Halloween 2009

We started the morning with breakfast at Lula. There was a long wait, but luckily the boys had their DSi's and a good space on the floor.



Risotto with brussels sprouts, wild mushrooms and crispy parsnips.



Lamb tortilla with scrambled eggs, avocado, mole, black beans and spaghetti squash. It was really amazing.



We went to the Botanic Garden for the Spooky Pooch Parade. We didn't find them to be spooky so much as we found them to be cuties. But it was fun.





We gave treats to one particularly sweet doggie.





Astro dog.





There are over 300 mum plants in each of these towers.



We loved these berries, and it seemed especially appropriate for Halloween: don't they look like a bunch of tiny pumpkins?



Back at home, we did some more decorating. We realized we had a bit of a lost opportunity, seeing as our downstairs apartment is still empty. We could have had a "haunted apartment" set up down there, we could have had a little Halloween party in it, or we could have at least to put up some spooky decorations and hung out there while we passed out candy. Alas, it didn't occur to us until we were putting up our last minute decorations in our upstairs apartment.

Max tried to play a spooky song on the piano.



We made our own witch houses.





We spooked up the porch a bit.



Due to the construction project, our front stairway still has no light, so it is already pretty spooky. We put candles all the way up the stairs to give us a bit of illumination, but it was still pretty dim. We also hung strips of crepe paper in the doorway (think 70s beads, only these looked more like a mummy's rags). And hanging from the screen door, there is a little witch whose eyes light up, whose legs kick, and who cackles loudly when you open the door. In the background, we played a Halloween mix which features some pretty creepy laughs and some very eerie tunes. It echoed nicely through the otherwise empty stairwell. We wondered if it was almost too creepy, since our porch light is also out. We had to rely on the flickering lights from the jack-o-lanterns. But since we went out trick-or-treating in the early hours, we were only home to pass out candy after 8 pm, and most of the trick-or-treaters we got were a bit older. They seemed to think our decorations were appropriately scary.





But I suppose that is getting ahead of things.

First, we did our own bit of trick-or-treating. We realized it was the first time we could remember being out before dark. It was great to have Halloween on a Saturday, to have Martin with us all day, to be able to go out so early and be home for lots more fun in the evening. We also managed to have the longest session of trick-or-treating we have ever had.





Some of our favorite scenes.







The goodies.



And now, we're eating some of that candy and watching Harry Potter, which seems like a good way to end the evening.

More Halloween Activities

We made our mummy craft, thanks to the cute little craft kits from Millie's party on Tuesday.




Max designs his AT-AT driver pumpkin.





Boba and AT-AT Driver.



Martin's very menacing Jack.



From the inside.



The pumpkins are starting to gather.



We were all having too much fun carving to bother making dinner, so we ordered pizza, and Max and Martin went out to pick it up (as well as some candles for our pumpkins). Lucky Vito's forgot to pie cut it (it tastes so much better in triangular shapes, in my opinion), and the delivery boys apparently tipped the pizza on its side on the way home, so it was a bit of a mess. But it still tasted really yummy.

Midnight Circus

We headed down to Daley Plaza for three showings of Midnight Circus, the fabulous bunch of actors, acrobats, aerialists, clowns and musicians who take over Franken Plaza every October to amaze and delight us.

We went with a huge group of other unschoolers, many of them the same kids with whom I have been viewing Midnight Circus since they were toddlers, and several of them are now taking their own circus arts classes.

Before the second show, gathering on the Picasso sculpture.



In captive conversation.



During the performance (our group comprises most of this section).





Ivana Ivanova wishes the MC a happy birthday.











A head to head competition.







Guest appearance from David Boo-ie, normally with Cirque de Soleil in Montreal, but apparently in town and up for performing with his old friends.





The king rides again.











The big finish.



The usual reference to Thriller seemed a bit more passionate this year.







After the show, we checked out the oragne fountain, which, reportedly, does NOT taste like Orange Crush.



The farmer's market is there on Thursdays, so there was the added fun of that.



