26 Great Moments from Trip to Chicago (Dec 2011/Jan 2012)

We squeezed in a quick trip to Chicago to see my family during Thora's winter break from school. (Sean was working long days and one 24-hour call shift 4 of the 5 days that we'd be gone, so it kind of made sense to go.) For a look at the whole album, click here.

Here we are having just arrived. NuNu got these very silly but cute hat/mittens/scarf items. The kids love them. Thora wears hers every day to school.







We have some traditions, and one of those is to meet my sister at The Silo, a pizza parlour down the road from BaBa and NuNu's place. NuNu loves to have fancy things for dress-up when Thora comes. She was given these flowers from her mom (I think) and you can see that they're just perfect for the occasion!





Another tradition is to have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe that's near Grandma Jane's place. Thora became very serious all of a sudden, about posing for photos and reviewing them on the camera to make sure that they were just right. This is one of many posed shots, initiated by her, during the trip.

Grandma Jane and Thora.

Aunt Natalie joined us for dinner too. Great fun had by all, including when Natalie and Thora accidentally walked into the kitchen. (Thora thought they'd done something very illicit!)







And of course, we spend about ten minutes riding these coin-operated vehicles.











Auric: "Okay, total mayhem on the count of three. You ready?"

Thora: "I was born ready."









At the Chicago Botanic Gardens, they had an incredible exhibit called Wonderland Express. This was the first part of the exhibit, a gingerbread house village made entirely out of candy. (We liked the log cabin--lower left of photo--made out of pretzel rods, complete with its own outhouse.)






The exhibit was a miniature city, all made out of plant life and organic material, in which sit replicas of Chicago landmarks. It was all so intricate and detailed, I was completely blown away. I tried to express to Thora that in my whole life I'd never seen anything like this. And if that wasn't mindblowing enough, freight trains and commuter trains continually circled the city of "Wonderland."








Here is a replica of the Obama family home, again all made out of plants and trees.









Auric was quite impressed. (On the left is a replica of the Field Museum.)









Periodically, fake snow would fall down over Wonderland. Really it was light, frothy bubbles that dissolved once it landed (on people, or the city). Here is my attempt to capture the magic of a brief snow storm over Wonderland, with the Chicago skyline in the background. The Navy Pier ferris wheel near the shore of the river really rotated.









Auric and NuNu











After some time in the exhibit and a short meal in the cafeteria, the kids needed to burn off some steam. They basically did sprints all around the grounds of the Botanic Gardens.









On New Year's Eve, we met Natalie downtown and redeemed ourselves with a successful trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo! (Our last attempt in September was a bust.) We had a great time!









Aunt Natalie and Thora











If there's a train to be ridden, Auric will ride that train.









This was a great find, in the Children's Zoo--a nice, warm, incredibly involved indoor climbing structure. Thora was still challenged by it, and thankfully feeling gracious enough to help her brother when he occasionally got stuck. But they made it through the whole obstacle course. It only took them a half hour!






I'd read that the Lincoln Park Zoo was putting on a light show and family-friendly celebration for New Year's Eve. But I'd figured that by the time we'd need to leave to head back up to the north suburbs, we would miss it. Happily, I was wrong. Since it was dark at 4:30, they had all the lights on when we emerged from the Children's Zoo. The bear figure in the photo at the left was actually by far the lamest of the lights. (It was the only one I seemed to capture.) There were dozens of these kinds of huge, glowing statues, along with lights in trees and lights over awnings, and one of the coolest effects: blinking and moving lights hung vertically from the branches of a towering tree that gave the effect of snow falling down over us. We were happy to enjoy the lights as we made our way to the carousel for one last ride before leaving the Zoo.




On New Year's Day, we spent the day with Grandma Jane and Grandpa Terry. The kids got to do Christmas all over again and we all enjoyed the time together.










Thora got a deluxe art supply set and set to work coloring in some "fancy ladies" that I was commissioned to draw.








That afternoon, we were happy to learn that Monkey Joe's, a jumping castle play center, was open for shortened holiday hours. And so we drove there for about an hour of jumping. The kids absolutely love this place. And it's great to see them playing together. Usually, for the first 30 minutes or so, they love experiencing all the slides together. Here, Thora waits for Auric to join her.



























On our last morning, Thora enjoyed a prolonged story on the couch with NuNu.










Here is a nice little moment between Grandfather and Grandson. I like to imagine BaBa imparting some real sage advice to Auric, like, "It's important to try to always wear pants when someone has their camera out."

17 Great Moments from December 2011

Where was my camera all month? Only 17 "Great Moments"? Including Christmas? I don't know how to explain it but clearly I was very remiss during December. Let it be known that I'm documenting up a storm to compensate. So no future moment of cuteness will be missed if i can help it! Ok, back to December. Click here to look at the whole album (only 43 photos... shame shame). Enjoy!





Chocolate Toast, one of Auric's favorite foods. We did find one that has almonds as its first ingredient (instead of the sugar that is the first ingredient in Trader Joe's version of Nutella). So for Auric, it counts as protein.











Thora and River attended the Wheelock Family Theater production of the Urban Nutcracker. Fun! Although they agreed to disagree when it came to how much hand-to-hand fighting there should've been.






On Thursday mornings, Etta's dad, Greg, and I take care of the four little ones. On this particular day, we headed to the Museum of Science, where, for a short time, we had the Science in the Park exhibit all to ourselves. Here are the kids doing what we call, Racing the Lights. Enjoy!

Mia (on the right) has opened doors for Thora regarding what can be done with washable markers. Whenever they get together, the outcome is usually something like this.

Awww

In mid-December, we attended the monthly Kids Cooking class. Each month, a different parent hosts dinner at their house, during which the kids are encouraged to cook, with the hopeful end result being that the kids will be open to trying more foods. While I didn't manage to get photos of the cooking class (helping Thora with one hand, a glass of wine in the other), I did snap this one of Lila cozy-ed up with Sean. Lila LOVES "Daddy Sean." When we're all over at our house for a dinner playdate and Sean comes in the door from work, Lila is the first to run and greet him, before his own kids even! It's really adorable.



In mid-December, we attended a holiday party at Mia and Lily's house. In the basement is a rock star paradise: an electric keyboard, disco lights, and a full drum set. After one of the dads, a drummer in a rock band, wowed us for a while, the kids took turns. Thankfully Auric was the last to try it, because once it became his turn, he drummed for over 30 minutes. Auric LOVED this.










Here's a nice shot of Thora, mid-crash of the high hat.












Here are Mia and Thora, dressed to impress in Cinderella and Snow White dresses, and of course, with washable marker over all their exposed skin.














"What's a mop top?"












The kids and Sean relax one evening before bed. This shot captures all the many holiday cards we receive (the top string), our chili pepper lights, our own holiday cards that I've made since 2008 (the bottom string), and our 36" fiber optic Christmas tree (on the other side of the cd tower).






Christmas Eve, the kids opening one present each. Auric opens the Tinkertoys and Thora opens our own personal dvd of the musical, Annie.








Christmas Day began with a tune. We tried to inspire Auric's budding musical fascination with a harmonica, his first instrument of the day.










Thora loves to write! And so, with the help of Shutterfly, I designed her her own notebook, with pictures of herself on the front. She was happy.













Auric is thrilled to have his own "guitar." Really it's a ukelele.









Thora loves to design outfits for dolls and I thought that something that I loved as a girl, Fashion Plates, would be great for her. Thankfully, I didn't have to enter a bunch of ebay auctions, only to lose out repeatedly (like I did last year), for vintage 1980 Fashion Plates. Melissa and Doug now make their own. With these, she can create different outfits on a variety of models (by changing around the various plates) and then after doing a rubbing of the plates, she can color in the design. She loves this.







And we end with Auric in a box, the perfect image of a kid on Christmas day, finding joy in playing with the packing material.





Two days later, Thora, Auric, and I headed to Chicago for 5 days. Stay tuned for that post, coming soon...

23 Great Moments from November 2011

Oh, November. You were great, I think. I hardly remember you. Here's a glimpse of our life during that month. Click here to see the whole album.

We were the lucky recipient of another Cubs hat for the kids from Aunt Natalie. I guess that must be the frustrating aspect of buying toys for kids you love. They often lose it or break it before they've had a chance to enjoy it, or you've had a chance to enjoy watching them using it. Well, I was quick to snap a photo of Auric in his new awesome baseball cap before some tragedy could befall it.








(He put it on like that. I have nothing to do with that nonsense.)










