She was more taken with the teenage ice skaters strutting their stuff on the rink and her favorite piece of public art, "the Big Bean" (better known as Cloud Gate).
There were family activities in a heated tent at the park, but we headed just south to the Art Institute of Chicago, which is free through the end of February and has a wealth of activities for kids (who knew?). We read books in their library, completed an American Gothic jigsaw puzzle, and stuck around for storytime at 12pm.
But it wasn't all for Z. I wanted to hit the AI because of this exhibit. Girls on the Verge is a photography exhibit that captures the physical and emotional lives of adolescent girls. I particularly liked the images of girls that demonstrated how much they can change in a year.
As we moved through the gallery, an obviously childless guy in his 40s took it upon himself to correct Z's observations of the prints and video installation:
Z: "Why is that girl sad, Mommy?"
Guy: "She's not sad. She's self-conscious."
Z: "Look, that girl is singing a song."
Guy: "She's not singing. She's lip-synching to the Bee-Gees."
Me: "Actually, that's not the Bee-Gees. That's the Backstreet Boys. The Bee-Gees for a new generation." Boom!
On Monday morning I took my fairy tale obsessed girl to a Chicago Kids' Company performance of Sleeping Beauty at the Beverly Arts Center on the far south side. I wanted to drop off a meal for a friend, so I was able to combine that errand with our outing.
We rounded out the weekend with playdates. On Saturday afternoon our four moms and seven kids from our playgroup met for pizza and playtime at Gloria's house and on Monday we hosted three kids here.
