What He Had to Say on His Fifth Birthday

Brendan didn't have a lot of interest in my birthday interview this year. And who can blame him. When you are ridiculously handsome and sweet, who's got time to sit around while your Mom asks you dumb questions? But I managed to get a few tidbits out of him any way.

Happy Birthday big man.

Favorites:

• Cereal- Cheerios

• Vegetable- Red peppers

• Drink- Milk

• Toy- LEGOS

• TV Show- Wild Kratts

• Game- Hi-Ho-Cheerio

• Book- The Jungle Book

• Dinner – Pizza and pesto

• Lunch – Buttered noodles

• Breakfast - pancakes

• Holiday- Christmas and Easter

• Animal – Tigers and lions and giraffes

• Color – red, blue, orange and yellow

• Things to do at school – "Make maps and books like the bird book and the mammal book."
  
  
• Sport – baseball, football, and hockey
  

What do you want for your birthday? "LEGOS! LEGOS! and tractors and trailers like my Grandma got me. Also some workers."

What do you love about each person in our family?

• Daddy – Because he is nice like when he takes us to Arizona.
  

• Mommy – Cuddling with you.
  

• Ellie - She lets me play with her. She helped my build my LEGO police helicopter.
  

• Colin – He lets my ride his bug.
  

Where would you like to go on vacation this year? Pittsburgh.

What are some of your wishes for this year? "Maybe I will lose a tooth. I think I am going to like kindergarten because I am going to get to do homework."

What makes you happy? "Ellie because when I hurt myself she gives me her stuffed animal to sleep with."

What makes you sad? "Nothing."

How old is your Mom? "15" (thanks, buddy)

How tall is your Mom? Showing with hands "This tall."

What is her favorite thing to do? "Spending your time with me."

What does Dad do for a job? "Work."

What is Dad’s favorite food? "Pizza."

What does our family like to do together? "Play baseball."

What going to be when you grow up? "A guy who is silly and laughs like a clown."

Who are you going to marry? "I don't know. I am going to live by myself with two Huskie dogs."

What was the best part of your bowling party today? "Opening my presents."

Totally toothless in Chicago

Ellie lost both of her two front teeth this week -- one at Easter brunch (to the total horror of her two year-old cousin who could not believe her eyes) and the other came out tonight when she gave it a little pull.

Ellie is delighted at the prospect of being visited by the tooth fairy twice in one week (who wouldn't be?)

When I tucked her in tonight, she said, "No apples in my lunch tomorrow, okay Mom?"

No apples for awhile Ellie Bellie.

What She Had to Say on her 7th Birthday

Time for my favorite blog posts of the year -- the birthday interviews! As always, Ellie had lots of interesting things to say. As always, I think she is the most fabulous little girl a mom could ask for. Happy 7th Birthday to you, Ellie!

Favorites:

Cereal: Three Sister's Graham Cereal

Vegetable: broccoli

Drink: water

Toy: American Girl Dolls

TV Show: Wild Kratts

Game: Hide-and-seek

Book: "The Puppy Place Series. My favorite so far is Buddy. It's like the best one ever."

Dinner: "I have three: Mommy's homemade mac and cheese; Dad's steak with Bernaise sauce and the skirt steak with that butter sauce, mashed potatoes and green beans."

Lunch: Mac and cheese

Breakfast: Waffles

Holiday: "Is your birthday a holiday? No. Actually Christmas."

Animal: Puppy Dog!

Doll: "I need to pick three. Kit, Ruthie and Bitty Baby -- I call her Lulu. I have two babies named Lulu. I am reading a book with a character named Lulu in it . She likes horses."

Color: blue and green

Thing to do at school: "Recess and there is some subjects that I like as well. Art, dance, technology, library, and I think that's it. Oh, and music."

Sport: ice skating

What do you want for your birthday? "American Girl Dolls stuff, Pet Shop Stuff, Critters for my doll house and maybe some new clothe."s

If you could change your name, what would you choose? "Ava. Because then I would be one of the first people in line."

What do you love about each person in our family?

• I love Dad because he takes us on trips.

• I love my Mom because she signs us up for good things that we like.

• Brendan: He is funny!

• Colin – That he is also funny.

Where would you like to go on vacation this year? "To horseyland. Where is that? In the middle of the world."

What are some of your wishes for this year? "Well, I hope that Alex and me have lots of playdates and we start that Puppy Place town we are going to do. I started the idea and Alex added things into it. He decided to buy this area of property and I thought it would be good to buy this whole street. Then I decided that this should be near Disneyland so that people would be like, 'This is a great area. It is so close to Disneyland.' So I decided that is where the area should be. This might happen when we are a little bit older or maybe an adult will help us. I think we are going to call it Puppy Place Street, but I don't know yet."

What makes you happy? "My family, My friends, my teachers."

What makes you sad? "When someone is mean to me or I do something wrong."

How old is your Mom? 34

How tall is your Mom? "Pretty tall, but not as tall as Dad."

What is her favorite thing to do? "Play with our family."

What does Dad do for a job? "He works at the Sear's Tower."

