"Chicago, Chicago ... I love it"

We did the Chambers thing (going to the library), the big-city thing (forsaking wheels for feet) and the Windy City thing (braving the chill) today in undertaking our first true Chicago adventure as a family.

We trekked 1.2 miles to the Chicago Public Library's central branch "on State Street, that great street" and 1.2 miles back to the apartment building, stopping to touch the snow, to pose in front of the lions guarding The Art Institute of Chicago and to eat lunch at Prudential Plaza.




And we not only survived. We had fun.

Levynn sang it best: "The cold doesn't bother me, the cold doesn't bother me, the cold doesn't bother me" - borrowing from her own original composition, "The rain doesn't bother me, the rain doesn't bother me, the rain doesn't bother me."

Lincoln showed it best: Bundled in his Gram-given snowsuit, he slept soundly for most of the walk and even lunch.

Meanwhile, Mom and Dad looked at each other and marveled at it all: Yes, we really live here.

Virtual tour

Here's just a quick peek at our new place, in the dark. Hope you can tell a little bit about the view and the condo. More to come; please bear with us as we try to get our bearings!

The whole story

You might recognize this picture from a post in August, vaguely referencing "Mom's adventure." Only a few were aware that Mom took the shot while she was in Chicago on a weeklong tryout at the Chicago Tribune.

A recruiter from the company had called in May, actually the weekend we were in Massachusetts for Rachel's wedding. Mom's resume was on file with a journalism organization, and they'd found it and called out of the blue. Mom didn't know they had any openings.

The company is in the process of going private, transitioning to the new owner, Sam Zell. So they were doing some buyouts, but obviously still needed people to publish the newspaper. That's where Mom came in.

There were intense talks for a few days in May, with the decision finally being that Mom should hold off coming to town for a tryout, as she was quite pregnant, and the doctor just that week had said Linc could come any time (ha!). However the Trib people asked her to keep in touch, and maybe something could be worked out later in the summer.

After Linc was born, Mom called back, and they ended up asking her to come for the tryout the first week in August. So off Mom went, leaving her newborn son, her daughter as the newly assigned big sister and Dad, the new father of two. We had great help, though, from everyone; Granddaddy came for a couple of days, and Gram and Papa were already scheduled for a visit.

Anyway, it went great at the tryout. It was so fun for mom to be back in newspapers and she tried hard not to be starstruck while sitting in the middle of the newsroom. The job is on the copy desk for the National/International section, basically the "A" part of the paper. The Trib has dozens of national and international bureaus, and people on the desk were calling Pakistan and places, talking to reporters. It was wild.

So they ended up giving the job to the guy who tried out the next week. But they said Mom had done well on the tryout, that they anticipated more openings and would call me when they did.

OK, well, that's that, Mom thought.

Fast forward to last week: the recruiter calls back, says she anticipates an opening and wants to know if Mom is still interested. Sure, Mom said. A few days pass and she calls back and offers Mom the job, on Tuesday night.

We spent most of the week in negotiations, trying to make the numbers work first of all. We ended up close to what Mom had asked for, after they said they'd made the final offer on Friday. So we took the job that night.

We asked Lev what she thought, and at first she was all excited. But later during dinner, she suddenly said, "But I want to live in Louisville for a long tiiiiiimmmmmmmmeeee ... " and proceeded into a very sad cry. Mom and Dad tried hard to be understanding and brave throughout. She has lots of questions: what will happen to our couch, will they have tissues there, can I take my milk jug (her trickortreat project from school), can we take our house with us, etc., etc. Needless to say, we're trying our best to be gentle and work through this, and Grandy has supplied a great list of suggested reading. Lev will be able to relate to stories about moving.

The start date is Dec. 3. The realtor is coming to the house tomorrow. Hang on everyone; deadline is approaching!

November days

This picture is from last weekend, when we were all bundled up outside playing in the leaves. Mom raked a trail for Dad and Lev to chase around:

Anyway, Lincoln had his four-month checkup this week. He weighed in at 15 lbs., 4 oz. and was 26 inches long. The height appears to be the thing now; he's in the 90th percentile for that. His weight is a lot more average now, actually. In fact, he's wearing 6-9 months. He might be in 2Ts by next summer!

He suffered through several immunizations, and the doctor also tapped Lev for a flu shot while she was in the office, and she tried real hard to be tough. They all made it fine, pretty much. Dad, of course, was the bravest of them all, proudly and strongly getting everyone in and out in one piece.

Football Sunday

Sideline cam

Helmet cam

Lincoln opens wide!

When Lincoln last visited the pediatrician on Sept. 6, Dad was told to let him have as much formula as he is willing to take. Well, within a couple weeks, Lincoln already was draining four 8-ounce bottles a day - and babies generally shouldn't exceed a total of 32 ounces daily. He seemed satisfied with those 32 ounces until about two weeks ago, and it got to a point where we decided to call the pediatrician's office; on Tuesday, we were told that he could start eating cereal.

Mom wanted to be home for Lincoln's first experience, and we finally found a good time to do it together this morning. He sat up big and tall in the high chair, and he took the spoon into his mouth. But he wasn't sure what to do with the slop once it was in there.

Practice, practice, practice!

Lo and behold, when we tried it again tonight, he opened his mouth wide and even ate a good portion.

Our kitchen table now seats four.

