Baby Fish's Room

It is starting to come along...

Today is one of those rare days when I actually don't mind doing four loads of laundry. That's primarily because two of those loads are tiny baby clothes, and the third was new baby crib bedding.

Of course I still have to fold and match about a hundred tiny socks when these loads come out of the dryer...so ask me again in a few hours if I still love the tiny baby things (I bet I still will).

A sandwich!

Nile has steadfastly refused to eat sandwiches for the first three and a half years of his life. He would eat a peanut butter sandwich, but anything resembling meat and cheese was always refused.

Until today.

Today Nile ate a bread-and-cheese Subway sandwich. I have proof! I'm so proud of him!

The Sport Blaster (?)

It's an absolutely perfect day to be at the park (cloudy and cool). Nile wanted to show everyone his "sport blaster," whatever that is :)

St. Louis Zoo

On Sunday, we got up early and headed to the St. Louis zoo. It was a much cooler day than the day before, but the area had a round of thunderstorms go through the night before, so it was really humid. In the end, it was still pretty hot and sticky!

This zoo is also free - in fact, almost completely free! They did also charge $11 for parking - but many people had parked along the road leading up to the zoo. I didn't mind $11 for parking, considering what we were getting in return. We also had to buy $5 train tickets or we would have had a mutiny on our hands.

Of course, the first thing we had to do was ride the train. This train is excellent - it is a long train, goes through several tunnels, and actually has four stations. For your $5 ticket, you get four "station-to-station" rides - so you can get off at a station and then get back on and ride again. We rode twice, letting the boys ride through a station stop each time.

Here is Nate, watching the train go by shortly after we got off it the first time.

This zoo is amazing - huge, and amazing. We were there two hours (that's about all that the little feet could stand) and we probably didn't see half of it. By far, the highlight had to be the penguins. There was an outdoor penguin exhibit first...

Then we went indoors to a very well-air-conditioned area where the "cold-weather" penguins live. The boys really love penguins, and enjoyed watching them dive and swim.

The other highlight? Seeing the Nile Hippopotamus. Nile was so excited to see an animal that had "his name." The fact that they were huge and right up next to the glass was a bonus too.

Although we don't often buy "souvenir" stuffed animals, we did indulge the boys this time. Nate picked out a rhino, and Nile picked out his own Nile Hippo. They also bought the baby a small stuffed elephant.

Grant's Farm

We took a short weekend trip to St. Louis July 24-26. It was incredibly hot down there when we arrived, the temperature was 97 and the heat index was about 110! But we had three hours to kill before we could check in to the hotel so we headed to Grant's Farm to spend some time.

We had never been there, and honestly I had no idea what to expect. But it was pretty nice - and free (except for $11 to park). We got to take a "train" ride around and see animals, then were dropped off at the main park. There we saw an elephant show, where I caught this great picture of Tom and Nate. And a pretty darn cute one of Nile...

We walked around a little bit more, then the boys were hot and cranky (and so was my 7-month pregnant self), so we stopped at the beer garden for a free beer for Tom and some "Dippin Dots" for Nate and Nile.

(see how hot and sweaty Nate is? He totally takes after me.)

Cleaning the bowl

There is one reason Nile likes to cook...to lick the bowl.

Cooking breakfast

This morning the boys are helping Tom cut vegetables for omelets. I didn't realize Nile was so handy with a knife! (if you're worried, they are only butter knives!)

Check at the end for a video of the boys in action.

Mom and Nile Day

On Friday, I got to spend a whole day with Nile. Just him and me. (Tom had taken Nate up to Joliet to see the NASCAR qualifying runs and the Nationwide series race.) My goal was to let him direct what we did for the day, so even if I would usually say no, I was going to say yes (within reason, of course!)

So, although it was hard for Nile that morning to see Tom and Nate go (yes, there were a few tears), once I convinced him that he got to choose what we did that day, he really was okay with it. The only caveat for him was that I had to hit the gym first, I was feeling pretty lazy since I hadn't been all week.

So, after the gym, we ran one errand for me (I had to pick up flyers for a 5k race I'm working on next week), I let him pick the restaurant. And, my brilliant, amazing son picked Habaneros, a local Mexican restaurant. Can you tell I love Mexican food? :) He had a hot dog and rice, and I had veggie burritos and rice.

