Tomato Harvest

I will post again soon about our great family weekend, but for today here's a picture of our first tomato harvest. There were two tomatoes ready to pick off the plant. They were small but yummy. Alex really enjoyed picking them and then bringing them in to the house to eat.

Water Park Weekend

For the last weekend in August we hit four parks, including two with water features. Alex loves the water and could not have been happier. Here's a large assortment of pictures and a video.

Whoa! This slide is fast!



On his way down the slide.



Nearing the bottom...



I want to go again!



Wiggleworms at Millenium Park. Alex had fun, but kept wondering where Mr. Jarod (our regular Wiggleworms teacher) was.

Alex (and Dave) loved playing with these extra large Tinkertoys. I didn't think we'd ever be able to get him to leave to go play in the water.

Alex meets "The Bean."



Big fun at the big fountains.



The boy loves playing in water.



It's wet!!



He loves when the water comes out of the faces.

A sample of the fun he had.

Alex Diamond, Junior Firefighter

We had a big adventure this afternoon, which included Alex's first bus ride and a visit to a fire station. Alex got a hat and a Junior Firefighter sticker badge, and they let him climb on the fire truck. He had so much fun!

Proud to be on the fire truck.



Alex was excited to "drive" but kept asking to turn on the music.



Many thanks to Engine 78 for letting us explore the truck and making Alex feel so special!

He's been asking to ride a bus for a while now and was so excited when he got up from his nap and we told him we were going on a bus ride.



Waiting at the bus stop with Mommy for the second bus.

This Post is Brought to You by the Letter L

L is for Lollapalooza!

Cousin Quinn and his friend Alec were in town for Lollapalooza and crashed at our place. Most of their time was spent sleeping or at shows, but we were able to squeeze in some fun with them too. Alex loved having some big boys in the house and was excited every morning to be able to hang out with them once they woke up. When I took this picture, Alec said that when Alex looks at this when he is older he's going to ask "What was Quinn wearing?!" I think he's going to ask "What was so funny?!"

L is for Letter People!

Recently, we were the fortunate recipients of a complete set of Letter People and several Letter People books. (If you did not grow up in the 70s or 90s and/or you don't know what the Letter People are, you can find more info here.) Alex loves the books and the people. You can often find Miss L hanging out with us when we eat lunch, or Miss T nearby when it's toothbrushing time. Alex and Cecily had fun playing with the A and the C this weekend.

Fun Weekend!

We had a great weekend. The weather was a bit cooler on Saturday, making it a terrific day for the zoo and a picnic. Some of Alex's cousins were in town visiting, and we had a fun evening over at Laura's to get everyone together. (Maria really was here, even though I don't have the pictures to prove it.)

Alex and Cecily making friends with a bear at the zoo.





Fun on the hammock!





Birthday cupcakes for Carolyn!



Alex thoroughly enjoyed the cupcake, a treat he never gets to have at home.



Then Alex took over the camera and shot about 20 pictures. Something that never would have happened in the days of film cameras.

Self-portrait



Cousin Carolyn



Playing ball in the yard with Carolyn and A.J. (The white, glowing spot in the picture is actually the ball high in the air.)

Some Songs to Enjoy

Alex and his classmates in the Barn Room performed two songs at the pre-K graduation today. One of them was a friendship song that we got him to sing for us, and we have no idea what the other one was. We also took advantage of his singing mood to finally get "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" recorded. He's been singing it for weeks, but this was my first chance to get it on camera.

This was the second time he sang the song so this time he says goodbye to the Bear Room kids at the end of the song.

Who knows if it will last, but at least we have it on record that he started out as a baseball fan.

The Weekend of No Naps

Alex got me a great book and sang "Happy Birthday" to me for my birthday this weekend, which was fantastic. However, I would have accepted him taking a nap as a birthday present as well. When he wasn't crabby from lack of sleep, we had a lot of fun. He took his first ride on the El and is still talking about it. He had a sleepover with Cecily, which included swimming and bubbles. Then on Sunday we had a fun playdate with his classmate, Zoe.

Riding on the camel.



Playing in the drinking fountain was almost as much fun for them as playing in the big water fountain.



Buddies!