Sadly Memorial Day weekend is coming to an end. It really has been a good one for us - this is one of the first that we haven't traveled out of town, and the weather couldn't have been better in Chicago. We started the week/weekend a little worn out from the previous weekend's travels. Mark completed his 11th marathon in Fargo. Probably most surprisingly to me was that he really seemed to enjoy the city of Fargo and that there were more fans there than many other races he's run...which is a good thing since Sawyer and I weren't there to lend our spirit. Sawyer and I also had a great weekend in Buffalo. Though it seems more than a week ago to me, she is still talking about Luke and Aidan and Grandma. Going to town without any special event was nice too because we spent our time enjoying good food and going to the park. Wish I had some pictures to post but Mark had the camera. I ordered a few prints my sister took - what we're missing is Sawyer and Aidan walking hand and hand along the park path. They were so cute that first day we went and so good for each other. Aidan is so athletic and would run and jump and go down the biggest slides and once Sawyer saw him do it, she ofcourse wanted to try. This ended up with one mishap down the slide face first which scared our girl, but she's learning. Sawyer on the other hand talks up a storm; doesn't stop in fact and I think Aidan started to immitate her a bit, repeating her, like she repeats me. It was funny to watch and I'm curious to see if they pick up where they left off in September when we're back in town. So anyway - back to this week. The weather finally started to get nice and we spent much of our nights out on the front porch. Sawyer continues to love playing in her bucket - this is her telling me that she's playing in the water. Big smiles.
Started this weekend out with a night out by ourselves. Mark and I celebrated the five year anniversary and took ourselve to a nice restaurant. I love it because it's the type of place where portions aren't huge so you can indulge in an appetizer, main course and dessert and not feel terrible about yourself. Plus they give you a little teaser course after the bread anyway which is always delish. They actually recommend four courses, but i think that would have been pushing it. Anyway, it was a nice start to the weekend because we don't get out nearly enough as we should. We followed this up with two full days of beautiful weather and lots of activity. Saturday we took a nice long walk to Grant Park and to see Buckingham Fountain, as you saw in Mark's video. Our biggest problem was getting Sawyer to 1) keep her shoes on, and 2) stay in the stroller. She LOVES to walk barefoot through the grass and once we let her she doesn't want to stop. We also had the issue that she loves to pick up the stones around the fountain and throw them. We learned this Saturday morning, but it was reinforced Sunday on our walk after brunch, and today at the beach - girl loves to pick up stones and throw them. Anyway after a nice long walk we made it back home to clean the roof furniture and blow up Sawyer's swimming pool. The weather was far too nice and Sawyer didn't want to come inside as it is, so we went right up to the roof. To say she loved her pool is an understatement. She was in and out and running all over the deck. Set us up for a really great afternoon nap. In addition to her pool we broke out her new tent. This was a total score - it's meant to allow her to play outside but block some of the sunlight, of which we get a lot of on the roof. She was in and out of this thing all morning and afternoon for that matter, and it eventually came downstairs with us (because I couldn't figure out how to fold it). Was equally a hit downstairs that now we let her open it and play inside every now and then. Probably biggest event on Saturday though didn't happen in Chicago. We learned that a couple hours away our new nephew Ben was being born and are now anxiously looking forward to pictures and a visit in a few weeks. Sawyer learned this weekend that "C" is for Charlie and while we tried to teach her Benjamin's name, we're going to need some time to work on it because it kept coming out "bemajin".
Sunday was a bit more low key for us, though equally nice out. We went to brunch outside and for some brief playtime in a park nearby but decided that we likely needed to stay inside a bit more because it was pretty hot and humid and wanted to make sure we didn't get Sawyer too much sun. While seemingly not so fun, much of Sunday was spent deep cleaning the house, going through clothes for goodwill, and other random tasks. This took many hours and left me hanging on the couch that night, but god our place looks good. Don't want to do anything to mess it up! Sawyer eventually got into the action - she loves to help us in anything we do so when mark started cleaning the windows we heard "sawyer's turn". this is a result of us trying to teach her to share - she'll say "mommy's turn", but very quickly after that it's sawyer's turn. so it was indeed her turn to do the windows. this was not one of her better tasks (she excels at taking laundry from the bathroom to the laundry room or putting stuff in the garbage), how could we say no. Needless to say, the final result is a clean house and we want to keep it that way. We ended Sunday by opening the grill up for business and eating on the roof. Put the whole family in a really good mood.
So, that leaves us with today. Memorial Day. Ours started pretty early, Sawyer's been waking up earlier these days - she no longer does 12 hours a night but is down to about 10.5 or 11. I know -we're still lucky, but I'd rather give up time at night than in the morning. Anyway, we had already decided we'd take Sawyer to the 12th St beach to wade in the water. She loved Florida so much, and we're lucky to have this beach a little over 2 miles away. As we walked in the extremely humid and hot temps we noticed an extremely high presence of cop cars. Strange, but perhaps there's a soccer game scheduled at Soldier Field and they were preparing. We made it to the beach and learned why - Obama was leaving Chicago today and the Marine One helicopters were picking him up at Northerly Island...the same island our little 12th St beach is located on. Sawyer was pretty funny - the helicopters flew right over us and while they scared her a bit, she eventually just waved and said "Hi Obama" over and over. We thought it was pretty cool, but learned on our walk home that the helicopters were likely just flying in from Gary to get him then, he wasn't there yet. We learned this because as we walked home, our 18th street bridge was blocked off, and would be for about 30+ minutes in anticipation of the motorcade. As this point we've walked a lot and want to get our babe home - she has no shoes or clothes on - nothing but a diaper due to falling/sitting several times in the water and Mark and I are pretty hot and tired ourselves. However, off we go around Soldier Field the LONG way home. Sawyer was no longer having the stroller - we had pushed our limits on that - and wanted to be carried/walk. Yes - we were those people whose baby was walking around museum campus with no shoes on and only a diaper. At around Michigan Avenue we made her put shoes and a shirt because she was fighting to walk...and we decided an early lunch pit stop was a necessity. We did see the helicopters take off WITH Obama in them from lunch but it was not as cool as when they flew over us. When we eventually got back on our way we realized we almost stayed too long - huge huge thunderstorm rolling through Chicago almost caught us. We jogged part of the way, walked the rest and all the while kept turning around to check out the looming dark clouds following us. We made it home with about 10 minutes to spare...7 miles later...and then watched it rain the next several hours.
We have spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out. Sawyer has continued to play in her tent - this is her pretending to sleep. Mark timed it perfectly because she doesn't "sleep" for very long. If nothing else, the girl keeps us laughing. Few other random things from this weekend that had us giggling - when Sawyer saw a different helicopter later in the morning, she started pointing and saying "Hi Obama" and then proceeds to tell us that Obama is going home. She also has probably said his name about 100+ times today and when asked if Obama is her favorite president she excitedly answers "YEAH". Also, today during the storms there was a lot of thunder and lightening...probably the worst she's heard. At one point you could tell she was a bit freaked and jumped into Mark's arms, but at the same time said "it's ok". We're not sure she believed it herself, but funny all the same. Finally, Sawyer said her first swear word this weekend. I will not repeat, but it starts with an F. I don't even remember why, but while on one of our walks, Mark said it. Not really loud, but just loud enough it turns out. Our little repeater immediately bust out with it. Thankfully Mark and I were both hidden by the stroller and she didn't see our smiles/laughs. We ignored it and haven't heard it again but both looked at each other thinking, my god, we can't say anything in front of her.
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