Monkey Causes Carnage - News at 11

 

Today was Halloween. It was pretty eventful! We had a good time! First, I went to Isaac's party at Rainbow. I thought it pretty funny when he went "ape" on the stuffed animals. He enjoyed the parade and got knee deep into a big sugar cookie with orange frosting. Ah, it's good to be a monkey.

This evening, Brian took Isaac around the neighborhood with a group of neighbors while I stayed home and gave our the candy. They were gone for ages - having made the rounds to EVERYONE! Ha. Isaac's favorite loot? Three duckies that have colored LED's in them - causing me to want to call them the "X-tasy Duckez". (is that wrong?).

Anyways, here are some pictures from Isaac's second Halloween. Fun was had by all. :)

Blue thinks to self...can I have that banana when you are done with it? (guess what folks...he did!)

Couple of Videos

It's been a while since I've done a video. Since everyone always complains that I put them on YouTube and make them private, I'm going to give it a shot and do a couple of public ones to please the masses.


This one is of Blue, a Balloon & Isaac


This one is of Isaac when he was in his, I want to sleep 2 hours before bedtime so I don't go to bed until past Mom & Dads bedtime.

MM....good...?

Only in babyland are bizarre combinations of food uber good.

Today's lunch...scrambled eggs with peas and carrots, a cheese slice and pineapple.

Once, at daycare, I saw a meal that consisted of chicken chunks, mandarin oranges, break chunks - all slimed in something resembling cream of mushroom soup.

Or - the ham and butter on bread-wiches. Eww.

Wanna play a game???

This morning, as we were leaving the house - Brian and I noticed a very interesting collection of items in our neighbor's yard. I decided it would make for a humorous game...can you name all the random items in our neighbor's lawn....

There are at least 16....

Bringing back the Berridge - Brother Brag...

My brother does a lot of cool things. Saving old buildings and making them awesome places to work and live is just one. Here are a couple articles about about one of his recent projects - the Berridge Hotel.



http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=local&id=5719610

FLINT (WJRT) - (10/22/07)-- A multi-million dollar renovation project for a historic hotel in downtown Flint gets underway later today.
This is the latest in a series of projects that will get underway in the Carriage Town neighborhood. When this project at the Berridge Hotel is finished, there will be 21 new condos in downtown Flint.

The Genesee County Land Bank is heading up the $6 million project, which calls for renovation of the old hotel inside and out. Each of the units will be about 1,000 square feet and will have either a loft or townhome style design. Sizes will range from one to three bedrooms.

You may remember in February, a fire damaged part of the building, but didn't stop the plans to renovate the building.

Plans also include turning the old Tinlinn House, right near the Berridge, into four rental units.

This is the next step in the Land Bank's plans to revitalize the Carriage Town neighborhood. The group last month announced it would place eight new homes and renovate several others along Stone Street.

That project is expected to be completed by the summer.

In the meantime, the Bringing Back the Berridge project kicks off this morning at 11. The public is invited to tour and learn more about the building at 421 Garland Street.

The Berridge Place Project is expected to be finished sometime next year.

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=local&id=5720619

(this one has a nice video!)

FLINT (WJRT) - (10/22/07)--In downtown Flint , a building that has been known for decades as "last-resort" housing will soon get a new look and a new image.

But before the major transformation begins, developers decided to give the public one last chance to take a look inside the old, run down Berridge Hotel.

Floors feel like they're going to give way. Broken windows and plumbing and electrical bathroom fixtures are ripped out throughout the building. But the structure of the building seems sound.

Developers say they will be totally gutting the inside the of the building but maintaining the structure of the outside walls and some features in the lobby as part of a $6 million renovation project.

The financial package from government -- as well as some local foundations -- is already in place.

The project will move ahead immediately to turn the 70-year-old building and the Tinnin building next door into 21 loft apartments with an upscale look intended to draw people to downtown living.

What is significant about this project, officials say, is that the building -- which has functioned as housing of last resort for the city's poor -- could soon function as an attraction for the city center.

Renovation will begin within days.

The two- and three-bedroom apartments will be ready for occupancy by this summer. They'll range in size from 855 to 1,500 square feet. They start at $960 a month.

And even before they're built, the project is attracting spinoff development right across the street.

And the duckie lives on....

This past weekend, I helped throw a shower for my friend Kathy. I will post pictures soon - but in the meantime, I just had to post this.

I brought home one of the balloons from the shower - the big ol' duckie. Isaac has fallen in love, and he has been playing with it all day. He even refused to let go to eat breakfast and dinner. I just had to post a picture!!!



"This duckie? It's too important to me"

Baked Apples

Today, Isaac tried to steal my apple. So - I decided what would be more "fall-ish" than to make him some home-made baked apples with cinnamon of his own.

