Two park Tuesday

We all slept well last night - both Ellie and Nick took my words seriously and decided at 7:30AM is was time to wake up. We had breakfast and I did some laundry, we got dressed and ready for our day. It is Mom and Dad's 36th anniversary today so we stopped at the bakery for some treats. We got to Mom and Dad's and the kids had sprinkle cupcakes and us adults had chocolate almond croissants (it should be helpful in the weight gain). We realized yesterday that the kids really needed some outside, run around time today and it was another wonderful day to do that.
We started off at Indian Boundary in Chicago. Growing up it was an absolutely amazing park - not so much anymore. They still have a couple animals - half a dozen goats, some ducks and chickens but no more zebras or bears. After seeing some troublesome kids at the play ground area we opted to walk along the pond instead and hit a different park. The pond is gorgeous - thousands of "Ponyo" goldfish and turtles and ducks - and luscious wild flowers. Tony turned into his alternate personality and became run away Forrest Gump or maybe it is the Energizer bunny - he keeps going and going and going.
We decided to really give Dad a true experience and we went to Cici's pizza for lunch. Tony gobbled down a couple plates of pizza, Ellie did well with the macaroni and cheese pizza and Nick ate veggies from the salad bar and cinnamon rolls. We traveled to a favorite park from last summer and it was a hit again. As we pulled up Ellie remarked - Oh this is the park with challenging monkey bars. Nick made friends quickly with a little boy named John (a 5 year old). It was funny, John had a younger brother, Kyle, who looked to be Nick's age but neither Nick nor John really wanted to play with Kyle. It was wonderful to see a different side of Nick - I am no longer dreading preschool and I think he will make friends quickly and be the life of the party. At one point John hid on the slide and said he was so tired couldn't they just play hide and seek instead of tag. Lots of laughs and then some tears as John's Mom said it was time to leave (no tears from Nick). They both said it was nice playing and hoped they might meet again - too cute.
We took advantage of the sink in the restroom and tried to wash off some of the dirt Nick and Tony picked up at the park but it just took the surface dirt away. Ellie enjoyed her monkey bar challenge and took her time trying to master the loops.
We headed back to Mom's and Jo was waiting to pick Tony up. We stuck around for a bit - Dad made afternoon pick me up cappuccino and then played downstairs with the kids. Mom played on facebook and thought she achieved weekly high scores that I couldn't beat - but I beat her when I got home. We watched the crappy circus event that the former Gov. Blago trial turned into - cannot believe it took so long for one guilty charge. We came home and the kids immediately convinced Rob to take them out to play. Wasn't quite as late of a night as last night but we had a very eventful day and the kids were stink bombs and needed a bath. I did bath duty while Rob got dinner. The kids both fell fast asleep.
I had a productive communication day - I emailed back and forth with the social worker and Ellie's 3rd grade teacher. I wanted to make sure everyone knows what has happened and what is on the calendar. I want to make sure Ellie has some very wide shoulders to lean on this year and some extremely long arms to wrap around her that extra hug she will need - I now know that is taken care of. I also put a call into the ostomy nurse and will wait for her call back. This evening we caught up with UB on the phone. The only thing bothering me right now is my butt (duh, right?) but it feels like I have been sitting on metal bleachers for about the past year - it is just plain sore - I am pretty positive the radiation wiped out any fat I had stored there and it is just all bones and skin now -humph! Visualising my healthy body, Tree