Child's play - Chicago style

A vendor I deal with often through work is about to go to Chicago, so when he heard I'd just been there, he asked for tips of what to see and do. As I described all the places we'd gone,, his expression showed that he'd totally lost interest. He's traveling without kids and was looking for tips on nightlife.

Couldn't help him with that.

Though I think it's kind of nice that kids give us the excuse to check out places like the Children's Museum.

Chicago's basically serves as the entrance to Navy Pier. Sydney and I spent quite a bit of time in the grocery store/restaurant/kitchen, where she happily served me breakfast. Over and over and over again. Eggs and lemonade - the new breakfast of champions.

The museum also featured a fun dinosaur exhibit, which was similar to something we saw in St. Paul a few years ago. Similar, but not identical, because I don't recall AJ ever having the chance before to do this:

The girls preferred looking for dinosaurs, rather than be eaten by them. Here they are searching for "fossils":

But by far, the kids favorite exhibit was... a piano.

Perhaps it's time we buy one and enroll them in lessons. They patiently waited in line for about 10 minutes for a chance to play. (Behind a young girl who admittedly was quite good, but also an incredibly annoying show off with parents who seemed happy to let her show off, either oblivious or uncaring that close to 10 kids were waiting in line for their turns.)

I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the children's museum. It certainly was nice, and the kids had fun. But compared to the children's museums in St. Paul and in Rochester, NY, it wasn't that impressive. I'd figured a city the size of Chicago would have something amazing. Oh well. The kids still enjoyed themselves, proving that really all they need is a place to play and unleash their imaginations.

A bit of history

I am now two weeks behind in writing about some of our Chicago vacation adventures. On our last day there, we gave AJ the choice of where to visit. The science museum with "Sue" the T-rex, or the Chicago History Musuem.

I'm guessing the vast majority of six-year-old boys would have picked dinosaurs, but not my history buff.

And that is how he came to find himself watching an imaginary White Sox game at a mini-U.S. Cellular Field. (He'd already visited the real Wrigley Field, so we had to at least pretend to visit the home of the other Chicago baseball team. After all, it's the team of his namesake - AJ Pierzynski.)

Much of the museum focused on Abraham Lincoln. AJ was in his glory! Pictures and paintings - they even had the bed where Lincoln died. To him, it was all cool stuff.

Sydney preferred the trains. They had several to climb on and play. She seemed to prefer the role of engineer more than passenger.

I have no clue what the below picture shows... other than that everyone was having fun. I think the dots made music when stepped on.

Of course another key display focused on the great Chicago fire. According to Jeff, he's somehow related to the Mrs. O'Leary. You know, the one who sang, "there'll be a hot time in the old town tonight..." He says his grandmother told him this once. 

I'm a little skeptical because his brother Scott doesn't recall ever hearing of this infamous limb on the family tree. Regardless, Jeff was interested to learn that Mrs. O'Leary is no longer blamed for the fire. While there's evidence the fire started in or near her neighborhood, there's no proof her lantern or cow ignited it. And in the late 90's the Chicago City Council officially pardoned her. Jeff is now inspired to do a little research into his own family's history.

Baby teeth

My life, the last few days, seems to revolve around baby teeth: avoiding the puppy's, and paying for AJ's.

The tooth fairy will be stopping at our house tonight for the second time in five days. Meanwhile, I'm left to wonder how AJ's going to bite into anything with no teeth in the middle on top, and middle teeth on the bottom that haven't fully grown back in.

I do believe there's a wider gap between my son's teeth than between the slats in the railing behind him.

AJ doesn't care. In his mind, he didn't lose a tooth, he gained a dollar. And now he's excitedly imagining how/where/when he'll spend his loot. This tooth-losing business pays quite well. He hasn't spent the dollar from last week's tooth fairy visit, and tonight he'll double his haul.

At least there was some warning this time that a dollar bill would be needed by nightfall. Last Friday, it was less than a half hour before bedtime when AJ wiggled out the first tooth. How can the tooth fairy possibly be expected to work under such conditions? She's got sleeping kids waiting for her world-wide, and now she's expected to produce a spare buck on short notice? And on a night when Mr. Tooth Fairy is working, so she doesn't even have access to his wallet?

