We’re visiting family in the Chicago area this week; and since the birth of our grandson two years ago, we find that it’s important these days to switch up our former pursuits (including fine dining, comedy clubbing and museum hopping) with activities that will appeal to little ones with lots of energy, limited attention spans and nap schedules. During a visit in February we spent a great morning at the Shedd Aquarium, all of us enthralled with tanks and exhibits which brought fascinating creatures right down to Sean’s eye level. We’ve visited the Morton Arboretum several times, enjoying the display of holiday lights in December, flaming autumn leaves and colorful summer blooms and an excellent Children’s Garden full of interactive activities. This week we tried two new spots, both in nearby Naperville, a “Western Suburb” upscale community a short drive from my daughter and son-in-law’s home. First up was the DuPage Children’s Museum, where we gifted Sean (and his parents) with a family membership for his second birthday. (An aside for doting grandparents, godparents and aunties and uncles: If that special child in your life really doesn’t need more clothes, toys, sports equipment or whatever, a gift membership to a local children’s museum, theater or tickets to a special event offer wonderful alternatives to material goods for a birthday or holiday present.) It provided two floors of all kinds of hands-on activities, and I was impressed with how many were accessible to very young children but fully entertaining bigger kids, too. Through the end of this month a special traveling exhibit titled “Children of Hangzhou” presents four youngsters from the Chinese city in their lives at home, school, the theater and the countryside. A testament to the appeal of the activities here: I saw adults “playing” with the exhibits and as fully engaged as the children. Yesterday we enjoyed a sunny few hours at the Naper Settlement, a collection of 19th-century homes, shops and public buildings set amid wide lawns, mature trees and landscaping. Our visit coincided with field-tripping school groups which offered a mixed blessing: nearly all of the buildings were staffed with volunteers who demonstrated blacksmithing, printing presses, stone carving and other aspects of life in the 1800s, but then one competed with crowds of school kids to witness those. The little ones in our group weren’t really that taken with those demonstrations (while the adults certainly were), but they delighted in cavorting up, down and around a large playground based on an 1830s fort set in one corner of the park-like setting. We’ve always enjoyed our trips to Chicago, and it’s great to discover there is still so much to see and do here, no matter the age or experience of our group. — Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor