Rolla Macaroni...

tia tara...let it roll (roll)....wow, do you remember that from grade school??? Anywho....Lucas had some macaroni tonight...he is getting much better in feeding himself...still working on the pincer grasp, but hey if you can fit your whole fist in your mouth and get some food in there, that works too for now! He seemed to enjoy it and had some fun with it!

On The Move...

well, sort of...here are 2 videos of Luke trying to "crawl"...these videos don't show much (however, they sure are cute), but you can see that he tries to get himself into position (butt in the air). He definitely does the inchworm as I like to call it (not captured on video) to get himself around, but mostly he just rolls...he can get anywhere he wants to get to by rolling. We'll get there eventually or maybe we will just roll until we walk, stay tuned...







He was laughing at Nala


Look at those "toofers"


Playtime is serious business!

Three Generations of Cubs Fans

Last Saturday Lucas went to his second Cubs game - this time with Daddy and Grandpa Z. Once again he was very good. Wally didn't even have to get up with him once during the game and they made it all the way to the end, which means that Lucas got to hear "Go Cubs Go" for the second time at Wrigley. He is officially 2-0 on the season :) Oh and what did I do while they were at the game....I blew up a raft and floated in our pool enjoying some peace and quiet (and I finally got some sun for the summer). Here are some pics from their day:









Must have been a boring stretch of the game...


This video cracks me up...they are like statues :)

Mommy's Other Men

A week ago Wally and I went to the Billy Joel & Elton John concert at Wrigley with my parents and sisters. Grandma and Grandpa Z. were on Lucas patrol that night.

It was an awesome concert! I am a huge Elton John fan (Wally & I saw him in Vegas in March 2008), but I am also a big Billy Joel fan (Wally, not so much). My parents love Billy so we heard a lot of him growing up. My sisters and I have some great memories of listening to his albums (yep, that's right, on a record player). Stacey was always the 'Big Shot', while I was partial to 'My Life' and 'Zanzibar'. After Sunday night dinners, it wasn't unusual to have a dance party in the living room to Billy Joel or the Annie soundtrack :)

Anyways...they both put on a great concert. They played together singing some of each other's songs, then Elton played for about an hour, then Billy, and they came back together at the end and of course ended with none other than 'Piano Man'. To hear 55,000 people singing Piano Man is just amazing...it almost brought tears to my eyes.

We had a great night out and it was really great for me to be at the concert with my family - thank you to you mom and dad for introducing us to some really great music...I think I can speak for Stacey and Carly as well in saying that we were really there for the music unlike a lot of other people our age (but we did enjoy the other aspect of it as well - some drinks!).

Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Z. for watching Lucas and getting him to bed for us...I don't like to miss bedtime too much, but a night out is always fun!


Dinner at Captain Morgan Club in Wrigley before the concert








There they are!!


Elton

Billy


Sisters

Perfect

On July 23rd, 2009, our "perfect" little boy saw his first, and quite possibly only, PERFECT GAME.

How was Lucas able to see this perfect game? Well, it goes back to Wally's days in college....LOL. When Wally was playing ball at Olivet Nazarene, he played (and roomed with) a guy named Ben Zobrist (Zoby). Ben went on to get drafted and is now a member of the Tampa Bay Rays. He has been in the organization for a few years, but has really made a name for himself lately. He was actually chosen to be a member of the all-star team this year (not by fan selection, but by the Rays coach who was the American League manager). Anyways...the Rays were in town to play the White Sox. Wally called up a buddy of his from college, Steve, who also played on the team to see if he would want to go see Zoby play. Unfortunately, Wally lost touch with Ben, and honestly they were never really that close in college, but Steve still talks with him every once in awhile. Steve called Zoby, but he didn't have anymore tickets. He is originally from Eureka, IL so of course he had a LOT of family and friends already coming to the game. But as you may (or may not) know, the Sox never sell out so you can get tickets pretty easily to their games (ok, that is my one dig at the Sox in this post). :) So they got the tix and Wally, Lucas, Steve, and Steve's dad headed to U.S. Cellular Field yesterday.

