Dog Days of Summer

Not much going on around here- we are just trying to soak up every bit of summer possible.  This past weekend, Dave had to cover a SOX game (sucker!) so Nico and I went on a little adventure in seek of Blackberries and swimming at our friend's Grandparents house.  The blackberries were a bit of a bust.  In that we showed up to this supposed "Grandma's Berry Patch" only to find there were no blackberries to be had (DAMN YOU INTERNET!!).

But we pushed on- swinging by Kevin and Jen's Grandparents house.  The grandparents belong to Jen and were so gracious to let us come hangout in their pool.  Kevin cooked us Chicago style dogs.  You know what is up.

Randomly, check out the video of Nico playing catch with Gordon.


I swear- I thought Gordon was going to end up in the tub!

Brachiating

We're finding a great summer rhythm around here.  Lots of time being spent outside, just like everyone else in Chicago.  Camp is almost over- which might be a bummer, but Dave's parents are coming up next week, which will be a nice highlight.  I know Nico is looking forward to it.  

The newest accomplishment is the monkey bars.  He informed me that he wasnt swinging on the monkey bars, he was brachiating.  

Last week he had his first real judo session (the second was this week).  Like for real, with the push ups and the situps and everything. I am hoping to shoot some pics at the next one.  His judo pants are too small- so if there were any grand parents that wanted to get him a pair for his birthday or christmas, they would definitely be put to good use.  

This guy is getting so big.  I can't believe it sometimes.  Like the other day, I looked at him in the back seat and was sort of stunned at how big he has gotten.  We're starting first grade soon- which is crazy to me.  

The One with Cousins

This weekend was really fun- Nicole and Emerson came from Texas. We definitely had a big weekend- trying to squeeze a lot in.
Nicole and Em got into Midway on Thursday.  Since the weather looked kinda crappy, we decided not to do all of the things until Friday.  In hindsight, this was a bad decision, because Friday was the hottest day of the year and all the things we wanted to do involved being outside and walking. A lot.

So Thursday night, we just hung out at the house and did some coloring.  Friday we got started pretty early, making our way to Maggie Daley park (a huge new park down by the Lake).  It is a pretty sweet park- but it's huge.  And the trees are still little- so there wasnt much shade to be had.  In fact, the slides are all made out of metal- which made them quite hot.  But the kids didn't seem to mind.  At all.  Check out this video of Nico coming in hot and losing control of his landing. To be fair- the slides were super fast and he wasnt the only one to wipe out on the landing!


After that, we walked by CloudGate (the Bean) on our way to grab lunch.

We made our way to Navy Pier so we could ride the Ferris Wheel.  The Ferris Wheel is kind of famous because it is apparently, the one in Ferris Bueller's Day off.  Also, it is going to be replaced soon.




Friday night was pretty chill at the house.  Nico and Em had a good time hanging out with each other and watching TV.  Saturday morning we went to a nearby Barnes and Noble, where Nico reminded me of all the things that he wants for his birthday.  We ended up with a new book about battleships and aircraft carriers.  It is pretty sweet.

Saturday afternoon, we headed out to Lisle for a Red Stars game.  Julie Johnston, Christen Press, Lori Chalupney, and Shannon Box (USWNT) play for the Red Stars.  Karina LeBlanc, Adriana Leon, and Melissa Tancredi all played for the Canadian National Team for this World Cup, which is cool.  Nicole got in touch with the facilities guy for Benedictine University (where the Red Stars play) and he let us on the track for pre-game.  We were standing there when the players walked by.  When Karina LeBlanc and Michelle Dalton (GKs for Red Stars) walked by, Michelle Dalton fist bumped Nico and Em- which was basically the highlight of the day.

The game ended in a tie and the kids were gems.  Nicole and Em left on Sunday.  Nico and I kinda moped around the house for the rest of the day.  

