Where does your library card take you?

When we first moved to Oak Park, I get myself a library card. I recall being told, while signing up, that I could take out "no more than 100 books at a time." One hundred books? Pre-kids, I couldn't fathom checking out more than a handful.

Oh, little did I know. Now the only reason we don't hit the maximum is that even our extra-large Lands End tote can't hold that many. And stuffed as it gets, I can barely lift it.

Yes, Oak Park has an award-winning library. The service is fantastic, the online reservation process is simple and we usually have about 50 books and CDs checked out at any one time.

Since I had a book on hold, I took the girls this past Saturday morning. And we saw something new happening in the lobby: a green screen photo studio where you could pose with an oversized library card and tell the librarian "where the library can take you."

Zoe had lots of ideas, but apparently "next to Hermoine on the giant chess board at Hogwarts" was harder to for the library staff to mock up than "under sea, with a giant squid."

Ada had just checked out the Hairspray soundtrack, so she said "on stage in Hairspray." The image emailed back to me takes some creative license with that, but it's perfectly apt because my dramatic little kindergartener will be in a production of Hairspray in January. Rehearsals start next month!

Our first camping trip: beginner's luck

At the urging of friends, we finally took the family camping last weekend. And I'm happy to report it wasn't the disaster Josh worried it would be. Why? Good people. Good weather. Good scenery. And reasonably good kids.

We drove up to Kohler-Andrae State Park on Saturday morning, stopping for a surprisingly good Belgium brunch at Benelux in Milwaukee on the way. The organizing family, having come up the night before, was already there. We pitched our borrowed tent, checked out the nature center (where they were having a presentation on rescue dogs) and headed down to the beach to wait for the rest of the families to arrive.

Kohler is just about the perfect place for novice campers. The campsites are lovely and wooded enough to offer a sense of privacy. Composting toilets and a water spigot were a one minute walk away and the flush toilets and showers were only a few minutes further down a path.

And the beach. It's absolutely beautiful. Soft talcum powder sands, reeded dunes and not a piece of trash in sight. Yes, it's still Lake Michigan, but seemed so much cleaner than North Avenue beach and more remote than Northern Indiana, with its views of factories and power plants.

We were one of four families sharing two campsites, and as the kids ran off in a pack and the grown-ups gathered around the fire with drinks and snacks, I was struck by a sort of present-day nostalgia. I had inadvertently recreated my youth for my children. My family frequently went camping with other families when I was grade-school age, and I recall running off with the other young ones for hours, getting dirty from falling in the woods, smelling of bug spray and campfire, my shoes perpetually soggy.

My memories were further triggered from the fact that I was using many of my mom's original camping supplies. The hammock, the campfire coffee drip-o-lator (which I used to make 5 batches of coffee Sunday morning), my old red plastic Looney Toons lunchbox filled with mismatched utensils, her Euro-fabulous white plastic picnicware and a purple washing-up basin--all items I pilfered from her basement last summer and put to use for the first time in what might be decades.

The kids stayed up way too late and woke up way too early, and I spent a good deal of the dark time in between in a not-quite-sleep as I listened to my children breathing, the wind blowing and animals making sounds. Yes, it took two nights of going to bed early to catch up on shut-eye, but it was worth it.

I'm gonna buy a tent.

How I told the kids we're going to Disney World

Happy kids at Crown Fountain

YouTube is full of videos in which parents surprise their kids with a trip to the Mouse House. Sometimes the kids are opening presents on Christmas morning only to find out their gift is a trip to WDW. Sometimes the parents load their kids into the car for a "drive to Grandma's house" that's anything but. (And I saw one in which the kid cries upon hearing he's not going to see Granny after all.)

Although Josh was all for not telling Zoe and Ada about our upcoming trip until the morning of, I felt we needed to spill the beans earlier (but not too early) so that we could maximize the fun of anticipation and demonstrate that we weren't missing birthday parties and a family friend's bat mitzvah for no good reason.

