Overheard

Max: Otto, when we get home, will you put on your pajamas, and in the morning, will you put on new clothes, like a normal person?

Otto: Um, yeah, okay.

Pannenkoeken Cafe...Yum!

The kids and I ate at the Pannenkoeken Cafe in Lincoln Square, where we sampled several things on the menu, including their apple pannenkoeken, their bacon and cheese pannenkoeken and their fabulous buttermilk pancakes. It's a new and very small restaurant, and everything was beautifully presented and absolutely delicious.

We've been wanting to try it for weeks, but there is always a very long wait on weekends, more than an hour. On a Wednesday afternoon, we strolled right in. We sat next to a Dutchman who was visiting his girlfriend, who lives in Chicago. We talked about how authentic these pannenkoeken were, and he said they were different than the ones his mom made, and of course, that's always the standard you measure everything by. I wondered if Max and Otto will have that standard, or will they always consider the best pancakes to be the ones from Lula. Hee hee. But he also said that every single restaurant in Holland will have a different recipe or way of making the pancakes, and that these were very good indeed. We talked about what a great city Chicago is, and we did our best for their relationship, by trying to convince him to move here. He's currently living in the Caribbean, however, so I'm not sure we could persuade him, especially since his girlfriend said she wasn't so fond of Chicago winters. It was nice to talk to them, anyway.

We will definitley be back, and hopefully we'll bring Martin. Word on the street (or more accurately, taped to the doorway) is that they're going to start taking reservations for weekends.

Max's Birthday, Part II

So there's more. Three entries about Max's birthday. I know, it seems a bit excessive. Especially since I never even made the entry for Otto's third birthday party. Note to self: write that up and post it, belated as it is.

Max had been pretty indecisive about his birthday and how to celebrate it. It was sort of contagious, and it meant that I couldn't think of what to do either. He has been very excited about cooking and baking lately. Max loves bagels and cream cheese and when I told him that it was possible to make your own bagels, he thought this was a very cool thing we should all do together.

Since one of the other things in this world Max loves is a costume, we decided to make it a dress-up party, inviting our friends to come as whatever they wanted, or to dress up in some of the stuff we have here.

The kids had fun shaping the bagels, playing with the dough. And it was also fun to see them all in costume, a Ninja shaping a bagel, for instance. Darth Vader going for a piece of fruit. But the much anticipated homemade bagels did not, I am told, taste like Einstein's Bagels, and were therefore a disappointment to my dear Max. It was still a fun experiment, and luckily, not too much was at stake, since Max seemed to have no real opinion on the matter of how his birthday would be celebrated.






Ruben came as a Ninja, Nicholas came as Darth Vader, Will came as Buzz Lightyear, and the other kids donned some of our costumes. Tilly was a lion, but only briefly. Skylar was also Buzz. Otto went through several costumes but mostly wore his pajamas. Rocco tried on a few outfits too, although I didn't document any of them. He was a fireman, a clone trooper, an astronaut, and maybe something else, but I can't remember what.






Max's main focus was on the cake, which for the last year he has said would be an ambulance cake (he decided that's what he would want to do while we were shaping his space shuttle cake last year, and did not waver for the entire year). In a typical move, he casually changed his mind the week before the party and said he'd like to have an Ultraman cake. Ultraman, the obscure superhero we discovered at Uncle Fun.

So we made a tower of cakes (six little cakes for six big years...on top of a base cake) and put Ultraman on the tippy top. Of course, we did a lousy job of documenting the actual cake (I got one photo of it before we put Ultraman on it), but hopefully you can see the super being behind the other super creatures, our fabulous party guests.

Max's Birthday, Part I

We had a family birthday celebration for Max on his actual birthday. We made chocolate beet cake, and planned to have it for breakfast with Martin before he went to work. But we all stayed up late the night before (in part because we were making the cake), and everyone was tired and cranky, and Max didn't want to eat cake or open presents until after Martin left. Then, Max and Otto "snuck" the cake, by cutting it up themselves, with no ceremony (or at least none that I was aware of). We didn't light candles or sing or anything like that, which Max does not like. I heard them plotting and getting out the utensils and plates and peeked around the corner to see them both serving the cake to themselves. And we opened Otto's present to Max, which was a Playmobil paramedic on a motorcycle.

We stayed home most of the day, and Max played on his GameCube. And later in the day, we went to the park, dressed in their Boba and Jango Fett costumes. Martin met us there, we opened up Max's present from us (which was a video camera). Max took some movies at the park, and then we all headed to Hachi's Kitchen for sushi. We opened another present while we were at the restaurant, from his cousins. It was a science kit about the weather, and a hat and gloves set with Spiderman on them. These were a huge hit. Max put them on in the restaurant.

