So it took me an entire week to sit down to write this post. Eye infection. Sinus infection. U2 concert. Husband with food poisoning. 4th of July. It's been busy. I know you're itching to hear more about Chi-town, though. Aren't you? Yeah, you are.
Day Two.
Day two started with breakfast in the hotel. Again, I'm going to recommend the Omni Hotel on Michigan Avenue because they have a parking and breakfast package. Parking at most of the hotels in Chicago runs about 50 bucks a day. And breakfast...well, all meals stressed me the heck out in Chicago, so not having to leave the hotel room was golden. Plus, when the waiter rolled our table in and made a fuss over S, it made everything that much better.
Day Two was Field Museum Day. And you already know about the insanity that was in terms of losing all of our stuff in the cab. What you don't know is that a taxi is magical to a four-year-old. Magical. Take your kid somewhere in a taxi. They will love it. They will also constantly ask you what all the pictures/bulletins/fliers on the plexiglass are. You will see the taxi driver smirk in the mirror when he realizes that your child may never, ever shut up and you're stuck with her, but he gets to drop all of your crazy off in a few minutes where you will mingle with lots of other crazies. He will continue to drink his Starbucks.
But...onto the Field.
S had already met Sue the T-Rex. She's currently on exhibit at the Space and Rocket Center, and M took her a few weeks ago because she's really into both dinosaurs and outer space right now. (I breathe a sigh of relief every time I realize she's capable of interest in something other than princesses.) Still, we saw a replica of Sue. And her actual skull because it's separate from the rest of her. It weighs SIX HUNDRED POUNDS. That's 3.25 Mr. Ouisers. About 48 of my son. And approximately 10.5 of S. Whoa. We also saw lots of other dinosaurs, and we sang the hungry, hungry herbivore song.
That wasn't the cool part, though. There were two things that utterly blew my mind.
Thing one: do you know how big a moose is?? Do you? Because, those suckers are huge. I always imagined them smaller than a horse...maybe a tall-ish cow. Wrong. They're like passenger vans. M is 6'5", and he was dwarfed. I know that moose aren't supposed to be aggressive, but just stumbling across one in the wild would cause me to drop dead of a heart attack. At minimum I would pass out...where I'd likely then be mauled by a grizzly bear. Either way, running into a moose would be a bad situation for me.
Thing two: ever seen the skeleton of a giant tree sloth? Giant is definitely an appropriate word. I mean, I know all about megafauna, but I underestimated.
Oddly, I overestimated the size of dinosaurs. I was thinking of Godzilla.
After the Field, M rested at the hotel with the kids so I could walk around Michigan Avenue a bit. While I did love my first Crate and Barrel experience, and I was overjoyed to go to the Cubs store, I did not enjoy it. I don't know why I thought I might. I am not a shopper, and I wasn't really tempted to think about shopping because I had a baby recently. I am holding fast to the belief that my body is continuing to change, and I'm not buying clothes for this mass of flesh. Also, I felt like a head of cattle being pushed down the shoot. I hated the feeling so much that when I walked back to the hotel, I walked up Rush Street just to avoid the people/cattle. Plus, it was kind of lonely.
Dinner was a disaster that night because S was flat worn out*. She cried as we walked to dinner. M had to carry her and that's no easy task as she's the giant tree sloth of four-year-olds. We bribed her to be good with a sundae from the Ghirardelli cafe, but she even ate that with tears in her eyes.
We went back to the hotel about 630, and S tried to go to bed in her clothes. The poor child literally crawled into bed fully dressed and pulled up the covers. I convinced her to potty and put on some pjs, but the child was dead to the world by 7pm. She slept for 13 hours, and I don't think she moved once.
There you have it, peeps. Day Two. It was kind of a debacle, but the Field Museum was so great that it was totally worth it.
*We came to this realization later: Usually, when a preschooler gets worn out you can pop her into a stroller with a bottle of water and a snack and things are fine. The child can recover. Unfortunately, they don't really make strollers for seven-year-olds, and that's what size my sweet girl is. So, she has to hoof it. Also, her legs are shorter than an adults, so she has to work harder to go the same distance. Of course she was exhausted after a couple of days of walking around Chicago. We should've known better. The rest of you are hereby warned. If your child is still a stroller appropriate age, use one. If your stroller-appropriate-aged child won't fit in a stroller, go to the beach instead of Chicago.
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