So we waited until we were one month from departure and I delivered the trivia quiz that would reveal our plans. (See the quiz below, which inspired a similar reveal by Rookie Mom Heather.) The girls were a little weirded out by the challenge and totally stumped by "Orlando,______" having never heard of the city. But eventually they answered the questions, spelling all the answers correctly. Then Zoe quickly unscrambled the boxed letters to spell "Disney World," but she was so confused by the way I'd written the dates that it took her a few minutes to understand we were going this year--this month in fact!

I then handed the girls a gift bag with Disney autograph books, t-shirts (purchased for $5 a piece at Target), luggage tags and a "vacation planning" DVD Disney sent me way back when.

The videos on Disney World's website do a much better job of showcasing the rides, attractions and hotels than the DVD, but suffice it to say the girls are now really, really excited.

I live “under the sea.”

_ _ _ _ [ _ ]

I’m a nanny who’s “practically perfect in every way.”

_ _ _ _   _ [_ ] _ _ _ _ _

I tasted a poison apple.

_ _ _ [ _ ]   _ _ _ _ _

I have two mean step-sisters.

_ _ [ _ ]_ _ _ _ _ _ _

I’m a skilled archer and the impetuous daughter of Queen Elinor.

_ _ _ _ [ _ ] _

I’m Mickey’s girlfriend.

_ [_ ] _ _ _ _

I am the princess of Agrabah.

_ _ [ _ ] _ _ _ _

I sing “There must be more than this provincial life!”

_ _ _ _ [ _ ]

I star Woody and Jessie and Buzz!

_ _ [ _ ]   _ _ _ _ _

What’s the name of the newest Rapunzel movie?

_ _ _ _ _ _ [ _ ]

Orlando, _ _ _ [ _ ] _ _ _

  

Write down all of the letters in the boxes. Unscramble those letters to find the answer to where we’ll be 9/29-10/4.

In sickness and in health

Goofing around in the block party photo booth

The last week or so has been a blur. I didn't write about our annual summer block party, something I've traditionally memorialized on my blog. (Thanks to my ever growing, ever more independent kids, it was more fun and relaxing than ever.) I also neglected to write about a super fun sushi & skating girls night outing to Lombard Roller Rink for their Monday night R&B skate, which is a sight to behold (imagine moonwalking and breakdancing on skates + an angel in a white dress and gold skates).

But Josh had been under the weather even back then, running a fever, sweating and coughing. His illness stretched on and on, and finally he saw a doctor on Thursday. Some blood tests and a chest X-ray later, he was diagnosed with pneumonia.

She was performing a musical number. How soon can I enroll her in stage productions?

Which means I've gotten a good taste of single parenthood over the last few days. And hats off to you folks. Running a household is a lot of work for just one parent. But I've made good use of my time home with Ada (who doesn't start school for a few more days). We gave the refrigerator and all the kitchen cabinets a thorough cleaning. We disassembled the shelves and drawers of the former and ripped out and replaced all the old contact paper in the latter. We freecycled kiddie plates and cups and never used or duplicate kitchen utensils. We even found some dinosaurs lurking in the way back of some cabinets, the oldest being a box of corn muffin mix that expired in 2006!

We also combed through both of the girls' drawers and pulled aside clothes to consign and donate. It's been said before, but Gymboree clothes really wear well. I found a bunch of stuff that both girls have worn (and worn a lot) that still look and feel great.

Playing in Crown Fountain

The girls and I have had some fun, too, running car pools and hosting play dates and attending curriculum night at Zoe's elementary school. And as the temps soared back into the 90s yesterday, we hit the pool, where Zoe met up with her BFF and talked the girl's mom into having her over for dinner. Today it cooled off considerably and we headed downtown to look at art and frolic at Millennium Park. Josh even rallied a bit, joining Ada and I for a quick bite at Falafill yesterday evening and the three of us girls at Piece in Wicker Park for a late lunch/early dinner today.

Now and later

Today was Zoe's first day of 3rd grade and the neighborhood and schoolyard was teeming with tiny kindergartners--some who seemed even littler (well, less mature) than Ada.

