A couple we knew when we lived in Albuquerque are now missionaries in Slovenia. They recently came back to the US to have their first son. They were passing through Chicago and stayed with us for a few days. Their son, much to Wyatt's pleasure, is named Wyatt. Our Wyatt loved that there was a "baby Wyatt" in the house. He talked about him endlessly.
Here are the two of them chatting after breakfast. Our Wyatt would often ask what baby Wyatt was doing, or where he was, or what he wanted to do. Our Wy likes his own name apparently!
Sadly, the big event on Yannick's birthday was not a party or other thing for him...it was the spring practice game for Northwestern. Along with getting to watch the football team run plays against each other for free, NWern hosted a kids football clinic, complete with actual football players running the drills. Our boys LOVED it. Kids would line up at stations, participate in the activity as many times as possible before a bullhorn sounded indicating they needed to move to the next event. It helped that Zachary's best bud, David C. was there too. His little brother Archie was there, but not interested in the clinic, where Wyatt was very into it, for the most part. We too tons (too many!) of pictures and videos.
I am also embarrassed to admit it, but we tried to get a babysitter for Nick today. We thought the football clinic at NWern would go better without him. Yes, a sitter on his birthday. We are terrible parents! However, it worked out wonderfully that we could not find one. We took him with us and he did great. He took a nice nap in the Ergobaby for awhile, then played a good bit during the clinic. Here's some of what we did:
Wyatt missed the ball - this time
Zach makes the catch
Zachary during warm-ups
David, Zachary (yes, he IS wearing baseball pants with a star wars shirt), and Wyatt waiting their turn
OH MY - Art using the baby to get cheerleader attention. Of course they all fawned over Yannick and he did his part, flirting up a storm.
Oops, Zach missed this one!
Zachary and David waiting in line. Can you guess which one is the NWern football player?
Z doing a strange victory dance, while Wyatt watches to see what the deal is bf he gets up there
Big boys in the bleachers watching the "game".
Each clinic participant was given a little purple backpack containing a t-shirt, water bottle, and some coupons. At the game, both big boys wanted to put their shirts on. Yannick did so great at the game, even though he had to sit with us the whole time and not walk around. He was intrigued by the marching band (oh no!) and was standing in Art's lap, waving his arms like a drum major. People around us noticed and thought it fun to see how into the band he was. A constant source of amusement. We finally left a bit early b/c it was drizzling off and on, and it was getting closer and closer to nap time.
It should be mentioned that Art and I made a parent blunder as we were leaving. Z was desperate to get a NWern mini football. I was willing to, since we live in Evanston, and will hopefully start supporting NWern a bit. Art balked at the $12. Z was very disappointed, so I came up with the not so brilliant idea that we would go by the bookstore, thinking they would be cheaper there than at the game. I was wrong, and drama ensued. We finally, badly, resolved it by saying that if she still wanted it (though was unwilling to share it) and willing to pay for 1/2 of it, then we would get it on Monday. He never mentioned it again.
Oh yes, I nearly forgot, the accompanying videos, of which there are several.
Wyatt's videos first:
Wyatt doing a blocking drill. I believe he was by far the youngest kid out there taking it seriously
Wyatt going out for a pass and throwing it back
The pass fell short, but Wyatt picked it up and ran it back.
Here Z misses the pass and falls over dramatically. We will not be calling any scouts just yet!
While we were in Germany and head of the youth group at our church, there was a family there that was very special to us. The Trees family is in the top 5 things we miss about living in Duesseldorf. That said, we must have made an impression on them as well...Joanna (Joey, or JRfT) came to visit us for 10 days in February. It was an amazing time with her, and we would love for her to come again and bring brothers Josh and Jethro. :)
I am a total slacker and took zero pictures while she was here. Luckily, she took several and here are the highlights:
Her first day here, I thought we'd just relax, hang around Evanston for a bit while JT got over her jet lag. Well, it was also Z's day off from school, and I usually let him choose what he wants to do, and he chose the zoo. Yes, both Z & W went to the zoo in their jammies.
Can't come to Chicago and not get Chicago-style pizza!
