Yesterday, in honor of the beautiful weather, we ventured out reasonably early in search of adventure in the city. We stopped at my mother-in-law�s en route to pick up AJ�s uncle and grandma, who accompanied us. This made AJ really happy and my husband really aggravated and somewhat cut down on our ability to be adventurous. But nevertheless, we persevered and a good time was had by most.

Our original plan had been to take AJ on a water taxi ride, but my mother-in-law was panicking about the state of repair of the boats, so instead we dragged her a quarter mile up into the sky to peer at the city from the Sky Deck of the Sears Tower.

Have you ever been to the top of the Sears tower with a bunch of acrophobes?

Everyone was being terribly polite, but those inclined toward vertigo and dizziness were hovering near the inside wall and feigning interest in the pseudo-educational Chicago propaganda posted thereon.

AJ, however, was running from window to window. He kept trying to climb under the railing and press his full body against the glass, which I truly thought was going to give his grandmother a heart attack. Frankly, I was tempted to join him. It was a clear and sunny day and it was an amazing thing to see the city stretched out in all directions like that. But AJ was really most enthralled with watching the numbers in the elevator climb up past 100. And he was very pleased with the totally lame film they forced us to watch before we went upstairs to fill our heads with nationalist thoughts. Perhaps it�s part of the anti-terrorist efforts, which I think also might be the reason behind the preternaturally energetic employee manning the street entrance to the Tower, who seemed to be practicing her tap-dancing while welcoming us to the building with diction and volume that implied she thought she was trying to communicate to an arena full of people rather than a bunch of people squishing themselves into a small metal box.

After we whizzed back down to earth and convinced AJ that another fast elevator ride, we put the final nail in my mother-in-law�s coffin � we took everyone on a ride on the Brown Line. AJ has always loved the el, but he hasn�t been on the elevated portion since he was a baby. He�s been asking and asking to go. The brown line through the loop is one of the best ways to see the city. When I lived at Washington and Wells, I�d always hop the southbound train at Wells rather than walk up to Clark and Lake just so I could have the pleasure of following the tracks around the southern bend. I love the view up State Street. I love looking in the upper story windows of all the buildings you pass, watching workers in offices, teachers in classrooms, bored store clerks. I was glad AJ finally got a chance to try it, although his behavior was less than stellar at first when someone sat in the seat he�d had his eye on. Taking public transportation with a four-year-old is kind of like traveling with a ticking time bomb. Sometimes the fuse is longer than others.

Meanwhile, as we�re climbing up the stairs to the station, my mother-in-law is looking at the rusted underside of the tracks and asking, �Is it still working?� I thought my husband�s head was going to explode, but we all survived the trip to the Merchandise Mart and back. AJ fell asleep almost as soon as our tires hit the highway and by the time we were back at his grandmother�s, he�d recovered his sense of humor.

He takes in so much on trips like that, things we don�t even notice. It all comes out in hyperactive brain waves the following day. He�s been drawing pictures of the el, and of trees as tall as the Sears Tower, and when he talks its as if ordinary vocabulary doesn�t have enough meaning to express his feelings. He�s been speaking in psychedelic poetry.

�Mommy, I think the breeze is blowing on my mind. It�s making my cold go away. I just open my mouth and all the germs are leaving.�

�I�m glad you�re feeling better, AJ.�

�Do you know why the breeze is blowing on my mind?�

�Why?�

�Because I�m happy.�

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