Taste of Chicago!

Today Mama and Dada took Jack to the Taste of Chicago in Grant Park. Hundreds of Chicago restaurants set up tents and sell small portions of their most popular menu items. YUM!!


There was a fantastic kids section with a few rides including a carousel. Dada rode with Jack because going around in circles makes Mama want to lose her lunch! Jack chose the yellow horse because its his favorite color and he says "yellow" approximately 500 times a day!

Drinking watermelon juice with fresh fruit. So refreshing!!

Mama and Jack in front of Buckingham Fountain. The very tall white rectangular building in the back is where Dada works :)

Eating vanilla ice cream and contemplating breaking out in dance...


It didn't take much thought! He danced all over the place!
Bye bye 'til next year!

Two Cool Cats!

The World's Smallest "Kid's Cone" and the World's Largest "Kid's Cone"

These 2 pictures were taken at 2 different ice cream shops near our house. In both places we ordered the "Kid's Cone" for Jack.


Scooter's Frozen Custard and our proclamation of the World's Smallest Kid's Cone. Cute, isn't it??!!

Anthony's Italian Ice and our proclamation of the World's Largest Kid's Cone. Could an average adult even finish this?? (Jack decided half way through to save time and just take a huge bite out of the very bottom of the cone. That wasn't messy at all!!)

No matter the size, the result is always this:

The Next Tiger Woods, Y'all

Jack's love of golf continues to grow and he rarely is seen around the house without one of his 3 golf clubs. He also asks to watch "gaww" on television and every time he sees the ball hit he yells "GAWW!"

Mama and Dada decided to take Jack Jack to play putt-putt today and boy did he have a blast! It started out with actually playing golf. Yes, he insisted on hitting all 3 balls!

This course was awesome, though, because it had all kinds of fun activities for the littles ones. Here is Jack going head-first down the slide, after he threw his ball down the slide first!

Jack and Dada worked very hard to get the ball to go where they wanted!

Jack's favorite part was the hole where you hit the ball into a rushing stream and then the ball is transported to the bottom. Instead of using the club, Jack just stood at the top and repeatedly threw his balls into the water!

You Too Can Own a Piece of Jack!

Just wanted to let everyone know that you can go to this site

Just Jack Spillman

and order prints of any of the pictures you see on Jack's blog!

Just Another Saturday in Chicago!

This is a typical Saturday afternoon in Chi-town--sitting outside at a neighborhood bar/restaurant, eating yummy food, watching doggies and babies walk by, and of course enjoying tasty beverages . Yes, I'm talking about milk ;)

Watch Out Milo!

Jack discovered this giant dog rocker at FAO Schwartz's and of course he had to ride it. Let's hope he doesn't try to do the same thing to Milo!!

Caught Ya!

Mr. Singer!

Jack LOVES music and dancing so we have been going to the zoo every week to see Mr. Singer, Chicago's renowned children's entertainer. At first Jack was the only kid who would brave the carpet in front of Mr. Singer...
but as soon as he started dancing, the other kids joined in!

Happy Anniversary Mama and Dada!

Yesterday was Mama and Dada's 5th wedding anniversary :)

You Should Have Seen The Other Guy!

You would think by looking at the picture below that Jack got a busted nose in a fist fight. Luckily we haven't reached that milestone yet ( Jack still laughs when older kids push him or take his toys)! We did, however, have an accident on the playgroup that involved Jack diving for the swing on his stomach and face planting on the other side. After many tears and a little blood Jack walked away looking as if he been punched in the face. Luckily his nose isn't broken (although Mommy was worried for a bit) but it is swollen and bruised. Poor guy...

Where Do You Put Stickers?

Ever since Jack went to UVA's homecoming last fall and Mommy's friend Amanda taught him to put a banana sticker on his forehead, Jack thinks that ALL stickers go on his head :)

Happy Father's Day Dada (a day late...)!

Happy Father's Day Dada! I love you so much and I love all the fun things we do together. I'm so glad you're my dada. I-I-I-I-I-I love you!

The Saga of the Terrible Two's Continues...

Mommy is convinced that she is going to be completely gray by her next birthday! In this installment of the "Terrible Two's":

-Daddy had to go to work super early the other day so Mommy was left to her own devices when it came time to shower and keep an eye on Jack. In the 5 minutes Mommy was in the shower, Jack took her chapstick and repeatedly put it in the toilet and removed it.