Look who's coming to the Chicago Theatre. Just in case we need a bit more acrobatic inspiration to our autumn.



We watched a bit of rehearsal for the 5:30 aerial act.





The boys took a few final slides down the Picasso. I love to say that.



The commute home.

Millie's Halloween Party

Our friend Amelia loves any excuse for a party. She is a girl with a vision, that's for sure. I didn't take my camera, so I had to rely on my phone for photos. I am still kicking myself over that one, since there was so much thought put into all the decorations and the activities.

When we arrived, Millie (Amelia) had already set up a "scene" at the dining room table.




Those are real potatoes those skeletons are "feasting" on—they've been a science project on their bookshelf for quite some time.

There was bobbing for apples:



Make your own skull/ghost/mummy pizza:




Some really tasty homemade chili with spider pastries:



A pinata:







Wicket, everybody's favorite Ewok, even showed up:



We didn't line the kids up and get photos of all of them in their fantastic costumes. You can see some of them in the pinata photos.

And many of the adults joined in on the action. Kelly and Craig were a witch and a vampire and had on ghoulish make up (so ghoulish that it was starting to freak Truman out, and he insisted that his dad wash that stuff off his face, which Craig did). I didn't get a good photo of the two of them, and I didn't get a photo at all of Kelly, it seems. She was too busy making pumpkin cookies to decorate (we ran out of time for that, so we just ate them, naked) and getting together the mummy craft (we ran out of time for that too, so she just sent all the kids home with the supplies). All that fun, and a gift bag too!

At the end, as most of the guests trickled away (some of them had to get home to do homework, two of them were former homeschoolers who jokingly shook their fists at us for being able to hang around into the later hours), the remaining parents sat around the table, shared some wine, and discussed costumes, Harry Potter, potentially haunted (or at least very creepy) houses and bloody noses. Martin stopped by after work (and was actually early enough to get in on most of the wine drinking fun). It was a very nice gathering, and we are really happy to have been included in on the fun.

Tipoli and Piki

I've been meaning to post this for a while.

Back in August, Max and Otto wanted to make a claymation movie, and I had promised to help them. But while I was doing the dishes, they apparently took care of it themselves. I feel certain they did a better job than the one which would have resulted with my help, where I would have tried to "teach" them how to make sure the camera did not move, tried to give them some idea of how many shots to take per second (this would have required me researching it online, since I have no idea), and I might have even encouraged them to figure out a story before they started filming. Thank goodness I stayed out of the way, even if it was inadvertently.



They have made a few more, but we ran out of hard drive space in order to store them (and the space it takes to actually create the movies), so I'll have to save posting those for another day.

The Mario Brothers

Today we made the hats to go with the overalls, and suddenly, we had the real live Mario Brothers in the house!









The plumbers made a house call.




I paid them in candy.



And then they played Super Mario 64 while wearing their overalls. It's also a rare sighting of Otto in actual clothes. He looks so cute!

A Trip to Belvidere

On Sunday, the sun was shining, the very last farmer's market of the season was calling, and we had an important errand to run, which meant a drive all the way to Belvidere (60 miles). So we piled into the car and stopped for crepes before we began our roadtrip.

The market was crowded, and the line for crepes was long. The croissants looked pretty tasty, though.




We ran into friends and their babies.



Bellies full, we piled back into the car and drove away. Our errand? To buy overalls. Apparently, it's very difficult to find overalls in larger sizes, like beyond 5T. I called everyone I could think of: OshKosh, Gap, Old Navy, Target, Kohl's. The reason? Max and Otto are dressing up as Mario and Luigi for Halloween. We have done this before, and we have the red and green shirts, the white gloves, we bought fleece to make the hats. I thought the overalls part would be pretty simple, and Max has a pair from last year, but they are too small for him now. So after at least an hour on the phone, calling all the above stores, and after a quick trip out to some local thrift stores to see if by chance there were any on the racks there (there were not), Martin suddenly asked, "What about Farm and Fleet?"

Of course.



