When we first arrived in Chicago three weeks ago we took a week off to take care of errands and get to know our new town. We did plenty of pragmatic things — got an I-Pass for the tollway, got maps at AAA, looked at neighborhoods for somewhere to live — but we also packed the week with fun activities — the arcade, the park, downtown Chicago, the horse races, and the library.
It's funny how much fun a toddler can have even without putting tokens in the ride. Notice also how tightly he's clutching the tickets even though he has no idea they translate into prizes. As far as he's concerned, they are the prize! He even tried putting them back into the ticket slots and the coin slots on the machines.
We eventually put tokens in this ride, but I think he liked it just as a car to pretend with without the movement.
Vroom, vroom! Benji has been really interested in cars lately, whether it be pushing his cars around the floor or turning a steering wheel, all while saying "vroom, vroom" happily. He also loves to sit in the front seat of "mama car" and pretend to drive.
After seeing some other kids ride the carousel, Benji insisted we ride it with tokens. Mommy had to climb on the midget carousel to make sure Benji didn't climb off.
One of Benji's favorite games at the arcade was "Deal or No Deal." He loved choosing the numbers for the briefcases and even made his own decisions about whether or not to make a deal. He also enjoyed skee-ball, although his participation was mostly limited to taking the ball out of the return slot with an excited "bababa" and giving it to one of us.
Oooh! So many tickets!
Yippee! I won!
We spent one day downtown visiting Uncle Josh on his business trip. We took the train to Union Station, which Benji liked for a while. Since it was a local, it stopped a lot and Benji thought the ride was over every time we stopped. After the train we took the boat taxi on the Chicago River to Michigan Avenue. He wasn't very interested in that, but Mommy really like the view of the architecture.
In Millenium Park one of the sculptures is commonly known as "the bean" or "the jelly bean" although it has some fancier name from the artist. Regardless of the name, it's nifty.
Nothing like a distorted mirror image of yourself, eh?
I'm not sure if Benji is reaching out to his reflection or pushing away.
Benji loves running around on his own and Millenium Park was no exception. (Mommy and Daddy would prefer that he hold our hands a bit more often.)
We had to get some learning in on our trip. Benji wanted to impress Uncle Josh by naming all the letters in the sign.
Another great part of Millenium Park is the big fountain. There are two large glass block towers, one at either end, on which are projected pictures of various people in the city. Periodically water fountains spit out of the people's mouths.
When I saw this fountain for the first time several years ago it was completely empty and completely peaceful. It has since become a kiddie hangout. And now that I have a kiddie, we shall join in the fun.
Benji led Daddy all over the fountain.
It was a very warm day so wandering in the fountain was a great way to cool off.
Benji is already getting a taste for fine art with the lions at the Art Institute (OK, so we didn't actually go in the museum, but someday we will).
We couldn't go to the home of McDonald's without visiting Ronald, could we?
When we went to Arlington Park Racetrack we had to bring Benji down to the paddock to visit the horses. It turns out, though, that he preferred pointing out the numbers to actually checking out the horses.
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
