4 good things about this weekend

1. Ponies! Our dear friends Kate and Jay invited Z and A on a pony ride along a lovely wooded trail to celebrate their youngest's first birthday. No, the birthday girl didn't get to ride a horse, but she whooped and hollered when I put her up on my shoulders. I've forgotten how relaxing it is to commune with nature, so I've decided I need to prioritize finding more parks and trails in the area.

2. Halloween! My kids have donned their costumes twice and it isn't even fright night. No matter, the Montessori "Harvest" party was a ton of fun. It was better organized than in years' past, and I got to catch up with parents I know and meet a few new faces. I even called one of the moms I met in the balloon animal line and had her daughter over for a playdate with A this afternoon.

3. Bargains! The Oak Park Temple Rummage sale didn't fail to disappoint. I bought each girl a set of cozy all-cotton flannel sheets ($5 a set), picked up a few size 6/7 clothing items (Gymboree and Talbots Kids for $1 each), a vase (50¢), a handful of American Girl paperbacks and a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Naturally Z finished all 3 American Girl books this afternoon--right after plowing through the third Harry Potter book (that she'd started just yesterday morning). Total spend: $15.

4. Food! And friends! A and I baked and pureed a pie pumpkin and made a big batch of muffins, but Josh outshined us by far, cooking up a gourmet storm this afternoon. We had Jani and Steve and their kids over for an amazing smoked fish stew and homemade carrot cake. Z was in a lousy mood, refusing to eat and fighting with her friend, but after the kids had eaten I put on a movie for them. My chair at the dining room table offered a great view of Z--first by herself on the love seat, then kneeling by the ottoman, then on the couch with her sister and friends. And finally right next to her friend and A--with A's legs across her lap.

Weekend update: food drive, clothing swap and more fall fun

Although it turns out having A's two front teeth pulled has not lessened her propensity for temper tantrums, this weekend was full of delightful moments, with and without the children.

On Saturday I joined Z's Brownie troop along with a group of 5th grade Junior Girl Scouts for the annual food drive pickup. We went door-to-door asking for nonperishable food donations for the Oak Park-River Forest Food Pantry, and Z was so excited to help out  she raced from one house to the next, sharing her pitch to donate with everyone who dared answer the door.

In fact, she was so inspired that she donated all of last week's as well as this week's allowance ($6 in all) to her Jewish school tzedakah (charity) box. "Being a Brownie and a Girl Scout it is your duty to help the poor, so I want to give all my money to the poor this week." She added that some poor people "only earn a few pennies a day," so it's possible her altruistic streak is being furthered not just by the Girl Scouts, but by her choice of reading materials.

Saturday evening we dropped the girls off at their gymnastics facility's Parents Night Out event and headed over to Kate and Jay's house to prep for the clothing swap Kate and I were co-hosting that evening.  My last clothing swap was about two years ago, and we ended up with absolutely zero overlap in attendees, but the mix of ladies and awesome clothes meant everyone went home very happy--not only with  the fresh (and free!) additions to their wardrobes, but with the knowledge that some of their old items went to good homes. My major scores include a lovely Ann Taylor pant suit, a gray floor-length silk Banana Republic dress, a pair of nice gray trousers and a strappy black Gap dress. And as if the clothing swapping wasn't enough of an attraction, Jay made beautiful appetizers and he and Josh kept all the guests happily sipping Champagne cocktails.

Other weekend highlights included the Derby Lite lock-in (although I was only able to attend for 2 hours), a birthday party for A, hanging out at the Oak Park Conservatory's Family Fun Fest (snakes alive!), lunch at the Depot Diner where A finished a bowl of chicken noodle soup (she ate something that wasn't pancakes!) and the picking of pumpkins for our front porch (even though we got them at the Jewel).

My Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day is watching your children swing "spider-style," with your firstborn's arms wrapped tightly around her little sister's back. It's seeing your oldest teach her sister how to swing sideways. It's listening to your girls shriek with delight as they bash into each other again and again.

Mother's Day is a bike ride to the park with Z proudly leading the way on her two-wheeler, streamers a-flying and A singing in the trailer behind me. It's a morning of seed-collecting and silly dancing. With no whining. No tears. No threats of time outs and early trips home.

Mother's Day is A taking a long nap while Z and her dad see How to Tame Your Dragon in 3-D. It's meeting up with friends at the park and laughing over Five Guys burgers in their dining room while the kids slurp popsicles and whisper secrets in each others' ears in the yard.