He looked up a few locations, and found this one in Belvidere, where we had been about a month ago on our way apple picking. We remembered the cute coffee shop and little downtown there and thought that would be enough to make our visit worthwhile.

Unfortunately, it was closed. As was the neighboring candy shop. The attached bakery was still open, and we stopped in for pie and apple fritters, but the owner made us feel weird when we asked about the coffee shop. We remembered that he had made us feel weird on our previous visit as well. Martin was extremely disappointed with our excursion ending on such a down note, but I am pretty sure we all had fun, despite any disappointment of closed candy stores.



I think it is more disappointing for Martin because he only has the two weekend days to feel like he can do these sorts of things, and he is more prone to feeling like we didn't "seize" them if they didn't turn out as well as he had hoped. He had also mentioned "running around in nature" several times along the drive, and hoped we would stumble upon some beautiful field or forrest or lake or something similar, so when that did not manifest, I think he felt the whole trip was a disappointment.

But hey, we got overalls, which made the boys happy. And there were big pictures painted on the sides of the buildings, which made for funny portraits.

Inspired

We picked up Martin from the hospital this morning after another electrocardioversion. Let's hope this one worked. We had danishes and breakfast at Tre Kronor and headed to River Park, which is a big beautiful park which runs along, surprise!, the river. We rarely go there, since it's not terribly close to us, but it's close to the hospital. There are so many beautiful colors out right now, and since it was a rainy gray day, we had the park to ourselves. We walked the bird and butterfly sanctuary along the river, and we collected so many fabulous leaves. Please excuse the fact that there are no photos of Martin, which is a terrible thing, especially considering that today should be about him. He took a few with his iPhone, I didn't even carry mine with me.





We came home to hot chocolate and an email from my dad, with a video attached. So we spent some time watching some insanely good bike stunts by Danny MacAskill on YouTube. It's just what you need on a cold rainy day, when you thought you were sick and exhausted and ready to cuddle up on the couch (we are still sick, after all). But after watching these, I feel a bit more inspired, and I'm ready for a more exciting afternoon. Martin hardly gets a day off, after all, and even if it's because he had to get his heart shocked a bit, I think we should do something a bit more celebratory.



Martin has been commuting to work on his bike for the last few months. After watching this, he's thinking he needs to kick it up a notch. But hey, at least he loves his job.

Post Depart'em Depression

We've all been having lots of dreams lately, perhaps because we're sleeping more than usual, or later than usual—although we've not really been sleeping enough, in my opinion: Max woke at 8 yesterday morning and bolted upright, saying, "I think we've overslept!" and insisted we all get up out of bed. Overslept? I have no idea where he learned this concept, since we don't have any time we regularly wake up, nor any activity scheduled early enough in the morning that we would need to be awake by 8 a.m.

But anyway, back to the dreams. Rudolf Steiner would probably say we've been eating too many potatoes: "People who eat potatoes do not get strong thoughts, but they get heavy dreams. If somebody has to eat potatoes all the time, he will actually be a bit tired all the time, and will always be wanting to sleep and dream. Therefore the food that man actually receives has an important bearing on the history of civilization." I read that last night in my Farmer John cookbook, while I was preparing a bit of potato and cabbage pancakes for dinner. The kids refused to touch them, however, declaring them disgusting (they were actually really tasty), so I suppose the potatoes had nothing to do with Max's dream after all. Plus, and I say this with great respect, Rudolf Steiner was just a tiny bit nuts.

So this morning, Max was excited to tell me that he had a really long dream (it was an "epic dream," really, with multiple locations and people and ideas). He tried to string it together for us:

Max and Otto and Truman were playing hide and seek with Puffy (the stuffed puffin who has gone everywhere with us since April), and Truman hid it in the bathroom and somehow accidentally flushed it down the toilet. (Here's where the adventure part begins, according to Max.) They tried to find it, and they were following all these pipes, and then one of our friends, a different friend, an unidentified friend, showed up with a car, it was an old car, some kind of really cool old car, but it was too small for everyone to fit in, and it somehow transformed into an SUV. And suddenly, we were all at the Museum of Science and Industry, but then it seemed more like the aquarium, there were all these "animated fish," and then he realized it was not Truman but Fergus and Effie who were with him. He paused here in his recounting and said, "it was kind of like August Rush," although I'm not sure what he means by that, since, when I asked him about it, he just said he was still thinking a lot about that movie (we watched it last night, and Max really loved it), and that parts of his dream were like that movie.

