Uncle Bob's Carnival Cornucopia

Drew quickly figured out the airplane belt

Our view upon take-off

After we celebrated Christmas Morning at home, we quickly packed up the kids to catch our flight up to Minneapolis, MN.  More precisely, our final destination was Mound, MN, on the shores of Lake Minnetonka.  On take-off, the sky was a beautiful burning deep red color, with only the thinest sliver of a new moon perhaps only hours old, but the entire moon disk was visible.  Red sky at night, travelers delight, so they say.

We arrived at Uncle Bob and Aunt Gretchen's house on Christmas day evening. The next day, Grammy and Pa, with cousins Jack, Ella and Ellise from Greenbay in tow, arrived in town.  I'm sorry to say, Don and Amy were not able to come, but enjoyably, their kids were able to hitch a ride with the GP's  With the addition of the Greenbay clan, to the home town clan, twins Robbie and Jake, all the Chilson cousins were accounted for.  Then the craziness began.

Hold on Robbie & Ollie, this ride is a bit bumpy.

While we did have some great adventures during our time in the Twin Cities, including a visit to the children's museum, a giant play center, and the Mall of America (more on those later), the greatest fun happened at Uncle Bob's Carnival Cornucopia in the upstairs bonus room.

The fun started with the kiddie rides: namely the stair coaster, followed by the jumpie castle, the obstacle course, the bouncing wall, and climaxed with southern sledding. That's right, we went all that way to go southern sledding because there was no snow in the Great "White" North, which apparently is nothing more than riding down a hill in a wagon. In addition to the roughhousing fun, there was a rousing game of hide-and-go-seek, simon-says, and much much more. Check out the photographs below of all the fun had by all.  Don't miss the video at the bottom of this posting staring our own "Air Drew".

This is typical for our kids, sitting on the sideline observing the craziness.

Once the crazies left, Drew jumped right in though.

The "Obstacle Course," Drew loved this from the get-go.

Drew also quickly figured out the "sit-n-spin"
 and rode till he was dizzy.

This was Drew and Ollie's favorite, running, jumping, and bouncing off the wall.  In fact, I think they instigated this one, and got everyone else doing it.

Jack knew all the best places to hide...where is he?

Naturally, being Christmas, Grammy did not show up empty handed. The gifts she brought for the kids were certainly a hit, the biggest and most appreciated of them all was the quality time they spent with the kids.  Ollie and Drew absolutely adore their grandparents, and were very sad when it came time to say goodbye.  The two gifts that were the biggest hit, other than themselves, were the fake light-up aquarium and the large blankets, Drew got a Lightning McQueen, and Ollie a Snoopy blanket, and they've asked to sleep with them every night since our return.  After setting up Drew's light-up aquarium in his room, he agreed that it was no longer necessary to leave the hallway light on outside his room.  That is progress.

Our visit climaxed on the last day with Grammy's surprise grand prize game.  The winner of the raffle got to take home a very special gift that sat wrapped under the tree since our arrival.  The winner of the grand prize game was the one who talked about it the most, and who was the most anxious to see what was in that last gift of the year...Ella!  What did the grand prize turn out to be? It was the most precious Chilson Family heirloom: the elephant cookie jar that sat atop the fridge in the Chilson household as long as I can remember.  May she eat from it for years to come.

Thanks for being such gracious hosts, Bob and Gretchen!

All the kids were mesmerized by the light-up fish tank.

Jack and Ellise hauling the "sled" back up the hill.

The kids huddling in front of the IPad watching
Charlie Brown Christmas before bed.

Frozen Lake Minnetonka at high noon.  Well, as high
as the sun gets so far up north.

Christmas Part 2: Santa's Arrival

Christmas morning arrived and we had two very happy boys who were extremely excited to go downstairs and check out their new toys.  We got a late start because they slept until 8am.  Why in the world would they sleep until 8am on Christmas?  In any case, we enjoyed sleeping a little bit late and then slowly going downstairs in anticipation.  We have some video, of course, but it might take a bit of time to edit it.  I'll explain as best I can what happened.

We went downstairs and Drew opened the front door to invite Santa in the house.  I'm not kidding.  He looked for about 10 seconds on the front porch until I explained to him that Santa had already come in the middle of the night.  He then realized, along with Ollie, that there were toys in the living room.  He was super excited to see the train table and all the trains set up!  There were a lot of trains.  I think Santa may have gone just a tad bit overboard with the trains, but as Drew told me today - Santa brought trains for him, and for Ollie, and for Daddy.  Obviously, daddy needed to have some trains, too.

Ollie discovered an easel with dry erase markers.  He loves markers.  Again, if someone can please explain to me why Santa left a toddler with a full container of markers that would be great.  I don't know what that old man was thinking.  Ollie sure enjoyed the endless markers so much so that he didn't even want to go through his stocking.