Baked Apples

1. Core apple and leave peel on
2. Place a wee bit of butter (if baby is ready for or has had dairy) on the inside of the cored apple (sprinkle a bit of cinnamon in the apple if your desire and if baby is ready for or has had cinnamon)
3. Place in a pan with just enough water to slightly cover apples – about an inch of water
4. Bake in a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes or until tender; be sure to check on the water level.
5. Once baked, either cut apple into little bits and serve as a finger food or mash

The flu and monkey blue

This week, the Spratke house was hit with a bug. We presume it was the flu - whatever it was, was wicked and unrelenting. However, in the midst of it, Isaac still managed to make us laugh, and Blue still managed to amaze us with his patience.


Here is Isaac making sure Blue is paying attention to his dental hygiene.


Isaac is like the energizer bunny. I think Brian and Blue thought they might get some of that same energy with the power of the bunny ears. I will say - it did not work!

Have a great weekend everyone...stay healthy!

Chicago Marathon and werewolf movies...

Last weekend, with the babysitting assistance of our mothers, Brian and I were able to go on our first "post child, no child" getaway with our friends, Jon and Dawn.

We left Saturday morning, taking the train out of Michigan City, IN. It was so easy! We all decided it's totally the way to go in the future. 2 hours, no hassle, no gas, no traffic, no parking fees....

Anyways, after checking into the Swissotel on Wacker - Dawn and I went to spend some time on Michigan Ave. Unfortunately, we didn't find the store we were looking for until a half an hour before it's bizarrely early closing time, but we did get to walk the town and see some sights. That evening, Jon, Dawn, Brian and myself headed out to dinner at a wonderful italian place called Bella Bacino. Even on the walk back, around 10pm, it was bizarrely warm and humid for an October evening.

Perfect for werewolf movies (that's for Jon).

I must mention - I think that the Swissotel lies about having a floor 42. Dawn and I tried numerous times to get there, with no luck.

6:17am. That's the time the phone rang - Steve and Ellie had arrived. According to them, it was already 74 degrees out. Although we all realized this was bizarre, and it was going to be a tough day for running - I don't think any of us realized what was really ahead. So, we packed our bags and headed out on our adventure.



Brian, Ellie, Dawn and I had a nice breakfast before heading to Mile 3 to try to see the boys. When we got there, we thought that we had already missed them (however, as it turns out, we probably didn't!) - so then we charted our course to the next spot - the halfway point - Mile marked 13.1.



This was our rendezvous point to hand off Jon's mp3 player. We made our way there, using the EL, and were shocked that so few other people were using it. Hello people, it's air conditioned!!! By the time we staked out a spot at 13.1, it was hot. I mean....like, Collective Soul hot.

So then we waited....Dawn video taped some seriously irritating girls, and one painfully continuous cowbell...and we still waited. Finally, Dawn got the text message that Jon had hit the 13 mile mark...noticeably behind where she had expected him to be. Steve and Jon were hot...and I don't mean in a pretty kinda way...they said that the water stands behind them were empty and people were suffering big time. After some drinks, wringing out some drenched socks and some stretching - they were off again. It was hard to watch. According to the news, by this point, it was 88 degrees - and technically the race had been canceled. Apparently nobody at 13.1 knew this, because they kept running..even the poor man in the testicle costume. I know, I know, he was running for testicular cancer - get your mind out of the gutter!

So, unaware of the events unfolding, Brian, Ellie, Dawn and I made our way to an establishment for some refreshments and lunch. When we left...Dawn had a text message saying Jon had crossed the finish line....an hour later? We were very confused - but stuck to our plan - go check out of the hotel, head to the meeting point.

It wasn't until we got off the EL near Grant Park that it hit us. I think we overheard someone. We walked past a man, passed out on the ground with cops watching over him. People were everywhere. Dawn and I with our pile of luggage set up camp in a little park next to the Institute of Art. Brian and Ellie went off in search of Jon and Steve.

As it turns out - Jon hit about mile 18 when they rerouted the course. He thought something was up, but just kept running. Since he had his headphones on, he didn't hear the people on the blow horns or the helicopters above. he said after he got out of the finish area, there was no water and he had to (ahem) borrow some from an unwilling volunteer. Once we were all together, we stayed in that park, in the shade for a few hours, since our train didn't leave until 4pm. The sirens went on for almost the whole time, it was very surreal. So - we sat, drinking our beers - as it was the only beverage we had, listening to sirens downtown Chicago. I can't say it was a bad time, we actually were having some fun - but it seemed almost wrong, when you knew so many other people were suffering from the intense heat!

So then, we took the train home...had a wonderful dinner at Jon and Dawn's - tried on the bunny ears from the marathon that we didn't get to use and relaxed. It was a very memorable weekend!

Breakfast of Champions

My son decided to alter his normal breakfast menu today.

He tried out some dog food.

It took a while to chew...a few brown bits came out, but he finished it.

The jury is out on whether he liked it or not.