There are really Rug Rats!

This was my office den before the carpet was taken out...

...by this little Rug RAT!

He came in and just pulled out the carpet and is literally eating me out of house and home!

But he does clean up after himself placing it in the garage.

~

In addition to the new flooring in my office, I also got Greg to install me bookshelves to hold all my professional books, photography stuff, and self-help literature (God knows I need that, huh?)

And lucky for me, the Bienert's swung on by and brought us lunch! Even better when Ute helped me to organize my literature mess on the shelves!

It wasn't enough to have cut and install new flooring ourselves, so Kai went ahead and cut my Matryoshka nesting dolls in half also (that's Gorbachev he didn't particularly like that's laying on his side).

~

Overall the Feng Shui is great here and I am much happier! I have more room and now off to Kai's room to relocate my now unused bookshelf...which means I will have to do a massive clean-up there too!

Kai's First Giants Baseball Game

Greg got Giants baseball tickets from a work vendor, Jesson, who was amused with Kai and chased after him with a camera during the game. I was relieved when I learned that he had brought a camera since I had inadvertently left my memory card at home (DOH!)

Kai had been so excited about going to this event, I was beginning to wonder if he really understood the concept at all. But lo and behold as soon as we got to the stadium in San Francisco, he was ready to leave us behind to find himself a seat!

He even demanded for chocolate ice cream and garlic fries, which Jesson had bought for him. I liked the concept of wireless ordering. Someone would stop by and take your order, charge you on the spot, and then in minutes the order was sent wireless and another person would make the delivery! A very efficient and impressive systematic way of doing things I would say- all without moving your buttocks from the seat. Now if they could add seat warmers...

And no, we did not buy him this beer also! But it appears that Kai is partying away, huh?

And now here he is, after the sugar overload, sprawled out on the chair with a straw in his mouth which he has been chewing on for a while.

Kai is ready for home. Surprisingly he had informed us and again was ready to leave us behind. So we thanked Jesson for the fun night- and on the way out bought Kai a Giants bat and ball set, which he was totally into.

Kai toilet trains himself- we are too lazy to do it...

Greg and Kai in a body bag. Haha- it's just really a huge bag to store this inflatable 6 foot surfboard that Greg recently purchased over the internet. (The things the net can bring you!)


So here is the Kai's toilet training procedure. He whips out his Thomas Train purchase guide and points at the train he wants... in this case it was Salty, the caboose.

Then he screams at me "I poopy in toilet!!!" And runs to his potty and whips down his pants. He prefers not to sit on that cushion for some reason, and if we are lucky he won't pee on everything in the process. Greg said at one time he saw Kai shoot at the bathroom sink (what a distance!)

And to prove he was successful, Kai will run and find one of us to show us his end product. In this case, Greg is amused but notice how he is standing behind the baby gate too?

Next, Kai will announce "I get train!!!" and he is told to sit on the bed until I return with the train of his wanting (I bought a big box of them on EBay). And he would then have to search my hands and pockets for it ( a little extra fun added to it.)

With the new train in hand, he will not only compare it to his train reference sheet, but then he would find the train in a Thomas Train storybook and have me read to him what that train is all about.

And then off he goes to his train table. "All Aboard!" screaming his head off. And then..."Choo- choo" or "Peep-peep" as Thomas Train would say.

~

Over a 2-day span, he pooped 8 times in a row. And each time we went through this song and dance to give him his prize. Greg said Kai was like the Michael Phelps of pooping- hey he won 8 swim gold medals and Kai earned his 8, right?

Turkey Hands Kai

Kai was pretty proud of this art piece, "Mommy, I make it! I make it!"

Our last day.

This was taken the morning before our flight out that afternoon. Kai and Cohen just loved going down the slide into the pool.

I took one last walk through the neighborhood and ran into Adira who was just getting registered for school with her dad. She jumped out the car and went shopping with me which I got her 2 pairs of jeans (one which she wanted to "cut"). Oh boy, I was in for it- as Nana had told her I had once done that as a teenager- and now she wanted me to do that too. ( I tell you, she should have been my daughter- we are in several ways alike).

Well it turned out, the jeans were still too nice to cut and she decided not to (especially when Nana gave her the "eye", and I joked and told her she had to wear the jeans and then cut into it with a razor blade- hee hee)

Legoland Chicago Newly Opened and Rainforest Cafe

Here we are at the Legoland Discovery Center in Chicagoland. It had just opened a couple months ago and is the first indoor Legoland attraction.

Again, Cheri was so kind as to drag me out of my PJ's to this attraction as sick as both of us were.

My hero Indiana Jones- I kid you not, but this movie is what got the travel bug in me going. I have since then travelled to far off and weird places.

(Not to scale) the Water Tower and John Hancock building, to the right the Picasso with a little Lego figurine scaling the art piece. The Picasso in downtown Chicago is where my father would take us and we'd slide down the base of that sculpture.

Hope, Cheri, Cohen, Kai, and Adira.

Nana in a hallway of fluorescent-lit design.

Hmmm, the spiders appear to be much bigger here?

Even Hope is tiny next to this standard Lego piece.

Darth Vadar protects the young...

...while this lion likes to eat only the old ones. (Right, Cheri?)

Kai anxiously awaits for his turn with the rides (again, he leaves me behind).

We had lost Hope and found her in this batch of Legos. I tell you, looking for her in all these colorful tiny legos is a difficult feat!

Adira assembles a portal to the future?

Cohen mistakes this bald-headed statue as his father!

Kai tests the Lego car I had built on the race ramp.

Afterwards, we head for dinner but I accidentally shut the trunk with the keys still in there. Adira managed to retrieve it but also got stuck in the cooler too just as well. hee hee.

We have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in the Woodfield Mall, the biggest mall in Illinois. Kai sorta freaks out at the snake's slithering tongue.

Even the fish are wondering if the boys are eating fish for dinner.

Nana bought Cohen and Kai matching frog outfits, which just so happened to match Cheri's top. Don't they look cute? Thanks Nana!

Fun Flatables Jump House in Indiana

Cohen tries to get Kai to pose for the camera.


So as sick as both Cheri and I are, she still comes up with the idea to take the kids to Indiana by 6:30 pm for some jump fun.


I ask if I could just sit there while the kids run about.


Adira climbs this massive slide...

...and Nana tries to keep her balance but opts to crawl inside instead.

...Nana barely makes it to the far wall without all those kids bouncing around her!

Even Kai surprises me by his brave feats. He does not need me at all to help him to climb.

And in no time seeing that there are 9 massive inflatables there in 3 different rooms, I could not help but let the little kid out of me. Cheri described me as a cougar trying to chase after a screaming Adira. ( I lost my voice later that night and became feverish).

Cheri reminds me of "Annie, Annie- are you OK?" the CPR doll.

Video: Nana in the Jump House?

Cohen trusts this thing? Or is his copying Angela Jolee in "Wanted"?