One more round from the Door

We've known for years that the Schuerr cousins love throwing rocks into all sorts of bodies of water. This trip was Elliot's first exposure to this form of recreation. He was nuts about it. His last session went on for over an hour with almost constant throwing.

The turtle like to travel by multiple conveyances. A I understand it, she wants us to buy a space ship for her for the next vacation.

More from the Door

Lolly pops and lilacs. It's a young boy's (and a dentist's) dream up there. Elliot had a little trouble sleeping Saturday night so Elliot and Dad got up for a sunrise hike in the cherry orchard behind the Gram's house.

Also, Natalie started learning to drive. They have very lax regulations on this in Wisconsin, we learned. And yes, she has been going to a tanning salon. It's never too early to start, we think.

Trip to the Door

We spent Memorial Day at Bill and Jean's house in Fish Creek, WI. We stopped at Alterra Coffee in Milwaukee on the way up for a break. 5 hours of driving is tough on two little monkeys.

Lincoln Park Zoo with Grandma

75 degrees and sunny. Saturday. Tigers. Grandma Bonnie. Not a bad day for the team.

nikki de saint phalle at garfield park

Great exhibit at Garfield Park all summer. Nikki In the Garden. Will was so excited he jumped in the pond. Everybody else settle for playing in skull nostrils and eating lollipops.

Bavarian Boy

Elliot modeling a shirt from Gudrun, Axel and Connor Hahn. He wore it to Jensen Kingsley's first birthday party and proceeded to wipe delicious pink frosting all over the collar.

Lincoln Park Zoo is a little scary

Carousels are not normally considered thrill rides. Elliot and I went to the Zoo with Trey and Jay Kingsley today. Trey's day ended at the carousel in tears. Elliot was shaking so badly when he got off (after about 5 seconds on the ride) that only 3 pounds of honeydew melon could soothe his battered psyche. Oddly, he later said, "I wanna do it (the carousel) again."

Otherwise, the zoo was lots of fun. See fake smile after eating aforementioned pile o' melon.

Brookfield Zoo fieldtrip

Monkies!!

WALK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Natalie starting holding our hands and walking a couple of weeks ago. She howls with laughter while chasing Elliot around the apartment. She has also started to do this guttural grunt/growl when she wants to walk (which is quite frequent) and is not finding the appropriate adult hands to assist.

Conked out

We spent the morning at the park and ate lunch 'al fresco'. On the stroll back home a sun soaked Spider Man and Natalie fell fast asleep. Well Elliot did. He made the transfer to bed and took his second nap in the last two months. Ahh.....

Uncle Piggy's birthday party

Great fun at Bill's 70th. Friends, family, chocolate cake and trains. Perfect day for Elliot.

Cousin Dawn was great with Natalie. Baby sitter?

Clean Turtle

Tiny one. Super clean. No peas up that nose.

Natalie Splashing -video

Here she is recorded for posterity splashing in the bath. Go Natalie!

The Turtle Eats! The Turtle Splashes!

Just before her 7 month birthday (tomorrow) Baby Natalie decides to venture forth beyond the boob. Hooray! To make it a bit more interesting, she insists upon grabbing the spoon herself and guiding it (the spoon and cereal in this case) to her mouth. Once she is done, she reassures herself that gravity does still exist by dropping the half loaded spoon to the ground.

Needless to say, the whole process was quite a mess resulting in a bath. Natalie discovered while in the bath that she, like her sainted brother, can splash too, now that she can sit up (yep, sitting up). She was quite excited and went at it with gusto.

Look in to my eyes . . .

Natalie attempts mind control of the Daddy.

Bathtime finger paints

An Easter gift from Gramma Monnie. If you didn't know better, you might think we just had a particularly colorful strain of bathroom mold.

Mud Bug

In springtime, a young boy's thoughts turn to dinosaurs, stingrays and mud mud mud.

Confetti Diaper Party

Shockingly enough, Natalie didn't really like this.

St. Pat's Dinner with the Stephens Family

Among the things we learned this evening: (1) a crowded Irish bar on St. Pat's is a little scary for children under 3 (2) Unless you have been desensitized since you were in the womb, growling 2 year old boys are scary to baby girls like Avery (3) Mexican restaurants are pleasantly quiet on St. Pat's. (4) Portabella mushroom fajitas are "not good, Dad" (even though Elliot loves regular mushrooms.)

Sexy Shoulders

So, I (Julie) must confess to one vanity -- my shoulders. I do believe they are my best feature. It looks to me like Baby Natalie might have inherited them. We're banking on Geoff's genes for a prodigious memory.

Zoe playdate

We were snowed in today. We haven't bought a snow shovel and I wasn't about to dig us out of the snow anyhow. Amy saved me by dropping Zoe off for most of the day. They read to each other -- which involved a lengthy debate about whether the tigers were swimming in juice or water. They had the animals talk to each other. Elliot was a slightly overenthusiastic bear. Played with playdough, puzzles, sang, etc.

Julie's birthday

We went to the Choo-Choo restaurant in Des Plaines. It's a long way from the Slanted Door in San Francisco.