It was a lovely morning full of toys and more toys.  The kids received so many wonderful presents - books, puzzles, art supplies, cars, a "real" football (Drew was adamant it be real) , a much talked about purple camera, dinosaurs, candy and more candy.  The kids were in heaven.  The boys also received an orange in the toe of their stockings, which Ollie needed to dig into right away.  Yes, he ate the orange before even asking for candy.  What's wrong with this kid?


We had a lot of fun opening all the presents and watching their expressions.  Drew's favorite present was either the Wilson Chuggington train or the purple camera.  It's a toss up.  Ollie's favorite was the markers, hands down.

The dinosaurs are fun, but they seem to need lots of time outs for biting the boys' fingers.  Bad dinosaurs.

Sidebar:  Speaking of dinosaurs, on the way home from Fernbank Science Museum today (another blog to come, I'm sure), we needed some entertainment and Mike began singing "Old MacDonald had a farm..."  and can you believe that it had a dragon, dinosaur, lion, pig, and tiger.  Do you know that those animals make some funny noises?  They all went "Rrrrraarrrr", except the pig which said Oink.  Anyhow, it was pretty darn cute listening to my quiet boy yell at the top of his lungs the animal noises.


Anyhow, back to Christmas.  After we had opened presents, eaten cinnamon rolls, and gorged on candy, I discovered that it was pushing 11am!!!  We had a flight to catch to Minnesota.  We needed to leave our house by 2pm so that left 3 hours to get our family packed.  I originally thought we had plenty of time to get to the airport, but then when 11am hit and we still hadn't moved from the living room I began to get a little panicky.

We did get packed and we did not miss our flight.  In fact, the boys did quite well with all the modes of transportation.  Buses, moving sidewalks, elevators, escalators, airplanes, and cars.  Ollie loved the airplane.  He kept pointing and saying the word "airplane" over and over.  Mike tried to move him along at one point and then he had a very unhappy Ollie.  Next time, I explained to Mike that he needed to allow Ollie to say "bye" to the airplane in order for him to have some closure and not get the meltdown.  For some reason if Ollie doesn't get to say "bye" he loses it!

The flight was quiet and empty.  The best time to fly is on Christmas night because everyone else is already at their destination.  The boys were good and Uncle Bob was nice enough to meet us at baggage claim.  Drew ran right past him and rightly so because it has been a full year since we saw them last, but mostly I think it was because after being restrained in a sardine can for three hours, Drew exploded with energy and ran the distance from the airplane to the baggage claim without looking where he was going.

Christmas Part 1: Urgent Care & Christmas Eve

I always feel like my vacation isn't complete without a sick child.  And, so it begins.  The morning of Christmas Eve, Ollie woke up with  a small "booger" in his eye.  I left to go to Target and when I returned I saw that it had turned into a major eye infection.  I even said to myself as I left the house for last minute errands, "when I return that eye is going to look worse than it does right now."  And, sure enough, that's what happened, so off to Children's Healthcare we went. I packed all the essentials:  IPad, books, snacks, pacifier, and bear.  It's always a bad sign when, upon entering the urgent care facility, there is a dry erase board that says, "current wait time: 3.5 hours".  Ugh.  But, Ollie was a trooper.  In fact, he ran and played like nothing was wrong.  They even had his favorite animal featured, fish, with a large fish tank and fish on the wall paper.  He can do a great fish impression with his lips, complete with the sucking noise.

As usual, he was such a good boy.  The triage nurse weighed him, picked him up to sit him on the medical table, took his temperature, etc... he was an angel.  He giggled while she did all of this and saw immediately the eye issue, since by this point of waiting it was almost completely glued shut.  

We then went back to the waiting area and waited awhile longer.  We ate gold fish, read books, played on the best invention ever - the IPad, and finally Ollie's name was called.  We went back to the small waiting room to wait for the doctor.  Ollie explored the room, looked in every cabinet, read books, and then magically the doctor appeared.  He diagnosed him with an ear infection and eye infection and sent us on our way with multiple prescriptions.  

He finally fell asleep on the way to get our prescriptions filled.  Such a sweet little guy.  

The rest of our christmas eve was great.  Dinner at my Aunt Katherine's house complete with singing carols and a reading of "Twas the Night before Christmas".  Drew looked shell shocked with our family tradition of singing and reading, but he'll eventually get into the swing of things.

Ollie & Drew enjoying a "cheesy roll" on Christmas Eve morning.  Breakfast of champions.

Drew is excited about Santa's arrival.

Drew & Ollie playing with toys at Aunt Katherine & Uncle Eddie's house. 

Drew opening his first christmas present this year.
It kind of made me cringe allowing him to open one before Christmas morning.
My mom never let us open presents before Christmas and it has stuck with me.    He really loved his puzzle from Aunt Katherine & Uncle Eddie, and had it put together before dinner.

Ollie too was given the privilege of opening a gift prior to Christmas morning.
A frog book, appropriate because he loves imitating a frog.

