Santa, Baby

The Boy's homework project for this month is to write a short chapter book all about his family holiday traditions. It can be any holiday, but given The Dad's  and my own respective Roman Catholic/Episcopal upbringing, we are lapsed Christians who observe the secular Christmas.

One of our holiday traditions happened last week: the Santa breakfast at Morton Arboretum with Grandma & Grandpa Naperville. We have been doing some version of this since The Boy was two. First at Marshall Fields with his cousins and, once they aged out of the breakfast and toward symphony dress-up events, at the Morton Aboreteum. As The Girl and The Tot tot were born, they came too.

From Blogger Photos

And they put on a nice event for the breakfast at the Arb: they close the Gingko Cafe and have Mrs. Claus visit tables of kids and grandparents--some dressed to the 9s, some wering jeans and Santa sweaters--while they eat pancakes and quiche delivered by waitstaff. The highlight of the breakfast, of course, is the jolly old man himself, who arrives by walking down one of the Arb's many walking paths, dressed in attire reminiscent of Father Nature or St. Nicholas than the typical red-suited cad. He carries a giant walking stick/staff and wears a crown of leaves and branches. By the time he is seated in his oversized chair, a line has stretched the full length of the room and pancakes, sausages, and orange juice lie abandoned everywhere. It has been like this every year we've gone and 2009 was no exception.

The Boy and The Girl were quick to jump into line, but the tot had one destination on his mind: the train set up in the plant clinic across the way. He was not interested in the suited, bearded man that his memory is too short to remember from last year. And after The Boy's two- and three-year-old reactions to Santa, I'm perfectly OK with that. Truth be told, I have a hard time actively promoting the Santa myth.

So The Tot happily went to the trains with Grandpa while Grandma and I waited with The Boy and The Girl for the photo-and-tell-me-all-your-wishes opportunity. The treat bag at the end (Smencil, giant iced cookie, candy canes, mini coloring book and Christmas temporary tattoos) helped too.

From Blogger Photos

We got our free tickets to the train area and headed over to join The Tot and Grandpa. The theme this year was Hansel & Gretel, with lots of Necco Wafer-adorned roofs on the gingerbread houses lining the track. The Tot was beyond excited, but we had to exit after his excitement turned a bit possessive: he was pushing newcomers to the side, touching babies carelessly left in bucket seats, etc. He did not want to leave and took off his jacket three times before I gave up and took him out anyway.

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

Today, Santa Claus came not to our town, but to Lisle. Close enough. We met him (and Mrs. Claus, and Grandma & Grandpa Naperville) at the Morton Arboretum for breakfast. It was a nice time. The Boy ate his pancakes, The Girl didn't like hers, The Tot ate everyone's sausage and bacon. We saw Santa Claus walking up the path and got to sit on his knee (well, The Tot screamed bloody murder when Grandma held him next to Santa Claus). Mrs. Claus came over to say hello.

From Blogger Photos

After we had full tummies and had put in our requests to Santa (necklaces and rings for The Girl, a play gas station for The Boy), we went across the way to the train room, which The Tot loved. He did not want to leave when The Dad came to pick us up 15 minutes later.

Hey Look! It's the Bardoes

On Friday afternoon, The Boy, The Girl, The Tot, and I headed over to the Bardoe family's house for pizza and playing. Everyone had fun -- even The Girl, who was bemoaning the fact that there were "no girls" (her age) with whom to play.

On Saturday evening, I agreed to babysit for the (sleeping) Bardoe children while their parents went out to dinner. I read Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd and took a nap. They also live within greater Independence Park, so I walked home in less than 10 minutes.

This morning, The Dad ran into the Bardoe family in the parking lot outside the Morton Arboretum. We aren't normally dressed at 9 a.m. on a Sunday, let alone in Lisle on a family outing, but we were meeting Grandma and Grandpa Naperville at the park for breakfast and a walking tour of the decorated scarecrows. Columbus Day afforded The Boy and The Girl a rare weekday off and they were invited to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa Naperville's house. This is what people who don't watch football do with their autumnal Sundays!

