Chickens

Yep. Chickens.

Voice mail from SofiSue

I got an awesome message from my SofiSue today

 

Reminds me of this awesome message that I got from Henry 3 years ago.



Here's some recent cuteness of my kiddos.

Dinosaur / Volcano Mural

Hiding spot at Unity Temple

Exhaustion

Yay for eating outside!

Give Peas a Chance!

Sleepy boy

You wouldn't know it here, but Sofi HATEs getting her hair washed

corn!

awesome hat

Soccer

Today at the Shedd

Took the kids to the Shedd Aquarium today for a free day. Right before I took the 2nd pic, I pointed out Shedd Employee and told Henry that if he had any questions about the fish, he could ask her. He walked, quite determined, up to her, grabbed her by the hand, and dragged her to the Japanese Spider Crab's tank to ask what it was. They then talked about the spider crab for a good 5 minutes before she could get away to talk to other patrons.

Henry speaks out about Sweet and Sour Chicken

Henry (holding up a piece of SnS Chicken w/o the Sns: "Is this the chicken's knee?"

Me: "No, it's chicken breast"

Henry: "Is this bumpy part the chicken's nipple?"

Molly: "No, Henry, chicken's don't have nipples."

Henry: "What's a nipple?!"

At this point I completely lose my head and start cracking up. I'm not sure that we ever resolved Henry's nipple query.

Funny Kid Stuff that I heard recently

At bed time, tucking him in, going in for the goodnight kiss...
Henry: Do you have a cough?
Me: A little bit
Henry: Well, I'm afraid that you might cough on me, so maybe I will just kiss your cheek. I don't want you to cough on me because you might give me your cough

Please note that Henry gave me his cough.

My Child the Shoplifter

Molly took the kids grocery shopping today. The kids were riding in one of those big car carts that take up the whole aisle. Sofi was riding in the car part, closest to the ground, and Henry was riding in the traditional cart seat.

All was well, they got some pizza, soup, fruit, veggies, doughnuts from the bakery (yum!), milk, oj, and all sorts of other things you would expect to get from the grocery store. All was going well until, while Molly was loading the groceries in to the car, Henry asked, "What does Sofi have?"

Well, being so close to the ground, which also made her be a bit out of sight, Sofi realized that she was at the perfect height to reach out and grab candy from those troublesome shelves at the checkout lines. What did she find? Rolos. And she destroyed them.

So, nearly 4 years into fatherhood, I can proudly say that my daughter is a shoplifter.

Oh, and remember when Sofi loved sitting on the potty the other day?

Well, here she is super pleased to have made some pee pee in the potty. (she even looks guilty, doesn't she?!?)

Sofi and the Potty

Molly and I took the kids to the DuPage Children's Museum on Sunday. As I expected, we had a blast. During the visit, Sofia needed a diaper change, so I took her to the family bathroom.

What makes it a "family" bathroom, you ask? It has two toilets. One like any other you'd expect to see in a public restroom, and another identical to the first, just about a 1/3 of the size.

Well, Sofi fell in love with that mini-potty immediately and promptly tried to sit on it. I helped her out of her diaper and sat her on that little potty and she was just as happy as can be. All seemed fine, so I moved over 3 feet to the diaper changing table to get her diaper ready.

As I'm assembling the cloth diaper, I hear a weird half shriek, half grunt. As I casually look over, I see my sweet little girl folded in half stuck in the potty butt-first, legs dangling, arms flapping, and generally looking perturbed.

I scooped her up and her little bottom is just dripping with toilet water. Her first potty experience was not the best.

However, today she got her very own potty and was eager to sit on it.

Also, she sure likes mac n cheese

Just look at these cute kiddos

Not really a post about my kids, but I don't want them to have to deal with breast cancer...

Car with Wings?

So, Henry and I were in the car on our way to the grocery store to pick a few things up. He was talking and I wasn't really paying attention to him. I thought I heard, "car with wings," so I asked him what he was saying. Here's our conversation from there:

Henry: After we go to the grocery store we will go to another store and buy wings for our car. Then we will put the wings on the car. We will sew the wings on the car. And then our car will be able to fly!

Me: Really?!

Henry: Yes. And we will go to another store to buy the wings

Me: That sounds like a great idea, but I don't think we can do that today.

Henry: Because we don't know where we can find wings for our car?

Me: That's right. I don't know where we would go for wings for our car.

Henry: Maybe another store will have wings for the car.

Me: Maybe

Henry makes Sofi Laugh

I love how Sofi loves looking at her big brother and how Henry loves the attention that he's getting from her.

