Diwali

Shawn and I started our morning with the last swimming class of this session.  He had a hard time waking up this morning, so I started him easy with a 3-float belt to give him a chance to wake up and enjoy the fun of swimming before making him work too hard.  He was hesitant to get in the water, but once he did and realized he was buoyant, he grinned happily and kicked his feet vigorously to maneuver himself around our lane in the pool.  After a while, I took off the belt to give him a chance to practice more on his own.  He slowed down a bit, but still showed that he could kick and splash with the best of them!  Ms. Brittany gave us a new trick to work on getting Shawn to lift his arms up and out of the water – giving high fives!  He loves high fives, so it worked pretty well to get his arms moving more.  (Though, I think it would work even better if he was working with his favorite, Ms. Becca!)

After class, we played a little while with Tanner and his mom, Kathy, before warming up in the showers.  I think that’s Shawn’s favorite part of the whole swimming lesson!  Once we wrestle his wet swimming shirt and trunks off, he nestles his head onto my shoulder like a newborn and just relaxes as the warm water massages his back.  We cuddle for a little while under the shower and when I ask if he’s all done, he asks for more!  Eventually, we get back to our locker to change into dry clothes.  Shawn loves taking responsibility for throwing away his swimming diaper while I get dressed.  We’ve also started a routine of drying our suits in a centrifuge-style machine.  (When the lid is pressed closed, it spins the water out of the suits.)  As we hold it closed together, we count to ten in English, Spanish, German, or French – Shawn’s choice.  It usually takes a few tries before our suits are reasonably dry, so we get to practice our multi-lingual counting three or four times.  Love it!

After class, we picked up a Freecycled double stroller for a Mothers & More friend of ours.  I also printed two wedding pictures in preparation for an anniversary gift to Raj on Friday.  (I wish I had done this earlier, so I could’ve gotten higher quality prints, but they’ll work for now.  Maybe I can get better prints made and swap them out later.)  When we got home, Raj gave Shawn a real bath before naptime, so he’d be fresh for our Puri Family Diwali party this evening.  Meanwhile, I went to The Great Frame-Up to have our wedding pictures matted and framed.  The choices and combinations were a bit overwhelming, but the woman helping me was very patient.  I think the final products will look really nice.  I’m excited to put them on display!  (Stay tuned!)

In the evening, we went to Kusum Auntie and Gulshan Uncle’s house for Diwali.  (The actual date isn’t until Wednesday, but Saturdays are much easier for large family parties.)  We gathered in the basement for a ceremony of readings and rituals.  (Raj gave cousin Amit the camera, so there's almost a full memory card of pictures!)  The children rang bells and read (or had help reading) verses about the triumph of good over evil.  Then, the food began!  The appetizers alone were enough for a full meal, but of course, there was more!  Shawn was content with the fruit platter from the appetizers, but I was able to sneak in a few bites of dinner, too.  Kusum Auntie distributed gifts to each child (Shawn got a black and white Nike suit) and then set up a row of folding tables for them to work on a project.  The project involved painting a wooden picture frame (Shawn’s was a car) with a palate of paints, a very small paintbrush, a glitter pen, and then decorating it with stickers.  I helped Shawn hold the paints and tried to avoid getting anything on his nice clothes, but I wasn’t completely successful.  Luckily, he listened pretty well as I carried him upstairs to the bathroom sink not to touch anything with his paint splotched hands.  We cleaned off our hands pretty easily, but his shirt will need more help at home or at a dry cleaners.  Oh, well!  He had fun working on his project and that was the whole idea.  (I just wish I had known ahead of time, so I could’ve changed him into a spare outfit I keep in the car!)  The rest of the night, Shawn played with toys and (sometimes) cousins, Raj played poker, and I switched between watching the kids and chatting with the aunts and female cousins who weren’t playing cards. 

I was sure Shawn was going to fall asleep on the way home, but when he didn’t, I was glad I was able to change him into pajamas and brush his teeth before going to bed.  He buried himself under his blankets and listened to a few classic poems from Now We Are Six by A. A. Milne before goodnight kisses and falling asleep. 

