Aunt Amber and Nana Come to Chicago

Aunt Amber and Nana came to visit us a couple of weekends ago! It was a fairly short visit (at least too short in our opinion) but we had a ton of fun.
Upon waking up to visitors at our house, AnDee and Pep were ecstatic. Isaac however was not so sure. Eventually he warmed up to them though. At first he would only make eye contact if they stayed on the other side of the room. Then he started cracking a few smiles. Eventually he let Amber read to him and that quickly escalated to hand holding and hugs.

The first day they were here we dragged them around Aurora and Naperville shopping and showing off downtown Naperville and all of its charm. We took them to the bell tower and the river walk and to our favorite little bistro. It was a tiring and fun day.
The next day we made them go to church with us and be subject to much attention and introduction.
On Monday we took them for an adventure in the city.... by train of course.

We headed over to Millennium Park to see the bean and of course to take a few minutes to chase the pigeons.

Then we hopped on another train and headed to the coolest museum EVER. The museum of Science and Industry. The best part is that between us being residents and Andrew having corporate passes, we all got in for free!

Thats AnDee up there see her??

This museum was seriously awesome. They had so much to play with and see. Its super interactive  so its especially fun for the kids. They had trains you could climb on and storm stations where you got to see how tornadoes are made or how powerful lighting is. There was too much to even mention but if you ever come to Chicago, I HIGHLY recommend going.

 Yes... Amber totally photobombed my kids' picture.

 Oh... just a to scale replica of Chicago... model trains included of course.

 Electricity is fun

After that we headed over to Lou Malnati's because no trip to Chicago is complete without pizza from Lou Malnati's and then we headed back to Union station to head home.

We really wanted to stop for some hot asian buns but unfortunately (or maybe lucky??) for us they were closed.
Sadly our guests had to catch a flight early the next morning and we had to say goodbye all too soon but it sure was fun to have some visitors!

Brookfield Zoo

A few weeks ago we took a trip in to see the Brookfield zoo. It was a pretty dang good zoo but it lacked something vital for a zoo... elephants!! What kind of zoo doesn't have elephants?!! I was sorely disappointed. But in all seriousness it was a really nice and very cool zoo. They had a sting ray exhibit that was definitely the highlight of the day AND a dolphin show!! SO cool!!! All the animals were super active too especially, the lion. It must have been mating season or something cause the dude was going nuts. So aggressive. Which is pretty cool when you know he can't hurt you.

As always, the biggest sign of a good day....

First Hair Cut

I finally sucked it up and let Andrew cut Isaac's hair. I know I should have done it ages ago. His hair was super uneven and scraggly but first hair cuts are so hard! I knew that as soon as that hair was chopped he would look so much more grown up and everyone would see him as a toddler and not a baby anymore. We ended up chopping 2 or 3 inches.
At first his was a little nervous about the clippers but he ended up thinking it was funny and tickley and he laughed through the whole thing. In the end he had about 2-3 inches of hair piled up on the floor around him.

After

I was right though. He looks so grown up now. Makes me sad. I tried so hard to get a nice picture of him looking handsome at church but as soon as he saw I was taking pictures he started cheesing it hard and wiggling all over the place.

Andrew tried holding him down but it didn't work...

 Finally he suddenly got very serious and solemn

We never know what we are gonna get from this boy.

The Train Museum

Not just any train museum. The biggest train museum in the United States. And it was SO COOL.
A few weeks ago we took off on a Saturday morning and made the little drive to the coolest museum ever. We are talking hundreds and HUNDREDS of real life full sized, on tracks, trains! We got to walk through some really old and super awesome passenger trains. We got to see some of the oldest trains out there and the steam engines we got to get up close and personal with were absolutely incredible. Giant and old and incredible!
We got to ride on an electric train and a diesel but.... we left before we actually got to get on the steam engine and Im still kicking myself for not sticking it out and waiting for a turn to ride. It was seriously so awesome and we will definitely be returning to ride that dang steam engine!

 They had real life old school caboose's (or as Pep would say "camoose") complete with cupola on top!

Andrew always makes lovely faces for our pictures

 Do you see the size of that thing?!

 To say Pep was excited would be a gross understatement. Euphoric would be a little more accurate I think. His sister wasn't far behind him on the excitement level either.  It was such a good day. So so so fun. I can't wait to do it again. The only thing that would have made it any better (besides riding the steam engine of course) would have been if they had a circus train. We searched and searched but never found one. Im sure they exist though... you know the dumbo style ones where the hippos have a pool and the giraffes can stick their heads out the top?! Life will be complete the day we find a train like that.

P.S. Steam engines are really really loud. And equally as awesome.

As of Late

Pep found a new favorite hobby (he loves it and asks to do it on a very regular basis)

AnDee finally got some friend time which included hours of Frozen play (which as you can tell by her face, didn't excite her at all)

And we got our art on.

( Andrew and I spent weeks cracking tiny holes in the tops of eggs, cleaning them and then saving them so that we could do this specific project. We filled the egg shells with paint. Gave each kid a canvas and let the throwing of eggs commence. It was pretty awesome, and a lot messy. I was covered in paint by the time we were done and had to rush in to try and get it out of my clothes. Even Andrews car got a little color added to it. )
The beginnings of our art collection...

The Ikester

He eats mud. A lot of mud. I think his two favorite foods are mud and chalk. He's obsessive about the mud and it drives me CRAZY.  Its not just like he sticks a little mud in his mouth and tastes it. Its like he puts handfuls in, chews and swallows. Its gross... but he still seems mostly healthy so I guess it can't be that bad for him.

Isaac is hands down my most rough and tumble kid I have. He hits, he pinches and bites and it all makes him laugh. A lot. He even laughs when you do it back.  He loves to be roughed up and you can be surprisingly mean with him and he still thinks its hilarious. I don't know what Im going to do with him when he gets a little older. He is already pretty strong and I can't get him to soften up! His poor siblings take a beating on a regular basis.
He is the biggest tease EVER. It's incredible how intensely he teases. He loves to walk up to Pep and grab whatever he is holding, yank it out of his hands and then run away laughing. Pep is his favorite person to do this to because he gives the biggest reaction. Full on throwing himself on the ground and screaming... Which just encourages Ike even more.
He is completely obsessed with reading. Its doesn't matter if I read to him for 5 minutes or an hour he has a complete meltdown every time I tell him we are done. Its actually pretty heartbreaking how sad he gets. He has memorized a lot of the books and jabbers along with me while I read or makes the animal/ bear/dino noises in the right places. Reading to him is one of my favorite activities as of late.

 This is how every day starts and ends. He wanders around the house dragging book with him and throwing fit after fit about no one reading to him. At moments he will get distracted and read to himself for a few minutes (he actually jabbers and makes the noises that fit) but after a few minutes he is right back at it... shadowing my every move and getting totally enraged when I don't sit down and read to him.

He isn't as verbal as my other two were at this age. He only uses a handful of actual words (mostly. "poopey" and "book" and the occasional "Oh TOODLES"!) but he communicates perfectly. No one ever has any doubt about what the kid wants, doesn't want, likes or dislikes. (if we are being honest he actually knows a lot of words but he always has a stinking binki in his mouth preventing him from using them.)

He's super bossy and is excellent at throwing fits... which drives us all completely crazy. But he is also so sweet and funny and a lot of fun. He loves to "help" me clean by putting random things in random drawers and his new favorite thing to do in the car is to wave and yell "HI!" to everyone and everything we pass. He is awesome during prayers too. He folds his arms and kneels (when called for) and always ends with and "amen!"
Im in love with this little fellow. He keeps things exciting and fun and challenging.