July 4th

We had a pretty fun July 4th.  Dave was covering a Cubs game and Nico and I had been invited to a party at my friend Kevin's house, on the south side.  Kevin is from Chicago and grew up on the south side of Chicago (a few minutes from the Indiana state line).  His family's thing is July 4th.

So I put together my mom's key lime pie (that I was totally afraid would be too sour- based on my tasting of the filling).  But it mellowed out with some time in the fridge. Also, beer helps.

We got down there and they had a lamb on a spit roasting over a fire.  Have you ever had roasted lamb on a spit?  It is amazing.  In fact, I gotta figure out a way to make that part of my life more regularly.  I met a lot of Kevin's friends that he grew up with, and got to hang out with his girlfriend Jen, who I adore.  There people are a lot like mine: fun-loving and trash-talking.

Nico had a group of kids to run around with.  Soon after, he was leading this little rabble around, attacking grownups and playing Volleyball.  It was so much fun.  So much so that I didn't get a pic of my own kid.  Oh, well.  But this pie doe.

Then, on Sunday, we watched the Womens World Cup final.  Which was awesome.

An interesting development has been in the way Nico announces his sports games.  He often uses women's players names... so he might be playing by himself narrating, "Nico squares it off to Henderson.  Henderson sends it on to Rapinoe, who has a shot, but it is deflected by Neymar.  Morgan with the cross and Wambach with the goal!!!!"  Which is pretty cool.  

Also, this weekend, he watched the entire USA v. France Group G game from the London 2012 Olympics.  During it, he said to me, "This game doesn't have the current coach coaching."  And when I asked who was coaching he said, "Pia."  As in Pia Sundhage.  And he is, apparently, on a first name basis with her. It was pretty funny.  

Summer is Here. Officially.

Not much going on around here.  I love not having to take Nico to be at school at 7:15.  It is quickly turning into my favorite part of summer.  My favorite part of summer.  Instead of doing that, guess what I do?  Sleep in.  Till 7am.  Till 7am.  That is practically the afternoon.  I am mostly focused on getting edits for Kelly's wedding photos done- there are so many.  So far, I have about 500 done- and I still have another 200 or 300 still to edit.

We're settling into a fun summer routine.  I ended up with a pretty extensive summer to do list... but it's hard because it is really easy to slip into letting Nico watch too much TV and too many videos on youtube.  I mean, I know he has intelligence to spare- but still.  I dont want his brain to completely rot out.

Last week we facetimed with both Granny/JJ and Nico's friend Wyatt (and his family).  Nico is convinced that we should visit Washington DC (where Wyatt's family is)- to see cool things like the Smithsonian and the Air and Space Museum.

It was pretty funny- because they pretty much took turns showing each other toys. 

I found a free online language learning site called Duolingo.  It is pretty amazing- as is Nico's ear for language.  We've started him on a german language course.  And he is kicking ass in it.  

   

We did have a summer fail last week.  One of our Summer to do list items was to figure out which is the best ice cream shop in the city.  So, last week, I came home from work a bit early and was ready after dinner to check out an icecream shop and Nico was like, "I don't want to."  I DONT WANT TO.  It's like he isn't even my kid.  

End of Soccer and Summer

Today is the penultimate day of school left in the year (Thank you Ms. Gulley for teaching me proper use of that word!).  I can't decide who is more excited: Nico because we have him signed up for a pretty sweet summer camp program with the park district or me because I can start riding my bike to work again- and I dont have to wake up at 545, snooze till 555 and then pull myself together to get Nico to school while Dave handles showering+dressing+and feeding The Nico.  Side note: My game is weak in the morning.

There is a kindergarten festival planned tomorrow- which should be lots of fun.  But I am not sure I am ready for my kid to be done with kindergarten.  Maybe I will write more about that tomorrow or this weekend... because I am kind of a mess thinking about it.  