Ada, now 5, is kindergarten age and going to school, but she's going to do her K year at her Montessori school. The school asks families to commit to a full 3 year cycle when enrolling, but sadly most of her classmates parents pulled their kids out in favor of free K at the local elementary schools. I felt a twinge as all of Ada's future classmates (and many of her current friends) marched off with their giant backpacks and matching lunch boxes, but I feel like Ada will get more out of a final year of Montessori (being a leader, doing science projects and working independently) than she will in a traditional kindergarten classroom.

In other news, Zoe grew into the 20" bike I bought at the police auction last summer. She loves it and spends every spare minute tooling round the block in search of her neighborhood buddies. The bigger wheels also help her keep up with us; we biked to our Temple picnic, which was all the way at the north end of Oak Park.

Ada's still on training wheels, but she's picking up speed and happy to ride in the trailer for our longer jaunts.

Sky High Sports: I might as well jump

One small view

Lest you think our weekend was nothing but a Renaissance Faire orgy of pizza, pickles and chocolate crepes, I did take the girls to an indoor trampoline park way up north in Niles on Saturday morning.

Sky High Sports is roughly the same size as Melrose Park's Monkey Island (imagine an airplane hangar), but jumping around is about where the similarities end.

Unlike MI, which is a warehouse full of sticky kids-only bouncy houses, Sky High Sports is a sleek, clean warehouse of continuous trampolines that all ages can jump on. It was virtually empty on a Saturday morning at 10am.

Somewhat annoyingly, the trampoline areas (which are huge!) are divided by 7 and up and 6 and under--which splits up my kids. Fortunately, the age limits are not as strictly enforced as the sternly worded rule posters might imply. My small 7 year old was able to jump both with her 5 year old sister in the kids zone and with me in the adult zone. Adults, however, are only allowed to "gently bounce" on the kids' trampolines.

In addition to the basic trampoline areas, Sky High had trampoline tracks that led into foam pits (the bigger you are, the harder it is to climb out of) and trampoline courts for dodgeball. ("No way!" said my girls as they watched a dozen 10 year old boys pummel each other.)

Admission is $11 for the first hour and $3 per hour thereafter. We were pretty sweaty, thirsty and out of breath after our first hour, so we left.

And promptly pigged out on hot dogs and fries at Superdawg, an original drive-in just a short drive away.

Huzzah for the Renaissance Faire

The Bristol Renaissance Faire was not on my radar at all until a colleague told me how much she and her boyfriend enjoyed the event.

So today we drove one hour north to the Illinois-Wisconsin border with Jay and Kate and their three children--game as usual for any adventure we suggest. We arrived shortly after the fair - I mean, faire - opened at 10, and the grassy parking lot was already filling up with cars. 

We paid our admission (about $50 for the family, including a coupon discount) and headed in, where we immediately went on sensory overload. The costumes, the faux Old English accents, the smells of cooking food, incense, horse poop and dust. Admission covers the cost of the entertainment, which included a fire whip stuntman, short plays, acrobats, trained falcons, jousts and plenty of bawdy fare that we stayed away from given the small children with us. However, even though we did our best to arrive at one of the dozen stages in time for a scheduled show, the day's best moments were unplanned. At one point an elaborate parade marched through, heralding the arrival of "Queen Elizabeth," and some of the participants surprised Kate and my girls with fresh flowers. Faire regulars were involved in elaborate roll play debates, arguing fictional points about land rights or engaging one another in duels. Forest sprites climbed trees. Pirates laid traps. Later in the day, we wandered into the royal court and a finely dressed lady beckoned Ada and Zoe over. She indicated she'd just returned from abroad with a box full of fine gems. She opened a brass box and offered the girls a "precious jewel" to keep. 

Chocolate crepe with strawberry ice cream and fresh berries

What wasn't included in the admission was...everything else. There were shops selling costumes and occult books and magic wands and soap and weapons and whatnot. There were food stalls hawking barbecued turkey legs and brats and ice cream crepes and pickles on a stick. And there were plenty of "thrill rides," all human powered. 

Zoe and Ada loved it. And Josh and I loved their utter lack of whining. Toward the end of the day Ada asked for one of the floral and ribbon wreaths many attendees were wearing and we agreed to buy her the $12 souvenir. Zoe wanted a costume or magic wand, but because neither could be procured for less than $30, she cheerfully headed home empty-handed. And thanked us for taking her.

