The View

By cait in Life, Ryder 0 Comment
The View

The View

Isn’t The View awesome? No, no I am kidding, it lost all of its caché when Rosie O’Donnell left. And that Elizabeth is just silly.

Actually, I’m referring to the view out of our condo windows. It’s quite grand – if by “grand” you mean “directly facing Burger King and Lawrence Avenue.” When we moved into our place we wondered how this view would impact our life. Some of our friends had fancy views: sweeping panoramas of Lake Michigan and the downtown skyline; we instead have constant visual confirmation of the latest promotions being offered at the nearby mecca of flame broiling. We knew we wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing the 4th of July fireworks from the comfort of our home. However, our little view provides us with so much more.

On a more kid-friendly note, this week has been full of excitement. Ryder is crazy for the goings on outside the window and sits on his stool for long stretches, observing and commenting on the happenings. Noteworthy events range from a simple firetruck speeding by to someone getting pulled over by the police. For a kid who is crazy for cars, trucks, buses, and the like, it’s pretty snazzy. This week, it was off the hook. The city of Chicago got its best people out to fix a giant pothole just off the exit of the BK parking lot.

Backhoe

Backhoe

There were backhoes, cement trucks, and lots of uniformed workers. Ryder practically leaped out the window with excitement when the backhoe sidled up to our building. Phrases like “holy tamoli” and “oh my GOSH” came out of his mouth. The view provides him with lots of entertainment and consequently allows us a little time to regroup, cook dinner, or tend to sweet Maisy. It may not provide us with increased property value or the ever-important visual confirmation of fireworks, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Happy Easter!

By cait in Ryder 0 Comment
ryder holding maisy.

ryder holding maisy.

We got the kids all posed and prepped for an Easter greeting. Little do they know that Easter is postponed until the Easter bunny can get his/her act together. We were supposed to go over to our fun friend’s house for an egg hunt – however their little girl is sick. A rushed and poorly thought out trip to Target last night ended in us buying a box of granola bars and some stain remover. The Easter section looked as if it had been ransacked. Granted, it was a last minute decision to pull something together, but seriously this was unacceptable. There were no plastic eggs to be found. Picked over candy lay in sad heaps. People were roaming the aisles with disgust. (By “people” I mean me.) Alas, Ryder and Maisy did not wake to cute baskets filled with treats, but we did let Ryder watch an extra episode of Ina, one of his favorite cooking show ladies. Happy Easter!

Mistaken Identity

By cait in Work.Caitlin 0 Comment
Hand Turkey. Turkey.

Hand Turkey. Turkey.

In case you are unaware, a big part of my job working in the school system as an OT is to come up with activities to encourage various fine/visual motor skills in kids. It’s very intellectually demanding. It’s a wonder you people can keep up with my crafty prowess. Anyway, one of these particular activities happened around Thanksgiving; this was your standard turkey made by tracing the opposite hand and then decorating it. When I presented my model to a small group of kids and asked what it was, one of them shouted out, “a hand chicken!”He was very serious about his answer. I was a bit sad, because I thought that my turkey looked fairly legit, but kids don’t seem to lie in these gut reaction situations. I told him it was a turkey and we moved on to create one for him. Cut to our first session after holiday break. I had gotten this great little crafty book for ideas on these sorts of activities. One of them was making a peacock. So I put together my model and decorated it all nice (clearly a subjective statement). I present it to my little group and asked if anyone knew what it was. My little friend looked at me like I was slightly off and said “a hand chicken.” I could almost hear the “duhh”. I laughed out loud because sometimes you need to be humbled by a seven year old. And the little kid is just so cute.