Moving

We are moving. It's not fun. But at least as of Saturday night we'll be in our new digs. Then we'll do a proper post.

Love,

Ash, Gabe and Ez

Noni & Mickey Drop In

Living in Chicago means living far away from all our immediate family. It really is a drag sometimes because Ezra loves his aunts, uncle, and grandparents, and they love him - and it would be fun to just have them around all the time. But thankfully, flights to Chicago aren't all that much, and it's not too terrible a drive from Ohio, so he's gotten in some good quality time with both sets of grandparents lately.

Mickey and Noni Gross flew into town for a couple of days this past weekend. Ezra had fun playing "I gotcha!" (a cross between monster and hide and seek) with Mickey. Ezra would go into his room, slam the door, and my (Ash's) dad would stand in the hall. Then my dad would slowly push the door open, reaching in his hand (with Ezra giggling inside) and then barge in, grabbing Ezra and yelling, "I Gotcha!" And Ezra would shriek with delight. It was a big hit.

The nature museum, as always, was a ton of fun (even though we had to pull Mickey away from the Canada-U.S. final hockey match, I think he'd say it was worth it). Ezra ran around, yelling, "button! button" (a machine with buttons you push to make frog sounds), and "bear! bear!" for the polar bear, as well as "butterflies! butterflies!" This time, no butterfly landed on him, unfortunately, but he still remembers the time one did and he'll say, "butterfly! knee!" It made a big impression. We also made it to the zoo, and I'd have a hard time saying who was more excited by the meerkats - Ezra or my dad. They're cute little prairie-dog type creatures.

Gabe and I are starting to prepare for Moose's arrival. We found a new, bigger apartment to move to and will be doing that at the end of the month. The thought of packing all this junk is pretty daunting. But we're excited about the new place (washer/dryer INSIDE the unit! what luxury!). We'll also be sad to leave behind the animal/hot air balloon/monkey family mural we painted on Ezra's wall. But there are a lot of reasons to leave, not least of all the sketchy guys who hang out in our alley with bottles in paper bags - whom we have to pass every time we go to our car.

I'm including a picture of Ezra and Isaac at the Field Museum. We have a semi-regular playdate every other week with them and he may be Ezra's best friend, even though they hardly interact. He does talk about Isaac all the time, so I'm hopeful one of these days they'll actually start to play together!

Love,

Ash, Gabe and Ez