Weekend at JuJu's

At some point over the past couple of months Amelia has decided that Grandma Ginnie's name is JuJu. Frankly we have no idea where it came from. In Amelia's world there is no longer a Grandma G but there is most definitely a JuJu! Mark and I snuck away for a night at Kohler to celebrate our anniversary. Of course JuJu and Popper (his name was Georgia's doing) were happy to have us drop Amelia off on our way out of town. They filled their weekend going to the park, swimming and decorating cupcakes (or for Amelia eating frosting).

A Kansas Holiday

We traveled to Lawrence for the 4th of July holiday weekend. We had very lofty plans for spending as much time as possible sitting on my mom's deck, catching up with friends and family and watching Amelia enjoy having a yard to run around in. The weather had different plans for the weekend.... We did get beautiful weather Friday night and I had a great time eating Mexican food and drinking margaritas with my Kansas girls. Didn't manage to get any pictures though....

Due to the inclement weather we had to get creative over how to spend our holiday weekend. Amelia, Auntie M and Emmie mastered somersaults.

Instead of dining al fresco every night we spent QT hanging out in the kitchen. Amelia even had her first corn on the cob inside while watching the rain.

The weather meant we spent more time on the couch than I would like to admit. Here we are with our evening cocktails; beer for dad, wine for mom and a little juice for Amelia.

The rain held off on the morning of the 4th which allowed us to go visit the Meyer's new home and join in their lake's celebration. Amelia and Jack shared an entire bag of Goldfish crackers. From the looks of this picture Amelia wasn't giving Jack his share of the bag. (check out the view from the Meyer's front porch!)

On the evening of the 4th the rain stopped just long enough for us to light a few sparklers and fountains and for Auntie M to teach Amelia how to play with fire.

After checking and rechecking the radar we finally accepted that we weren't going to get a dry 4th. Mark introduced Amelia to running in the rain. The girl loved it and made good use of her signing skills by asking "more, more" everytime they got back to the garage.

And of course it was GranAnn who was waiting with a towel to dry off Miss Amelia.

Her Kind of Town

Amelia is a Chicago gal. She manages to get all over the city during a week's time. First she always travels with an entourage such as Rocky Mountain Bear, Louise and a random bear neither Mark or I swear we have ever seen (note to self ask Jenn if she knows where he came from). This was on her way to the Children's Museum with Jenn.

The girl's network is so large that even out at Midway she runs into people she knows. On our latest plane ride we were greeted at the gate by Amelia's best man Sammy who also happened to be heading to KC for the 4th of July weekend. They had a great time sitting across the aisle from each other, tearing apart skymall and eating each other's snacks.

Friday Amelia traveled to Edison Park to help teach Charlie how to swing. From the left; Charlie, Amelia & Georgia.

Friday night Amelia ventured over to Wicker Park to entertain Anna Wood who was visiting from Minnesota. The girls were very sweet walking home from dinner holding hands while wearing matching pink Crocs. The toddler's dined on French Fries for dinner and us parents enjoyed well behaved little girls and even some adult conversations.



Video: Amelia is a total Wiggleworms groupie. Today the Old Town School of Folk Music celebrated the Wiggleworms 25th anniversary with a full on concert in Welles Park. The Old Town School of Folk music knows how to throw a concert for tykes and their parents; great outdoor setting, toddler friendly time, music that engages toddlers and a beer tent for mom and dad! Her face clearly shows how serious the girl takes her Wiggleworms dancing and that she was not happy with the microphone trouble during "Milkshake."

Beer Me Mama

As a parent it is important to think about the kind of company you have around your children. In June we were lucky to get a lot of QT time with "the girls." Between a weekend at the Klein's lake house and then LB and Mills visiting Chicago Amelia got to hang with the girls lots. I'm bummed we didn't get a photo of all of us girls lounging in the raft at the lake but Amelia definitely enjoyed being "one of the girls."

Once we were back in Chicago things went something like this:

Skip ensured Amelia always had reading material. How can a girl go more than a few hours with her celebrity gossip?

Skip is definitely a hostess with the mostess and always takes such good care of us all. Even Amelia could help herself to Johnny Walker or Tangueray.
Mills brought home banana yogurt which Amelia devoured like dessert. I'm pretty sure it was all sugar.
Mills also encouraged and egged on "creative" projects with the yogurt. In Mills' defense at least she didn't introduce her to Diet Coke but I imagine she will take care of that during her next trip.


