The Art Institute

So today we ventured out to the Art Institute with the kids. The history on this is that Grace was born January 2nd 2001, and on January 1st Mike and I went to the Art Institute and walked our fannies off (it seemed like a good choice because it was a. indoors and therefore b. warm and also c. free of ice, especially useful for those who cannot see their feet and whose centers of gravity are way, way off.) We went home; I went into labor; a mere 26 agonizing hours later, ta da! We were parents. So today was uneventful, by comaparison. Grace got to see her favorite painting, "Sunday in the Park" plus there's a Jaspar Johns exhibit right now that was really cool. We also saw "American Gothic" which is always fun. The best part was a photography collection called "Girls on the Verge" which is photos of adolescent girls - really stark and beautiful but somehow also very sad.

Anyway, we had lunch in the little cafe, and remembered that on Mother's Day of 2004 some random professonal photographer took some pictures of the kids there as we were playing after lunch. She was kind enough to email them to us, and I've included them along with photos of Those Same Kids in That Same Spot only you can't really tell on the locale. The kids are bigger, though.

More changing of the china.

So we're marking the seasons by packing up the Christmas decorations and bringing out the birthday china. As Grace said to Peter, "Whose birthday are we *celebrating* with this china? MY birthday, that's whose!" We keep it out through Peter's birthday at the end of March, or Easter, whichever comes first (it sometimes gets a little dicey, depending on whether we're hosting Easter, how organized we are, and when the dates fall). The pattern by Hazel Atlas (sold in the 40's-60's) is variously called "Crinoline," "Ripple," "Lasagna" and probably a few other things (on a Very Bad Day in our house, the non-china lover in the family called it "grotesque." But we assume he was kidding, more or less.) The cup and sugar and creamer handles come either in beaded or plain - we have the beaded version, which to my way of thinking is a bit prettier. The pitchers and glasses were manufactured as go-along pieces, so they're not marked (actually, none of it is marked) and they're sometimes tricky to find. I have a sneaking suspicion that I have a third pitcher around here somewhere, along with a few more plates, but I can't imagine a scenario where I'm short on either. The pattern also comes with pink bands or completely white, but the pink is maybe a bit garish and the white is a little too plain. I found some really fun vintage linens that match nicely, and I'm hoping that as the kids get older they'll look back on their birthday party pictures and remember having this china every year.

I swear, I'm not making this up.

Cash Advance Loans

Christmas photo roundup...

Goggles: a hit! Presents generally: lots of fun! Gingerbread impulsively baked in a fancy Bundt pan: yummy.

At the MSI

So we went with grandparents to the MSI today. They've updated the farm exhibit, which was fun, and we spent a lot of time playing in the water at the Idea Factory. The first three pictures are from our last visit, almost a year ago: Peter had wild, curly hair! Gracie was only in kindergarten! This time, both kids were seasoned garden veterans who looked with lots of interest at the plants growing in the little greenhouse next to the big combine. We saw lots of things we recognized: tomatoes, basil, sage, peppers... I'd love to grow seedlings under grow lights in the garage this spring, but I need to do some research on what kind of lights I'd need. We had a great visit and wrapped it up with some lunch and bowling in Hyde Park, during which one set of three-year-old fingers got squished between some bowling balls. We managed to keep fingers safe for about the first 45 minutes of bowling through constant vigilance every time the ball returned. But eventually the odds caught up with us. The fingers are fine, although I'm not sure Peter's really in favor of bowling.

Accepting imperfection

So I have a little bit of a history with coffee mugs. I had a favorite one for years that my best friend made me in college - she's a great potter and it was pink and blue, and had a nice handle. It eventually went the way of all fragile objects, and my next favorite cup was one I bought for myself on my 30th birthday. We were in California for reasons I no longer remember and I spent a few kid-free minutes in a chi-chi clothing and accessories store and bought this cute cup with my first initial on it. If I recall correctly, that's the one Peter snatched off the counter, whacked me in the head with, and then dashed to the floor. I bought a replacement and broke it myself. Likewise the next one, a tall red pottery cup from Target. The most recent one was a cool jaquard pattern - a black and white print that I bought on clearance at Target (and why I bought one, not two, remains a mystery.) Because, of course, I smacked it against the counter by accident yesterday morning, and rendered it obsolete. Now there is not, technically, any coffee mug shortage in our home, but a girl likes to have her very own mug, you know? So I set out to find yet another temporary permanant mug. Target proved to be not the place I needed to go (overtly holiday mugs aren't quite as cozy in July). Likewise the cute pottery/gift store downtown. (Nice dessert plates - but no regular-person-sized-non-Christmas mugs.) So today I stopped into Starbucks (the drive-through one, not the close by one) to buy coffee for us and a gift card for Grace's teacher, and saw this red mug. There was also a silver version, but the red one seemed just somehow better in my red kitchen, and cheerful, and on sale... so I bought it, and just as I was driving away, realized that because of the ultra-shiny red finish (think Christmas ornament finish, on a coffee cup) it's probably handwash. And worse: when I got home, I checked the bottom, and sure enough. "Ne pas mettre ce produit au for a micro-ondres." Thank God I high-passed that French exam. And while in theory this isn't so bad (I don't microwave coffee, and typically heat water for tea in the teakettle) the real killer here is going to be hot cocoa. I had to microwave the milk for the cocoa in a different mug, then pour it in the shiny red mug, then stir in the cocoa, then add enough Kahlua to make up the difference in volume between the two mugs. C'est la vie.

Total totebag equity achieved!

