But We Didn't Watch The Daytona 500

My parents came to town this past weekend. We had a really good time. You know you're an old married couple when your Valentine's Day is spent with your parents (or in-laws) and you really enjoy it.

This was a really good weekend for us, because both The Targo's and my family have been marred in sadness for the past couple of months. Couple that with the normal seasonal affect disorder-like sadness that hits many Midwesterners this time of year, and a good weekend is the exact prescription. We had a nice dinner out on Saturday at one of my favorite family-friendly restaurants. On Sunday, my mom, The Targo and I took Nathan to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park. It's a pretty reasonably priced venue, for Chicago. And hey! The two-year-old was free! The best things included the butterfly room and the hands-on-habitat. I really recommend this place to parents with small children. And also, it's right next to the Lincoln Park Zoo (I don't like zoos), so you can make a day of it.

The Targo and Nathan in the butterfly habitat

The Targo had Monday off for Presidents' Day, so he took Nathan to the Family Grounds Cafe, a wonderful play area for toddlers and preschoolers that has an attached coffee shop. The best part? It's close to our house, so we can pretty much decide to go, oh, right now.

It's weekends like this one, where we can just do things spur of the moment, that remind me how happy I am to live in Chicago. I don't know if this is where we'll spend the rest of our lives, or even the rest of our parenting years, but I know that it fits us this season of life.

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I feel like I need to talk about my lack of blogging for the past, um, I don't know, 6 months. Why? It's not that I think you care, exactly, but I feel the need to talk, whine, disclose... something. While The Targo was in India, I was so steeped in my single-parentness that I didn't know what to do, what to write about. Every day was about making life as normal for Nathan as possible. And also, to hold things together for The Targo, who felt immeasurable guilt about being gone. Also, I feel so ridiculously normal. Who would want to read about the everyday challenges when people who are really crazy interesting write so much more eloquently? I mean, I can talk about deaths in our family and the cancer curse, but does anyone really care or want to read about that? Nahhhhhhhh. And also, I don't write about poop. I just don't. So, my mama issues are just not cool/fun enough to read about, so I haven't written about them. And lastly, The Targo's computer died, so he had to take my laptop to finish his dissertation. So, yes, I have the interwebs at home (we don't live in a cave!), but I don't really have access. This is what I've been up to.