biding time

Thanks for the house notes. While you await our forthcoming before and after house shots, here are a couple new photos from Carolyn. They are entitled "Nate with Raisins" and "Disparity in Head Size."

we're in!

We closed on our house this morning! Everything went according to plan so we are (again) officially homeowners. Thad and I will be knocking things down this weekend (mostly ceilings and walls), then we are having the floors refinished next week, and should be moving in over the July 4 weekend. I will be (make sure you are sitting down) without internet access most of the weekend, which probably means you'll hear from me about as much as usual (doh!) Nate will be hanging out with Grandma and Pop-Pop (and occasionally Aunt Jean) so we can focus on getting the house in livable condition, but they have kindly given Thad and I visitation rights.

planes, trains, and automobiles

After a series of transportation vehicles, we are back in Boston. And now, for your viewing pleasure, is a long-winded recap of our weekend. Thanks to Aunt Joanna's fabulous organizational and planning skills, we had a busy weekend of kid-friendly activities.

After our flight on Friday we met Uncle Matt at the airport and headed to downtown Chicago. We spent most of the afternoon in Millennium Park where Nate and his cousin Joshua had a blast playing in a fountain (that I later learned was intended to be a meditation pool, but the designer must not have any children as it's built in a way as if to say, "come on, kids, jump on in!!!") We also spent time playing with the Cloud Gate sculpture, which looks like a giant reflective bean and lunched on the lawn by the outdoor Symphony rehearsal. Thad, Matt, Nate, and Joshua headed home for naptime while Joanna and I (with baby Peter in tow) went on a walking architecture tour of the city skyscrapers. We met up with the rest of the Chicago-based Carlson enclave - Carolyn, Josh, and Samantha - for dinner.










































Saturday morning we visited the Museum of Science and Industry, where we got to play with trains, planes, and farm machines. They also had a big model of the Earth, which was once again a big hit for Nate. In fact, all the kids seemed to enjoy the "Earf." Nate was pretty exhausted at the end of our visit and fell off the driver's seat of the combine harvester (not off the combine itself, just the seat - no worries!) and then proceeded to roll around on the floor of the farm exhibit for a moment. After naptime, the day was capped off with a playground visit and dinner.




























Sunday was our last day in Chicago, and we spent much of the morning outside at a local playground. This one also had a fountain, but unlike the downtown meditation pool, this fountain was torturing Nate. It was a big pole sticking vertically from the ground with water shooting out the top and falling in a circle around it. On the pole, at Nate's eye level, was a steering wheel. Nate attempted to get to the wheel but was stopped dead in his tracks by a sheet of water. His very cleaver reaction wasa to stand directly under the water and screaming until Thad came to the rescue. We found the see-saw to be a much more enjoyable and dry activity, and all the kids had a great time going up and down (and up and down and up and down and...)







































































We had an early flight back on Monday, so we got up pretty early and headed out to the airport. I was really nervous about how Nate would hold up on the return trip - the first flight went alright, thanks to Elmo, but this time Nate knew immediately what was going on. To top it off, he was a nutcase most of the morning. He was running all over the airport, shaking his head around, laughing, falling down... basically, quite happy, but not sitting still. But he was a trooper on the plane and only had a few bouts of screaming. I have to admit, though, that as helpful as Elmo was on our first flight, Ducky was even more helpful this time. We also found ourselves taking ridiculous photos and checking them out on the camera. It ended up being a much more pleasant flight than the first! From the airport we took the Silver Line - a sort of bus/train hybrid. Nate was really excited about the bus at first, but it got stuck in traffic and took about three times as long as usual, and Nate started to loose it after about a half-hour before falling asleep. All in all, it ended up being a great weekend, the travel went better than we expected, and Nate made it home happy and tired.

live from chicago

It's Saturday night!!! We made it here in one piece (well, three pieces, I guess. Plus luggage.) We'll post some photos tomorrow or when we get back to Boston, but in the meantime I thought I'd pass along an update on the flight. It went okay and we made it here without seriously ticking off any other passengers or ripping out our hair, so that's good. Nate was pretty tired, which made him fussier than usual, but we were able to entertain him with some toys, crayons, and Elmo DVD (thank you, Courtney!) We were also able to walk to the bathroom, which Nate intelligently pointed out was "teeny," and pace the aisle for a bit. Quite exciting. I have low expectations for our return trip, especially since Nate now knows what getting on the airplane means. Yikes!

invisible david

Nate has an invisible friend named David (or, more accurately, Didi). He's been talking with him regularly for the last week or two. It started in the back yard one afternoon. Nate was staring over the fence into a neighbor's yard waving and saying "hi." I went to see who he was talking with but there was nobody there (at least, nobody I could see.) I asked Nate who he was talking to and he said, "Didi," which is what he call's Jean's boyfriend Dave. He kept waving and saying hi to Invisible Dave all afternoon. Later on, he was standing inside at a window and waving outside at Invisible Dave. Then a couple of days ago he insisted on playing with Invisible Dave instead of real Aunt Jean. Seems like Invisible Dave is quite a friendly and interesting guy!

On an unrelated note, we're taking our first plane trip this Friday to visit the Chicago Carlsons. We're all excited about our visit - including Nate who says, "Cago" whenever we see an airplane - but Thad and I are anxious about how Nate will handle the flight since he can't seem to sit still for more than five minutes. Keep your fingers crossed!

father's day recap

Sorry for the late post - I just found the cord for downloading pictures from my camera. Our lives are a bit of a mess these days, and I feel like I'm working in a sea of house paperwork, books, files and notes for work, dust, and (I admit) cookies. Anyway, amongst the junk I finally stumbled on the cord, so here are some highlights from last weekend.

We saw Gramma and Grampa Carlson and Aunt Holly on Saturday, but apparently even though Thad had the camera with him, we didn't document it whatsoever. I was out at a workshop, but I hear they had a nice visit at the Arboretum and Nate was carried around a lot. We met up later that evening for an adult-only dinner out of the house (a wild concept!) On Sunday we had breakfast with the Corbo-Hudak/Corbo/Hudak/Carlson/Cosbys here at 9 Garth and then we split up for the afternoon and Thad, Nate and I went to the Aquarium. Nate was mildly interested in the penguins, but was more interested in the bronze penguin statue sitting on a bench nearby. He did like the turtle, as well as the seals, which we could watch swimming back and forth. We were surprised that the giant tank wasn't more interesting for Nate, but Thad and I thought it was cool. At one point a shark swam directly toward us and I was thankful that there was a thick piece of glass between us (that and we were surrounded by air, which, in the worst case, would eventually win out over the shark). I can see why a shark is frightening if you are, say, a sturgeon. The most interesting creature, imo, was the Sea Dragon. But for Nate, the overwhelming hit of the museum was a model of the Earth hanging from the ceiling. He kept yelling "earf!" and we'd have to go stare at it for a while, amidst the throngs of uninteresting sea life. Outside the Aquarium, Nate also was quite engaged stomping in puddles. Go figure!

pound, baby

In today's Globe there was a (tongue in cheek) article about how the Obamas bumped hands when he "won" the Democratic ticket. If I understand correctly, when the Obamas pounded in celebration, this gesture was viewed by some as a terrorist handshake. What does this have to do with this little blog, you may be wondering? Well, Nate has been pounding for months now. Not only does he pound, but he then explodes the pound and says, "pfffft!" Should I be concerned? :P