-Jack took 2 of his 4 beloved blankies and stuffed them in the toilet and then looked at Mommy and said "Ut-Oh"!

-He took out all of Mommy's eyeshadows and rubbed his fingers in them and then smeared it on his face

-Jack wanted a cup of water and Mommy told him that he could have a sippy but not a regular cup because he just plays in the water instead of drinking it. The next thing Mommy hears is "Ut-Oh" (the sound of disaster). When Mommy walks in the kitchen she realizes what Jack was doing. He took a small piece of tubberware out of the drawer and attempted to pour Milo's water into it so he could drink out of it. Needless to say, only about a tablespoon made it into the tupperware and the rest ended up on the floor!

-At brunch on Sunday Jack asked for a piece of ice to be put down the back of his shirt (Yes, he's strange. He enjoys the blinding-cold sensation of ice falling down his back!). When the ice fell out of his shirt and onto the floor, Jack crawled out of his chair, laid on his stomach on the floor, and began licking the ice off the floor! EWWWW!

-He threw his MagnaDoodle into the toilet (are you noticing a theme here?)

It's Raining, Its Pouring!

Since all of our family and friends still live on the East Coast, we've been hearing a lot about the unbearable heat and it makes us "northerners" very grateful for Chicago's summer highs in the mid-80's! However, we have been dealing with our own weather situations here in the Midwest. We have had terrible storms and lots of flooding. On Sunday Mommy, Daddy and Jack thought we were going to get washed away when we got stuck in a torrential downpour while walking back from brunch with Uncle Matt and Aunt Meghan. One of the great things about living in the city is that we walk almost everywhere but it also means that if it rains, we're out of luck! Now folks, we're not talking about a little rain. We're talking about the skies opening up and wondering when Noah's Ark was going to come by and save us! Honestly though, it was so fun and reminded Mommy and Daddy how fun it is to be a kid. Jack thought it was the best as we pushed him in his stroller and the warm summer shower soaked us all. He squealed like a pig with delight and Mommy and Daddy just laughed. Cars were honking and staring but we didn't care! It was one of those things that we will probably remember for the rest of our lives. We captured a family picture in all our soaking glory!

One Fish, Two Fish!

Dada got to come to Jack-Jack's swim lesson on Saturday and Jack was ecstatic to show Dada all that he learned.

He is definitely fearless and loves to jump off the side of the pool.
He also loves to be thrown into the air...

Sharing his rubber ducky with Dada

Mama's little fish :)

He's At It Again!

Well, Jack is at it again. He snuck a marker away when we weren't looking and created an artistic masterpiece on the wall and floor...AGAIN!!!

At least he is learning to clean up after himself!

Do I Have Something On My Face?

Jack hasn't quite learned how to eat ice cream properly but at least he has fun!

Hot Town, Summer in the City

The storms passed, the clouds thinned and sun came out. Then it got HOT! What better way to cool yourself off than splashing in the pool with your best buds Jack and Luke?

The First of Many, I Suppose...

Well, we it has happened. Jack has suffered his first "major" injury and we all came through it relatively unscathed. Now to most you faithful blog readers, it may not seem that traumatic but believe me, it was not fun. So here is what happened: Over Memorial Day weekend, Jack and Mommy were playing in the bathroom while Daddy showered and Jack-Jack got his thumb and 2 fingers stuck in the very heavy glass shower door. It was obviously fairly quickly that he had really bruised his thumb nail because it was purple and white. He cried for a while and then went on with his day without a problem. The next day his thumb seemed to be bothering him slightly so we gave him some Motrin and forgot about it. The next day, however, he was in a lot of pain and crying almost uncontrollably whenever he touched or grabbed something. Then his nail started bleeding and we knew a trip to the doctor was in our future. The doctor checked him out and said that it wasn't broken but that he was definitely going to lose his thumb nail! Poor guy. After five days of constantly cleaning it and Jack favoring his entire right hand as if his wrist were broken the entire thumb nail just lifted off the nail bed and Mommy had to trim it down so now he has no nail :( As a side note, Daddy can't handle anything having to do with nails. He has NEVER clipped Jack's nails because it makes him queasy so the idea of Jack completely losing a nail was enough to almost make Daddy lose his lunch as Mommy told him about it over the phone.