And it's getting home by bedtime and washing off the sand, dirt, juice, ketchup and snot off their faces so their sweet cheeks are ready for bedtime kisses.

The longest 2 day weekend, ever

I can't believe Friday was only two days ago. Since the sun went down on Friday night, I've hung out with a neighborhood knitting circle I've joined, finished a scarf for A (a purple version of this one) and started a cowl-neck scarf for myself. I cleaned out our closets and reorganized the kitchen cabinets, bringing 5 bags of goods to The Brown Elephant a couple to the local kids consignment shop. I met with our tax preparer, wrapped presents for the two birthday parties Z attended (one at a bowling alley and the other at a kits art studio) and took the kids out to enjoy the sunshine and slightly warmed weather at Fox Park (our first trips to the park this season). I took Z to see FAME at the local high school and I folded laundry and made granola and pancakes and wrote shopping lists and menu plans.

But the most exciting accomplishment of the weekend is A's. Josh took the side off her crib this morning and she went right to sleep in her "new" big girl bed at both naptime and bedtime. Without her paci. The pacifier that has been her constant comfort for the last 2 1/2 years is gone. It was so easy I'm scared to blog this and jinx it.

A very domestic day

Today, between watching CNN.com's breathless coverage of the earthquake in Chile and the tsunami that wasn't in Hawaii, I finished knitting Z's scarf (a ruffled rib knit using Misti Alpaca Chunky, for those who care about that kind of thing), shopped both Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and cooked up a storm. I had one of Z's friends over in the morning, transformed taco night leftovers into taco salads for lunch, baked my weekly batch of granola, cooked lemon chicken and roasted cauliflower for dinner (for guests, no less!) and whipped up a batch of ginger spice cookies to bring to the Montessori school open house tomorrow.

Could there be a more fitting end to the day that reading Z a chapter of Little House on the Prairie? Well, aside from putting on an apron and pearls, perhaps.

Edited to add a picture of Z modeling her new scarf

Happy Valentine's Day

All I want for Valentine's Day is a quiet moment to enjoy the Ugly Truffles I bought last weekend with a cup of cappuccino from our Nespresso machine.

I'm getting 45 minutes of peace and quiet right now as A's asleep and Z's upstairs reading yet another beginner chapter book (hurray for reading skills!).

The silence is welcome after this action-packed week. Monday: Hebrew class. Tuesday: neighbors over for dinner and the surprise birthday cake I whipped up for Josh. Wednesday: 3 hour preschool board meeting. Thursday: blogger lunch at Frontera Grill with Stonyfield Farms CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg and Josh's birthday dinner at Gaetano's. Friday: stayed up too late watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Saturday morning: Tot Shabbat, Whole Foods, a local Winter Farmer's Market and the Lincoln Elementary Carnival. It's only 2pm and all I want to to with the rest of my day is organize the basement playroom.

A practically perfect morning at the Morton Arboretum

Although A cried halfway through the trip out west because she "don' wanna take a car--take a stroller," once she dried her tears and popped in her paci, we had a wonderful morning outdoors in the 70 degree (!) weather. We met up with two families we've become friends with through Z's preschool and ended up bumping another preschool family and some old neighbors. It seemed half of Oak Park was out at the Arboretum. The kids played together beautifully, climbing through the treehouses and munching their way through each other snacks.

We finished our morning with lunch at Katy's Dumpling House, and as we drove home, windows down and A drifting off to sleep, I felt so, so lucky. Fresh air and time spent with good friends--it was exactly what I needed.

Where's that tranquilizing gun when I need it?

Thursday evening: Stuck at the Cincinnati airport, then stuck on a plane. Then the plane broke and it started to rain. I spent an unscheduled night at the Cincinnati Marriott with no extra clothes, an ill-fitting contact lense and a dwindling supply of tampons. For those keeping track, my luck with United is not improving. Let's hope our upcoming trip to Sydney breaks the curse.

Friday: My morning flight back to Chicago was delayed, again, but I gave myself permission to work from home so I could change into fresh clothes and see the eye doctor. We had friends over for Indian carry-out and all of our kids played well, so that was a plus.

