Color me Sappy

Well, I've become the very thing I made fun of as a single: a sappy parent who finds cuteness oozing out of anything having anything to do with their kid. Guilty as charged.

For instance, here are our shoes, just sitting beside the door at night. Too cute!




In case you're wondering, I did unpile them and arrange them neatly for the photo. Mr. Sappy Parent, yes. Mr. Together Parent, not a chance! (Still I forgot to untie them.)

Philadelphia

A couple weekends ago we spent a long weekend in Philadelphia. It was Luke's second cousin Isaac's bar mitzvah. We spent time with the grandparents and relatives, and saw some sights, too. (By the way, no cameras allowed at the bar mitzvah.) This was our first bar mitzvah, and Isaac did a great job: he prepared for the better part of a year--quite a feat for a 13-year-old. Congratulations Isaac!

Here's Luke at Philadelphia's Please Touch Museum. Lots of fun, and though he was one of the younger ones there, he was old enough to enjoy it. He kept going back to the bus (which he has plenty of in Chicago).

Mother's Day Weight Loss Challenge

CAUTION:
Disturbing images follow!
Not intended for the squeamish!

My mom, dad, brother, Jim and I decided to work hard for the next 7 weeks toward losing a few extra pounds. Since accountability is motivational, we're posting our total beginning weight, and a few unflattering butt and belly before shots. Each Monday we'll post our weekly weight loss. Our total goal is 50 pounds...wish us luck!

Total begining weight: 892.5
Goal: 842.5

Muffin top... Man boobs...



Jim adds: Sorry to gross you out with our pictures and the b-word. We'll try to keep our blog G-rated. I'm scrapin' for motivation, so maybe this will help. By the way, the side-shot on the right isn't Kirsten at eight months pregnant. It's me (though I'm sticking it out as far as I can).

And that's hardly "muffin top" in my opinion!

I've gotta keep blogging to push these unpleasant images down and off the page!

Not our Luke!

I was at Epiphany Lutheran Church a couple weeks ago, helping at their annual toy sale.

I see this attendance poster in a Sunday-school room. I think, Hmm, that one kid in the middle sure doesn't have many stickers by his name.

Hey! His name is Luke!

At the City Desk

Here's a glimpse of the back room, the underbelly, of the Bell Times. A rough place to work!

The editors are feverishly working on the next edition. Rigorously fact-checking. Wrestling with the content and style.

Here the senior editor (in the foreground) confronts a reporter: "Is this your best work? You're serving the public! Don't forget that!"

It's the new 20!

I saw this article on celebrities turning 40 and had to laugh. I turned 40 last June. Some of my best years are yet to come! Right? (Gulp!)

"I think 40 is not just the new 30, it's the new 20," People magazine senior editor GALINA ESPINOZA tells ET. "We've got this crop of stars that actually look better today than they did when they were in their prime...

Elmo Hindsight

If you've read our blog even once, you know that Jim, I mean Luke, is a huge Elmo fan. Jim and Luke enjoy time together playing Elmo games online. That's all find and dandy until you need to actually get a little work done on what has now become an Elmo Playstation! Luke will patiently place your hands on the keyboard to signal that it's time to enter the Elmo website address. If you still don't get it, he'll actually place your hand on the mouse and say, "Elmoooooooooooooooo."

So, I did what every smart mom would do when you realize your child is on the verge of meltdown. I used the distraction method to successfully divert his attention away from the computer and onto...Telletubies.

Sharing the chores

Guest-blogger Mormor shares a story from her visit a couple weekends back:

I forgot to tell you that when I took garbage and recycling to the chute last weekend, I fixed up a little plastic bag (one of the grocery store bags) with garbage and had Luke carry it down there. He really was very proud to carry a bag himself. And then I would ask him to show me Luke's house and he would run to his door. Very cute!!!

Thanks! I'm going to have to try this!

Bumper Sticker of the Day

Driver carries no cash
HE'S MARRIED

Elmo

Since Luke likes Elmo, here's a little Elmo tribute.

I volunteered at a toy sale so we could get a pre-sale shopping day. Here's a collection of Elmo toys I found in the room I worked. (We didn't buy all these.)

Kirsten bought one of the Elmos at the sale. Luke loves it.

Some official Elmo sites:

• Elmo's Place at SesameWorkshop.org
• Elmo's Rhyming Game at PBSKids.org.

