Windy City jaunt

We resumed our annual Thanksgiving in Chicago tradition this year. We packed up the car -- apparently two children mean four times the luggage, even when you think you're traveling modestly -- and drove down Wednesday night. Both kids slept the whole way, meaning the only way it would've been a better ride was if someone else drove so Anni and I both also could sleep the whole way.
We had a great visit with extended family. We stayed with my Aunt Renee and Uncle Fritz -- thanks again -- and managed to squeeze in a trip downtown (see below) and a lunch with some old friends (longtime friends; they're not old) before heading home late Saturday. Again, the kids slept the whole way; that's the only way to travel if you can stay awake yourself.

 

The girl likes black olives. They taste best fresh from the fingertips.

 Watercolor painting during some downtime.

 Trying to bust into the display loot at Macy's in Chicago. (Aside: Who hangs a life-size doll on a Christmas tree?)

 Bryan and Elise in Santa's chair at Macy's.

 Ariane and a very giggly child.

 

 Elise playing Candyland with Veronica, who, if I do my family connections correctly, is her third cousin.

  A last-minute game of Candyland with my Aunt Renee before leaving for home.

Well, this pretty much sums up the family: Two crazy gals, boring me and a chillin' Colin.

After the picture: "Wait, where's Elise?"

 Colin and my dad.

 After the picture: "Wait, where's Colin?"

Little girl, big city.

On Black Friday, Anni and I took Elise to downtown Chicago with my brother. We wanted her to ride on the 'L' and to see the holiday decorations and, perhaps most importantly, to have an opportunity to run around at Millenium Park. For many reasons it's the best city park I've ever seen.
What struck me as we wandered around downtown was how small Elise looked compared to her surroundings. Some of that juxtaposition is captured in some of these pictures. At least that was the attempt.

 Waiting for the Blue Line.

 She enjoyed the ride.

Macy's sure isn't Marshall Fields. The old downtown department store that used to feature impressive, traditional holiday displays now sells out, turning over the windows to clothing and apparel designers to decorate how they want. The result? Elise checked out the first two, then got bored. We did too.

She was wowed by the store's many floors, Christmas decorations and the tiny people seven stories below.

 Beats refrigerator magnets: Elise works on her letters during a break at Macy's.

You can lay down beneath the bean, so we did.

 Guess this is a beaning smile. (Yes, I am lame.) 

If you haven't been to the park, imagine a two-story stainless steel bean-shaped artwork. I don't know squat about sculpture, but this thing easily trumps our own Cherry on a Spoon. The bean -- called Cloud Gate -- is made of shiny stainless steel, which creates cool reflections. Here's me being very unoriginal.

   There is a nice view of downtown from the park. The ladies are overlooking the park's outdoor ice skating rink below the ice.

A bit squirmy.

 Trying to bolt at the aptly named Chase Promenade.

 Running at the Crown Fountain. It's made of clear glass blocks and displays really large images of Chicagoans -- and their big teeth and nostrils. Oh, and it shoots water in the summer.

Ledge walker meets homeless musician.

And then there's this.

Hey, Chuckles.

Colin has only laughed hard at two people -- Anni and Ariane, my dad's cousin. Moments after Ariane sat down with Colin, he got the chuckles. Pretty funny.

How big is your turkey?

Ours is 16 lbs. 15 oz.

It's here...

Saturday morning I was cleaning up some leaves and brush from the yard. 

Saturday afternoon we were debating whether to drive to Anni's sister's house because of the snow and crummy roads. 

Sunday morning we were enjoying the snow.

C-boy at 3 months

Colin -- or Colin Boy, as Elise still calls him -- is 3 months old today. It's also Election Day, so Anni took him and Elise to vote this morning. (Yes, I voted too.)
Anyway, at 3 months he just started to laugh. We missed video of him when he was really chuckling the other day, but the video above gives you an idea of how chipper he is. (Note: Be glad it's Anni, not me, making silly noises with him.)
Besides chuckling, the little guy likes to smile.

Well, aren't you sweet

Colin was having an off day -- maybe Daylight Savings Time messed with him like it did Elise two years ago; seriously, it did -- and at one point he was crying and just generally having a snit as I was holding him.
Apparently it was obvious I was struggling with him because a very honest-sounding Elise suggested what might be the problem:
"Maybe he just doesn't like you."

A songbird with stage fright

Anni's school had its annual Halloween party the other day. It was a chance for Elise to try out the red bird costume (see the blog entry below for red bird details) and to partake in the preschool party activities.
Those activities include a brief concert of Halloween songs. For Elise, though, it wasn't brief enough. The girl will sing by herself all day long, reciting some songs word for word and riffing extensively on others. She sings in the car, on the toilet and over the crying of her brother. If for no other reason, her loud crooning is cute because it's done without a bit of embarrassment.
But she is not a show pony.
She rarely will sing on cue or for an audience. Such was the case at the school party. She sat up front with her preschool friends and had a good time, but wouldn't belt out one note. That's fine, though it's interesting that she's already figured out that she doesn't like being trotted out on stage.
Once the concert was over, Elise had a ball at the school party.

 Anni with the blue bird.

Waiting for the concert.

