MichaelandChrissy.com

Aiden had such a good time at C2E2 in April that I had planned to take him to Wizard World Chicago later.  Wizard is a declining force in the comics industry (they were huge back in the 90′s), so they changed the name of the event back to “Chicago Comic Con” this year.  This con was arguably bigger than C2E2, but the difference in bulk was made up by comic vendors.  There were hundreds of crates of comics and no shortage of old fat guys to paw through them.

There were some good costumes, but I honestly expected to see more people dressed up.  The place was crowded, but mainly with collectors, not cosplayers.  Maybe because we showed up on Sunday morning?  I later read that there were a lot more people in Star Trek garb on Saturday because Bill Shatner was there.  We were busy on Saturday…  Either way, Aiden had a good time.  We did run into some people in costume, and Aiden took plenty of pictures with them.

We were happy to see that the 501st Imperial Garrison made an appearance.  Aiden and I make it a point to find Stormtroopers.  And the 501st guys are top notch.  However, they only had a couple of troopers, a trio of Boba Fetts, and a decent-looking General Grievous.  Even the Mandalorians were talking about their lack of a Darth Vader.  How hard is it to get a Darth Vader to one of these things?

Aiden wanted to go home after about an hour, but I think that he was just hungry.  It seemed like we were there much longer, but it hit me during lunch that we we only there for an hour.  We had all-day passes, so I wanted to go back! However, we were already eating at the oasis over the tollway when bailer’s remorse set in.  Oh, and Aiden loved the view from the restaurant!

Anyway, it would have been very difficult to turn around on the tollway, and then pay for parking again, just to wander around the convention floor for the hour or two before it closed.  We’ll go back next year, only next time we’ll go on a Saturday and eat at the convention.  It’s cheaper to eat at McDonalds, but it’s a lot harder to make your way back to the convention floor from there when your boy decides to see more heroes.  And next year Aiden will go dressed as a Jedi!

Aiden used to love “Thomas The Tank Engine”.  We watched the show all the time and had tons of the plastic tracks to build railroads with.  However, Gavin soon became mobile and started trashing the sets.  So the tracks went into storage until Gavin was old enough to play with them too.  Now is the time to get Gavin acclimated to Thomas.

The annual “Day Out With Thomas” at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, was held this weekend.  Just in time too, since we recently pulled the Thomas tracks out of storage for Gavin to play with.  We also went last year, but Gavin was just along for the ride.  He’s old enough to really enjoy it this time though.

The whole family took a ride on Thomas, or at least a train with a Thomas engine at the front.  We got photos taken with Sir Topham Hatt (he’s real!).  The boys played in a bouncy house.  Aiden and Gavin saw plenty of trains, and we all rode in a vintage trolley, which was in much better shape than the not-quite-restored rail cars pulled by Thomas.

On the way home, we ate lunch at the Wild West Steakhouse just down the street.  The Railroad Museum is seriously out in the middle of nowhere, so it’s surprising that there is a Wild West Town in the same area.  The food wasn’t bad, and the boys got to meet the Sheriff, so maybe we’ll stop by there again next year.

I have a splinter in my finger, and it controls me.  Not in the sense that it says, “You will do what I say,” but I won’t use my hand without first consulting it.  It’s just a little black speck, stuck just beneath the skin on my pointer finger.  It only hurts sometimes, but it’s a sharp pain, only when I pick something up.

This control has proven somewhat detrimental.  In the shower today, I rubbed my thumb and forefinger together to see if it would trigger the splinter before reaching for the shampoo.  I got a sharp pain.  Better not use the shampoo today then.  Seriously?  Don’t wash my hair because the splinter says not to?  Ouch.

I tried to pry the manipulative splinter out with tweezers, but it’s completely under the skin.  It doesn’t hurt all the time, or else I might try a little harder to remove it.  I don’t even know how it got there.  It’ll probably work itself out in time, but until then, I’ll have to check it for pain before picking something up.

Must… Obey…  Splinter…

I’m not proud of it, but I often hide from my kids while eating snacks so that I don’t have to share with them.  Hence the term “clandesnacking”, an amalgamation of “clandestine” and “snacking”.  Yes, I made that up.  Why would I go through all the trouble of avoiding the boys while I eat candy?  Because I don’t want to share.

I love chocolate-covered granola bars.  Gavin loves them too.  The difference is that I can eat them without drooling chocolate all over the furniture.  As soon as Gavin sees me with food, he runs right up and says, “Bie!” (rhymes with “pie”, since he can’t pronounce the T in “bite” yet)  And I have to give him a bite.  He’ll usually walk away, chewing happily, and then run right back with chocolate all over his face.

