Congrats, Mom!

At the end of a token interview of several unimportant questions this afternoon, Mom was told that she had been chosen - over two veteran Trib co-workers and friends - to move into the open copy editing position in the features department in May.

This means she will be working a day shift! (And it feels good to be validated, too!)

Honey, we shrunk the kids!

See? They're smaller than a penny!

We walked through a "shrinking machine" today in a Field Museum exhibit, Underground Adventure, that we hadn't seen in previous visits. As you can see from the photos, it's interesting. Its focus is on soil, but the kids liked the critters in the soil.


Once again, we can thank the library for the museum pass.

An eggs-tra busy day

The day before Mom and the kids head to Kentucky for a spring break trip, we decided to be busy - not including the packing.

We tackled the Soldier Field Spring Egg-Stravaganza for the first - maybe only - time and also went to the Hancock Observatory for its last day of skating.

We had done the skating before. But the Soldier Field experience was new to us, and we're thinking of it as a "been there, done that" kinda thing. There seemed to be thousands of people, and the kids were sent onto the field in waves by age group. So there was a long wait, and once you were on the field the candy - no eggs, actually, just candy scattered around - was gone in 30 seconds. It was nuts. Oh, and it was chilly.

But it was an experience. It was Soldier Field, after all.

Nana, preschool, playdates, and activities

Yes, a month has passed since we last posted here. And, yes, that last one came after another silent month. So we have some catching up to do.

First, we should mention that Nana - Dad's last living grandparent - died recently, two days shy of her 91st birthday. Her health had been declining quickly. But she went in peace, in hospice care. Dad flew to Massachusetts for the services last week while Grandy came here to help hold down the fort.

Meanwhile, the kids have been enjoying playdates with classmates - Lincoln back-and-forth with one boy, Levynn here with one girl and there with another - and we've visited Adler Planetarium and Chicago Children's Museum.

Now, to the best news: We have a preschool program for Lincoln to attend in September!

As our public preschool options appear to be nil where we now live, we have been crossing our fingers for a private option that is (almost) affordable. Fortunately, one of the closest schools, NAEYC-accredited Fourth Presbyterian Church Day School (on the Mag Mile!), kindly has made that possible. We've visited the school and feel very comfortable with it, particularly with its warm and engaging teachers. So we've enrolled him there. Phew!