We made a pie. Apple. It was tasty. And the kiddo has some serious nutmeg-grating skillz.

At Grandma’s house we took a nice walk with the dog after dinner. The light was lovely. The boy was good company.

The kiddo had Friday off from school so I got the bright idea to take a trip to Chicago. We signed up for a membership to the Field Museum when we visited in April and I thought it would be a good time to check out the whale exhibit. (Which was indeed very cool.) So here’s our 24-hour recap.

We headed over on Friday morning and spent four hours pounding the marble in the museum before checking in at the hotel and heading out for dinner at Goose Island Brewery, via the subway, which elicited a lot of smiles. I had some tasty hummus, but he pronounced his mac ‘n cheese less than special. Then we visited a bookstore to pick up something for the night’s story time and had a relaxing evening in the very comfy bed, with five fluffy pillows each, at the JW Marriott.

Saturday morning we got up early. So early that I advised him that bath time would be better at that point since the restaurants wouldn’t be open for breakfast yet. (As you can see by the pic below, the bath tub was REALLY deep.) The concierge pointed us to Wildberry, which turned out to be my kind of place. Pancakes, crepes and french toast galore. Dev ordered the oreo s’more pancakes and then complained that there was too much chocolate and claimed that all of a sudden he didn’t like marshmallow fluff. Harrumph. Breakfast is my favorite meal out and I don’t see how he can be such a breakfast scrooge. I wolfed down my wildberry french toast and helped him out with his a bit. Because that’s what moms are for.

Then we headed across the street to Millennium Park. It was a perfect morning. The sun was beautiful and the fall leaves are still on many of the trees right now. Dev wanted to visit Cloud Gate since he doesn’t really  member the couple of other times he’s been to see it. And what 7-year-old can resist hamming it up in front of a gigantic bean-shaped mirror? Afterward we hopped on the el for another requested “train ride.” We had no destination. We just headed to Belmont on the brown line and then crossed over and took the red line back downtown. He refused to sit and was happy as a clam standing and holding the bar and adjusting his balance as needed.

Our plan was to stop at the Lego store next, but we got to the mall early so we walked over to the river. The bridge was going up for boat traffic. I had to laugh since I lived in the city for five years and never saw the bridge go up. That took a good 10 to 15 minutes of observation and then we returned to the mall to discover that the Lego store was gone. Gone! My phone informed me that, luckily, it hadn’t moved very far. Just down the street. So we walked back to the hotel (with lots of grumbling from the kiddo) to check out, then took a cab to the mall (to avoid further grumbling).

After that it was a carriage ride and a trip to the Hershey’s store. Their sundaes, by the way, pale in comparison to Ghirardelli’s, but he was heavily swayed by branding and the big G lost out due to obscurity in the childhood lexicon. He’s agreed, however, to visit the competition next time because he was underwhelmed by his ice cream concoction. (Once again, I ended up finishing it.)

So there you have our Chicago adventure. We went back to the hotel and grabbed our luggage and car, then headed out of town to Grandma’s house for the night. Now we’re back home and relaxing before another week of work and school.

He loves Sue

Check-in treats

We’d gotten free passes months ago and they were about to expire. Sunday turned out to be a lovely day to explore everything, including ginormous pumpkins and bear sculptures. We had ourselves a dandy time.

Although we were fresh off of a high-energy birthday party, Dev and I spontaneously decided to head to the pumpkin patch. We came across Schwallier’s when he was two or three and it’s been my favorite ever since. (Although they’re starting to charge for more of the activities now. Two dollars to climb on hay bales? Sheesh!)

We visited Schwallier’s with Kevin and Chloe last year. (And Scott, who turned us down this year in favor of a plumbing project. Crazy man!) Between the five of us, we managed to get lost in the corn maze and stumble back out the entrance instead of the exit we were aiming for. So when Devin finished petting bunnies and goats and asked if we could do it again this year, I hesitated slightly. Then I threw down the $10 and we went for it.

And this year we triumphed! Without the help of the 3D glasses, mind you. You were supposed to peer through them at the map and find your way. I’m the impatient sort, though. We stood gawking at that thing for a while and I just said, “Never mind that map. Let’s just walk!” (I was also so impatient that I talked the kid into skipping the “clues” that were scattered around and meant to be fun for people his age. I’m such a mean mom.)

But we did it! And it was fun. So much fun that I decided to give the cow train a shot too, even though I’d initially told him he’d have to ride alone. I got a ticket for myself and we both settled into our “cows” and off we went on a bumpy, speedy ride.

Afterward came the apples, donuts and cider, of course. Although we managed to leave without pumpkins.

See what I mean about fall? How can you not love it?

This photograph makes me smile and also makes me pine for Devin’s younger days. It seemed like a great way to start out this post.

I know myself well enough to realize that with tomorrow’s busyness, I’m not likely to find the time to put this together. So I’m going to celebrate Devin Day one day early.

Seven years ago, on Oct. 19, Devin flew into Detroit on a Northwest Airlines plane. It was one of those moments you don’t ever think is going to happen. We waited six months from the completion of our forms to the day he arrived. And although that seemed like forever, most international adoption takes a lot longer. We were so lucky that things went so smoothly and so quickly. Except for the part where the passengers disembark from the plane and go through customs. That part took A VERY LONG TIME.

Every time the frosted-glass doors would open, the three waiting families and their entourages would stand on our tiptoes and search for babies, but instead it was always the other passengers streaming out. And we’d sigh collectively and go back to nervously biting our fingernails. (OK. It was me doing the nail biting. I’m not sure what everyone else was doing because I was totally focused on the doors.)

