A Fish Themed Day

Otto here. Per Kristen's request, I'm keepin' the text short and up-ing the photo ratio.

Today, was BIG--I took a train into downtown Chicago and then I got into a taxi that went to the Shedd Aquarium. I was into the fish but more importantly there was a lot of space to RUN.

Here's me torturing a sting ray . . .


That evening, I went to Kamehachi Sushi for . . . you guessed it: fish. I started with the seaweed appetizer which I found to be delicate with a salty aftertaste. Then I went for the edamame which were crunchy with a hint of sweetness. The chopsticks were fun too!




Then, I went for the kids' meal which include some delicious crab that I inhaled.



I had LOTS of adventures this week which I will fill you in on soon . . .

cars

By now I am sure you are all well aware of how obsessed I am with cars.  Both the life size ones and matchbox sized ones.  I especially like the matchbox cars for the movie CARS since they have faces which I really like.  Up until two days ago I had never seen or heard of the movie, I just liked the way the cars looked.  Well one of mom's friends son seems to have outgrown his love of CARS matchbox cars and very kindly brought over this past weekend the greatest thing EVER.  He gave me a carrying case full of cars that itself is a racetrack.  I added 12 new cars to my collection and a racetrack all in one fell swoop.  It is fabulous.  I know them all my type already and am constantly keeping mom on her toes by wanting to know where certain ones are at every minute.  I don't go anywhere without a few of them in my possession.  I eat with them, take baths with them, walk with them, even sleep with them.  They have become a constant in my life.  As you have seen from pictures in the past, I have no problem with getting dirty, and staying dirty.  However I am proving to be my father's child because every time one of my cars gets dirty I need to bring it to mom or dad to have it detailed.  Good thing they are always around to help my keep them clean.

The other morning I discovered the coolest thing.  We have this table in the dining room table that mom's dad made for her a while ago.  I have know that is could spin for quite some time, but I finally figured out what it really is for.  I took my cars over to it, set them on the edge and spun the table yelling "go faster, go faster, race cars" over and over again.  Clearly it was made to be a track.  I just needed to figure it out for everyone.

Note from mom..

I am sure that it is just because Otto is our child, and our first at that, but he has been really amazing lately.  He has on a couple occasions now correctly identified numbers by sight.  He gets a bit thrown by 3,6,8 I think because they are all round, but he has 4 and 7 down pat.  When we spell things now so he won't know what we are saying he says "a b c's".  I wonder how long until he can understand what we are spelling.  

We also may have created a monster.  Every morning eric makes a cappuccino for himself and  an americano for me.  Sometimes he tops my espresso with a bit of foam.  Once in a while Otto would want a taste of my foam so I would give him a bit that did not have any coffee on it.  He really liked it so eric started giving a small bowl with some steamed milk and a spoon.  He now requests "steamed milk please".  When you ask him if he wants milk to drink he says "yes, steamed milk".  Great... now what!

a test from the land of coolness

Dad, the coolest, scored us a fancy new computer.  Here is a quick test of how easy it now is to upload pictures to the blog. And it can be done from the couch!  These are some shots of me trying on mom's shoes.  They were taken by Sarah who comes to hang out with me sometimes.

Tumbling class

So anyone who has seen me lately can tell you that the concept of tumbling class is something I would like.  I had my first class last week and it was wonderful.  Both mom and dad came so they could get some shots of me in action.  It was pretty thrill packed and I think they were both glad to have more than one person to chase me around.  We will see how it goes tomorrow when it will just be mom.  Mom was a little worried that the teacher would have a lot of exercises that we would be expected to do and "follow the leader".  Not my strong suit.  There was a bit of that in the beginning but I was actually one of the only kids who was moving at all while the teacher did, not that anything I was doing really looked like what the teacher was doing, but it was nice to see that the other kids were equally flummoxed by the concept.  

After a few exercises we made a big obstacle course which was a lot fun.  There was a station for each kid.  We each got to try the station we were at, then when the teacher blew the whistle we moved to the next station.  There was a balance beam which I was pretty good at.  I practice all the time by walking on the edge of the curb.  There was a trampoline, hula hoops to jump in, all kinds of cool things.  

