Playing Peekaboo

Just some footage of Jesse playing a game of peekaboo with us tonight before bed.

The Horse Says Neigh

Jesse learned in the past week or so that the horse says "neigh". Until about two weeks ago, this boy could not be convinced that the majority of animals don't say "baa". He would tell us the sounds of lots of strange animals (by strange I mean not-your-traditional-first-animal-sounds kind of animals) like the rhinoceros, snake and owl, but nearly every other animal said "baa", no matter how many times we told him otherwise. I guess he finally had a breakthrough. He just got a Fisher Price Farm last week, and it is one of his favorite toys. Whenever he sees it he starts saying "neigh" over and over and over and over.

Spring Break Fun: Part 4

On our last day together we took a little day trip to some sand dunes along the coast of Lake Michigan. First we checked out Warren Dunes State Park in southern Michigan. It's about an hour and a half from Chicago, so we got there mid morning and took a hike over a dune and out to the lake for a picnic lunch. Since Jesse has outgrown his Baby Bjorn, James got to carry Jesse in the Moby Wrap, which meant having to carry 27+ pounds all in front. I'll have to say that I'm so glad it wasn't me having to do the hard work!

We saw a really neat "sandfall" on the first part of our hike...

Jesse had fun walking in the sand, although it was a little tricky at first.

We went down to the water, and I let Jesse get his feet wet. He thought it was pretty fun and cried when we had to leave.
We saw lots of flowers blooming. I still can't get over this crazy weather we've been having!

After spending the morning at Warren Dunes, we drove back towards Chicago and stopped at Indiana Dunes State Park. The plan was for Jesse to take his nap in the car on the way to Indiana Dunes, but he had other plans. James finally got him to settle down enough on our hike at Indiana Dunes, and he got a good 45-minute nap in the wrap.

It was so nice and peaceful to get out of the city for the day and enjoy some nature!

Spring Break Fun: Part 3

Monday morning we took a walk along the lake path to one of our favorite local spots, Promontory Point. Last time we were here, all Jesse wanted to do was play with our bike trailer, and this time all he wanted to do was play with his stroller.

Crossing the bridge over Lake Shore Drive...

Picture with Grandma and Grandpa at the Point:

Here he is playing with the straps on his stroller. He is super fascinated by any type of strap (strollers, high chairs, etc.). I think he is working on figuring out how they work so that he can plan some escapes.

Climbing on the stroller proved to be lots of fun, too.

Spring Break Fun: Part 2

Our church meets late afternoon on Sunday, so we decided to spend Sunday morning at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's a pretty small zoo, but admission is free and Jesse still doesn't really have a huge appreciation for seeing all the animals, so it was a perfect outing for us. He seemed to be most fascinated by the zebras, swinging monkeys and the polar bear (oh, and all the birds flying around in the sky that weren't part of an exhibit...he was constantly pointing to them and saying "bee, bee, bee"). He also perfected his monkey sound (ah, ah, ah, ah) on the trip and has added this one to his repertoire of animal sounds.

Spring Break Fun: Part 1

We had a fun time with James' parents over the first half of spring break. The weather has continued to be incredible, with highs in the 80s, so we have tried to soak up all the time we can outdoors.

When they arrived on Saturday afternoon, we spent a little bit of time on the playground outside our building. Jesse has just gotten to the age where he really enjoys it. Back in the fall when we would go out to the playground, it was a constant battle to keep him from eating all the wood chips, but now he entertains himself quite well playing with all the riding toys and climbing all over the equipment. All the pictures in this post and subsequent posts were taken by James' Mom. It sure was nice to not have to worry about lugging my camera bag around, and she got some great shots of Jesse while they were here!

Winter? What's that?

We have had some marvelous weather this past week with highs in the 70s and even low 80s! I am in disbelief...five months ago I remember getting out to enjoy what I thought would be our last nice days before winter hit, but then those nice days just kept coming and coming. We've had some cold and snow, but it hasn't been much worse than an Arkansas winter. All of the experienced Chicagoans say that winter never came this year, and I am definitely not complaining!

We have been spending lots of time out at the playground this week, where Jesse has taken a liking to climbing all over the playground equipment. He started out the week struggling to walk on all the wood chips at the playground, but now he is getting around like a pro.

Today was James' first official day of spring break (yay!), so we decided to take a family bike ride this afternoon. Jesse loved riding along in his bike trailer. He screamed bloody murder when we put his helmet on him, but as soon as he started moving, he really seemed to have a blast. We ended up riding down our street and crossing over Lake Shore Drive to the lakefront bike path, which led us to Promontory Point (a big piece of land jutting out into the lake), where we stopped and let Jesse roam around for a bit before heading back home.

As soon as we let him out of the trailer to play, all he wanted to do was get back in the trailer and examine all the straps and wheels.

No matter how far away we took him from the bike trailer, he immediately began walking straight back to it. This is what he looked like when we tried to distract him.

Heading back to the bike trailer yet again...

Almost there...