Aiden’s not quite as bad when it comes to making a mess while he eats, but he has no sense of tact.  He’s young yet…  If he asks for a bite of whatever I’m eating, he’ll bite off more than he can eat.  I always end up holding a tiny stump of candy bar or whatever.  That’s not really fair, but it’s not like I can take it back.  Ew…

So the easy answer is to eat (snack) in secret (clandestine) where no one else can see me.   I’ll hide in the bathroom with a donut or dodge kids room-to-room with a pudding cup.  It’s not like they’re bereft of food, we take care of our kids.  They even get snacks of their own at certain times of the day.  But sometimes I want to enjoy a snack without being hounded or swindled.  Is that so bad?

Although our family has an annual membership to the Brookfield Zoo, this is the first time that I’ve been back since the Spring.  The last time I was there, the “Great Bear Wilderness Trail” was still under construction and the dolphin stadium was being renovated.  Both are now completed, so we wanted to get back to the zoo at least once before the end of the summer.

The new bear habitat was smaller than I expected it to be, but there’s plenty of room for the three polar bears and one grizzly bear that live there.  One of the polar bears jumped in the water to play and eat, and the boys loved watching him swim.  The wolves were also relocated to a new den up on a hill so you can see them better, and the bison got new housing in the habitat as well.

Unfortunately, we missed out on the dolphin show.  We showed up about a half hour early, but that wasn’t good enough to get tickets for the first show.  Next time, we’ll get tickets as soon as we enter the zoo.  However, we did go to the underwater viewing area beneath the stadium while the show was on.  We watched the dolphins do their tricks from under the water for a little while, and were able to leave a lot easier than if we had actually watched the show above.

Aiden and Gavin love the zoo, so we re-upped our membership for another two years.  We stop in four or five times a year.  We like to get there as soon as it opens.  That way, we can check out the animals until about lunch time and then find ourselves a nice place to eat.  Then the boys usually sleep on the way home.  It’s a nice trip, and we think that the experiences are good for our boys.

Aiden has never been to a theater before.  We didn’t want to be those parents that bring a child who was obviously not ready to sit still through an entire movie.  But we had taken him to the Field Museum a few days earlier, and he sat through the 3D dinosaur movie about Sue The T-Rex very well.  He even wore the 3D glasses the entire time, and this was a twenty minute video.  So, we thought that he was ready to see his first movie at a theater.

We took him to see Toy Story 3 at the newly-renamed AMC Showplace.  Aiden was a little antsy during the previews, but he sat very well for the entire show, happily wearing his kid-sized 3-D glasses.  He really enjoyed it, and so did Chrissy and I.  I had read online that the ending would be sad.  It was very emotional in at least two places toward the end, and Chrissy bawled through the entire ending.  I don’t actually cry, ever, but I came close here.  No spoilers, but yes, you will cry.

We chose a showtime that was a little bit later than we had wanted in order to see it in 3-D.  The 3-D elements were very understated.  Many of the scenes were in close-up, which limits the view of the background.  The whole point is to visually differentiate the background from the foreground.  I suppose it’s better that they didn’t hit you over the head with blatant 3-D gimmicks, but if you’re going to pay extra for the 3-D glasses, at least hit us over the head a little.

Although not specifically made for 3-D viewing, Toy Story 3 was a real masterpiece by any measure.  We all loved it.  The story, the characters, the action, it was all fantastic.  Furthermore, Chrissy and I are very proud of Aiden and his good behavior.  Pixar movies are generally pretty good for little kids, so I can’t wait to take Aiden to their next movie.  Pixar will release “Cars 2″ next summer and “Monsters, Inc. 2″ is due in 2012.  Maybe we’ll see you there?

The boys fall down about a hundred times a day.  Each time, we pick them up and tell them that they are okay and send them off to play again.  On Sunday morning, Aiden was running down the hall when he fell.  He was on the floor crying, so I picked him up from behind and said, “You’re okay, buddy”.  By the time I got him up on his feet, Chrissy looked at him and then at me and carefully said, “No, he’s not okay”.

Aiden had smacked his head on the corner of the wall when he went down.  This left a one-inch gash on his forehead.  It looked like a small scratch at first, but it began to widen and deepen.  I guess the skin on your forehead is under a lot of tension.  It didn’t really bleed much, but it looked bad.  Chrissy said that we would have to take him to the emergency room for stitches.  And by a we, she meant me.

I got Aiden to the hospital pretty quickly, it’s not too far away, and we were there by about quarter till nine.  Once we got checked in, we had to wait a while in the waiting room for a doctor to see us.  The worst part was the waiting, but I suppose that the doctor needed to see other patients in the ER besides us.  The nurse that checked us in was very nice and she gave Aiden a coloring book and some crayons.