He kept trying to connect things logically (like trying to figure out how Truman became Fergus and Effie) and it was really fascinating and fun to talk through how dreams are just bits and pieces that don't always make sense. It didn't stop him from trying to make it make sense, though, and he got a bit frustrated that as he was telling it, the very dream seemed to be slipping away from his memory. There were even more parts at the end, but even I can't remember them now, and Max is done talking about it. Dreams are so wonderful and frustrating at the same time, how we can't really recount most of them, how it seems like you almost figured something out, but then the more you try to remember it, the faster it disappears.

It's been sort of a dream-like state around here, and we've accomplished very little. The wind is blowing, the leaves are falling off the trees at an alarming rate. I am staring at the gray sky from our office window (which is actually a door, come to think of it).

We've spent a really quiet day around the house, drawing pictures, watching movies, playing Super Mario Sunshine. The last few days have been really low-key, and I have dubbed them our "post-depart'em depression days," owing to the strange feeling of emptiness since our friends left on Monday, as well as the rather nasty colds that arrived as soon as they left us. Otto had a fever on Tuesday, but it was polite enough to leave after 24 hours. However, he's still feeling icky, and we've all just started coughing and joining in to the general state of feeling unwell.

Otto made me a necklace on the morning he had the fever: he had put out the supplies the night before, and his plan was to do a bit of beadwork as soon as he woke up, so even though he awoke feeling absolutely blah, he went straight to the table and made me a necklace. He has been very happy that I've been wearing it everywhere (and by this, I mean to the kitchen and to the bathroom and to the living room) since he gave it to me, and he helps me find a place to hang it each night and then reminds me where it is in the morning.


We tried to get out and about yesterday, as it was a beautiful sunny day (it almost reached 70 degrees, although it stopped just short, so that October could continue to be record-breaking in any way possible: record colds, record in the fact that it hasn't even hit 70 degrees on any single day). I wanted to be a responsible person and not take my kids somewhere to expose other kids to our germs. We were just walking around, soaking up the Vitamin D, and we stopped by Holstein Park, where we had gone a couple of times with Fergus and Effie on their visit. It was only 1:30, the perfect time to visit a park on most days, as it is before school is out, and after all the young kids have gone home for lunch and naps. We usually have the park to ourselves at this time. But we were disappointed to see that it was absolutely packed with a bunch of kids wearing blue and white. We were confused, as it was apparently a whole school out early or something, maybe because of the good weather (fun for them, of course, but not so good for us). Also, this particular bunch of kids seemed determined to have a fight break out amongst themselves, and there were blows between a handful of students at least three times. There was one really tough girl who seemed to be trying to pick fights with anyone who looked at her the wrong way. I thought they were perhaps on recess and would leave within 15 minutes (Chicago public school recesses are notoriously short), but they stayed around for longer than that, took over the entire playground, and there was no teacher or adult in sight.

Not so much because I felt bad exposing them to our germs, but more because I felt uncomfortable exposing us all to their really angry behavior, we left the park and walked home. It was a pretty brief outing, but at least we got some time in the sun. Today is rainy, and the forecast promises the same for the next several days. Good days to stay home and watch movies and make s'mores in the microwave. Almost as good as the real thing.



Oh, and speaking of the real thing, check out this marshmallow and hot dog roasting equipment. Perhaps for the next camping trip?

The Visit

After a summer spent on a lot of visits to other families, we finally got to host one of those families in our house. We spent 10 wonderful days with our friends Craig, Gillian, Effie and Fergus, who came all the way from Victoria BC for a visit to our fair city. Unfortunately, the weather was not very fair—indeed, it was bordering on unreasonable (record cold for October in Chicago). There was a bit of rain/sleet somewhere in the middle, which made our excursions slightly more challenging, but the last two days were full of sunny skies, and we hope that is what they will take with them.