They're totally my favorites.

I'm just going to LOOK at it!

So, Henry and I are in the dining room, looking at Sofia when Henry jumps up and runs to the kitchen. We have this exchange:

Me: where are you going?

Henry: to the kitchen

Me: why?

Henry: I'm going to the fidg-a-yay-tuh.

Me: why? (note that there was no regular reason to go to the fridge)

Henry: I'm want to look at it. I'm not going to open it.

Me: uh...ok

Sure enough, he didn't open it. He ran to the kitchen...looked at the fidgayaytuh and came right back...

Goof

TimAlvarado

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Sent from my Palm Pre

2 months

Sofi had her 2 month checkup today. She weighs 11 pounds 14 ounces & is 23 inches long!

She was completely unimpressed with her shots, but recovered pretty quickly.

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Sent from my Palm Pre

The New Color

Henry and I were getting ready to go to a 4th of July parade this morning. I was wearing a blue t-shirt, a white button down shirt,and some red shorts...quite the patriot.

I asked Henry to tell me what colors I was wearing. He announced "WHITE!" I asked what else, he replied "BLUE!" One more time, I asked what else, and he said "PANTS!"

Later, we had chocolate frosted chocolate cupcakes...

TimAlvarado
708-443-4056

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Sent from my Palm Pre

7 Weeks Old

So, little Sofi is 7 weeks old now. She is truly the cutest baby girl that I know. She's got this funny muppet-like smile that makes my heart melt. Henry still loves her, and did a great job the other day feeding her for the first time. (He told me that he was a Very Useful Boy)

Sofi is sleeping well, which is really, really, (no, I mean it...REALLY) nice. Don't get my wrong, I love spending time with my baby, but seriously, I don't want to see you in the middle of the night anymore. But, she's sleeping well, which makes me sleep well, which makes me not feel crabby when I have to wake up at 5 am for work.

Henry is taking swim lessons at the Park District again. We've only had one class so far, since the 1st and 3rd were cancelled due to weather, but he seems to love it again. Henry and I were talking yesterday and we decided that next year, Sofi should take swimming lessons with him.

This boy is chatty. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but he seriously doesn't stop talking. Ever. Maybe he doesn't talk when he sleeps. But that's about the only time. (This is not a complaint, just a statement)

I went back to work on June 7th. One month after Sofi was born. Then Molly's mom, Sue, stayed with us for another two weeks, so Molly was able to get over 6 weeks of support before being on her own.

Ok, I think that's all I've got for now. Off to work. Some cute kid pics below...

From Sofi is Cute

From Sofi is Cute

From Henry is Cutererer

From Henry is Cutererer

From Henry is Cutererer

From Henry is Cutererer

Coffee and Orange Juice

Ok, this boy is weird, but kinda like me, which might be the same statement. This morning, I went to grind some Starbucks coffee, and Henry wanted to help. I dropped a coffee bean, which Henry promptly snatched up as his prize.

He went to show it to Molly, and shortly after, he came running back to the kitchen, holding in between his thumb and fore-finger announcing, "I'm licking the coffee bean! It's yummy!"

He spent the next 20 or so minutes doing whatever 2 1/2 year olds do...and licking the coffee bean.

Later, Henry and I were at Target picking up some things when he asked for "something to drink." I told him that we hadn't brought anything, but I'd get him a drink when we got home. He then shouted, for all of Target to hear, "We're going to go home and drink orange juice and lick coffee beans!"

This kid is awesome.

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Sent from my Palm Pre

The Incident of the Flying Turtle

Today, we decided to go to The Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor for their Tuesday Story Time, mostly to make sure that Henry could get out of the house and not be crazy-pants.

We got there just a couple minutes late, but it was OK since they hadn't started yet. Miss Tracy started telling a story about Molly the Turtle, who was very upset because she was so slow. Well, Molly was able to get out of her shell (which was slowing her down) and was now able to jump as high as the sky - sounded like a pretty good story to me, but right there is about when Henry melted down. Bright red face, tears streaming down his face, sobbing, and in general being unintelligible.

As I'm holding him trying to get him calm down and not be sad, Story Time goes on. Molly the Turtle is still very excited about her new-found shell-less freedom and jumping all about, and Henry is YELLING at Miss Tracy, "NO! Turtles don't fly in the sky! Only birds like to fly in the sky!" We were able to get him to chill out a little bit, and when Molly (the turtle) was getting herself back in to her shell, after becoming quite cold, Henry was yelling that "she doesn't want her shell back on" or something like that.