Boo (boo)

And it was going so well...

But let's start from the beginning.

Mom and Dad had different ideas about what would be proper attire for a Miss Viola Swamp costume. So Mom got some stuff, including "an ugly black dress," and then Dad got his own idea of "an ugly black dress." Levynn wore Dad's version to school in the morning and wore Mom's version, pictured above, to the library and to trick-or-treat in the evening.

For the uninitiated, Viola Swamp is the mean substitute teacher in the Miss Nelson children's books (and actually is just Miss Nelson in disguise). Levynn and her classmates were asked to wear their Halloween costumes to school today, and our cool little gal was the only one dressed as a storybook character and the only girl not all dolled up. There were two Spidermans, a knight, a Little Mermaid, a Cinderella, a Princess Fiona (from the "Shrek" movies) and a generic "pink princess." Mom and Dad were very proud.

Louisville's main library branch had a big Halloween program for kids early this evening, and we went there to get some treats and see a little storytime. Oh, and we wanted to see this, too:


Yes, Levynn's famous "Library Champion" photo is hanging in the library's main hallway with similar pictures from around town. We've been told several times that it was there, but we hadn't been downtown to see it until now. And it was amazing how many library staffers recognized her as she passed through. For instance, as we walked slowly down the hall, looking for Levynn's picture, a woman asked, "Do you know where hers is?" And she pointed to it immediately, without even looking for it herself. Then, as we got ready to take this picture, the library's photographer approached us and asked if we knew Levynn's original photo had been the first one put on the library's Web site. Well, of course we knew. But how did he know? Then he proceeded to take more shots of Levynn!

Once we were in the car, Levynn announced that she was all done with Halloween. But after eating some candy on the ride home and eating some Cheerios out of a cup while handing out goodies to the kids who came to our door for a little while, Lev was ready to hit the streets. She went out with Mom while Dad manned the door. Then Mom and Dad switched places, and Dad took her to see the neighbors. On the way home, we got a little carried away in the dark - and we both tripped on an uneven spot in the sidewalk that we knew was there but couldn't see. Poor Lev tore a hole in her pants and earned her truest badge of childhood honor yet.

As Viola Swamp would say, "I am not amused."

And that takes you back to the top.

In motion

This video is from this afternoon, but Linc actually rolled over for the first time sometime after he went to bed on Thursday night. Mom went to check on him Friday morning and found him on his tummy. Not sure if Mom or Linc was more surprised that morning!

Then today she left him on his back in the middle of the red and black mat and came back a few minutes later to find him rolled off of it, probably two rolls. so then she got out the camera to see if he'd do it as proof to Dad and everyone else.

There you have it!

He plays!

Linc found a very exciting toy today!

Oh, and the latest "overheard" by Lev consists of a round and round conversation she and Mom had about tennis shoes and Tennessee. She knew she was wearing her Tennessee shirt, so when we put her shoes on, (Mom sometimes calls them tennis shoes instead of sneakers) Lev said they were her Tennessee shoes. But then she switched it around and said she was wearing her tennisshirt. The words sounded so much alike to her that she was having a hard time figuring out what word went with what. It was a lot like "Who's on first" between she and Mom.

And then today she inquired, "what's that? why do you have two of those?" she was pointing to somewhere between mom's mouth and nose. Mom first thought she was talking about her nostrils but Lev said, "no, here. tell me about this part," and she touched that kind of below the nose area, where the indent is. It was kind of a challenge to explain, Mom telling something about it just being part of the way it was made there. But Lev did not realize that she also had one, and so did Dad and Linc. It was very interesting to see hers for herself in the mirror.

What letter is that?

Earlier this week, Levynn posed that urgent question after she noticed two punctuation marks in her bedroom, one in a book and one in a poster. Mom explained that when it's round - as in on the "Got Milk?" poster - it means, "I have a question," and when it's straight, it means, "I'm excited." She was very interested to learn these new characters. She's been practicing saying "question mark" and "exclamation point" for days now.

It was just the beginning of a week full of figuring stuff out.

During dinner one evening, Levynn started looking in the general direction of Dad's head with a curious expression on her face. When Dad realized this, he was a little creeped out, to be honest, because she wasn't making eye contact with him. She seemed to be looking at ... something, as if there was a spider sitting on the side of his head.

"What are you looking at, Lev?" Dad asked, bewildered.

"To and I'll show you," it sounded like she said.

"What?"

"To and I'll show you."

"What? To?"

"TO and I'll show you."

Dad looked at Mom, still bewildered, seeking help, as he chewed his food.

"That right there! What's that, by your hair?" Lev asked.

Oh! CHEW and I'll show you, she was saying. She'd noticed the movement of Dad's temple, when his jaw moved up and down. A very interesting discovery for her.

Levynn also was very concerned about Mom's "boo boos" after several moles were removed on Tuesday. She pulled out her doctor's kit and listened to Mom's heart with her stethoscope. And when it came time to take off the Band-Aids, Lev offered Pink Bear for comfort and patted on Mom's hand.

And somwhere along the way she's started using the word "dawn," like when the sun dawns. Except she uses it to mean when it's getting dark, at night time. So tonight we talked about that and also the difference in wrists and ankles. These things can be very confusing, you know.

As Grandy would say, these all are examples of why "3 year olds are God's greatest gift."