The Hawks Score!

I'm not sure how I let Paul convince me that taking Auggie to a Blackhawks game would be a good idea. It almost seemed like he was right as we settled into our club level seats and Auggie watched the players skate back and forth with fascination. Then the Blackhawks scored. And the sirens went off. And the lights flashed. And the techno music started playing. And Auggie looked at us in horror and started screaming his head off.

We watched the rest of the game in the comfort and safety of the club lounge.

Visiting Santa or Who is This Man and Why The Hell Am I Sitting On His Lap?

This was about the biggest show of emotion we could get out of Auggie.
John George, as usual, was thrilled.

Christkindle x2

One of my favorite things about the holiday season in Chicago is attending the various Christkindle Markets in the city. This year we went to the Christkindle Market in Daley Plaza with Alexis, Matt & John George. Per our usual, we were the only people pushing our way into the crowded beer hut with our Triple Bochs, sourdough pretzels and 6 month olds in slings. But the boys loved it, and the babies did too. They sang German songs, learned to say "Prost" and took their first sip of beer. OK not really, but Matt & Paul had one too many Triple Bochs, Auggie fell asleep in the sling, and a good time was had by all.

Learning about beer













Paul gives no lines at the beer hut a thumbs up

















Auggie asleep in the sling













Later that same weekend we hit up the Christkindle Market in our neighborhood. Notice the theme...

Tree

















Beer


















Sleeping Baby

Look What I Got!

You Can Do It, Put Your Back Into It

He really is trying so hard. He's mastered turning himself around in a circle with his hands and must be able to scoot to the side and in reverse, although I admit I’ve never seen it. I just know when I put him down on the kitchen floor I often turn around to find him in a totally different spot. But moving forward has eluded him. He currently has two strategies, strategy one involves lifting his arms and legs up off the ground and squealing with all of his might and strategy two involves digging his toes into the floor, lifting his bum in the air, and doing a face plant. Neither are helping to move him in the direction he seems to want to go, but he’s working on it with everything he has.

Moving On From Board Books

Done with the Touch and Feel books, he's moving on to our library

And the Architectural Digests

Clearly He’s A Kid With Important Things To Say

Rainy Sunday Afternoon

The Sunday after Thanksgiving it was cold, wet, and miserable so we took Auggie to The Lincoln Park Conservatory. There's something about walking through an atrium with fruit trees and giant palms that instantly makes you forget about the Chicago winter. After our visit Paul offered to drive down Michigan Ave so we could see the lights and decorations. He even put on Christmas music and stopped to get me a festive beverage from Starbucks to enjoy during our scenic drive. It was the perfect rainy Sunday afternoon.

Auggie's First Pub Crawl

Paul and I are trying to see how many places we can go where we're the only ones with a baby in tow. We figured the new Irish Pub in Woodstock would be as good a bet as any and, as usual, we were right.

Bellying up to the bar


















Figuring out what to order (he finally decided on a Black & Tan)

The Wonderful World of Books

One of Auggie’s favorite activities is playing with his books. He likes to run his hands over the cover, turn the pages, and eat them. There are some books he likes more than others. He has certain books he likes to play with on the couch, a book for the highchair, and a waterproof book for the tub. If you try to switch them up he’ll let you know it’s not right. I’m not making this up. He also loves to be read to - he recently amazed us all by laying in his 6 year old cousins lap through 4 books, read haltingly by a first time reader. I couldn’t be happier because I also love books. Like really love books. Like I absolutely- positively- could- not- live- without- them love books. And I know it’s a little early to declare him a “reader”, but I like to think there’s a little of me tucked somewhere in his DNA that makes him drawn to the covers, pages, pictures, and someday, the stories, of the wonderful world of books.