Max is Six

I can't believe it's really true. Six years since my world has completely changed, my focus completely turned, six years since this little boy came along and helped me to find the wonder in the world that I had been missing for too long. And as much of a cliche as it is to say, it has gone by so very fast. It feels like this last year has gone by even faster than all the rest.

It seems like we just decorated his space shuttle cake and made papier mache planets to hang from the ceiling. But that was birthday number 5. For that matter, I can so clearly remember his 4th birthday, the one he had planned to be a firetruck birthday, and we, his parents, ran away with that theme, planning the fire truck cake, the party favors (fire trucks for everyone! little plastic firemen! fireman stickers! fire themed candy!), and on the night before, he decided he'd rather have construction trucks. Not just one, of course, but two. And somehow we all shifted and turned his birthday party into a construction truck party by the next morning. That was a big step for us in respecting his wishes and not trying to push him into our plans of what would be fun or would impress all of his guests. I had to let go of a feeling of disappointment that my Martha-Stewart like party was not going to be...and surprisingly, it was even better than I had planned, because he was happy about it.

And then I can think about his third birthday, the first one with Otto around to share the spotlight. But the spotlight was on Max because Grandma and Grandpa came to celebrate with him. And they brought him his suitcase and packed it with dress-up stuff, and he has never looked back. I can so clearly remember us all sitting in the living room and trying on all his new helmets: a fireman, a construction worker, a police officer, a race car driver. Those helmets are still some of his favorite toys. Dress up has become one of our main activities.

Our fifth year was definitely dominated by dress-up. There was a month or two where Max simply would not leave the house if he was not in some sort of costume. And luckily, Otto was in agreement for the most part (Max seems to really like an accomplice). They were astronauts, pirates, knights, police officers, Superman, Spiderman, firemen, park rangers, clone troopers, and Darth Vader.

Oh yes, Star Wars. Five was also the year he discovered Star Wars. It's funny, while so many things seem like only yesterday, Star Wars seems like it has been around in our lives much longer. But it was only last Halloween that we watched Star Wars for the first time. It was all becaue of a Darth Vader mask he spotted in the costume shop. "Who is THAT?!" Max asked, knowing this must be the mask of a very scary and worthy presence. He kept talking about that mask until we finally went back and got it, and the whole costume. And a little Darth costume for Otto too. They were Darth and mini Darth.

And when we wore the costumes around town, people would say "Luke, I am your father!" or "May the force be with you," or other Star Wars references, and Max and Otto were confused. And finally, on Halloween night, when both boys dressed as Darth Vader and drove around in our big wagon, which we called the Death Star, we decided we needed to rent it, so he could see what everyone was talking about. I was thinking it might be too scary. We had only watched "kids" movies until then (Robots, Toy Story, Cars, Mary Poppins and the like). I couldn't believe my babies would watch this "dark" movie. But we put it in, and they loved it. They loved Darth Vader. They loved the Storm Troopers. They thought R2D2 and C3P0 were hilarious. We realized the whole thing was not all that scary and was in fact, downright campy. And the Star Wars frenzy began.

Action figures cover the house. Small ships lay on the tables and chairs and are carried with us on errands. We spent yesterday afternoon at Quake, a collectors store/used goods shop (Max said it was kind of like a yard sale or a thrift store), where we sat on the floor and dug through bins, looking for superhero figures for our friends for Max's birthday party favors. Imagine their delight when they also found some Star Wars toys in the mix. Max's and Otto's Star Wars collection has grown to be something quite impressive in the last year. We have gone from shopping at the old fashioned toy stores with all the cute little wooden toys (the ones I always wanted to support) to shopping mostly at Target, because "that's where the stuff I like is," says Max.

Oh, I remember now, it was also the year of Cars. It was his first real "complete collection," in that he wanted to have every single car toy that was made (and admittedly, we got into the collecting part of it also and bought up the rare cars whenever we saw them). We watched that movie dozens of times, and I felt like I knew the entire script from start to finish, including each sound cue.

Speaking of sound cues, it was the year of soundtracks: we bought almost all the Pixar soundtracks. And then moved on to other soundtracks of movies he liked, such as Amelie and Little Miss Sunshine. Movies and soundtracks, definitely part of our year. Some of his favorite music: Wizard of Oz, Shrek, Over the Hedge, Kiki's Delivery Service, Harry Potter, and Star Wars, of course. Once, when listening to Harry Potter, Max asked, "Is this the same guy who wrote the music for Star Wars?" Turns out Max is a big John Williams fan. He also loves the music for Superman, although we haven't seen that yet.