When we were all done with the stations we got to go over to the vault side of the room.  There we had to run down a long path to a spring board and jump, that was cool.  Plus there was this HUGE long trampoline for us to run down.  None of us can really jump yet, but when we can we are supposed to bunny hop the whole way down.  That is what I am most working on now.  Trying to jump.  It looks like a blast!

All would have been wonderful, but towards  the end of the class I found way back in a dark corner of the room a Lightning McQueen race car that some other child had left behind.  Needless to say, I had to hold that in my hand while I did all of my vaulting and trampoline running.  That wasn't so bad, it was the giving it up when we had to leave part that was a bit tramatic.  Hopefully there won't be any to be found tomorrow.  Knowing my mom, she might have a few stashed in her pockets for such an occasion.  

There will be more posts soon on my deep love of cars and the great loot I scored this past weekend.  

Dad thinks all of this about tumbling class is not near as important as the fact that I can identify Porsches, Lotus, Tesla, Ferraris, Renault F1 cars, Bugatti (veyron), Alfa Romeos, along with the basic mini, beetle, school bus, tow trucks, fire trucks and police cars.  But I REALLY like Porsches.

Chase The Duck

The title says it all . . . 

Tains, Mud, Cars

Greetings from the land of fun! I have been having a blast lately as you will see in the following pictures. A lot of the danger is now gone from Grandmom and Grandpa's Cabin (a lot, not all, I still manage to find the good stuff!) so we have been spending some quality time there. I love playing in the woods. I have found all the paths that lead to mud and dirt pits. I can follow even a small path through ferns that are taller than me without getting lost. Sometimes there are even wild blueberries and blackberries along the way. I can help Grandpa push the sawmill down it's tracks which look like railroad tracks (it isn't on, don't worry!). Grandma also got me an awesome train and car town set which takes center stage in the living room when I visit. Daddy and I have a lot of fun with that. Lately after I have been playing with it for a while we have to call in government agencies to deal with the destruction. It is very political.
I have always known that I loved mud, but last time we were at the cabin while Grandpa was grilling MEAT as I call it for dinner I found the greatest mud puddle ever. I had so much fun, it was quite hard to convince me to come in and wash up for supper. I had to have a bit of an impromptu bath in the kitchen sink which was fun and got to eat dinner half naked, so it worked out just fine for me.
Last weekend we took a day trip to Watkin's Glen for the historic races. It was great. I got to run around in the beautiful weather, see lots of race cars and generally have a blast. I also got a toy Lotus, just like Daddy's. I drove that all over. There was even a pedestrian bridge under the track at one point that looked like a train tunnel. I ran back and forth through that yelling "Choo Choo" for quite some time.
All in all things are going well. I had my first tumbling class today which I will get pictures up from that soon. Also, Dad is working on a great movie of me at the park. Will write more soon, Otto.

One of the beauties from Watkin's Glen

Notice Lotus in hand

Milestones

Hi all

Mom here. I have lots of adorable pictures to post, but I am starving and just have a second to say that we had two huge milestones today. One, Otto got his first HotWheels town thing. He loves it and has been driving his Ferrari, Tesla and Porsche around it all afternoon. And yes, he can correctly identify each of the cars. Two, and my personal favorite, he requested and sat through, twice, Where the Wild Things Are before nap and before bed tonight. It was a big moment. I am just wondering if he can fall enough in love with the book by Halloween that I can make him a Max in a wolf suit to wear....

It's been a big day here. My dreams will only be made sweeter by the fact that someone other than me is coming to clean my house tomorrow. Aaahh.

What is so funny?

As you all know, I am really mastering this whole English Language thing more and more everyday. However I have noticed a few words that bring out a chuckle in Mommy and her friends and I am not sure why they are so funny. For instance, Fyrefuck (firetruck) and Fukker (froggie). I mean really, I know I may not be dead on with my enunciation, but why the smirks. Wait, are you smirking too? Somebody please tell me what is up.

Coming soon, pictures of Daddy and I playing with my awesome train set-up at the cabin. Mom just needs to find the camera cable.