Putting together the large puzzle pieces.  He actually did most of it by himself.

Fish lips.  Adorable, right?

My cousins, Amanda (left) and Ellen (right) reading "Twas the Night before Christmas",
which is our holiday tradition.

My cousin, Harper, and his wife, Yukari.

My Aunt Martha, Aunt Katherine, Uncle Eddie, and Uncle George singing carols.
Another tradition....you better sing loud, it makes it better.

I cannot seem to get these two in a photo together without them goofing off or one trying to run away.  

Drew hugging his sick brother.
Drew loves his brother and often gives him hugs even when Ollie is adamant he doesn't want one.  

We made it home, and the kids were in bed and asleep in time for Santa's arrival.  

The Second Child

Let's face it, Ollie is the second child, now matter how hard we try, he tends to get the shaft.  It's always about Drew and Ollie, never Ollie and Drew.  But, we certainly can't belittle his place in our family.  I can't imagine our life without him, and I can't begin to tell you how he has changed us all for the good. He has even gotten Drew to lighten up some and see the good things in life, but this posting is about Ollie, not Drew and not us.  Ollie is turning 19 months this week, and his personality is certainly uniquely "Ollie".

Since his last doctors check-up, 6 months ago, Ollie has lost 2 pounds!  This weight loss actually got him back on the chart at 50%, he is still tall though at 80%.

We have mentioned previously how passionate he is about panting, coloring, and hiding.  Other passions of his are bubbles, puzzles, and digging in the dirt.  He will stand at the back door insistently asking to blow bubbles until we relent (they're only allowed outside).  He is actually very good at blowing them himself and could do it all day long, while we sit with him freezing.  Stick Ollie on the ground, in a pile of mulch, or sand, and he'd be as happy as lark just digging.  He has permanently dirty finger nails.  Apparently, Collin, Ollie's best bud at school, and Ollie (both built like linebackers) are partners in crime playground diggers.

Ollie is a yacky-yackerton, he just goes on and on, and will repeat most of what he hears, very clearly hitting every syllable.  His first, "I love you," happened eons ago, it might have been his first words.  He can name all his colors, and animals, and animal noises (that last one he learned from Dad, I'm so proud), and most animals he can act out, his best routine is the frog complete with, "ribbit."  He will try to mimic everything we or Drew does, like sit a certain way, or walk funny, or dance on the bed singing, "I'm naked! I'm naked!".  He just doesn't have the muscle control yet so he mostly just falls over in his attempts.

The big news of late is that Ollie has mostly given up the pacifier, with relative ease at that.  One day, Ollie and I were home alone, Mom and Drew were out of town, so I just said, "Ollie, if you want to go down stairs, you have to leave your paci up stairs, and that was that.  I've always said that paci stands for put-a-cork-in it, but nothing can cork up Ollie.  Every once in a while, he has to go upstairs for a quick fix to settle himself down, but the paci stays upstairs.  He can sleep with it, and have it in the evening when we're all upstairs, but that's it.

Our bed time routine is still a bit hectic, but structured, so its efficient.  Ollie has been doing breathing treatments from panda bear (his nebulizer) every night since the day he was three months old, and continues to this day.  Apparently, he has a constricted trachea, and panda bear helps keep it open.  When a cold comes on, we have to do panda bear twice, or three times a day!  I sure hope he grows out of this condition soon.  He's never known anything different, so it's just part of the routine for him.  Starting about 6:00pm, Ollie's schedule is dinner-bath-brush-milk-Clifford-panda bear-books-songs-bed and lights out by 7:30pm, and he is out till morning.  

He loves all his stuffed animals, but I'm not sure yet which one will be his best bud.  He tends to switch best buds every now and then.  For a while, it was Gerald the Elephant, then his loyalties switch to his bear, and now he can't get enough of Tiger.  He asks for each of them very clearly in his most sweet voice, which I hope I'll never forget.

He is a Daddy's boy for sure.  He loves all the Daddy rides, and runs to give me a hug the moment I come in the door every evening.  In the morning, the first person he asks for is Daddy.  If Daddy is around, he his number 1.  However, Drew has woken up Ollie in the morning or after nap a few times, and now on many occasions, he had called out for Drew in the morning, which is very sweet.  He loves his big brother like there is no tomorrow.

The sad, but fascinating part is that Ollie is growing up, and dare I say it...the terrible twos are here.  May the tantrums commence.  I know he won't be this sweet little boy for much longer.  The thing's I'll never want to forget though are the sound of his contagious laugh, the ribit-ribit routine across the floor (usually with shoes on his hands), the little ball of a boy snuggling up next to me on the bed while we do panda bear, tickling those wonderfully wiggle toes, and the look of excitement on his face the moment I walk in the door from a hard-days work in the real world.  Pretty soon, I'll have to threaten him with kisses in front of all his friends if he doesn't give me a hug, but for now I'll just revel in the sweetness of my little boy, Ollie.