I love my job

Reason #1: I work as an advertising creative. My job requires little math and lots of creativity. (And it pays pretty well, too.)

But we also have fun, which leads me to reasons 2 and 3.

Reason #2: Today we celebrated our account director's 34th birthday with tiny cans of sparkling wine. With straws! And cupcakes! And remember how they celebrated my 34th? On the roof of the Wit. Summer birthday celebrations at work make up for a childhood without decorated lockers and cupcakes for the whole class.

Reason #3: For our team outing tomorrow, we're renting a tiki boat. If you see 10 girls and 1 guy on a ramshackle pontoon boat on Lake Michigan tomorrow, be sure to wave hello. I'll be the one wearing a Land's End tankini, a rat's nest of windblown curls, SPF 50 and a giant smile.

5 foot 2, could it be true?

We took the girls to our family doctor for their annual physicals on Monday morning. Both of them measure in the 10th percentile for height. Z, our skinny girl, was between the 5th and 10th percentile for weight. A was about 25th percentile for weight. When I asked if it was too early to predict their adult heights, the doctor said no, she thinks they'll both end up about 5 foot 2. (For the record, I'm 5' 6.)

As usual, they received compliments for their cooperative behavior and advanced verbal skills. With one exception. Shortly after the doctor arrived, she confirmed that Z was due for 3 vaccinations (in 2 shots) and A would escape shot-free. Z turned away from us for a moment and I could see a couple of silent tears slip down her cheeks. She was a little less animated after that. A, on the other hand, repeatedly asked if "Her could give her some shots now."

When the doctor slipped out and the nurse arrived, needles in hand, Z lost it. I had to pin her down as she screamed and writhed. I'm sure folks could hear her all the way out in the waiting area.

Anyway, Z is now fully vaccinated for kindergarten. We find out on August 16th if she'll win one of the coveted 24 spots in the brand-new Spanish immersion classroom.

Flood, friends and film

My plan for this morning was to take Z and one of her friends up to Evanston for a free Chicagonista screening of Ramona and Beezus. But after last night's torrential rains, the highways and Blue Line trains were shut down and reports of flooding on roads under the viaducts was widespread.

When I picked up Z's buddy, I saw their pond-like backyard and learned their basement was flooded as well. Since I didn't want the girls to be too disappointed, I hung out with them making friendship bracelets for an hour or so and then took them to see Toy Story 3 in 3-D at the local cinema.

After the movie I dropped off her friend and picked up A and headed southwest to Brookfield, where we were going to visit the new home of an old friend. Remember how just last weekend I reconnected with 4 former Newcity colleagues? Well today I got to hang out with one of my favorite Newcity people, Alana. It was such a treat to catch up with her and meet her jolly 11 month old, Will, but getting there and back? Well, it looked like this.

Driving through a foot of water in your Honda CR-V is kind of fun, but finding out that a dozen of your friends are dealing with flooded basements and one is in dire need of a new apartment now? It sucks.

My 5 year old reviews Kidz Bop 18

Yes, I let my kindergarten age daughter listen to Top 40 radio. In the car. Sometimes. I also let her listen to just about everything Josh puts on. And since he's a professional music critic, he's got music playing pretty much all the time. And it's virtually never the "radio-safe" version.

No biggie, right? Except when said 5 year old starts singing about "sippin' gin and juice" and wearing "Daisy Dukes with bikinis on top," I start channeling Tipper Gore.

Enter Kidz Bop 18, a CD compilation that's basically That's What I Call Music as sung by kids. I gave to it Z to review and she typed up the following.

Personally, I kind of like Kidz Bop myself. Same catchy pop tunes with decent production values and lyrics that are more grade-school appropriate than anything Katy Perry would write.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of the CD for free.

A budget-friendly birthday party in Berwyn

Ice cream parlor birthday parties are pretty commonplace among families in our Oak Park community, but not one of the 5 families we invited to A's 3rd birthday party had ever heard of--much less been to--Over the Rainbow. Located 2 blocks west of Oak Park Avenue along the train tracks in Berwyn, Oak Park's blue-collar sibling suburb to the south, Over the Rainbow is a charming old fashioned Hershey's ice cream shop decorated with memorabilia from the owner's favorite childhood story, The Wizard of Oz.

For an unbelievably affordable $70 fee (good for up to 10 kids), we had the run of the place for 2 hours. The owner organized games, read to the kids from a pop-up The Wizard of Oz storybook, and served hot dogs, chips, juice and enough ice cream cake to feed all the kids, all the parents and bring home leftovers. Everything was included except for the balloons and Tony was enthusiastic and animated, keeping the kids entertained the whole time. They tried on ice cream cone hats, played musical chairs, a ring-toss game and hot potato, and ended with a modified version of BINGO that everyone won simultaneously. Tony even handed all the kiddies a small goodie-bag of candy.

A had been looking forward to her birthday party for over a month, and she seemed a little overwhelmed by the excitement at first, but by the time the hot dogs were passed out, she was fully warmed-up and having a blast.

We had a fabulous time, and I highly recommend Over the Rainbow for an outsourced birthday party that doesn't break the bank.

Doing a disclosure statement when there is nothing to disclose is a little weird, but I want to make it plain that I received no compensation or consideration for this post.

I'm just a little bit rock and roll

Did I mention I spent 4 hours at the Pitchfork Music Festival with Josh and the girls Friday evening? Oh right, I saved that anecdote for my first ever post at the brand-new collaborative mom-blogging site TheChicagoMoms.com.

I went back on Saturday night, without the kids, and ended up bumping into 4 co-workers from my days at Newcity (a decade ago).

But then I was all rocked out. Sunday I sacrificed the opportunity to see Big Boi live for a lazy afternoon at the pool and a laid-back Popeye's picnic at the weekly free concert in Scoville Park.

A few more photos from the fest...

The limits of self-imposed happiness

In This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness, Laura Munson recalls a what could have been a sad, sad summer. Her husband announced he didn't love her anymore. His business was failing and she was writing novels that never got published. The dream life they'd built in Montana was a house of cards in danger of tumbling down.

But it didn't turn out that way. Fueled by therapy and a pile of self-help books, the failed novelist journaled through her summer of discontent, determined that her husband was wrong--he did still love her--and he just needed a little space to figure that out.

And--if her book is to be believed--she was right. Her husband came back and her journal turned into her first published book. Go her!

Now, I think there's something to be said for taking responsibility for your own happiness. Life can serve up a lot of crap (death, job losses, financial difficulties and rocky relationships), and wallowing in our misery and playing the blame game are probably pretty poor choices. But I think Munson's Pollyannaish "serenity now" approach only works for the challenges of a pretty comfortable existence. I also just finished reading Sarah's Key, and it's pretty clear that the French who watched tens of thousands of Jews get deported to Nazi death camps probably should have gotten angry, spoken up and fought back instead of thinking, "Hey, those Germans will do the right thing if we just step back and give them a little space."

I received my copy of the book in exchange for my participation in the From Left to Write blogger book club.