fish! fish! fish!

It's been too long since The Boy, The Girl, The Tot and I have had a real outing. So today, we got up and went museuming. I gave The Boy and The Girl a choice between the Field, the Shedd, MSI and the Nature Museum. They chose the aquarium. So that's where we went.

I managed to get 3 kids and myself out of the house pretty darn close to 9 a.m., so we arrived at the aquarium on a Sunday morning not long after it opened. My kids will grow up to pay full price because they can, a side-effect of having a mother who is too cheap to pay for parking when there is a cheaper/free alternate nearby. We parked at Meigs Field and walked over to the aquarium. I was a bit scared that you can no longer park there; there were about 20 Park District security vehicles in the lot. One of them stopped us on the walk over to say hello, but he said it was fine to park in that lot.

The Oceanarium is closed for renovations, so we spent most of our time in the main halls. It seemed to be Volunteer Day at the aquarium. We watched Nickel for awhile in the main tank -- The Tot was not at all cognizant of the tape line on the floor around the main tank during the presentation and was pressed up against the glass anyway. We also did a couple animal discovery centers, learning about turtles and skinks. The Tot and The Girl both touched the skink. The Boy and I were wimps and didn't want to touch it.

We also went downstairs to the Underwater Reef exhibit, which was unusually crowded as the Shedd apparently just started doing guided talks of that exhibit.

Total expenditure: $1.75 for a box of popcorn. We are members and parking was free.

Moms & Tots, Playdate

The Tot and I started our Moms, Pops, & Tots Interaction class today at Independence Park. I haven't taken the class since The Boy was a baby (it is for kids aged 18-36M) and Miss Julie (now Kilbourn Park's Supervisor) was its instructor. I still see a handful of people from that class, but I was surprised to know many more moms/kids and even nannies/kids in today's class. I guess that is just one advantage to living in the same neighborhood and attending neighborhood events for the past 6+ years: recognizing or knowing many of the people in your children's activities.

Miss Teagan is the new instructor for the class and she kept the class moving with 1/2 hour of free play/socializing (The Tot liked the mini Little Tykes slide), 1/2 hour of singing/dancing and 1/2 hour of art/craft activity and snack. The Tot, who is normally quite slow to warm up to things (as Julie of Jammin' fame can attest), had so much fun that he did not want to leave to pick up The Girl from school.

But we did make it out of there and on-time to retreive The Girl from preschool. Afterwards, because we hadn't managed to see anyone from playgroup over the break, we went over to Becky's house for lunch and catching-up. The Girl and F. played rather well together, although The Girl inexplicably (to me) wanted to leave after about an hour. The Tot was extremely interested in Baby G. (9 months), which amused him a bit and scared the baby a lot. I got to drink coffee and visit with Becky. And a good time was had by all.

Chicago Park District

What I love about the Chicago Park District: classes are generally inexpensive and you can register online.

What I hate about the Chicago Park District: you have to watch the countdown ticker at 9 a.m. on the day of online registration and be quick with the mouse buttons and keyboard.

That said, I got everyone in our family into our desired classes for the winter session. The Boy is taking gymnastics at Peterson Park Gymnastics Center. The Girl is taking a similar class at the same time. The Tot and I are following in his older brother's footsteps and taking a parent/caregiver and tot class at Independence Park. I'm reprising my Thursday wheel pottery class at Athletic Field Park. And I even got The Dad into the act -- he's taking a woodworking class at Brands Park.

Me, The Tot and .... not many others

In August, I signed The Tot up for a couple of classes, including Jammin' with Julie and the Park District's Tot Spot at Mayfair Park. I had hesitated taking The Tot to the Mayfair Tot Spot class because he seemed to be having such a hard time with Ms. Julie, a woman he's seen and heard on a near-weekly basis since birth. Plus, the weather has been nice, the class fee was extremely low ($10), and well, I just plain forgot about it a couple of times. However, today we went.

And The Tot did really well. When we arrived, the classroom was not set up. The only PD employee I saw explained that her superiors had told her not to even bother setting up the room since only 1 person had shown up for the class in the past few weeks. She showed me where the toy closet was and The Tot and I went to town taking out the PD's toys. Within about 10 minutes, another little girl and her babysitter showed up. She was the same age as The Tot, but an only child. That may seem like superfluous information, but it was really apparent in the way they both played and related to each other. If they were interested in the same toy, The Tot often desisted and went to play with something else until she became bored with the contested toy; then he circled back to pick it up again.

Playgroup Turns 5!

On Wednesday, July 24, 2003, six moms and their infants (2-6 months) met at the totem pole along the Lakefront (at approximately Addison) to talk about our babies, our births, our nascent motherhood. Five years later, we're still meeting to talk about our children, ourselves, and everything in between. Today marked the 5th anniversary of our playgroup. We celebrated with a BYO picnic and lots of shared desserts at the place where it all began. Five of the original six remain in the Chicago area; four of them came to playgroup today. In 2003, we were all new moms with a single baby each. Since then, we've grown to include four other moms with 23 kids between us.

Twelve of those kids romped in the grass after our picnic in the grass. Then, much like our first meeting, we did a stroller caravan over to the playground.

Surrounded by his friends, The Boy was aggressive toward another little boy who wanted to play with them. All four swings were occupied, so he demanded that this little kid get off the swing so that he could get on. Twenty minutes later, a swing opened up and one of two boys in another party got on. The Boy was on the swing next to it, and this other kid started demanding that The Boy get off it. I had to laugh. I guess The Boy is your archtypical 5-6-year-old.

Parking in the lakefront areas is free during the week before 6 p.m.