birthday

Happy Birthday!

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Today is Sara’s birthday.

It’s kind of funny when you have kids, because birthdays are such a big deal to them and involve a lot of hoopla, but when you get to your own birthday it’s just sort of “meh”. You still have to go to work, or watch the kids, or cook, or do laundry, or whatever. It’s basically a regular day, except for the 10 minutes or so when you open a present or eat cake. I think it’s basically the same for people who don’t have kids (after all, it’s just a birthday — everybody has them!), but they don’t have the contrast of just completing a full-featured kids birthday party.

So even though perhaps today wasn’t much of a special day, I think birthdays are still a good time to reflect on your life. Since it’s not my birthday I will try to leave the reflection to her and refrain from putting words in her mouth. But I will say that every year she seems to get better in every way: wiser, more attractive, more confident, fitter, happier. I don’t know where exactly she expected to be at this point in her life, but speaking for myself, I really never imagined life would be so good by now. Hopefully she feels the same. On the other hand, I’m married to her, and she’s married to me, so, you know, her opinion may differ.

In any case, happy birthday babe. May you enjoy the best present possible: the kids start school in less than 2 weeks.

Six Years Old

/ Shane / 1 Comment

birthday girl

Evie planned out pretty much every aspect of the day, up to and including picking out which colors of candles she wanted and how they should be arranged. She selected pancakes for breakfast, popcorn for lunch, and (her favorite) saffron zucchini couscous for supper. Finally, we will end the day with a “movie night”; Evie has selected Annie, which she has been dying to see for a long time.

Happy birthday to my always colorful girl!

birthday girl

Our 3 year old

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Ollie is turning 3 today. I didn’t think I really had much to say about him, but then I looked back on the post I did when he turned 2, and I realized he really has come a long way.

When he turned 2, he was just starting to talk. Now, he never stops talking. Then, he was starting to be able to do things on his own. Now, he can zip his coat, and can (mostly) go to the bathroom by himself.

Although he *still* has very little interest in getting himself dressed. I guess when someone has applied creams over your entire body and dressed you morning and night for every day of your life, you don’t have much motivation to change that. Who said all that time I spent watching Downton Abbey was a waste? It turns out I would make an excellent lady’s maid (or I guess a valet if it came to that).

In the last few weeks, he as DEFINITELY become a 3 year old. Hoo boy. All of a sudden he loves being contrary just for the sake of being contrary. I know that it is very typical of his age, but it’s also very surprising, just because he’s usually so accommodating. He would absolutely argue with you about the color of the sky. I know that this is all a part of becoming an independent “big boy”.

Speaking of being independent, I think he’s becoming slightly less cuddly as he gets older and more independent. Still pretty cuddly, but not as much as he used to be. Less cuddly towards his parents perhaps, but not towards his baby. Boy oh boy does he love his baby. He carries him everywhere, cuddles him, whispers to him, tucks him in to bed, and talks about him nonstop. He likes to make spontaneous statements like, “I’m a good daddy to my baby!” or “I love my baby and my baby loves me.” Actually, he’s pretty good about making similar spontaneous statements to his parents (I told you he was still pretty cuddly).

Aside from his baby, the thing Ollie likes the most is being goofy, especially if he’s tired. For some reason, he really likes to pretend to fall down. He also likes to switch song lyrics to things that don’t make sense. For example, he might sing, “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the fork!” and then laugh, and laugh, and laugh. Another favorite thing he likes to do is complain that he has a tummy ache. I don’t know why.

The best part about Ollie is how well he gets along with his sister. He just absolutely adores her and wants to be just like her. He loves to play with her, and the two of them play by themselves for long periods of time. He’s never happier than when Evie is playing with someone else her age and he is just sort of trailing behind them. I think she can probably expect that for many years to come.

Happy birthday big boy. I hope the next year is as good as the last. I can’t wait for you to start school. I can’t wait to give you the birthday present I made you. I can’t wait to see who you turn out to be.

XOCO

/ Shane / 1 Comment

When it comes time for a birthday dinner, we turn to our favorite Chicago chef, Rick Bayless. This time we tried out Frontera’s little sister XOCO (pronounced “show-co”).

It was perfect! Exactly what we needed.

The food was amazing, and fresh, and unique, but everything was very low key. With the kids, we’re always looking for a compromise between something amazing and something where we’re not going to disturb people. That’s exactly what this was (at least before 5 p.m. on a weeknight). No waiting in line, no waiting for a table, and not many people around to disturb.

We had a couple of tortas (Baja Chicken Torta and Choriques to be specific). I thought they were both good, but the baja chicken was amazing.

(This is not actually what we ate, but I stole these pictures from the XOCO website and beggars can’t be choosers)

Sara had the Carnitas Caldos, which is a spicy soup with pork and avocado chunks. This was also good, but very, very salty.

Of course, in the midst of all this good food, Evie only wanted to eat tortilla chips.

Until dessert that is. We each had a churro and we shared a couple of mugs of their amazing hot chocolate. I don’t say cocoa, I say hot chocolate, because it was like drinking a delicious cup full of melted chocolate bars. It was so rich and thick that I’m really not sure I could have finished a glass by myself. But sharing it was just perfect, and gave us an excuse to try two different kinds. For my money, the almond milk one was better, but everyone else preferred the classic.

XOCO is great if you’re looking for something a little bit quicker and easier than Frontera, and well worth the trip downtown (even if the meter did cost me $3.50 an hour!) Thank you Mr. Bayless for never failing to exceed expectations! (P.S. We finally broke down and bought a copy of Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen, so we can stop checking it out from the library all the time!)

Happy Birthday to Me

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Today’s my birthday.

It’s kind of funny how when you get older birthdays are both not a big deal and also a really big deal. I mean, on one hand, you still have to go to work, take care of the kids, clean the house, etc. So it’s not really much different than any other day. On the other hand, it’s the one day of the year where it’s all about you. The older I get, the bigger deal that gets to be.

So feel free to make a really, really big deal about me today!