Mother's Day

We had a really nice Mother's Day yesterday. We went to Chicago with our friends Kevin and Dawn and their daughter Quinn. We went to the aquarium, then to a yummy noodle place for lunch, and then to Ikea to pick up a few things. It was a long day for Stian, but he had lots of fun and held it together remarkably well for not getting much of a nap or other rest during the day.

And while we brought our very nice camera with us, we managed to leave it in the car. So Kris did take some pictures with his iphone, but the quality was not very good, especially inside the aquarium where it is quite dark. But at least we have a few pictures from the day.

So if you ask Stian what he did at the aquarium, here is the order he would tell you:

1) He played with a helicopter and the propellers spun. This was a little toy in one of the gift shops. He loved it. He keeps talking about it. I probably would have bought it for him though it was a little pricey, and frankly I was annoyed with the aquarium for having all of these little gift shops everywhere because it was always a battle to get Stian away from them again.

2) He played in a submarine! They have an area especially for kids with lots of fun stuff for them to look at and touch and play with. Stian loved the submarine. He was in there for probably 30 minutes. All of these buttons and levers and knobs and wheels to play with! It was a big hit with all the kids. One mother standing next to me said to her kid "All right, let's go look at some fish! You know the reason we came!" Then she turned to me and said, "he's been in there for an hour, I kid you not!" And Stian would have stayed in there longer too but we eventually dragged him away.



3) He paddled a boat! This was also a big hit with the kids who were sort of taking turns and sort of fighting over it. Stian loved it and had to take several turns in it.



4) Notice the lack of any mention of water creatures of any sort? At this point though he would probably tell you about the beluga whales he saw underwater and the sealion and he'd demonstrate the sound it made for you: "Arr! Arr!" Although you can't actually see the sea lion in this picture, that's what we are standing in front of. This is also right by the whales that he liked.



Then after we were done we went outside - it was a beautiful day, cool, but very pretty. After some pictures we headed over to the noodle place by the University of Illinois Chicago.



And then to Ikea. We were looking for a couple of things, including a "big boy bed" for Stian. Unfortunately they were sold out of the one I was thinking of getting him. They had another really neat one we almost bought him, but we ended up not getting it for him because it was more money than we had been planning on spending. But I kind of think we'll end up going back up there to get him that one. We don't have any pictures of it, but it's quite cool. It's hard to explain, but when the kid gets older you can flip it over and then they sleep sort of like on an upper bunk - but they are only about 4 feet off the ground, and then you get this cool space underneith it. Stian thought it was super cool to play in it. That's probably another thing he would tell you about his day yesterday - playing in the bed with the roof! He commented last night before going to bed how his bed was a convertible - it didn't have a roof.