This morning, we are all adjusting to the feeling of a more empty house. There are no visitors coming up for breakfast or to help us plan the day. I am really amazed at how well our two families do together, how the kids (mostly) get along together, how our rhythms, although different, seem to match up so well. When they left last night (in a taxi cab that almost didn't arrive in time), we sat on the porch, sort of stunned to realize they were actually gone. We ate the Pringles chips they had left behind, and Max suddenly said, "there are some good things and some bad things about them being gone, but mostly there are bad things." I love how he was able to express this feeling.

This afternoon, Max suddenly came to me and said, "it just feels so weird now that Fergus and Effie are gone, I can't really explain it, but it just hurts here," and he pointed to his chest. I told him I understand what he means, how it's weird after being with them so much for so many days to suddenly be apart from them. He cuddled up with me for a while and we sat together, talking about the fun things we did with our friends. Meanwhile, Otto has a fever and is alternating between being cuddled up in a blanket or being so hot he can't take it. I suppose they are experiencing a let down so extreme that it is emerging from their very bodies.

We did manage to fit a lot of fun in our ten days, and there were even a couple of down days for us in there, so that Otto could have a home day while Effie and Fergus could see more stuff.

I had made a fairly extensive itinerary with all sorts of ideas of things we might do. I had no idea if we'd get to half of it or even a bit of it, knowing we would take it day by day and would rely heavily on all the kids being agreeable to the outings. In the end, we did quite a lot, all on foot or by CTA. We did, however, seem to run up against a recurring theme: closed or free (and in these cases, we were not really happy about the free part). I think we all managed to see the humorous side of this.

We went to the Shedd Aquarium (free day, crowded, the first day it was open post two days of being closed, and also the first day of the new dolphin show, Fantasea—it was so darn crowded, we did not even get to see this show, which was a bit of a disappointment), the Museum of Science and Industry (free day, crowded, the beginning days of the new exhibit You, and our arrival was timed with the fire drill and evacuation of the entire museum), we saw Millennium Park at sunset (this was beautiful, even if it was a bit cold and misting), and we rode the water taxi down to Chinatown and back on our last sunny Sunday. This day was definitely a highlight, noted for its fine weather, the combination of shopping, eating and playing in the park. Craig joked on the way down, "Do you think it's a free day in Chinatown?" But it was only moderately crowded, just the right amount to feel like a bustling big city Chinatown. And we ended the day at the Blue Man Group, where all the kids had a great time. Fergus was really excited about it and couldn't wait to see what all the toilet paper was for. I think he was pleased with the results.

Beyond the Blue Man Group, there was more music to be had. Craig and Gillian went to see Tom Rush (a folk legend and old favorite of Gillian's family) at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Martin took Craig to see Yeast Nation, a new musical at the American Theatre Company, featuring our talented friend Wendi. Gillian and I had a dance party with the kids in the living room.

There was lots of eating: Hachi's Kitchen (we did take-out sushi from here twice, since it was everyone's favorite meal), Snail Thai (in Hyde Park, post our MSI visit), Lee Wing Wah's (during our Chinatown visit), Pizza D.O.C. (for some delicious fire-baked pizza, only shadowed by the revelation that the Mayer family makes their own grilled pizza, which is even better than the D.O.C. variety), Lula Cafe (for a somewhat stressful breakfast, given that it was 3 pm by the time the food arrived, and the children had not eaten all morning), and an attempt to capture the taste of an amazing steak taco that Craig and Martin had following their night out on the town (we tried a nearby Birrieria, where Gillian, Craig and Martin all got heartburn from the goat tacos, and in the waning minutes of the visit, we stopped by El Cid for steak tacos which only met with mild approval from Craig). We also took the kids to Margie's Ice Cream for old fashioned sundaes, served in large shell-shaped bowls.