I can't imagine heading to the Renaissance Faire more than once a year, but I definitely think we'll be back on another mild day in 2013.

Kids eat free in Oak Park

It's been two and a half years since I last updated my post on local restaurants where kids eat free, and our Oak Park area dining options are continually evolving, with restaurants opening and closing all the time. I figured it was time for an update. What follows is by no means comprehensive, but it should offer a great start to local families who want to eat out with their kids. I've divided this into places where kids eat free one or more nights a week and a more general list of kid-friendly establishments.

Kids Eat Free Deals


Monday
Flat Top Grill
Fuego Loco
Trattoria 225
Gaetano's--Not a kids eat free place, but worth a mention. Every 3rd Monday Chef Gaetano offers "Parent's Night," which means Mom and Dad enjoy a fine dining experience in the front room (and wine is 1/2 price) while the kids get pizza, pasta, a drink and ice cream, plus craft and a movie in the supervised back room. The fee for children is $10 a head and my girls ask to go back all the time!

Tuesday
Denny's - I've never actually been.

Wednesday
Avenue Ale House
Chicago's Home of Chicken and Waffles

Thursday

Friday
Francesca's Fiore

Saturday
Denny's

Sunday
Maya del Sol says to look for a Sunday kids eat free deal in the fall.

Other Kid-Friendly Options

In addition to the restaurants listed above, you can find children's menus and a welcoming staff at the following restaurants in downtown Oak Park: Lake Street Kitchen + Bar, Sushi House, Marion Street Cheese Market and Maya Del Sol. And while they don't have kids menus per se, there are lots of child-friendly breakfast options at Delia's Kitchen and George's Restaurant. Erik's Deli has a great deal for kids; $3.99 buys a sandwich, chips and a drink.

South on Oak Park Avenue, Sen Sushi is one of our favorite restaurants. Zoe and Ada share the chicken teriyaki kids meal and we get the sushi lunch specials. In the Harrison Street Arts district, check out the Buzz Cafe (kids menu and very family-focused) and Eastgate Cafe (there's a peanut butter sandwich on the menu). In Forest Park, Caffe Deluca balances its elegant atmosphere with a somewhat pricey kids menu, but you might be better off splitting a plate of red-sauce pasta from Jimmy's Place among 2-3 children--and heading next door to the Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor afterwards.

If you don't mind a short drive, check out well-crafted diner fare at The Depot American Diner (just across Austin Avenue in Chicago) and the amazing Italian specialties at Freddy's in Cicero (cash only). Neither have a kids menu, but both offer lots of affordable kid favorites.

Obviously you'll be fine bringing the little ones to any area fast food restaurant, but I am partial to Burger Boss in Elmwood Park (which has a kids menu), Five Guys in downtown Oak Park (which does not), Chipotle (across from Five Guys) and Culver's on Roosevelt Street in Berwyn, which gives kids a free custard with each chldren's menu item (butter burgers, chicken fingers, grilled cheese and corn dogs).

A kid-free getaway

Our view

We arrived home from our weekend in the city to shrieks of "I love Audrey! I never want her to leave!"

Apparently we chose our overnight babysitter wisely. While we spent a lovely 24 hours eating, drinking, shopping and reconnecting along the Magnificent Mile, Zoe and Ada were treated to swimming and trampolining at their sitters' relatives' houses.

But enough about their weekend. Ever the deal-seeker, I booked our anniversary hotel stay on Hotwire and ended up with the not-so-trendy 4-star Hotel Intercontinental, which makes up for its lack of cool cache with the nicest indoor pool I've ever visited. The hotel wasn't ready for us when we arrived at check-in time, citing a "housekeeping emergency." So we left our bags with the bellhop and dodged the hordes of moms clutching American Girl Place bags to cross Michigan Avenue. Nordstrom was mobbed, but we wandered around for an hour, a fair portion of which we spent waiting to quench our thirst with a very fancy iced tea, painstakingly prepared at Teavana.

