Small Change and Small World

The Dad came down with the 24-hour stomach bug today, so I found myself on day 2 of a 3-day weekend with 3 rambunctious children. Plan A was to take Metra downtown to the water taxi, and take that over to Chinatown for lunch/walking, but The Girl, who has a pathological fear of train stations and crowds, nixed that plan. Onto Plan B.... Nickel City.

Nickel City, in Northbrook, just off the Waukegan Road exit from the Tristate, has heretofore been an outing to which The Dad takes the kids. A national franchise, Nickel City is an arcade that bridges 80s video-game parlors and Chuck E. Cheese. Thankfully for me, it's brighter than the 80s video arcade and quieter and less frenzied than Chuck E. Cheese. A $2 entry per kid (The Tot was free; this worked out to the owners' advantage as all he really wanted to do was feed nickels into the slots -- he'd take off before the game started) and $10 worth of nickels bought us about 2 hours of video fun -- the most I could stand before my head was pounding. Between the four of us, we racked up 150 tickets, which we used to "buy" useless plastic crap -- the kids were not to be deterred into my idea of trading tickets for a bag of M&Ms to be split 3 ways.

We briefly stopped into Hobbytown USA in the same strip mall, where The Boy played with gorgeous Quadrilla sets, The Girl looked at arts & crafts kits, The Tot manned the train table, and I eyed gardening and science kits. We bought 4 pieces of wooden track and went home, stopping briefly at the Starbucks in Northfield for iced tea-lemonades for the hot and thirsty crew.

Once home, boredom quickly set in so we went to Target to spend the kids' saved-up allowance. The Boy, who gets a modest $3/week, has been saving for a Bakugan case. The Tooth Fairy visited last week for the first time, and left him enough money to advance his cause. While wandering the toy aisles in search of Bakugan, a small doll for The Girl, and a Matchbox car for The Tot, we ran into Jenny Barron-Fishman. It took Jenny and I awhile to place each other, but when we did, I realized how small Chicago really is. Jenny was the proprietor of Sweet Pea's Yoga Studio. Without her, I wouldn't have found my playgroup in spring 2003, during a mom-and-me yoga class. It brought the point home to me again: the longer I stay in Chicago, the smaller and tighter my world gets.

Tot Turns Two

We celebrated The Tot's 2nd birthday today and oh my! I'm not sure that I am ready to say good-bye entirely to the babyhood stage of mothering. The Dad would argue that it's one step closer to the end of diapers. True that, but there's something irresistible about chubby babies tucked into mei-tei carriers or slings.

To celebrate, we had a little party at home for The Tot. Grandma & Grandpa Naperville came in and were joined by two families that The Tot sees most often: Allison, Becky and their respective children. It's probably not what Barbara Kingsolver had in mind with her recent book, but we ate locally: pizzas from La Villa and a wonderful chocolate carousel cake from Whole Foods Sauganash (this buttercream version was delish and comparable in price to those of Dinkel's Bakery, at $25 + $6 for the personalization on a 1/4-sheet cake). We had lemonade for the kids, beer and wine and water for the adults, and I made a simple ricotta-lemon-chive dip as an appetizer. The kids all played happily, leaving the adults to chit-chat.

The Tot wore his new "2" t-shirt from the T-Shirt Deli, which The Boy and The Girl helped me choose from the Andersonville location on our way to pick up the cake. He was in absolute heaven with the Sodor Bay Bridge that Grandma and Grandpa brought, although he first had to be distracted away from the plastic wagon of outdoor toys that Becky brought for him. The Dad and my gifts to him (Duplo Lego) are still sealed in their brown shipping box. We'll get those out on another day of this rainy week.

On fait le conaissance de Kenley*

* We met Kenley today!

The Girl, The Tot and I trekked up to Schaumburg this afternoon to meet Cara, Grace and Kenley at the giant blue box. In the latest installment of "How small is Chicagoland?" we ran into B., F. and G. in the lobby as we were putting our coats in the free lockers and chatted for a bit before Cara & crew arrived.

