Grandma and Grandpa Madsen Visit

First, some pictures of a seriously cute couple for your viewing pleasure.

As I've said before, I live in a crazy beautiful place. Hyde Park in October is an autumn wonderland. I can't get enough of it. We have been fortunate enough not to have been scared away by frigid weather so far, which is a very pleasant surprise that makes this place seem even more lovely. The leaves all seemed to fall at once this week, and luckily I got my camera out just in time to catch some of the colors. These pictures really can't do justice to the scenery, but here is a little peek at my world from last Sunday.

The University of Chicago is about a mile from our apartment. The campus is filled with gorgeous old gothic-style buildings that are covered in ivy. I LOVE it!

This is one of my favorite streets in our neighborhood simply because of the little cone-shaped roofs on these cute houses. I get to look down this street every time I walk to the car.

Here is one of the many beautiful towers on one of the many beautiful churches surrounding campus. The architecture here just makes me swoon!

And here is what my house WILL look like someday.

Get the picture? Chicago is beautiful right now. Not wanting to miss out, my parents flew here last weekend to spend three-and-a-half wonderful days with their grandbaby. (And Matt and me, but we all know why they really came.)

Our first stop on the way home from the airport was Giordano's to get some famous Chicago-style deep dish pizza. Nothing like it. It's definitely a favorite around here.

Grandma couldn't resist buying Josh a little monkey backpack at the airport. He loves his new little friend!

One rainy morning, we took Grandma and Grandpa to the Museum of Science and Industry. I hadn't been to any section of the museum other than the kids play area, and I was really impressed with some of the other exhibits. There's an enormous U-boat (submarine) in the basement -- the first and only one the U.S. captured from Germany in World War II. It's a pretty awesome piece of history.

As we were coming out of church on Sunday, we saw that the sun had finally decided to show its face. So we went for a glorious walk toward the university and my dad and I took zillions of pictures along the way. (There's your warning. LOTS of pictures.)

Nice pose Dad. Nerd.

I know what you are wondering, and the answer is yes, my mom did have a go on the slide herself.

This is pretty much how my dad looked most of the afternoon. He's really into photography and tries to teach me a little here and there, but I have a lot to learn. (Just as soon as I'm done with school....)

Searching for squirrels!

I hope Josh never gets too old

to give his daddy kisses!

I'm so lucky that two of my cousins live on our street. We got to visit with both families before my parents left. Here's a pic of the Clive boys with their Uncle Steve. Wonder where they got the idea for that studly hairstyle?

I love this lady.

Earlier in the weekend, Josh and I took my parents downtown. It was a drizzly day, but we did what we could and stayed pretty dry. We had to stop at this little park because Josh saw a bunch of squirrels and started going nuts in his stroller. Here he is making friends with a critter that was getting a little too close for Mommy's comfort.

We tried to hit Willis Tower that day, but the visibility was absolutely zero, so we decided to head back to the Bean. Earlier that day when it was raining, it seemed like a whole different Bean. It was all fogged up with water lines from the rain. Cool, but not the same.

I was glad it stopped raining so my parents could see this baby in its glory. On days like this, the top of the Bean seems to blend in with the sky.

The next day, the sun came out for a few hours so we went back to the Tower. Apparently, every other tourist in the city had the same idea because it took an hour and a half to get to the top. Still, it was awesome. Josh gets really excited up there. He likes to sit as close to the edge as possible and press his face against the window yelling "Oh boy! Oh boy!" Sometimes he's a little too brave for my liking.

Back at home, Josh stayed pretty busy entertaining his guests. He very purposefully took out all of these cans from the box, brought them to us in the living room two at a time, and collected them after we pretended to gulp them down. His whole process was surprisingly organized and thoughtful. I think this was his helpful way of saying, "Hey fatties, lose some weight!"

Josh was dressed like a little prep school student for church on Sunday. Notice my cute mommy's little Halloween dress. She's always so festive!

Thanks for a super fun weekend Grandma and Grandpa! We all love you to pieces!

Happy 50th!

Today is my wonderful, wise, loving, dear father-in-law's 50th birthday! Matt and I made a little card for him that might bring some people a few laughs, especially if you know Papa Snow, himself.
(Note: please understand that this card is meant to be a joke. Sarcasm. Not seriousness. Okay, go!)


I kind of want to make one of these for everyone I know. Right now. This concept is just too much fun for me. That's probably mostly due to the fact that I am procrastinating a really big important paper I need to write by Thursday. Today I have done everything productive I could possibly think of in order to avoid this assignment. Fine. Stop with the guilt trip! I'll get going!

Josh Moments

Our sweet little boy has been very busy growing up over the past two months. I haven't been good enough about recording the cute moments, sweet new skills, and things that drive Mommy crazy, so here's a bunch of them all at once.

Right before we moved to Chicago, Matt bought Rockband 2, a Playstation 3, and a brand new big screen HDTV. (Ya think someone needed to get a little spending out of his system before we entered into many years of debt? I think so.) Spending money is very unlike him, but I will say that he got all of them for crazy good prices that would have been a shame to pass up. Anyway, for about a week after we got it all set up, we spent hours every night playing Rockband with Matt's brother Andrew. This is how Josh learned to be an expert drummer before he could even walk. Don't let the Tigger onesie fool you -- he's a rockstar!

