day at the museum, or intro to taxis and trains

we went to the field museum today. OH EM GEE i want to live there. khary was so fascinated with the ancient americas exhibit, the first one we saw. we ate lunch at mcdonald's (ick. oh, pardon me exorbitantly expensive ick--$15 for a happy meal and a value meal. wtf? oh, btw, it didn't even have dr pepper. those bastards! i had a root beer.)

then we saw the ancient egypt exhibit, featuring about a dozen or so actual mummies. the kids weren't particularly impressed, but i thought it was very cool.

sue, khary, khalil

the field museum is the home of sue, the largest, most complete, best preserved t.rex anywhere. they also have a hall of dinosaurs that is part of a larger exhibit called "evolving planet," which is AH-MAZING!! you walk though half of a whole level of the museum, winding though time--from the beginnings of the planet earth through today. each time section features the plant and animal life from that era, transitioning via the mass extinctions that took place. it's the sort of experiential exhibit that really puts the tiny human blip of existence in perspective.

 khary makes the sound of a parasaurolophus 

 

posing with the triceratops

 

on a replica of a dinosaur's leg bone

they also have replicas of lucy and turkana boy, in addition to some "touch and feel" models of hands and heads of hominids from lucy through modern humans. they were very cool. khary enjoyed touching all the hands and even gave the "lucy" ones several big hugs, lol!

lucy's touch and feel models

during the bulk of this time, lenore was literally sick and tired, so after the hall of dinosaurs (during which she began to cry because they were all dead), kenna took her to a different area and she took a nap while khary, khalil, and i spent another hour in the "evolving planet" exhibit. well, khalil slept almost the whole time...

then the museum was closing and we got a snack, then headed outside to grab a taxi, which navigated downtown rush hour traffic expertly, and dropped us off at the blue line subway station. outside of downtown, it's an "L" or elevated train line (for which chicago is famous, of course). so the boys were enthralled with both their first taxi ride and train ride. i think khary understands the beauty of real public transit. ;)

 

poor lenore still doesn't feel well

the boys (illegally) snacking on the el

2 adults & 3 kids on a bus for 10 hours

last week, my friend kenna and i got an offer we couldn't refuse: a FREE trip on the megabus to chicago to visit our good friend katje. it was perfect--we'd leave kc around lunchtime on tuesday, arrive in chicago before 10pm, have 3 full days to visit and see some sights before departing saturday morning and returning home saturday night. 4 tickets worked for 2 adults, 2 4-year-olds and a 21-month-old. (kids 2 and under didn't need a ticket, but didn't get a seat.)

it was much better than it could have been, but it was still a 10-hr trip with 3 kids. so, you know, less delightful than you might imagine.

some images of our journey to chicago...

 

getting settled in...

 

Lenore takes her seat

   

after switching seats to ones with a table...(khary took his shirt off because he got hot)

   

Khary and Lenore sacked out in somewhere in southern illinois

Ice Terrace-Khary's First Time

i took khary to the crown center ice terrace this afternoon. it was his first time skating and MY first time in at least 15 years. surprisingly, the only time *i* fell was when he pulled me down (for fun). not surprisingly, khary had as much fun lying down on the ice and scooting on his hands and knees as he did skating.



and boy can that kid skate! with his newly blackened eye (no idea where it came from, but i suspect a pretend rescue from his bunk bed) and helmet, he TOTALLY looked like a hockey player.



my favorite part of the afternoon, though, was when he was finished & sat down. i wanted to take a couple more laps, and he cheered for me as i skated around and around, lol! "go mommy! yay, mommy, yeah! wooooo!" :)



ps-all photos are from my palm, so they're kinda small, which is a good thing, given that they're only 2mb, i think. ;)

mutton busting

we were supposed to drive to my hometown last night for a family reunion that is taking place today, as it does every year at my favorite time of year. unfortunately, i couldn't stomach the thought of driving 5 hours each way for a visit less than 36 hours and no place to take the dog, to boot. anyway, since i had the day off already, we took advantage of the oak grove youth rodeo mutton busting clinic.

go look up mutton busting. i'll wait.

