Chicago

That’s what I call a nice weekend

/ Shane / 2 Comments

The weather was so beautiful this weekend. Summer’s last hurrah, I suppose. We tried to spend as much time as possible outside, since Evie is going to be penned inside all winter. This may have backfired a little bit in the sense that she now is really excited for playing outside, and is going to be disappointed when the weather turns cold and we can’t.

Anyway, we practiced riding the tricycle on Friday and Saturday, and her improvement was incredible. On Friday she was constantly steering into things and had trouble keeping the trike going in a straight line. By Saturday, she was steering pretty well. She still gets distracted easily, and then forgets to steer, but at least when she is paying attention she does a good job. She also figured out how to peddle on her own. The tricycle has a handle on the back, so normally we push her. But once she figured out how to do it on her own, she didn’t want anything to do with that handle. In fact, she made me remove the handle and carry it, so she could be sure we weren’t pushing when she wasn’t looking. She usually needs a push to break her inertia, but once she is going, she can keep going until she stops. Then she needs another push to get going again.

(You can see another video here)

Growing up, we could play in the yard whenever we wanted, but living in the city, it’s not so easy for Evie. Finding a place to play means walking to a designated playing area. So, on Sunday, Evie and I walked up to the Midway to play in the grass there. We played tag, kicked balls, climbed up and down stairs, had races, and played hide and seek. It was a lot of fun! I figured Evie would have a good time, but I was surprised at how much fun I had.

One of the funny things that happened was when we were playing hide and seek. We were basically in a big field, so there really wasn’t many places to hide. Evie didn’t care though, she thought it was so much fun. She would just run out into the middle of the field and stand and wait for me. Not wanting to just walk right over to her, I would make a big show of looking around a few places before “finding” her. If I took too long, she would helpfully yell, “Daddy!” so that I could find her. So, when it was her turn to count, she told me exactly where to “hide”. I ended up hiding a few feet away (by hiding I mean sitting in the open, but covering my head). When she was done counting, she got pretty mad that I wasn’t hiding where she told me to. So I told her to count again, and I moved to the exact spot she indicated. When she was done counting, I expected her to run right over to me. She knew exactly where I was; she placed me there. But instead, she made a big, exaggerated show of looking in a few other places first. Here I thought I was fooling her. I guess there’s no putting one over on that kid. 🙂

She continues to surprise me with her grasp of language. Like when she told Sara, “Maybe we could wear similar sweatshirts!”

She also continues to surprise me with making up songs. I would expect at her age she would be into repeating songs she hears a lot, or in making up songs about what she is doing. And she does do both of those things. But when she and Sara both wore pink shirts, she burst out singing “Two pink girls, singing in the rain!” No idea where that one came from. It wasn’t even raining.

Finally, the other day she was taking a nap when she cried out, “I want it, I want it, I want it!” so I opened the door, but she wasn’t sitting up. I whispered, “Are you awake?” as a joke, since I knew she was awake; I had just heard her. But she wasn’t awake, she was completely out. We have been noticing lately a new possessiveness, a new demanding-ness, a true toddler I-want-it-all-and-I-want-it-right-now-ness…but usually not when she’s sleeping.

“Outback” Milk

/ Shane / 6 Comments

The other day, we drove miles and miles to go to one of our favorite restaurants, Outback Steakhouse. Hey Outback, what’s the deal with the Outback-free bubble over Chicago? A lot of people live here, you might want to give it a try!

Anyway, we were ordering Evie a kids meal and we decided we might as well order her a milk. We knew she wouldn’t drink it, but it came with the meal, so we thought “might as well”. We have tried since the dawn of time to get that girl to drink milk, she is not interested. Right about the time that she was quitting bottles, we had some success giving her milk in a bottle, but I think that was the bottle nostalgia factor. Other than that, nada. And when I say we tried, I mean it! We started drinking milk ourselves with every meal, we tried calling it different names, we bought fun Elmo cups that could be used only for milk, we even let Evie decorate cups herself with cow stickers. I even remember a string of a couple of nights were Sara and I would “moo” every time we took a drink! She wasn’t having it.

So imagine my surprise when she started going to town on the glass of milk at Outback! Quick to seize the opportunity, I started saying things like, “How is that Outback Milk?” or “Mmm, you really like Outback Milk, don’t you?” Then we went to the store and bought some 2% milk (we have previously tried whole and skim, plus a couple of custom-made varieties involving a mixture of skim and half-and-half). The 2% carton is blue, which we told her indicates Outback Milk. We also dug out a few cups that looked as close as possible to the cup she had at Outback, including some straws.

So far, it seems to be working! She is sucking that stuff down like there’s no tomorrow. I’m sure she will pull her usual stunt and decide tomorrow that she’s totally off the milk again, so I’m holding my breath. Overall though, even if this only goes on for a couple of weeks, I think we did a most excellent job of thinking on our feet and capitalizing on a situation.

Did someone say Zombie Pirate Party?