The guys were able to talk with Zoby for a bit down by the field before the game. Then a few other players came around (Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton...what??? How awesome!). Wally had someone "take" their picture with Zoby, but apparently the picture didn't actually "take"...bummer! (that is when you need me around - the camera lady). Then they took their seats, well Wally stood a lot of the game...it is hard for a 7 1/2 month old to sit still for too long. I got a phone call at work from Wally asking if I was listening to the game. I said no (I can't stand the Sox radio guys...ok two digs...oops). He told me Buerhle had a perfect game going into the top of the 9th and that I needed to turn it on...so I did. That was it....he did it!! Not to mention, an amazing catch that was made to save the shut out, no-hitter, perfect game...awesome! Wally said they were going nuts...everyone was screaming - even Lucas. But Lucas' scream wasn't one of excitement or joy, the poor little guy was terrified - it was WAY too loud for him. Wally said Luke was a wreck!

As I believe you all know, Wally and I are HUGE Cubs fans...that is our team; however, we are also HUGE baseball fans so we can appreciate something so rare and awesome as a perfect game, even if it comes from the "wrong" side of town. So I had to write this post, and I have to write this moment down in Lucas' baby book. If he ends up being as big of a baseball fan as we are, he will really appreciate this moment in baseball history. And I think it is pretty cool that Wally and his baby boy got to experience it together.

Here are a few pics from the game...

Zoby is in there somewhere...


The boys...


After the final out


Check out all the zeroes on that scoreboard!


TOO LOUD!!!

Order & Cleanliness

Those of you that know me pretty well know that I have always been very organized. I love ORDER! I used to alphabetize my dad's record albums and our VHS tapes when I was little. I would go home for a weekend during college, and when I got back to school I had to put everything away right away. I always made my bed. Everything has its place. Car keys belong on the basket on the counter. Mail and bills belong in the basket or filed in the appropriate folder in the drawer of the desk in the basement. Lucas' toys get put away in the basket that sits on the fireplace.

Those of you that know me pretty well know that I have also always had a clean room/apartment/house. I love CLEANLINESS! I enjoyed helping my mom clean was I was little. I dusted my dorm room/house regularly in college. I love seeing the lines in the carpet after vacuuming. I hate seeing crumbs on the counter. I greatly dislike the feeling of "stuff" on my wood floors. I love clean mirrors. I love the smell of a clean home.

But somehow during the world of pregnancy and motherhood, my organization and cleanliness have fallen a bit to the wayside. I knew this was to be expected. I knew that my standards were going to have to be lowered a bit. But things have gotten a bit out of hand for me...I need order and cleanliness back in my life (but not at the expense of my precious time with Lucas and Wally)....how am I ever going to do that?????????

Well I actually called Molly Maid and got an estimate....uuummmm....I don't think so! Their price for our house was ridiculous! I knew it was going to be a lot, but I think that is just what I needed to get motivated. I am finally getting order and cleanliness back in my house little by little on my own...this summer has taken it's toll on my organization and cleanliness. I try to get some stuff done at night after work and after Lucas has gone to bed, but I mostly just have the weekends and summer weekends fill up pretty fast. I am actually sort of looking forward to the Fall and getting back in to a routine...did I mention that I also LOVE routines???? Call me my mother's child if you must (have you seen my parent's clean & organized home?)...

I am not totally anal about all of this, I would much rather have fun with Lucas than worry about cleaning, but I can only let things go so far and then I am angry and stressed and feel very anxious that there are water spots on the mirror (LOL) and I need to just CLEAN! Then once I do, I am the happiest mommy and wife in the world!

Why did I write this post?? I have no idea, I guess I am just procrastinating even though my house needs to be cleaned and organized....uuugggghhhh......

Ok - here is what you really come here for....

Weekend Update

We had another great weekend!

