Food, Glorious Food

Last week at covenant group Maria was intently watching everyone eat and at one point tried to swipe a bread stick out of my hand! That's when I decided to start giving her real food in addition to her usual diet of "happy juice" (breast milk). Since happy juice requires no preparation, no cleanup, almost no extra packing when traveling and is virtually free, I hadn't been looking forward to complicating our lives with real food. But raising a child definitely isn't all about what's convenient for me, so I grudgingly bought some brown rice cereal and attempted the first feeding on Thursday.

Yes, feeding solids is horribly messy, but to my surprise I found that it's also completely hilarious and loads of fun when in the right mood! Maria made crazy faces, tried to bite the spoon and promptly evicted all of the rice cereal from her mouth with her tongue after every attempt. Things went about the same on the second day, but I discovered that she loves to play with the bowl and spoon. I'm going to give rice cereal one more try and then conclude that she just doesn't like the stuff. I tried some out of curiosity and it's pretty nasty... rather like bland, gloppy glue. Maybe she'll like pureed veggies better.

Maria paints Chicago pink!

Last weekend Mark's mom was in Chicago for a women's conference for the Covenant church. We decided that a 2.5 hour drive to see one of his parents was much better than the usual 9.5 hour drive and so the plan was hatched.

We had to ask directions to the hotel when we were less than a block away(!), but other than that the drive went well. Maria was a big hit with the ladies from Mark's parent's church, though she burst into tears suddenly after too much attention! Boy was her grandma happy to see her!!

We ate at a restaurant called Italian Village and after an exceptionally loud crying spell in the women' s bathroom, Maria finally fell asleep in the restaurant. We decided to order dessert to take full advantage of her nap. Tiramisu is always a happy experience!

From the restaurant we walked past a mosaic by Marc Chagall on our way to Millenium Park.

It was neat to explore Millennium Park since it's relatively new and because the two face fountains were especially refreshing in the 90 degree plus heat. Mark especially enjoyed taking self-portraits and unique pictures in the giant reflective bean.

From there we walked through Grant's Park to Buckingham fountain. We collapsed in the shade of a crab apple tree and watched all the couples taking wedding and quince (sweet 16) photos. I didn't realize that quinceanera girls not only dress up in a formal gown that rivals many wedding dresses I've seen, but they also have a tuxedoed escort and a court of 2 or 3 matching couples to follow them around, not to mention professional photographers! The parallels to a wedding party are downright uncanny! There's even a magazine devoted entirely to quince parties! I'll try not to go on a tirade here about the excesses involved in modern weddings, but I have to say my feelings now extend to quincaneras as well. Frightening!

Anyway, we had a wonderful time exploring Chicago with momma Nina (pronounced "nine-uh") and it was neat seeing her and Maria together!