The Land of Uneven Surfaces

[caption id="attachment_4485" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Ben and Lotta in Betsy Cs kitchen."][/caption]

In order to begin our 13 days of Ellie, we took a trip to Chicago.  We spent the night with Betsy C on Saturday night.  She created a beautiful and yummilicous meal for us out of yellow, orange and red foods (notice some of Ellie's favorite colors) around her house were roses of pink, orange, and yellow.  She even ordered crab rangoon for Ben, his own separate order, knowing that Ben is not at all keen on sharing food.  We felt completely honored by all of these gestures.

Sunday Ben woke up early and watched hours upon hours of Sponge Bob Square Pants with Betsy C. (his favorite part of the trip since his

[caption id="attachment_4486" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Another fabulous service provded by the Betsy C. Hotel is hairstyling."][/caption]

television viewing is usually limited AND we don't get Sponge Bob.)  Then we stayed at a swanky hotel downtown on Sunday night (yeah groupon!!!)  To honor Ellie, the hotel was a suite.  Staying in a suite was the only way to go with Ellie because she was up and down all night, in one room ALL of us were up and down all night.  We ventured to the art museum, where Ben looked for dragons and enjoyed viewing the miniatures display, while Lotta discovered some wavy pillows and a great ramp (remember how she adores walking and stepping on uneven surfaces, even going so far as to wear only one boot in order to create an instant uneven surface).  We rode two trains (an elevated and an underground) to get back to our hotel, which was highly highly exciting for Ben (and Thom surprisingly).  For dinner Betsy joined us for some of the best sushi ever.  Once our stomachs were nice and full, Thom and Ben went for a swim (recall the rule according to Kramer:  never swim on an empty stomach?) where Lotta re-discovered her love of puddles.  Once again, Lotta is most definitely a landlubber, but has discovered that jumping in puddles

[caption id="attachment_4487" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Ben on firefighter pole at the Chicago Children's Musuem."][/caption]

or creating puddles by dumping out water is pretty cool.

On Monday (Martin Luther King, Jr day so there was no school), Ben woke up early and watched more cable television.  Ben and I ventured to Corner Bakery (which was on the corner, I wonder if they are always on the corner?)  where we purchased breakfasts laden with bacon.  Bacon is Ben's newest food discovery.  He is a bacon connoisseur.  It seemed that every item on the Corner Bakery menu is accompanied with bacon.  After perusing the menu, I imagined the cashier inquiring, "How many slices of bacon would you like with that coffee mam?"

After our bacon, we checked out of the hotel and walked to the Children's Museum.  It is the BEST children's museum we have experienced with our nation-wide children's museum pass.  Immediately we discovered a room filled with tires, tunnels, and wavy mattes.  With all those uneven surfaces to walk, climb and fall across, I was unsure if Lotta would see any other parts of the museum.  But wait, there's more!  There was a firefighting area, complete with a fire pole and fire truck you could pretend to drive and even slide down.  A big back yard with butterflies and flowers.  A water play area (where you will not be at all surprised to learn Lotta became extremely wet playing in the, you guessed it, puddles).  An inventor's station.  A snowman dressing area.  A little town.  A dinosaur dig.  There was even an art studio we didn't even have a chance to discover because my hunger took over.

Lotta got to experience the food she continually talks about,  popcorn in the form of Garrett's, apprently THE place to purchase popcorn n Chicago.  Ben got to have another one of his recent food discoveries, hot dogs.

Then we rode a bus (this is again highly exciting stuff for a 6-year-old) back to get our car which was still parked in the parking

[caption id="attachment_4489" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Get on the bus Gus (or Lotta, Ben, and Thom)."][/caption]

garage.  As we boarded the bus, I inquired of the bus driver if the price was the same as the train.  She told me no and then quoted the same price we had paid for our train rides.  I didn't argue because it is my policy not to anger or frustrate, if at all possible, bus drivers and librarians.

To top off the whole trip, Lotta slept almost the entire ride home.  When we returned home, it was one of those moments where I felt so glappy we had gone on our adventure AND at the same time so glappy to be home.  Now, as Lotta sleeps, I sit warm and cozy sipping drinking chocolate (yes, from Trader Joe's) while outside it is SNOWING.  Cozy.