Could You Come Back a Little Later, Mr. De Mille?

Yesterday, they finally finished work on our new back porch. It's totally awesome to walk out the back door and not feel the porch move under you each time you take a step. This morning we decided to try an impromptu photo session with Wiggle on the porch. Unfortunately, he got so excited being outside and exploring the new space, most of the photos are blurry smudges of crawling, climbing, wriggling, head turning boyo.
Here are a few that did turn out.

I think Wiggle is channeling a little of the Rum Tum Tugger here.

Here he is coming to eat the camera.


He leaned in for a snuggle at one point, but insisted on squishing my nose the whole time.

Faking me out for a kiss.

It's clear here how I feel about the shoot... and how he feels.

Telling his dad all about how he managed to evade the camera when he was with Mom.

On Saturday night C and I went out to dinner at West Town Tavern. Although we had heard great things about the place beforehand, I have to say to food was truly underwhelming. This is the curse of knowing how to cook fairly well. Either you think you can make the same thing for much, much cheaper, or you have a sense of how you want something to taste and you know how to get it there, so what arrives on your plate is hardly ever satisfying. We are thinking of sticking to ethnic food for our dates from now on because we don't cook a lot of non-American food very well. We still had a nice time being out without the boyo. I enjoyed having a glass of wine with dinner. The evening very enjoyably served its purpose - to relax and reconnect a little.

Oh and Wiggle has started saying "mama." All last week he was going around saying "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma," but on Friday he said it intentionally as "ma-ma." He's still getting the hang of what it means. In the meantime, he's very proud of himself when he talks, as he should be, it's quite an accomplishment. Now to work on "da-da."

A Busy Weekend

This weekend has come and gone with much fun being had with very little rest. On Friday night, we went to Millennium Park for the Stars of the Lyric Opera concert. We took the bus and arrived shortly before the 7:30 pm start time. Normally we would still be able to find a seat in the Pavilion, but there were not only no seats in the lawn, there were people four deep standing around the edge. We were able to find a seat on some grass outside the park-proper, but we had to re-cork our wine as it is only allowed inside the pavilion.
Then on the way home, the bus was so crowded that I had to stand up while holding Wiggle for the entire ride. Were there two able-bodied teenage girls sitting in the seats directly in front of me who could have given up their seats? Why yes, there were. Did they? Of course not. They instead texted mean and meaner things to some poor "friend" of theirs and occasionally shot me and C dirty looks when we lurched with each bump in the road into their space. Thirty minutes and one neck cramp later, we arrived back in the HP. We all tumbled into bed around midnight and zonked out.

Bright and early Saturday morning, we walked Wiggle over to 57th street for a demo class of Marsha's Music Together. Although the demo class was super full, we had a great time singing, banging instruments, and dancing around. I think Wiggle enjoyed the class too, but he seemed more interested in the little girl sitting next to him than the music. He's a total flirt and charmed everyone when he climbed up the girl (she was quite a bit bigger than he was) and layed his head on her shoulder to snuggle. After class, we made a quick stop at the park for swinging and then walked home to eat a quick lunch.
After lunch, we picked up our friend K and went to the Renegade Craft Fair. It was hotter and more unrelentingly sunny than expected, so I bought some sunscreen at a corner store and slathered us all in it. Then we walked around for a couple of hours, people watching and admiring the various wares. While there were some cute things that I definitely want look at again online (many of the artists sell stuff on etsy too), I was left cold by many of the items. When we finally made it back to the car, we decided to make a quick trip to Peet's for some caffe freddos.
Once adequately chilled and caffeinated, we realized we were hungry and decided to go for broke (figuratively not monetarily) and try our luck at Rick Bayless's newsest venture Xoco. The place is billed as his take on street food, so we thought we could do take out, but it turns out lunch and dinner are eat-in only. K and I got in line, and miracuously C found parking less than a block away. A mere 45 minutes later, we were seated, eating fabulous sandwiches, gourmet churros, and gazing upon the Master himself. That's right Rick Bayless was there at the pass, putting the finishing touches on all the dishes. I shouldn't say this like it is unusual as I have been to Frontera Grill several times over the years and Bayless was always there at some point during the meal. The sandwiches were outstanding and I plan on going back sometime when the hype and hopefully the lines die down a little.

Wiggle's face after trying his first bite of Xoco guacamole. I think he liked it actually, but first bites are tough since he doesn't know what's coming at him.

A shortrib sandwich. C dubbed it a Mexican Philly Cheesesteak.

A blurry picture of the churros.

Pork deliciousness in sandwich form.

C and Wiggle at Xoco. Wait, is that? Could it be? Why, yes, that is Rick Bayless in the background (between their heads).

Yesterday morning, Wiggle and I went to swim class. Poor Wiggle was so tired he almost fell asleep on me in the water, but I think he still had a good time. After a brief nap (Wiggle's not ours unfortunately) and some lunch, we headed out to the 57th Street Children's Book Fair. We walked around, bought a few books, and listened to some storytellers. I think Wiggle was generally bored since he can't enjoy browsing for books yet, but the balloon he got there probably made the trip worth it.

Wiggle in the great green room where there is a telephone and a red balloon, and a picture of...

Wiggle playing with his very own gold balloon.

The reaction C got to bonking Wiggle on the head with his balloon.

Lander joining in on the balloon fun.

