Letters from Pemberley

If you’ve chatted with us at any time over the last few years, you probably know that our family (and perhaps one member in particular) hasn’t always had the greatest affection for Chicago. There are ups and downs, as in every place we’ve lived. But after a couple of years here, I thought I’d give a list of ten things that we love about Chicago.

1. Location: Everyone wants to visit Chicago. Everyone is traveling through Chicago or making a stop or needs to make a business visit or whatever it may be. It’s wonderful to be in a place where we have frequent guests!

2. Beach: Last summer was one of the coolest on record in Chicago, and we had a newborn, so we didn’t exactly take advantage of the beach. But a 10-minute drive from our house is Lake Michigan, and free parking (a rarity in Chicago) to boot. Tommy quickly took to wading in the water, and we hope to frequent the beach far more this… spring.

3. Restaurants: There’s no question that if we were listing our favorite restaurants (on the rare occasions we get out to eat), Chicago restaurants would dominate the list. Our favorite two Italian restaurants are here, a steakhouse where Emily ate the best chicken she’s ever had, and great pizza (although we dispute which place is best).

4. Opera: More coming on that at the end of the season, but we had season’s tickets at Lyric, and we’ve greatly enjoyed the performances!

5. Skating: Okay, this is another one we failed to take advantage of, but the opportunity to skate, for free, at a dozen outdoor skating rinks scattered throughout the city is quite impressive.

6. Museum of Science and Industry: Tractors, trains, and a 3-year-old boy.  I think that sums it up.

7. Haircuts: This may sound like a small thing, but Em and I haven’t had the best fortune in finding good places for haircuts in our almost six years of marriage.  But here in Chicago, I found a quality old-school barbershop with straight razors and baseball on the radio just minutes from work, and Em found an extremely affordable stylist just minutes from our house.  It’s a small thing, but sometimes we really like the small things.

8. Snow removal: Mishawaka/South Bend snow removal was not bad, but it was certainly nothing exceptional, particularly given that we lived in a little apartment ghetto that received little attention.  St. Louis snow removal was non-existent, and we lived there for an unfortunately snowy winter.  But here in Chicago, the plows work quickly and efficiently, descending upon the main streets at the first hint of snow, and hitting all of the side streets within hours of a storm’s finish.  In a snowy city like Chicago, we’re very grateful!

9. Caris: Em has been involved in four pregnancy centers now (Columbia, South Bend, St. Louis, and now Chicago, not counting things we did with Alpha Omega in Hillsdale), and we’ve been very impressed with the operation here in Chicago.  While drumming up volunteers for events like showers or supply drives can be taxing, we’ve been excited at the efficiency and the perspective of Caris, which has made its goal to be “for the woman and the child,” a two-step all-inclusive process to provide support for pregnant women and their babies.  We’ll miss them!

10. Lake Shore Drive: It’s no secret that I have an odd affection for quality surface streets in metropolitan areas.  I grew up near Woodward, a legendary street in Detroit and easily my favorite Michigan road.  South Bend and St. Louis didn’t have great surface streets, but I did enjoy 23 and Manchester, respectively, from time to time.  But in Chicago, the fast-moving and efficient LSD, coupled with its beautiful lake front and clear skyline views, make this easily our favorite street, perhaps of all time.

We’ve gotten out the wagon the last couple of days, and both kids are loving it!

At the end of another tough day, it does a mommy’s heart good to have Tommy ask, “Can I have a bath tonight and can Lizzie be in the bath tub with me?  Please?!”

It’s been an event-filled week at the Muller household.

March 1: Tommy finds lotion in the bathroom, squirts it all over his hands, and, with too much on his hands, wipes his hands all over his rug.

March 2: Tommy walks around the block with his wagon but can’t seem to stay on the sidewalk, stepping into every muddied snow pile on every lawn along the way.

March 3: Tommy dumps a mug of bath water on his sister’s head while in the bathtub.

March 4: Tommy knocks over the lamp in his room and breaks a mercury-filled CFL light bulb.

March 5: Tommy poops during his quiet rest time, takes off his diaper, and tramps across his rug.

March 6: Tommy stands precariously on a stool at a friend’s house, exploring their Legos, before the entire bin crashes to the floor, spilling every last Lego across the basement.

March 7: Tommy fills the toilet with toilet paper and flushes the toilet three times in succession, standing on his step stool as the bathroom (and, subsequently, the basement) floods.

This might be too graphic for everyone except grandparents and fellow moms, so I’ll start by saying that Derek has uploaded several more videos to youtube.  Check them out!

So today has been defined by poop. It actually started last night, when we had an hour and a half not-pooping-on-the-potty incident that ended with Derek throwing up his hands, putting the potties away, and telling Tommy that if he wanted to be a baby, by gum, he’d be back in diapers for a week to remember how awful it is.

So this morning Derek woke up with a 101.5 fever. So he stayed home and in bed all day. But Tommy was up at the crack of dawn, having wet his sheets but happy as a clam. At breakfast, I tried to get him to sit with his bottom on his chair, but he wanted to kneel because he’d been poopy “for several hours.” Poop #1 was probably a combination of everything he didn’t let out last night as well as a ton more. It took four and a half tries to flush it down the toilet. After lunch, Tommy’s sheets were still in the dryer, so I made him a little nest in the corner and told him to have quiet rest time there. When I let him out an hour and a half later, he was naked. He’d taken off his poopy diaper (and the liner) and had stepped in them, then pranced around his room. Yeah. Derek emerged from the bedroom to give me moral support while I wiped up the poop I could see. He cleaned off Tommy and remarked that it’s a good thing I’m borrowing a special carpet/upholstery cleaner thing from Diane tomorrow to clean up the lotion Tommy spread over his room during Quiet Rest Time last week. Now I can just clean the poop off the rug, too. Then huge poop #3 happened in the bathtub, after dinner. I was drying Lizzie off and getting her lotioned up and into pajamas, when suddenly Tommy appeared in his towel and told me he had to get out of the bathtub because the water was poopy. And was it ever. I am SO glad I’d already gotten the Little One out. I hosed Tommy off again in our shower while my feverish hero emerged once again to clean out the tub. Because that’s what heroes do.

Tommy’s recent obsession is his cheerios playbook.  It’s a board book that you can put cheerios into to complete the pictures.  Here’s what he was up to while I was posting some things for my class this afternoon.  Yep, that’s a whole box of cheerios on the floor.  The first picture was his first attempt to clean up (when I came down), and the second is what he’s doing now.  Elizabeth is in heaven.

So we had the Caris baby shower tonight.  The kids were up at 6 am, and I was on my feet ’til now.  Next time I will hire a babysitter for the day to take them out of the house while I get ready and run last-minute errands.  Lots of tantrums today.  Discipline abounded.  I feel like I walked 10 miles.  My feet and legs are so sore!  And I have to finish prepping for class tomorrow, so I can’t just collapse in bed.  I think the shower went well.  Six girls came.  Jen took pictures, so when I get some from her, I might post a couple.  I just now realized that I forgot again to pray for them as a group.  Oh well.  Hopefully it was worthwhile.  I’m starting to feel burned out, so it’s good that we’ll only be around for one more, and then I’ll be forced to take a break.  Off to read Keats and hopefully fall asleep quickly.

UPDATE:

Here are some great pictures from Jen–