July 19th - Week 14 - Water park, concert, White Sox and pool

I've decided the city of Chicago is a great place to be when you're a kid. Mom's friend Jessica introduced us to a new park on Monday that has a mini water slide, all kinds of water toys, swings and a giant sandbox. It was a little too cool for me to go in the water but I loved the feel of the sand on my feet. It was fun watching Jacoby on the swings, he's a few months older than me but I'll be big enough to join him on the swings soon!
We went to our weekly movie on Tuesday but skipped lunch this week since my great Aunt Jill, Grandma & Grandpa Hadank, and Grandma Etcheson were all coming for the Billy Joel/Elton John concert at Wrigley Field. Daddy cooked some great steaks for dinner and everyone said the show was amazing. Mom and dad almost always take me with them but I didn't get to go this time. Mom's friend Kelly babysat me for the first time. It was the first real babysitter I had (other than Aunt Beth) but I did great! Kelly's a pediatric physical therapist so she kept me busy with tummy time and all the treatment toys she brought over.

On Thursday I got to go to my very first White Sox game. This was a little confusing because mom and dad always talk about the Cubs but daddy had free tickets from work so you can't pass that up! I thought I'd be funny and wear my Cubs outfit to the game. While I looked really cute, it really made the White Sox fans mad so mom had to turn over my Cubs bib. Little did I know that I'd being seeing a little piece of history. Mark Buehrle pitched a perfect game on Thursday, only the 16th perfect game EVER! I must be good luck!

On Friday, I went over to Bucktown for my very first visit to the baby pool. It was just down the street from mom's friend Mindy so we stopped by there first to see Riley's nursey and put on our suits. Riley had a cute little bikini on but Mom had to keep explaining to everyone that I wasn't a boy since I wearing my blue wet suit. Mom tells me it's for my own good. The suit has SPF 50 in it and covers my arms and legs. The doctor said I should avoid most sunscreens until I'm 6 months old because of all the chemicals in it. Mom did by some chemical free sunscreen for me but still makes me wear the wetsuit; better safe than sorry I guess.

We set up our little sun tent and enjoyed a great afternoon at the pool. I wasn't too sure I liked the pool the first time I got into the water. It took a little getting use to but by the end of the day, I was figuring out how to splash in the water. They told us there were no cameras allowed in the pool but moms friend snapped a real quick shot of us anyway - Thanks Mindy!

July 12th - Week 13 - Baby Veach, movies, lake with Aunt Beth, pool, talking

Mom and dad met met some friends for brunch on Sunday morning and then we headed up to Roger's Park to meet my future boyfriend! Jacob Ryan Veach was born on the 4th of July and sure is a cutie. Almost all of daddy's friends from college have little boys so I'm going to have to have quite the selection of men to choose from when I get a bit older. Everyone kept trying to take pictures of the two of us but we refused to look at the camera.

Aunt Beth learned that she passed her PT licensing exam on Monday. She had been all stressed out about it even though I knew she'd pass with flying colors. It's great because she has the next 2 weeks to play with us before she starts her job on the 27th. Beth came with us to the movies on Tuesday and then we headed down to the lake for lunch on Wednesday. There is a great little outdoor cafe overlooking the lake right off the path at Fullerton. It's a great place to grab a quick sandwich and enjoy the view. Grandpa Etcheson and Kathy had sent me some new sunglasses over the weekend. We took them down to the lake and they worked great! They have an elastic band that keeps them on my head. I couldn't quite figure out what was happening when I first put them on. I kept hitting my eyes because I couldn't figure out why everything had gone dark! Mom and dad had bought a sun tent for our vacation down at Lake of Ozarks but I never got a chance to try it out. The tent has SPF 30 built into the fabric and mom got me a portal fan to keep me cool while I'm inside. I took a nap in my tent while mom and Beth got some sun. I loved being down by the water with the breeze to keep me cool!

On Thursday mom took me to the Roscoe Village pool for the first time. Aunt Beth and her friend Kendall came along and mom's friends Renee and Kelly met us there as well. Mom was all excited to take me for my first swim but I had other plans in mind. Mom set up the tent for me again and I slept for 2 hours. By the time I woke up, the clouds had set-in and it was time go. I think mom was more disppointed than I was but I heard the water was too cold for me to get in anyway. We decided we'd try to find the a baby pool next week!.