I Must Really Be In Love

I’ve really tried to minimize the made in china-ness of the toys and gear that I bring into our house. I splurged for the Svan bouncy seat and high chair and our playmat can be folded up and out of sight in two seconds flat. We don't have many of the noisy, flashy, blinky, accoutrements - although I was disturbed to find out that the "handcrafted" Melissa and Doug wood puzzles I bought at Little Green Baby in my neighborhood are "handcrafted" in China, but that's another post entirely.

Just last week we had friends in town from Atlanta and I was complimented on my choice of baby gear. In fact her exact words were – where’d you get all this nice non-blinky stuff? Well, no sooner had I pat myself on the back than I realized Auggie needed an activity center. Something he could stand up in, spin around on, jump up and down in, all with some relative safety. There's only so much a baby can do in the doorway jumper we borrowed from Auntie Alexis and unless he wants to jump in the bathroom we only have one "doorway" where it works. And once I feel like Auggie is ready for something new I don’t want to waste one developmental second. So I drove to the hell that is Babies R Us at 9:00PM and brought back this monstrosity of an activity center that somehow managed to incorporate every shape, pattern, animal and primary color into it’s design. I hate it. It’s ugly and plastic, takes up too much space in our apartment and is a complete assault on my aesthetict. But would you just look at this face?

Winter Auggie

Not to be confused with Fall Auggie or Summer Auggie

5 Months

Auggie, Has it been 5 months already? How? You are a calm, gentle baby and most of your waking hours are spent laughing, smiling and observing. You’re reaching for everything now and while there are so many new things I can do with you, there are just as many that are suddenly off limits. Drinking coffee while holding you? Not any more, you grab the top of the cup and pull it towards your mouth. Sitting on my lap while I’m on the computer? Nope. You want to bang on the keys and wave your hands across the touch pad. Multitasking while nursing? Absolutely not, you move your head toward every sound and every movement. Even talking on the phone with you in my arms is out as you now grab the phone and yell into the mouthpiece, or better yet, throw it on the floor. You still talk a mile a minute and your babbling is starting to sound more like the beginnings of a language. You’ve developed a loud, hoarse yell that sounds as if you are exercising your voice, I like to call it singing. Speaking of singing, you recognize the songs from our music class and start to smile and laugh when I sing them. And speaking of laughing, we found your ticklish spot and visit it several times a day, much to your amusement.

You rolled over so early, front to back and back to front, over and over again.But your hard pressed to duplicate it. You’d just rather spin around in a 360 when on your back or roll side to side with your feet in your mouth or push up onto your toes with your face planted on the floor. You're not eating solid food just yet, but you watch intently when anyone is eating and you've started to imitate chewing as you watch. We bought you a bowl and a spoon and sit you up in your highchair, which you love, and let you practice with them when we eat. I hope you feel like you are particpiating in meals and not like we're leaving you out.

You prefer sitting upright to laying flat, and although you can’t sit unassisted, you can support yourself by leaning forward on your arms and are very proud when you do. You’ve gone from sleeping through the night to waking up once to waking up twice and back to waking up once, but never back to through the night, and we’re ok with that. You still sleep in the co-sleeper in our room, but you are napping 3 times a day in your crib, and I’m just waiting for you to let me know when you are ready to sleep there at night. But there’s no rush, I love waking to your sounds in the morning and rolling over to see your smile. And I know by the way you open your eyes wide with surprise and wave you arms and legs that you love waking up next to me. It’s like you’re saying “Hey! You’re here too!” Yup, I’m here too. And Daddy and Abby. The whole family in one room. I’m sure one day we’ll look back on it and think we were crazy to all be crammed into one not so big bedroom but for now, we love it. And we love you.

The Many Faces of Auggie Part 3

Auggie's Personal Manicurist

Happy Halloween

From the little skeleton and dinosaur dog

But I Was Only Joking

Remember that post after last summers fishing trip when I made a tongue-in-cheek reference to my husband wanting to hang a giant musky mount in our house? Well, guess what’s on its way from this most recent trip to Minnesota. All 54 inches of it – the biggest muskie their guide has ever seen.