Our room still wasn't ready when we got back to the hotel, but the front desk staff gave us a couple of comp drink cards to use at Michael Jordan's restaurant off the lobby. Two very delicious hand-crafted cocktails and quite a few rounds of Draw Something later, we finally made it up to our 24th floor room, which had a lovely view of the Wrigley Building and Chicago river.

We had dinner reservations at the cozy underground Drawing Room in the Gold Coast, but I'd failed to closely read the rules on our Groupon, so we didn't get the pre-paid tasting menu I'd planned on. Instead, we shared a few smaller plates and had another round of fancy cocktails. We then shared some cake from the Goddess and the Grocer and watched an eclectic mix of tourists, Viagra-triangle d-bags and dog-walking locals stroll by. We slept in until 9am--an unknown luxury in the land of small children--and had breakfast in the window of the Grand Lux Cafe, where we were for sure the only locals. I followed my eggs and sausage with a dip in the amazing pool in the hotel's historic tower--a Moorish marvel of tile where Ester Williams swam in the 1940s. I felt perfectly at home in my retro-style swimsuit.

Happy 5th birthday, Ada!

Ada, bouncing at her birthday party

Welcome to the elementary school years, Ada! I'm so delighted to have my youngest child turn 5. You've grown a lot in the last year, with learning to read being perhaps the biggest milestone. Academically, you're a smartypants. You can read with a fair amount of fluency, you can count up to 199 and you're perfectly capable of doing basic addition and subtraction problems. You recall the plot points of every book you've ever been exposed to and can sit, rapt, for movies and theatrical productions.

So who are you at 5? You're affectionate and silly. You love singing, dancing and gymnastics. You build impressive Lego creations, fashion stylish skirt-centric outfits and refuse an ever-growing list of foods. You love to help with household chores, be it cooking, cleaning or laundry, and while you like to earn an allowance, you don't quite know what to spend your money on.

When asked what you'd like to be when you grow up, you say "nail salon," or "clothes store lady."


Although you're always on the lookout for slights and imbalances, you love and look up to your big sister Zoe. You have friends at camp and preschool and little girls are forever approaching me with requests for playdates with you. Your affectionate nature has made you a darling of adults, too. Your willingness to climb on laps and play the sweet card have my friends and extended family in your thrall.

But as generous and thoughtful as you can be, it isn't all rainbows and unicorns in Ada land. You continue to challenge us with your temper tantrums and willful misbehavior. A rare day passes by without one tearful meltdown or banishment to your room, but I'm hopeful that this is a waning trend--one that will go the way of the fraught bedtime and midnight fears, two irritating phases you've since outgrown. In the meantime, the happiest of birthdays to you.

We love musicals!

CST's Beauty and the Beast

Josh takes the girls to the movies. I take them to live theatre--musicals, preferably.

In the last two weeks, I've taken 7-year-old Zoe and nearly 5-year-old Ada to a professional production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, a high school production of Footloose and middle school production of Disney's The Little Mermaid, Jr. 

We're lucky to live in Oak Park, where the talent pool runs deep and the arts programs are really great. The fact that we're virtually guaranteed to see a babysitter, neighbor or family friend in every show is a bonus.

OPRF's Footloose was solid--probably better than anything my high school drama program put on--but plagued by sound issues and not as good as past productions I've attended (like Annie and Fame). The Little Mermaid, Jr., on the other hand, was stupendeous. I don't know where they find these kids, but they can really sing and dance! You'll have to take my word for it because I saw the last show, a last-minute matinee added after every single performance sold out online.

What you can see--if your kids are as into musicals as we are--is the Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Beauty and the Beast, which is at Navy Pier through the summer. The rich-looking stage production is faithful to the film and the small cast is big on talent. Both of my girls were spellbound by the show, even when it was difficult to hear the dialogue over the screaming 1 year old seated next to us.

I'm ready to start researching our next show, but until then, the girls know how to listen to (and sing along with!) Broadway musical tracks on a Pandora station we created expressly for that purpose.

Cakestyle: The perks of using a stylist

At the Cakestyle loft. Isn't this purple dress hot?

For the first time in my life, I found out what it's like to have a stylist dress me. After attending a VIP reception at Cakestyle's Chicago headquarters, Kate and I booked an appointment with one of the company's lead stylists, Kaitland.

