We started this month with a trip to Chicago. We had a great time (despite the heat wave that rolled through). We did a lot of the usual (the playgrounds, our traditional dinners at the Silo and the Rainforest Cafe) and a few things for the first time, like two trips to the LF beach and the LB beach. And miraculously, thanks to that heat wave at the end of a hot summer, the lake was warm enough to swim in. We had some great times. Behold! (For a look at the whole album, click here.)We had a mini birthday celebration for Auric, even though he wouldn't turn 2 for another week. I'm glad we caught this on camera. The picture at the right is him having just been sung to. And it was by far his favorite experience EVER! Check out his giggling fit in the video below.
I like this one, although sadly this moment caused a ban of kids on the piano. Oh well. I have this photo, at least.
We spent a great time with my sister. As always, she drove all over Chicagoland from her place in the city to hang out with us.
We made our traditional visit to the Rainforest Cafe, which the kids love, and is conveniently located near my mom's place. Here is Auric with Grandma Jane.
A big hit after dinner is always the prospect of rides on the coin-operated vehicles. Auric absolutely loves this part of the tradition.
Just for fun, I wanted to juxtapose the photo of him from the previous January, 9 months earlier, in the same Garfield car. Look at that little baby boy!
Anyway, back to our trip in September. This was another highlight: riding in the wagon on the back of Grandpa Terry's tractor! If you can believe it, I'm squeezed in there with them, too.
This day up north included a trip out onto the chain of lakes. The kids loved the trip on the boat, even though it was windy and we had to wrap the towels around us when we were moving fast. However, that didn't stop the hot-blooded Thora from taking a dip when we anchored near the sand bar. This outing also saw Auric's first try at fishing. It was very cute.
On our last day in Chicagoland, we took the train downtown to the Lincoln Park Zoo. The outing as a whole was pretty much a bust (motion sickness on the train, poorly timed travel in relation to Auric's naptime, etc.) Ugh. It was not good. But while that wasn't a "Great Moment from September 2011," I'm quite partial to these two photos taken of the kids on the train down.
When we got back, we had an incredibly active few days. To start, Thora had her first day of school on the Thursday after Labor Day. Here she is in a great First Day of School photo. She is in a Chinese Immersion program that does 4 out of every 8-hour day in Mandarin. It's a great program, and one that I'm so happy she's in.
Here she is, holding up her Chinese name, pronounced Ing Lay, which means ballet dancer. The transition to school and a language immersion program was a little rough, which is to be expected. But within a week, she was looking forward to school each day.
Here we are, celebrating Thora's first day of school with dinner at her favorite burger joint in Central Square.
The very next day it was Auric's actual birthday. Here we are celebrating it by doing his now all-time favorite thing: being sung "Happy Birthday." While yes, this is in fact another video of him being sung to, I like it for his attempt at showing Two with his fingers. Enjoy.
And then, the day after that was Sean's birthday, and the joint birthday party for Sean and Auric. Here are there cakes. (I show them only for their cuteness, and not because I made them!)
And yes, I'm about to share with you a third (yes, I know) video of Auric being sung to. But I like this one because it shows everybody, something our other videos don't capture. We had the party on a very windy, and unseasonably cool day in the park across the street. A lot of friends were there to help us celebrate.
Ok, now that you've seen that one, I promise, there are no more videos of us singing "Happy Birthday" to Auric. Just a bunch of photos of cute kids, for the most part with birthday cake all over them. Here is Auric and one of his friends, Ellie. Don't you just want to squeeze her?!?
Here is Thora being photogenic with a bouquet of flowers.
Here are the birthday boys.
We got an informal game of t-ball going. I really like this photo because it highlights Auric's unconventional batter's stance and grip. Surprisingly, he actually hit the ball a remarkable number of times, considering.
Here are the kids going to town on the remnants of poor Elmo and Cookie Monster.
The big kids playing some sort of game. I'm guessing it involved chasing and killing invisible aliens or "bad guys" with super powers.
Daddy Thom was awesome. Not only did he pull wagon load after wagon load of kids, he also brought along his balloon twisting kit and made some wild hats and animals and swords for the kids.
Auric got some really cool gifts for his birthday, like this incredibly realistic recycling truck, which for months, he referred to has the "garbage can."
And we expanded his train set with two accessories, including a great bridge. Needless to say, these toys went over really well. We know our boy.
The second half of September was spent on a wonderful trip to England. See that post here.
But when we got back, Sean had the great idea (I admit, I was very skeptical) to go to the Southwick Zoo. Despite the rain, it was a great experience. We were one of just a few families there. And perhaps because it was less crowded, the animals were so active. In fact I've never seen such activity at a zoo in my life! It was a great time and the kids took a nap in the car on the way back, which helped them get back to EST.
One of the highlights of this zoo is their fawn meadow. The fawns were very friendly, while not being aggressive. We bought some feed from the coin-operated dispensers, and made a lot of deer friends.
And then finally, here is a video of Thora's new skill, acquired in the month of September. In this video, she's giving her friend Zach a Monkey Bar tutorial. She's saying, "And then I swing. And then I do this a little. And then I swing. And then I do this a little again." You can see, she's got the idea that she's supposed to be trying to create momentum between swings; however, as she demonstrates, you can see that she doesn't quite grasp how to create that momentum by swinging her body side to side. She basically just pauses and while dangling there, she twists her body back and forth. It was still a big accomplishment for her after working on this for years now. Enjoy.
Stay tuned for the next update of October's photos and videos!
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