[adapted from In the Dark]

We’ll play a lot tomorrow…

We’ll think a lot tomorrow…

We’ll laugh…

a lot…

tomorrow…

Goodnight.

A Bee-Boppin' and a Pee-Peein'

Shawn slept until around 8:15 am, when Raj brought him into our room to snuggle. (Raj must have been tired, because he never wants to have Shawn sleep in our bed!) We all fell asleep for another hour or so. Then, the boys went downstairs to have breakfast, while I hung out in bed, but awake. It was a very
                         nice
                                             slow
                                                                      morning.

Eventually, we started moving a little faster. Raj gave Shawn a bath and got most of his little black dog-nose off from last night. By the time Mike and Bill came over to take another look at our leaky toilet, everyone was up and ready for the day. Unfortunately, it turns out that Mike needs to order a part, so they weren’t able to finish fixing it today either. Hopefully, though, by the end of this week it should be back in business for ‘business.’

While Raj went to the Bears’ game and Shawn and I went to the Roselle Public Library to see a jazz concert. Shawn was really excited about seeing the instruments. We saw the Eric Schneider Trio featuring a saxophone, clarinet, keyboard, and bass. Shawn and I were the youngest ones in the audience by at least a few decades. I think we were the only ones that hadn’t retired yet! At first, I found a seat on the edge of a row (for easy an easy exit, if needed), but then I opted to find a seat for us on the floor off to the side in front so Shawn could see the musician’s hands better. (I made eye contact with the librarian who was hosting the concert to make sure it was okay that we weren’t sitting in the provided audience chairs.)

Throughout the concert, Shawn had stellar behavior. He watched the concert, listened quietly, and clapped when he was supposed to. During the brief intermission, when we found some cookies and water, a few of the blue-hairs came over to talk to Shawn and comment on how surprised they were at how interested he was in the concert. Apparently, a few of them were paying almost as much attention to Shawn as they were to the musicians they came to see! Before the show resumed, I brought Shawn to the instruments so he could see them up close, yet explained that we couldn’t touch them. He noticed that the clarinet and saxophone had “metal on them” and that the bass was made of wood, “like the harp!” He was a little confused about keyboard versus a piano, but did point out it had a pedal, “like the harp, too!” When the musicians returned from their break, we rushed back to our place on the floor for the remainder of the concert. Afterwards, Shawn told the musicians (I translated), “I really liked your music, thank you very much!” A few more blue-hairs offered their compliments and then we went upstairs to the children’s section. We found a stack of CDs (songs, instrumental, as well as stories), a few ABC books, a few Dr. Seuss books, and a few potty training books (some for kids and some for parents).

When we got home, we stripped off the pull-up and really focused on potty training. We read the kids’ books while we ate a snack. We sat on the potty seat on the toilet while we read them again. Shawn didn’t reject the idea of sitting on the toilet a single time this afternoon/evening/night! Sometimes in the past, he’d say, “I don’t want to go pee-pee OR poo-poo!” at the slightest mention of the toilet, but not this time. He was much more willing to sit, whether he had to go or not. So, I took advantage of it. I had him ‘race’ to see how fast he could put on or take off his underwear - off is much easier! I had him ‘race’ to see how fast he could put his seat on the toilet and sit on top. I had him ‘race’ to see how fast he could put it all away. He was loving it – though it was nothing that I hadn’t done before! I’m not sure what made today different, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. Not a single accident all afternoon or evening… until he pooped in his underwear. But that was the only one! Without a doubt, he earned another Toy Surprise for filling up his Potty Paper with stickers. This time, he pulled an armored half track military jeep/pickup truck from the bag. He (we) had never seen a truck like this before so I explained that it was a truck that carried soldiers on the benches in the back. We talked about how soldiers and other the people in the military were very special people. The military is a little bit like the police, but they keep all of America safe, so we can be free. I also told him that Opa, Pappy, my Grandpa Bill were all in the military.  (I’m not sure if he understood all of what we talked about, but he seemed to be listening and concentrating very hard.)

Things were going so well that we didn’t even think about naptime. He didn’t get to sleep at 8:00 pm, like the other non-nap days, but today wasn’t quite as exhausting as those were either. He was tucked in bed before 9:00 pm, which is still far better than 11:00 pm!

