Restuccias in the City

Last year when we took the kids to the Shedd Aquarium, we bought a membership and didn't ever go back again. The memberships ends this month, so we convinced Daddy to take a day off and to make that membership pay for itself.

We made a point of seeing all the stuff we didn't see last time, namely the sharks (which Evan did NOT like -- cried the whole time we were at that exhibit. He just wouldn't be convinced that the sharks couldn't break through the glass and eat him). This is what Dani told me that the sharks do:

the komodo dragons (Evan stood a safe distance away, but at least didn't cry) and the Dolphin show. We even got there 20 minutes early so we could get good seats, but it didn't even come close to the dolphin and whale shows of my youth at Marine World Africa USA and SeaWorld. I HAVE to take my kids to Callifornia before the grow up and leave me). We did have fun watching the dolphins swim around while we waited for the show to begin.

We made sure to check out things we would see in Hawaii, like tropical fish
and seahorses
We were very excited to discover this species of seahorse. It is called the Potbellied Seahorse, which we thought was very similar to a species we have in our family -- The Hotbellied Dani.
After the kids grew tired of the aquarium, we headed out to wander around Museum Park. There were cool globe sculptures all over the park, highlighting the benefits of ecological responsibility. I'm not saying our lives were changed by the message of the exhibit, but the globes were lots of fun to look at.

Of all the globes though, this one was the favorite

It was a merry-go-round! It uses "the renewable energy of children at play" (or their dads...). Everytime it goes around, water is pumped into a tank. PlayPumps International is a non-profit foundation that installs these pumps in rural areas of Africa. Wow... cool idea. And lots of fun. The kids spun....

and spun....

and spun some more! I think the merry-go-round was every bit as popular as anything else we did that day!

The kids started to complain of being hungry, so we headed for the car, but it seemed such a shame to make the effort to come to Chicago, pay $15 for parking and then only spent 4 hours there. So, we turned around and headed for Grant Park and the Taste of Chicago Festival. Man, it was crowded. We had to institute a few family rules for the evening.

1. Always hold someone's hand

2. Mom gets the food, kids stay and sit with Dad.

3. Keep up!

It was UNBELIEVABLE crowded. Even hanging on to Mom and Dad, I can't imagine what it must have been like to be a kid in that crush of people, with their heads no higher than people's belly buttons. But ours were great. The followed the rules and we tried tons of yummy treats -- deep dish chicago style pizza, hot dogs, mozzarella sticks, pulled pork sandwiches, Italian fries, fried dough, blue raspberry Italian ice, steak tacos, turtles (the chocolate kind), and chocolate covered rice krispie treats.

It was such a fun day. The kids were AWESOME. We must have walked 10 miles in total, but they didn't start complaining until the car was within sight! I think they might have started sooner, but we tried to make the walk back to the car fun by thinking of silly ways to walk. When we got to the car, we did the usual what-was-everyone's-favorite recap and every single one of the kids said that everything was their favorite. I guess that's the mark of a succuessful day.

Not as great as we thought we were...

When our garden first started growing this year, we noticed that some of the veggies were being eaten. We figured it was bunnies, due to the preponderance of the little vermin around here, so we constructed a fence with some yard stakes and some netting. We weren't sure if it was enough to keep the bunnies out, especially as acquaintances gave us their tall tales of just how high rabbits can jump, but the veggies started to grow and flourish, so we patted ourselves on the backs. Problem solved!

And then today, Jason was picking some peas and thinning out a few other plants that are exploding out of our fence and he found this in the beans:

Not only have we NOT managed to keep the bunnies out of the garden, some of them broke in, built a nest and HAD BABIES in our garden! There are at least four in there and there was so much shifting around on the sides that I wouldn't be surprised if the nest is rather wide underground and there are several more! Aren't they cute? I am torn though. Should I rip them out of their nest, exposing them to the elements and let the die? Should I feed them to the Great Dane next door? Do I let them grow up in the garden and eat all my veggies? Take down the fence so they can get out? And if I let them grow up, are they going to think my garden is their home/pantry for the rest of their lives? For now, I'll just ooooo and aahhhh over how cute they are, but their fate is uncertain.....