Luke Reads His First Word

Luke and I are reading the cover of this Dr. Seuss classic. He knows letters P and O, and I'm starting to sound out the word Pop and he says it! Kirsten couldn't get him to do it again, but I'm convinced this is the first full word he read.

Go Luke!

Update, 3/13: He did it again this morning, and this time with even less coaching!

First Trip(s) to the Library

Here's Luke on his first Library outing a few weeks ago. Our local branch has a little kids' area. The littlest table and chairs were still too big for him, but he got a huge kick out of them. They're closer to his size than just about anything else he's encountered. The library has a decent selection of board books, too, and he really liked a Baby Einstein book on animals. (He's big on animals.) "Luke, use your library voice!" He's still working on that.


A rainy day this week found us in the bigger Lincoln Square library. He had fun there, too. Not as many books for his age, but lots of people to watch. And grabbing books off the shelves is really more fun than reading them anyway.

Diggin' PBS

PBS has some great resources for young kids in the morning. He really likes Elmo , and learned his name surprisingly fast. (Did a babysitter teach him? Could be.) But he seems to like the camera even better.

New Words

Some more words Luke has shown he knows: cold, baby, more, eat, oops, and Elmo. He's said Bible and splash, but I think he was just repeating them back.

One and a Half Men

With Kirsten away, Luke and I are hanging out this week. So it's just like that TV show, Two and a Half Men. But I'm not that jerk Charlie Sheen plays. (No, really, I'm not! Really!)

We're having a good time. A little bumpy 'cause we both miss Luke's Mommy. We look at pictures of her twice a day, and that helps us both. (I wasn't sure how he'd handle that.) I tell him how much she loves him. He gets a great big smile on his face. (But still fights me brushing his teeth.)

Luke woke up early, so he napped late morning, and that threw the rest of his day. We still had fun. We walked in the snow in the empty lot up the street, as Sydney roamed off her leash. Sydney loves the snow. Luke wasn't sure what to make of it and had to hang on, but had a good time. It's melting now. (And I'm bummed that I didn't get pictures.) I tried to show him doggie paw-prints in the snow, to help him make sense of his Baby Einstein Neighborhood Animals video (they show paw-prints running across the screen).

I tried to take him to the Library, but it was closed in observance of Pulaski Day.

Luke says, "vv..v .dfc/nncccccccncn ncx vznvxmca." Which means, "Hi Mommy! I love you a bunch!"




Speaking of one and a half men reminds me of a story:

D.L. Moody is said to have once returned from a meeting with a report of "two-and-a-half conversions."

"Two adults and a child I suppose?" queried his host.

"No, two children and an adult," said Mr. Moody. "The children have their whole lives to give to Christ. The adult had only half of his left to give."

Mormor Visits

I call it a "visit" but she's serving us from the moment she walks in to the moment she leaves. And with Kirsten travelling, I'll take all the help I can get. She just left to (hopefully) beat the bad weather.

Thanks, Mormor, for the company, the delicious food and all you do!

(Mormor is Grandma in Swedish.)

Holly's Baby Shower

With Mormor watching Luke, I spent the morning at Holly's baby shower. Ok, not the shower itself, but hung out with Tyson and Tom while the gals were doing the shower. We had a great time. What we did, of course, is secret guy stuff--as secret as the secret girl stuff that goes on at baby showers.

Holly had her shower at a neat little place in Oak Park called The Magic Tree Book Store. We ate at the Original Pancake House, where I'm always tempted to ask the waitress, "Um, do you, um, sell, um ... pancakes?"

Kirsten Treks to TN

Kirsten treks to Tennesee for the CHIC council meeting. Things are shifting into high gear--CHIC is on its way! (Sorry to remind you, hon!) See the intrepid duo in action...

(I think they're gonna kill me for publishing this.)

Conspiracy!

The kid and the dog conspire to make unwanted food go away. This is gonna be an ongoing problem, I can just tell. Luke does it half for entertainment. (Don't worry, Sydney takes it from him very gently.) They both know this is unacceptable behavior. Sydney now understands the phrase "back off!"

Update: An astute reader points out that these pictures are months old. Yes, they are. This is a themed entry, not a current-events entry. ;-)

Havin' a ball at IKEA

Here's Luke having a ball at IKEA. (Not great shots--I took them on my cell phone.)