B and I are often asked what keeps us in the city. The taxes, the congestion, the high prices for everything, the smaller living quarters, the fight for street parking- people wonder what it is that keeps us here. Truthfully, a lot of it is just plain personal preference. We both like all of the people and the noise and the city feel. We wouldn’t turn down more space or a lower cost of living, but we know that the city gives us lots of perks – the lakefront, the museums, the street fairs, the parks. While our own backyard would be great we feel that our child has the benefit of multi-million dollar parks and playgrounds all around us. Parks that we don’t have to mow or fertilize or water – parks that we just show up to and enjoy. So last night we met some friends at Wicker Park to enjoy a Chicago Park District activity, “Toddlers, Tunes and Turtles”. (The activity is park-hopping all summer so if you live in Chicago it is probably near you at some point!)
I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but sure enough there were plenty of kids (all the way up to middle school age), a musician (the tunes) and a traveling reptile van (turtles). The turtle guy was enthusiastic and well prepared but the exhibit was a bit over Gracie’s head (he was teaching the kids about the animals, having them repeat back to him, discussing animals in general, making jokes, etc.) and the musician wasn’t holding Gracie’s attention. So far musically she enjoys our New Orleans jazz cd’s, the Cup Song, music class and a German band…everything else gets a big fat “meh”. This left us to the “toddlers” portion which means we basically drove to a park across town to let her run wild on the play equipment. And? It was awesome. B arrived in his suit after battling traffic, we ate a taco picnic with our friends on a bench, the kids ate a metric ton of fresh fruit the Mama’s packed and then they ran themselves ragged. Gracie swung and slid and tripped, earning her first skinned knees (not a tear!) and generally had a blast.
Living in the city is a lot of things both positive and negative, but more than ever we are determined to enjoy all of the positive moments this huge city has to offer. We don’t have anything to prove to anybody, but we would hate to look back in five or ten years and realize we never took advantage of everything there was to enjoy.
We made it home late, sticky and smelling like bug spray, but I’m so glad we went. Sometimes breaking away from the day to day to play in a park across town is just what you need on Tuesday.