Shawn had been long asleep by the time Raj came home around 11:00 pm. I got some cleaning, blogging, email, laundry, and reading all done in the meantime. And, celebrating with a little glass of wine…

It was a good day!

Party 'Till We Drop!

Shawn completely lacked confidence during his swimming lesson today. He clung to me, the wall, or any floating device he could reach – practically white-knuckled. I’m not sure why. Ms. Becca and I agreed, since there’s only one class left in this session, Shawn needs another round of practice at this level, then we could revisit moving him up. Even though there are kids at the Pike level who can’t do some of the things that he can do already, because he’s so young, the director has higher expectations of him in order to move up. Oh, well. I’m disappointed, but I understand, especially after his ‘off’ day today. Another session of Pike with Parent certainly won’t hurt!
After class, we dropped Baron off for grooming. I made beer bread and spinach and artichoke dip (both from Tastefully Simple boxes) for a Mothers & More party this evening. While Shawn finished lunch with Raj, I picked up Baron from grooming. (They got out lots of his shedding fur out of his coat – phew! The fur balls he’s been leaving on the floor were big enough to sprout their own legs!)

I quickly showered and got ready for the Gymboree Pumpkin Patch Party, the first festivity of the evening. Shawn wore the Dalmatian costume that he picked out from the Mothers & More resale. (He’s been reminding us that he didn’t want the lion costume that I showed him that day because he liked the ‘Dalmatian Dog’ better – how does he remember this stuff?!)

At the Pumpkin Patch Party, we saw our friends Andrew (the cow), Alex (the pirate), and a few other faces that we recognized from various classes, but most of the attendees were pretty young in comparison to Shawn. (Probably because the party took place in the late afternoon, so little ones with early bed-times could come to this one.) There were a lot of really cute costumes, including three Tiggers, a Pooh Bear, a dragon, a catepillar, a fire fighter, a lion... the list goes on and on!  Not surprisingly, a few parents (and even a teacher) asked where Abby was and how odd it was to see us without her. We sang songs modified for the Halloween season. Even though the equipment was still set up in the same configuration as the ‘Animals in the Zoo’ theme from last week, they re-named each station to be associated with the holiday and season. We visited an arts and crafts table where Shawn decorated a foam pumpkin and Raj decorated a real one. A little later, we came back to the same room for Halloween cookies and water. On the way out, we said our thank-yous and good-byes to the teachers, who then gave us the rest of the party balloons to take to our next shin-dig!

Then, we headed out to Naperville to the DuPage Children’s Museum for a Mothers & More Fall Family party. We got there an hour early, so we visited a park around the corner to kill the time. It was a little odd having our little Dalmatian running around the playground, but it was a nice day to be outside and his costume kept him warm.

Once the party started, we had the whole place to ourselves. Shawn remembered being at the museum with Oma and with his friend Anna before. (Again, his memory amazes me!) It was fun to show Raj around to the different exhibits, since he’d never been there before. Shawn had no trouble jumping right in to all of the hands-on play-learning. Since it was a private event and we didn’t have to battle the crowds of kids who are normally there, we got to play in the bubbles area and work in the carpentry/handyman room, which we’ve never had a chance to do before. (Raj commented how fun it would be to host Shawn's next birthday there, but was disappointed when I told him that it wouldn't be a totally private event like this was.  We may still look into what a party would entail and if it's even possible, private or not.)  The kids lined up for a costume parade, which zig-zagged around the main floor. (Yet again, we never made it to the other floors, but I heard that there’s not much there and what is there is more directed towards older kids.)

It was a lot of fun. Even without a nap, Shawn did amazingly well. While we were refueling in the snack room, Shawn finally hit the wall. Raj and I joked about him falling asleep before we would get out of the parking lot, but Shawn even beat us to that! He fell asleep before we got out of the museum (~8:00 pm)!

Like last weekend, I wasn’t able to transfer Shawn to bed as smoothly as I had hoped, but since he woke up, I was able to change him from a Dalmatian back into a boy (wearing pajamas). He had a hard time settling down for the night and woke up a few times upset and screaming, but each time, he was later able to tell me, “I’m okay now, Momma.” When he was finally able to fall asleep for the night, it was still just about 9:30 pm.

