12-Hours in the Burbs

Yesterday, I drove X-man up to Schaumburg. We stopped so he could eat lunch at a McDonald's with a play place at 11 a.m. Then we ended up at Legoland until 1:50. I was not a fan of Legoland when I used to have to watch my child like a hawk to make sure he wasn't destroying other people's Lego cars or trying to bud in line to race. These days, he's a lot more considerate of other friends and protocol. So, we tried Legoland again.

I still think it's much too overpriced for what you get (which is lame rides) and a few Lego jumps and a play-place like area. But we needed two hours to run around in a X-man zone before we were able to go to his cousin's first birthday party, where I wasn't sure there would be any other children besides the birthday boy.

And, um, there were some coupons for Legoland, so I didn't feel too bad. I figure I've paid more to go see terrible movies that left my kid not at all tired and didn't require him to have the mental interest to build something. Here he is racing his car.

We were at the birthday party at Pop's Pizza in Roselle until 4:30 p.m. Then we hit the road. We stopped in Bolingbrook to go to Ikea (I like that one MUCH better than the Schaumburg location). The playroom was full, which made X-man a little sad, but I did pre-warn him that that might happen. So, he walked through the store with me, which he liked. "It's like a museum of furniture!"

We found me the cups I was looking for for my class. And we found a medium and mini sized elephant combo to go with the giant elephant I bought him there a couple years ago. So Sula the elephant now has two babies, Biggie and Little (I was hoping the little one would be Biggie and he'd name the little one Tiny, but alas, he thought it was too confusing).

We left the house at 8:30 a.m. We returned to the house at 8:34 p.m. The whole day there was no whining, complaining, arguing or yelling. It was just fun all day long, even with the long car ride.

Now, it's time to clean my house for my father's arrival.

Let the laundry begin!

To Chicago and Back

Yesterday, X-man and I drove up to my sister's place in Chicago in Rogers Park. She lives six blocks from the beach, so we walked over there and stood around in Lake Michigan (brrrr!) while X-man swam and then we all built some sand castles and watched the planes fly over us advertising the new Smurfs movie.

After the beach, we walked back to her place where we got cleaned up and headed over to dinner at Leona's. They are veggie friendly and have a kid's room with TVs playing, some toys and a seating area. X-man played in there until dinner came, ate and then went back in while we waited for the check. I looked up and saw him pick up wooden blocks and start throwing them at three children watching the movie. And, of course, one of them hit some poor little girl in the chest. I was up and in the room in three seconds, but I still got the look of death from the girl's mother.

WTF, child? I mean really? I took him back to the table and read him the riot act. And the thing that drives me insane is that when I ask him why he did it, the only answer I get is "I don't know."

Sigh.

After we dropped my sister off, we headed down Lake Shore Drive to our hotel. I booked a double bed tiny room through hotels.com at the Chicago Hilton near Grant Park, completely thinking that the Taste of Chicago was last week (It's this week). But it turns out that it was perfect placement. The hotels.com deal also had parking included (normally $55 a night, I got it for $25). But when we got up to the registration desk, we'd been upgraded to a junior executive suite, which overlooked the Shedd and the Field Museum. X-man had a fold out couch, which was nice, but he got too scared to sleep in it by himself, so he cuddled up with me. He was so tired that he ended up wetting the bed -- my bed. So I moved him to the fold out bed. I ended up staying awake at 4:30 a.m. when this happened. I got into the shower at 6 a.m., only to realize the only towels in my room were hand towels. Oops.

After the shower, I started to get an aura in my vision, so I laid down and fell asleep until X-man woke up at 7:30 a.m. The aura was gone, but I still had some pain and cloudiness behind the left eye. I managed to get us up and out the door and on the road by 8:15 a.m. Much to X-man's dismay. He wanted to stay in the city longer. We stopped in Kankakee for breakfast at the IHOP. I find it funny that they only have calories for their "lower calorie" items on the menu. If you get a full breakfast, it's like you understand you're sealing you're own fate. The interesting part was that when I told X-man I had good news and that we'd be stopping for breakfast, he asked what the bad news was. I told him I didn't have any. He said, "I do. I hit a girl with a block. I won't do that ever again." Okay, well, at least something sunk in.

Then we pulled up at our house at 11:15 a.m. Lily apparently missed us, because we got mauled. And it looks like MacTroll spent his night alone consuming cocktails and preparing his smoked meat for our family Canada day today.