Oh Brother, Where Art Thou...

It was a great surprise to get a phone call from my brother at 3pm on Sunday, the day before Labor Day to let me know he was coming to St. Louis - that evening! Yikes! As someone who likes to be prepared for guests, I rushed around my house tidying up and prepared to fire up the vacuum while I was still on the phone with him getting what little details I could from him.

My brother Gideon and his girlfriend Heather arrived late that same day and we got together for dinner at the diner across from our apartment on Tuesday night. I was so thankful for this opportunity to get to know him and Heather better. We've lost touch over the years and it was so nice to be able to have one-on-one time with them. Aidan and Reese also loved spending time with them. Aidan won Heather over and convinced her to read him a story over and over and over again.

Heather and Aidan. Heather must have read that book 3 times.


Reese with nursery that my sister Emily gave her for Chanukkah last year. We couldn't get it home from Chicago, so Gideon & Heather brought it with them.

Gideon and Heather spent the week sight-seeing in St. Louis and Daryl & I had dinner with them again on Friday night - this time without the kids. We at a delicious Italian/Greek restaurant and had Gyro Pizza (a combo that I never even imagined). It was so delicious, it literally changed my life.

During our dinner, Gid & Heather told us about how they met, talked about the future and I really got to know them better. Daryl and I could both see how good Gid & Heather are together. I'm so happy for them.

No shirt, no shoes, no service...

I do not like naked people, I do not like naked children. My friend Lisa thinks this is hilarious. Part of the running joke is that her daughter Finni loves to be naked and frequently is in this state during playtime. It makes me extremely uncomfortable and it makes Lisa laugh. The ironic part is that Finni has the best wardrobe, but would rather be naked.

We spent Labor Day at Finni's house. I made cupcakes for the occasion and on the way up in the elevator, Daryl dropped the cupcakes and my work of art were smashed to bits. Lisa promised they would still be delicious and I just stared in disappointment.

Reese didn't think the cupcakes tasted bad after being dropped.


Aidan, Reese and Finni (pre-nakedness).

Finni started the evening in a beautiful dress and all we were all having a good time. The adults were chatting about Healthcare Reform and other current events, the kids were playing in the sandbox and practicing their sharing skills. We ate hotdogs and chips and we were just about to bring out the cupcakes when I noticed that Finni was completely naked. Like an eclipse, I couldn't look right at her.

Naked Finni enjoying a cupcake. Notice the strategic placement of the cups to conceal the nakedness.

I'm not exactly a free spirit, I know, shocker! As infants, I didn't even take my kids out in just a onesie, never just a diaper and they definitely did not walk around naked. We were always fully dressed and almost always had a pair of shoes on too. This is Finni's way and Finni's house, so I just try to go with the flow. It is obvious that I am extremely uncomfortable and Lisa and Daryl just laugh at me.

Daryl proceeded to tell Lisa and Ray the story about the time that I visited him at The Art Student's League in New York. I didn't realize that a class was going on and thought he was just bringing me around to show me some of his work. As he was showing me his current project I notice a model (a NAKED model) out of the corner of my eye. I told him, "I'm out of here!" and I bolted towards the exit. I DO NOT like naked people.

Bike St. Louis

We got Aidan a new bike and he is obsessed with riding it around town. He tells anyone who will listen to check out his new bike. Ironically, this weekend was also the Tour of Missouri Bike Race so all of the bikers were joking with Aidan if he was going to participate in the race.

Give us more candy...oops, I mean Happy Labor Day!

Aren't we a little patriotic?

The Labor Day parade goes by our apartment and we couldn't miss it (sense the sarcasm). I love the working man/woman like the next guy, but this was the most boring parade I've ever been to, TWICE (we went last year too).

Why do we go? It's free entertainment for Aidan and Reese. They love parades and love all the FREE candy that the parade people throw at them. I let them eat the first piece of candy and then we started a little collection in the stroller. As they collected more candy, they continued to shove it in the stroller and we started to run out of room rather quickly. When I wasn't looking, Aidan would turn his back on me and try to unwrap his secret loot. I caught him almost every time, except one made it through.

