Check 1, 2, Check!

 

 

Photo Credit: Christine Ho (check out her travel blog The Selfish Years)

Here is MC D-Wreck showing off in the studio. He's such a ham. Its mostly our fault for enabling him. We'll see if this is as cute at age 8 when he wants to continue to pursue his MC career. 

Starstruck! First encounters with (life-size) Elmo

 

 

 

 

It is totally our own fault that one of Dek's most repeatedi words these days is Elmo. Earlier on when Dek was just barely over 12 months and he'd be crying in the car, we'd put on the youtube of "Elmo Song" and it would magically get him to calm down. It was a parenting nugget I had picked up from one of my more experienced parent friends. Just put on some kids music if they are flipping out in the car. One time we left Elmo song on loop for 1 hour while driving back from New York just to keep him calm when it was way past bedtime. Months later he started recognizing "La La" (Elmo sings la la la alot, so Dek thought that was his name.) Shortly after he has been obsessed with Elmo and points to him at every point, asks for videos and trys to steal other children's Elmo toys). When we were in Williamsburg and had the chance to go visit Elmo in the flesh (er, fur?). Derek was totally amazed and pretty scared at first. He was very hesitant to meet Grover and Cookie, but then he got very excited by Elmo and wanted to hug him. I think it was the sheer size of "live Elmo" that was a bit much.

Catching the L out of Chicago

 

 

Being in the transportation sector, I couldn't very well leave Chicago without giving Derek thoroughly using the whole of the CTA, and its signature element the L. Truth be told we were mostly on the buses and subway of the city, rather than the raised L loop track.  We were here for only the week and unfortunately facing extensive track work and repairs, as so many aging infrastructure must do. Dek enjoyed himself but then conked out as we finished out tour and headed out to the airport (on the L of course!)

P.S. Sorry for this barrage of posts for events months overdue, finally getting organized for the end of summer here so you'll see what we've been up to in rapid succession though it happened much slower in real life. Thanks for your patience!

Chicago: At the Bean!

So we continue on our Chicago adventure (now bottomless as you'll see from the last post, we are lax parents that don't carry extra clothes around and Dek is wandering about in his diaper).

Here we are checking out the famous bean at the center of Millenium park. I kept thinking of all the germs since people endlessly smudge their hands on the reflective surface. It was getting late though so we had to roll home soon.

 

 

 

Chicago! Millenium Park

Here is Dekboy enjoying the splendor of Millenium Park. W got very wet in the fountain play area that you'll see the next set of photos he is pantless. Yes, you can blame me for not bringing spare set of clothes. I have noticed that we are getting more lax with any kind of diaper bag. We often don't bring anything with it, but that as you see, pantlessness ensures.

For those that have not been there are two towers with water cascading down facing each other. There is a puddle area between them where kids just run crazy in between. The neat thing about the towers is they have constantly changing images, including faces that "spit" out water into the play area.

Splashing with Dad

Getting Rained On

 

Now I am pantless

Legomania in Schaumberg, IL

 

 

 

The next few posts will be about our midwest adventure to the Chicago area. We started out in Schaumberg, a suburb about 1 hour outside of downtown Chicago since I had a work event there. Trivia - Schaumberg is La Leche League International's headquarters and also home to one of many Legolands. There is a reallly huge mall, Woodfield, that's among the largest in the US.  Dek liked some of the legos it seemed. There was a great play area that had some rides that he was too small for, but messing with the legos was fun enough.

Monkeying Around

 

Here is the little dude wrestling about with his two closest monkeys (18 months) and blending in. Though you'll note that blue monkey actually has a shirt..  I am starting to lose track of the photos and apologize for the blitz postings at times since I only manage to stay up past 9 every now and then. Dek's language development has bit slower since we speak English/Vietnamese/Tagalog to him and we taught him signs to make up for the fact that he's not talking. But one of his first Viet words was Khi (monkey) and its the type of thing that he likes to point out all the monkeys when he sees them.

First Mama Steves

Down in Williamsburg at breakfast. Dek enjoyed eggs and silver dollar pancakes.