As luck would have it, the tooth fairy was able to locate a one dollar bill in her wallet, and was able to successfully change the subject when the soon-to-be recipient of the dollar happened to see her digging through her purse and question what she was doing.

The next morning, I laid the groundwork for an excuse should a similar situation happen again. I told AJ he was very lucky the tooth fairy was able to make it to our house. He must have lost his tooth just in time! If it had been any later, the tooth fairy might have already started her nightly rounds, in which case she wouldn't have heard until the next day that she needed to visit our house.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the latest lost tooth came out first thing this morning. AJ described it as happening, "like two seconds after I woke up."

The tooth fairy is on alert!

Now if only she'd share a humane secret for speeding up when Gus' razor-sharp fangs (shown here attacking a lawn chair) would fall out.

For that I'd shell out the big bucks!

Inflated fun

From a kid's perspective, the talent to twist balloons into fun shapes is just about as cool as the ability to fly, see through walls and a host of other super powers.

A few days ago, I wrote about AJ getting called up on stage during a live show at Navy Pier. (If you haven't seen the video, click here.) After racking up three of his minutes of fame, AJ happily exited the stage armed with two balloon swords (one of which he immediately offered to cousin Ben, because what good's a balloon sword if you can't sword fight someone with it?) and a balloon belt.

Sadly, the balloon belt didn't last long. While attempting to fasten his seat belt in the taxi, I accidentally popped the balloon belt. AJ was beyond upset. It was as if I'd committed ultimate betrayal. He'd trusted me to keep him safe, and instead I destroyed his newest, most favorite possession.

As luck would have it, barely 24 hours later we wrapped up our final night in Chicago with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. It was a great restaurant with amazing decor and surprisingly good food. Even better, it employed a woman who knew how to twist balloons.

What did AJ ask her to make? I'll give you one guess. (If you need a hint, look at the brown balloon wrapped around his waist in the photo below.)

AJ was so excited to again have a place to stash his balloon sword, he had to bring his sister over to see the artist in action.

Sydney was suitably impressed and soon ended up with a special balloon creation of her own - a lovely flower. 

I couldn't help but shake my head at the pure joy these simple toys inspired. The restaurant features giant aquariums filled with colorful tropical fish. Plus, we'd ordered a really cool fudge-covered ice cream/brownie dessert that looked like an erupting volcano. And yet all AJ wanted to do was go back to the hotel so he could get his balloon sword to put in his balloon belt.

Amazingly, the balloon belt survived the trip all the way back to Minnesota, as did the green stem on Sydney's flower. (How lucky for me?!?) The sword popped before we reached the Illinois/Wisconsin border, and the flower's pink petals popped one at a time over a two-day period.

But at least for one evening on vacation in Chicago, all of AJ's swashbuckling dreams came true.

The true personality emerges

Remember how I used to describe Gus as a calm and mellow puppy? He sure had me fooled!

It's been a week since our newest "baby" joined the family. A week of often-interrupted sleep and constant surveillance of a puppy who's not yet house-trained.



Who me?



In his time with us, Gus has gained a pound and a half, growing from nine pounds to 10.5. He desperately wants to be the alpha-male to someone, and I fear it will be Sydney. The rest of us are perfectly comfortable putting him in his place when he misbehaves, but Sydney squeals and freezes, allowing him to nip some more. Today we convinced her it's okay to swat at his nose and yell "back off buster," so I'm hopeful she'll "out-attitude" him yet.

I've often said there's a reason God made puppies and babies so cute. It's so we don't strangle them in frustration.

 

Gus has definitely grown more comfortable in his new home. That's a mixed blessing. His new-found confidence also means he's more curious and interested in exploring. 

He's also more aggressive, gnawing on anything and anyone he can wrap his jaws around: table legs, toes and - when all else fails - his own tail.

The breeder had described Gus as a real spitfire. It so conflicted with the quiet puppy we brought home, I figured she must tell that line everyone.

The breeder was right.

He's quick to come running for praise after going to the bathroom outside. (Hopefully the neighbors haven't heard my enthusiastic cheers, "Good job, Gus. That's how the big guys do it.") But he's equally independent. When he wants to sleep, he wants to be left alone. He'll happily lay next to you, just as long as he's not touching you.

