Grandparents, Kids, Pizza and Chocolate

The Sunday before Presidents Day, Hans' parents came for a visit.  Sunday afternoon/evening was filled with games, laughter, food, partial conversations, and screaming.

 Solveig brought the boys super hero blankets.  They immediately took them downstairs to get nice and comfy while they watch some sort of super hero show.

 Anders is always up for a good snuggle.

 While the boys were enjoying some snuggle time with Grandma the men got to work making pizza.

Pretty soon everyone migrated upstairs to watch the masters at work.  

For the boys, watching pizza being made morphed into running circles around the house.  This, of course, gets Fritz all riled up and makes for one noisy house.

In an effort to decrease the noise the boys picked out some games to play.

 But this only calms the boys down momentarily.  Anders likes messing with other people's pieces.  John is a sore loser and Gus cheats.  Makes for a very emotional game.

I'm not even sure anyone is playing by the rules. 

 The house was quiet for a little bit after the pizzas were done.  YUM!  

Fritz decided to place himself where he thought he'd get the most food.  And he wanted to be close to the table in case we all walked out of the room, giving him a small chance to steal food off of the table.  We have a dog with little to no self control...just like our children.

The next morning we decided to make a trip to the Children's Museum.  But it was President's Day and EVERYONE had that same plan.  So we spent some time walking around Naperville and found this wonderful place, Le Chocolat du Bouchard.

This place was fantastic and the prices were reasonable.  I'm anxious to go there without children.  I'm thankful it is about 30 minutes from my house, otherwise I might be there everyday.

It was a delicious ending to a great weekend.

Dinner at the Beach

Andrina had a wonderful idea to have dinner at the beach.  I often don't think about things like that.  Scratch that.  I do think about doing fun things like that and then I think about the mess.  Like eating food covered in sand.  But we had a great time and I'm so glad we went.

 These three quickly ate a bite or two and then ran to the water.

 Hans was waiting for the waves to come rolling in.

There is just something sweet about a picture like this.  You can't see their faces but you know they are smiling and having the time of their life.

 Still not the outdoorsy girl, Machara decided to pose for some pictures instead.  She has the model pose down already.

It was a beautiful evening with a beautiful view.

Choo Choo Johnny's

After a great morning at the Children's museum we decided to check out a restaurant I was told about called Choo Choo Johnny's.  The website makes the place sound like the train lover's dream.  We all couldn't wait to take the boys and see the look on their faces.  I'm not sure that I have ever given anything a bad review on my blog, but I can't help but do so now.  The boys had a good time and that is all that matters, but it was pretty lame.  It is a franchise so it is quite possible that another place does it better, but this will be one I never visit again.  It is a great idea and with a little more effort could have been a fabulous place frequented by numerous families.  But as I said, the boys had fun so I guess was worth the $50 plus we spent on food that we couldn't eat.

 Here comes the train delivering our food.

What would a train restaurant be without a train ride?

I would love to know if anyone has visited another Choo Choo Johnny's and had a great time.

Discovering Edamame

As I've said before, Gus hates baby food.  I tried today to feed him yogurt and he won't even let me do that.  Gus does not want to be fed, he wants to do it himself.  This is evident by the fact that he clenched his lips shut when I tried to give him a spoonful of yogurt, but then he grabbed the spoon and tried to do it himself.  Gus wants to eat anything we eat.  John is learning that he can't leave anything on the floor or low table as Gus will crawl quickly to get his hands on the food.

The other day we were eating edamame.  We love edamame and it was actually one of John's first "big boy" vegetables.  Gus was very interested in these green beans and quickly grabbed up everything we gave him.

The coffee table is no longer safe.  Gus can not only pull himself up, but is also cruising all of the furniture.

When we didn't give him more fast enough, he tried to get them himself.

8 Months

I can't believe it has been 8 months already!  I don't have stats because we don't go to the doctor until next month, but he is growing like a weed.  For pants he is in 12 months since his legs are so long.  In this past month Gus has started crawling and pulling up on things.  He will even stand on his own for a few seconds before he starts getting so excited that he falls.  He is getting pretty loud, as he has to compete with his big brother.  In church he starts screaming excitedly during the hymns, I'm sure this is his version of singing.  He absolutely loves to explore things and, much like a dog, he will eat anything on the floor.  Sweeping is done every two hours or so around here.  The other day I was making something and didn't see the onion pieces on the floor.  Needless to say our little boy had onion breath for a few hours...gross.

"I'm ready to eat Mom."

Gus got his hands, and shirt and pants on some Golden Crisp cereal and loved it.  I think my boy has a sweet tooth.

Gus loves to eat now, but still on his own terms which means no baby food.  I love this picture because he has cereal stuck in this neck roll.

He also likes to pretend to drink from a cup.  There is very little water in here because he just dumps it down the front of himself.  Gus will pretend to drink from every cup he gets his hands on.  I love when John drinks and Gus copies him.  I have a feeling the copying will not stop at drinking.

He loves playing with any toy he can get his hands on.  He often tries to get his hands on something that his brother already has claim to and then we get to see this pretty face.

So sad. Doesn't he just look pathetic?

But, then John tries to make him feel better.

Which isn't always appreciated.

He is also getting pretty good at crawling, so he has decided to try out some different styles.

I try to tell him that when he is in athletics he will not want to do bear crawls.  But, he insists on doing them now.

He is also pulling up on things, so nothing on John's table or the coffee tables are safe.

John loved this toy when he was Gus' age.  Gus loves it too and likes to use it as a walker around the house.

Gus can also get up a stair or two.  He is pretty proud of himself when it does it.

 

In the next few pictures you will see him trying to stand...

 

almost...

Yea!  Notice my foot right next to him.  I'm not sure how my foot would save him from falling on his face, but I keep it there nonetheless.

Eating, Eating and Eating Some More

It took a few hundred tries, but I believe we have found food that Gus will eat.  I'm sure my second most stubborn kid (for now) was saying to himself the whole time "Would you want to eat this crap?"  He just decided to skip the baby food all together and go for the good stuff.

mmmm, graham crackers.

All gone!

He loves to eat food himself.  This child of mine does not want to be fed.  We've also been trying the sippy cup with a straw, but like John, Gus does not want to work so hard.  For this reason I will not be moving him up in the bottle stage so he gets more formula for less work.   I've seriously thought about bringing him back to stage one to make him work harder.  My goal is to be bottle free by his first birthday...we'll see.

The gross chunky substance stuck to his chin is Gerber dried fruit.  I'm sure this piece has been in his slobbery hand, or even in his mouth.

Gus is just now mastering the pincher grasp, but his lack of fine motor skills didn't keep the food from going in his mouth.  Until recently this is how he ate.  Sometimes he'll still eat like this if he is really hungry.

I think his goal was to get his whole fist in his mouth to ensure that at least one piece of the food would be left behind.

What is that!?!

Don't freak out, it's just chocolate.  John had dropped some of his chocolate cake on the floor and I didn't see it, but Gus sure did.  Normally you wouldn't give kids chocolate until they are one, but since the damage was already done I thought I'd make it better by snapping pictures.

"Wow, that's good."

He's even checking again to make sure hasn't missed anything.

This picture makes me laugh.  While I'm sure I just caught this picture mid-blink, it looks as though he is savoring every last bite.