Effie and I got to spend some time doing crafts together—clay, melty beads, jewelry beads, shrinky dinks, drawing, and one night, we looked through my portfolio and some of my hand-made books together. I realized this would be a fun activity to do with her, book making, but we didn't find the time to pursue that further on this visit.

We watched movies (it was an Indiana Jones marathon, so much so that Fergus found he was Jonesed out), we played video games, we played board games, we played with the Lego minifigure collection, all of them making their own special minifigures. We ate an extraordinary number of Werther's Candies and Ikea chocolate bars.

We spent some low-key days in the neighborhood, walking to Starbucks and various parks. And we also took the bus up to Lincoln Square to visit Quake Collectibles so that Effie could significantly grow her Star Wars action figure collection. We also stopped in Timeless Toys to check out the puppets and stuffed animals.

Effie had saved up a large sum of money for her visit and was very careful about how she wanted to spend this money. There was a lot of time spent at each store as she considered each purchase and counted out the total she would spend with her toy money (this is a fabulous way to represent the actual money without risking losing the whole lot). She made two visits to Quake, as well as a visit to Fantasy Costume, and a trip to Target (we can walk there from our house, which is exciting in itself). Perhaps her most successful visit was to the American Girl store, where she went one afternoon with just Gillian and Craig while the boys and I stayed home and watched movies and played video games. I think having the full attention of her parents while she spread out the possibilities on the floor was a bonus. Effie got a bed for her doll Felicity, as well as three new outfits. She was very excited about these and showed them all to me when they got home.

Despite numerous drive-bys and boat-bys and photographs taken of the Sears Tower, we never made it to the actual building, nor did we make it to the John Hancock for a sky high view of the city. I suppose we had to leave some things for their next visit.

And of course, somewhere in there we celebrated Max's birthday (as discussed in the previous blog post). He was very happy to have spent this birthday was his good friends.

Note: our small camera has been missing since mid-September (it is beyond missing, officially gone), so I have had to rely heavily on Craig for photos for days when I did not want to carry the big camera around along with our changes of clothes and coats and snacks and drinks. But here are a few moments, captured on film.

So here are Craig, Gillian and Effie, as we are heading out for Day One. I forgot to mention that our attic reconstruction has fallen so far behind that we could not house them there, as initially promised, and we did not think it possible to squeeze us all into our tiny space. But we got the surprising news that our downstairs tenants had bought a house and were moving out just two weeks prior to the arrival of our house guests, so in the end, it worked out really well. We had a "guest apartment," more room to run around there than we could have possibly offered, even if the attic had been finished. The only drawback was that, due to my own overzealousness on a remodeling project, the kitchen sink was rerouted and not working for their visit, so even though they had a full kitchen in their apartment, they weren't really able to use it. Still, it seemed to work out, as it was mostly late night snacking that they did down there, and we were together for all actual meals.



On the bus, headed for Lincoln Square.



Our first visit to Quake, where they are now old friends with Dave, the owner.



Heading for delicious pizza that doesn't begin to compare to Pizza M.O.C. (Mayers of Canada).



Kids in costumes.



Effie's new action figures.



This park was closed for resurfacing during their entire visit. It didn't stop us from standing outside and looking longingly at it.



The neighborhood coffee shop happens to be a fairly well known chain.





Crafting while Gillian and Craig went out on their date. All the kids made really cute little clay creatures.



Max inspects his birthday cake.



Headed to the Museum of Science and Industry for a (surprise to us) free day. Too bad Gillian bought a membership to her local science museum in order to get in to this one. Apparently October in Chicago is a free time in many museums. The rest of the month is free on weekdays at the MSI.



The Bean at sunset. We could not have planned better timing on this (it was entirely luck that we arrived when we did).




New sculpture in Millennium Park.



More pizza. Lucky Vito's variety. This was such a hit that we decided we should have pizza for the kids as an option for every night. But the next night, when we suggested pizza again, Max complained he had had enough pizza for a while. Oh well, the best laid plans and all that.



Taxi!