And like all puppies, Gus has a total inability to pace himself. He'll run around the backyard like a mad dog, nipping at our feet and doing everything he can think of to goad us into playing with him. And then, just like that he plops flat and falls asleep.

Gus is going to be featured in the next issue of Living North. I just finished writing the article today, ending it with, "He's no Maggie. But he's an awesome Gus."

Sophisticated travelers

Chicago is a great place to visit, but I sure wouldn't want to live there. For one thing, I like having a car and being able to drive - without being stuck in gridlock at any given hour of the day or having to spend ridiculous amounts of money each time I need to park ($42/night at our hotel, $21 for the first hour at a museum).

Thankfully, I was tipped off before the trip to park in the long-term lot at Midway airport ($9/night), from which we (i.e. Jeff) could take the "L" back downtown to our hotel.

The kids adapted quite well to public transportation. In fact, it became part of the vacation adventure. Here's their first taxi ride:

I lost count of how many times AJ commented, "look at that skyscraper." The kids quickly developed a rating system for each taxi, judging the air conditioning and whether or not it had a TV (though it only played a news channel.)

Most of the drivers ignored us, tuning us out with headphones or talking on their phone via an ear piece. But one driver found my children to be highly entertaining. As I recall, the exchange between Sydney and AJ went something like this.

Sydney: "AJ, when I get married, will you be my husband?"

AJ: "Sydney, I would go to jail for that!"

Perhaps a non English speaking driver wouldn't have been so bad.

For our trip to Wrigley Field, we took the "L".

Nowhere have I been able to figure out how this combination train/subway got its nickname. My first guess was it was an abbreviation for ELevated train. Or maybe it's because the main section under downtown is known as the Loop. Apparently no one else wonders about these things, because even a web page dedicated to the history of the L's development doesn't explain.

My curiosities aside, the kids had mixed reactions to the L. Sydney wasn't too wild about it. Too many stairs involved to climb underground and later work our way back to the surface. The ticket/turn style process was interesting to them, and once seats opened up for them to sit, they enjoyed the ride much more. But overall, AJ liked the elevated portions of the trip much more than the subway segments.

One last fun traveling story that has nothing to do with public transportation. AJ obviously listens to us as we interact with other hotel guests. At a hotel in Madison on our way home, when the elevator door opened for us, AJ looked at the three men already inside and asked, "Excuse me, is this going up?"

The men had been speaking in another language, I'm guessing it was Russian, but they stopped and nodded. At the next floor, two of the men got off, but the third remained. He smiled at AJ and asked in a thick accent, "What is your name?"

AJ seemed almost stumped as to how to answer, and then it became clear it was because he was already thinking ahead to a question he wanted to ask the man in return. I braced myself for an embarrassing scene as AJ at last responded, "I'm Alex. Did you know, um, that you, um, look like Frank Sinatra?"

The man (who really didn't look like Frank Sinatra other than perhaps his hairstyle) smiled and said something about wishing he could sing like him. Thankfully it was only a few more seconds before we reached our floor. Thankfully, we will likely never see the man, or the Chicago taxi driver, ever again.

The Chicago Juggler

For AJ, it was a dream come true. My little ham got called out of the audience and, for a few brief moments, got to go up on stage during a live performance.

While visiting Navy Pier last week, we happened to catch "The Chicago Juggler". When the guy asked for volunteers, AJ's arm shot up, as did the arms of dozens of other kids. But it was AJ he chose. Here's a look at the entertainer and his enthusiastic volunteer. (Note: the video is broken into two segments. The second part picks up where the first leaves off. All together they're about three minutes long.)

AJ's no stranger to balloon swords, but a balloon belt to hold a sword... that was pretty exciting. Alas, the balloon belt didn't survive the seatbelt during the taxi ride back to the hotel. AJ was so disappointed. Despite that, at bedtime when I asked him what was the best part of his day (a day filled with swimming, a trip to the Children's Museum and the rides at Navy Pier), I really wasn't  too surprised when he said his favorite thing was getting to help the juggler.