...

...

okay, now that you know what it is, picture khary atop one of those big ole sheep. cute picture, huh? now blink. that's about how long he stayed on the first time. he landed on his side, scraping his ribs up a little. and he cried. and i missed the whole thing because our other friend's son was riding at the time & had a great ride. they're not supposed to let 2 sheep go at once, so i didn't expect my bubba to come out of the chute so soon. :( he said he didn't want to do it anymore, but we'd paid for 3 attempts, so we hung out and discussed how he could wear a glove, borrow a rodeo vest and some knee & elbow pads. (he was already wearing his bike helmet, per recommendation.) he said he'd go if daddy could go next to him and make sure he didn't fall so hard. yay. so he went. and i got a video. it's very short, too. and daddy was slow, and it looks in the video like he pulled khary off the sheep, but khary was already falling. really. but he fell on his back and got scraped up some more.

he says he never wants to ride sheep again. good deal--agreed. we'll see if he says the same thing next weekend when he has the opportunity to ride again at the mahaffie farmstead festival.

holy crap, i just bought two cases of wine!!

well, i'm only keeping 5 bottles. the rest i'm holding hostage for friends till they give me ransom.

cellar rat wine merchants, at 17th and baltimore, has a monthly case for only $100. once a month, they hold a case tasting, at which you can actually **pick and choose** which wines you want. if you're keeping count, with tax, that comes to only $9/bottle!!!

happy birthday to me!

the flight:

an interesting day...or not. i liked it, anyway

we started khary's occupational therapy today at children's mercy. it went well, despite us being late (and *that* despite us getting up before 6:30 for an 8am appt). during khary's session, khalil got a little restless, so i put him into the ball pit, into which he sank with every move as if in quicksand. here's a shot of him freaking out and begging to get out of the pit, lol:



(i'm really not a mean, terrible mommy. i just do psychological experiments with my infant.) :P

and today began "explore the city tuesdays" for my boys and me. we (i) have decided to do something cool every tuesday after ot since we've gotten up and about early and all. today we went to crown center, then via skywalk to union station, where we shared a huge, diabetic-coma-inducing cinnamon roll. now i *really* can't wait for the weather to be nice! i've got plans, you know.

after eating half of our respective grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and nap, we had the 2nd halves of our lunches. i noticed dozer freaking out a bit more than usual, so i peeked out the window to the porch:



that right there is a squirrel who's been visiting us lately gorging himself on the pecans i left out on the porch on sunday. (why did it take him so long to find them???) i had a couple handfuls of leftover pecans that my aunt had given me over the holidays. i made some yummy candied pecans and dawud made a pecan pie, which he tells me is fabulous, but i'll take his word for it.

...and soon i get to go taste and buy some wine!!!!

a great day to remember

yeah, yeah. it's been a while. whatev. today was a really fantabulous day, so i'm recording it here, lest i forget. :P (we did a lot)

earth scouts, where we went on a very short hike, gathering leaves for leaf rubbings. then we ate lunch @ the nature center, and khary played hide and seek with the other awesome homeschooled kids. (nevermind the crabby lady who told us not to let our kids run off like that. ugh. myob!)

came home, and khary still didn't want to nap, so we watched "word world" and just chilled for an hour.

went to the waldo bus terminal to meet some friends for a very short bus ride to brookside. walked to reading reptile, then to foo's fabulous frozen custard. bridget was nice enough to get us some custard. ;) i even found a couple of books at reading reptile that i may use for my black history unit in the homeschool co op. then caught the bus home.

played "the 1-2-3 game" with khary. he really does know his numbers (at least 1-5 anyway) and had fun. so much fun, we played "itsy bitsy spider" and then "sesame street bingo." all with NO tv! miraculous, i tell you! it was so fun.

we also say a blessing at every meal we eat together, especially supper:
blessings on this meal,
peace on the earth
and in our home
(and in our cars).

we're happy to be.
we're happy to be here.
we're happy to be here together.

very sweet.

just an absolutely gorgeous fall day and a really great day with my boys. (despite khalil and myself having an icky cold.)