Nico's last AYSO game of the season was this past weekend.  This season was really fun.  It was awesome watching Nico start to come into his own playing.  He loves goalkeeper so much, but he's already kind of advanced playing in the field.  He does tricks, and doesn't get caught watching the play.

He routinely scores three and four goals a game- but also plays defense (since goalkeepers aren't allowed at this age).  It has been a lot of fun watching him play.  

One of the things we are going to start working on this summer is punts and juggling.  He already tries to punt the ball- but is terrible at it.  Terrible.  My thought is, if the kid is going to do it, he should do it.  

In other news, we are filling out our summer to-do list.  There are some fun things on it (strawberry picking with Em and Nicole) and fishing in Michigan as well as some less fun things (I gotta clean up the girl cave and we need to get Nico's toys under control).  Definitely looking forward to it. 

Cool

I went to the gym on Saturday and took Nico with me. For two hours, he read, played games, and watched videos. Then he got a little workout in- some rings and some saves. It's great that he

Is starting to be able to do this kind of thing. 

We're really looking forward to this coming weekend. School picnic and Chicago Fire game on Sat.  We're so excited!!

Chicago Fire

As part of AYSO-we got a special deal on Chicago Fire tickets. I got them for

Dave for an early Happy Father's Day gift. The stadium is pretty sweet- although far. In the future- we'd probably want to take the "pub to the pitch" bus.

Nico was a gem for most of the night. I thought he was going to lose it over some candy he wanted, but the massive meltdown was *narrowly* avoided. 

Fun on the schedule

Spring is here- which means our weekends get a bit more exciting. This past weekend- we started with a house party at a fellow AYSO family's house. 

Nico ran around with his little rabble for the night- and had a great time. 

Sunday we headed out to Oak Prairie Park in NW Indiana. I wanted to try our hand at fishing- which was an abysmal fail at. Maybe because we were using those crappy rubber worms that came with the pole I got Nico. But it was fun. 

I got a chance to hike/walk along the trail at the park. The trail is in the book "60 Hiked within 60 Miles of Chicago", which Santa brought me a couple of Christmases ago. 

Monday I did "Murph" with my gym. It's a hero WOD so named for a Navy SEAL who died in 2005 in Afghanistan. I definitely had a bad attitude going into it- but am glad I did it. 

That is me on the far right. 

Tuesday we went to a birthday party after school. I'm not sure how I feel about birthday parties on school days. It's nice to not have to tie up a weekend day with it. But we didn't get to any homework on Tuesday. But we didn't do any on Wednesday or Thursday either. 

The place we went was awesome. They had inflatables and a rockwall. A rockwall. 

In other news, we bought a used patio set from someone in the neighborhood. We're also going to work on getting some paver stoned for the backyard. It's about to be an oasis up in here! 

This weekend we have more fun on the schedule. Pizza with my dear work friend's family tonight. Outdoor movie night+hawks game tomorrow night. Going to see a Fire game next weekend. Our summer is starting to get booked!!

I posted- I swear

So, I was publicly shamed.  Shame to my house!  Shame to my family!! Nicole called me out for not blogging recently.  Since it has been increasingly difficult for me to sit down and actually blog at my computer, I thought I would do more of it from my phone.  So I redownloaded the app.  I wrote some posts- posted them.  And walked away.  That is how busy I have been- I haven't even been able to read my own blog.  Yes, I do that.  And my own facebook.  And my own instagram.  And my own twitter.  I know.  I know.  But I am just so damn clever sometimes, I can't help it.

Regardless, Nicole called me out on facebook and told me to post- which I started to do tonight.  Then I saw what I did- so look at that- over a month with no posts and now three posts in one day.  In one day!!

Nico is hilarious lately.  He says some pretty funny things.  And he is starting understand the fine line between funny-cheeky sass and disrespectful back talk.  Which is awesome.  A favorite of late: "It's getting really boring listening to your annoying face."