What is your mom's favorite food? "I don't know."

What is Dad’s favorite food? Fish.

What does our family like to do together? "Play outside and have fun together."

What going to be when you grow up? "A mommy. I am also going to be a teacher, ballet teacher, and I think that's it."

Who are you going to marry? "Joey. I don't know."

Anything else you want to talk about? "Well, that I hope that Lily* is able to come to my birthday party and celebrate it with me and that everyone has a good time and that I have a good birthday."

* Those of you who know Ellie probably know that this is the name of her imaginary friend who lives in California. But she also has a real friend named Lily and that is who she is talking about here.

If you are interested in what she had to say in years past, you can find it here.

Hi There Park. It's So Good to See You Again

Thank goodness for the warmth, the sun, the hour and a half or so spent outdoors after school.

We have missed you so very much.

Collie Bear

Colin can talk now. He communicates his thoughts, observations and needs with (relative) clarity. These new verbal developments make him even cuter (in my opinion).

However, he is a wee bit demanding. For example, he uses his new-found words to say things like:

• "New song right now!" (when we are driving around town and the children's music isn't to his liking)
• "Want two lollies" (he has two hands so he obviously needs a lollipop for each)
• "Keep my jammie pants on" (when he refuses to remove his pajamas each and every morning)
• "More sausa, peeeeese." (As he finishes up his third breakfast sausage of the day)
  
• "My my, where are youuuuuu!" (while searching his house for his beloved blanket "my my")
• "Night night in mama bed dada bed, peeeeeese! (No Colin. Just no.)

Things are going to be very interesting with this two year-old boy, me thinks.

My Pumpkin Pickers

Last weekend, we headed up to Dinges Fall Harvest in Michigan with our cousins in search of the perfect pumpkin. We had a blast. You can read more about it (and see a few more photos) over on Wee Windy City.

Colin and his luggage

Photo taken with the Hipstamatic iPhone app.

Colin in his car seat with two blankets ("me my-mys") and three bunnies (" me hop hops").
His luggage every where we go.

Smooches

Who could resist him?

The Artists in Residence

A masterpiece.

So how's your summer going?

This photo captures our summer thus far in a way that words never could.
Hope that you are having this much fun too.

The 5 o'clock nap

This is what you get when you:
(1) Wake up for the day at 5:15 a.m.
(2) Spend 3 hours in the blazing sun at the lakefront
(3) Totally, completely skip any sort of nap
(4) And then head out to the hottest playground in all of Chicago in 90 degree weather to run around like a crazy man.

The 5 o'clock nap.

A Dancer

A third recital for the dancing queen.
As usual, she was lovely and composed.
This girl loves a stage.

Good Winter Reads

I keep a basket of books in our living room near the fireplace -- a sort of seasonal reading selection. Now is the time of year to read about snowmen, sledding and hot chocolate. Soon we will be moving on to daffodils, bird nests, and rain puddles.

Not quite yet though.

We are expecting a snow storm tonight (they say almost a foot, but who knows). So before bed we read The Snow Day by Komako Sakai. My aunt gave this book to my kids for Christmas and it has become a fast favorite.

Through its gentle illustrations and minimal text, The Snow Day somehow captures the deep quiet that comes with a big snow. It is a most excellent winter read.

I created an Amazon list over on the right-hand sidebar with some of our favorite seasonal books. I've seen this feature on other blogs and have found it helpful as I planned trips to the library or bought birthday presents for little ones. If you are looking to update your book basket, have a look.*

Just waiting now to see if we have a real snow day tomorrow.


* If you click on a book and purchase it through Amazon, I get (an extremely, extremely) small percentage of the sales price. Pennies. This list isn't intended to be a money-maker -- just a suggested reading list based on our favorites.

Woof Woof

The very cutest Dalmatian that I ever did see.

She Rides!

It was a really good first attempt at riding without the training wheels.
She needs a little bit more practice.

p.s. The Daddy couldn't have been any cuter running alongside her.

This little piggy played in the grass . . . and this little piggie went to the beach . . .

Scenes From Summer -- Part One

A splish-splashin' baby.

Cute-as-can-be cousins.

Sharks.

Walk Brendan. Walk Brendan. Walk Brendan.

Looking good.

Badminton 101.

Yes, our weekend was every bit as fun as it looks.

My Chubby Baby Doesn't Like Food

He makes this face every time I feed him.
Apples, pears, sweet potatoes, rice cereal, bananas -- he doesn't seem to like any of it.

I don't know what to do with this finicky little man.

Summer Camp

Eleanor and Brendan started summer camp today. They look excited don't they?

Fifteen minutes after these pictures were taken, they were both wrapped around my legs crying hysterically and begging me not to go.

Then I got in my car and cried too.

Separation can be hard.

Our Prima Ballerina

Ellie performed as a butterfly in her dance recital yesterday. She adored the experience from start to finish.

Butterflies in waiting.

Just a little bit of lip gloss.

Ready for the show.

"I can't wait to hear the applause," she said.

Oh how I love this beautiful girl.