Crazy Long Day in 'Burbs

Had a crazy long and hot, but fun day in the Western 'burbs today. I had three reasons for going out that direction today. The first was that I partook in the Best Brands Resale consignment sale, leveraging my love of both bargains and kids' clothes, and my drop-off appointment was at 10:00 a.m. in Wheaton. The second was that we have barely seen Cara and her kids this summer, so we had planned to spend part of the day together. And finally, The Boy and The Girl had a sleepover at Grandma-and-Grandpa Naperville's house.

After we dropped off my Rubbermaid bins of clothing, I made the mistake of getting on the express lane on I-88, thereby missing the Morton Arboretum exit. I had to turn around a couple of times before I resigned myself to driving on surface streets to get there. The Tot, The Girl, The Boy and I shared a yogurt-granola parfait and a coffee before we went into the Children's Garden. Last time we were there, we never made it into the Treetop Walk, so we started today's visit up there. The Tot was amazing; he was unafraid about walking through the rope maze and eventually did it all on his own, "racing around and about again every minute or two"* with his big brother. Cara & the kids met us up there and they raced around as well. We gradually made our way down through the sections in the garden, although we were all quite hot and sweaty (and Cara's kids were soaked!) after catching tadpoles in the swamp section, so we decided to get lunch.

We caravanned over to the Colonial Cafe in Naperville to have lunch. The place was crowded with moms and kids eating lunch in the air conditioned cool -- so much so that we had to wait 10 minutes for a table, even at 1 p.m. Even in such an environment, I think our party of 8 (6 kids, 2 moms) overwhelmed our waitress. It was loud and chaotic, but everyone ate fairly well and we all got ice cream (frozen yogurt for The Tot and me) afterwards.

I took The Boy and The Girl over to their grandparents' house for their sleepover, then circled back to meet Cara at Fox Valley Mall (my least favorite Chicagoland mall) to shop the Gymboree sale. Cara and I were supposed to go to the BBR pre-sale at 6 while Cara's husband watched her kids and The Tot, but he was late getting the train and The Tot was pretty tired. So I took him with me to the sale and Cara met me later. Afterwards, I realized that I was starving, so I took The Tot over to the Wheaton Town Center to have dinner at Potbelly. It's so rare that I get to spend one-on-one time with him, but it was really enjoyable. Across the open patio area were a couple of large dogs (collies, I think) and although The Tot is usually quite scared of dogs, he wanted to go up to these dogs (but didn't want to pet them).

It was a long day. We didn't get home until about 9. Grandma Texas and Aunt Sam showed up from Texas (in for Lollapalooza) about 10.


* Dr. Suess' The Sneetches. "They kept paying money, they kept running through. 'Til neither the plain nor the star-bellies knew, whether this one was what one, or which one was who." Does anyone else find that lines from children's books seem to commentate on their daily lives?

Morton Arboretum

I joined the Morton Arboretum right before Easter. The Boy has been there quite a bit with Grandma Naperville, and I've taken both him and The Girl several times since I "discovered" the Children's Garden two years ago. I had all these fantasies of taking the kids to the Children's Garden to run around this spring/summer. And then gas prices spiked to $4.50/gallon and a weekly trip to Lisle is suddenly less appealing.

But today we made the drive out there for the first time since mid-March to meet Cara and her kids. (Traffic tip: don't get in the express lane on I-88 after Oakbrook; you'll overshoot the Route 53 exit and there is no exit on the eastbound side. We took a 15-minute detour.) We spent all of our time in either the Children's Garden or the Gingko Cafe (which, mercifully, was air-conditioned) and, despite the humidity, we had a great time. On the car ride home at 2:30 p.m., all three kids fell asleep, which I usually take to be a sign of a good outing.

It was The Baby's first real trip to the Arb; he wasn't sure what to make of it all. Unfortunately for him, by the time he got acclimated to the area we were in and began to explore, the older kids were on to the next thing (or needed a potty-run). When we first arrived, The Boy, The Girl, John, Grace and Lily went into the hedge maze. Within 10 minutes, they were all red-faced, damp-haired and totally sweaty. Given the weather, we spent the bulk of our time in the water areas, including a long time in the "Wonder Pond," trying to catch tadpoles and looking at toads along the perimeter. Much to The Boy's chagrin, did not make it up to the treetop walk in our 3+ hours at the park.