Saturday was date day for Wally and I. My parents came up in the morning to watch the little guy, and Wally and I headed into the city to see Mary Poppins at the Cadillac Theater. Wally had gotten the tickets for my birthday. Despite a very stressful ride in (we ran into some unexpected traffic and were in our seats at 1:58 for a show starting at 2 - yikes!!), the musical was amazing, magical, and practically perfect in every way!! I can't even begin to explain how wonderful it was which is exactly the way I think you should feel when you see a Broadway musical. I felt the same way about Jersey Boys. We had the best seats - 7th row and smack dab in the middle (nice job Wally). Mary Poppins flew right over our heads at the end...just awesome!! I only wish that we would have went to see it sooner so that I could tell everyone else to get their tickets and go, but unfortunately the show ended on Sunday. I am telling you though, if it ever comes back, you HAVE TO see it! Both Wally and I loved it!

Anyways (I could go on and on about Mary Poppins), after the show, we had some time to kill until our dinner reservation at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse so we stopped in at Harry Caray's for a few drinks and to catch the end of the Cubs game ("W"). We walked around for a bit and then headed to the restaurant for a fantastic dinner that included wine, soup, salad, potatoes, and of course steaks...if only we could make our own steaks at home that good! We were STUFFED from dinner and decided that we could use some more walking. We walked along the river, made our way to Millenium Park and then back to the parking garage to head home. It was a wonderful day and evening and a very much needed night out for Wally and me!

Concert in the Park


Wally "holding up" The Bean... :)

On Sunday morning we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast with my parents before they headed home, went to church, and then home for the day. Oh and Lucas was extra talkative in church that day. The older woman behind us told me we should sign him up for the choir. His "talking" these days consists of a lot of high pitch screams so we had to try to get him to keep it down a bit in church, but not much you can do with a 7-month old. We just laughed and hoped that everyone else around us thought it was just as cute! It was a beautiful, warm day out so we were finally able to get into our pool. Lucas enjoyed it just as much as he did the first time in Lake Lawn...this excites me to know that we will be getting a lot more use out of our pool in the future! He kicked his way around the pool in his racecar float. After pool time, we headed in for nap time (for all of us). We slept for 2 hours...oh the millions of things I could have been doing in those couple of hours, but clearly I needed sleep :) We relaxed the rest of the night by watching the 2nd game of the Cubs doubleheader and then headed off to bed.....

Another great weekend come and gone too quickly!

Fourth of July Weekend - Part IV

Sunday was THE BEST day of the weekend! Lucas attended his very first Cubs game - yay!! Wally jumped on stubhub.com that morning and was able to get some tickets (terrace reserve-infield - not bad...in the shade and still decent). As a side note: Stub Hub is the way to go. We were able to get the tickets for quite a bit cheaper than regular price and being only 30 minutes away allows us to decide last minute that we want to go...good deal!! We dressed Lucas in his Cubbie outfit, we went to church, and then we made our way to Wrigley Field. We got there early enough so that we could take Lucas around the outside of the field and try to get some photos next to the 2 statues and in front of the marquee. Lucas was "eyes wide open" the entire time. We headed into the stadium and just walked around for a bit in order to prolong having to sit down with Lucas for too long before the game even began. We got to our seats and of course Lucas was a hit with all of the people around us. Around the second inning, he was exhausted already and started to get a little fussy. I got up with him and stood in the standing room only section. He quickly fell asleep in my arms so I headed back down to our seats. He slept through the 4th inning and then was up and HAPPY! We were having a lot of fun and the Cubs were winning! Around the beginning of the 7th inning, Lucas was ready to get up again. We decided to just grab our stuff and stand the rest of the game. We sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "Go Cubs Go"...Lucas must bring them good luck!! Cubs won 8-2! Since Lucas was still in a pretty good mood, Wally wanted to wait around for it to clear out a bit so that we could get down a little closer to the field to take some pics. We finally made our way out of the stadium, picked up a little Cubs hat for Luke at one of the vendors and headed home. Lucas was exhausted, but it was AWESOME!! It was a beautiful day with a Cubs victory and a dream come true for Wally and I to take our little boy to a Cubs game!

All in all, it was a great weekend full of lots of "firsts" for Luke!



My main men - Harry Caray and Luke




Adorable!!



He's pretty excited!




Sleeping Boy




What a ham!!