Thora and Zach, winged fairies, at dance class. While Zach has kind of tired of the costume insanity that accompanies each dance class, and therefore chooses to dance in regular clothes, Thora insists on dressing up each week. The only thing I prohibit is the black Wonder Woman wig. That just seems like a little too much. But the wonder woman costume and rose petal fairy wings, and often accessorized with a scarf tied around her rib cage (I'm not sure what that supposed to be) is juuust right.







A meeting of the minds. Auric, Etta, Ellie, and Lila hash it out during one of their weekly morning play sessions.








Actually, in case you want to know what goes on in the mind of a 2 year old, here it is:

Thora saw improvement in her English and Chinese classes at school this month. She's getting better at sounding out words in English, figuring out the beginning and ending sounds, writing the letters and numbers (9 still stumps her, as do the counter-intuitive letters y and w). Here she is, proudly exhibiting her ability to write Moon in Chinese. She can also write part of her name. (There are two characters, one is simple and the other is incredibly complex. She can write the simple one.) I'll get that on film soon, I hope.










In November, Hilary, Zach's mom lined up tickets for us to see the 360' Peter Pan performance. It was exceptional. If it comes to your city, you should try to see it. Prior to the show, Thora, Zach, and I were killing time while Hilary grabbed us all hot chocolate. Thora was inspired by the poster behind her and performed her own version of magically flying. See the album here for a nice little series of photos, culminating in this one on the right.



Auric painted his first painting in November. And while Auric and his sister surely have different personalities, I was shocked to see it so obviously displayed in their respective first paintings. Notice in Auric's he dabs. It seems kind of careful, dare I say, thoughtful.











Compare that to Thora's first painting. Need I say more?



















On this particular week, Thora's great friend Mia also dressed in fairy wings for dance class.













Behold, Auric, the lead guitarist of his rock band.












And here we have a tub full of Ed Grimleys.












This was one of Auric's favorite activities. It was just like his beloved puddle jumping, with added dryness. This went on for about a half hour, me kicking the leaves into a pile and then watching him run through it, kicking the pile apart. Oh to be a kid...

"What ink pad?"

We attended our first live sing along in a movie theater of one of our favorites, Mary Poppins! They gave us a goodie bag upon entering, full of glow sticks for fireworks at the end of "Step in Time," a mini cup for the tea party on the ceiling, and a tambourine for "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." It was great fun!









Mary Poppins on the big screen! Good Times!












With no real plans of our own, we were kindly invited down to Zach's grandparents' place in Connecticut for Thanksgiving. A great time was had by all. Here are Zach and Thora during the big meal, drinking chocolate milk out of plastic wine glasses.






We went down to the beach in neighboring Greenwich for a hike on the incredibly unseasonably warm day. These photos were shot by Zach's Aunt Becca. Thanks, Becca for the great pics!

Here's Auric, not realizing that it's hard to look contemplative and philosophical when you're wearing a leash. He almost pulls it off, though, doesn't he?





Here are the buddies, Auric and Zach, the two most photogenic boys I know.











Thora loves these guys, even when she's torturing them.







During November, Thora's JK/K class had a parents breakfast, after which, the kids put on a performance. Thora and her classmates did a few songs and stories in both English and Chinese. Here are the highlights from that. (Don't worry; when I say highlights, I mean it. The video is only 53 seconds long.)

Thora's kind of hard to see, so if you want a closer look at them singing "How Many People are in your Family?" click here. The teacher recorded both halves of the class, and Thora is in the video near the bottom, the second kid on the left.

Here is the other song that they sang, "The Fruit Song," during one of their practice sessions leading up to the big show.



Then, to round out the month, after months of planning, we finally got to celebrate Sean's birthday with my present to him, a couples' cooking class with Mark, the chef with ArtEpicure. It was an amazing experience. He tailored the menu to our interests, particularly our hope to get better at cooking a meat dish, and to have guest-quality dishes in our repertoire. We made fresh spinach salad with poached eggs and a warm shallot dressing, braised beef short ribs, sage butternut squash risotto, roasted asparagus, and Julia Childs' chocolate mousse. Everything came out perfectly, and more importantly, we've been able to replicate the dishes at home with a fair amount of success! It was a great experience and I would whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone who likes to cook who lives in the Boston area. It was a very fun and memorable night!

Stay tuned for the next post, December. Until then...