Mom and dad continue to try and make me do tummy time. While I still don't like it, I'm getting better at holding my head up. I've made a lot of progress this week. At the beginning of the week I was still using my boppy for support. By the end of the week, I was doing so good mom thought I was going to crawl.

My other big milestone for the week is the improvement in baby talk. A few weeks ago, I started making a few sounds but this past week, I've been talking like crazy. I seem to do best when people talk to me on my changing table. I think it's just the right height for me to interact with people. I was pretty talkative when I heard Grandma Etcheson and Grandpa and Grandma Hadank were coming up next week.

July 6th - Week 12 - movies, new friends, the beach and BBQ

We had a long trip back from lake of the Ozarks. You know mom and dad's life has changed when they voluntarily get up at 5:30am to get on the road. I did pretty good for them though. I slept the first 2 1/2 hours and once mom fed me in the Wendy's parking lot, I was out again until we pulled off the exit in Bloomington. We did have to make one pit stop between Bloomington and Chicago when I got a little fussy, but overall I was a trooper! I got to see Grandma Etcheson 2 days in a row this week because she came up for another visit on Monday. She babysat me while mom went to her follow-up dermotologist appointment. Uncle Matt finally convinced her to get her moles checked out. It was a good thing too..mom had to have 4 moles removed, one of which was pre-cancerous. She received sign-off from the doctor today that all the pre-cancerous cells had been removed so Grandma took mom to the Cubs game to celebrate. Grandma had won great seats on the radio and the Cubs came through with a victory!

On Tuesday, we went to our very first movie - The Hangover. Each Tuesday, there are movies that you can take kids to. Mom's are welcome to feed us, walk us in the isle if we're fussy and bring the strollers right into the theater. There were probably only 20 people in the entire place so there was plenty of room to stretch out. We met mom's friend Mindy and Alice from her water aerobics class there. Mindy's little girl, Riley was less than 2 weeks old. Alice's son Ben was about 6 weeks, so I was the oldest kid in the group. I wasn't fussy at all and didn't even spit up on mom after she fed me my bottle!

Mom is amazed at how much more observant I'm becoming of everything around me. On Wednesday when she put me in my car seat, I noticed my yellow lion for the first time. I smiled, talked and flirted with my new friend for 8 straight minutes. If mom was more on top of her game, she would have captured a video but I was just so cute, she couldn't take her eyes off me! She did snap a few shots on her phone to send to daddy since he wasn't at home to see me in person!


On Thursday we went downtown to watch dad run in the Bastille day race with some of his friends from work. He did great in his race and then I made my first trip over to Greek-town for dinner. It's great having so many outdoor restaurants in the city so mom and dad can still go out with me!

I've been giving mom quite a hard time when she tries to do tummy time with me. I hate it. If she leaves me on my stomach more than 5 minutes, I get so mad there's nothing they can do to calm me down. Mom and dad did find a trick though...the hair dryer. No matter how mad I am, when you turn that hair dryer on, I go into a zone. Mom's heard the sound of the hair dryer is very similar to the sound that I heard in the womb..I don't know if that's really the case but either way, it works.

Over the weekend, I made my first trip to the beach. Aunt Beth was playing in a beach volley ball tournament so we walked down to see her. Her team ended up getting 3rd place in tournament and we got to take some great pictures of the skyline! It's summer days like this that remind you why you put up with the Chicago winters! After we hit the beach, I got to experience my first Chicago beer garden!
Dad's friends Jove and Meg both graduated from graduate school and we went to celebrate with them. They picked a great venue - Cody's bar. It has a huge outdoor patio with grills, darts and bags game. Daddy's friends brought their kids as well - Baby Maria and Baby Alexa were there to play with. We were all laughing about how different this summer was to our previous summer's in the city. We also got to catch-up with daddy's friend Mike Yang. He lives out in Aspen with his wife Kathy. Mom and dad took a trip out to visit them during the ski season in 2007. Mike was able to find a cheap last minute flight to surprise the Taino's at their graduation party and they gave me the cutest outfit from baby gap!