Everything hinges on Dani

It was a lovely day at the Restuccia household today. Better than I've had in a long time. I woke to the sounds of Jason doing dishes and vacuuming downstairs -- I thought perhaps he was just being really nice, but in fact, our new dishwasher was being delivered and the deliverman had just called and said he'd be here in 45 minutes. Even if his intention wasn't to give me a break, there was still less work for me to do! As I laid in bed, trying to decide whether I was asleep or awake, Dani walked in. She was not, as usual, already sprawled across the bed, taking up as much room as possible, and she did not, as usual, shrilly demand that I make her eggs for breakfast. She spoke sweetly and quietly, asking whether I thought the thunderstorms would ruin our "having-friends-over-to-go-swimming" day. She didn't, as usual, command me to hold her, but climbed into bed and snuggled up to me and I obliged her with a little holding time. She was generally mild mannered and sweet tempered all day -- not perfect, after all, this is Dani we're talking about here! I found myself enjoying my kids, joking and playing and having fun being the mom. How long as it been since I felt like that? Was it Dani's unusually sweet demeanor? Was it induced by the "happy pills" that have been slowly improving my outlook over the past few months? Was the clean house set the stage for a happy day? Is it the noticable absence of the pressure of seminary and all that goes along with it? I wish I could identify and replicate all the factors that made it such a nice day. As wonderful as it was for me, it was wonderful to also see Dani having a day where she wasn't so distraught and on the edge all day long. As crazy as she drives me -- and she REALLY drives me crazy.... a LOT -- I love her with all my heart. I want her to be happy. I want her to feel peace and happiness, rather than agitated and deprived all the time. For the life of me though, I don't know what it is that gives us these kinds of days. I'm sure we'll be back to the usual tomorrow and I'll just have to wait until I get another one -- how ever long it is.

Projects

These are our stepping stone projects. They now adorn our front garden.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

BATMAN! BATMAN! BATMAN!

Happy Birthday

Emily's 8 1/2 birthday was on Monday. We had some friends over for cake on Saturday and went to see Shrek the Third on Monday night. We are getting her a new bike for her birthday, but we thought we'd let her pick it out herself, and have yet to find an appropriate choice. Hopefully we'll remember to take her out before her 9th birthday!

Showing Off

Brendan has been working with a speech therapist and a developmental therapist for about 3 months and is making great progress. I spend every available minute trying to get him to talk to me -- its so cute. One of the things his therapists had us do is teach him some sign. That just opened the floodgate and he is learning about a word a week. The latest one is "Wee-wee" which is "Emily." He is a pro at "more," "help," "no," and "mine." Clearly we are quite on track with his vocabulary! Here is a little clip of him doing his thing. Watch for the gestures he makes while talking -- they are signs.

Summertime Summertime Sum Sum Summertime

Summertime is kickin' my butt. I thought it would be great to not have to cart kids all over the place and just stay at home and hang out at the pool and let the kids play with friends. Well guess what, I'm still carting kids around and we've only been to the pool a handful of times and whenever we're just hanging out at home the kids are fighting and driving me crazy! I have broken character somewhat and actually made an effort to entertain them a couple of times. We've been doing a few projects here and there. We made some stepping stones for the front yard garden. We're growing a sunflower house -- that one will take a couple of months to show forth any fruit. On the video below, I was working my tail off, digging the "foundation" of our sunflower house and the kids got busy in the sandbox building a volcano. After enough begging, I let them do the old vinegar and baking soda explosion. 'Cept I didn't have red food coloring, so our lava was green. Everyone was so thrilled with the results that they ended up using every drop of vinegar that I had!