Shedd Aquarium

We had been wanting to take Gavin to the rest of Chicago's museums (we have been to the Adler Planetarium and the Museum of Science and Industry). The ones we hadn't covered were the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum. We told Gavin to pick one for winter break and he chose the Shedd. 

First stop: the huge circular tank called "Caribbean Reef."

Next we saw the penguins...although somehow, the play area next to them proved to be more interesting than the birds themselves:

Wearing a penguin costume:

Next, we really wanted to see the sharks:

 We learned this big guy is a sandbar shark. Gavin kept exclaiming that it was a great white, but I told him no aquarium can hold one of those guys!

Next we saw the aquatic show. We were lucky enough to see both the beluga whales and the Pacific white-sided dolphins perform (it's different every time). The amphitheatre was really cool with the big glass windows at the back and Lake Michigan outside!

The beluga whales underwater viewing:

The other thing Gavin loved was this play submarine. He was working all the controls, avoiding icebergs and steering...well, anywhere he imagined!

The next big downtown trip we take will be to the Field Museum. But Gavin does want to return the the Shedd one day. And this time, I'll have a better idea of where we are going (it's very confusing in there and we spent a lot of time trying to navigate through the different elevators and exhibits).

Brookfield Zoo Part 2

Cold, or cold(s) wouldn't stop Gavin from returning to Hamill Family Play Zoo to "take care of his animals." He immediately bee-lined for the vet clinic: 

Next, he pretended to be in charge of the zoo:

Next, we got to pet some of the domestic animals there, like a rabbit and a guinea pig. Gavin was very gentle and took it upon himself to repeat the handler's exact words to every other kid who wanted to touch the animals ("use two finger to pet, be gentle, etc.").

Hamill has a big green house where kids can run around spraying plants. It kept him occupied for a while!

After three hours in Hamill, our time was winding down. The only other building we went into was Tropic World. The gorillas are always entertaining. Below, we were watching the orangutans because we thought we'd spotted baby Kecil and his adoptive mom, Maggie. We watch their video on You Tube all the time!

 

Brookfield Zoo Part 1

Gavin and I made two trips to Brookfield zoo over the break. Cold doesn't stop us!!

The zoo was full of holiday decorations:

He loved these polar bears. They were near (where else) the bear exhibit!

This sign is outside the macaw building - it's usually a tropical scene:

It's been a few years since we ventured into Hamill Family Play Zoo, but we had time and were staying close to the South gate. Gavin was completely caught up in the veterinarian routine. I had to pull him away after 30 minutes but promised we'd come back soon!

We stayed long enough for it to get dark, so he saw the gorgeous holiday light displays. More in my next post!

DuPage Childrens Museum

Thanks to some free passes we got from Grandma Cordes, who got them from her friend Judy, Gavin and I were able to squeeze in a trip to DuPage Children's Museum in between other activities and coughs/ colds.

We stayed for four hours and Gavin had a great time! 

Gavin organized three other kids to fill up this square with light sticks (it takes a lot more sticks than you think): 

Lego Train Show

This weekend we went to Cantigny's annual Lego Train Show. It's always a lot of fun and the amount of complex Lego builds is amazing! Add trains running around and through all the structures, and you have crowds of delighted kids!

Ping Pong and Snow

The day before Thanksgiving, we stopped by Grandpa Cermak's office. Hardly anyone else was working that day, so we took advantage of the ping pong table in the break room. Gavin had never played before, and he did pretty well! (I love the look of concentration on his face.)

I took this picture two weeks ago, when we had the first snow that "stuck." This is the path that leads to Gavin's school:

Random November pics

We've all had coughs and colds this month and have been laying low.  I have some random pictures to share...

The first one is Gavin after his swimming lesson. He decided to comb his hair (something he never does) and this is the result. Isn't he CUTE?!

This is a floor puzzle map of the world from Grandma Cordes, which he loves to put together and then lay on. Go figure! We do discuss geography while we do this puzzle. He knows exactly where Japan is (I had to look it up) and he also knows that all the land on Earth used to be one giant continent called Pangaea.

Blast From The Past

From May 2010:

At age 2.5, Gavin only said five words: Mama, Dada, go, up, and no.

But after he passed that age, he started talking in leaps and bounds. It's like the words were all in his head, but he wasn't going to try to say them until he finished learning how to climb the couch or drive his Cozy Coupe.

I was so excited I wrote all his words down (also, I needed to let the speech therapist know). I recently found the list. I won't list everything - I stopped keeping track at 177 words - but here are his first 50 words:

Mama

Dada

No

Up

Go

Stop (“op”)

Nana

Grandpa (“Buh-pa”)

Dirty ("dah-ta")

Bye bye (“buh-buh”)

Oh no

Bump

Oh gee

There

Moon

Slow

Bee

wow

Pop

Poop

Yum

Cow

Toot

Two

Down

Pee

Blue

Pink

Shoe

Four

Burp

Dark

Arm

Knee

Purple

Beep

Black

Gray

Red

Home

Flower

Green 

Out

Water 

White 

In

Key

Hole

Fly

Juice (“jutch”)

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Gavin went as Clint Eastwood from the Dollars Trilogy movies.

We went trick or treating in downtown Naperville, and thank goodness they had it on the Sunday before Halloween. The weather was PERFECT.

It was super crowded, but at least we weren't cold!

 

 Showing me a piece of candy:

On the actual day of Halloween, the weather was horrible. It was 36 degrees and really windy, and the wind chill was 25 degrees. Gavin chose to not to trick or treating! We still had a fun day, because I got to volunteer at his class Halloween party.  I was in charge of the "Spider Bozo Buckets" game in the hallway. (We tossed plastic spiders instead of balls.) It was a fun afternoon!