Chicago Seidlers

With a little prompting, Lillian tells us what we want to hear.

It’s been a cold winter here in Chicago, with plenty of snow and frost and maybe a bit of cabin fever for all four of us! This week has been much warmer, which has been nice, but even when it’s frigid, we’ve found ways to have fun, as these snapshots show.

Smooth sledding…we actually didn’t have a sled when winter started, but we figured we needed one by the time the snowdrifts reached Lillian’s waist. Unfortunately, we went to five stores looking for one, but they were all sold out. So we ended up having to order this beauty online.

Monkey Mathias: the dude emulates the pose on one of his favorite shirts.

Lori shares this snapshot from home: “I told Lillian to get her shoes on, as we were going ‘bye bye.’ Well, she did what she was told…”

Pop-up dance parties have become pretty popular in our apartment lately. Here Mathias, Lillian and Lori shake it to a little Ella Fitzgerald!

Mathias and his class took to the stage this week as his elementary school hosted its holiday pageant! They were thoughtful enough to have a performance on Wednesday and Thursday, so Lori and I were both able to go.

Mathias is on the far left

It was a lot of fun. Ms. Soto worked hard to choreograph the class for a Bruno Mars song, with mixed results. As you’ll see in the video below, Mathias is game but a bit stiff…probably a combo of stagefright and the need to really concentrate to hit his moves. Still, we were proud of him for giving it a go.

We got about six inches of snow Saturday, meaning we’re “booting up” before heading outdoors. We’ve actually had a bit of a cold snap, so we haven’t had too much of a chance to play in the snow, although I did snap this photo of Mathias in the backyard in about the minute he gave me before he wanted to go back inside. We’ll build up that frost tolerance as winter goes on…

(Note that the dude is showing off a sample from his stick collection, the one he keeps on the front porch.)

The seasons have shifted, so we’ve been getting some fall fun in! Here are a couple pics from a recent trip to Welles Park.

Hope everyone had a fun spooky season. Ours came in stages. On Sunday, we went trick-or-treating at a local neighborhood party with the cousins. Today, Mathias wore his costume to school. And tonight James and Mathias ventured out in the rain to gather a little candy before heading in.

Here are some pics!

“Jake the pirate with his two wenches,” as Lori put it!

Mathias and cousin Eamonn head off to do some trick-or-treating.

Lillian gets an up-close look at Big Bird at the Southport Festival. Some strange lady lifted her up to see it, which was…interesting.

Posing with cousins Eamonn and Angela after trick-or-treating on Southport. Lillian is dressed in the drindl Lori get from Germany when she was a baby!

See the same pose from last Halloween!

The boys are back after trick-or-treating on Halloween, looking goofy and a little wet, while Lillian seems sad in her skeleton PJs.

Mathias reads a postcard that Lori sent from her trade show in San Diego. Of course, the postcard arrived after Lori did!

We’ve been trying to take special pictures of Lillian every month over the past year, marking her milestones as she grows. And while we took 11-month photos at the Lincoln Park Conservatory, we never posted them! So here’s our sweetie by the flowers.

Of course, Mathias had to get a pose in as well!

And they both joined one of the zoo’s better known buskers for what was probably an…enthusiastic rendition of “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain.”