Sweet Saturday

My own little piece of sweet candy.

Every year for the past three, my mom has had the hankerin' to come down to Chicago to visit around the first weekend in February. This weekend just happens to coincide with "Sweet Saturdays" at the Garfield Park Conservatory, a program that shows kids (and adults, too, I guess) some foods that are harvested from plants -- cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, chocolate. We get free samples, and the climate is warm and a little humid, which is a real treat midwinter!

The boys remembered this pond from last year, with its magical yellow (glass) "lily pads." These lily pads are art that I can get behind.

In the cafe area of the Conservatory, a local band called Tarima Son was playing some sort of Latin music. I wish that I could be more specific, but there are so many styles of Latino music that I'm not going to pretend that I can keep them all straight! The music got Jonah a-dancin' and Iohan a-starin'. He was what they call "agape"; it was so sweet. Eventually he danced, which at 15 months was little more than several deep knee bends. Can you see it at right?

Iohan enjoyed his first hot dog at the Conservatory. And when I say "enjoyed," I mean enjoyed; he ate the whole thing. Way to go, Fat Man! (Many of Io-Io's nicknames refer to his girth, or to his spherical form.)