Random Ike and Sonia cuteness

Emma just sent me these great pictures from various times our two wacko kiddos have hung out together over the last couple of weeks.  Ike and Sonia are such goofballs!

During a playgroup trip to the Ty Warner splash pad in Westmont, Sonia and Ike had a blast chasing some really brave ducks around during lunch.  Ike kept saying "quack quack", which sounded a lot like when Sonia's cousin, Peter, says "car-car".  So, Sonia kept trying to bring Ike a car!  Ike was very confused.  He kept looking at Sonia like, "Why do you keep bringing me a car when I'm clearly trying to talk to the duck?"  So funny.

Ike had a great time showing Sasa (that's how he says Sonia's name) around his awesome backyard one hot day earlier this month.

When temperatures are in the 90's, you'd think the kids would stay in the pool, but Sosini and Ike played on the slide more than they swam.

Sonia the walrus:

In this picture, I think Sonia was being a bit naughty and shoving Ike out of the way!

But in this picture, they are playing quite nicely!

More sliding!  Sonia was hogging the slide, and Ike was trying to belly-bump her so he could have his turn.

Sosini and Ike tried to make a getaway in Emma's new car, but it turns out they haven't learned to drive yet.  Oh well-- better luck next time, kids!

You two are a couple of cuckoo birds!!

Texas fun

8 days of swimming, triple-digit temperatures, reading, hanging out with family, swimming some more, singing incessantly, getting tickled, eating ice cream cones, and having a ton of fun.....  Our vacation in Texas was Sonia's idea of heaven!  Here are the best of the best of the best of the pictures we took....

Wearing the brand-new strawberry dress from Grandma JoJo:

Wearing Grandpa Dick's glasses:

Dancing with Uncle Daniel:

Riding the black bear at Grandma Jenni & Grandpa Dick's house:

Watering flowers with Grandma JoJo:

Smiling like Alfred E. Neuman:

Putting dinosaur stickers all over Grandpa Dick and herself:

The two train engineers:

Peek-a-boo!

Wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses:

A sweet moment with Grandpa Spike, looking in the pass-through fireplace:

Love those swimmies and pool noodles!

Smooching the big penguin at Grandma Jenni & Grandpa Dick's house:

And here is a great picture of 5 of the 6 living Brothers Malahowski, in age order from oldest to youngest: Dick (Richard), Roy, Neil (Ralph), Russ, and Bob (Robert).  Randy, the 6th brother, was unable to attend.  It was so great to see almost all of Andrew's awesome uncles!

Thank you to everyone who made our week in Texas so great!  Our time there flew by...  We lived in luxury at my parents' new house in Southlake-- even though they had only been living in the house for 2 weeks, my parents had unpacked and decorated so much that it almost looked like they had been there for years!  My parents' house is about 25 minutes away from Andrew's parents' house, which is really handy.  We're not going to miss that long flight between Chicago and LA (where my parents used to live).

The Great Sosini swims!

This child is such a fan of water....  Swimming in the grandparents' pools has been such a huge treat for Sonia!

No, the wind wasn't blowing.... that's just a bit of morning hair in the picture below:

Grandma JoJo and her fishy (in more ways than one!) granddaughter

Holy moly!  A rare picture of Sonia with her mommy!

My mother bought some swimmies (or water wings or whatever you want to call them) to see if they would work with Sosi (and with Charlotte when she & Peter visit TX later this month), and I think we can safely declare the swimmies to be a huge success.  Sosini floats around the pool, giggling at the freedom she has.  She can't quite kick effectively enough to be able to swim great distances, and steering herself is a bit beyond her reach, but that doesn't bother her!

Tuesday morning, Sosini's Aunt Ali and Cousin Nicholas came over to swim with us.  Sonia was so funny-- she really showed off for Nicholas and was pretty much fearless in the water.  Nicholas seemed to have a great time, too!  Several times, Nicholas and Sosini gave each other hugs and kisses, which was fabulously adorable.  Cousin love is the best!  We'll try to catch some of the hugs and kisses on camera when we see them again later this week. 

Thanks for coming over for a really fun morning, Nicholas and Ali.... Good golly, my nephew is CUTE!!

Just a few pictures from the first part of our trip to Texas...