His next choice was to go to Bouncetown - I'm not sure whether he realized that on a beautiful summer day, not many kids are going to an indoor inflatable playground. So, we were the only people there. In fact, as we walked in, they had to go turn on all the blowers and inflate the toys for him. But, it was Nile's day, and that's what he wanted to do. He had a good time, but with nobody else there to play with, only made it about 40 minutes before he was done. Throughout he kept asking me, "Which one should I go on now?" - without Nate to follow around he was a little lost...poor kid.

After Bouncetown, I took him to Whitey's for ice cream. He had done a great job cleaning up his room all by himself that morning, so I had promised him ice cream. And he didn't want Dairy Queen, he wanted the good stuff! I couldn't argue (remember, I wasn't saying no)!

I even got him to take a nap at home, and we ran in to the library to drop off the aforementioned race flyers, and picked up a few DVD's. For dinner he requested pasta - what an easy meal! Then after dinner we snuggled on the couch and watched the Curious George DVD he'd picked out.

It was such a wonderful day, and honestly, almost made me feel like I'd had a day to myself. We had a great time, and I'm looking forward to doing this with Nate soon!

NASCAR Chicagoland

On July 9, Tom took Nate up to Joliet to see the qualifying runs for the NASCAR Nextel Cup race, and also to watch part of the Nationwide series race that evening. They met Tom's brother Dan and cousins Julian and Henry up there for the event. Nate absolutely loved it!

Here's the crew tailgating before the races.

Checking out a racing truck.

Nate outside the speedway.

In the stands.

And a few videos...

Star Wars in Concert

On Wednesday, July 7, we, along with our friends Matt and Emma, went to Star Wars in Concert. I was a little nervous to see how the boys would do with an evening concert. But when you combined amazing music (performed so well that we would often forget that the symphony was live on stage) with movie clips on a giant HD screen (synchronized with the music), it was an event that both boys loved.

Nate's favorite? "Darth Vader"

Nile's favorite? "Everything."

Now, I can't wait to share the actual movies with them.

Before the concert we ate outside in the beer garden at the BierStube in Moline.

Here are Nate and Emma, during the intermission.


And here is Nate with one of the many displays of props and costumes from the movies.

Matt's blog entries from the event are linked below.

• Emma Frozen in Carbonite
• Darth Emma
• Emma and C3P0
• Emma and Ewoks
• Emma and Queen Amadalla
• Emma and Anne
• Intermission
• Nate and Emma
• Star Wars in Concert

You're gonna love it at...

Sometimes it's nice to go back home. For the Fourth of July weekend, we did just that (for me at least). I was impressed by the things I did remember about how to get around Des Moines. I can't remember the last time I was downtown...

We had planned to go back for the I-Cubs game and fireworks on July 4, then stay downtown and hit Adventureland on the way home on Monday, July 5. Slight change of plans - it rained, and rained, and rained on July 4. So...no baseball game for us. The boys swam in the hotel pool and we went out to dinner.

But, we did hit Adventureland! These are a few of the better pictures I took, and I know Tom probably has some even better ones (probably some with me in them too), and some videos, which I may add later.

Of course we hit the teacups first, then the boys had to fly the planes.

Next it was the bumper cars. I don't have pictures of that. Of course, at 6 months pregnant I couldn't ride too many rides anyway. I do miss the roller coasters (not that I'd have been going on one with these two boys anyway!). The bumper cars were a stretch, but Nile needed someone to drive and steer. I just barely fit behind the bar with my belly. Then I spent a good part of the time in the bumper car worried that someone would hit me and it would hurt the baby. Fun times!

The boys enjoyed feeding the fish.

And riding the "kiddie boats."

Tom and Nile, waiting for the train to arrive.

The carousel. Nile was pretty proud of himself for riding the "biggest horse."

Faithful Feet

This morning the boys and I went to the Faithful Feet 5k in Geneseo. The race was hosted by the local Catholic church, and the proceeds from the race went to the food pantry. Since Tom was golfing, I didn't run, but I signed up the boys for the kids' race.

Nile decided that he didn't want to run, so Nate had to do the race solo. I was a little nervous, as it was a half-mile race, and it took him around the middle school so I wouldn't be able to see him. I had to stay back with Nile, so I was worried that Nate would tire out, fall, or something, and I wouldn't be there. Yeah, I know, I'm a paranoid parent.

Turns out he ran the whole thing in under 5 minutes, didn't have a single problem, and finished beaming. He also proudly told me "I passed like eight kids, Mom!"

I'm really proud of him.

After the race we went to the park and the farmers' market. It was a good morning.

Here are the boys before the race.

Here is Nile, a moment before this he was looking so pensive, but I didn't catch it.

Nate after the race - showing off his medal as he enjoys a bagel and some juice.