When A VERY LONG TIME finally came to an end, the whole mob rushed forward and I couldn’t see the babies at all. So I was confusedly walking in the wrong direction and Scott had to steer me over to where Gail was holding Devin. And there he was. So tiny and adorable.

I love remembering that day. Even the part where I put his diaper on backward.

And I love when we came home and set him down on the floor and he took off at an army crawl at an amazingly fast pace. It was kind of an indicator of what to expect. When walking commenced, it was basically a few steps and then he was running. Always moving. Always on his way somewhere. Always curious and going after what he wants.

I also love that we have this day every year. We celebrate his birthday, but we also get an extra day where we celebrate our family’s seven years of togetherness.

In endless magazine articles and books, I’ve read that if you get your child involved in choosing and preparing the food, they’ll eat it.

They obviously haven’t met Devin.

Devin was home again on Monday with strep throat. (I say again because he’s managed to catch it twice in two weeks. Quite the talent!) We had planned the weekend before to make banana bread, but never gotten around to it. So I whipped up a batch before the bananas went bad.

A couple of days later, when he was feeling better and could eat more than applesauce and saltines, Scott encouraged him to try a piece. A piece of the banana bread that he (the littler he of the two) had asked me to make. The bread he’d wanted to help me with. The bread he’d asked me to add chocolate chips to. He took a bite and said, “It’s all right. Can I have a piece of candy?”

Oh, for the love!

I’ve somehow raised a kid who would prefer to have something from a package than something homemade. I’m not quite sure how that happened. Although my cooking prowess has diminished over the past couple of months, I was doing plenty of it when he was little. He even baked with me several times. He’s also made his own salad creations that he’s been so proud of. Filled with spinach, strawberries, feta cheese and pine nuts. But then he sits at the table and chooses everything but the salad to eat. How does that work?

He may be cute, but he’s not chock full of vitamins and wholesome ingredients!

Before we left, I was packing up my camera and Dev asked if he could bring his along. He was gifted with a nice point-and-shoot from a friend of mine a few years back and he’s taken quite a few shots with it. But one time when changing the batteries, Mom (me) broke one of the little plastic pieces off of the battery compartment door and the thing won’t close right anymore. We’ve used tape to try to keep it shut, but it tends to squirrel loose within minutes and the batteries lose contact and, well, it doesn’t work anymore.

So when I went to get it out of the drawer, Dev stopped me and said, “No, Mom…can’t I use your old camera?”

Um.

Well.

Uh.

It’s my D70 that I had for five years. A nice DSLR that cost me a pretty penny in 2004. I haven’t used it since I got my D90, but it’s still in nice enough shape and I thought Scott could put it to use sometime. But a 7-year-old?

It’s not like I haven’t ever allowed him to touch my cameras. Proof.

But the thought of him carrying that heavy, still-valuable camera around the zoo gave me pause.

A short pause, though!

And he was really very careful with it. He kept the strap around his neck and he didn’t complain about hauling it around. (I did nicely swap him my lighter 50mm lens.) Later in the day (the very hot day!) he finally decided to pack it up. After shooting 130+ photos.

Yesterday, several weeks after the fact, I finally downloaded the photos and I was very impressed with many of his shots. Yes, he was using a nice camera, but he was choosing his subjects and angles and composing things from his vantage point. Here I’ve curated some of my favorites for your viewing enjoyment:

September started off with Devin and me helping out at the Women’s City Club, laying carpet squares for ArtPrize. This turned out to be very hard work. Hot and sweaty. And the next day my hamstrings were KILLING me. But it was all for a good cause.

Then we headed to Monroe to visit friends and check out the Toledo Zoo.

Then it was time for school! First day of second grade.

Then we “dug” for dinosaurs and found a velociraptor. Not my favorite dinosaur since we had just seen Jurassic Park in the theater and it brought back those lovely memories of sacrificial cows and people getting gobbled up. But the kid was happy.

This was just a day of goofiness. We need to have those whenever possible.

And then we visited ArtPrize for a short stint on Friday night. We didn’t have a lot of time so we have to get back down there this week and explore.

I used to do this thing with Devin’s blog where I’d go a couple of weeks between posts and then just plaster it with photos. (If you click on that link, be warned that I don’t update the site anymore. It’s in limbo at the moment so the most recent post is from last fall.)

I may have to subscribe to that same strategy here with the amount of time I’ve found to blog lately.

I do have good excuses for not finding time, though. Like sitting in an 8-hour workshop today. And when they say workshop, they really do mean WORK. So then I run over and pick up Dev from summer camp, get stuck in loads of traffic on the way home, try to get started on dinner while facing a sink full of dirty dishes (our dishwasher’s been broken for three years), realize I still have real work to do that I couldn’t do because I was at a workshop (irony) and start on that, then smile a big smile when Scott comes home and takes over the dinner duty, finish up work except for a broken blog page that I can’t reconcile and am fretting about still, eat dinner, do dishes, agree to play trains with Dev, get Dev started on his bedtime routine, brush my teeth and such, wrangle him a little bit more, read to him for half an hour (The Silver Chair), scoop the cat box, give Lucy her medicine, refill the water bowl and add ice (because Maggie’s totally spoiled) and then…here I am!

So isn’t that a good excuse? And I now leave you with photos from this past week of, as I mentioned before, pirates and quesadillas (which the little one helped me make). Oh, and a flower photo too!