The recently completed the standardized testing at his school.  He was ranked highest in his class- and in the 98th percentile- for math and reading.  It wasn't really surprising, since we see how easy the homework is for him.  But it was cool nonetheless.

But in case you were thinking that Nico was getting too smart and sophisticated.  Keep in mind that this week I cut the sleeves off of a camo t-shirt for Nico.  Like his mom- Nico is a touch fussy about his clothes going to school.  He obsesses (a tiny bit) when he gets toothpaste or a spot on his tshirt.  Wednesday we discovered paint on the sleeve of his camo tshirt and he was starting to get worked up about it.  So when I walked him into class, I borrowed a teacher's scissors and cut the sleeves off.  My son wore a sleeveless camo tshirt.  To school.  In Chicago.  :)

Redo

We did some spring cleaning this weekend and I came across this. It is from earlier in the year. And it makes me laugh- you can see how little Nico cared for this assignment

Redneck

Spring/Summer is here. After playing soccer at school yesterday Nico was hot so he took his shirt off. This might be the most redneck thing I've seen him do in a while. 

Fun and Reading

Not much new going on here.
I sent the boys to Miami to see Dave's parents this week.  I would have gone but it is apparently an arm and a leg to board two big dogs.  An arm and a leg.

They also had all the fun and I had none.  Okay, that is not true. I did have fun- I worked on sewing a couple of tops... but ran into a problem with pleats.  Looks like Imma have to wait till Mama B comes to visit some time.

Dave, Nico, Mike, and Gay had a little bit of an adventure; Mike stepped on the business end of a sting ray and ended up with a barb in his foot.  Apparently that hurts a lot.  Nico's comment was that he was glad that he didn't have a bad run in with nature.   He also made friends with the kids of Mike and Gay's friends.  Which is great, because its nice to have friends wherever you go.

Yesterday I picked up Nico's report card- all Ws ("well developed") except for a pesky inability to count and number to 100- which I think is strange, because the boy can do that.  So I gotta figure out a way to get into that.  Also, he is reading like a champ.  It's been fun reading books with him- taking turns reading different pages and sections.

We're really looking forward to spring soccer season starting tomorrow!!  Nico is looking forward to showing off some of his new moves.

Nico's Spring Break

CPS spring break started last week.  I took the day off so I could hang out with Nico and let Dave work.  We ended up at Lincoln Park Zoo- ostensibly to check out the new macaques.  We ended up not making it, since it was a bit chilly and I was optimistically dressed. 

We ended up seeing the black bear, some monkeys, the sea lions, tigers, and cervals.  The best part of the zoo is that it is completely free- so if our trip ends up getting cut short because Nico is too focused on checking out the gift shop or we underdressed, I don't feel bad leaving after only being there for 2 hours.

The mask makes me pretty happy.  

Basketball Season

Do I even keep this blog anymore?

I know.  I know.  I have no good excuses.  So I won't.  We have a lot of ground to cover, so Imma break these up into a couple of different posts.

Nico's basketball season ended.  He had so much fun with it.  About half-way through the season, one of his coaches (Ira- the one in the middle above) asked if Nico wanted to hang out and play in the session following ours.  Well- we're a coaching family.  We know what is up.  So, we did- and Nico loved it.



Nico is #7 in the grey above.  We're working on him not running away from the ball.  Turns out, this is the same in soccer as in basketball.

The best thing that Ira told us?  He told us not to focus on the baskets- at some point, all the kids' shooting abilities will likely even out- and average shooters are a dime a dozen.  Ball handlers?  Now, that is a different story.  A good ball handler?  In demand everywhere.  Which is great, because one doesn't have to be very big to be a good ball handler.

Nico Work

We had friends over for brunch this weekend.  Nico helped me clean the bathroom.  He has a new thing called "The Swiffer Dance."  I consider it my greatest disappointment that I didn't get it on video.  That would have been amazing.

I wouldn't say that he was really good at cleaning, unless you count overspraying cleaner on vertical surfaces good at cleaning.  But it was nice that he wanted to help.  

Last week his teacher complimented Dave in front of Nico about how good of a leader Nico is.  Apparently, they all have these little chores at school... from what I can gather, he seems to be something of a boss- prompting other kids to do their jobs and having the other kids report back.  So basically my kid is destined for civil service?  In any case, when he heard his teacher tell Dave how good he is at this job, Nico was BEAMING.  Which makes me happy.  

Tough and Strong

As friends and loved ones of me, you are, friends and loved ones of a CrossFitter.  Sorry, it is what it is.  For the next five weeks, all the CrossFitters will "compete" against each other all around the country in the same workouts.  The top finishers from each region get invited to Regionals and the winners from Regionals go to The Games.

I have been organizing these events for my gym, where one night a week, we have two athletes face off against each other.  We're trying to have a solid balance between the two that compete, so that someone isn't getting buried by their competitor.  This has made me think a lot more about how I stack up against the other female athletes.

There are a couple of things I can't do (pullups, ringdips, muscleups, and efficient Toes 2 Bar), but there are other things I am good at; heavyish deadlifts and cleans, shoulder to over head, double unders (depends on the day).  And then there are things that I am just terrible at burpees and pushups, but I can still do them.   I'm in this weird middle place, where I am not improving much compared to the people around me.  I'm better than a lot of the scaled women at most of the things they do.  But then So and So will get a pullup.  Someone else moves onto a double bodyweight squat.  And then I'm like:

A lot of days, it doesn't bother me.  I was in a bad place (physically) when I started CrossFit- and sometimes I am amazed at some of the things I can do.  Look me!  I have double unders.  And I can clean like a champ!

And then there are the rest of the days... Days when I remember, I am the fourth oldest woman at our place, and the only one that has had a kid, that was brought into this world with a long cut through the middle of my body.  And the only one that spent 7 years of their life sitting on their ass in grad school.  And it's impossible for me to spend as much time as I want in the gym.  If it were up to me, I would spend three hours in the gym every day.  As it is now, I'm lucky if I get 1.5-2 hours, which usually includes showering, and transporting to and from.

The thing is: I used to think of myself as being strong and tough, which I will take.  At the very least, if I wasn't terribly mobile, or quick, or fast, at least I was strong and tough.  But maybe my conceptualization of strong and tough are different from everyone else's.  Like maybe I am not tough for dragging my ass into the gym when I've only had 4 hours of sleep, when stress is eating my will alive, and when it's really inconvenient to go.  Maybe tough is really only going unbroken in workout sets, or pushing yourself all the way through a workout (and not shifting into survival mode 10 minutes in).    

Big Feb

I know what you are thinking: how is it that someone who likes blogging as much as I do, can be so terribly bad at it?  My sister, who has four times as many kids as I do, manages to update her blog several times a week.  I don't know how she does it.  Really.  I'm just over here, trying to determine whether the "shower" I took at the gym yesterday indeed counts as a shower (the water was cold- so I didn't really get under it) and if I am gross for not having taken another shower.

We've had a fun February.  We managed to get to a DePaul women's basketball game.  Which was fun.  There were two late lead changes, which made the game very exciting.  I was worried that Nico wouldn't like the womens game because there is less dunking in womens basketball.  But he liked it just fine.

Speaking of basketball... I can only guess that the way that he is now is like how Dave was 40 years ago.  He gets very animated whenever the Cards are on.  He has opinions about players... like Owanakahu- who he thought should be kicked off the team (instead of Chris Jones).  But he can still recognized when a player like that makes a big play (like the other night, whoever they played against, Syracuse?)  He is just as serious about it as he is about the games he plays.

A couple of weeks ago- we went over to Jakey's house.  Jakey is one of Nico's classmates from Wonder.  Along with the little brother, the three of them played well with each other for 4-5 hours.  Even if some of that playing was wrestling fighting wrestling.

