"Give me goldfish!"

Theo has taken to goldfish crackers like nobody's business! Andy and I now have to refer to those fun orange crackers as "koi." I'm sure he'll learn soon enough that koi means goldfish so we are prepared to move onto other fish of reference such as trout, blue gill, and carp. What does this really all mean? It means Andy and I have made our first venture into code talking in front of our kid. Ah, the bridges we cross...

The last few weeks have been busy! Theo attended his first street festivals, Swedish Days in Geneva (where he ate lunch with the mayor ... seriously!) and the Custer Street Arts Festival in Evanston. Rest assured there were corn dogs involved in both outings. He also got to meet his great grandma, Grammy, for the first time who was in for a visit from New York. She was in town for a long weekend and we had all kinds of fun together. Her visit included a trip to the Morton Arboretum where Theo encountered big bugs (What a neat exhibit!) and had a blast wading around the frog pond.

Theo has also had a chance to spend time with many new friends! He finally met his destined-to-be good friends Bobby and Emma, with whom he shared his first swimming experience - he loved it! He and Bobby are only 5 days apart in age so we are positive they will have oodles of fun together as they grow up. Theo and I also spent an afternoon with several Storm staff families where he again had way too much fun swimming. Even though he's only a year old, he's already quite the social butterfly!

Much to Andy's chagrin, Theo is also a contestant in a contest where he is sure to be the winner - he has been entered in the "Cutest Kid in Kane County" contest sponsored by the Kane County Chronicle. I promise I will not sign him up with a talent or modeling agency, but this fun little contest was too much to pass up! So please vote for him at

www.kcchronicle.com/cutestkid Theo is #60

The site is messed up.... here is the link to where you vote: http://www.kcchronicle.com/cutestkid/vote/

As always I will leave you with some images of Theo. Below is a link my Flickr account and a short video of our little man!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68847421@N00/sets/72157605889162065/detail/

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Vonage phone service commercials?

So lately, Theo has really taken a liking to phone company commercials, especially ones from Vonage. Why? Who knows, maybe he thinks that Vonage offers great cash savings for phone users or maybe he just likes the pretty colors...

Theo officially celebrated his first birthday with a small family party on May 31st. We celebrated with the traditional Korean ceremony known as the Dol (sometimes written Tol). Several objects were placed in front of Theo, including a book, a pen, a miniature guitar, a paintbrush, a ball, a spool of thread, a knife, and money. Whatever objects he picked up indicated what his passions in life will be. The only object he actually picked up was the pen, meaning that he will be a writer. He also touched the paintbrush (artist), the guitar (musician), and the spool of thread (which promises a long life). Theo wore traditional Korean clothing during the ceremony; an outfit called a hanbok. His was HUGE on him, and he did not look too comfortable, so he only had it on for 15 minutes or less. After the ceremony we all sat down to a traditional Korean meal....NO, I did not cook! We ordered food from a wonderful Korean supermarket in Naperville and boy was it tasty! Following dinner Theo opened his gifts and, of course, was more fascinated by the wrapping paper than the actual gifts. Overall it was a great first birthday!

In other Theo news, he finally had his first haircut (he looks too grown-up now!), is walking up a storm, and is still the cutest thing ever. He has developed a liking for all things Mickey Mouse - a favorite activity of his is finding all the Mickeys in my Disney travel books. It's so nice to see my brainwashing working so well....

I added pictures of all the above mentioned things on my Flickr account - I hope you enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68847421@N00/sets/72157605546515733/detail/

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