I love this Tracy Reese skirt

Since it is primarily an e-commerce company, a typical Cakestyle customer fills out a detailed survey online and shares her measurements and fashion needs. Then a stylist prepares a box of 4-5 outfits and drops it in the mail quarterly, along with a video on how to put together each of the included looks. The shopper returns anything she doesn't love using a pre-paid label and pays retail for anything she keeps. And that's designer retail, comparable to the prices you'd find at Nordstorm or Bloomingdales, not Macy's or Ann Taylor Loft. A typical box can cost about $2000--definitely outside of my budget!

Chicago customers get the personal treatment and can meet with their stylist personally at the Cakestyle loft in River North. Kate and I arrived at the space (just down the street from Nordstrom) with her mom, Carter, just after work last week. Kaitlin had refreshments laid out, a rack filled with hand-selected clothes and a large curtained dressing room. It was immediately obvious she'd put my stuff on the left and Kate's on the right, but because we wear roughly the same size, we were encouraged to cross-pollinate.

Trina Turk belted skirt

And that's when I learned what a joy it is to be styled. Everything I tried on fit. Perfectly.

Kaitland channeled my kinda sort of mod/boho fashion sense and picked out 5 dresses I desperately wanted to own (I purchased one). She found me a pair of straight-legged Paige jeans that made me look skinny, a mod silk tunic dress like nothing I've ever owned (and that I wish I'd bought) and suggested a turquoise skinny belt for the red and white Boden frock I'd arrived in. I felt so pretty and slim because everything I tried on was so flattering

The 60s inspired Milly dress I bought

Kate, who was down with the idea of outsourcing her lawyerly work wardrobe from the moment she met Kait at the reception, was similarly thrilled with her selections. She went home with a couple of dresses, a bracelet and a fitted cardigan. And it didn't hurt that Kate's mother was enthusiastic about everything we tried on, encouraging us with calls of "It's gorgeous! You should get it!"

I can't say enough about how pleasant the shopping experience was. I tend to get overwhelmed by options when shopping and I don't know where to look. I'm not familiar enough with labels to know my size in each one and too often I default to expected online stores that stock my style (Modcloth and Boden, for example). No one has ever told me how to belt, wear a scarf or pair the right shoes or boots with an outfit, so it's all trial and error for me. Having Kait explain the shoe and accessory options for each ensemble was key--especially because she was so low-key and never tried to sell anything. She just let the mirror do its work.

Would I shop Cakestyle again? Yes, but I'd feel guilty and a little self-conscious about my budget. I'd love it if Cakestyle could find a way to offer the same service at slightly lower price-points, or even point me in the direction of new labels and brands that might appeal to me. In the meantime, I'm browsing online and checking out my closet with "What would Kait think?" running through my head.

Starting 36 off on the right foot

I got 3 new things for my 36th birthday last month. My mom and in-laws gave me cash, which I put towards a brand new pair of roller skates. I decided, two years into skating twice a week with Derby Lite, that I'm definitely committed and ready to upgrade. And boy did I ever. Getting fitted for these top-of-the-line Riedell boots, trucks and wheels from Steve at Lombard Roller Rink was like trading in a beat-up Kia for a Rolls Royce. (Only for now I'm keeping my 2 sizes too large R3s for outdoor skating. Look for me in the Oak Park Fourth of July parade tomorrow.)

I'd sent Josh a few hints about what I might want, including a Zappos link to these fabulous Kork-Ease platform sandals. And that's exactly what I got. Since they're pretty much my favorite color, they match fully 50 percent of my summer wardrobe. In fact, I'm wearing them again today!

The other gift I received was a total surprise--a lovely, delicate gold bar necklace with a teeny, tiny diamond in it--from my friend Kate. It doesn't look like anything else I own, but I love it so much. And wearing delicate jewelry in this beastly heat is a revelation, I tell you.

Growing another year older isn't just about getting new stuff. I'm getting a new job! I'm not leaving Leo Burnett/Arc, but I'm getting to broaden the number of brands I work on and start a brand new team focused on concept development.