Martin served as tour guide as we cruised down the river, on our way to Chinatown.





There's the Sears Tower again.



At last: Chinatown. We played for a while in Ping Tom Park.



We stopped first in the "mall," the more modern part of Chinatown, where we know a few good shops and restaurants.



Candy, fill your own basket.



Dinner negotiations (some people were hungry and ready to sit, some people were anxious to explore more).



The hungry people who were ready to sit somehow got their way, but I think everyone liked it.



Then we made our way to the traditional Chinatown street, where we shopped some more.







Sunset water taxi ride back north.





This was such a perfect outing, not just because it happened to be on the most beautiful day we had, but also because it was the one thing that Fergus had somehow set his mind to do, and that he kept asking about, possibly because he thought he was actually visiting China. As the end of their visit drew near, we did not think we could fit it in. But because he said it over and over again on Saturday ("I want to go to Chinatown." "When will we go to Chinatown?"), we decided to abandon any other plans for Sunday morning and make a concerted effort to get down there. We were all really happy we did. Effie got a collection of fans, which made her happy, and Fergus got to run around and look at "China rocks" and "China signs" and "China toys." And the timing on the return taxi boat, with the sun setting and glowing on all the buildings...well, once again, we could not have planned it any better. It was a very nice ending to a very nice visit.

Thanks for coming, Craig, Gillian, Effie and Fergus. We had so much fun.

Eight.

Oh, the years are just FLYING by. I know it is cliche to say it, but really, the boys are growing up so fast, it seems like sometimes their feet are visibly bigger from day to day.

I have reveled in this last year. A four and a seven year old, and in June, it became clear that I now had a five and a seven year old, and now...a five and an eight year old. Eight. I can't even type the word out without feeling it is just incorrect. It doesn't even look like a proper word to me at the moment.

So, yesterday was the big day. Max had the kind of birthday party he had been hoping for, a day long fest of fairly low-key activities, a small group of some of his favorite people in close proximity. Our friends Fergus, Effie, Craig and Gillian are here for a visit from Victoria BC, and we spent a relaxed day with them which included two of our favorite restaurants, a tour of a new park, some running around in a nearby playground, cake construction and eating, the building of new Lego sets and of course, presents (the highlight being the last one opened, a big Yamaha keyboard from Grandma and Grandpa).

The morning cake making (I was a bit too generous with the batter, but they look sort of pretty all overflowing and such).



Morning present opening ceremony.





A quick stop at Goethe Park (en route to breakfast).



Lula Cafe, where we had an unfortunately long wait—it was Columbus Day, so it was not just Max's birthday, but also a national holiday we had to compete with, and Lula was filled with patrons feasting on their day off. Plus, it was Canadian Thanksgiving, so there was much to celebrate. The long wait left us with some very overly hungry children, however, so it was a bit more stressful than we would have liked it to be, but overall, it was a pretty good breakfast. (Note: it was mid afternoon by the time we were actually seated, so calling it breakfast is a bit of a stretch.)



Craig got a fancy mocha drink.



Otto spent most of his morning playing Fergus' Lego Batman game. He really really loves it.



We finally made it to the new park in Palmer Square. It was completely different than we had imagined it would be, there were no swings or climbing structures, and Gillian joked it was a Waldorf Park. But it was actually a very peaceful beautiful place, and the kids got to run around, and we got to sit around, and it was pretty good.







Late night present opening ceremony, which included the present which was taller than Otto.



The very fancy keyboard not only boasts hundreds of different voices and sounds, but will also play songs, including "The Entertainer," which happens to be Max's favorite song at the moment. It will actually show you the keys to hit if you want to play along, and you can slow down or speed up the tempo so that you can follow it (or just play it so fast that it causes everyone to laugh hysterically). It was a total hit, and we called Grandma and Grandpa to thank them. Max was too busy playing to talk, but Otto talked to them for a long time.



The Leaning Tower of Pisa cake.



Max and Mario and cake.



After the fall (yes, Max huffed and puffed and blew the tower down).