I’m starting to wonder if we should cut out naps in order to get the early bedtime… 8:00 pm is much more reasonable than 11:00 pm!

It's Just Not the Same Without Crepes

We started our morning with a Level 5 Play and Learn class at Gymboree. We visited the ‘Animals at the Zoo’ again, but instead of a book at the beginning, we looked at pictures of animals that we might see there. Both Shawn and Abby loved finding hidden bananas that were scattered around the room. (They’ve gotten very good at returning Gymboree toys to their proper baskets, even if it’s not intentionally part of the activity.) They also had fun swinging across the monkey bars, calling out, “Ooo-oo! Ahh-ah!” as they went. Abby likes to hang from one, let go, grab the next with both hands, let go, and repeat until she gets all the way across. Shawn likes to move one hand at a time from one to the other, and needs just a little help to support his weight. They really were little monkeys today!
When class was over, we played around for a few minutes, but when the babies’ class was ready to start, we took a break in my car. I played a CD of Dr. Seuss stories and read a few Thomas the Train stories while we snacked and enjoyed the sunshine. I’m sure there won’t be too many more weeks that we can do this before it gets too cold to hang out in the car!


An hour later, we came back inside for Family Music. We studied country and folk music again. Shawn and Abby helped pick animals for Old MacDonald, duck and horse respectively. They love their maracas and drums! They even got to do Bah-Bah’s into the toy microphone today, which we haven’t had time to do in a long time. They got very excited when their turns came around. It’s amazing to watch these two in music class. They participate and follow directions extremely well. Shawn gave a maraca to a three month old who was in her car seat while her mom and older brother participated in class – he gently placed it in her hand and made sure it didn’t fall out while she tried to grab it. Abby wants to help everyone around get their instruments back to the teacher or basket when it’s time to clean up. They can so incredibly sweet and considerate!


After class, we made our weekly trip to the Schaumburg Farmers’ Market. But, to our dismay, there were no crepes! I’m not sure if the crepe stand closed early due to the wind (up to 40 mph gusts) or if they weren’t there at all, but , oh, the calamity! Hopefully, they’re not done for the season, the market is still open until the end of the month. We made the best of our visit and visited the apple orchard stand for some cider (and a free apple cider donut sample), the olives and hummus man for black bean and chipotle hummus, garlic hummus, and black olives (and free olive samples), a farmer for potatoes (which Abby and Shawn helped me pick, but I must have left the bag somewhere at the market because I didn’t have them when we got home!), and a fruit farmer for apple butter (and free samples of various types of apples and cranberries – pucker!) Without our crepe snack, it didn’t feel like our visit was complete, but as we were going back to the car, the vendors were shutting down.


When it was time for naps, I guess Abby didn’t think it was quite time yet. She didn’t object to going down, but she certainly wasn’t ready for sleeping. She talked and sang to herself from about 1:15 – 2:30! After listening to her for a while, I remembered to grab my SmartPen and I recorded her! I slid the pen under her door and captured her saying things like, “How about… How about…Mr. Sun? No! How about.. let’s sing B-I-N-G-O!” I could pick out a few lines from Old MacDonald, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and Bingo… but eventually (around 2:30 of the recording), she settled down and finally went to sleep.

P is for Pumpkin, Potty, and Pfffffft!

I woke Shawn in time to catch the garbage truck come around our circle, which also meant he was awake to greet Abby and Bill when they arrived.  Suddenly, he wasn’t so bleary-eyed anymore!  It’s play time!


Bill explained that Abby’s doctor didn’t think she was ready for potty training yet, so they were going back to diapers.  Bummer, but okay!

Abby and Shawn played in the living room with some trucks and books until breakfast was ready.  Then, played some more until it was time to go to art class.

Art class focused on pumpkins today. Too bad Shawn didn’t focus on pumpkins today! He was all over the place and not very interested in participating in the projects.  

