A wedding in Naperville, IL, a zoo in Omaha

We are back from yet another trip & I SHOULD be packing for our Labor Day camping trip, but blogging is so fun...and I need to talk about our trip to Chicago before we leave AGAIN tomorrow!

Last weekend we went to a wedding in Naperville, IL (the cutest suburb of Chicago). We had such a great time catching up with friends we haven't seen for a while! We stayed with the Swanson's (my friend Barbara's parents), who were SOOO hospitable & complimentary of our boys & just wonderful. They have a way of making you feel so special! We were in Naperville for the wedding of Julie & Jaime. Julie was my roomate at Purdue for a couple of semesters & then we worked at Procter & Gamble together in Cincinnati. She is so much fun--as was her wedding! At the reception we enjoyed catching up with Jenn & Justin (Justin & I also were Purdue & P&G friends). Our boys enjoyed a babysitter (who we "secured" at 6:30pm Friday night--thanks to my sister's ex-co-worker's friend's daughter who happened to live in Naperville & be of babysitting age)! She was wonderful though, so if anyone needs a babysitter in Naperville, let me know! :)

Sunday morning we were excited to have a breakfast & playground date with Rebeccah & Jim, some friends of ours from Italy ,who now live in Chicago. They also have two boys, so it was fun to see all of them again!

We then drove to Omaha where on Monday we met Christina & Dimitri, our friends/neighbors from Italy, who now live in Connecticut. They just happened to be in Omaha this week, so we took advantage of their proximity to us & "swung by" Omaha on our way home. They now have three kids...it was awesome to see them in action. We went to the Omaha Zoo (which is ranked in the top 5 U.S. zoos) because the Children's Museum & Union Pacific Train Museum were closed on Mondays. It was the PERFECT sunny day for the zoo though, and if you do get to Omaha--you should go to the zoo! :) Here's a picture of the "Desert Dome."

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the trip since my camera enjoyed a weekend solo on the plant stand at our house. Thanks to Jenn for letting me "borrow" the pic from the wedding she posted on her blog! :)

David Graduates! Andrew Walks!

Last weekend was a pretty exciting one for the Monahan family! We flew down to Dallas (courtesy of Mike's brother Matt--thank you so much Matt!) and celebrated a quick weekend with the Monahan's & some good friends from Dallas. David, Mike's brother, graduated from the University of North Texas with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater. We are very proud of him for finishing this goal & dreaming big! Pictures: (Left: Matt & Andrew suck their thumbs while waiting for David to enter! Right: Gram & Andrew show off their swimming skills.)

About 10 minutes before we got in the car to come back to Kansas City, Andrew took his first steps (right after Mike said, "I think he'll be taking his first steps within the week!") Although Mike & I remember it a little differently, his first steps were very stable--and it wasn't like 1, 2, fall...he took like 5 steps and made it to Mama!!

Potty Training & Squealing

We've had the last few weeks relatively free of activities, so I decided it was a good time to STOP buying diapers for Henry (sorry P&G friends)! He's been pretty good about it. I don't know if it's the fact that we do a HUGE hip, hip, hooray, even if it's only 2 drops, or (more likely), the fact that he gets a chocolate after 2 drops, but he seems to like to go most of the time--especially if he's just finished one chocolate and wants another. The only issue is that if we put underwear on him, he forgets or becomes completely apathetic. Mike likens potty training to letting a flock of well fed seagulls into our house, just waiting for something to drop from them. :)

Andrew's new trick is squealing in the high pitched "painful" scream that Henry uses when Andrew is trying to get something of his. Andrew uses the squeal at ALL times though...since he is "just trying to get his point across." On a good note, he is (sometimes) saying "MMMmmmmm" for "more" now. So do we call it his first word, even though Mmmmm isn't technically a word?