Once we saw the doctor, he said that Aiden would require three stitches in his forehead.  Normally, they don’t give anesthesia to people with stitches, but for little kids they will give them a cream that will numb the area.  Aiden got his wound cleaned and bandaged and then they put on the topical cream.  About twenty minutes later, the nurses came back to strap Aiden in.

In order to give him the stitches, they had to tie him down to a board.  They called it “giving him a big hug” but Aiden called it “wrapped up like a mummy”.  Once he was a immobilized, they injected Lidocaine around the cut.  This may have been the scariest moment ever for me as a parent.  The needle was a very thin gauge, and it would bend instead of inserting.  On top of that, Aiden was trying to turn his head away and would often drive the needle deeper into his skin in his direction.

Thankfully it didn’t take much longer, and the doctor started suturing.  Although the area should have been numb, Aiden screamed like he could feel everything.  I was watching the entire time and I was ready to sit down after about two minutes.  There were only three stitches, and I was happy when it was done.  The worst was over inside of five minutes.  Once they let Aiden out of his restraints, he seemed fine.  I don’t think that he could even feel his head after that.

The nurses bandaged Aiden up and gave him a popsicle and more stickers.  Then we got some instructions on how to care for the stitches, and we were ready to go.  All told, we were in the ER for about two hours.  From prior experience, I think that we were lucky to have gotten out that quickly.  But everyone was very nice and the experience wasn’t nearly as horrible as one would expect a gaping head wound to be.

I went to Toys R Us the weekend after Botcon to see if they had the new “Power Core Combiner” figures.  I found the three 2-packs (one basic-sized figure and his mini-con partner) that make up the first wave there.  They looked much better than I though they would. I decided to pass on them though, not because I didn’t like them, but because I had just spent way too much money on toys at Botcon.  I could wait until they came out at Target later.

Well, Target restocked this weekend, and they got all of the new deluxe-sized figures in.   I got “Hunt For The Decepticons” Jetblade, Sea Attack Ravage and Ironhide.  Basically everything but the new Battle Blade Bumblebee, since I’m just not into collecting Bayblebees.  I did get the “War For Cybertron” Bumblebee though, because he’s awesome, and the War For Cybertron Optimus Prime.  I haven’t completed the War For Cybertron game, but these figures look great.

I picked up the other two figures from the Generations line: Drift and Thrust.  I’ll definitely be buying the Blurr repaint and the Dirge remold when they come out.  And because they were on clearance for seven bucks each, I bought the “NEST Global Alliance” Tuner Mudflap and Strike Mission Sideswipe.  It’s the only Mudflap that I own, and most likely the only one from the Bayformer Twins that I’ll ever own.

Although Target didn’t have the Power Core Combiner 2-packs, they did have the first two 5-packs.  I picked up the Aerialbots and the Combaticons.  Although it’s a shame that the limbs are considered “drones”, and as such don’t transform into robot modes, the combined modes do look cool.  Plus there’s the added bonus of being able to put the limbs on the figures from the 2-packs.  And I went back to Toys R Us today to pick up all three of those.

Alice Cooper comes to the Radisson Star Theater about once a year.  I’ve seen the advertisements on the giant animated billboard next to US 30 about a dozen times over the last decade.  And every time, I say to Chrissy that we should go see him since we’re both big fans of his music.  We don’t get out to see many concerts anymore, since we’ve been going to plays in Chicago the last few years.  But we decided that we should go see Alice Cooper before he, ah, dies.

Chrissy is really good at buying tickets online, consistently finding great seats.  We got the fifth row behind the Celebrity Circle, which consists of the first seven or eight rows in front of the stage (so, roughly twelfth row).  She got these seats as part of a dinner package.  There’s a restaurant in the Radisson that serves a decent buffet (prime rib was the main course), and if you get the buffet you get the better seats.  The only way to get seats in the Celebrity Circle is to buy an overnight package, and we didn’t want to go that far.

We got to the restaurant a little early and got seated before the rest of the concert goers arrived.  It was interesting to see the different ages when people started arriving.  When we first came in, Chrissy saw a small group of teenagers with black t-shirts and figured that the entire concert would be filled with kids.  I told her that most likely the audience would be made up of older people who would have been fans since the 70′s.  As it turned out, we were not the only “old people”.  The median age was about forty, I would say.

We got to the theater early and waited by the doors to take our seats.  We were some of the first ones in and sat down in our seats.  We could see the stage very well and were pretty happy with where we were.  But then the people next to Chrissy sat down.  The lady next to Chrissy had no regard for personal space, which was only made worse by the fact that she required two seats due to her large size.  To make matters worse, this woman had seriously not bathed in several days.  Being nudged and stunk out of her seat, Chrissy was not happy.