I took Joanna to Bennisons (high end bakery) while Wyatt was a his swim & gym class, and we came back to the Y to drink our coffee and eat our red velvet cake donuts! DELISH
Mommy reading to the boys
Joey taking Yannick downstairs to play with Buster so I could get dinner ready
Joanna went sledding on the last snow day of the year with Art and the boys.
crazy panoramic shot of our upstairs after dinner: Art/Shayna laying on the floor playing with Yannick, Wyatt in the fridge putting his cup away
The McF family lived in Germany for a time and knew Joey from IBCD. While she was here, we invited them to come down and spend the night with us to visit w/ Joanna. The dad, one son, and an exchange student (oddly, the brother of JT's bro-in-law) came for the night. Art took them downtown CHI for a tour while I stayed home with the maniacs....uhh boys. Here they are at the S. Blvd el stop.
Joey being crazy at the el stop
Art giving his guided tour
Everyone at The Bean (officially: cloudgate)
I made some heart shaped pink pancakes for J for breakfast
Wyatt finishing up b'fast and Z playing chess
Wyatt helping mommy vacuum.
Art making sure the baby stays happy
Frank Lloyd Wright House tour. We got a sitter for Nick and Wyatt and Art took the day off work.
No pics allowed inside of the house, but the outer was ok
We met OUR Joanna and her roommate Connie for lunch, since we were across the street from Booth. The 3 of us (me, Art, JT) got taco salad bowl. Joey thought it was very cool to be able to eat your bowl.
Part of Univ of Chicago. As Joanna Frazier says "where fun goes to die"
Us signing postcards for Jemima and Josh bf Joey mailed them.
Joey and I took the boys, minus Zach, on a little tour of the Ba'hai temple.
We got a sitter and went to Pinstripes for the $2 burger night. I went into some sort of functional coma b/c I bowled the WORST EVER. First game, lost by 1 point to Art, with a low 128, then the next game was so low that I can't honestly type about it.
Me happy bf I started losing.
Joanna happy to be out on the town
Standard bowling shot for JRfT
See...something was majory awry!
Let Z skip school and took all 3 boys plus JT to the children's museum. Wyatt's favorite part, the water room
Zachary also enjoying the water room. YES, they BOTH are AGAIN wearing their PJs out.
Little Nick chilling in the infant area
Percussion for all
My little drummer in his star wars jammies
Zachary rocking out to some classical wearing his spiderman jammies
Cutie Wyatt in the music room
Oops, sideways! Too tired to fix it. Zachary rabbit, Shayna donkey (?) and little puppy Nick
Yannick would rather chew on the puppy face than pose in it
Cutest kitten ever! :)
Finally, a 5 point car seat for adults!
The next day, Joanna had to leave us. She was in the USA for 10 days. Spent one night in Naperville w/ an old InsideOut leader, before our time. When she and her boyfriend came to drop JT off at our place, we took them all out to dinner at a yummy burger place.
It was a wonderful visit, and I hope that we will be able to see her next year, possibly in Duesseldorf!
Art and I and Yannick drove back to Chicago on Sunday, Jan 2nd, leaving the big boys at Leisure Dr. until Saturday evening, when they will be driven back home by Poppi and MeMa. It was a mini-vacation for us, taking care of just one. What did we do??? Mostly work. I make the 40 minute trip to IKEA to spend all of Art's Christmas bonus plus some Christmas $ on new shelves etc to make a new and improved playroom. We spent a few evenings putting it all together and getting it spiffy. We did go out to eat a few times - so much easier with just 1!
Friday night we also went to the B family's house, put Yannick to bed and proceeded to destroy them at first the game Perfection, then Ticket To Ride (train game). Bob was so furious that I beat him in the first game of Train Game (yes, I MAY have taunted him a bit), that he INSISTED we not leave, and had to play another game. We got out of there around midnight, but BY JOVE, the won the game! Granted he had to do it by being spiteful to Lexi, which was also humorous to watch her get irritated at him. A great evening all the way around! :) And Lexi made this wonderful brownie pudding thing that was so so so good!
Little Nick missing his superhero brothers is wearing his bib like a cape, which he did himself with no help from mommy!
Partial shot of our new & improved playroom - 2 Expedit cases, 2 green doors, 8 blue pull-out boxes, 2 Billy bookcases, and not shown stuva cabinet ~ $450. We were still working on this, getting it done just barely before the boys got back home. They were not impressed. I had sent a text to MeMa asking her to show them the new playroom so they would not be shocked. Well, Mommy is thrilled at least!
We enjoyed our little mini-vacation. Next year, Nick will be old enough to leave also, and then it will be a REAL VACATION!!!! Oh I am giddy with the thought of it!
