Blueberry Bonanza

Growing up I have vivid memories of blueberry picking with my maternal grandmother in the blueberry fields of North Central Indiana. We had blueberry picking hats and big coolers to put all those plump berries in, and the folklore is that Kristin once threw up from eating too many blueberries.  I was excited to share the experience with my own family now, cultivating new memories while having fond flash backs of my Grandma winking at me while popping berries in her mouth while picking.  The experience did not disappoint.  It was a beautiful summer day and the pickin' was fine!  Luke ate so many blueberries we were sure he would follow in his aunt's alleged upset stomach footsteps, although he didn't.  The kid seriously ate handfuls and handfuls of berries, hardly getting any into the bucket at all.   He had a grand time, though.  

Swiper swiping berries from our buckets throughout the morning.

Potty time (for Luke that is)!

Since we had to drive pretty far out into the country to get to the nearest u-pick blueberry farm, we decided to hit some other sights before we headed back to suburbia.  It just happened to turn out that we were but 5 miles from the IL Train Museum - what a coincidence.  Luke was in heaven at the train museum, it was tough to get him out of there. 

Riding the trolley

As if that wasn't fun enough, we had planned to "camp" in our backyard that night to do a dry run of a camping experience before we tried the real thing someday.   So when we got home from our blueberry and train outing, Matt set up his parent's tent, we had a bonfire and then the three of us slept in the tent all night in sleeping bags.  (We decided to keep Claire in her crib for this "dry run", keeping the monitor close by. Spumoni also decided to sleep inside!)  While it was fun to have s'mores and sleep in a tent and use flashlights and listen to the cicadas and all, I think I got my "camping" itch scratched and I'm good until next year:)  Full disclosure, I actually didn't end of sleeping in the tent all night.  I got up around 3am to feed Claire, and then went back to my regular bed instead of going back into the tent.  It was because I didn't want to disrupt Luke and Matt by crawling back into the tent and sleeping bags, it certainly wasn't because I wanted to get a better stretch of sleep!  

Hot dog cooking

There's our little tent

S'mores

Reading stories before bedtime for Luke in the tent.

On Sunday Mom and Dad came down because Mom and I had a bridal shower for cousin-to-be Julie in Schaumburg.  Before we left Mom fed Claire her first solid food since rice cereal, avocado!  Claire was not a fan.  The shower was nice, and it was great to see all the Kurz side relatives.  The highlight may have been when cousin Tracy's new baby Nora came to meet everyone.  She is just a few weeks older than Claire and it was wonderful to finally meet her.  Quite a smiley girl.

Avocado time!

Not sure about this stuff...

Kurz family table.  The shower was beautiful and elegant.

 Bride and groom to be

Tracy and baby Nora

Aunt Barbara and Nora

Really cool shower idea - everyone brought a bottle of wine with a stated 'occasion' when the couple should drink the wine.

Cupcake cake

Hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa enjoying a Chinese food dinner, after the shower, but before they went home.

Kid update news, spoiler alert, most of this week's are about Luke:

• Luke likes to run full speed into you on purpose and then say, like he's surprised he ran into  "Oh, sorry!  It was just me!"  As if it being "just him" makes the collision ok.  
• Luke likes Matt to wrap him up in one of his blankets and carry him around like a sack of potatoes.  
• On Matt's nights to put Luke down, he usually takes a shower instead of a bath, and after he gets out of the shower he runs down the hall naked shouting "MOMMY!!  I TAKED A SHOWER!!!!"  No matter how many times I correct him with "you TOOK a shower" he says it the other way.  I'm going to be kind of sad when he starts getting it right, to be honest.
• I'm typically in Claire's room feeding her when Luke comes back from his shower, so after his declaration of having taken a shower, he comes into Claire's room and dances and swings his arms to the lullabies that I have playing as part of Claire's bedtime routine.  Sometimes he invites Matt to come and dance to the lullabies with him, and sometimes he tells Matt to "stay out there".  (Separately, he can get pretty bossy - we'll have to nip that in the bud.  We're trying to get him to understand the concept of being "respectful".)
• Potty training is still going well.  He can pee all my himself with no help from an adult.  He likes to sing the Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood song (a cartoon he likes to watch) which goes "When you have to go pee just STOP!  And go right away!  Flush and wash and be on your way!" when he's going through the steps.  A couple times, though, he has tried to pee standing up by himself and it has meant a puddle on the bathroom floor because our toilets are too high for him to reach properly.  He also had a tendency to tuck his shirt into his pants and underwear when he pulls them up, which is really funny.  I would say he is almost 100% potty trained with the peeing when he's awake.  Sleeping is another story, he is still having tons of accidents on that front during nap and night time.  The pooping is also another problem, he doesn't tell us when he has to go and is constantly having accidents in his underwear.  Yuck! 
• This isn't really new, but I just thought I should document that Claire is generally a super happy baby, but the only time she gets mad and really loud is when she's hungry.  She goes from happy to super upset in about 3 seconds when she decides she's hungry.  I think she gets that from me:)

Tooting on his toy trumpet that he earned during potty training.

Last concert in the park of the season!

Luke showing all the ladies his bum...I mean...dance moves!

Sweet cheeks

First Pigtails!!!  Look at that little bald spot in back, she's got a baby comb over.  

