Presenting Makenna presenting...Makenna!

At Makenna's preschool in Naperville, the students are the "stars" of the week of their birthday. This means that they bring in a poster and talk about their family and the things important to them. They also bring a snack for the day and bring something for show and tell.

Today was Makenna's turn to be the star. Here's her effort and it's pretty darn good. I didn't upload as HD because it was taking forever.

Daddy footage of a Makenna shopping day

Makenna is at the age when there's really nothing that she can't or won't do. Some things are expected, some come right out of left field. We were at The Promenade doing some shopping and were in H&M and she absolutely FELL IN LOVE with this pink umbrella. She was opening it in the store and would not put it down. There's no shortage of things we'll buy for our kids that are little more than impulse purchases and this one is front and center for that category.

But she knows that it's not just for rainy days. When it's a thousand degrees outside, sometimes a little respite from those sun's beating rays are JUST what the doctor ordered...

Dancer? Gymnast? Gymnast.

Well, tomorrow is back to work day for me. It has been a magnificent few weeks at home with Kelly, Rylan and Makenna. The first week, Makenna and I spent a lot of time trying to get out and about giving Kelly and Rylan some time together as well as giving Kelly time to rest and recover from her surgery.

So there's a place near the house that had open gymnastics on Friday mornings. Makenna and I went and she was a natural. She bounced, she jumped, she ran...we were about 50/50 on the "swing on the trapeze into the pit of blocks", but couldn't get it on camera.

Enjoy a child's pure joy with an hour and a half of playtime.

And yes, unsurprisingly, she slept well that afternoon.

Train date with daddy

I realize that the photos of our family are going to be a little out of sequence, especially as I'm posting THIS now with pictures of Rylan Thomas taken previously to follow (as well as video), but the truth be told, it's been a full time job splitting duty.

Kelly has been Rylan's full time partner and job. This means that daddy and Makenna are having a LOT of quality time together over these two weeks that I am home, Kelly is recovering and we're adjusting. It also means that most of the action has to happen late at night (as everybody is snuggled in their beds).

Today, I took Makenna for her first train ride. She's been fascinated with them, even though she has less than zero use for Thomas the Train on television. They capture her attention when we're at the French Market in Wheaton and when she and we have dinner with Gaga and Pop-Pop along the tracks in Westmont and LaGrange, she wants to watch them all go by.

So we woke up and headed to the Metra station in Naperville, took a half-hour ride to LaGrange which she adored tremendously and walked around a while. We had lunch at Knead Market and then caught the train back and were home in time for a four hour nap. She's been on the go pretty hard the last four days or so, it was an overdue extended nap (she woke up around 6:30).

We're all doing well and you'll continue to see pictures of the family and Rylan in the days and weeks to come. It's all about finding the time.

Video from the car with Makenna

Mommy and the peanut had a few conversations about the new baby. As toddlers can be, she's just stupid cute.

Joys of Parenting: Part XVII

There are just some moments that cannot be explained, duplicated, mimeographed, copied...you get the idea.

I've pretty much become the de facto "put Makenna to bed at night" parent; that suits me just fine because Kelly is with her all day and our time is limited to a little in the morning before I head off to work and a couple of hours at night when I get home. It's really part of the reason I've been getting late to work; I just can't stand to leave the house without saying good morning to her and having a few minutes after she wakes up.

Like every kid, they've got a routine. Hers is that we put her pajamas on and get into mommy and daddy's bed and watch an episode of The Berenstain Bears. After that, it's off to her big girl bed for usually two books, two songs (that inevitably turns into three or four or more) and then night-night time. Sometimes she doesn't get up, sometimes she's up once or twice. It was a twice night tonight.

But tonight I was laying in bed reading her book and when we finished I put the book on the nightstand and put my pillow back against the wall and laid down on her pillow and she put her arms around me and gave me a kiss and looked at me, smiled and said:

"Best friend."

Goddamn right, kid. From now until the end of time. It was a Mastercard moment: priceless.

Happy Father's Day

There are more pictures to follow, but this one we just HAD to get up. Pop-Pop was busy showing Makenna Claire the best way to get in and out of her car.

If you've ever been to the circus and seen what clown cars look like, I think it went something like this. (Mute the music at the bottom of the screen)

A slideshow in the snow

It's not quite "Walking in a Winter Wonderland," or maybe it is...but the kids got together and while I'm not sure whether or not more time was spent getting them ready to go outside than they actually spent outside, I know that they had an incredible amount of fun.