Abby's

Shawn's Mine

I will admit that Shawn helped stuff the paper bag with newspapers in the beginning, but when it came time to paint, his contribution was done.  Every once in a while, I got him to hold the paintbrush, sometimes with me sometimes independently, and made a couple of dabbles, but he just wasn’t into it.  Meanwhile, Abby realized that scrunching the giant sheet of newspapers was a bit too tricky for her fingers, so she figured out how to loosely roll up the paper, then fold it into (about) thirds in order to get it all to fit inside the paper bag!  Great problem solving!  She had a great time painting her bag and was very aware of any brown bag showing through.  (Ms. LouAnn even commented on her attention to detail!) 

While the kids ate Winnie the Pooh cookies, Ms. LouAnn read Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington.  It was a simple story illustrating the growth of a pumpkin, starting from a seed.

Shawn was a little more interested in the second project. They painted an apple orange and stuck stickers on it to make a jack-o-lantern face.  Shawn figured out that rolling the apple in the paint was a much faster way to cover it, but we managed to use the brush to spread the paint around.  He loved putting the stickers on, too.  (Meanwhile, I thought it was a weird project to do at all!)

For the last activity, Ms. LouAnn uncovered the tub/table and the kids found balls and foam blocks.  She set up a game of 'Pumpkin Bolwing,' since most of the balls were orange and the blocks could stand up like pins.  It was a good practice in taking turns and waiting patiently.

I had a chance to chat with Shelley while kids napped.  Since Abby’s enjoying wearing underwear and using her potty seat, Shelley decided to continue potty training as we have been.  (Phew!)  There have been other instances that she hasn’t been happy about with their current pediatrician, and this sealed the deal.   Now, she’s on the market for a new doctor.  Shelley said she had someone lined up to get a second opinion and I shared Dr. Lin’s business card, just in case they want to shop around.

I’m so glad I closed the windows in the kids’ rooms before naptime.  The house stinks of exhaust from the roofers’ machinery and generators.  It’s a shame to shut out the beautiful day, but there’s certainly no fresh air circulating around here today!

Abby woke around 3:30 pm and was not happy with all the noise over our heads.  She was all smiles by the time Bill came to get her though.  Perhaps being back in underwear for the first time all day had something to do with it…?

When Raj got home, he and Shawn went out to Open Gym at Gymboree.  When they came home, Shawn had a goose-egg / strawberry on his forehead.  He was excited to tell me about the Elmo ice-pack he got to use though, so the bump must not bother him too much!

After bath time, we were each doing our own thing in different rooms.  Suddenly, I heard a sound that I haven’t heard in 20-something years, yet I knew immediately what Shawn was doing.  We keep a cassette (yes, cassette) of German/English songs in the tape player of the mini-stereo in his room.  I heard the familiar, though distant, swooshing sound of the tape being pulled from the inside of the cassette.  Argh…  Using the eraser tip of a pencil, I managed to re-wind it all back inside, but as I was spinning the pencil around and around, I kept reminding myself, “This is why no one uses cassettes anymore!”  Though I got it all back in place, Shawn had it pretty crumpled in spots, so it may be history… like the rest of the world’s cassettes!  (It would be a shame not to have those songs anymore…

...oh, well...

...it is a cassette!)

And Now... Presenting the Amazing Sleeping and Peeing SHAWN!

After almost 14 hours of sleeping, I finally had to wake Shawn around 9:45 am.  I would’ve let him sleep a little longer, but the cleaning ladies were here and I prefer to get out of the house so we’re not in their way.  Besides, we had exciting plans today!  The Magic and Illusion of Rick Allen was being presented at the Elk Grove Library.  I found out about it through the with Northwest Suburban Families group, though I didn’t actually see (or recognize) anyone there.  The description about the show was:

With personal stories and mind blowing magic, you will see and hear how Rick, as a ten year old boy, used reading to help achieve his goal of becoming a magician. During his show, you can actually hear your children "ooh" and "ahh" when beautiful live doves make their magical appearance, a table seems to float, and yes, one of the kids from the audience will levitate in mid-air!

And, it was right on.  I tried to watch and predict how some of his tricks were done, but he was a pretty good master of illusion, because I couldn’t tell how he got the white doves to appear from behind scarves, a rabbit from a box that looked empty, or a second grader to float!  He did a decent job touching on the importance of imagination, reading, science, and education in general and how they are integral to his magic; but, I think the kids just wanted to see more tricks!

