still more miscellany

First, a few responses:

Jenny: chez moi means, literally, my house or at my house. Loosely translated, it means with me, or in my world.

Elisa: you gave me one of the best compliments ever! Wow. Almost enough to make me want to keep my hair curly...

Kristi: I also wish I could bottle up my curl and send it your way. If only it were possible! Why do we always want what we don't have?

Lara: I am so excited for you to get to go to India, and Paris, by yourself! What an adventure. Doing anything without kids is such a rare treat. I'm going to enjoy your travels vicariously.


On Wednesday Eva finally learned how to go down the stairs. She's been climbing up stairs for a long time, but just couldn't get the hang of going down. (Or maybe it's that I didn't give her many opportunities to try!) At any rate, she's been going up and down the stairs dozens of time each day, and is in total heaven. She has greater access to things to get into now, but it's worth it for the happy demeanor and independent play... It must be wearing her out a bit, too, because she's had a real afternoon nap for two days in a row. (crossing my fingers that this will last because I'm finally getting to spend some time organizing my scrap room!)

After dinner last night we went on a family outing to the nearby Riverwoods outdoor mall. (It's nothing like our beloved University Village in Seattle, but it'll have to do.) We went to Borders so Max could finally use the gift card he got for his birthday back in June, and we all enjoyed looking around at books. I was happy for him to have the pleasure of shopping for what he wanted and being able to buy it with his card. So fun!

Then we went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory because the kids were so intrigued by the name. We had some free samples, but ultimately Max and Lucas decided they would rather get a frozen custard than anything from the chocolate shop. Then we headed to Chill Out to get the kids a treat. We got a tiny size for Eva, but she was much more interested in running around outside than eating frozen custard. She kept going to the entrance of Abercrombie to rock out to their music.

On the way back to the car, we passed a new italian ice shop named Tomasso's, which Marc and I had to try out. We talked to the owner and asked him if he knew of Rita's Water Ice, a chain of the most fabulous water ices in the East. He made a bowing motion with his hands and said they were the gold standard. Like Rita's, he also offers a gelati, or water ice layered with vanilla frozen custard. We had mango and passionfruit with custard. It was good, but it didn't even touch Rita's Water Ice. We have lamented so many times that they won't franchise this far West. So refreshing. So delicious. Ahhhh.... you lucky Easterners.

And finally, a question: do babies have radar or what? When Eva wakes up early in the morning (5:30 today), I always give her a bottle and try to coax her back to sleep for awhile. It rarely works. Most of the time, she's quiet for 10-15 minutes, just enough to lull me into thinking that she's really going to go back to sleep. Then, just as I start to relax back into sleep, she starts crying the cry that lets me know she's not having it. Why does she give me a taste of the good life, only to snatch it away? So cruel.