduated high school and there was a big throwdown in their back yard for her. It was a nice party. Hazelton, for those who don't know, was one of the coal-mining towns in the "Upstate Pennsylvania". Since no one's really mining coal anymore, many of the small towns in the area have all but collapsed. Many of the towns, in order to survive, have had to create subsidized and low-income housing to maintain any population and, therefore, revenue. Much of the demographic has changed from middle-working-class whites to migrant-working Latino/Latino families. I have no idea about any of the other demographic information, but I figure for most of the "natives" of the area, at least from what I observed, aren't exactly happy with the way the towns seem to be moving. There was a big tourist-town called Jim Thorpe (yes, named after the famous Olympian of folklore) that seemed to be doing quite well for itself. The area, overall, is beautiful. The mountains make for an astonishingly serene paranormic that has few rivals (this observation from my travels around the Americas). I was, unfortunately driving at the time, so I didn't get the opportunity to take any pictures of the landscape, but I will remedy that some time.

Anyway, this post wasn't meant to be a social commentary of Upstate Pennsylvania. It was, however, so show off my kid...so show him off I shall. These were photos from the party. Christopher with his Uncle Patrick and some with Daddy.

First Official Time Out

[Text]

"Guess who's in Time Out?"

"What did he do?"

"He grabbed the cat by her ear and yanked her off of the window sill."

"Did she tag him?"

"No."

"She should have."

"I don't know why she hasn't yet."

...and the text conversation ended.

Colleen did good though, she got a photographic memoir of the actual "time out" as it was...and, as you will see, its effectiveness...

As you can see....it started off well enough...then it...well, you see how it went...