 

Workers began replacing the shingles on the roof of our building today, but won’t actually make it to our end until about Wednesday.  With all the old shingles being thrown from above, I’ll be sure not to park in the driveway when they get here!

Their work, even though they were at the other end of our building, made naptime a bit challenging.  With all the hammering, nail gunning, yelling, radio blaring, and crashing debris on the ground, it wasn’t exactly a peaceful or relaxing afternoon.  I was hesitant to close the windows to block some of the noise because of the absolutely gorgeous weather yet again today.  (Partly cloudy, high 76°F / low 54°F)  But, I promised myself that if the kids had trouble sleeping, I’d shut the windows right away.  Luckily, the commotion outside faded into white noise fairly quickly, because both fell asleep without much dispute.

Abby woke just in time for Shelley to come home early.  They were going to a doctor’s appointment for Abby and needed to leave a few minutes early to get there on time. Shawn woke just in time to say goodbye to them.

A little while later, Grandma Fanny came over for her English lesson.  I introduced the short u sound today.  She loves the sets of picture cards I’ve given her for each short vowel sound.  I can tell that she practices with them all the time.  I told her that I have an activity for Thursday that will review all the vowel sounds.  She was a little anxious to hear that, but I think she’s ready to apply the sounds to more than just the set of pictures she’s been working with.

After our lesson, Shawn declared that we needed to go to the store for milk and salad.  He was right about the milk, but I’m not sure where the need for salad came from!  He said that he wanted to get it for Dadda!  I agreed to the trip, but tried to explain that we had enough salad already and Dadda wouldn’t be home to eat it for dinner tonight anyway.  (Raj worked late and then met up with Shrenik to watch the Bears’ game.)

When we got back home after our grocery run, I asked Shawn what he wanted for dinner.  He replied, “Milk.”  Good thing we just bought some!  “What else would you like to eat?”  “Carrots.”  “Anything else?”  “Potatoes.”  Alrighty!  You said it!  So, we had seasoned potatoes, some carrots, and some leftovers.  Shawn did a great job eating and then decided he didn’t need any dessert.  I was happy to get in so many vegetables after such a rich dinner last night!

After dinner, Shawn earned his final sticker on his Spiderman Potty Paper.  (He almost had a meltdown when there was one more sticker to go because he reeeeeally wanted a ‘toy surprise’ NOW!  But, we managed to hold off for another 30 minutes until it was time to try again and he earned his last sticker.  It was worth the wait.

He pulled a heavy tow truck from the Big Black Bag of Toy Surprises.  We even figured out how to hook it up with the ice cream truck, and (as long as we were extremely gentle) we could actually tow it around the floor.  Shawn seemed pretty happy with his new truck.  He was sure to show Raj and tell him all about it when he got home.

When Raj came home, he said he finally made an appointment to see a doctor about his sinus issues (that he’s been having for months).  Apparently, Raj has a sinus infection, which explains why none of the over-the-counter pills and sprays that he’s been using religiously have helped at all.  So, over the course of the treatment of the new meds (10 days), he should notice an improvement.  (Keeping my fingers crossed!)

My cousin, Andrea, made a post on FaceBook that I had to share:

EIGHT DAYS of 100% sun—glorious start to the best month of the year! ;) Oct oct oct...

Love it.

The Chicago Botanic Garden's Model Railroad Garden: Landmarks of America

This morning, we drove to the Glencoe Metra Station (actually taking the Metra would’ve been fun, but incredibly inconvenient for this particular trip).  We parked a few steps from a waiting trolley, which carried us to the Chicago Botanical Gardens.  In addition to being a fun ‘adventure’ for Shawn, the trolley saved us money, too - $4 for two adults (Shawn was free) versus $25 to park the van in the Gardens’ parking lot.  (Though, we didn’t actually know that until we were already there.  We just got lucky!)
As we walked through the Visitor Center, I found a free Bingo Board to play with as we explored the grounds.  Shawn had a lot of fun placing the provided stickers on the pictures when he’d find the various objects.  When he found the very last item, just before we were leaving, he ran over to show me his completed Bingo Board and asked for a “Surprise Fruit Snack!”  How could I resist rewarding all that hard work?  (Though, I’m not sure how much of a surprise it was then…)

We sat at the edge of a pond and admired a water fountain, a rainbow in its mist, and very large fish that were inches away from our toes.  We dabbled our fingers in another water fountain for a little while before finding our friends, Shrenik, Heena, and Veer.  Then we made our way over to the Model Railroad Garden exhibit – the real reason we were there in the first place!