We all had lunch, dropped the girls into Smalland and did a bit of shopping. Kenley seemed to like The Tot, who tolerated K's hugs for the most part. Unlike The Boy and The Girl, The Tot has not spent a lot of time with Cara -- and he was not a fan. It's bizarre; I've never seen a child who doesn't love Cara before. But The Tot apparently had to prove a point, stubborn little bugger. The four of us managed to do all of our shopping (bookcase for her, IVAR shelf for me) while the girls were in Smalland. I bought The Tot and The Girl each an ice cream at the end of the trip, and they both fell asleep on the way home.

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.

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!

Summer Wanes

We got up and out this morning to meet Cheryl and her kids at the North Park Village Nature Center. When we arrived in the center at 10 a.m., the guide asked us if we were there for the preschool program. We weren't--I did not know there was such a thing--but we decided to join anyway. I wish I had known about it earlier! Sean, the guide, was really good at both engaging and controlling about 15 kids aged 3-6. We read a book about water (The Water Dance) and then went outside to experiment with water and a trough of sand. The Girl was especially entranced by Sean and the outside activity, but The Boy got into it, too.

After about 1/2 an hour, I went back to find Cheryl and her kids in the discovery room. Her son joined in the river fun. Then we all went on a nature walk on the main loop. The Tot fell asleep in the sling during the walk. Around noon, we were all hungry, so we headed back to the parking lot.

I took the kids to Target for lunch and a few odds and ends. Afterwards, we stopped at a small grocery store on Peterson and Lincoln that I imagined was going to be like the Family Fruit Market. It was similar, but much smaller. At first, I thought it would be carry a lot of kosher products, given the number of Orthodox Jews I observed exiting the store, but it turns out that the specialty is Greek. We got some yummy, hand-formed Challah bread, bananas, rice milk, grape tomatoes, cauliflower, and fresh mozzarella cheese.

I took Jersey Avenue south to get home, mistakenly thinking it would turn into Kimball Avenue. Instead, it turned into Kedzie Avenue. The Boy said, "Hey, that's where S. lives!" so we turned down her street and ended up having an impromptu playdate with S., F., G., and their mother. On the way home, we stopped for another unplanned side trip: the gas station and car wash. The Girl has been begging me to go through the car wash every time she sees one or thinks about it, so I took The Great White Moose in for a bath after filling up her tank with gas. The Tot seems to have recovered from his fear of the car wash; he was wide-eyed and curious about it the trailer took us through the automatic car wash, but he did not once cry.

Day 1

Today was really the first day that I felt like I was flying solo with The Dad out of town. While Grandma Naperville took her first L ride to the Art Institute for the day, I took The Boy, The Girl, and The Tot to Trader Joe's to stock the larder. When we arrived, there was only 1 kiddie cart available, so we left it for the next family to squabble over. Mercifully, The Boy and The Girl were OK with that decision, although The Tot was pretty upset at having to sit in the cart while we shopped. A banana and cookies mollified him a bit.

After TJ's, we headed home for lunch and a nap. We had planned to go to Adams Playground Park with Becky and S&F, but of course The Tot took a super long nap and by the time he woke up, it was too late to haul ourselves down to Lincoln Park (especially as Becky and I had planned to take all 6 kids on the L rather than park 2 minivans in that area).

Instead, we spent the late afternoon running around the spray park/splash pad at River Park. The Boy and S. and The Girl and F. were ecstatic to see one another. They all played quite happily in and around (The Girl, The Tot) the area together for about 90 minutes and in the middle we had a snack of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, chocolate milk, cookies, and blueberry cereal bars. Toward the end of our visit, an older boy was deliberately knocking over The Boy as they slid through one of the water elements. It was the kind of move that was deliberate, but made to look accidental. Since it didn't seem to bother The Boy, I refrained from stepping in.

We headed home about 4:30 to see Grandma Naperville and have dinner. The Boy and Grandma had a nice cuddle and talked about K before he went to bed. She had wanted to see his new school, but he'll have to show her another time.

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.

An afternoon salvaged

This afternoon, we were supposed to attend a birthday party at Foster Avenue Beach. Getting to and parking at the beach on a 90-degree Sunday afternoon is no easy feat. My friend was stuck in the parking lot between Foster and Wilson Avenues for 40 minutes. After driving around Foster Avenue and Lakeshore for 20 minutes without finding a parking spot, I bailed on the party. My kids were crying. My friend's kids were crying. So we salvaged the afternoon by going over to her house to swim and eat cupcakes.

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.

How did I not know this was here?

Today, The Dad, The Boy, The Girl, The Tot, and I all piled into the car to attend our playgroup friend S.'s 2nd birthday party. It was at Adams Playground Park, on Seminary, tucked into a corner of Lincoln Park. It was an awesome space, with a shaded sandbox, two playground sets on recycled tire hardscapes, and a separate water playground within the lot. How have I lived in the city for this long and not known what a gem was lurking around the corner from my favorite strip of Armitage (with its Paper Source, Art Effect, Old Town School, and CBA)?

We got there late, so we had pizza and cupcakes with bright blue frosting, and then changed into our suits and played. The Girl, who normally does not like water features, was having a blast going down the water slide with The Boy and A., while The Dad and I enjoyed chatting with R. and M., and The Tot alternately walked around the water park and explored the traditional playground features.

After the park, we headed out to Naperville for a post-4th BBQ at Grandma-and-Grandpa's house. I had not planned to be out of the house for more than just the party, so we stopped at Meijer in Naperville to pick up disposable diapers and fresh clothes for everyone. The kids had a great time at G-and-G's house with their cousins.

Suburbs!

Today, we went to visit our playgroup expats in the 'burbs. Darien, to be exact. As I turned onto the highway on-ramp, The Boy asked if we were going to the suburbs. When I responded in the affirmative, both he and The Girl shouted "hooray!" Half an hour later, they asked the inevitable: "Are we there yet?"

The answer was no, but 45 minutes later we were in Oakbrook; I stopped in the mall to make a return and buy a present for The Dad. On cue, The Girl declared that she was hungry. So we all got a healthful snack (Clif Kid Z-Bar for The Girl and The Baby, Organic Ducks for The Boy, a veggie wrap for me) and split a gigantic iced tea from the Nordstrom Cafe. The Girl ate half my wrap on the walk back to the car. That kid will eat anything.

We went over to Beebalm's house for an afternoon playgroup that included lunch, time in A.'s swingset "clubhouse," a crazy game of hide-and-seek, bubbles, and seeing old friends. Plus popsicles and rice-marshmallow treats. What could be better? I took the Stevenson home; they all fell asleep.

I made a pit-stop at Trader Joe's on Clybourn to load up on groceries for the crew. It was a mad shopping trip, with The Boy and The Girl each pushing a tiny cart and The Baby in the main cart squawking for more snacks. But we finished quickly and made our way home. The most interesting part of the last leg was driving parallel to two giant semi-trucks filled with...

bees! The Boy noticed all the bees flying around first. Then the rest of us began gaping. The Boy was afraid that the bees would come into our car and sting him. It was the strangest thing. The trucks were carrying stacks of large white containers, covered entirely with a blue mesh canvas, and each had a swarm of bees visible on the sides, around the canvas, and stuck in large pockets of the fabric near the bottom of the flat bed. The trucks had Maryland plates, which added to this curiosity.

Redemption

The Baby's mood -- and mine along with it -- improved after a nap (for him) and lunch. But The Boy and The Girl were cantankerous, so we had to get out of the house. I called my friend Becky, and she invited us over to play. I took advantage of the nice weather to take the bus over to her house. It took about 40 minutes (the longest part was walking to and from the bus stops) and was a nice little adventure for the afternoon. The Girl asked at every stop whether that one was "our" stop.

The trip back was a bit more arduous, as we were all hungry (stopped for milks for the kids and a tall decaf latte for me at Starbucks on the walk to the bus stop), tired, and cold. I carried The Baby in the sling and pushed The Girl in our lightweight stroller. We all had a good time and got out of the house, which is really all that matters.