A bird's eye view

I found some of Elise's artwork hanging from the ceiling.

Birding on Halloween

About a month or two ago Anni asked Elise what she would like to be for Halloween.
She wanted to be a bird. After discussing colors, they settled on a red bird.
So that was that. Anni set about making a red bird costume. She found a red sweatshirt and bought felt and started cutting feathers -- well over a hundred of them. She attached them to the back of the sweatshirt, gave the bird a beak and eyes and -- voila! -- Elise had a red bird costume.
Actually, it took quite a bit longer than that. It turned out great, though.
So then Anni made a bird costume for herself. A red-winged blackbird, to be accurate. (It was so accurate that Roger Tory Peterson would've whistled at her.)
Tonight the red bird hit the neighborhood trick-or-treating, bouncing from house to house. (OK, there were only five houses, but a little bucket full of candy is still a bucket full of candy to a 2-year-old.) Elise was either excited or antsy by the time we reached our next-door neighbors' house. It was our last stop.
She walked to the door, knocked and yelled, "Hey!!"
They answered, dished out candy and the red bird returned to the nest to tally her loot. It was a good holiday.

 

  

 

 

 

 

Little brother meets big brother

We're experimenting with a new toy at the house: a video baby monitor. 

Anni got it from her sister Laura, who bought it on steep discount. She offered it to us, and I didn't think we'd ever use it.

We decided to plug it in yesterday to see how it works. You just mount a small camera on the edge of the crib, plug in a tiny TV elsewhere and prepare to be riveted.

With our small house and the audio baby monitor we already have, a video monitor is entirely unnecessary for us. It's an excess that the older generations (read: grandparents) would scoff at while barking: "We never had one of those and somehow you kids survived."

Unnecessary? Yes. Fascinating? Very much so. 

It's closed-circuit crib viewing. There is something interesting about watching the child upstairs from downstairs. (I realize this is probably evidence of my need to find a hobby to take up during down time.)

Elise is a fan of Colinvision too.

She was fascinated that she could watch Colin even though he wasn't in the room. She thinks that when he is on TV he is in the hospital -- I don't understand that theory -- but she gets a kick out of seeing him move.

Fortunately for us, once he's asleep, he doesn't stir much or wake easily, which you'd think would make for boring video. 

Elise thought Candid Colin was pretty neat.

Bird boy

The archer

At Colin's last check-up, we learned there's actually a name for this arm movement.
I thought it was just a funny position when I took the picture, but he was actually performing a near-perfect asymmetric tonic neck reflex. That's the clinical term. It's also known as "the archer." (If this is all common knowledge to people, I'm uncommon.)
Anyway, this is a typical baby movement, but get this: guess what position adults often -- and involuntarily -- strike during an exaggerated yawn. Yep, this one.

'He's a very interesting baby'

As the doctor gently poked and prodded, she was getting content but inquisitive reactions from Colin.
"He's a very interesting baby," she said.
We took it as a compliment, despite the fact that "interesting" in Minnesota means something entirely different than "interesting" anywhere else.
That episode came last week, when we took Colin for his 2-month check-up.
I had forgotten the significance of the 2-month mark. Essentially, when you've reached 2 months without any major health issues -- and we're talking major internal stuff -- you're considered 99.999999 percent in the clear for big-time problems. (Apparently, some cultures wait until the 2-month point to name a child for that reason.)
Thankfully, our guy seems as healthy as can be. He weighs about 13 pounds 4 ounces. Remember all those charts they give us at the check-ups -- the age-to-height, age-to-weight, etc? Colin is falling right in the middle of the growth curves. I guess that means Elise already has one-upped him: She's always been at the top of most of the growth curves.
Whatever. They're both healthy and, well, that's about all that matters.
At 2 months, Colin is starting to interact. The new pastime around here involves getting him to smile and talk. He's a much easier one to get giggling than Elise was. She made you work for a smile. Colin gives them away, and they're often accompanied by giggling and cooing. He'll do it day and night, which certainly makes a middle-of-the-night bottle feeding a little less difficult.

Bust a move

Another sign Elise is getting older: She went to a wedding with us and danced more (and better) than me.
Last weekend Anni's cousin Michelle got married to Randy in Duluth.
Anni was in the wedding, which was going to make caring for and feeding Colin a bit complicated. So we left him at home for the weekend. Actually, he stayed with my parents while Elise bummed a ride up to Duluth with Anni's parents. (We had gone up early.)
So with lots of help from Anni's relatives, I sort of kept an eye on Elise during the wedding. She had a great time and made quite an impression on the dance floor -- as you can imagine from this video. (Bonus: Elise's cousin Samantha makes a cameo. She would be identified on the movie credits as: Wandering One-Year-Old.)

Running...

It's not just a joke. People really say, "Don't run with scissors!" At least I almost did tonight when Elise was playing with her "safety scissors" -- Anni says they're fine for her to use; I still think if they can cut paper they'll nip little fingers -- and then decided to hustle across the room with them in her hand. She stopped running before I had to use that line.

After that, it was back to her Halloween project.

Expressions

Colin was chillin' on a blanket, so I just started snapping. Those arms move all over the place, so posing wouldn't be an option even if I wanted it to be. The guy just struts his stuff.