Mom and Jack's weekend

Andy went to Colorado this past weekend for some skiing and snowboarding with his friends, so Jack, Lou, and I had the house to ourselves. We didn't do anything incredibly exciting; mostly just played around the house and ran errands. I did take Jack out to breakfast one morning at the Rock n Roll McDonald's in downtown Chicago. Prior to this weekend, I'd only ever visited this McDonald's at the drive-thru, so this was actually the first time I had been inside.

Jack got down to business first, wolfing down some pancakes. He ate 2 whole pancakes and a sausage patty.


After eating, we took a tour of the upstairs. Everything's pretty upscale, as far as McDonald's go--leather armchairs, nice wood floors and cabinets. There's a coffee and gelato bar also, though the cold weather outside discouraged us from trying any of the gelato. Jack loved looking out the windows.


He also enjoyed looking at the collectibles (snowglobes and Pez dispensers).



The back of the upstairs takes you through a tour of the last several decades in the U.S. Jack especially liked the different lights and chandeliers from each era.


And again, the windows. That's the Rainforest Cafe next door with the big frog. This McDonald's is in a very touristy part of town; the Hard Rock Cafe is also next door.


Jack thought the St. Patrick's Day decorations were pretty cool.


To wrap things up, here's a picture of Lou looking pretty after his day of pampering at the Pooch Hotel. On Saturday I had to answer phone calls for work, so to have one less child to look after, I booked Lou for a day of doggy daycare. He also got a much needed bath and "paw"dicure.


A hard day of play on Saturday resulted in Lou spending most of Sunday like this. What a rough life.

Museum

Here are the pictures from when Andy and I took Jack to the Museum of Science & Industry on Saturday. This was actually the first time I had been to this museum too--the general admission exhibits were surprisingly good, and there were a lot of things for Jack to look at and do. He thought the big airplanes were pretty cool, and he loved all the model trains that ran through a recreation of Chicago:



Jack and me on a cable car


Jack and dad inside a locomotive engine


Jack helping Dad drive a racecar


Fascinating bubbles and balls



Dad took this picture. Can you tell? (that's a pile of cow poop)


The last thing we did was to visit the children's Idea Zone, where there were all sorts of interactive activities for Jack.




Finally, a cute video of Jack when we first arrived at the museum. He's so excited he can barely contain himself.

Hanging out at the lake house

We were at the lake house last weekend, but I'm just now getting a chance to post the pictures we took. The couches we bought came with an overabundance of pillows, which can be annoying, but on the other hand also make a nice mountain for Jack to pounce around on.

Jack had been playing so hard one morning that he had to take a break and lay down while playing with his toys.


It's been a while since I've posted pictures of Jack and Lou, but rest assured, Jack still tortures Lou regularly. This particular morning, Jack started off just laying with Lou, but quickly progressed to climbing on him.



Jack gets a big kick out of putting toys on top of Lou (Legos, in this case).



Ha ha, Lou gets some revenge and starts throwing down the slobbery licks.


Jack wound up with a nice case of static


On a different note, Andy and I took Jack this morning to the Museum of Science & Industry. Jack had a blast, and we got a ton of good pictures that I'll post sometime later.

Farewell, little Beemer

Andy took one for the family team and gave up his pride and joy last night. He had bought this BMW M3 around the time Jack was born, and though it was shiny and pretty, it wasn't extremely practical for driving in the snow and was too small to transport Lou in his dog crate.

So Andy bit the bullet and traded in the BMW for this lovely 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee--or at least it was lovely, before being driven on the yucky Chicago winter roads.

Busy week

A lot of you asked about our new camera--it's a Sony Cybershot. So far it seems to be doing a great job!

Mother Nature had fun with Illinois earlier this week--she spat out several inches of snow, and also threw in an earthquake for kicks. While our snowfall was nothing compared to what got dumped on the mid-Atlantic states, it was definitely the most we've had so far this year.

Then early Wednesday morning, I was rudely awakened by the bed being shaken. I figured the vibration was from a passing snowplow, so I didn't think anything of it and went back to sleep. When I got up later, the news reported that a minor earthquake had occurred about 30 miles outside of Chicago. We actually had another earthquake 2 years ago that I felt; also early in the morning--I was nursing Jack at the time. That one was slightly more powerful.

One thing I'd like to point out is that all males in the Nold household, including the dog, have slept through both earthquakes. I heard a lot of dogs were really freaked out by the earthquakes--obviously ours can't be bothered to rouse from his slumber by something as minor as the earth shaking.

Anyway, here are some pictures of Jack from the other night:



"Jack, where's your tongue?"

New camera

Our old camera has been dying a slow death, so we finally got a new one. Here are some of the first pictures we've taken:

Aunt Lisa and Jack from last night when she came over to visit



Grandma Nold sent Jack a Valentine's Day package that arrived today. She knitted him a cute scarf, though he was more interested in playing with his new book than looking up for me to take his picture.



Taking a bath

Sledding

We bought this sled for Jack last month when we were in Michigan but didn't get enough snowfall while we were there to use it. There wasn't much more snow on the ground this past weekend, but we decided to take it out for a test ride anyway. Unfortunately we waited until late afternoon to take Jack outside, and then it got dark quick! We couldn't really trek further than the driveway. The video's hard to see, but you can make out Andy whizzing Jack around. Jack was a little unsure about things at first, but after I stopped recording--of course--he started giggling and squealing.


Apparently watching Jack sledding was exhausting for Lou. He looked so cute I had to take a quick picture before yelling at him for sneaking up on the couch.