A Crazy or Brilliant Idea?

My kids have been stuck at home since Sunday with a terrible stomach bug. Not only that, but it has been raining so we have been stuck indoors which is not fun when you have two kids sick with the stomach flu. In this time we did one trip to Target, but they haven't been able to go to their classes or school or visit friends this entire week. So today there was a change in illness and a change in weather so I thought a trip to the zoo might be a brilliant idea.

Or so I thought, and then Erik got sick again last night and the weather still looked pretty bleak this morning, but I was determined to go. My obstacles of the morning were Elliot throwing tantrum after tantrum and wanting to be held constantly, I think he is teething again. Then there was Erik who said he didn't want to go anywhere and was refusing to get dressed, but a bribe got him out of the house so away we went. I figured of all the places we could go the zoo was the best idea because if they got sick it was outside and easy to clean up.

As soon as we got there I realized the zoo was a great idea, but the sky seemed so ominous. Both of the kids started getting excited when I started unloading, Elliot started making his happy noises and Erik said "I am so happy" so I was feeling pretty good about myself. Also as soon as we were outside their runny noses stopped. It is amazing what a change in scenery does to a cold.

So I am going to digress and say from a personal standpoint this zoo trip was a big deal for me. I have never gone to the zoo by myself with the kids. We live 5 minutes away from the zoo so friends are always with us, but for obvious reasons I couldn't ask anyone to join us today.

The day started off really well. Erik was super excited and wanted to walk instantly and Elliot was content to ride which makes life simpler. Also Erik was content to stay near me and follow the stroller so a very good day with Erik's wandering tendencies.

I also made a mental promise to myself to not take too many pictures because I get tunnel vision when I do photography and can't always keep the best eye on Erik. So immediately I tried to get some pictures of the boys together at the zoo. It didn't work because of course seals are way more fascinating than their mom taking another picture.

This is why today was really a brilliant day to go to the zoo. It was 62 degrees and almost raining. Where we live this is extremely rare, but it also meant the zoo was empty AND all the animals were out. I have been going to the zoo since Erik was 6 months old and we go a lot because we live five minutes away. In all my times, I have never even seen the bear or tiger and we saw both today.

As you can see by the abundance of animal pictures I did not keep my promise to myself to not take pictures. Fortunately Erik behaved so well and stuck with me and listened so I could take extra pictures. I love it when those days happen, I feel like a good mom for once instead a mom who has to yell constantly.

For being by ourselves at the zoo it was a fun experience. Erik went up to everyone and started conversations and introduced himself. It reminds me of my mom's favorite story of me when I was little. She said I would be in the grocery line and just start conversations with anyone and tell them all the intimate details of our life. That is exactly what Erik did all day.

The best part of all is my ability to take Elliot out of the stroller, give him some attention and know that Erik wouldn't run away. It was liberating and made our outing less stressful and even happy. Definitely a good day for brotherly love.


Today I used my 50mm lens. I was in a hurry to get the kids out the door and conquer tantrum and mood swings so I didn't have much time to give thought to what lens I wanted to use. Having the day to do over and knowing all the animals would be out I would probably bring my 24-70mm lens. Although with the right focus and depth of field I was able to crop and still have good tack sharp images of the animals.

Baking with two

Before I had children I didn't really like to cook. It bored me, yet if I had company or a special occasion I liked to get in the kitchen and cook something elaborate. Although setting up the table and decorating for the meal fascinated me just as much. The everyday cooking during our marriage before children was actually left up to Carl most of the time. Ever since I had kids I have started to change my tune. There is something about having children that got me interested in eating healthy. Maybe it is because I wasn't taught the best eating habits as a child that I really want to encourage good and healthy eating in my own. So my children have turned me into a cook and baker.

We have several trips planned to the pumpkin patch so I thought I could use one of the pumpkins we got on Friday to make pumpkin bread. I thought it might be a good lesson for Erik on learning where food comes from in going from a pumpkin to bread. I promised him yesterday after his nap we would make the bread, but we were out of several ingredients so I had Carl go shopping last night and today we got to make our bread.

Cooking use to be something that just Erik and I did. It was our special activity, but sometime in the last month cooking its now an affair for three. At the same time my dynamic with Erik is changing as well. I am trying to let go and not worry too much about Erik making a big mess and by doing that he is showing me how much he can do by himself.

Believe it or not I can actually trust Erik to crack the eggs himself and he does a pretty good job. Of course there are shells in the bowl and one egg got cracked on the counter, but most of the time he does a fantastic job of getting the eggs in the mix.

Having two children at very different stages presents some interesting challenges while cooking. I want to start giving Erik more responsibility, yet Elliot wants it too and gets upset when he can't do the same things as his brother. Yet at the same time I do need to let go and allow Elliot to make a bit of a mess so he can learn in the same way his brother learned at that age.

The only reason my kids want to help me cook is because they get the lick the spoon after we are all done. They know it is going to happen every time and ask at every stage when I am done mixing if they can have one yet. I know that was my favorite part as a kid. 

 

One of the reasons we got to bake this morning is because it is raining so we can't go outside, also my kids are sick and had to miss school today. Due to his illness I let Erik watch a movie and this is what I found about half way through. I am not sure if either of my children have ever fallen asleep on a couch at home. It just doesn't work with our routines. Definitely a picture for the archives.