Potty Training Proficient

We started the potty training process with Luke about 8 months ago with some sporadic potty encouragements and celebrations after he peed on the potty.  I kind of thought the job would just naturally finish itself, that he would eventually migrate to more and more bathroom occasions being on the toilet until "Voila!" he was potty trained.  But Luke seemed to grow less interested in going on the toilet as he grew older, not more, getting to the point where he was basically still 100% in diapers.  With his 3rd birthday just around the corner, it became apparent (unfortunately) that we may have to really put some actual effort into this potty training thing.  I had seen a post on Facebook for a 3 Day Potty Training Book Camp.  I got suckered into watching almost the whole 30 minute video because I thought it would reveal the techniques for the 3 day process, but it ended up just being a really long infomercial for a booklet that you had to buy.  I wasn't ready to buy something when we really hadn't even tried anything free so I kind of forgot about it.  Coincidentally, though, not too long after that infomercial viewing Matt's friend at work mentioned that he did the 3 Day Potty Training method with his son and it worked!  He gave us a copy of the booklet and we had ourselves a technique in hand with a testimonial as to its success.  The key to the method is spending a full three days glued to the hip of the child, not leaving the house or doing anything, just totally committed to the training.  So we cleared last weekend of all plans and committed ourselves fully to getting this little boy potty trained.  You start by throwing away ALL of the diapers you have so that you don't have a "crutch".  You and the child need to do this so it is symbolic to the child that he's a big boy now.  Then you have to ask the child to tell you when they have to pee, and remind them to keep their underwear dry.  You do this a million times.  Then you have to catch the child in the act of having an accident and rush them to the potty immediately so they can finish on the potty.  During all this you say like a bazillion times how proud you are of them for being such a big boy and make a really big deal out of it and give them rewards when they pee or poop on the potty (dum dum suckers are Luke's reward of choice).  The whole method is based on a loving, positive experience that makes them want to be potty trained.  :Let me tell you that it worked and Luke did AWESOME!  What we were warned by the book could take a full three days to "click" in the child's head, it seemed to "click" for Luke after 2 hours.  He began to tell us when he had to pee every time, and he even stayed dry during nap time that first day.  He had one accident that first night, but the next night he stayed dry.  This from a kid that would pee through his diaper every nap time and night!  It was truly amazing.  He must have been ready so long ago, but we just weren't consistent with it so he was content with diapers.  He is so proud of himself every time he goes on the potty now.  We are so proud of HIM!  What a big kid, huh?

Staying home the entire weekend left lots of time for playing and bonding together with no distractions.  We made chocolate chip cookies together, for example.

Lunch al fresco.  Pants optional during the boot camp.  If we had to cancel all plans for a weekend in the summer, we were glad it was a cool weekend so that we wouldn't have been bemoaning fun activities that we should have been doing.

Claire was a big help in the potty training.  

I was going a bit stir crazy, so took Claire for a walk around the block.  She can sit in strollers now herself - she doesn't need the infant seat!

Running around outside before announcing his intention to pee, then running back inside.  

Big girl sitting up by herself

Claire is now 5 months old!  Here are her at-home stats:

Length: 23.75 inches
Weight: 17.5 lbs

We introduced rice cereal for the first time in honor of her 5 month birthday.  She liked it!

5th Annual Baranko BBQ

Its that time of year again....Baranko BBQ time!  I can't believe this is our 5th summer in the house, therefore our 5th summer party with our friends.  The first and second years we had it were wild and crazy nights, then the third and fourth with Luke around were more low key.  This year was back to being a crazy night - all directly related to if Matt's college friends come into town for it or not.  This year it was awesome that he had a bunch of friends here for the weekend, including Mark in from NYC and Ken & Eric from IN.  We had a lot of fun families come, too, so it was kid central during the day, then party central after hours.  We had absolutely perfect weather, which hasn't always been the case.  It was just a fun weekend all around.

We looked into renting a bounce house for all the kids at the party, but then learned that for not much more we could BUY one!  So we are now the proud owners of this bounce house water slide combo.  That's Luke in the picture there - he was so pysched to play in it.

Claire reading a magazine with Dad catching up on her celebrity news.

Claire is officially sitting up on her own!!  What a big girl!

What's so funny?

We got one more visit in with Jenae, Jeremy and the boys.  They came over Wed night.

River, Luke and Lennon swimming

Trying out the water slide part of the bounce house.

Thursday night concerts in the park

We met neighbor Cate and her girls at the concert.

Dinner with the guys Friday night.  Mark got into town Thursday, then the others came up Friday and they had some fun time on the boat before hanging out around the pool.

Party time on Saturday.  The pool, the playset and the bouncehouse were all in full swing with our guests.  

My work friend Caren and her boys Ben and Jack

Chris and Seth hang out with the kiddos - they are the husband's of my friends Kim and Ivy 

The Sosne Family - I don't think they've missed an annual party yet!  Love to see them.

Eliah & Lily with Claire & Safet.  Safie pretending to be such a natural with babies!  About a second later he's like "Ok, I'm done." and handed her back to me.  

Kristin and Brinley

Beer pong was in full force

Cate & her girls Claire and Helena

Peter, Rebecca and Eloise

Helena and Claire having some girl time.  Helena is only a month or so older than Claire is.

Here is a video of Claire cracking up at Helena.  So cute!

Bonfire at night.  Luke was mesmerized by the fire, he just sat there staring at it.

Strange spicy pickle juice shot that Mark concocted.  Now I have three jars of spicy pickles with no juice in them sitting in my fridge.  Spicy pickle anyone?

Here's to the Wolfpack!

The next morning before everyone headed on their way - one last group picture.  Eric, Ken, Matt, Mark & Phil.

Relaxing Sunday afternoon with just the fam

There's a baby in that bucket!

Dozing Daddy

Claire wasn't as interested in sleeping

Claire trying out the bouncer for the first time- at first she didn't quite know what to expect, but now she's really into it.  Luke keeps trying to "boing" her and we have to watch him so he doesn't bounce her too aggressively.

She loves this Leap Frog toy that sings the alphabet.

Isolene made Luke this little house and he has played so many hours in it.  Note the little feet prints at the door.  The pack rat in me never wants to throw this away:)