A sheltered life

Unjustly accused of losing The Dad's keys, I spent the morning combing the house, car, and garage for them. Rather than showering and taking The Baby (and The Girl) to one of the last jammin' with Julie classes of the session, I alternately helped him search and consoled a cranky Baby. (I found the keys where The Dad had left them: stuck in the garage door.)

After dropping The Girl off at MDO, The Baby and I spent the day entertaining The Dad's cousin James. He charmed the heck out of The Baby, but he's really in Chicago to find a job in accounting/finance. We left The Great White Moose in the lot and walked along uncluttered sidewalks lined with leafy trees through the neighborhood to Starbucks for vanilla lattes and baked goods (The Baby took over my apricot scone with raspberry jam print; I'd post a review [we're already frosted sugar cookie addicts], but I hardly got any.)

James told me about some of his experiences as a Chicago newbie. I have to admit that some of them shocked me. On some level, I am aware that such things/people exist, but the Chicago I know, work, live, and play in is still scrubbed pretty clean of the underwordliness that The Dad's cousin saw. And I suppose Mayor Daley likes it that way. Corruption is one thing. The revival of the Levee is another.

Later, The Baby, The Girl, The Boy and I headed to Uptown for playgroup. Today's cute kid story is brought to you by Aqua, the Danish pop group from the 1990s most known for its song, "Barbie Girl." The Girl asked to put in the CD "with the blue bubbles," so I popped in Aquarium. The Girl, of course, loved "Barbie Girl" and asked me if "the Barbies" were singing it; she then asserted that this was true. I didn't bother to disabuse her or The Boy of that notion. The Boy said that he was going to (pretend to) be the boy singer because he liked his voice. He then asked what the boy singer's name was. I told him "Ken."

By some miracle, we made good time driving to Uptown and back. We spent 2 hours playing with our friends at playgroup. Our friends from the suburbs even drove in for it, so The Boy and I got to marvel at the spaces in two of his friends' mouths, as they had both lost teeth. I don't think any of The Boy's teeth are loose, but I should find out what the Tooth Fairy's going rate is these days.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood today. The Baby, The Boy, The Girl and I headed east to Buena Park to attend our dear playgroup friend Antonia's 5th birthday party. The Boy and The Girl ate pizza, ripped open a Tinkerbelle pinata and filled treat bags with candy, and ate a yummy cake and ice cream. The Baby admired Antonia's 17-month-old twin brother and sister, and played with toys.

On the way home, we stopped at the sports store to pick up a left-handed peewee mitt for The Girl. As I found out earlier this week, they don't carry left-handed mitts for little people at Target. I have a feeling that it won't be the first time that the family lefthandedness makes things more difficult.

When we got home, we did a kid-parent split. The Dad and The Boy ran errands at Home Depot and did chores, while I took The Baby and The Girl to GIPNA's Fine Arts & Crafts fair at the Independence Park Fieldhouse gym. We bought a necklace from Sharon Sears and a cool apron. Then we played on the playground for nearly an hour before heading home. The Baby had great fun giving a dad (not ours) woodchips from the center of the bouncy teeter-totter.

Birthday Butterflies

Today is The Girl's birthday. She's three. How did that happen? I had always pictured myself as a Mom of Boys, but she has been such a joy in my life. I can't imagine not having some girlie in our lives.

In honor of her birthday, we "hosted" playgroup at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. I had thought that because their Butterfly Ball is tomorrow and the museum will be closed, it would be fairly quiet in there. But I was wrong. The school groups were notably absent and it was not crowded, but they were working on the installation of their new special exhibit, so it was loud in the Hands-On-Habitat. Which kept scaring The Baby.

I did get to catch up with my friend Sarah and her little ones -- we talked about schools and real estate, of course. Her husband and his business partner are building a mixed-use green building adjacent to Giddings Plaza in Lincoln Square.

After the museum, we ran a quick couple of errands in Lincoln Park: exchanging a broken table leg at Pottery Barn Kids and buying butter and eggs at Treasure Island to make a pink birthday cake for The Girl: