August 9, 2010 by Michelle O'Hagan
The road to Hell is paved with ‘em.
Here’s what I brought to work for my afternoon snack:
And here’s what I ate for my afternoon snack:
Butter cookies from San Marino Deli complement an iced latte much better than organic carrots from The Jewel, don’t you think? Justified by the fact that I had to walk a whole block to get to the Italian deli.
Category Chicago, Eats | Tags: butter cookies,Hell,organic carrots,San Marino Deli,The Jewel | No Comments
August 7, 2010 by Michelle O'Hagan
After a five-month hiatus from blogging, I decided to fire it up again. I enjoy writing, just as I enjoy other things I don’t make time to do: knitting, exercising and reading actual books (as opposed to Us Weekly and geek tomes about SEO and website analytics). But I’ve decided that my problem is my lack of a blog strategy, a basic outline of topics about which I’ll write. I need the outline and I need deadlines. Without the structure, I just won’t do it.
Anyway, I had sort of decided that this would be the weekend I’d think up with a few basic topics so I could get started again. And I suppose it’s just dumb luck that I made that decision and now life is putting me in contact with (annoying) people who are practically handing me my material on a silver platter. And this morning, I can thank a buttinsky do-gooder for my inspiration.
For the past three months, my sons Liam (3 years old) and Ruairi (who will be 5 years old next month) have been taking swimming lessons. I hired a swim coach who conducts their private lesson in a Chicago Parks District pool on Saturday mornings during the “Tot and Family” swim time. So the pool is filled with parents and their kids. The kids range in age from just a few months up to about 8 years old.
For the first 30 minutes of each lesson, the coach works with Liam one-on-one. Then she works with Ruairi for the remaining 30 minutes. In the beginning, Ruairi was doing pretty good, making an effort and enjoying the resulting praise. Liam was not thrilled. However, in the last month, Liam has come a long way and now is very close to actually swimming, or at least not drowning. He’s really on board with the whole thing, and enjoys his time in the pool and is very compliant. Meaning: He does what the coach tells him to do.
Around the time Liam began to excel, his older brother regressed. Big Time. Meaning: He won’t do anything the coach tells him to do, and now he spends his 30 minutes screaming, crying, struggling, bargaining, and generally being a pain-in-the-ass. I know it is nothing more than a power-struggle. And he will never win. Because I’m not someone who will ever allow her kids to run the show. Ever.
Patrick and I have tried rewards for good behavior (there wasn’t any); and depriving him of things he likes for bad behavior (has no effect whatsoever). So this morning, I had a conversation with Ruairi before we left the house that went something like this:
“You shed so much as one tear, buddy, and you’ll spend the rest of the day in your room. The. Rest. Of. The. Day. Until you wake up tomorrow morning. You’ll come out for lunch, dinner and a haircut. Other than that, you’re lookin’ at your own four walls until tomorrow morning.”
I asked him several times if he understood. He said yes. I asked him to repeat what I’d just told him. He did.
So he was worse than ever. Screaming. Crying. Shouting. Sinking. Snot a mile long all over his face. I’m telling you: The coach earns her money with Ruairi. For every minute she actually gets him to “swim” she spends 5 minutes putting up with his nonsense. I actually feel guilty for paying her to do this. At one point he choked and spent the next 30 seconds gagging. It was the perfect time for a pert new mother with an infant to swim over and butt in.
She told the coach that this was “hard to watch” and it looked like “borderline abuse.” Coach told her not to worry, that mom approved and she wasn’t asking Ruairi to do anything he didn’t know how to do. When the 30 minutes of torture was up, I walked over to the pool to retrieve the drama king. The do-gooder swam over to me.
“That was very difficult to watch,” she said.
“Then don’t watch,” I said. “Look somewhere else.” (seriously: there’s about 40 other people in the pool at this point. she should be looking somewhere else.)
“That was terrible,” she said. “I guess I just can’t come here anymore.”
“No problem here,” I said.
Blank stare.
And then she floated away in her skirted swimsuit with her 6-month-old who’s not old enough for a power struggle yet. But when he is, I’m sure she’ll speak to him sweetly.
And so thank you Do-Gooder. You made it easy for me to get back in my groove.
I’m mildly amused by the thought that she’s probably some fervent mommy blogger sitting at home right now writing about some horrible mother she saw who actually makes her son learn to swim, even though HE DOESN’T WANT TO. <Heh, heh.>
She’d be super-upset if she knew Ruairi was in his room right now and he’s not coming out until tomorrow morning. Because he’s not winning this power struggle.
Category Chicago, Family and Friends, Stupid People | Tags: swimming | 1 Comment
March 5, 2010 by Michelle O'Hagan
It is a beautiful, sunny day in Chicago. Still cold, but sunny.
So, I walked to lunch at Wishbone. On the way back, my tummy full of black-eyed peas, I snapped these photos on my iPhone in the 800 block of W. Washington.
On my side of the street: an art gallery, with this on display in the front window:
Directly across the street: an auto body repair center with what I’ll guess is just a shout-out to passersby, something to make us all stop and feel beautiful for a second:
Today I am happy, not cynical, and so I’ll focus on the auto body shop. :-)
Category Chicago, Random | Tags: iPhone,wishbone | No Comments
January 10, 2010 by Michelle O'Hagan
Chicago winters never bothered me. I figured the people who complained about winter were the same people who complained about taxes and Mayor Daley. Complainers. Yeah.
Then I had kids. Changed my whole outlook on all of the above.
Winter isn’t so wonderful when you’re wrestling two kids into down-coats, balaclavas, mittens and boots at 6:50 a.m. five days a week. And that’s before you have to transport them across an icy courtyard, down icy sidewalks and over snow drifts in order to get to your car that is parked on the street a block away.
But even that exercise pales in comparison to spending weekend after winter weekend cooped up in an (almost) 1,000 sq. ft. condo with a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old because it’s just too cold to go outside (8 degrees when I went to Dunkin’ Donuts this morning). Making it through a winter weekend in Chicago with two kids requires forethought and perseverance. And a little money doesn’t hurt, although there are plenty of inexpensive options.
Without further ado, here are five things we’ve done recently that the kids thought were pretty cool:
Remember these? I hadn’t thought about Shrinky Dinks for 30 years until I saw them in my all-time-favorite store, Amazon.com. Coloring and shrinking was good for about an hour’s worth of enjoyment. Liam sat in front of the oven window, rapt, while the “dinks” shrunk to about 1/4 of their original size. Cost: $6. Worth every penny.
Yep. It still works. Whatever you have around will work as long as you don’t try to control the process. Ruairi and Liam regularly employ my wardrobe and Patrick’s. Props, such as wooden spoons, a potato masher and a vacuum cleaner hose can complete an outfit. Along with a cape and, perhaps, underpants on the outside. The ensemble here includes Sponge-Bob pajamas, balaclavas, mittens and firefighter helmets. Notice the Lincoln Logs that double as fire-hoses. Cost: Free
And speaking of Lincoln Logs, notice the fortress here. Sure I built most of it, but Liam placed the soldiers. Behold, the most secure log cabin ever, guarded by military, a police car, even a London taxi. Tinker Toys and Legos work just as well. Interactive, indoor fun with no electricity, modems or monitors needed. Cost: Free
Winter Wonderfest on Navy Pier is what Go Bananas should be, but never will be. The massive, indoor winter/Christmas festival held during December has carnival rides, an ice-skating rink, sno-cones and cookie-decorating workshops. Oh, and clean bathrooms, helpful employees, and immaculate, well-maintained rides. The price might be prohibitive, but it was a nice splurge for us. Cost: $64, includes parking and four wristbands (does not include ice-skating).
Lowest-common-denominator? Uh, yes. Fun? Also, yes. Especially if you’re a 4-year-old boy. Who needs PEZ? Any excuse to talk about poop, even EAT poop, rocks! One of Patrick’s colleagues sent these home with him (thanks Val!) and the boys loved them. Check out the video, below, to see a reindeer poop.
Category Chicago, Family and Friends, Super Cool | Tags: lincoln logs,poopin' pets,shrinky dinks,winter wonderfest | No Comments
January 1, 2010 by Michelle O'Hagan
For us, 2009 ended much as it began: with snow and coats and hoods and mittens. On St. Stephan’s day, Ruairi and Liam were big enough to shovel us out.
A few days later, clad in SpongeBob SquarePants pajamas, they decided being a firefighter was a better option; even if the fire hose was really a Lincoln Log. Being a firefighter is a recurring theme with these two.
Firefighters
What a blast … the have your whole life in front of you, all options still on the table!
Category Chicago, Family and Friends | Tags: firefighters,kids,snow | No Comments