A total beginners guide to King Spa

"This looks like Vegas," says Kate upon arrival

Kate totally earned her best friend badge today, agreeing to accompany me to a traditional Korean Spa in spite of the copious nudity I warned her would be required.

And man, was there ever a lot of nudity. This is not the place to feel modest, but if you can get over your discomfort with being totally naked in front of your BFF (not to mention a diverse crowd of women--Koreans young and old, Russians, and a handful of Americans of all shades), you will experience the finest relaxation money can buy.

I'd bought a Groupon, which saved me a few dollars off the entrance fee and included the $5 admission to the Base Rock Room. Admission is good for 24 hours, and while it might seem weird to spend the night at a strip mall spa, I can totally see how this place would be preferable to (and much cheaper) than a youth hostel. We were given high tech wristbands, which included a key to our shoe locker and our larger clothing locker in the women's room. Leave your wallet in your locker; you can charge massages, food, even earplugs to your wristband at King Spa.

Upon entry into the locker room, you're instructed to strip naked and head into the single sex shower/hot tub room, where you take a non-private shower. Signs encourage guests to report anyone who doesn't use soap to the staff. We soaped and shampooed our hair, but we could have also availed ourselves of the free toothbrushes and toothpaste, had we wished to. Once clean, we could enter the hot tubs, cool plunge pool or steam room. The shower/hot tub room was also home to a row of treatment tables, where scrubs and massages are offered by a team of strong middle-aged Korean women dressed only in bras and panties.

After bathing and soaking briefly, Kate and I made appointments for our treatments and dressed in the clean cotton shorts and t-shirts provided to guests for use in the unisex areas. We explored a few of the various treatment saunas before returning for our bodywork. I got a 60 minute scrub and Kate opted for a 60 minute massage. Both were performed buck naked and with zero privacy, but man, it was satisfying. "Jenny" scrubbed every cell of dead skin off my body, poured buckets of hot water over me and greased me with copious amounts of baby oil before finishing with a shampoo, scalp massage and mini-massage. It sounds weird, but it was amazing. And my skin has never felt so baby soft.

After our treatments, we re-showered and headed back to the unisex area. We experimented with the various saunas and checked out the movie theatre and meditation (sleep) areas. My favorite rooms were the salt room, the ice room and the Base Rock room; the justifiably titled Fire Room was too hot to bear even for minute. There's also a restaurant serving fruit juices, smoothies and authentic Korean food. We had watermelon ices, a too-weird-for-words shave ice fruit salad topped with a mound of sugary black bean paste and a bowl of beef noodle soup with kimchee and other pickled sides.

Spicy and delicious

It wasn't very crowded, but the couple dozen people there were a diverse mix of Koreans, African Americans and gringos, including plenty of children, from infancy up to around 12. The ornate sofas and chairs in the area between all the saunas were populated with older people reading Korean newspapers, couples snuggled together watching videos on their iPads and children playing chess on the game tables. Foot and chair massages are offered to those who would rather keep their clothes on. And a family movie was scheduled to be shown in the theatre at 1pm.

The place was immaculate. In addition to the laser focus on thorough personal cleansing, staff were on the move, mopping the floors, changing out towels and mats and disinfecting the large leather barcaloungers in the napping and movie rooms. Although it is definitely a Korean-first establishment (the napkin dispenser reads "Here is Napkins"), all of the staff save the masseuses seemed to speak English perfectly and were very welcoming to us first-timers.

I am already looking forward to my next trip. Three hours was really not long enough to enjoy all King Spa has to offer, and I think Zoe and Ada would get a real kick out of the experience.

Losing my mummy tummy

Thanks to skating 4 hours a week and generally staying active, I'm in about the fittest shape of my adult life--certainly post childbearing. But I hadn't been able to lose the dreaded "mummy tummy," a stomach that protruded slightly  and was a very unsightly distraction from a figure I'm otherwise quite happy with.