These are the handful of pictures I took on my cell phone (sorry for the bad quality) from the first two days of our visit to Texas....  There are more pictures to come, but I wanted to post these to get started.

We left on Friday morning, and Sonia was very helpful.  Have Thomas suitcase, will travel!

For some reason, watching the DVD player didn't entertain Sosini for very long, but the SkyMall catalog sure did!

The primary reason for this trip was to celebrate Andrew's father's retirement with a surprise reunion with 4 of his 5 brothers.  It was so great to see everyone!  Sonia did not show her customary fear of strange men-- she seemed to sense that these dudes were all ok and she shouldn't be afraid.  Jenni (Andrew's mom) did such a great job organizing the reunion and keeping the surprise from Dick.  He didn't know we were coming, either!  One of the fun activities from the weekend was going to see a Texas Rangers game on Saturday night.  Sosini stayed with her Grandma JoJo & Grandpa Spike (it is so nice having both sets of grandparents living in the Dallas area!!!) while Andrew and I accompanied the brothers, a couple of wives, and Andrew's sister (Ali) to the game.

In the top row, starting from the left with the guy wearing the binoculars, is Uncle Roy, Aunt Cathy (Roy's wife), Uncle Bob, Aunt Anita (Bob's wife), Uncle Neil (aka Ralph), and Uncle Russ.  On the bottom row is my empty seat, Andrew, Dick, and Ali.

We had such a fantastic time!  The temperature was a wee bit on the hot side (upper nineties), but we were in the shade until the sun went down, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  Plus, we got a sprinkling of rain while we were finding our seats!  That's a rare event during a Texas summer.

Andrew and his pops....

 Give 'em THE CLAW! (not sure what claws have to do with Rangers, but that's a battle cry of theirs)

A rare photo of me with my husband:

Sonia's Grandpa Dick and Aunt Ali, enjoying the game:

 The game ended up being pretty darn awesome....  The Rangers came back from a deficit to win in the bottom of the 9th, thanks to a walk-off 2-run homer by Josh Hamilton.  Woot!

More pictures and stories to come....  Sonia has been swimming like a fish in both sets of grandparents' pools.  I love watching that child enjoy herself in the water!

Sprinkler fun

This past weekend, while Andrew was watering the grass, Sosini braved the icy water of the sprinkler to have a little fun.

She made me chase her around the sprinkler, and as she ran, she breathlessly sang her favorite Yo Gabba Gabba song, "The Freeze Game".  "Run run run!  It's fun fun fun!"

Then she took matters into her own hands and started wandering around with the sprinkler.

I kept trying to help her aim toward some brown spots on the lawn, but she was having too much fun to comply.

This child loves water!  Lucky Sosinini and I get to spend this next week in the Dallas area where both sets of grandparents now live (woo hoo!), and both of those sets of grandparents live in houses with pools.  She's going to be in swimming heaven!

Happy Belated Fourth of July...

....from two cute little flag wavers!

Sonia had a blast celebrating Independence Day at Cantigny with two of her best buddies, Evan (above) and Ike (below).

Monkeys at the Zoo

This past weekend, we got to catch up with some of our favorite people in this whole world: Rhetta & Billy!  They moved away from Chicago about 6 years ago (I think), and while they have been away, both of our families have procreated and now have three little girls among us.  When we found out they were coming to Chicago for a wedding, we were so excited to get to spend a little time with them and meet their awesome daughters, Hannah (4 years old-- almost 5, in fact) and Sophie (2 1/2 years old).  Sonia had a typical bout of stranger-danger, but after an hour or two, she was starting to follow Hannah & Sophie around and imitating what they were doing (which we all know is the sincerest form of flattery with kids and adults alike!).

We met at the Green City Market for smoothies, and then we made our way into the Lincoln Park Zoo.  Unfortunately, the weather was REALLY hot and sticky, so we were all sweaty & gross.  But it was fun regardless!  Not many of my pictures turned out all that great, but I managed to get a few of our three monkeys hanging out with gorillas and chimps.

Those poor, sweaty little girls....  Even though they loved looking at the animals (and singing the "Alice the Camel" song), I think they were just as relieved as we were to escape to the nicely air conditioned cafe for lunch.

We miss you, Rhetta & Billy, and we love your totally adorable Hannah & Sophie!  Hopefully it won't be another 6 years before we get to see you again.