Otto's cake and accompanying Fiat (only Italian cars were allowed on the Plaza).



While Gillian, Effie and I all drove to the costume shop, the boys all assembled the new Indiana Jones planes which Otto gave Max for his birthday.



Not pictured: we ordered an astonishing number of California rolls from Hachi's kitchen, which were eagerly consumed by all, but most quickly by Max, who ate at least 7 rolls in less than five minutes. We are pretty certain he liked his birthday dinner (or was close to starving at the moment of its arrival).

We all sat down to watch the end of Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom together, and we realized that none of us had actually seen the "scary weird bit" in the middle, and somehow, we all managed to shout and laugh our way through the entire action sequence that consumes the last 45 minutes of the movie. It was great fun to hear the kids squealing with a mixture of delight and, well, horror, and the adults joining in. A communal, highly vocal viewing of Indiana Jones is imperative for maximum enjoyment for all.

Seven has been such a fun year. Max has exploded with his drawing, with his comic books, with the piano, with his sudden understanding of things that I thought were too complicated to discuss (what a silly thought). He has developed quite an interest in maps and countries and flags and languages and landmarks. He wants to visit Italy to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, to tour Venice and see a town with only canals for streets, to eat pizza in Rome and visit the remains of the people in Pompeii. He wants to see the Eiffel Tower and the Space Needle and Mt. Rushmore. Obviously, we should put him in charge of planning all future vacations.

His interest in cars has led him to be curious about different times and what life was like in those years. He will spend a long time poring over old books with his Papa, asking about the black and white photographs of various landmarks.

He became attached to one particular stuffed animal this year: a little lorikeet we got at the Lincoln Park Zoo store in April and which has barely left his side in the ensuing months. And not only was his bird well cared for and well loved, but he made sure that Otto's puffin (purchased at the same store on the same day) was also with us at every turn.

Recent months have been filled with a lot of Harry Potter (partly coinciding with the movie release of The Half Blood Prince, but mostly inspired by a May visit to the Museum of Science and Industry's Harry Potter exhibit). We've read the first three Harry Potter books (we're halfway through number 4) and watched all the movies and even made a return visit to the exhibit at the MSI. We've played with wands and made our own potions and cast our own spells. We are eagerly awaiting the Lego Harry Potter video game, due out this winter.

Max is getting so fast and strong on his bike that Otto and I can barely keep up with him. He can easily cross the monkey bars and has so much energy to run (often just back and forth in the house at around 10 pm, probably to fight sleep).

He is conscious of his eating habits (and a bit critical of Otto's, actually, which drives Otto—and the rest of us—a bit batty), and he is careful about brushing his teeth. After a really horrible dental experience in which he had to be put under in order to pull a tooth (just after he turned seven), he has been extremely careful with his remaining teeth, even suggesting that we carry around toothpaste and toothbrushes with us so that we can brush after a trip to Starbucks. (We have not actually done this, but I thought it was pretty funny that he suggested it.)

And perhaps, most importantly, he has become so much more relaxed in the last year, sort of settling into his own personality with an understanding about himself that is amazing to watch.

Max and Otto are still sleeping this morning, cuddled up together under the covers (it is unseasonably and quite unreasonably cold here at the moment, and they wrap their arms and legs around each other in pretzel like fashion). It is only in the last few weeks that they have been able to wake up slightly and realize I am not right there next to them in bed, but be okay cuddling up together for warmth and comfort. They will sometimes stay in bed for a few hours after I get up, and perhaps they will wander in the room where I am doing yoga, and they will pass by, bidding me good morning as they make their way to the living room. It is an amazing thing to see, how they are coming into their independence (a bit slower than may be conventionally expected, admittedly), and it feels so right, so much like they have come to this place in their own way, in the perfect time for them. Max seems more mature to me every day, and I feel both happy for this and a bit startled to realize how quickly the time passes. And now, looking at the clock, I am startled again at how quickly the morning is passing, and I must wrap up now.

Happy birthday, my darling Max. I think it was a good one, and I wish you a wonderful year.