The Chicago Botanic Garden has a temporary exhibit (May – October) that has returned for the past few years called the Model Railroad Garden:  Landmarks of America.  The website’s description was:

The 7,500-square-foot Model Railroad Garden features 17 garden-scale (G-scale) trains on 1,600 feet of track. The garden-scale trains are 1/29th the size of life-sized trains. Train and garden enthusiasts, young and old, return year after year for the delightful sights and sounds of the miniature trains traversing high and low through tunnels, across bridges, and around buildings — all intricately handcrafted with natural materials, including twigs, bark, leaves, acorns, and pebbles. More than 5,000 tiny trees, shrubs, groundcovers, and flowering plants of close to 300 varieties re-create the topographical landscape of America. Vignettes of tiny people and animals give the exhibit a storybook feel, while sound effects and a working geyser capture visitors’ imaginations.

It also had two very cool videos about it:




It was a lot of fun. The train exhibit was a little smaller than Raj and I expected, but they packed a lot into the space. The attention to detail was amazing. There were landmarks from all over the country represented. (Shawn can now indentify the Statue of Liberty and when we saw the Liberty Bell from Pennsylvania, he pointed out that's where Oma and Opa live!)

(A video might be coming... if I can edit it better!)

By the end of our ‘adventure,’ my pedometer had recorded that we walked for a total of 2 hours 27 minutes 44 seconds, covering 4.247 miles, had taken 8961 steps, and burned 242.5 KCAL.  (Unfortunately, it’s a cheap pedometer and it doesn’t always register all of my steps correctly, but it at least gives us an idea of how far we walked.)  Here’s a map of the gardens to show just how big a place it is – we did a pretty good job covering most of it, too!

While we were waiting for the trolley to take us back to our car, Raj entertained Veer and Shawn.  While they sat in an empty tram that had been parked for the evening, Shawn surprised him by pointing out, “There are two bicycles on the right, Dadda!”  Raj was impressed that in fact there were two and in fact they were on the right side of them!

What a great day to spend at the Chicago Botanic Gardens with great friends!  The creativity and handiwork behind the Model Railroad Garden alone was well worth the trip, but I'm so glad we saw the other gardens and made a whole day of it.  Not many more days left like this in Chicago this year!  But, this was had another 80°F day (and 30° swing from the low to the high).  I don’t think we saw a cloud the whole day.

Back at the car, Raj drove quickly to grab dinner before Shawn fell asleep.  (He didn’t get a nap and had only snacked all day, so I didn’t want him to fall asleep before having an actual meal.)  Raj got us to Bucca di Beppo in Wheeling just in time.  I was able to hold Shawn’s interest on the way there by giving him a portable fire truck & station toy that he doesn’t get to play with very often.

For dinner, we had cheesy bread Florentine, baked rigatoni with spicy sausage, chicken stuffed with prosciutto, all served family style (and had plenty to take home when we were done).  While we ate, we tested Shawn to see if he really did know if right from his left.  He correctly identified his left and right hands, ears, eyes, and cheeks.  Just to see if he was paying attention, I asked him where his ‘left mouth’ was – he giggled, said, “Nooooooo!” but pointed to his mouth anyway.  Not bad for a two year old!

On the way home, he started off a bit wired, sang songs, and made lots of goofy noises, but when I put the toy away and out of sight, he fell asleep almost immediately.  I wasn’t able to transfer him to his bed as smoothly as I had hoped, but after just a few moments of very tired and frustrated crying, he settled down, gave me a goodnight kiss, and fell back to sleep.  The best part – it was only 8:00 pm!

After spending a gorgeous day outside, it’s an early to bed night for all of us.


Sweet dreams.