Weekend Away

About a month ago Nick informed me that he would likely be needing to go to a conference in Chicago for work in June. He half-jokingly suggested that I come along so we could check out RPM Italian, you know because me and G are tight. I really didn’t think it would be possible, so I didn’t do anything immediately, then we started talking more about it, and mom and dad offered to babysit, so we decided to go for it.

I’ll admit it took some convincing, but we were seriously overdue for a little time away. We left Saturday afternoon, which was kinda great, because I still had my Friday and we got to spend most of Saturday with the kids before we had to leave.

Saturday morning Z had his first group swim lesson. He has gotten back his fear of the water this year, so I am going to try and do as many lessons as we can. There were some kids there that were doing so well, it was encouraging to think we could get there.

We loved the teachers at the Y, they were so encouraging and sweet to Z. Can’t wait for more!

After swim lessons, Nick took him fishing with his new Star Wars fishing pole, and he caught a fish!

Can you tell we were trying to soak it up before we left? (especially Nick because we was going to be gone till Wednesday, I was coming back Monday).

We put the kids down for their naps, and headed to the airport. The plane ride was SO easy. I forgot how easy it is without 1 or 2 children squirming around threatening to freak out every second of the ride! It was 2 hours, but it might as well have been 30 minutes! We arrived, changed, and went straight down to Michigan Avenue (our hotel was right off of it). Nick ran into one of his friends from college, who told him another of his friends was in the city that night, so that was really cool. After we talked with them for a bit, we went to our late reservation at Capital Grill, where we had a massive steak dinner. It was too much a lot of food, but we enjoyed it.

On the way back, we stopped on the bridge where they were shooting fireworks. It was beautiful!

Sunday, we got up and had a nice breakfast buffet, which held us over for a day of shopping. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get a lot because I only had a carry-on bag, but it was fine. I just bought small stuff #winkwink.

We walked down the Navy Pier and took in the sights. The weather was great!

Sunday night was our 9 o’clock reservation at RPM. That was the earliest we could get and we booked a month in advance! Crazy! I was bummed because (according to her twitter) G was in Chi-town on Saturday, but I think she left on Sunday, so no sightings for us, but the restaurant was super cool! Great vibe, really good food, and just all around fab. We spent most of the dinner coming up with a clever tweet that we thought she might retweet (I’m not even kidding), but she didn’t.

We did have their famous Brussel sprout salad (delish!) and Mama DePandi’s pasta and meatballs, among other things and this wonderful hazelnut ice cream wrapped in a ganoche shell for dessert. It was tre fab, and not that pricey, suprisingly.

Monday we walked and shopped a little more, just to get some fresh air, before I had to be in airports and airplanes the rest of the afternoon. And listen, I know there’s a lot more to Chicago than eating and shopping, but hey, that’s how I chose to spend my two short days, so don’t judge, kidding, but Nick did discover a lot more coolness in Chicago after I left, but since my main day was Sunday there just wasn’t much going on. We’ll have a lot more to see the next time we go (maybe with the kids!).

We got lots of updates about the kids, most were really great, some were at 9 or 10 and mentioned nothing about beds, but Z had the BEST time with his cousins. I could tell he was so happy, and Miss Lu was getting the royal treatment from my mom, so she was very happy!

So, even though they didn’t follow any of the detailed instructions I gave, or the schedule I wrote out, the kids had fun and that’s what matters.  That’s what I’ll tell myself anyway!

They actually did really great, and Z was fine until bedtime or when he would get in trouble for anything, then he would cry for me/us. Mom said it was pretty pitiful, but he got over it. He was so exhausted from the no nap and late bedtime that he had no choice but to fall asleep eventually.

We had a great time, but we were both so happy to get home and pretty sure we won’t be leaving them again anytime soon.

Summer's Here!

I know for most people summer started on Memorial Day weekend, but for us it started this past weekend, because everyone was feeling well, we swam (at my brother’s pool), grilled out, we ate popsicles, watermelon, we even went fishing in the bathtub.

 

Z has become pretty afraid of the water. It may be because someone Mom, it was totally Mom, told him, and I quote “You have to hold me because if you don’t I’ll go under and If I go under then I’ll be gone.” That is so something my mom would say. Thanks Mom! Why do (well-intentioned) people think it’s a good idea to scare the living daylight out of your child?

