Family Weekend Update

Last weekend Grandma and Grandpa C came up for a visit. Alex had lots of fun spending time with them and getting some fun birthday gifts. (We also spent lots of time with Aunt Laura, Uncle Brian, Carolyn, and AJ and hope to have some more pics to share from them soon.)

Elmo pjs! It doesn't get much better than that.



Changing the shorts on his new "Alex" doll.



What's in here?



Bang, bang, bang with the hammer.



I built this car!

Thanks for the help, Grandpa.

Grandma, look at the dinosaur I made.

Family Race

This morning we did the one mile walk at the Chicago Lung Run together as a family. A friend of ours was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, and we walked as part of her team.

Alex was so excited to be doing a race. He knows that Mommy runs and has been to some races, so he has an idea of what the event is. When we told him that we were doing the "race" together the first thing he said was "Me too?" His face exploded into a huge grin when we said yes, and then he kept asking every day if it was race day yet.

The rain made things cold and wet, but we still were glad to be out and to be part of this event.

The start of the 10K.



Someone is excited...

Team Diamond on Team DL.

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.)