Zoo

We had some free passes to the Brookfield Zoo, so I decided to bust them out over the long weekend. Hmmm-I'm sure I was the only person with this idea. It's a big zoo out in the burbs that seems like it should be better than our smaller, free city zoo. Well, I'm not sure if we were there to watch the people or the animals. It was insane. After waiting in a line of cars to pay $8 to park, we walked a mile to the ticket booth. Had to pay extra for anything other than the zoo. And of course we wanted to see the dinosaur exhibit. And it was hot. And every exhibit started or ended in a gift shop. It was just ridiculous. Not to mention that we barely saw any real animals! One polar bear, one lone dolphin and a bear. Lamest of lame. But guess who had fun?!

Here she is!

Nicholas became a big brother Monday night. Little Peri Holters Nordloh was born at 7:16pm. 7lbs 8oz and 21 1/2 inches long. Nick came by the next morning to meet her. He was so excited, but a bit more excited to see the Transformer presents she had brought him. Peri came home today and has slept the day away. Hmmmmm-wonder what's in store for tonight?!

Beach!

Did you know Chicago is right on a huge lake? With lots of beaches? I forget this fact, even though I drive along the lake front every morning. After Nick's excitement with the water/beach on July 4th, I decided to take him to the beach last weekend. So Sunday morning we packed up our gear and headed to the beach. As we walked to the shore, Nick was running and yelling "I have energy!". 15 minutes later we were setting up the umbrella and Nick was anxious to get in the chilly water. Man, that kid could have stayed there all day. We went early and didn't expect to stay past noon, so I had brought an apple and bottle of water. Think if I'd brought lunch (or money) we would have been there all day. He was just so happy. Might just spend the summer there under our umbrella ;)

Nick had a huge bucket that he was using to fill with water for the river he was making. He talked me into "taking turns" in filling up the bucket. After hefting my belly off of my towel 10 times, I finally told him that I was going to rest for a while and he was in charge of water. I went to get lip balm out of my bag and heard a crazy racket. Seriously - can I not look away for one minute?! Looked up to find Nick with his chest all poufed out, walking towards me and trying to hold back the tears. He brought his bucket over and the top of it was cracked. Then he pointed to his sandy neck to tell me it had hurt him. The handle was broken off so I started swinging it around and saying "Holy Smokes! What kind of a bucket is this?" It was enough to make him laugh and forget about his troubles. And then enough to make me cry when I noticed that the bucket had actually cut his little neck. Nothing major, but still hate to see my little guy bleeding. Photos are from after the fall, so all was well.

Cooking Day

Wednesday was cooking day at school/day camp. I asked Nick what they made and he said "We took bread and put butter on it and ate it. It was good". Huh? They really tried to get away with buttered bread as cooking? But then at drop off I noticed a sign that said "We made butter for our cooking project". Nice.

Care Packages

My mom is really good about sending Nick care packages. Usually candy and toys and a few McDonald's happy meal toys thrown in. Last week he got two Transformers! Decepticons - his favorites because "they're the bad guys!" I was excitedly telling Chris how these new ones were level 2, so Nick could transform them himself. Level 5 is a bit too difficult even for me! But of course Nick kept asking "Will you transform this" all night. Until bedtime, when I went to tranform one and he said "Mom, these are level 2. I can do them myself. Did you forget?" Oh yes, silly me. I forgot!

Everybody Limbo!

Summer camp has started at Nick's school. Guess since they're year-round, they like to give the kids a bit of a break. Each day is some new activity. I was reading the list to him and got to Lua Day. It talked about playing limbo and the types of food they were going to eat. Chris then asked Nick if he knew how to limbo and Nick immediately arched his back as he motioned going under a stick. Huh? Where'd this kid learn to limbo? Has he been going to resorts without us?

Penguin

I think I told you about Nick picking out a gift for the baby? First he wanted to get her a transformer, then a car. I finally got him to go for a cute stuffed animal and which one does he pick out? The cute bunny? No. The soft elephant? No. The little black and white penguin. Ok. So we'd heard that you should sleep with the stuffed animals or just wear them around you for a while so they take on your smell. We did this with Nick's Pookie dog when he was little and he still carries that little guy to bed! So Nick popped the penguin into his shirt and slept with it all night. Then walked around all morning with it too. So funny! He didn't mind a bit! Like he's nesting. Baby will either love it or thing "PU! This smells like boy!"

Happy Fourth of July!

So Chicago has their fireworks on July 3rd. Not sure why, but they do. Chris and I just aren't up for navigating the millions of folks downtown this year, so we came up with all these great ideas (let's go on a road trip and see them in another town! Let's go on a Boat Cruise and see them from the water! Let's rent a boat and go our ourselves!). All great until you realize that you can't take a pregnant lady out to sea or far from home this close to her due date. Anyone up for sparklers? ;) We ended up going to one of the beaches and watching the fireworks from there. Nick was more excited about playing in the water than the fireworks!

One more reason we need PeaPod...

Nick and I were grocery shopping Sunday morning. Happy day. I got lots of fruit. He got SpongeBob and Spiderman Mac & Cheese. Then we were in the bread aisle. I was busy examining a loaf of bread to see if it had hi-fructose corn syrup, when I heard a huge commotion. Looked to see a woman running towards me saying "oh, oh!" Then I looked down to see Nick on the ground. "Why is Nick on the ground?" I thought. Oh, must be the huge grocery cart full of groceries that's pinning him down! I used my super human pregnant mama strength to lift the cart off of him. He looked stunned. Then started crying. Lots of hugs and love in the bread aisle until we could determine if anything was broken. I asked if we could walk over to the ice cream aisle and pick out some cold goodies to go on his hurt legs. That got him moving. Then he asked "Can I ride on the side of the cart?" Jeesh kid! That's what got us into this mess!