Sundays with The Boy

Last summer, I was pretty good about getting one-on-one time with The Boy. Time and scheduling conflicts have interfered with my "Sundays with The Boy" plan, but I am able to sneak in a few dates with my boy. Thanks to Grandma Naperville, who came in to spend today and tomorrow with us while The Dad is in Cali, I was able to do so this afternoon.

We went to the 2008 Chicago Air & Water Show to watch the Red Baron do loop-de-loops and an F/A-18 buzz the beach. Despite the fact that the Air Show is the military's recruiting tool and propaganda, I am a sucker for it. I blame it entirely on being a midshipman's daughter; I grew up sailing on Lake Michigan and watching the air show every year.

The Girl emphatically did not want to see the airplanes and I feared that the engine noise would scare The Tot, so The Boy and I left them behind with Grandma and hopped the L to Oak Street Beach. The Boy insisted on holding my hand the entire trip down there, which is uncharacteristic for him. It was very hot on the beach when we got there, but we managed to find a place on the concrete step to sit down, and later, a bench in the shade. We stayed for about an hour before The Boy decided that he had seen enough and asked to return home.

On the walk back to Chicago Avenue, I stopped in H&M to look at some pants for The Girl. It made us a bit late, so we cabbed over to the blue line. The Boy was very excited to take a taxicab ride. We normally do not take cabs with the kids because of the carseat issue, but I felt safer with him in a cab today than I did when I had to take The Tot with me in one to the hospital last year.
The Boy was pretty tired by the time we got home; I carried him on my back for part of the walk back to our house.

California Dreaming

This morning, The Dad left for 6 days in San Francisco. I'm jealous. Although I love my life in Chicago, I've been missing San Francisco a lot lately. For me, San Francisco is inextricably linked to life before children. It's not just The City's great restaurants that appeal to me these days, it's getting to eat a leisurely dinner at 8 p.m. in one of them.

The Tot, The Girl, The Boy, and I brought The Dad to the airport, took The Girl to ballet class (and had Starbucks with Allison and her boys), and then managed to find parking near our playgroup friend's place to have a Saturday playgroup. It was R.'s birthday, so we had lunch, cake, ice cream, and the kids even beat a pinata open (a silly gift from a silly friend of R.'s). We saw our Italian playgroup friends, who we hadn't seen since August 2007. Rather unusually for him, The Tot sat on S.'s lap for quite awhile during lunch.

I had planned to take The Boy over to the lakefront to see the air show, but The Girl didn't want to go, and The Tot would have been frightened by the noise/people/constriction, so we went home instead.

We got home around 3 and were pretty much slugs for the rest of the afternoon.