And now he’s a righteous terror. He crawls over to the fridge and pulls off all the magnets. He crawls over to the stove and tries to fiddle with the knobs. No drawer or door below three feet is safe from his constant opening and closing, opening and closing.

And he’s loving it! He like a little Magellan, crawling up to open doorways and then looking all around to see what is beyond them.

Time to baby proof the place!

(We’re still not sure Sammy is speaking per se, or just making sounds. But, these types of perhaps coincidental incidents are happening more and more often.)

It’s been bad, but we’re holding in there. Sammy has been sleeping a lot, but is still his giggly playful self (for the most part) when he’s awake. Gabe has been in a lot of pain, but he’s stayed polite. He even had a play date today, right before a doctor’s appointment. We seem to all be on the mend, so I’m hoping we’re through the worst of it. We’re a family of troopers. And I count our blessings that we’re all suffering from fairly normal flu-like maladies.

And Sammy *loves* it.  I had to take this photo more than a dozen times because the little guy wouldn’t sit still for the shot!

For the last few days Gabe and one of his classmates, Matteo, have been sleuthing all over the playground at school. A couple of weeks ago there was a big snow here in Chicago, and they had to plough on the playground. This resulted in big snow banks all around the edge. The snow has long since melted, but the snowbanks remains, and are a huge hit among all the kids. They climb. They slide. They enjoy the last remnants of snow. But a few places are bit icy. So, Mr. Autrey, security guard, put up some orange cones.

But, and here is the mystery, one of the cones was broken into several pieces! Who did it? Why? When and how? I’m sure you’re all completely afret with curiousity. But, don’t worry. Gabe and Matteo are on the case.

First, they inspected the cones thoroughly. Gabe asked me to take forensic pictures with my phone, in case the cones were moved overnight. The next day Matteo asked me if I could send Gabe to school with a small shovel, to aid in their collecting evidence. Sure enough, Gabe spent most of his play time the next day digging into a part of the snow banks looking for clues.

I consulted with the master sleuth about his options, and reminded him about the importance of eye witnesses. I suggested he could ask teachers, classmates and maybe Mr. Autrey to see if anyone had seen the cones get broken. He said he was too shy, but the next day he got up the gumption, and Mr. Autrey had the evidence they needed! He said that he had stopped several of the older kids from playing with the cones a few days earlier — they were wearing the cones as hats.

Mystery solved! What case will the detecting duo crack next!

Steph pointed out that it was an ironic reversal on all those movies where kids are upset that their parents around for their athletic events. In this case, the working parent was there, but the kiddo and the primary caregiver were the ones slacking off on their responsibilities! Sorry, babe!

So, I went for the first time in a long time today, and it was really a blast. A lot of the guys I had bonded with years ago don’t go regularly anymore, because, like Gabe, their kids have grown up. But, there’s a new crop of cool hombres to hang out with. We had great “guy” conversations about our bowling, wives, babysitters, the pros and cons of McDonald’s and our comic book collections. I had thought that the trip was mostly for my benefit, but Sam also got a lot out of it, I think. He spent most of the time up in my arms, but he was looking at all the other kids very intently, and spent some quality time feeling the textures of a couple of toys with him mouth. Good stuff. I’m glad to be back in the swing of it.