Reese's favorite... the powdered donut. Hostess wants Reese to buy American!

Hey little girl...want some candy?

After the parade Aidan and Reese took a nap. During the nap I was smart enough to remove the candy from the stroller and I will be taking it to my office. As soon as they woke up from their nap, they immediately searched the stroller for their candy stash. Lucky for me they have a short attention span and they moved on to something else after they couldn't find the candy. Yes, I realize that was mean of me, but I want to keep all of their teeth.

What a difference 20 minutes makes...

Last Friday we took the kids to Monkey Joes. Let me just start by saying that I LOVE MONKEY JOES! For anyone with children that hasn't been yet - you must try it out. The kids jump around for as long as they can stand it or in our case, until the place closes and the attendants start to deflate the jumpers. The best part is that the kiddos are so worn out that they sleep like babies!

This is our second visit and this time we invited our friend Finni (escorted by her mom and my friend Lisa). Our first visit was touch and go - Aidan loved it and talked about going back for weeks after we left. Reese hated it and cried the whole time. She refused to jump around and would rather walk around the store instead of play with all the other kids.

This visit started out the same as our first and we thought Reese would never like coming here. We chose a different approach and instead of feeding into it, we left Reese alone in the jumper and ignored the crying. She sat there for about 20 minutes and all of a sudden she came alive! She was jumping around, she was laughing and she was the life of the party.

Monkey Joes is a success! Can't wait to go back.
Finni, Daryl and Aidan in one of the bouncers. The wouldn't let the adults jump around. Bummer!


Reese before. She was a little skeptical if it would be fun.

Reese after. She had so much fun, she didn't want to leave.

Now is it acceptable that we live downtown?

It finally happened... we have a full-service grocery store downtown. We always have our beloved City Grocers, but now Schnucks is here! I assume that NOW it is acceptable that we live downtown.




Whenever we tell people that we live downtown, the first question is, "Where do you get your groceries?" Same place you do - the grocery store. I usually will drive out of the city limits to shop, but now we have a real live grocery store with the Schnucks brand name! For my friends outside the St. Louis area that would be equivilent to Publix, Albertsons, ShopRite, Pathmark, Dominick's, etc.

Most people are shocked and can't imagine that we live with 2 toddlers and 2 dogs in a 7th story loft. How do we do it?

• We have an elevator, so getting down from the 7th floor is pretty easy. We've walked down the steps a few times - during an elevator outage and one unfortunate fire at Copia Winery (a favorite restaurant that was consumed by a fire last year). Aidan now understands the difference between going up and going down and is tall enough to push the elevator call button. Reese wants to assist so bad, but her time will come soon.



• We (mostly Daryl) walk the dogs 3 times a day. Both Tyson and Haley have always been walked, so no adjustments for them. The downtown "Scoop the Poop" campaign provides bags at various locations around the city so that we don't leave our poop on the stoop.



• Our apartment is 1500 square feet, the Gourleys don't take up that much space - so it seems to work out. This is a lie - my junk and the kids' toys take up about 1000 square feet and we live in the other 500 square feet.



• The kids love to take walks to the Arch and City Garden. They run, kick balls, play in the water, etc. Daryl and I hate to take care of a yard so it is a win-win for everyone involved.



• The kids attend daycare downtown 1 mile west of our loft. Daryl and I both work less than 1 mile east of our loft and we walk to work.
  

Everything that we need is within reach. Aforementioned grocery store is also within walking distance of our loft. We never need to leave downtown.

Our apartment building. Our loft is on the 7th floor. We have the middle two arched windows.

We are city dwellers and we love it. Wouldn't change a thing.

Belated birthday parties - 8/14

We were unable to go to Chicago for my nephew Elijah's birthday and my family was unable to come down to St. Louis for Reese's birthday. We decided to do the next best thing and meet up at a McDonald's half way between St. Louis and Chicago for some cousin bonding time.  Somewhere 3 hours north of St. Louis, we met for Chicken McNuggets.