Birthday Lists

With my presession class running at a breakneck pace and the cruise coming up, it seems like Jimmy's birthday--6!--will be here in no time. There aren't too many things he's into these days (he's happy to spend hours playing with a calculator, lay out 600+ rocks in a pattern on the driveway, or create his own word search puzzle from magnetic fridge letters--his latest thing), so please check out our wish list for him. We found a few things that he will likely love, most featuring either LEGOs or chess. There's a little scooter there too, which we think would help him better learn to balance on his bike (and it's just a cool thing, anyway).

Of course if you were able to find a wooden replica of the newer-model Metra engines, he'd go crazy. As far as we know, they don't make them! But he's got a spot saved in his LEGO town for it, just in case . . .

Memorial Day Weekend

Last weekend we spent some time at the Little Red Schoolhouse in Palos. We'd never really taken Jimmy out hiking much in all these years, at least not like this, so he really enjoyed it. He thought it was cool to be in the middle of the woods--with nothing around us but trees, and he liked hiking along the little lake there. He also learned how to tell if a tree was a White Oak, so he kept pointing them out along the path.

We spied a few creatures here and there, most noticeably a ridiculously large frog. But we also saw a bunch of beehives and some turtles. Inside the schoolhouse they had a crow, which scared Josie a little when he cawed so loudly. Josie fell asleep once she got in her stroller, but before that definitely liked walking the path while holding Mom's and Jimmy's hands.

Jimmy's Solo Concert

Jimmy finally had his solo concert this past weekend. He was so excited! He played the theme for "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

At home when we do pretend concerts, we always throw make-believe flowers and teddy bears at him, so for this real concert he got a chocolate rose and a SpongeBob (which has since become his new sleeping buddy, along with Dear Old Lamby).

Jimmy also got a trophy for practicing consistently. He was SO surprised about that. It was his first trophy for anything, and he was so proud--so was his teacher, Miss Anna!

The Wheels Come Off

A couple of weeks ago we went by Mom and Lar's to visit and try to get Jimmy to ride his bike without the training wheels. It's hard to figure out how to do this! I remember as a kid Dad just shoving me off and that was that. Jimmy keeps leaning waaaay over to one side. But you can see the exact moment (like, a second) he was on his own: