Monday in Chicago

[xiphias]

First, something that Lis reminded me that I forgot to mention about yesterday: Lis and Nate and I were in Aunt Paula's kitchen, and Lis leaned down and said, "This is your uncle Ian," and Nate said, "Yin." Lis said, "That's right! It's Ian; can you say, 'Ian'?" and Nate said "Yin" again. Lis nudged me and said, "You could do the same thing for me. . . " and I said, "This is Lis!" And Nate said, ". . .okay."

Also, Nate speaks Japanese, I may have mentioned. The main things he says are, "Buzz," "Woody," "Finty an' neon," (aka, "To INFINITY AND BEYOND!!", Buzz Lightyear's battle cry), "No" (he's a toddler), and "Hai". Which is what he uses for "Yes." The fact that he's a toddler with a word for "yes" is far more remarkable than the fact that the word he uses is Japanese. I mean, there are MILLIONS of toddlers who speak Japanese, but many fewer than that who say any word that means "yes" on a regular basis.

Anyway, this morning, we packed up the room, left our bags with the bellhop, checked out, and went to Grandma Rose's apartment. Nate, Josh, and Missy were already there when we got there, and Nate had decided that Grandma's walker was a ladder for Buzz and Woody to play on. Grandma Rose didn't mind.

Grandma Rose's physical therapist showed up and took her for a walk down the hall of her apartment building, and Nate was very gratifyingly upset that she left. He actually missed her, and we managed to work out that, yes, it was GRANDMA he was missing, and not just the walker he had been playing with, which was our original assumption. But she came back soon enough.

Anyway, after an hour or so with Grandma Rose, both Nate and she had had enough, and we went back to the hotel. Josh, Missy, and Nate decided to get ready to go -- they were on an earlier flight than Lis and I were -- and Lis and I decided to spend some time doing something Chicago-y and tourist-y.

We went to Marshall Field's, and looked at all the architecture, the little "history of Marshall Field's" display on the seventh floor, the Tiffany ceiling over the perfume department, and all the other things like that.

Then we had lunch at the Walnut Room.

It was REALLY good. We split a French onion soup (which is, of course, a dish which is just designed around the concept of umami -- beef stock, onions, sherry, swiss cheese -- all hugely umami ingredients), and I had the chicken pot pie, and Lis had the meatloaf, and we switched plates halfway through.

Afterward, we went to see if the library was open, but it wasn't, because it's MLK day. So we came back to the hotel, and have been hanging out in the business center, just chilling since then, because we're tired. Soon, we'll get our bags, and take the El to the airport.

Comments

[deerdancer22.livejournal.com]

I love all your family stories, although it always makes me sad to be so far away from all of you. But what is umami?

[ailbhe]

I know a toddler who says "Yeah" to everything. Everything. It's... chilling.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

At least he hasn't perfected the combination of "Whatever!"-plus-eyeroll yet.

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

Basically, it's "savoriness." It's the fifth taste--the first four being, of course, sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

WRT toddlers saying something meaning "yes" on a regular basis, that really depends entirely on what they're asked. For instance, "Do you want a cookie?" is a question to which the answer is always "yes." OTOH, it's pretty funny to talk to a toddler who's on a "no" tear, answering every question you ask with "no" because he/she's angry. With Isaac when he was a toddler, and now with Leah, we get things like:

"Do you want a kiss?"
"No!"
"How about a hug?"
"No!"
"Is there anything that would make you feel better?"
"No!!"
"Is your name 'Leah?'"
"No!!!"