So for those avid blog readers (don't laugh! I'm sure there are at least one or two!) who were deeply concerned that Grace was alone in the fun tote bag whirlwind, rest assured. We took yet another trip to the local fabric store and I let Peter pick out some lining and some other do-dads to put on his bag. At first he wanted a bear theme, but none of the bear appliques met with his approval: he was thinking more fierce than teddy. So we rejected the bear fabric for the lining, and finally found cute buttons in the shape of vehicles to sew on. I proposed a road; he counter-proposed a sidewalk. He wanted every. single. button. on the bag; I managed to narrow it down a bit. He was much less interested in the sewing process than Grace was, but seems pleased with the final product and plans to take his assorted preschool gear to school in the bag today.

Snow day, sew day.

This was more a sick day than a snow day, but Grace and I put it to good use. I saw some cute tote bags at Target and thought it would be fun to make one, so I got some denim, felt and "notions" (read: ricrac, ribbon, and appliques) and we made a little tote bag. We used fabric we already had for the lining, and the purple trim and lining kind of tie in with the butterflies... I have trouble with predicting the order in which things should be sewn, so there are a few rough edges, but all in all it's a fun and very sturdy little bag. Maybe that gentle reminder phone call from the library will inspire Grace to keep her library books in the new bag!

Lucia (final edition) and outside in the snow!

So today we wrapped up the Lucia season with our family celebration - non-traditional coffee cake and the Lucia music and crown. The Starboy gave up his hat and wand favor of carrying a plate of sausage, which was fine. Then we went outside for some shoveling, snowblowing, and play in the snow! The bench which is such a nice place to sit on a summer evening is now totally covered in fresh snow - pretty but maybe not quite so inviting as a place to sit.

Snowshoes at night

Last night near the beginning of a big snow storm we decided to go out and play a little. Grace got her snowshoes on, and so did I; Mike walked and Peter rode most of the way in the sled. We walked along a mostly dry creekbed for a while, then through our neighborhood for about 3/4 mile. The Christmas lights were really beautiful, the snow was coming down, and until the wind picked up we had a great time. Peter was ready to come in a few blocks before we came home, so we took turns carrying him and pulling Grace in the sled. Later today we're going to go sledding at the park - the snow has stopped and we got a bit over six inches, judging from the accumulation on the birdbath outside.

Lucia at school, part two!

So we took our show on the road yet again, this time including the traditional Lucia buns. The first graders were a somewhat more attentive audience, and although Peter has quite a following among Grace's classmates (or because he does?) he insisted on sitting on my lap during the story-reading portion. Interesting culinary note: saffron strands are not identical with powdered saffron, so the buns weren't yellow, although they were more evenly baked than the picture above suggests. I was impressed by the willingness of the kids to eat baked goods seasoned with saffron, ginger, and cinnamon - it's not an especially sweet pastry. Grace's teacher noted that the buns were an unusual shape, and I told her that the Sicilian version of the Lucia story includes Lucia's fairly dramatic response to a suitor's admiration of her beautiful eyes: she dug them out with a knife and sent them to him on a plate. So the Italian depictions of Lucia often involve her carrying her eyes around on a plate, and the buns are supposed to resemble eyes. The teacher nodded politely and agreed with me that it wasn't a detail I needed to share with the first-graders. Today is the actual date of Lucia's feast, although our continued baking and tromping over to the neighbors' with buns will have to wait until the weekend. The kids enjoy that part most of all, I think - the candle crown and the starboy wand look very cool outside in the dark. The neighbors, who are not Swedish, are always nice about helping us honor Lucia by bringing them treats.

Lucia at school, part one

So there's this passage in the novel Sight Hound, by Pam Houston, where the man whom the main character marries is describing their first date. He's an actor, and he's a little crazy, and she's a playwright, and she's a little needy, and they turn out to be perfect for each other. He says "I guess you won't be surprised when I tell you that ours was not the run-of-the-mill first date. There was the reading of poetry, for instance, on her part, and there was my performance of Freakus Discus, the one-man show I wrote about the second coming of the God of Disco, and I did it up for her at her apartment as if it were a stage performance, the platform shoes, the 'fro and fake chest hair, the mirror ball I keep in my car for just such an occasion; she got the works."

I felt a little like this guy when I started packing up my stuff to do a cute Santa Lucia presentation at Peter's preschool. It involved two different battery-operated props (one wand, one crown), a gown with sash, a huge pointed hat, a book to read and more to show pictures from, a CD, gingersnaps, coloring sheets, a tray, napkins hand-stamped with a cute image of Lucia handing out baked goods... you get the picture. But it went well, the music was good, the costumes were well-received, the ginger snaps not so much, and they all wanted to take their napkins home to their mamas.

We trim the tree...

We found a Santa Lucia tree-topper this year, and my ongoing obsession with binder clips served useful once again: a good-sized one was perfect for anchoring her firmly to the tree. The kids decorated a smaller tree, and we carefully divided ornaments into "fragile" for the top of the tree and "not fragile" for the bottom. I'm sorely tempted to send the flying pig to my friend Renata, who has a garden ornament flying pig, so that must mean she loves all flying pigs of any kind and wants a flying pig collection, right? The girl with the toys is from my parents' 1978 trip to Chicago - they bought it at Marshall Fields' for me. We got the little Lucia ornament at the MSI last year; they have a cool exhibit of trees from around the world and a little shadowbox display that discusses the Lucia tradition. It was fun for Grace to see - maybe we'll try to go again this year during the kids' school break. I have good MSI memories.