On Memorial Day our friends the Longs left for a 2-4 year adventure in Singapore.
Eric accepted a job transfer. It's very exciting for them - except for the 17-hr plane ride.
We will miss them dearly, and wish them all the happiness life may bring.
When they come back, I hope to pick up our friendship where we left off.
Perhaps both Kaya and Ash will teach the kids some Chinese.

Violet in silent repose...it doesn't happen often.

Go Cubbies

On Memorial Day we had the good fortune of taking the kids to Wrigley. It was a gorgeous day even a little on the warm side. Violet and Jack split a ballpark frank AND some cotton candy (although I think Dad helped out on the latter). On the way in one of the ushers handed us a couple of coloring books and some crayons and boy around the 8th inning of a 1:15 game they sure came in handy. Jack did not manage to hang in the seats for too much of the game, he needed to roam with mom. However Violet and Dad hung out in the stands until the 7th inning stretch. Violet really dug the game; when the crowd clapped, she clapped; when the crowd cheered she said "yayy." She actually did really well and I think by next season we might all be able to enjoy the game together. The kids crashed hard that night and I said yayy!

8 down! . . . . 42 to go!

Kicking off our busy past week, Ron and I celebrated our 8th anniversary. So many changes in those 8 years (and the preceeding 7 we had before making it legit). How I love that man....thanks for the good times, the wild ride and our 2 beautiful kids.

1st HAIRCUT!!

Violet and I decided we were tired of defending Jack's manliness and so a haircut was in order. Ron being the enterprising guy that he is, decided to give it a whirl. Check out the results.

Land of McMansions

On Friday I loaded the kids in the gas guzzler and drove out to the suburbs where Aunt Sharon's school was holding their end of year carnival. It was nice to see how the other half live and pretend to be a suburbanite for a while. The kids had a blast, trying their first moon jump and sharing a tootsie pop! They even had a DJ cranking out some pg club tunes and Violet really got into dancing with the older kids, trying to imitate their moves. Ron took the train out and caught the tail end of the festivities and we all drove back to the city together...happy to be back in the land of technicolor.

Ritual Dip

Falling in to a fountain has now become our spring ritual. Last year while hanging at Wicker Park I discovered what I thought was the perfect place to nurse Jack...the fountain area. It had benches for me and was elevated to give Violet (only 20 months at that time) a feeling of enclosure. She was enraptured with the water and I let her reach in, only possible by standing on her tippy toes. Perfect right? Well almost, until something caught her eye that just required a little more stretch. Whoops, in she goes head first. Actually quite scary as the basin area is pretty deep. I rushed to her aid (boob in the wind) and fished her out, luckily she was fine. Momentarily flustered and soaking wet, but no tears. Flash forward to this afternoon and we are enjoying the petting zoo at Brookfield. Violet comes across some older kids who are crossing rocks placed in a small shallow pond. These are meant to be traversed and of course she needs no help, or so she says. Round one: "mama I can do it by myself" me "I have to hold your hand". So under protest she relents and we cross uneventfully. Upon reaching the other side she says "you stay here I'm going to try again". And again I reach for her hand and we go, but she is determined to be big. So when crossing this time she takes one firm step and misses the rock. Some how that is not clear to me as I am still holding her little hand she falls in. Once again she is ok but soaking wet. Ron was off showing Jack the eagle and not immediately available so I just whipped off all her clothes, diaper and all, and wrapped her in my sweater. This time there where more people around and she got a kick out of the attention (not so much me). But alas no photos.