At that point, we decided that it was time to leave the Story Time room and go to the front and have ourselves some ice cream. Henry, still sobbing about how turtles don't like to fly (only birds like to fly), is now telling Molly (the mom) and me that he doesn't like ice cream and that he wants to go back in to story time. At this point, I know that he's just wrong, so we sit him down at the table and get him a scoop of cookies and cream. Once he hears "cookies" and "ice cream" together, things were much better...mostly.

After Miss Tracy wraps things up at story time, she comes out in to the main "parlor" and is chatting with people as she's getting ready to leave. I didn't notice her until I see Henry looking off towards the other end of the room mumbling "turtles don't like to fly," and sure enough, there she was - it was almost as though he expected her to start throwing the turtle up in the air again at any second.

Throughout all of this, Sofi Sue slept soundly, and was not at all concerned about Molly the Flying Turtle.

If you love ice cream like we love ice cream, check out The Brown Cow in Forest Park

Introducing Sofia Suzanne Alvarado

Born Friday May 7th at 9:35pm; 
20.5 inches
8 lbs, 9oz

All is well...

Goats, Fire Engines, and Green Eggs (without the Ham)

Took the day off of work today so that Henry and I could hang-out and do some fun stuff.

First, we went to the Brookfield Zoo and saw some goats. We also saw chickens, geese, elephants and some llamas, but first, we hung out with goats.

GOATS!!!

From Henry is Cutererer

For lunch, Henry had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...and Bacon. What can I say, Molly wanted a BLT, so I fried up some bacon. Henry wasn't about to pass up bacon (but there's NO way that he would have eaten a BLT, even with extra B)...

After Henry's nap, we went to the Forest Park Fire House for a tour - This was certainly the highlight of the day, since Henry a) got a Fire Chief Hat, b) got a sticker, and c) and to look at & touch Fire Engines. Also noteworthy was the massive flat screen TV upstairs with the 7 lazy-boys in a semi-circle around it. While we didn't get to watch TV, Henry was quite ready to chill out in the chair for a few minutes. (This was, after all, part of the Library's TV Tune Out week, so it would have been rather counter-productive to go to the Fire Station and then watch TV).

Henry and his pal Blake-

From Henry is Cutererer

From Henry is Cutererer

From Henry is Cutererer

At dinner time, I asked Henry if he wanted cheesey eggs or a salami sandwich. He voted for eggs, which I was all for. Since it's terribly hard to get vegetables in this kid, I sautéed some spinach, then added some well-beaten eggs, & of course, the cheese. Henry's usual response to the spinach in the eggs is "I don't like this green thing" or "No, I WON'T eat that!" But today, I told him that we were having Green Eggs! Henry had 3 servings of Green Eggs! Let this be a lesson to all that need to get more veggies in their kids diets - TRICK THEM!!! Hide veggies in their food, and call it something else. Read a book (such as Green Eggs and Ham) to your kid 452 times, and then MAKE Green Eggs sans Ham (or with, whatever). It's like magic!

In other news, Sofi is hanging out upside down, as she should be. We've got less than a month until she's due to join is in the oxygen-breathing world. She should now be in the area of 6 pounds and 18 1/2 inches long.

I'm going to hold him!

So, Henry got to spend some time with the Easter Bunny yesterday after Forest Park's annual Easter Egg Hunt. Now, we did this last year too. Henry had the opportunity to sit with the Easter Bunny, and wasn't all that impressed, as can be seen below. Note how it looks like he's waving his hands...This was his sign at the time for "All Done!"

From Henry is Cuterer

This year, however, was a completely different story. We had to wait in a long but fairly quick moving line. From the time Henry saw the Mr. Bunny, he kept randomly announcing, "There's a big bunny over there!" and "I'm going to talk to him!" and "I'm going to hold him!"

Mr. E. Bunny had given Henry a small package of Easter Skittles (not sure what makes them Eastery besides the packaging...), which is not, by the way, a great candy for a two year old, but whatever. Henry has since commented several times on "what did the Easter Bunny give me?" and is also completely obsessed with playing with the chocolate easter eggs that he collected. He'll eat them, of course, but he seems to be just as happy sorting them by color, piling them up in to my hands, or just otherwise playing with them...

From Henry is Cutererer

From Henry is Cutererer

From Henry is Cutererer

Pizza Planets

So, you'll see here that Henry has some stellar planet decals on the walls in his room. He calls them "Pizza Planets."

Weird.