This is from a trip to Fredericksburg that Gran-Gran, the boys, and I took. Liam “adopted” this James at the toy store. Gran-Gran paid his adoption fees!

(Liam says, “Thank you, Gran-Gran!”)

Balancing on some rocks on a sunny morning.

Learning the basics of bronco riding.

Kevin and Kieran sunning themselves on a rock above the Guadalupe River.

Pop-Pop and Liam made a fire engine cake for Liam’s 4th birthday, and had a great time doing it. Liam isn’t technically 4 until the 27th, but we did an early family party. It was great because he had everyone in the family there. I’m not showing photos here to protect the privacy of other family members who might not want their pictures on the blogosphere, but trust me, it was a wonderful party.

The finished cake! And the proud pastry chef!

All this fun makes a fellow tired! The kids were pretty much spent by dinnertime each night, but they were having so.much,fun. (The one thing we didn’t get a chance to do was to get together with Karen, a blogfriend of mine who I met years ago as she is a longtime friend of my sister-in-law, Janet. Karen, I’m sorry we didn’t get together, and I hope we can have a Blogger meet-up next time we come to Texas. Hopefully by then you’ll be feeling better, too.)

Thanks for a wonderful week, Pop-Pop and Gran-Gran. I truly hope the visit was all you hoped it would be, and that we can come back soon!

Kevin and Liam spent a morning at the Chicago Children’s Museum. It seems Liam’s new best friend, Big Bird, came along for the ride. Actually, Big Bird was very helpful this trip – he pecked elevator buttons right and left, and also “ate” his way down Ontario Street one afternoon and trimmed away excess shrubbery.

A fun time was had playing drums.

And here’s Chef No Name Diesel Engine creating a tofu stir-fry at the wok station.

We had lunch outside at the Navy Pier one day, and Liam had fun letting his little brother play with his hair.

A quick shot of the older son at lunch.

More brotherly goofing around.

The conference ended as well as it began, and I just wish it could have been a bit longer. The last morning of the conference, Kieran and I caught a cab to the Hilton. The cabbie turned out to be a recent immigrant from Somalia. He saw Kieran’s Maya Wrap, and then he asked me if all the mothers at the Hilton this week were American. I told him not everyone was, but the majority were. He thought that was interesting, as apparently he’d never seen so many babies in slings outside of Africa, and he asked what the conference was about. I told him it was about breastfeeding and other aspects of raising babies and young children. He got me with this comment…

“Why do you need a conference about nursing and carrying babies? Isn’t that just what you’re supposed to do with them?”

Yes, sir, it is, but not everyone has that idea yet. We’re working on it.

(And then I realized some parenting frustrations are universal. Our cabbie went on to ask, only half in jest, if I knew of any conferences discussing how to get five-year-olds to brush their teeth and go to bed at a reasonable hour.)

We had one extra day in Chicago, and we had the distinct pleasure of a playdate in the park with Amy, Kevin, Carter, and Archie. Amy and I have known each other on-line for almost four years, and I have always admired her parenting style, so it was exciting to finally meet in real life. The boys got to burn off some steam playing ball, the adults got to visit, and a fun time was had by all. Thanks for the meetup, you guys. I hope we can do it again next year!

We then played around at the Navy Pier a bit more, and then that night we walked up to Watertower Place and had dinner at a 50′s-style diner that had the best mushroom burgers I’ve ever eaten.

The next morning we came home, fortunately without major problems. There was my ID issue. My wallet was never found, and my passport was safely tucked away in the safety deposit box at our bank (no, they wouldn’t let anyone else in to get it, even with our permission), so I had no picture ID. When we checked in at the airport, no one even blinked an eye. It turns out you can fly without ID. You just have to be willing to go through the extensive hand search (Kevin and Amy, you two were right!) That was all kind of a relief, but Liam wasn’t prepared for me to disappear for as long as that took. Kevin ended up trying to convince a crying 3-year-old to go through a separate line with him and Kieran. No one was happy until the four of us were back together again, and then all was well.

Today we’ve been doing the laundry and opening all our mail that accumulated during our trip. And lookee what came:

This bracelet was made by the lovely Kate as my prize for guessing how many odd socks her boys had squirreled away in their room (28). It is gorgeous – I love the color of blue, and the heart clasp – the picture does not do it justice, trust me. Thank you, Kate! It’s is so pretty, and it fits perfectly.

And that is the tale of Chicago ’07. I hope we get to go to Chicago again, whether it’s for a conference or not, and I hope there is another La Leche League International Conference in the next few years, whether it’s in Chicago or not. And next time I won’t lose my wallet!

Kieran was awake for a lot of the trip, although he did sleep at the end. He was quite happy the whole time, though, so it was a fun flight. As we were getting off the plane one of the flight crew said to us, “You guys have great kids!”

Well, yup, we do think they’re great kids, but don’t you love it when the equation

1 Quiet Baby + 1 Sleeping Preschooler = 2 Great Kids

is the rule of the day?

We got a car to the hotel, got registered, and took went back to the room for a room service dinner. Both kids are sound asleep, and I think they’ll be sleeping late in the morning since they are both really tired.

We had one small crisis today – my wallet got lost on the plane, which went on to LA after landing in Chicago. We called Southwest’s lost and found in both Chicago and LA, but no one has turned the wallet in. If it hasn’t been found by morning we’ll have to replace a couple of credit cards. Of course, my driver’s license was in there, so it might be interesting trying to get me back on a plane for home next week since I have no other forms of ID with me.

Oh well, there’s nothing to be done about it tonight…

Tomorrow is another day – Kieran and I are going to hear Peggy O-Mara of ‘Mothering’ magazine fame speak, and Liam and Kevin are going to the Museum of Science and Industry, aka “The Jet Museum.” It should be a fun day!