Saturday: Intermittent rain all day and an ongoing weariness from poor sleep on the road means the kids spend 15 hours finding new and creative ways of whining, making noise and invading my personal space and it annoys the hell out of me. They were re-lent-less. By 7pm, Z was all but scaling the walls with cabin fever, so I threw A in the Ergo and put Z on her bike and we went for a walk/ride in the dark, cool drizzle. "I'm getting my ya-yas out," she hollered for the first 4 blocks. By block 5 she was slowing down, and by the time we got home she was ready put on her jammies, brush her teeth and sit down at the dining room table to help me craft her birthday party invitations.

Josh and I tried to convince her to have a party at the local ice cream parlor, where there would be room to invite all her friends, but she opted for a smaller, girls-only "almost sleepover" at our place.

Laid-back weekend

A trip to the ice cream parlor, in their pajamas, marked the end of a lovely, laid-back weekend. We kicked off the fun at an adults-only party with neighbors Friday night. Our new babysitter, the younger brother of our two previous main sitters, has been working out really well.

Saturday we did a little yard saling and scored two more boxes of Kugelbahnen before I met with new parents at Z's preschool. We had lunch outside at Wishbone and since the kids were a little wound up, we spent a lazy afternoon hanging around the house and the local playground (instead of hitting either Art on Harrison or the Forest Park Ribfest). Saturday night Z and I went to a friend's house for another backyard movie screening.

On Sunday morning we met my cousin and his partner for breakfast at the Medici in Hyde Park, and the afternoon another relaxing one--nothing more than hanging out with neighbors on the street and at the park.

Yeah, I'm neglecting my blog

What, you wanted to hear about dinner at Nightwood, ZZ Top at the House of Blues, our various park outings or Charlie's first birthday BBQ?

Tough. I'm too tired.

Here, more pictures.

Weekend update

In addition to taking Z and her buddy S to Disney's Aladdin at Navy Pier, I...

Went yard saling with the whole family and scored almost-new red Crocs, a vintage Playmobil school set, a windbreaker and a Speedo swimsuit for Z, books for both kids and a never-used snow cone machine. The last item was spotted by Josh, who successfully argued that it was worth more than $5 of enjoyment.

Had the world's best milkshake at Brown Sack. Chocolate-peanut butter, in case you were wondering. And yes, I shared.

Thank G-d for Lactaid pills

Hit Evan's 4th birthday party (see photos below)

Celebrated our 10th anniversary with dinner at Publican. Beer, oysters, mussels, three kinds of pork and a waffle topped with honey butter and figs. It was perfect.

Rearranged Z's room to accommodate the wardrobe our neighbors gave us. Since her room doesn't have a closet this is a major WIN.

Hit the weekly free concert at Scoville Park, where sunshine and mild temps attracted a huge crowd of people we knew from the neighborhood, Z's preschool and Temple.

Go ahead, rain on my parade

Can you remember a soggier 4th of July weekend?

It drizzled as my daughter and I marched with her preschool in the Oak Park 4th of July parade.

A steady rain fell on a neighborhood block party. Swimsuit-clad kids trembled, blue-lipped and goose-fleshed, as they waited in line for their turn down an inflatable water slide. Adults took shelter on front porches, sipping margaritas and shoveling guacamole onto soggy tortilla chips.

By the time we headed--windshield wipers squeaking--to a barbecue at our friends' house, it was pouring. Buckets and buckets of rain. They'd erected tents in their backyard, but for a couple of hours the rain came down so fast and furious only the children ventured outside.

But finally, around 6pm, the rain stopped. We pigged out on ribs smoked all day, hot dogs, coleslaw, potato salad and rhubarb crisp before saying our goodbyes.

After such a long, wet day, I decided that fireworks might best be enjoyed in high definition, from the comfort of our living room. But as the sky darkened, I couldn't resist. I grabbed my 4 year old daughter and a stroller and pushed her the mile and half to our local high school football field. We arrived just minutes before the first blast lit up the now nearly cloudless sky.

But the rain wasn't quite finished with us. Sunday the 5th was glorious. We spent time in the city, swam at our local pool and picked up Chipotle for a picnic at Scoville Park.

But the country-rock cover band had only played two songs before the sky opened up again. So we all fled to the Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor, soaked to the bone.

One shitty moment in an otherwise lovely day

Today was practically perfect in every way. My kids benefited from some very awesome yard sales (A got a mini Radio Flyer trike, Z got a Disney Princess tee, and they both got new books). They got to listen to stories and dance with Miss Lori's Campus (minus Miss Lori!) at a WTTW Kids event in the Whole Foods parking lot. We hit the library for a restock of books and A took a 2 hour nap while I whipped up and delivered a mac and cheese casserole for a family that just had a new baby.

