Inspired by the El

I had a morning meeting in Chicago last week so Dex and Ben and I decided to all take the train into the city together. Ben and Dexy rode the El while I was in my meeting and then we grabbed lunch in Union Station and ate our hot dogs on the train ride home (the woman sitting behind us laughed out loud when Dex asked me if we had any utensils).

Dex's "cities" now include elevated CTA tracks above the Metra tracks and city streets. I explained that some people help design cities as a job and maybe someday Dex would want to be an urban planner. He thought for a second and then said, "Maybe as my second job because I still want to drive a dump truck."

Father's Day Daddy Surprise

About a half hour before Ben was scheduled to get home from his church gig, Dex and I developed our surprise plan. Dex would get into the tent, I would grab the presents and cake from my office and place it in the tent with Dex, I would zip up the tent and Dex would wait for Daddy to "notice" the big tent in the living room and shout "Happy Father's Day!" when Ben opened the tent flap. During our test run, Dex decided that he wanted to stay in the tent until Daddy got home so I gave him an activity book, put the presents and cake in there with him, and zipped him in. The only sound coming from that tent for a full half hour was the whispering sound of Dex's marker on the activity book.

When Ben got home, he saw the tent immediately and Dex shouted, "Surprise!" when Ben opened the tent. Daddy sure was surprised. Dex and I were pretty pleased with our ability to plan and execute a surprise.




Mommy's big surprise was that Daddy and Dex actually fit in that thing!

Father's Day Dexter Surprise

Before Daddy got home for his big Father's Day surprise, Dex got a big surprise when his friend Tabitha rang our doorbell to see if Dex wanted to take a ride with her in her new vehicle.

Dex and Tabitha decided that Tabitha would control the steering and Dex would control the pedals.

Not sure that was the best idea but they had a blast and made it around the block safely under the watchful eye of Tabitha's little sister Libby.