A Respite into the City

It has been a rough several weeks for Kai at school with him increasingly frequently making serious remarks indicating despair and depression. But he mostly seems fine on the weekends and at home.

Today we went into the city to do one of his favorite activities, looking for Pokémon. We went to Chicago's Magnificent Mile. My wife took the opportunity to go shopping while Kai and I walked up and down Michigan Avenue.

Here we are near the Chicago River, with Trump Tower in the background.

From there, we walked over to Millennium Park.

Kai was delighted as we found many new Pokémon or ones that were stronger than those he already had.

After a couple hours of walking, we met back up with Mom for lunch. Kai enjoyed his Brown Cow - root beer with vanilla ice cream. He also had some pizza. My wife and I had the short rib beef sandwich.

After lunch we stopped in at the Lego store. Here are my wife and Kai standing in front of a Lego model of Trump Tower.

And inside, Kai with a Lego lightsaber.

Afterward he and I walked around and caught more Pokémon before we finally drove home. Kai enjoyed the entire excursion into the city.

When Kai is in despair, he tends to forget all the good things in his life. We will have to remember to remind him of these good times when he is feeling depressed. Hopefully it will help him realize that his life has more good than bad and that it would be a huge mistake to think otherwise.