Chicago Summers

We're really trying to be thankful for our summers in Chicago because we know we won't be able to enjoy them forever. Downtown in Millenium Park there is an outdoor theatre with movie seats & lawn seats and on Wednesday evenings a free orchestral concert is offered to all of those who are interested. We stumbled by on Tchaikovski night and spent some time enjoying the beautiful music.

James especially loves music, and all kinds. He had no reservations
about stepping in to help conduct. I hope everyone else thought it was
as cute as I did because I certainly did not stop him. Anyways,
conducting with a juice cup is a very innovative idea and much easier
to see than some dumb stick.

That scab on his nose is from falling down on an uneven sidewalk. He
spent the rest of the day crossing the side walk cracks on all fours
instead of risking another scrape. Earlier in his life he read on a
poster with a kitten wrapped in yarn the words, "Insanity is making the
same mistake over and over again," and vowed that he would never let
that happen to him. He's our cautious adventurer.

We had the great treat of my Pop-pop (that's Grandfather for those of
you non-easterners) flying into town to watch the Cubs play the
Phillies. He brought James his very own Philly Phanatic doll and
thankfully found it humorous when James kept pushing it away for the
picture. James did spend the next morning walking around and hugging it
in the kitchen--no pictures though, you're going to have to take my
word on that.