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Not really my type of music but, for what’s it worth, I seem to remember that my friend 85 liked Voltaire. I think they have a violinist. Anyway, the music seems appropriate to a zombie pirate party. I can buy the people in the picture as zombies, but they don’t look particularly pirate-y.

No Olympics for Chicago in 2016

/ Shane / 74 Comments

Chicago will not be hosting the 2016 Olympic games.

Goodbye skyrocketing  property values! It is quite a let down. Towards the end there, there was really a feeling of inevitability about it. I guess we were overly optimistic.

I remember when we went to London during their bid for the 2012 Olympics. There were “back the bid” signs everywhere we went and I thought, “How exciting! It would be neat to be a part of that.” I never really got that feeling here in Chicago, like everyone in the city was pulling for it. Certainly, everyone in my neighborhood was not pulling for it. There were some legitimate reasons, and some not.

For example, one concern was that bringing the Olympics, specifically to the poorer South Side neighborhoods, will raise property values pushing out the people who live paycheck to paycheck and therefore rent instead of own. If the property is more expensive, the rent will be forced up, and they won’t be able to afford to pay. This is a legitimate concern, however, I don’t know how I feel about that exactly. I do see the point, but on the other hand, A) I don’t rent, I own, so rising value is good for me, and B) I want my neighborhood to be nice. I refuse to accept the argument that improving the neighborhood is a bad thing, and I refuse to accept a crappy (sometimes dangerous) neighborhood.

Other concerns are ridiculous, such as the people complaining about how the Olympics will create traffic or parking problems. Sheesh, talk about self-centered. I don’t want this major ridiculous event that half the world would kill to get because for 2 weeks I might have trouble getting a parking spot! Waaah! I also reject the arguments about keeping the stadium out of the park that hardly anyone wants to go to now anyway. I hear people complaining that hosting an Olympics is a money losing venture. That is probably true, if you look at it on a city wide scale. But if you live in this neighborhood, at Olympics ground zero, it is not true. Think about it: all of the infrastructure that will be built, will be built here. But all of the cost will be split across all of Chicago. So the people out in the suburbs are essentially paying for your infrastructure improvements. They should be the ones complaining, if anybody!

I don’t know if the public opposition had anything to do with it or not. There could have been a whole host of reasons. And, hey, if Rio de Janeiro wins, I won’t feel too bad. The Olympics have never been hosted anywhere on the South American continent. That is a shame. I can’t begrudge the judges if they award it to them over the U.S. who has hosted many.

By the by, there isn’t quite as much excitement over the Paralympics, but don’t discount them…I just learned of the existence of wheelchair fencing!!

Weekend with old friends

/ Shane / 2 Comments

What a weekend.

We were visited by some friends from college who we hadn’t seen in a long time. We hadn’t seen them for so long that we’ve had a kid since then and they’ve had two. It was great to finally meet Ayla and Jackson, and Evie had an absolute blast. Obviously she’s played with kids her age before, but the last time someone her age came to our house, she was too young to really appreciate it, or remember.

She was such a good girl sharing all her toys and things without complaint. It was adorable to watch her playing with Ayla and trying to hold her hand. I wasn’t exactly sure how she would react, but she was a perfect angel. I think she’ll probably sleep for a week. I guess it was fun to see Alexis and Gregory too. 😛

Mostly we just stayed around the house, but we did walk over to the garden and the farmer’s market. We took the train downtown to the aquarium, which was Ayla and Jackson’s first time on the train, and we (well everyone but me) hit up the jazz festival. I think we could have confined ourself in a padded cell and Evie would have still had a blast, but seeing the dolphin show was still pretty exciting.

Another highlight was when Jackson peed on my leg. I mean, I’ve been peed on (or worse) before, but it has been awhile (and it’s probably something you never quite get used to). I had seen him pick up a water-squirting bath toy moments before, so when I first felt the stream I didn’t even look over at him. That reminds me though of another one of Evie’s favorite parts, which was taking a bath with everybody. Every day she asked if they could take a bath with her again that night. Ayla and Jackson are much more rambunctious in the bath than Evie, who mostly just sits there and hates to get her face wet. I think Jackson in particular was quite a surprise to her.

The weekend definitely wore me out though. Alexis and Gregory are blessed by kids who sleep late in the morning, so staying up until midnight isn’t quite the hit to them! Evie hasn’t really been sad since they left, but she has mentioned that she wants to, “call Ayla and tell her I miss her”. She also said that when they leave, “I won’t be sad. I’ll just close the door and sit on my yellow chair and be lonely.”

So, all in all, a really great weekend and we all had a blast. We need to do it again soon. I really enjoyed having you guys over and actually hanging out with friends (something we never do!) I just wish you guys lived a little closer!

I think my all time favorite part of the weekend though, was when we got off the train at the stop right next to our house (you can see our place from the platform actually) and the conductor said, “Are you folks from out of town?” I said, “Some of us are, but we live here.” He replied, “Are you sure you want to get off here? This is kind of a rough neighborhood…”

Nothing like getting told your block is too rough for you.