On the recommendation of a fellow Derby Lite skater, I decided to enroll in Bonnie Wayne's Tupler Technique workshop with the goal of reducing my stomach roll by shrinking my diastasis recti (the space between my separated stomach muscles). Bonnie took before photos and measurements, demonstrated exercises (none of which are very taxing; think more like kegels for your abs) and fitted us with splints. I wore my splint every night and while exercising and I was reasonably good about doing the exercises. I definitely didn't do the recommended number of sets, but I did do them correctly.

It paid off! You can see my belly is a bit more toned in Bonnie's after photo of me. (I'm not sucking it in because I didn't want to give her program any undue credit.) I've also had my consciousness raised; thanks to Bonnie, I've gotten in the habit of standing up straighter, rolling my shoulders back and pulling my belly button toward my spine, all of which make me look less frumpy and fat. Now if only I could convince my 4 year old to stop patting my much-flatter stomach and saying "There's a baby in your belly, right Mom?"

Camp: struggling with silence in the information age

I dropped off Zoe at her first sleepaway camp on Sunday around 1:30pm, and I've been thinking about her ever since. I spent my 90 minute drive home from Indiana wondering how she was settling in. As we picnicked with friends at the Sunday night concert in Scoville Park, my thoughts turned to her dinner. Was my woefully picky eater eating? Did she pass her swim test? Did she manage to rinse the shampoo and conditioner out of her hair, reapply bug repellent and hang up her towel to dry?

As I read Ada another chapter of Beezus and Ramona, I imagined Zoe settling into Josh's old sleeping bag, perched on a creaky cot in a clapboard shack. Was she talking to the other three girls in her cabin? Were they scared to venture out in the dark to pee? Were the counselors prepared to deal with the giggles, shrieks and possible tears of 12 seven and eight year old Brownies?

I've let Zoe out of my sight plenty of times before, but leaving her in the woods in the care of strangers? That's a new one. As confident as I am in the Girl Scouts organization and my daughter's independent spirit, there was no newsy email from her counselors like I could expect from her grandmother every night she spent in Virginia. No texts, no phone calls, no photos, no Facebook updates. No communication at all until her friend's mom picks her up late Tuesday evening and drives her and her duffle bag full of labeled belongings back to Oak Park.

It shouldn't be such a big deal, but in this age of oversharing (and believe me I'm guilty), it's hard to let go so completely. I can't wait to hear all about her experience--to count her bug bites, hear her camp songs and learn the names of her new best friends--but I'm going to have to. And perhaps her stories will be all the more special simply because they'll be her memories...and they won't be told in real time.

Greening my period with the Diva Cup

Disposable plates are clean, relatively cheap and convenient, but you wouldn't eat off disposable plates every day, would you? It's just too wasteful.

Well, using tampons has made me feel like the environmental boor who uses disposable plates and drinks bottled water for breakfast, lunch and dinner (at least for 5 days out of the month). So I finally switched to the aluminum water bottle of the femcare world, the menstrual cup. The Diva Cup, to be precise.

It arrived in a package that included a cute little cloth drawstring bag and a "Diva" lapel pin that I'm absolutely never ever going to wear.

I'm not going to lie--there's a bit of a learning curve. But aside from one unfortunate retrieval attempt (the one before I thoroughly read the instructions), it was really no more difficult or time consuming than using tampons. And you don't have to worry about carrying enough with you because it's reusable!

In terms of effectiveness, I found the Diva cup wasn't leak-proof, but it did leak less than tampons. And the spotting I experienced was likely due to user error--not getting the cup in precisely its happy place. Comfort was equivalent to a tampon. Sometimes I felt a little "have to pee" pressure on my urethra shortly after putting it back in, but the more I inserted it, the better I became at putting it in exactly the right spot (and opened all the way).

There is the matter of emptying and cleaning the Diva cup, which is definitely best done in the privacy of your own bathroom or at least a bathroom with a private sink. I'm not going to lie: you will see blood. A lot of blood. Some women recommend carrying a sport bottle of water into a public stall and others say a quick wipe with TP is good enough, but fortunately the Diva cup can hold more than even the most super absorbent tampon, so I didn't have to deal with that challenge at work.

Now if I was going to be at an all-day rock festival and dealing with port-a-potties, you can better believe I'd use tampons instead...but I'd also be eating off disposable plates without feeling too guilty about it.