Five was the year we also saw our first movie in the movie theatre. Happy Feet. Followed by Charlotte's Web. And later Ratatouille. We still prefer to see movies at home, where we can pause if we need to, rewind if we missed something or just want to see it again and again because it is so cool or funny or whatever, and fast forward if it's a bit too much for us at this time (we've still not seen the last part of Star Wars, Episode III, because it was just too much for Max).

Five was the year he lost his first tooth and then another one too. He got gold coins from the tooth fairy, which he was collecting at the time. He was also collecting state quarters. Shortly after that, he took his entire collection to the Nature Museum and rolled most of it down the coin donation display (you could watch your coin spin from the edge until the center hole with great flair). He bought juice and snacks with the rest of it.

Five was the year of collections of all kinds. Pez dispensers. Bottle caps. Buttons. Acorns. Stones. Sea glass. Sticks.

Five was the year he got really interested in riding his bicycle. He liked his training wheels and had no inclination to remove them. But about a month ago, one of the wheels broke off and he decided to ride without it. Shortly after that, he requested to have the other training wheel removed as well. And then, he was riding around like he'd always done it that way. There was not the period of time that I had imagined, where I would run along behind him, hold him up, let him go. He just took about five minutes to figure out how to start it on his own (how to balance to get going now that his training wheels were gone), and truly, he seemed to master it in less than 20 minutes. It was just another lesson for me that if I can wait until he's ready, he just does something, almost completely. It was really thrilling to watch, and I think I jumped and cheered and exclaimed my excitement, even though I was trying to be calm and cool, just like he was. Max doesn't like a lot of attention about these things—his accomplishments, or his attempts at things that don't work out. He just wants them to be part of the big picture, not noticed as either a success or failure. But sometimes I am just so excited, I can't contain myself. :)

Five was also the year he decided he really liked making videos and took over the camera at many events. I love to watch his movies, to see the particular way he chose to shoot a scene. He will walk around with the camera dangling from his wrist so it will spin around. He turns the camera upside down or shakes it to get a particularly joyous moment. He films the inside of a cabinet or a toy box, capturing odd moments that sometimes are really fantastic. It can be hard to watch for someone who has equilibrium issues, like myself, but perhaps because my Maxie shot it, I can watch any of it without feeling nauseous. He thinks it would be fun to make movies, to make his own newspaper with photos he takes (we actually made a small one, where he dictated the stories to me). He is very interested in claymation and stop motion graphics. We made a movie with stop motion software which featured his Ultraman action figures. Now he wants to tackle the BFG with clay, our own version of a Wallace and Gromit feature. It might be a really big commitment, so don't hold your breath to see it anytime soon.

It was the year he realized he loved to throw on a pottery wheel and we made weekly visits to Hands on Art and made all sorts of fabulous creations.

It was also the year Hands on Art closed its doors, and we mourned the loss.

The year he mastered the monkey bars.

The year he discovered bowling.

The year of the 17-year cicadas.

The year he and Otto experimented with "concoctions," which they made by adding various spices from my spice drawer to random liquids, often before I even realized that they were doing so.

It was also the year he asked for a piano and wondered if we could get one with the money we made from our yard sale. What a happy coincidence that we actually did find a piano for almost our exact profit from the yard sale. It seemed like fate. We bought it and brought it home.

And, most recently, five was the year Max discovered video games. We've only had the player a couple of weeks, and he is already doing things which completely amaze me. We've all had fun playing together, but Max is definitely the master, mostly because he is willing to try and try and try until he figures it out. And he's having so much fun along the way.

It was such a full year, and looking back over it all, I am realizing just how abundantly we have lived it. I am surrounded by their love, their joy, their intense emotions, their frustrations, their excitement, their action figures (hee hee). The words from last year's Live and Learn conference keep running through my mind, "it's a small world, but a BIG life." It certainly is.

Happy, happy birthday, my sweet Max. I love you so much.

Covering Minneapolis in Smiley Faces

Artist Phil Hansen spent one day in September drawing chalk smiley faces all over downtown Minneapolis. What fun. I hope it put smiles on lots of actual faces when they saw it. I think we'll have to plan a similar happening for our fair city. Maybe we should just always carry chalk so we can be prepared to make a smile at a moment's notice.

Weekend Wrap Up

We headed to Waterman, Illinois for some seasonal activities. We had been wanting to go for a while, and we saw that today was their annual harvest festival, so it seemed like a perfect time.

Our first stop: the Waterman and Western Railroad, where a quarter scale model F-3 electromotive train awaited us. We rode on this train last year for the first time, although we have been to Waterman many times (more on that below). We had just never noticed the large park and the railway that runs around it. But last year, we took a ride on this wonderful little train and knew we'd be back.