As for LB and the title of this blog. I came home from work one day to our home totally turned upside down and LB teaching our toddler to say, "beer me mama."

Happy Dada, Papa and Popper's Day

I feel like a lucky Mama. While it wasn't Mother's Day last weekend I got to spend Father's Day with my dad for the first time in I really don't know how long. And Amelia got to spend it with Dada, Papa and Popper. We kicked-off Papa's trip to Chicago with a visit to the Aquarium. It was free. How cool is that? Oh wait, if you ever think free days are a good time to go to museums in Chicago think again. Then again I imagine the rest of you could have told me what the problem would be with free days. Yes, we were greated to a 2 hour line when we arrived. As if we were going to wait in a 2 hour line in the sun with a toddler. Papa did his best to be positive, I kind of tried to be but Amelia did not hold back on her feelings. With a meltdown imminent I headed to get the car while Papa waited with Amelia in the shade. I came back to a happy girl who was eating her first popsicle! I will give Papa credit for thinking of a way to keep Amelia happy and cool her down. Of course where was Papa when I had to take away the popsicle to get Amelia into her carseat? Right, he was sitting in the car checking e-mail.

and she was able to use the car ride to catch up with friends on her iPhone.

See the nice construction? We have been loving the sewer replacmenet project that has been plauging our street for a couple of weeks now. It really is irritating, loud, dusty and makes our garage hard to get to.

See even Amelia is distraught. HOWEVER the inconvience of the construction doesn't appear to be our biggest problem. Amelia loves watching the work from our window. Jenn was pretty smart and put a little foot stool at the window so Amelia can climb up and watch the workers whenever she feels like it. This seemed like a great idea until Jenn turned around one day and Amelia was facing the construciton workers with her shirt up over her head. The girl loves showing off her belly.

Remember my post about being excited about having guests come? Be careful what you wish for. Papa went back to Arizona and left us with a toddler who now insists on "cheersing" whenever we sit down to dinner. After one round of cheering she will do the sign for "more" while saying, "more cheeeeeeeeeeer." I suppose she is ready for cocktail parties.....

A visit from Papa would not be complete without ample time in the kitchen. I won't scold Papa for having our toddler on the counter and digging through a draw full of kitchen utensiles because I know Auntie M will for me.

The morning of Father's Day took us to Millennium Park where Amelia's favorite part was definitely The Crown Fountain. Now that she can get herself around the freedom to splash in the water is way cooler to her than seeing herself in the bean.

On Father's Day Sunday we had folks over for dinner. Little Miss Sweet Tooth of course loved the dessert. I can't say she ate any of the other food but the dessert did have pineapples in it so that at least counts as a serving of fruit, right?

Why am I posting a blurry photo? Well little miss Wiggleworms wasn't about to sit still when she had Popper, Dada AND Papa all on the couch with her! What a luckily little girl to get to spend Father's Day with her three leading men.

p.s. In case you are wondering why my daughter is wearing nothing but a pair of tight, tie-dyed spandex which her belly doesn't exactly fit in please know I'm thinking the same thing too. All I can say is that it was Father's Day so I didn't get to pick out her outfit.

Summer Kick-Off

We kicked-off summer with a visit from GranAnn and a picnic dinner at Lake Michigan. Although we live within walking distance of the lake and I have now lived here for over seven years this was my mom's first trip to the Chicago beaches.

Our little princess apparently wasn't interested in eating on a picnic blanket and insisted on eating in her little red wagon.

All done! Chocolate cupcakes make a well rounded dinner.

The royal treatment continued with a ride home across the sand from Dada.

Oh wait, since Miss. Amelia sits still for all of about 15 seconds getting a lift from Dada got old very quickly. Type "A" Amelia had to take over (hm, I wonder where she gets that from).

The cops were out in full force over the holiday weekend. Amelia had to put on a straight face and explain to the Cop that all she had was milk and chocolate cupcakes. He let her go.

All Work No Play

Now that Amelia has turned 18-months and summer has arrived we decided she needed a little more direction in her life. She has been very busy with:

forced family photos at the Botanical Garden,

dance parties with G

grocery shopping for the family,

cooking her own meals,
cleaning up trash along Lake Michigan,
getting her morning exercise and
making sure daddy gets his exercise.