I offered to trade seats with her.  So as not to be too obvious, we both walked up to the stage to take some pictures.  We also ran into some friends who had scored Celebrity Circle tickets and took their pictures as well.  When we came back, I put myself into Chrissy’s chair and let her take mine.  I was able to scootch over in my seat so as not to be touched by the stinky woman.  Alas, no good deed goes unpunished, as my own problems would be arriving at that point.

As the theater began to fill, the row in front of us became occupied.  Chewbacca sat in front of me.  Directly in front of me.  Chrissy became concerned that I couldn’t see the stage, and honestly I couldn’t.  However, once Alice Cooper made his entrance, the entire audience stood up anyway.  This wasn’t as bad as it would seem, because I was able to position myself in between the two giants in front of me so that I could pretty much see the entire stage from there.

The stinky lady had a similar problem.  The gentleman who sat next to Chewbacca was easily twice her width, if that can be believed.  To alleviate this problem, she again invaded my personal space in order to see between the wide guy and the tall guy.  Not a big deal, I just scooted closer to Chrissy, which was fine by me.  This was, after all, our anniversary gift to ourselves, so cuddling was allowed.  I’m not sure if anybody behind us could see, though.  I didn’t ask.

This was a no-smoking concert, which I thought was great.  Chrissy and I basically quit going to concerts a long time ago because we didn’t like sitting in a sea of smokers.  Lately, concert venues and bars in the area have gone to a “no smoking” policy, which makes it easier to go out without smelling like an ash tray once you get home.  So now I can see and I don’t have to worry about potheads in my vicinity, so I can enjoy the music.  And I did, as the concert itself was pretty good.

Alice sang mostly old classics, including four songs from “From The Inside” (one of my favorites) and many songs that Chrissy also knew all the words to.  I had only ever heard these songs recorded before, never live, so I was surprised to hear that they were performed in a more modern manner than I was used to hearing them.  I think maybe this was because the recordings were done in the 80′s or earlier, and bands just don’t play like that anymore.  There were a lot of costume changes, and some “fatal” stage theatrics.

Alice died no less than four times on stage.  The first was by beheading, they wheeled a giant guillotine out on the stage.  The second was by lethal injection, but the syringe was comically large.  The third was by hanging, with his battered “girlfriend” (played by his daughter, I think), kicking the stool out from under him.  And lastly by impalement.  I couldn’t help but feel that GWAR did on-stage murders better, but I was very happy to finally see Alice Cooper in concert.

Katie called to say that her friend Julie got a block of tickets to see Choo Choo Soul at the Radisson Star Theater in Merrillville because she’s interning at Radio Disney in Chicago.  She had about forty tickets to give away and asked if we could help her distribute them.  The boys liked Choo Choo Soul on the Disney Channel, so we decided to go.  We had previously gone to see the Imagination Movers, another Playhouse Disney property, and we enjoyed it very much.

The concert, if you could call it that, was about a week away.  Chrissy called around to see if others would like tickets too.  Since we had free tickets, several of Chrissy’s friends brought their young children to see the show with us.  In all, we used about thirty-two tickets and filled up three rows at the theater.  We picked up the Choo Choo Soul CD at Borders so that we would know all of the songs ahead of time.

The show wasn’t terrible, but I kind of expected more from Disney.  The television show centers around Genevieve, the shapely conductor on a cartoon train, and DC, who is the engineer.  The show has a train that kind of grooves its way along the track to different locales while Genevieve sings about numbers or letters or colors and DC drives the train.  The stage show was completely different.

The biggest difference was that there was no Choo Choo.  We got to see Genevieve in her conductor outfit.  DC was there as well, and he had a turntable on a podium, the front covered by a Choo Choo Soul banner.  I was wondering what he was going to do, since he had no train to drive on the stage.  He was doing something like performance art that you would see in a public park, with some breakdancing, beat boxing, and doing the robot, complete with voice vocoder.  But no Choo Choo.  As it was, I had seen similar shows on Hollywood Boulevard.  You toss quarters at people doing this type of thing in Grant Park.

Considering that the show is about the Choo Choo, I would have expected to see the train there.  But there were only two people on the stage against a black backdrop.  The Imagination Movers concert had a large projection screen against the back wall where are the Warehouse Mouse made a virtual appearance.  I would have expected to see the same thing with the Choo Choo at the very least.  The train could have made an appearance that way, if not in a real physical way.

The boys loved it.  Aiden was dancing in the aisles along with all the other kids that came along with our group.  The performers actually encouraged this from the stage.  Katie and Felice had come with us, so there was no shortage of people to hold onto Gavin and Aiden when they got tired.  The boys seemed to have a good time and were excited to see Genevieve and DC.  Overall, we were happy that we got to take our kids to the show, but we would have been upset if we had paid for it.  We saw that the tickets were being sold for $20-$30 each online, so we were happy that we saw it for free.