Speaking of our beautiful new TV, it didn't take Josh long to figure out how to push all the buttons and put his fingerprints all over the screen. He doesn't watch it very much, but his favorite show so far is Harold and the Purple Crayon (since it's pretty much the only kid show we can find on Hulu -- we don't have any kind of cable). We've been trying to teach him not to get so close to the screen...

...but he won't have it. One day, he got a little too close. Like most babies, Josh thinks everything is a toy just for him. Especially Mommy and Daddy's toys. This little troublemaker taught us a very valuable lesson a few weeks ago: Do not put your nice new TV where your toddler can reach it! We learned that one the hard way. First, take a look at the screen while the TV is off.

Looks great, right? A perfectly good piece of furniture. However, after Josh got his hands on a fun metal broom handle and started hammering it like a drumstick on the TV, here is what happened.

I can't seem to get a good enough picture, one that shows exactly how sickening this little accident was. Matt and I both just sat there staring at the TV in silence for a while, feeling sad and stupid. This TV had belonged to us for a whopping three months. Matt's mom had generously helped us pay for it as our early Christmas gift. And now? It's not totally unusable, but it's damaged enough to make me hear money flushing down the toilet every time I turn it on. We can't even take our emotions out on Josh, either, 'cause the poor thing isn't really old enough to understand what he did. Don't get me wrong, a broken TV is not the end of the world. But when it's one of our only legitimate possessions that we bought brand new, not used or hand-me-down or cheap, it makes me feel a little sick.

In other news, Josh has been working on his sad face. Here is how he looks at me when I try to wipe his nose, introduce him to a stranger when he's not feeling friendly, refuse to share my drink with him, or take him out of the bath tub before he is ready. He's getting pretty good at it. Doesn't that face just scream "How could you do this to me?!"

Some might say 15-months is too young for a dye job. I say "Whatev, I do what I want!" Okay not really. This little brown splotch in his golden locks wasn't intentional. While my friend was dying my hair at my apartment, Josh woke up from a nap and snuggled up to me when I got him out of his crib. I didn't realize his hair had touched mine until it was too late. I even noticed a weird brown spot on his head while I was still in the chair, but figured it was just a chocolate chip I had given him earlier. Ha. Now he's forced to live with this "fashion statement" because I have so far refused to cut his hair.

One of Josh's favorite things to do at home is rearrange the kitchen. Often I'll find him taking everything out of of the cupboards and then trying to crawl in them himself. He has a very specific way of doing this.

Step 1: Remove all dishes/pots/pans/tupperware from cupboard and scatter all over the kitchen floor.

Step 2: Plunge into the cupboard head first.

Step 3: Once in the cupboard, turn around so just your head is poking out when Mommy comes to look for you. This movement is very similar to a dog entering its doghouse and circling before settling down to rest. (I can't tell you how much I wish I had snapped a better picture of that.)

Josh also likes to reorganize the recycle bag and throw things in the trash for me. Sometimes it's nice because if I ever forget to throw a diaper away, he'll do it for me. But this little hobby has created some nearly terrible situations, like when Matt found his keys at the bottom of the garbage bag, just before taking it out. Fortunately, it has also produced a few good laughs, like when I opened the cupboard to get a casserole dish and found THIS instead.

Yeah, that's an empty carton of milk. I imagine Josh tried to open the fridge, but couldn't, so he picked the closest cupboard with enough space.

His new proudest achievement is climbing up onto the kitchen table all by himself. At first, he could only manage to climb onto a chair, which he would proudly sit on like a throne until everyone noticed and asked how he got there. Recently he started just making his way up to the tabletop like it ain't no thang and hangs out there until someone removes him. This was a little nerve-racking, since our table and chairs are the small, lightweight, cheap set from IKEA, very easy to tip over. Now, it's strictly off-limits. I feel so bad disciplining him for it, but there have been too many near-disasters to let it slide.

Another thing we need to work on with him is dropping his food on the kitchen floor. This is how he has decided to let us know that he doesn't like something or that he is done eating. He used to do the baby sign for "all done", but maybe he decided that was too babyish for him and he needs to throw food to assert his masculine dominance. I dunno, just a guess. You can tell by his spaghetti sauce beard that he can't wait to be a man!

A couple of weeks ago, Josh had a really bad reaction to boxed Macaroni and Cheese. (At least that's what I think caused it.) Right after trying it, he started itching his eyes like crazy, rubbing cheese sauce all over himself and making it worse. It looked like hives to me, but I wasn't sure. So FYI, if anyone is so kind as to watch Josh for me during lunch time, Mac and Cheese is not a great idea. Poor thing.

Despite all these shenanigans, Josh really is a good baby. He makes me laugh more than anything and I don't know how I ever lived without his snuggles every day.

I actually have a lot more to write, but some of these next "Josh moments" need pictures, so I'll revisit this topic soon.