Summer vacation

For me, summer vacation has always meant more work. No school equals finding things to do with two (sometimes grumpy) teenagers. Molly has a foreign exchange student in town until next week. The two of them have been all over downtown. Yesterday, we all (including conor) went to Lincoln park zoo and north avenue beach. The weather sure made up for all of the rain yesterday, it was HOT. But, we had fun, even if we are exhausted today.




















-jen

Graduation day(s): wordless Wednesday

Both of my girls, who aren't actually mine, graduated. I couldn't be more proud of Molly and Sidney.


















-jen

Music lover

Gabe has always loved music. These days, he seems to be even more interested in it. He has favorite songs on the radio and gets very upset when I change the station. Sometimes he even has a tantrum if we are parked and I turn off the car during one of "his songs".



Some current favorites are "just give me a reason" by pink, the new daft punk song (he even screams it's daft punk!), "blurred lines" by robin thicke and the new fall out boy song. He really likes Pom poms by the Jonas brothers, but he can only listen to that one on YouTube.



-jen

RIBS!

We went to ribfest in north center this weekend. It was a perfect day Saturday, not too hot and sweaty. My in laws live in north center so we always try to go to ribfest. And who doesn't love ribs?




Gabe (who actually doesn't love ribs) had an ok time. He spent most of the time clutching Jorge's neck and his yellow balloon. We left him with Lita and Lito while we went back with Cristina. We let Sidney and jasmin go by themselves (eek!).








Cristina and I really wanted the pulled pork nachos from Black Rock, but every time we went they were out! We had two really yummy basil lemonades while we were waiting. They finally had them, after a really long wait, and they were delicious. However, we were pretty full by then. We both had "Jesus on a bun", a nickname for a pulled pork sandwich from browntrout.





-jen

Uncle Javi we love you

Uncle Javi isn't really an uncle. He isn't related to Jorge or I, but he is definitely part of our family. He is also gabe's godfather, and was Jorge's best man. We got to hang out with him for a bit last week and gabe loved every minute!
















-jen

Baking date

Molly was looking for something to do yesterday. She decided to make some brownies with gabe. It was a great bonding experience for both of them. We are going to be so lost when she leaves in august.




















And of course gabe got to lick the spoon!



-jen

My non-sleeper

I never expected that one of the greatest struggles that I would face as a mom would be sleeping. It seems like everything is good for a few months and then it all goes out of the window.


The past two weekends, we have left gabe with Cristina and jasmin. They have had the hardest time getting him to sleep. This past weekend it was almost midnight when he finally caved and fell asleep. The next morning he was up by 7:30, not even sleeping in!

Our mornings have varied from 7-8:30. He would prefer to nap around 4, but then bedtime at 9 is kind of a struggle. The other night it was almost 10:30 and he was still bouncing around in bed. Sometimes I wish he was still in a crib. I would just leave him in there and hope for the best.


Yesterday, he didn't nap, was a crab, and passed out on the way home. He would not wake up, and it was almost 7 by the time he did. Ugh.


-jen