Greatest Monday Ever

Hit the Field Museum and the Shedd today. Took the CTA so we got to ride in a "passenger train" per Isaak.

Beyond exhausted by the end of the day. Plus, Natalie pooped on the carpet. Big fun.

Porch shot

Daddy Hobbit and Valerie TOO!!

Crazy weekend. D and Valerie are here too. Elliot used Valerie as a sticker book for Dinos. She and D also led the charge on baba and books at the end of the day.

The Cousins are Here!

Aaron, Lynelle, August, Jasper and Isaak all came in from Montana for a visit. Thursday, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Today we head to the Lincoln Park Zoo (weather permitting).

We aren't sure who had more fun, the kids or Grandpa Owie.

Face Paint

Jenny brought face paint and took the kids to see the dinos at the Field Museum today. She is the coolest.

Elliot is a protoceratops. (The barrettes are his horns, I think.) Natalie is a Kitty. Jenny is a T Rex.

Garden Party

Grandma Bonnie and Suzanne Cohan-Lange came over Sunday expecting to help on interior design stuff but ended up shoveling construction waste in the back yard. Some spring flowers are trying to make it out of the muck. Elliot took the pics.

The only shot of Bonnie centered on her butt so it didn't make the blog.

After some heavy lifting, we went to Crust for Bloody Marys and pizza. Much better.

Owie song

Natalie loves her grandpa owie so much she wrote a song about him.

The apartment

Grandpa Owie is back from Florida. It's on.

As we were demoing one wall of a dormer, we found some newspaper. It must have been from the original build out. Apparently, the sultan was slow to act in May of 1897.

Crazy Babies at the end of the day

Things tend to get a little nuts around bedtime.

First snowman

Grandma Sue made a heroic effort last weekend with an inch and a half of wet, slushy snow in a backyard full of roofing nails.

Elliot made his own mini-snowman too.

Devil Baby, Transformers etc.

Natalie has been giving us a lot of trouble at night of late. We have begun calling her the devil baby. Occasionally, when we ask her to "do the devil baby" she makes a horrible growling noise. Very funny but small payback for the middle-of-the-night scream-fests. Here she is just wearing Elliot's safety goggles.

We went to Tommy Zip's 5th birthday at Pump It Up in Glenview today. It is the "coolest place ever" according to EB. When we got home, we continued with the Transformers theme. Elliot made his own Transformer costume complete with important buttons.

We also did a bit of yard work as a team.

Finally, Elliot drew some pictures to begin planning the springtime garden plantings. Once Dad ran out of flower names and descriptions, we had to use one of Great Grandpa Buck's field guides to western wildflowers to provide new ideas.

Easter at Bonnie's

Crazy big Easter dinner at Grandma Bonnie's. Her legendary Bunny Cake returned after a 10 year + hiatus.

We also went stomping in the snow to the park after dinner. Apparently, Natalie is over her fear of slides.

Neither kid can take a credible staged photo. Must be genetic.

Kids update

Elliot continues to draw lots of pictures. Here we see Rink Bowagon, the protagonist in "The Boy Who Grew Flowers."

He and Natalie like sharing laundry basket space when reading.

Natalie likes pigtails sometimes, dressing like a tiny blueberry and eating homemade chocolate-covered donuts always.

We're in the house!!

It's been a crazy 2.5 months but we are in. Plenty of work to go but it feels good to be in the house.

Jeff and Jackson Allen and Zoe and Amy Zucker came by over the weekend to help and cheer us on. So did Susanne Cohen-Lange, Mom's old buddy from her Madison days.

We do still have kids

Among the faves, Natalie pantsless at Ikea. There was a blowout with no backup gear on hand. Luckily it is a short walk from the store to the car.

She also loves climbing into Elliot's Dora luggage and going for rides around the apartment.

More house shots

We've gotten great help from lots of friends and fam. Here are Daddy Hobbit and Rat in action from late January.