Happy birthday, Grampie!

Have a great day! We're looking forward to seeing you this weekend!

A blast from the past

Last Wednesday, our dear friend Joanne passed through Normal on her way to Santa Fe from her home in Ann Arbor. Joanne was one of our very good friends when we were living in Michigan, a coworker of Joel's at the University and a devoted bunny sitter for our dear Greta.
Joanne would read to Greta when she would stop by our apartment to feed her ... a devotion I don't think she regrets even though we learned later Greta was, for all intents and purposes, deaf.

We hadn't seen Joanne since we moved to Tucson in 2003, so it was a real treat to catch up and introduce her to both of the kids. They worked their charms on her.

And, indeed, I think it's safe to say, Owen and Maya, Aunt Joanne will always take the time to read to you if you ask.

We have lots of other discoveries to report this week ...

One of our tomato plants has become the home to a family of caterpillars (actually, tomato hornworms). I'm sure my grandpa the farmer would be devastated to learn we are happily sacrificing this tomato plant to their munching in order to watch them grow and eventually turn into moths, but it's really fascinating to watch them. Amy and Owen pulled this guy off the plant last night ...

And Owen enjoyed taking a closer look at its legs and the row of "eyes" along its side.

Maya had her 15 month checkup last week. She's now in the 30th percentile for weight, which makes her pediatrician happy, as she'd been in the single digits percentage-wise a couple of months ago.

She's saying many more words, but excels at "Daddy" (a good choice), "bubbles," "uh oh!" and "hi."

Owen has lots more to say.

The other day I was getting him in the car so his mom could take him to pre-school as I was on my way to work. He gave me a huge kiss and said, "There's something you can tell your friends at work about."

And the other night I was singing him a few songs at bedtime, as is our routine. He asked for one more and I started singing "Over in the Meadow." He stopped me in mid song and said, "I don't like that song, it's too yakkity."

Mr. Entertainment has also designed a new Mii for himself to go with our Wii game. We sat together a couple of weeks ago and he picked out the characteristics he thought looked right for the on-screen "Owen."

Here's what he chose:

I love it.

Breck Girl

An Independence Day Retrospective

I'm going to claim it took me this whole week to digest all that we did in Chicago over the 4th of July. It certainly was a jam-packed weekend of fun.

Not quite a scene from "On the Town," Owen's downtown romance with the pretty girl dressed in the lemon colored frock was fully sanctioned by both sets of parents, as we delighted in meeting our long-time friends Jake and Laura for the weekend, along with their daughter Annabelle.

My parents played host to all seven of us, joining us for our planned trip downtown ... and patiently enduring a day of cabin-fever activity planning when the 4th itself arrived both cold and wet.

Our big Friday outing was a trip downtown for lunch at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill. Jake and Laura are long-time devotees to Rick's Mexican cookbook. They even gave me my copy ... to which I gratefully returned the favor by giving them the book Rick wrote about cooking with his daughter, "Rick and Lanie's Excellent Kitchen Adventures."


The train trip downtown was an adventure for everyone ...

... as was the lunch itself.

And it turned out Lanie Bayless herself was our server.

We then walked down to explore Millennium Park. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we all enjoyed our first look at the Pritzker Pavilion and the glorious "Bean" sculpture.

Maya was energized by walking on one of the walls ...



... just as Owen was feeling the hang-dog exhaustion of a four-year-old who has walked too much, missed his nap, and was desperately thirsty.

Independence Day Saturday, as I mentioned, was cold and wet. Jake and I spent some time rehearsing the duet we would sing at Dad's church on Sunday, and then we all made ice cream, as is Jake's family's tradition on the 4th.

The kids were exhausted and it was too drizzly for an official fireworks show. But we tried our best with sparklers. Although, as you can see, Owen was less than impressed with my dizzying light show.

Not wanting to let him down, we took him out later in the night into a park where we could see some of the fancy "neighborhood" displays around Mom and Dad's.

All in all, had a wonderful time.

And Owen's got his eyes open for when he'll see Annabelle again ...

We have a new cousin! (updated)

Great news from Massachusetts that Owen and Maya's first ever cousin arrived safely after nearly 42 hours of labor (!). Esmé Foster Dankmeyer Aalberts arrived at 6:45 pm on June 30, weighing in at a patient 7 lbs, 14 oz and doing fine. Congratulations Daniel and Erica!

Uncle Joel is all ready with a pocket full of gum and silver dollars.

We've been very busy, as usual. It was another outdoor concert weekend at the BCPA. This week was Family Fest, featuring perhaps my favorite children's artist, Ralph's World. I was at work most of the day, and Amy and Auntie Pam brought Owen and Maya down for the afternoon.

Owen had fun meeting Ronald McDonald, getting a snazzy temporary dolphin tattoo, and enjoying both a green river and his first frozen chocolate covered banana. Maya was mostly into the music (she loves to dance) and working her charm on all of the volunteers and staff at the theater.

We had lots of other stuff going on this weekend, too. We had a fun visit to the pool on Saturday, and on Friday Amy and I brought Owen to Champaign to meet with Dr. Hatch, his pediatric gastroenterologist, who checked Owen out to see how his stomach was doing and make sure he was getting all the nutrition he needed with his gluten-free diet.

The only downer of the past few days is that we had a sick day at home with Maya on Monday. There's a summer cold making its rounds through the area, and Maya was pretty drippy and gloomy at the start of the week.

The real bad news about her sick day, though, was that it kept her away from day care on her last full week in the infant room. Her teachers have all been a bit teary around her the past few days as they soak up their time with her. She's a favorite.

Lastly, some pictures from the past week, including a water balloon fight with the Merrill kids across the street (regrettably, no pictures of when I got soaked after the squirt guns came out), and Maya covered in sour cream.

We could have used the squirt guns again then ...