Smartest Kid Ever

Ok, so of course every parent thinks they have the smartest kid around. But I am so proud of my little guy! He was watching his normal morning cartoons the other day and was watching one on the History channel. Once the cartoon ended, it went straight into a documentary on making fireworks. Nick started yelling for me. I came downstairs to find Nick entranced in the program. He was so excited to see fireworks and then went on to explain to me how they made them.

Then I was mowing the lawn this weekend with our hand mower when Nick asked me to stop the mower because he wanted to see something. I stopped and he bent down to examine the blades. He asked if they turn around. I slowly moved the mower to show him how the blades turn. You could just see the gears in his head putting it all together. Maybe we’ve got an engineer on our hands?

Diamonds

Yes, yes I ask for jewelry for just about every holiday. Christmas, birthday, mother's day. Well, Chris finally surprised me with diamonds for Mother's Day this year. Tickets to Neil Diamond that is. Who I do love. Figured out this was the third time I've seen him (but I swear there was another one in there somewhere). The first time was 25 yrs ago when I wentwith Mickie Schinner and her mom. Fourth grade. Rock on! This time, we weren't the youngest or oldest concert goers. A funny mix of everything there. One 70 yr. old woman wearing a "Diamond Girl" shirt. Chris and I got a kick out of wondering how many of the "diamond girls" had slept with Neil.

The lights "dimmed abruptly" (that was the phrase they kept using, but I don't think it's possible) and there was Neil in the spotlight sitting on a stool with his guitar. What a voice! He sounded so good. Looked a bit older than I remember. And his ears have grown into the large, old man ears. But he sounded great. "Sweet Caroline" went into three or four encores. Seriously.

After paying for dinner, tickets, babysitter and parking, maybe Chris will opt for diamonds next year ;)

Fireworks

Ok, so I realize I'm blogging out of chronological order here, but I had some cute photos to share.

We were out of our minds and decided to go to Grant Park to see the fireworks on July 3rd. Then we got the crazier thought of hitting the "Taste of Chicago" for some ice cream before hand. It took us half an hour to make our way through the crowd to find the ice cream. Once we got it, we huddled in a corner to eat in peace. Yes, Nick is sitting on empty boxes eating his ice cream. Three fights broke out while we were there, with no cops to be found. We got a bit freaked and left ASAP. Found a spot on the lawn to watch the fireworks, but had some tree branches blocking our view and Nick claimed they were "too loud". So off we were, before the fireworks even finished. A family joke/groan is when my dad would have us in the car driving away before the fireworks ended so we could "beat the traffic". Three little heads looking out the back window yelling about leaving early. I swore I'd never do it and yet there we were with the fireworks continuing at our back.

We hit the Sox game on the 4th and they had a fireworks show afterwards. Super cool with great music. Nick hasn't stopped talking about seeing fireworks at the baseball game.

Tattoos

Nick is all into tatoos these days. His best friend Lewis always has on the temporary ones, so when a packet of them turned up at our house, Nick had to have them. What must his teachers think?

I'm back!!!

Hi all,

I missed blogging and a few of you said you missed reading the blog, so it's back. But only viewable to a select group, so that all my work colleagues don't get bombarded with more Nick/pee stories :)

Enjoy!