We hit the pool around 2:30 and scored a lounge chair (that never happens) right next to three of our neighbors (none of whom we'd even planned on meeting). Z had tons of friends to play with, but A didn't seem like her usual water baby self. She kept climbing out of the pool and asking for snacks, and after about an hour or so, she climbed into her stroller, asked me to set it recline, and covered herself up with a towel. Each time I went to check on her, she told me to "Go!" and she'd lay down with her paci, closing her eyes a bit.

I thought maybe all the sun and activity had worn her out, but she was hatching something much more sinister than a nap in her cozy, damp little stroller cave.

Something I discovered when she asked to go back into the pool, 10 minutes before closing. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I came face to face with my first ever poopy swim diaper. A blowout, I might add, that I first smelled and then saw, smeared across the right side of my waist.

Thank G-d I had so many friends nearby. I shouted for them to keep an eye on Z and I raced with A and the diaper bag into the locker room, where, in one fell swoop, I stripped off her swimsuit (thank goodness I'd just bought her a two-piece), removed her diaper and showered us both off. What I'd forgotten in my race to grab the diaper bag was a towel, and I couldn't very well put a diaper on a dripping wet baby, so I walked back out to the pool in my dripping (de-pooped, but not yet sterilized) swimsuit with a slick naked baby on my hip and a backpack slung over my shoulder. I had 3 minutes to get A dressed and Z out of the pool before it closed. Good times.

Things did improve after the shitty ending to outing. We had our friends from across the fence over for BBQ takeout and by dessert time we'd all joined our next-door neighbors in the backyard. The kids (and us grown-ups, for that matter) were having so much fun that I let both of the girls stay up an hour past their bedtimes.

Z sporting her new Belle tee, a jean skirt, rain boots and multiple weapons.

Wow, what a weekend!

Just today, I hit Fox Park with the kiddos, met Vanessa and her son for coffee and beignets, watched the River Forest Memorial Day parade, took Z to a playdate (where I scored some hand-me-downs for A) and had Jodi and Peter and their 4 month old daughter over for a visit.

The parade, my favorite, was a hit with all of the families we met there. We sat, as usual, at Ashland and Iowa, near the home of the guy who offers all the kids free rides on his model train. A practiced a lot of new words and phrases, including "flag," "another fire truck," "more people," "choo-choo train," and "candy." I liked the marching bands and old-school planes flying over in formation. The highlight for Z? "The princesses." Really, how can three not-that-pretty beauty queens perched on the back of a convertible beat out gymnast kids doing handsprings, flag team girls and the entire staff of Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor? They didn't even throw tootsie rolls!

Here's Z riding the train with Vanessa's kids. A was too scared to ride the train, but her daughter--only 2 weeks older--jumped right in.

Sunday night we had a cookout with two sets of neighbors and their relatives. Nine kids and 10 adults put away a ton of grilled burgers, chicken breasts, brats and hot dogs. And we finished with this strawberry-rhubarb crumble from Smitten Kitchen.

It was so good we made it again today.

Lots more photos are up on my flickr page.

A chip off the house

The junk truck that's been emptying out 40 years of accumulated stuff from our recently deceased neighbor's house took a softball-sized chunk out of our house on Friday. The guy who owned the truck, a small-time guy who looks well past retirement age, has acknowledged the mistake and promised he'll fix it up as soon as the weather improves. I hope he's as honest as he sounds because all I've got is his name, his telephone number and his word. I'm excited and a little nervous about the possibility of having new neighbors to our south. Clem, the woman who passed, was in her early 90s and barely there. Needless to say, we haven't had to share our shared driveway much. I'm hoping another young family moves in since the connected backyards get treated as one big playground in the summer months.

Speaking of summer, it did warm up quite a bit this weekend. After wearing silk long underwear to fend off a 17 degree chill on Wednesday, I hit the park in just a long-sleeved tee and jeans today. The kids are delighted with the spring-like weather. Z biked nearly 2 miles each day and A learned the joys of the teeter-totter.

These are a few of her favorite things...

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.
A show. With singing. High school teenagers.
Tickets and darkness. A curtains and stage.
These are the things that my 4 year old craves.