We talked it up. The boys were excited. The only problem was that as we drove up to the park, we realized that the harvest festival had happened the previous weekend. The train was not evening running. It was, in fact, being used as a moveable scaffolding for two workers who were putting up a tunnel for the train (they are getting it ready to be a Pumpkin Train, in celebration of Halloween, and the tunnel is part of the "scary ghosts and goblins" part of the ride, which is not really all the scary, but it is a bit dark and full of smoke).

Anyway, we drove up to the two workers and asked if the website perhaps had the wrong date posted for the Harvest Festival. We explained we had come from Chicago thinking the train was running. With no hesitation whatsoever, they said, "Give us 15 minutes, and we'll give you a ride." Wow! What service! They did a little more work on the tunnel, we played in the grass, and then one of them had to actually make a drive for gasoline. He returned and gassed up the locomotive and told us to climb aboard.







The boys chose the caboose, and we set off around the park. When we got near the park entrance, there were a few other families who had seen the train running, and they climbed aboard as well. (One of the families was the driver's daughter and her husband and child, so we were happy to be a part of that grandpa giving his grandson a bonus train ride...perhaps he had even planned to do that anyway. Wouldn't it be great to visit your grandpa and get a train ride with him?)

After three rounds of the park, we got in the car and headed to Honey Hill Orchard. We've been picking apples and late season raspberries there since before Max was born. In fact, I remember that we went there on my due date with Max (I was not showing any signs of being in labor and figured it was a safe bet). We told him that story as we all bent over to pick what few raspberries we could find (they had been well-picked by some very determined people). We picked more than a pound, although it was fairly slow going.

We were disappointed that they had updated their picking process—gone were the nostalgic bushel baskets we used to fill with apples, and in their place were prepaid plastic baggies. It makes sense, you just pay per bag upfront, it saves time and extra employees on their part, but something was definitely lacking from our last visit.

Still, we all had fun picking a couple varieties of apples (we went for Empire and Jonagold). The apple picking goes quickly, almost too quickly, but since it was getting late in the day, that was okay with us. Max tried the varieties to make sure he liked him before we committed to an entire bagful. He was eating with one hand and picking with the other.













We also managed to make it in time for a horse-pulled wagon ride. Otto sat on Martin's lap to get a closer look at the behinds of the horses who were carting us around. It was hard to see more than that, aside from their tails swishing and the occasional horseshoes as they lifted their feet up really high.

The orchards were closing, so we headed to the gift shop. We picked out a couple of pumpkins, and we also got some cider and some more apples (the honey crisp, my favorite apples, were only available in the barn, pre-picked).

We finished our visit by heading to the brand spanking new bakery (it just opened last week), where we bought a dozen cider donuts. Yum.

We ate them in the car as we drove toward home. Only a few minutes down the road, however, we stopped at the very small Hinckley Airport , where there were gliders and skydivers and small planes. It was late in the day, and the gliders were all being packed up.

We watched a few skydivers who were still doing jumps, even though it was windy and the sun was getting low in the sky. There was a guy there who had a hangar filled with old airplanes, nothing newer than 1940. There was a Piper Cub, a Bücker Jungmann , a German-Swiss plane, and a Luscombe , which had been lovingly restored to a polished mirror-like exterior (the exterior is entirely aluminum). All were very cool, and it was really fun to be so close to them. Martin talked with Alan, who was the proud owner of these planes and the hangar. Alan was a remarkably friendly man, who clearly enjoyed sharing his passion for aircraft with everyone. He was completely relaxed, even with Max and Otto looking curiously at each plane. Martin wanted to talk and talk with Alan, and was his usual curious, questioning, interested self. He later confessed that he would really love to go up in a plane some day with Alan. I think he was half hoping that the sort of wonderful thing that keeps happening to our children ("Give us 15 minutes, we'll get you on that train!") would happen to him, but alas, there was no such offer.




Still, we had to agree that it was a very lucky day we had, with lots of rides (a little train, a tractor-pulled wagon, a horse-pulled wagon), lots of kid-friendly activities (apple picking, raspberry picking, pumpkin choosing), and lots of unusual opportunities (touring the small hangar, watching skydivers, seeing a small plane land within 100 feet of us, with no big fence to make us feel far away).

On Sunday morning, we made pancakes topped with our farm fresh raspberries and whipped cream. We spent the day in the neighborhood, going for a walk, finding a yard sale (with lots of Star Wars toys for the boys), lunching at Lula, stopping by the park on the way home. Sundays always seem to go by so fast.