Chicago!

1/7/2012


Happy new year! It's been nearly a month since I blogged last. My first week back to work has gone great. Matilda seems to be enough over her cold/flu that she's eager to participate in everything that I have planned.


On Thursday we flew to Chicago for an economics convention. The notoriously windy city has been windy for sure, but the sunshine has brought the temperature up to 45 degrees! For January in Chicago, that is unheard of. Normally there would be a foot of snow on the ground. I cannot be more thankful for this weather forecast that we were blessed with.


Both yesterday and today was spent on The Navy Pier at the Chicago Children's Museum. Matilda LOVED the dinosaur dig component. All in all it was a great museum and we got in FREE with our Please Touch Museum membership! How awesome is that!?!


Tonight we will eat dinner at Houlihan's yet again. It will be our third night this trip. Matilda liked it our first night and asked to go back again last night. They have great food at really reasonable prices so it worked out great.

The Chicago Children's Museum was running a theme called SNOW MUCH FUN. Here, kids were able to dress up the snowmen. When we initially went on Friday, there were too many kids doing it that Matilda didn't get a chance, but on Saturday she got her turn and she loved it. She was using every scarf she could get her hands on.

The Chicago Children's Museum had a great water works room. I think Matilda was as excited about the rain coats they provided as she was about actually playing in the water.

Matilda LOVES dinosaurs and she loved digging for them. The "dirt" in this exhibit was made of the recycled tires dyed brown. This rubber mulch is also used on a lot of school and neighborhood playgrounds.

Most of the exhibits in this museum were significantly different from the ones at the Please Touch Museum. Matilda really enjoyed playing with the firetruck. I found this area to be very crowded both days we attended the museum. I think that firetrucks are something that children recognize from an early age and therefore are familar and appealing to all kids.

She was using a measuring cup to transfer water from the main basin into her "bowl." I don't think she realized that her bowl was actually a colander and had holes all over it. I couldn't help but laugh as she proceeded to do this for a solid 5 minutes while never noticing that the bowl wasn't getting any more full.

DIGGING! for Dinosaur fossils!

Eating dinner at Houlihan's. I had eaten at this restaurant chain one time in the past and therefore I chose to eat there with Matilda on Thursday evening. On Friday evening, when I attempted to take her to a Mexican restaurant, she almost started to cry and said "No, I want the other restaurant." We then ate at Houlihan's again on Friday and Saturday nights. It did help that the restaurant was very reasonable in price, was close to the hotel, and had HUGE fishtanks lining some of the walls.

It was only $2 to ride this kiddie train that took the kids around the track 5 times. Matilda and sparkly monkey rode it once on Friday and then a second time on Saturday. She really liked it. I wasn't sure of her emotion at first because she just sat there in silence with another toddler boy strapped in the same seatbelt beside her, but when she got off the joy was evident. She even squealed.

On Saturday we arrived at The Navy Pier 20 minutes before the Children's Museum opened. After grabbing a fruit juice for Mat and a "coffee" for me (an ice white chocolate moca), Matilda and I sat in the botanical gardens waiting for the Museum to open. This picture was taken seconds before she tipped over in that chair. I managed to catch the chair before the back of it hit the floor but her momentum sent her onto the floor. She wasn't hurt, just scared.

More digging for dinosaurs!

On Friday she fell asleep 10 minutes into our 30 minute walk to The Navy Pier. She then proceeded to sleep a total of 1:10, the length of her usual nap. Needless to say she didn't sleep during naptime later that afternoon.