Saturday

Vincent and I spent quality time outdoors today. We went to Chase Park, a playground that is around the corner from us and close enough that V can either walk or ride his tricycle while I walk alongside. There are three younger kids in our building, two girls and a boy (all different parents), who all happened to be outside in the courtyard playing as we left on our way to the park. The boy, Max, is 20 months old and idolizes Vincent. It's adorable to watch him follow Vincent around. He was SO sad when he found out that V was going to the park that he and his dad ended up joining us there, where Vincent demonstrated all kinds of feats of bravery and Max tried very hard to imitate them all. Sorry, Max's parents!

Then after nap Vincent and I headed out to Elmhurst for an afternoon of visiting with some other friends of mine who have kids the same age as Vincent. He got to jump on a real trampoline for the first time! Trampolines are nothing like the ones from my childhood-- these are enclosed by a net that actually separates the bouncing part from the hard edge. V had a blast but freaked out and wanted to get out any time anther kid joined him. It was a 50 minute drive each way, hence these are not friends we see often, but lucky for us the traffic wasn't too bad and the whining on the way home was even minimal, though he got to bed an hour late.

Hope you're all having a great weekend. :)

Cardinals Game (Memorial Day weekend)

It's kind of great that he's been to a Cardinals game every summer since he was born (which means that yes, his first baseball game was at about 3 months old), and each year his St Louis grandparents get him a new Cardinals shirt. Maybe I should do a three year retrospective. ;)

Details: the horses were Budweiser Clydesdales, if that wasn't obvious from the furry feet. The big baseball he was standing on was in the kids play area behind center field. Finally, he was passed out asleep for probably an hour, during which there was a double hit with an almost tying RBI and much yelling that he slept through.

These will be the last round of photos until we get the camera fixed (or my mom can send some from V's birthday party)... enjoy! There are a few that will get framed for my new office, I think. :)

St. Louis Transportation Museum (Memorial Day weekend 2009)

Spent the weekend in St Louis, and since our camera broke over spring break (sand?) we have been without pictures. Luckily grandparents have lots (mom and Paul have the 3 year old birthday party ones). So this post will be all pictures from the transportation museum in St Louis, which is basically a lot of trains (including a Big Boy engine) parked outside for folks to climb in and look at. This is my second time there, my dad and stepmom and Dan's folks and Dan and I all went a few years ago. This time was much better- it was NOT close to 100 degrees and totally humid with the midday sun pounding down. :) 5 pm and mid 80's makes the whole "Let's stand around without any shade and look at old trains" thing bearable! That and having a three year old who was SO EXCITED to see all the trains and be allowed to actually touch them.

Pictures from Nana (many more to follow)

First blog post

Hi all,

At Jil's request I am starting a blog. It will, in all likelihood, be painfully lame and include many accounts of what we had for dinner and what Vincent said today. Actually that sounds kind of awesome, so I take it back. This will likely be the BEST BLOG YOU'VE EVER READ. After, Jungle Jil, of course. ;) It will also be a way for Jil to keep up with life here in Chicago.

So my grad school friend and housemate Tara has been in town from Glasgow, Scotland for the last two weeks for work. She came up for dinner last night (clam sauce! Green beans! Vincent-made chocolate chip cookies!) and then back tonight for dinner again, this time with Nate, a great friend of ours from grad school as well, who is finishing a long (five year) postdoc at University of Chicago. U of C is really far from here psychologically, though only 40 minutes by car, so I have seen Nate twice since we moved here six years ago. We are also in utterly different places in life, so maybe things would be different if he were not single and living a sort of bare-bones intellectual Hyde Park life. At any rate, it was great to see them and Vincent had a blast once he decided he liked Nate. After dinner we took Ivan for a long walk around the neighborhood and it was so great to be around friends. I have almost no social life here, it's always just work, dinner with the boy and Dan, then TV or read until bed while Dan works. But now that I have tenure maybe that will change...

The sitter is off this week so I am exhausted and going to bed now. :)