Finally made it to Boo Fest

I really do love Halloween. I love every aspect of this holiday from the books, to the decorations to picking out costumes for the boys. Now that I have kids I realize how much there is to do for Halloween. We seriously have an activity every week and weekend for the next few weeks and I can't wait for it all to happen.

So today was the first activity, at our mommy & me school where I take Erik and Elliot, they hosted their annual Boo Fest. It is open to the public and I have never been, but have been meaning to go for years. Per my usual I scheduled a play/friend date with my good friend Christine during Boo Fest, but convinced her to come and see me so we could go together and check it out. I made no promises, but said it sounded fun.

Oh my, there were a lot of kids there. It was totally mobbed and insane and crazy. I forgot that several of Erik's and my friends were going to be there and headed back to the story time that was starting. By chance that is where all our friends were so we got an extra surprise of seeing everyone among the craziness. Honestly it was too busy to go anywhere besides the story time playroom, so it ended up being just a big playdate for us.

There was a story happening when we first arrived, but it was almost too loud and impossible for the lady to read it, but she really did try.

After the story was finished we just hung out in the room and I talked with all my friends, lost my kids among the chaos and just tried to stay sane. There were seriously too many kids there that I could barely keep a conversation going or watch my own child. It was intense.

We all started heading out because it was a little much for us, and let the kids play games on the way out. Or more like the 3-year-olds play games and the toddler were just held and were ready for their naps.

We headed home for naps and had to say good-bye to our friends Christine and Enzo. Well I do have to add that we had a yummy visit to Taste of Chicago. Haven't been to that place in years.

For the afternoon we stayed with the Halloween theme. I have been meaning to try the boys costume's on for weeks. Now I have to admit I am not one of those mom's that is going to make the boys costumes or go to second hand stores in search of the perfect outfits. In September when the Halloween catalogs started arriving and we asked Erik what he wanted to be for Halloween, he was very clear on him being Buzz and Elliot being Woody. So one day I was at the outlet mall and they had the costumes in their sizes at the Disney Store, so I bought them. Just that easy and simple for me. So today after having these things for a month I finally put them on the boys. They were a perfect fit.

My favorite part about these costumes was Erik's reaction to his. He loved wearing the Buzz gloves and thought that was a special treat. Lucky for him I got the wings that light up and he would ask for me to push the button. Then he would get in position to explode and say "To infinity and beyond." He did this many times over.

Even Elliot understood that he was wearing something special and got upset when his boot covers fell off or stood with pride as I put on the bandanna. His body language said it all.

Morning at the pumpkin patch

When Elliot, Carl and I went to Taiwan last year, Erik got to stay home and spend the week with his grandma. During this time they went to several pumpkin patches and Erik couldn't stop talking about them. He loved "pumpkin man" and pumpkin patches and both of those came up frequently in his creative play. I couldn't wait for the following Halloween when I wouldn't be so busy and could do all the fun stuff with him.

Erik and I go to a mommy & me class on Friday mornings. This is my opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with him since Elliot gets me when Erik is in preschool. Today was a field trip day to Lombardi Pumpkin patch. I agonized for a long time whether to bring Elliot and cancel my sitter or just take Erik. In the end I remembered how much Erik LOVES pumpkin patches and how hard it would be to manage both of them walking and decided to not bring Elliot. I felt a bit guilty, but realized it was the right decision because Erik was hard to manage with just him I have no idea how I would have done it with two kids.

From the moment we arrived Erik was thrilled and totally excited in a hyper way. I could barely drag him away from these giant pumpkins to meet up with his class and go on the rides.

Once I got him to go inside he was so excited he wanted to see everything at once. He would not stay with me while I paid the teacher and just started running everywhere and picking up all sorts of pumpkins.

What is even more exciting is that there was a train ride involved through a sunflower field. He was totally captivated by the sunflowers, scarecrows and train that he kept running all over and pointing out all sorts of things. I could hardly keep him in one spot long enough to take a picture.

Once everyone from the class arrived we were able to board the train and look at all the cars and scarecrows. I think Erik asked me what each and every scarecrow was as we passed. (forgot to take a picture) I had to come up with a lot of creative answers. 

After more wrangling and running around looking at everything, we got to go to the petting zoo. He is definitely getting over a lot of our his fears. Erik had no problems in the petting zoo and touched every animal that would let him with one nice pet. I think he tried to pet every single animal in there and a lot of them were running away. I tried to teach him that if they run away they don't want you to touch them, he kind of got that point.

The last and most exciting activity was picking out a pumpkin. Erik got to pick out two, one for him and one for mommy. He showed no discrimination and picked the first two that caught his eye.

We ended our morning eating his favorite food, popcorn and just relaxing. We then went to the car to drop off the pumpkins, but Erik wanted to get in the car so I just went with it and left for home. All in all a good day at the pumpkin patch and one of several more trips to come.

Just a note about how I photographed today's excursion. I actually used my 24-70, 2.8 lens. I haven't used it in months because I always seemed to have focusing problems. I then realized when I manually metered I was more aware of my shutter speed and I manually control my focus. It seemed to have made a big different today. My images are just as tack on as when I use my 50 mm or 85 mm prime lenses. I was really happy with the results. Also I didn't feel like the camera was too heavy or too much of a burden for this small trip. Usually I hate this lens because it weighs close to 3 lbs.