Jack is totally fine now and doesn't seem to be in any pain.

One good thing that came out of this is that we were finally able to get Jack to keep a band-aid on longer than 5 seconds. We gave him an extra band-aid to play with as a distraction. This is what he did with it...

I've Been Tagged!!

I've been tagged by my friend from high school Rachel at "The World According to Reese" to do my first meme! How exciting! The Rules: Write a blog entry with 10 weird, random, facts, habits or goals about yourself. Most of my other friends with blogs have already been tagged so I will tag Rick from "PBJ" and Amanda from "Blogstretch" and if anyone else reads this and wants to participate, I tag you too!

Here we go...

1) I get an insane amount of pleasure out of opening a toothbrush wrapper. I'm not quite sure why but the sound and sensation of pulling the perforated section sends me into giggles and I get the biggest smile on my face. My very sweet husband always saves his new toothbrush for me to open!

2) I can't stand for my food to touch on my plate. I make sure that each food on my plate is in a different pile and that it doesn't touch anything else. If things start to mesh together, I won't eat it. This makes things very annoying on Thanksgiving because there is too much food to put on my plate. Plates with divided sections are the best invention ever made!

3) I am afraid of A LOT of things. Mostly I am terrified of ghosts (I won't sleep anywhere that is more than a few years old), sharks (even though I grew up at the beach I haven't been in the ocean in close to 8 years) and spiders (I was once bitten by a brown recluse spider which left a cigarette-burn-size hole in my leg and now even the sight of a daddy longlegs sends me into a panic).

4) I have a very good memory. Its not photographic but I can definitely remember things and details that most people can't. For example, I am only 13 months older than my sister and I distinctly remember the day that she was born!

5) I have a list a mile long of things that I still want to be "when I grow up". Here are a few: a wedding planner, a college professor, a children's book author, and a restaurant owner/chef...

6) When I die I will have only kissed one person in my whole life. That's right. I married my first boyfriend who also happened to be my first kiss. Thats what happens when you meet the love of your life at 15 ;)

7) Twice I have grown out and donated my hair to "Locks for Love" and I am growing it out again. It takes a little less than 2 years to grow it out.

8) My maiden name is Vick and my descendants invented Vicks Vapor Rub. Also, Vicksburg, Mississippi is named after my family :)

9) I can gleek farther and more accurately than anyone you know. I call it my "one special talent"! If you don't know what gleeking is, check it out on wikipedia

10) I organize a mom's group in Chicago called "Lincoln Park Moms". We have almost 100 members!!!

Cow!!

Jack really likes cows but he has never seen one in person. He has lots of books with cows and he loves Gladys the cow on Sesame Street. Since Jack says "cow" all the time and "moos" constantly, we thought it would be fun to take Jack to the barnyard at the zoo. At first he wasn't sure if he was happy or scared. He kept saying "Hi cow" which was quickly followed by "Bye cow". Eventually he warmed up to them and was quite amazed! Here are Daddy and Jack-Jack in front of the cows. Jack is in the middle of "moo-ing".

Jack and His Boys

Last week Jack had a playground playdate with his friends Jack and Luke. After playing on the slides for a few hours we headed over to PJ Clarkes for a quick lunch. Here are the boys hanging out.


Aww, Jack S and Jack S!!!

Watch Where You Step!

Daddy has been working like a crazy man recently. In fact, last Thursday/Friday he worked basically 36 hours STRAIGHT!! Sounds more like doctor than a lawyer, right? Well, Daddy got home from work around 6pm on Friday evening, just in time for Mommy to walk out the door to go see Sex and the City with her girlfriends (which, by the way, was FABULOUS!). Mommy was a little worried about leaving Jack alone with Daddy on no-sleep but he goes to bed at 7:30pm so she thought Daddy could handle an hour and half. All he had to do was finish feeding the little man dinner, give him a sippy cup of milk while he watched his nighttime Elmo and then put him to bed. Apparently things did not go as planned...

Daddy accidentally fell asleep on the couch for 5 minutes and when he awoke, Jack was standing next to him on the couch playing with his toys. Whew, no major catastrophe! Well, almost not. When Daddy rubbed his eyes and looked at Jack, he realized that Jack was naked and his POOPY diaper was sitting in the middle of the living room! Thank God Jack didn't choose to play with the diaper and fling poo all over the furniture and walls!!!!