The Last of the Chicago Pictures

All I have are "picture faces" of this one...



Sweet boy...



The littlest cousins had a love/hate relationship!

Caroline adored Penny.

Cousin baths were a big hit!

Baby Pen

We are going to have to stop calling my niece "Baby Penny" - she walks, she talks, and she's bigger than William.



Penny has changed so much since Christmas. When she got out of the car the first time I saw her this visit, she came running right over and gave me a big hug. She is just an absolute sweetheart, and definitely not shy!



Penny is such an interesting little thing. On one hand, she's all girl. When I pulled out a pile of Caroline's hand-me-downs, she started squealing "clothes! shoes!" and immediately had to try everything on. On the other hand, she has no problem keeping up with her rough-and-tumble big brother. One minute she's playing super heroes, and the next she's pushing her baby in a stroller. She's also funny because the bald head makes you think baby, but she's so tall and, um, sturdy. :) And so verbal - just like her eldest cousin.

Poor Pen had an unfortunate fall on concrete one of the first days we were in Chicago.

Looking good, Penny!

Q-Dog

I'm kinda in love with this kid.

My nephew, Quentin. I knew about him and anxiously waited for him practically from the moment of conception. I was on the phone listening in when he was born, and I rushed to Chicago to hold him within days of his birth. I adore him to the ends of the Earth, so I was kind of heartbroken when he would have nothing to do with me at Christmas. I tried bribing. I tried playing trains and cars. I tried being sweet, silly, crazy. I mostly got looks of contempt followed by "nooooooooo Aunt Bobo!" When he talks to me on the phone, he likes to tell me that I taste yucky (his favorite insult), that he's going to flush me down the toilet, or that I'm not invited to whatever event is coming up. He's a charmer. :)

This trip to Chicago, though, I won him over. I arrived armed with a new super hero. I played endless games of "got your booty" and chased him through the streets of Wheaton (whether or not I was fueled by multiple margaritas from my favorite Mexican restaurant is irrelevant). I had the best time getting to know him.

Every time I pulled my camera out, I had a little shadow. He would turn on the charm full-on, posing, preening, showing off. But the minute I turned my camera on him, I'd get this:

I can not tell you how many pictures I have from Chicago with him covering his face. Right after practically begging to have his picture taken. The kid is a RIOT. Can't you just see the personality oozing?

I love you, Q-man.

The Cousins

The kids and I have just returned from 10 days in Chicago visiting my family. We had a really nice visit. This was the first time it "clicked" with all the kids - they were finally old enough to play together and really enjoyed being with each other. As I'm unpacking, grocery shopping, and trying to get back to normal life, I'm also wading through all the pictures I took. This one gets me, though - I sure do love those 4 kids. :)



More to come!

Bikini Bread

I've had a good laugh all morning listening to William ask for "more bikini bread, please!" If you, like us, have an abundance of zucchini from your garden or CSA, we highly recommend this zucchini bread recipe from Cooking Light.

Inspired by J.J., I just have to capture a few of my other favorite "unique" phrases from Caroline:

"I can't find any short sleeved pants!"
"Remember the story you read me yesternight?"

They are so sweet when they are little. :)

Family Portrait

As a former kindergarten teacher, I can say with some certainty that it's beginning to feel like we have a kindergartner around our house. Even though we have one more year until kindergarten.






But surely that's not possible, because I just had my first baby. She can't possibly be almost 5.


I'm not ready. I'm not ready. I'm not ready.


PS - the xo cracks me up. She thinks she's Gossip Girl.

Greenway

I had such great intentions of blogging regularly this summer, and it just hasn't happened. And not because we haven't done a lot of fun things - we have - but I've just been lazy about taking pictures and blogging, I guess. Steve's been traveling a ton and I've been helping out our neighbors who are having some medical issues, so it's just been crazy around here!

This morning we hopped on the train with our friends and headed to the city to explore the "Greenway." For those of you who don't live locally, when Boston went through the "big dig" to put major highways beneath the city, they created a string of beautiful parks above ground. We walk by these parks nearly every time we go downtown, but since we are usually headed somewhere in particular, we never have time to explore them. So we dedicated today just for that!

The two major attractions, at least for our kiddos, were the splash fountain and a carousel.



Yep, more crummy iPhone pictures. I meant to grab my camera this morning but I forgot. And for some reason I can only get these pictures really small. Don't know what's up with that! I almost gave up on blogging when I saw how terrible the quality of this is, but I figured something is better than nothing!

Thanks for a great morning, W family!

PS, Emily, if you are reading this, you will be shocked to know that I planned a major outing, on the train, with no problems. No, really! Ask Courtney! Maybe you are the jinx after all??? :)