With nothing much shaking Sunday afternoon, Julie and I took our older kiddos to a local high school production of The Sound of Music. We left at intermission (not that the girls were any the wiser) as 1 1/2 hours of singing Nazis in a warm auditorium had left them nearly comatose.

In all fairness, though, before she started nodding off in my lap, Z was transfixed. "Are they all high schoolers?" she kept whispering to me, wide-eyed with wonder at all teenagers are capable of. "Yes," I answered, "except for the four littlest Van Trapps and the head Nun." Who , incidentally looked an awful lot like a real Mother Superior. Trinity is a Catholic high school, but she could have been the lunch lady for all I know. In any case, she possessed perhaps the worst singing voice I've ever heard.

Our weekend was jam-packed...

...But wonderful. My mom arrived on Friday morning and by the time she left this morning I'd determined that parenting two is much, much easier with three adults on hand!

We crammed the farmer's market, Z's gymnastics class and Kiddieland into Saturday and visited the Chicago Botanic Garden before spending the evening at a neighborhood BBQ on Sunday. The kids were so wiped out with all the excitement that they slept until 7am! I'm knocking furiously on wood as I type this as I know that by blogging it, it shall no longer be so.

On a Sunday afternoon

We had fun playing and feeding the ducks at Proksa Park before meeting Kara and Jeff and their kids for some delicious Mayan food at Xni Pec in Cicero and icy Mexican ice cream at Flamingo's. Our adventure kept Baby A up an hour after her bedtime, but she was so thrilled with her new ability to walk and the attentions of three big kids that she didn't fuss at all.

On a completely unrelated note, this morning Z woke up crying that her left ear hurt. She was completely out of sorts until I got her to drink some cranberry juice that I'd spiked with Motrin. Twenty minutes later she was herself again, but I still took her to the Take Care clinic at Walgreens, where the CNP diagnosed her with an ear infection, her very first.

I'd never used one an in-pharmacy walk-in clinics before, but I was pleasantly surprised with how thorough the nurse was and with her warm, caring manner. We walked in when they opened at 8, we were seen at 8:07, and we had our prescription in hand by 8:30. I wasn't even late to work.

Here's another video of A walking.

No Lolla today, thanks

After Baby A suffered through last night with a fever that made her cranky and clingy (and me sleep-deprived), I threw in the towel on Lollapalooza today. Now, I don't know if my youngest is allergic to rock fests, but her temperature and behavior seemed a whole lot like the 24 hour fever that afflicted her the day after the Pitchfork Festival.

But even without pushing my stroller through throngs of teens, I had an eventful day. Z and I biked to the farmers' market and Dominick's while Baby A napped and Josh filed his story. Then Josh left and I took the girls to our local playground. We returned home for a lunch of quesadillas and both of the kids napped (!).

We met Stacie's family at the pool in the afternoon and I cooked Linguine Carbonara (re-titled "cheesy pasta with bacon") for dinner.

As I type this, Baby A is sacked out and Z is watching Return to Neverland (a Peter Pan sequel).

My 800th post: Life as a Pitchfork Widow

"Can't you at least pretend you're okay with me leaving you with the girls all day?" asked Josh as he left this morning.

Um, no. The happy housewife mask requires at least 6 hours of sleep to fit correctly. I got about 4 last night thanks to a cranky, clinging baby who refused to sleep and required constant holding between 2:30 and 5:15am. Naturally, her big sister woke up at 5:40.

Baby A continued to be out of sorts most of the day--she didn't want to eat until the afternoon, she was drooling up a storm, and her napping schedule was all thrown off. In spite of the nap shortage (heck, I could have used one too), we managed to have some fun, tricycling up and down the street, making milkshakes and stealing our neighbor's wading pool for a little aggressive splashing (Z) and peeing in the pool (A). We also joined a few friends for a backyard BBQ.


I want to ride my trike from almaklein on Vimeo.

But by the time I got them into the car to drive home, both of the girls were exhausted and hysterical. And, in a parenting low point, I shouted, "Shut up!" to Z as she tearfully complained how it wasn't fair that her car seat was down low and A's was up high and I needed to fix it right now.

Did you follow that? We were parallel parked and Z's side was closer to the curb--thus, it she was sitting somewhat lower. They both cried through their bath (I even skipped the soap and just rinsed off the sweat and visible dirt) and Z wailed as I nursed A because she was "so lonely and scared" right outside A's bedroom door.

At least they were both asleep by 8pm!