The Amazon Debacle

I got home late on Friday night... the train trip was easy.  And good.  I got to read and play candy crush most of the way.  I also picked up the TNT cowboy brisket rueben from Zingermans to have on the train.  It was amazing.

Nico was glad to have me home.  I ended up taking him to CrossFit with me on Saturday.  I am working on an advertising campaign for them, and we needed Nico.  If it works out, I will probably post a picture here :)

Nico wanted a go at wall balls.  Wall balls are were you go down into a full squat and stand up, throwing the ball at a target above your head.  He did pretty well.  It's the second time he's been to CrossFit with me, and was a gem both times.

After, we swung by a birthday party for one of his classmates.  It was pretty fun- and the weather was perfect.  Before I left for Ann Arbor, Nico and I were watching TV and we saw a commercial for Planes: Fire and Rescue.  Nico thought that looked pretty good, so we made a plan to go see it when I got back, if he could be good for Dave while I was gone.  Well, we ended up going after the party on Saturday.  And this is when the fun began.  

When we were leaving, Nico saw a kid with a Dusty plane (Dusty is the main character) and wanted to get one.  I didn't see it, and I am not trying to go to a toy store looking for this thing.  So, I got the great idea, to let Nico look at Planes toys from Amazon on my iPad so I could identify the plane, yada yada yada, problem solved.  

Well, I dont know if you knew this or not.  But if you are signed into Amazon on your iPad and you touch the "one-click to buy" button, you can buy that item.  And Nico bought a tent.  It was on my wishlist, so when he was navigating the app, he must have bought the item.  He also managed to buy a play station and a dusty toy.  And then I realized I should sign out of the app. 

Luckily, we're not getting a play station.  Amazon let me cancel the purchases.  But seriously, how hilarious is that?  Good thing he is cute...

Not Getting Things Done

Like I mentioned in my last post, I was in Ann Arbor this week.  ICPSR (the Interuniversty Consortium for Political and Social Research) holds trainings every year on lots of topics, from Data to Methods and its basically awesome.  I have been wanting to go for a long time, and this summer I finally managed.  I ended up signed up for a 5 day workshop on Structural Equation Modeling.  Unfortunately for all involved, I only got about 50% of what we covered in class... but its been several years since I had a formal stats class.  The good news is that the materials were ON POINT.  So, I have everything I need to get in lots of trouble with SEM when I get home.  SO that is good.

But being away from home for that long is hard.  I stayed in the dorm- so I didnt have easy access to a fridge or air that didnt feel like the inside of someone's shoe.  Also, it was pretty structured... so my MO of grazing on healthy food all day was thrown out the window. So instead of eating 4-6 smallish meals/snacks throughout the day, I had to eat three BIG meals.  Plus, with that kind of learning, it's real hard to be motivated to do anything when I got back to my room.  I'd like to say that I worked out, wrote, and saw Ann Arbor, but I would be lying.  I did manage to get through the 5th season of Dexter... so there is that.

I think I just need to stop kidding myself about being "productive" on trips like this one.  I had grand intentions to GET SHIT DONE.  But then, Netflix Happens.

Party On.

The only bad thing about summer is that Chicago loses its damn mind with the nice weather, so everyone decides to HAVE THEIR BIRTHDAY PARTIES! HOLD THEIR FESTIVALS!! EVERYONE BE OUTSIDE!!!  And we have just been having TOO much fun.

In the last couple of weeks, we went out to the Botanic Garden to see some weirdo kid's music band. We went with R and J and their daughter Lil M.  Nico quickly found an older boy to play with and spent his time running amok with them.  Then the boy, unbeknownst to Nico invited Nico for icecream with his family, which he accepted.  In other news, we have started talking about stranger danger.  

After the garden, we headed over to Northwestern and checked out their showing of Frozen.  Nico has probably seen the movie, conservatively speaking, 30 times.  And was as engrossed as ever while watching the movie with a bunch of weirdo undergrads at Northwestern.  Which was hilarious.  During the songs, it basically became a sing a long.  

Last weekend, Nico was invited to a friend's birthday party.  The party was tacked onto a neighborhood block party, which was pretty cool.  So, there was the birthday part... and then there was the running amok with a bunch of older kids from a neighborhood that he doesn't even live in.  Which was hilarious.  

He had an important lesson at the party.  There was a face painter and he got his face done up like batman.  But then he got upset about something and had a fit.  This caused the paint to start coming off.  But, then he became aware that the face painter had left, which caused another fit.  And this fit caused him to miss the pinata.  I hoped he learned the lesson that causing a fuss over little things cause you to miss out on other fun things.  

