Our Little Baby Blog

Cultural Affairs

My brother Andy got us a family membership to the Art Institute for Christmas. It's a great gift and one I thought we'd have used a bunch by now, but, of course, life and laziness always intervene and we actually used the passes for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

Now I KNOW we should have gone earlier. We loved our experience and are amazed at the great set up they have there for families with young children. By coincidence, we walked in to find a friend from church manning the family table. Talk about a personal greeting! Our friend told us about story time and how the Art Institute has children's activites set-up on Saturday morning. Yes! This meant we could go see an exhibit and then walk Anna down for a little fun and then, hopefully, maybe see something else before we headed out.

The morning's little kid activities included making a collage with scraps of paper. It was a little advanced for Anna, but she was able to use the crayons and make some scribbles and then we had her select a couple of pieces of shiny paper, which I just glued on to the paper. Of course, Anna was totally distracted by the other little girl at the table who had just been to the American Girl store the day before and had a BABY. Anytime Anna sees a baby anywhere she makes a beeline to the baby and pretty much stays there until you pull the baby from her tiny little fingers. This particular baby was brand new and awfully cute, the little girl allowed Anna to hold her baby (named Penguin). It was so sweet.

Story time didn't go so well, the book was way above Anna's head and she really just wanted to climb around on the steps. I pulled her out after a few minutes and we walked her over to the miniatures room, which held her attention for a short while.

All in all, we agreed this was a great little outing for a rainy/snowy/super hot day. I just hope we get our act together to do it again soon!