Here is a pic of the very over-tired boyo before bed last night, but not before bedtime, in his new pajamas (a gift from his grandparents).

A Little Information

This past Sunday, Wiggle and I had our first swim class at the South Side YMCA. There were four other kids in the class - all older. We had a great time splashing, kicking, going fast and slow in the water, almost blowing bubbles, and interacting with the other kids and parents. I can't wait for next week's class. While the class is great, I totally get waiting to start swim classes until your kid can walk because trying to change out of a swimsuit and into clothes in a locker room with a baby is not easy. Luckily, Wiggle can stand well, so I just threw a towel under his feet and propped him against a bench while I changed. I didn't take any pictures since I was by myself, but I will have C come with me one week to document Wiggle's amazing water feats.

In food news, Wiggle has expanded his repertoire considerably. He's started eating meat - turkeys with sweet potatoes, chicken with gravy mixed with prunes and apples, and some ham he stole from my sandwich today. He also has started eating breakfast - yogurt mixed with oatmeal and bananas or peaches. He also likes to eat pieces of banana, as well as the perennial favorite - cheerios. Feeding him has also become more fun since he seems to enjoy it more now. It's still super messy, but hey that's part of the fun, right? His spoon skills are getting pretty good; I load it with food, hand it off to him, and it goes straight into the mouth. He doesn't, however, drink from a sippy cup. He will drink from a regular glass, which I have to hold, but he just doesn't like to try to suck from the cup. In his defense, the new no-spill cups do require a pretty powerful pucker to get anything out. I'm hoping to work up to three meals a day once he cuts his two top teeth, which should be any day now.

I downloaded my first children's album this weekend, They Might Be Giants No! Wiggle has responded to it very well, but more importantly I like it, which means we can listen to it again, and again, and again, and again. I've been looking for more music, but I haven't pulled the trigger on anything else yet.

Well, that's the update for now.

Cat toys - not just for cats anymore.

A Little Sumpin' Sumpin'

I know I'm his mom and am biased and all that, but come on, just look at him.

I'm pretty sure he's the most handsome boy in the world. Don't you agree?

Adventures in Eating

Feeding a baby is messy and tedious, but there are some upshots...

I love sweet potatoes!


What are you looking at?


You mean there are more kinds of food?


More applesauce please.

What do you mean there's no more?

So far he likes graham crackers, sweet potatoes, applesauce, and green peas. He cringes at pears and green beans. I can't wait until he can actually eat "real" food. It's a slow process, but we're getting there.

Swing Time

We pass by two parks on our evening walks, and we sometimes stop at one or the other for some swinging. Here are some pics of the boyo enjoying the ride. BTW, these pictures look like we took him out in the middle of the night to swing, but in fact it was dusk and still fairly light out.

Note the awesome outfit Grandpa A brought Wiggle back from South America. He is also wearing slippers that Grandmother J gave him. We have been having unseasonably cool weather (it was in the 50's last night), so the fleece penguin slippers were perfect for being out in the evening. When I received the slippers earlier this summer, they looked huge, and I thought they would be perfect for him come November or December. Well, bigfoot's toes are right where they should be now. The kid's got monster feet.

The Evening Constitutional

Lately, we have been taking long walks in the evening before we put Wiggle to bed. I started doing it because I could use the exercise, and all of my parenting books say I should get Wiggle outside more, and well, because I want to be the kind of parent who takes my kid on long walks in the evening. But I didn't know what a difference they would make in my life in general.

Truthfully, I had been feeling kind of down lately. Not depressed really, but a little harried. The library of parenting books on our shelves kept telling me how this (6 months) is the best time, and that I should have things under control now. Not only that, but the sense of calm that I am supposedly feeling would disappear slowly, but surely as Wiggle becomes even more mobile, willful, and articulate, only to return around the age of three (not so coincidentally, this is also the age at which most kids enter pre-school). Needless to say, I had not been overcome as of late with either a sense of inner peace or an outwardly tidy home.

To top it off, Wiggle had started to develop sleep issues - most notably, he had stopped sleeping on his own easily. So I started the walks in order to give myself time when Wiggle was engaged in an activity other than using me as a jungle gym or trying to take my shirt off, but they quickly became more than that. They gave some structure to my day and to Wiggle's day, and from that a daily schedule seemed to fall seamlessly into place. They have also given C and me some time each day to talk without trying to get some dishes done, check email, or sort laundry at the same time. The walks, plus the daily schedule, have also given us a normal sleep schedule for Wiggle. Some sound advice on sleep issues (Thanks, Aunt K and Uncle B for the books!) seems to have nipped the latest sleep problems in the bud, and I can proudly say that last night Wiggle slept from 8:30 pm until 8:00 am, and he took two decent naps yesterday. C and I have had dinner by ourselves three nights in a row and even managed to watch a couple of our long forgotten Netflix.

I feel like a new person. I remember that I have a husband, not just a baby-daddy, and more than that I love him. We had become "Mom" and "Dad." No, worse than that, we had become "mom" and "dad." And while I love, repeat, love, being a mom, in order to continue being a good mom, I needed to remember that I am more than that too, that C's and my relationship is more than just being parents to Wiggle. Not bad for such a mundane activity.

Some pictures from the 'hood.

His future's so bright, he's gotta wear shades.

Two views down the Midway Plaisance, one block from our apartment.
The flora is beautiful, but the fauna is awfully cute.