Valentine's Day coincided with the end of my Whole30 nutrition challenge at my gym (funny: growing up, I thought I would be peer pressured more into sex, drugs, and booze, and less with the "healthy eating").  I was really jonesing for a bacon cheeseburger and Dave humored me, so we had bacon cheeseburgers for dinner.  Nico had one and declared it to be his new favorite food.  Cue us making it for him 2 days later, and him not eating it.  Per usual.  

February 17th was Paczi day.  I dont like to make fun of other people's religions, but this sounds kind of made up.  But I'm not gonna throw a big fuss about it, because donuts!!  Right? 

The Great Blizzard of 2015

We had our first blizzard this weekend.  What is crazy about it, is that I knew we were in for 6-10 inches of snow, but I kinda shrugged it off, thinking it wasn't a big deal, since New York and the East Coast were supposed to get a blizzard last week and the actual amount of snow fall was in, many places, underwhelming.  So, when we got 10" of snow on Saturday night, I thought, "oh, well, that is nice."  But then Sunday, the snow kept falling.  And I made the classic new parent mistake of agreeing to take Nico to Target to spend some $$ that Aunt Rosie sent him for Christmas.  

Well, let's just say that there is a funny thing that happens to side streets in Chicago when there is a lot of snow.  If it is still snowing, they often don't get plowed.  So, that is what was happening Sunday afternoon when we were trying to make it back to the house.  Spaulding Ave. was a parking lot.  

At one point, I got out of my car to help dig out a car a couple of cars in front of us.  I was gone for a while, but by the time I got back, Nico was in tears.  Apparently, he couldnt see me, so he had gotten upset.  Man oh man.  Both of us were pretty upset at that point.  In any case, my car ended up getting stuck.  Around that time Dave had just gotten home with groceries and he suggested just parking it near where we were (side note: Dave had gotten stuck trying to leave to get groceries).  We ended up parking by a fire hydrant, and let me just say, I would have raised quite the commotion had I gotten a ticket.  Quite the commotion.  

All told, we ended up with 19" of snow-which isn't going anywhere anytime soon.  Nico had a snow day on Monday,which was great. It gave us a chance to do a little shoveling and time to get caught up on homework and reading and snuggles.  I even got a nap in. 

The good news is that, which this much snow, you know sledding is going to be off the hook.  Except that the last sledding outing resulted in Nico and Dave breaking the old sled.  So, now we gotta get a new one.  Imma try to get one of those big ones with a strap on it, so Dave and Nico can tote me around in the snow.  

Dave got a proof of the second edition of his book in the mail last week.  It's pretty cool- except that now he has written two books and me none (unless you'd count my dissertation- which I wouldn't- since I didnt get it bound up).   

Birthday Ski Trip

This weekend, we headed up to Wilmont (in Wisconsin) for skiing  (for Dave's birthday).  It was a great place to go, because overall, it was pretty mild.  Also, we didnt have to board the dogs anywhere, so that is a bonus.

Nico was pretty much a gem all day.  He listened to his instructors and tried hard.  After he realized that he didnt need to hit the deck all the time, he actually ended up being a not bad little skier.  

We let Nico do a kids' ski class, which put him on the right track to try the tow rope and the bunny hill.  He hit that hill a bunch of times, by the end, pretty much having the hang of skiing, which was cool. After, we hung out in the lodge with the ipad and let Dave ski some more.  He reported that the lines weren't that terrible for the 6-7 lifts that were running.  There were some steeper parts, but largely, it was a very comfortable experience for people who hadn't skied in 10 years.  

We had Cracker Barrel for dinner on the way home.  Even though it was his birthday, Dave humored me and let us have CB, which was okay.  Even though I didn't eat what I normally would (because I am doing this gym Whole30 challenge.  Funny, when they told me about peer pressure in high school, I just assumed that there would be more booze, sex, and drugs involved.  And less "healthy eating". )