State of the Union

Yesterday, our friend James invited us over for dinner (shabu-shabu which was AMAZING) and to watch the state of the union address. Wonderful evening.
North watched the president speak with his belly hanging out and his hand down his pants scratching his bottom. Someday, when he's old enough to understand, Alan and I will tease him about this. For now, it's just cute.

Table Manners 101

Tonight we decided to grab some dinner from Fazoli's where North wowed Alan and I with his superb table manners.

Lesson #1 Despite popular misconception, forks are actually totally unnecessary when eating spaghetti.
Lesson #2 Really the best way to eat spaghetti is with ones fingers -- or whole hand as the case may be.
Lesson #3 Quickly. Good food is best eaten very quickly.
Lesson #4 When eating with your hands be sure to lick your fingers, otherwise, you'll just be messy.
Lesson #5 On occasions when forks are necessary, you can actually stick either end in your mouth. You needn't just confine yourself to using the pointy end for eating.
Lesson #6 Again, despite popular misconception, Hands are actually not at all necessary for drinking. You just need a little bit of balance and jaw control.
Like so:
Lesson #7 Unlike spaghetti, for pizza, one should absolutely use a fork. It's totally uncivilized not to.
Thanks for the shirt grandma--he managed to keep it surprisingly clean despite his shenanigans!

Cousins!

Last weekend North got to spend some time hanging out with his cousins, Connor, Madi, & Claydon at the children's museum in Indianapolis. He had a great time and today, keeps saying "Connor" , "Madison", "Baby" (for Clay) and "cousins" as he looks at photos of them. They all played pretty well together and I think he had a great time getting to spend some time with them.

Here are Connor, Madi, and Clay checking out a tunnel in Dinosphere. North was scared to go in with them but Madi (who was great with North) helped him into it and once inside, he thought it great fun.

Connor uncovered a dinosaur fossil from the sand. North tried too but was a bit too young.

North's favorite place, as always was playscape. He had a great time splashing in the water and running around the play space.

He always loves the black bear in particular in the corner of the playscape area.

This is immediately before pegging me in the head with that foam rock. Note the maniacal evil grin.

Checking out the crane in ScienceWorks

Madi playing with North by the carousel

Connor and Madi riding the carousel. North rode too but was pretty scared.

North always loves these perpetual machines. Wonderlab has one he has to check out each time we are there too.

Madi working as Barbie's receptionist.

Creepiest Barbie doll ever.

I think their favorite part of the museum was just playing with the dinosaur figures.

The next day, North (and later Alan) got really sick and so we've had some down time following our fun weekend. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll all be ready to get back to our regular schedule.

3 day weekend...

So, the new layout designed by Alan is awesome, huh? I particularly like that he gave our son laser-beam eyes.

North and I have been on a bit of an extended vacation it seems. First, we were both sick and so missed daycare/work Monday-Thursday (with the exception of a brief Wednesday pop-in to take care of a rush project). This involved us both turning into Pixar watching, lazy, runny-nosed, coughing, feverish zombies for several days. Seriously, we both pretty much only moved about 3 feet for an extended period of time. Just lazed around on the couch and baby bean-bag watching more TV than we had watched since he has been born in 1 long dose. To give a sense of HOW MUCH this was here's a catalog of our viewing: Cars, Finding Nemo,Up, James & the Giant Peach, Cars, Finding Nemo, 9, Monsters Inc, Cars, Finding Nemo, Bug's Life, Cars, Finding Nemo, The Complete He-Man Animated Series (an excellent Christmas present), Cars, Finding Nemo, Elmo in Grouchland, Cars, Finding Nemo, Curious George, Cars, Finding Nemo, Monsters versus Aliens, and oh, did I mention Cars & Findinging Nemo? Ugh. If I never see another animated movie again, particularly Cars or Finding Nemo, that will be fine with me. Unfortunately, North feels exactly the opposite. He totally became a junkie and now that he's healthy we're attempting to wean him back to our TV free lifestyle. It could be a bit of a rough road ahead.

Here's a photo from the zombie days:
Needless to say, by the time Friday hit and we were both feeling better, we were totally stir crazy and eager to get out of the house. Just in time for a 3 day weekend!

First on our agenda was haircuts! As Alan mentioned below, the 3 of us headed to the barber and North and Alan got haircuts together. North screaming on my lap intermittenly but overall, pretty good. Alan was also pretty good during the process.

Aren't they handsome with their short hair?
Then, we headed to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis to meet up with Sam, Levi, and Lincoln and start making the most of our year pass. North loves Bloomington's own Children's museum, Wonderlab, but since we go there most every weekend this winter, he was excited to be back at the bigger museum for new adventures.

He had fun petting the dinosaurs!

and of course playing in the water

and tunnels

and he and Linc were interesting home-makers. Here they are mowing the kitchen.

superb parenting skills

Dinosphere!

Hanging out with the crocodile in Egypt

and visiting the market

Trains!

Glass sculpture

Afterwards we hit PF Changs. North is a big fan. He ate his weight in rice I think.

A picture I've been meaning to get forever. Alan and I in our wedding shoes and North wearing his baby Chuck Taylors.

The next day, North and I headed to the Zoo with Grandma, again to capitalize on our year pass.

North LOVED the marine house as usual. He is always mesmerized by aquariums so we spent quite a bit of time in front of those and then spent at least 15 minutes squeaking at all the penguins as they zoomed by the glass in front of him. I even caught him with his lips pressed up to their glass. I think he was trying to kiss them.

Tigers!

Monkeys!

Bears!

and of course, North's favorite--Turtle (or tortoise as the case may be)!

This fake snake "squirts venom" (water). North was not impressed.

Here he is angrily telling on the snake!

And finally, another "turtle".

Back to work/daycare tomorrow!