Nicholas M. Royse, M stands for Fun.

The only bad thing about summer is that Chicago loses its damn mind with the nice weather, so everyone decides to HAVE THEIR BIRTHDAY PARTIES! HOLD THEIR FESTIVALS!! EVERYONE BE OUTSIDE!!!  And we have just been having TOO much fun.

In the last couple of weeks, we went out to the Botanic Garden to see some weirdo kid's music band. We went with R and J and their daughter Lil M.  Nico quickly found an older boy to play with and spent his time running amok with them.  Then the boy, unbeknownst to Nico invited Nico for icecream with his family, which he accepted.  In other news, we have started talking about stranger danger.  

After the garden, we headed over to Northwestern and checked out their showing of Frozen.  Nico has probably seen the movie, conservatively speaking, 30 times.  And was as engrossed as ever while watching the movie with a bunch of weirdo undergrads at Northwestern.  Which was hilarious.  During the songs, it basically became a sing a long.  

Last weekend, Nico was invited to a friend's birthday party.  The party was tacked onto a neighborhood block party, which was pretty cool.  So, there was the birthday part... and then there was the running amok with a bunch of older kids from a neighborhood that he doesn't even live in.  Which was hilarious.  

He had an important lesson at the party.  There was a face painter and he got his face done up like batman.  But then he got upset about something and had a fit.  This caused the paint to start coming off.  But, then he became aware that the face painter had left, which caused another fit.  And this fit caused him to miss the pinata.  I hoped he learned the lesson that causing a fuss over little things cause you to miss out on other fun things.  

I was in Ann Arbor this week doing a stats training.  I missed my boys. I ended up at Target buying a gift for another birthday party and got Nico a ninja turtle mask. 

He seems to be pretty excited about it.  

Working the system

We started the weekend with Movies in the Park. This week we went to a park about 3/4 of a mile from the house and saw Despicable Me 2 on the big screen. We took a picnic and remembered the bug wipes. Nico was a gem for most of it. And I was glad to be living in a city that offers these kinds of events.

Saturday I went to workout and when I got home, we put the hammer down cleaning. There are some things that we *really* needed to do- like wash the windows and get the baseboards. Nico was a champ. I think he is starting to "get" the idea of allowance. Before we had settled in an amount, he climbed into my lap and groves me to hold him like when he was a baby- which was hilarious. He was working me! He seems to think I will give him whatever he wants just because he is cute! Wait-  what happened? 

We're making him save 25% of what he earns for college. So that is good. 

Today, I had a photo shoot in Lake View. Nico and Dave watched the World Cup final. And when I got home, Nico came up to me and started with, "You know what is annoying? Germany winning the World Cup!"  Which is funny- that he starts sentences like that. 

Summer Funs!

We'll, we had a lovely July 4th weekend.   Nico and I went to the park on Friday afternoon. He's really getting into having muscles and stuff- so he worked on learning how to do the monkey bars. I think he's plenty strong enough- he just needs work on his technique.

On Friday, we were set to bead up to Evanston to grill out with friends. They have a daughter who is 1.5 years old and is just about the cutest thing ever. Another couple with a boy about the same age came over and the kids hung out together. It will be fantastic in about four years when these guys just run around the neighborhood together.  I've been working on a couple of photography deadlines lately. I spent most of yesterday doing that, when Dave and Nico drove to check out an old school arcade. Apparently when they were in Louisville a couple of weeks ago, Nico was introduced to pinball- which he loves. So he basically got to play to his heart's content. 

Summer in the City

I got a notice from work last month that I hadn't taken any vacation days. I don't need to be told twice, so I scheduled some days off this summer. With July 4th on Friday, I took yesterday and today- which is fantastic.

Tuesday night I introduced Nico to "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" on Netflix. It was amazing. He loved it. I think his media viewing tastes are evolving. He's been watching a LOT of the World Cup. He's starting to get into the Nat Geo documentaries- which is fantastic. Because a Kim can only watch so much Cailou. 

Yesterday we rode down to the Loop. We checked out the family fun festival in Millenium Park. Nico played Cornhole for about 2 hours. And did hula hoop (which I am still terrible at). After, we stopped by Margie's on Montrose for ice cream.  

Not sure what we'll get into today. Maybe go for a hike or something. It's absolutely gorgeous. It was 65 degrees in the house last night. In July. Don't be jealous!