 

Anyway, we are starting swim lesson this Saturday, and I’m going to hit them hard all summer. The only reason I didn’t do them last year is because I was lazy Lu was a newborn, but now we’re doing it, no excuses!

 

So I mentioned fishing in the bathtub. Nick took Z on Sunday out to run errands. They ended up at Academy where he bought him a super cool Star Wars fishing pole. Because they had to get a haircut, eat lunch, and go to the grocery store, then come home and take naps, he didn’t get to use his totally awesome fishing pole on any real fish, so we tried it out in the bath. It came with fake fish to catch and Z loved it!

 

 

Father Son Outing

 

It was a family fun-filled weekend. I am looking forward to many more!

Lu's 1 Year Checkup

I actually had a check up appointment relatively on time for once, and I totally forgot to blog about it! We went last Friday for Lu's 1 year check up (where I suspect Z may have picked up the dreaded stomach bug, won't be taking him to the next one if I can help it!).

She did great! She was 18.1 pounds, which was 10th percentile. She's been staying around the 25th since she was born, but I think she dropped a little because of the Hand Foot and Mouth period where she refused to eat much for about a week. She was 29.5 inches long which was 60th percentile, and right where she's been the whole time.

She really loves table food, and just today was helping herself to what was on my plate at lunch. She really doesn't like to be fed I think, which is why she's not big on baby food or anything she can't pick up herself.

She has started wrinkling her nose when she smiles at someone showing her third little tooth that has just sprouted on the top right. I suspect that has been the culprit of some of her recent fussiness, including her birthday weekend, so maybe she's feeling better now.

Her two favorite foods are green beans and watermelon, hands down, she'll eat those anytime anywhere.

She's doing really well with a sippy and now serves herself. She likes milk a lot!

She pulls up every chance she gets and she's trying to walk. She can even push her little stroller around. I don't think it will be too much longer!

Memorial Weekend

There is no exclamation point at the end of that title for a reason. Our weekend was not the best. In case you haven’t noticed, I really don’t like to talk about negative things on here, mainly because this is a place for me to document the things I want to remember about this time in our lives, not so much the things I don’t want to remember. I am thankful for the good times as well as the bad (because I know they could be so much worse), I just don’t like dwelling on the negative.

That being said, here goes, the weekend was going fine until Sunday afternoon as we were leaving the zoo. In an effort to make the weekend special, we decided to pack up and head to the zoo Sunday morning, even though the kids didn’t wake up until about 9 that morning. It was 11 by the time we got out. We had fun at the zoo, but didn’t realize it was getting late and hot, and it was Sunday and Homewood shuts down on Sundays. So, it took us a while, but we finally settled on eating at Whole Foods. We picked up some Wendy’s chicken nuggets and fries for Z, but he was not too interested (should’ve been our first clue). We forced him to eat some and went on. We could tell he wasn’t feeling well and then to spare the details, we’ll just say he got sick twice when we got home that evening. It was terrible. I HATED seeing my baby like that.

Because I feel there is no sense letting a 3 year old get sick all night long, I cut a phenergan suppository in half and gave it to him. He was so sweet and patient and listened to me and Nick as we kept telling him to “hold it in.” By the time it dissolved he was half asleep and he never got sick again. We are all still recovering (especially Nick who was sick the whole next day after being in the line of fire the day before), but thankfully we are all doing a little better and praying for a better weekend to come.

Z has already forgotten about it, but I’m afraid it may take me awhile to get over it. I am an emetophobe anyway (a term I ironically learned about the night before the incident), so I was definitely traumatized seeing him go through it. As much as I fear it, I would have gladly been the one to be sick if it would have spared him!

Okay, enough about that. I think the weekend leading up to it was pretty nice. We grilled steaks and had corn and baked potatoes on Saturday night. Z watch Star Wars and played some Xbox with Nick, both of which he loved! And we had some great QT with little Lu, who was (thankfully) feeling great all weekend. She couldn’t understand why we are all so pale and sad looking!

We were really excited about the dino exhibit at the zoo, but Z was terrified! I have to admit they were pretty big and real looking. But, I sure didn’t need to pay 16 bucks to terrify my 3 year old!

At least Lu didn’t mind them, until they started roaring

Butterflies, much better!

Soccer Star

This past Sunday, we wrapped up the Spring season of Sunday Soccer (that’s a lot of alliteration!). I had high hopes for Z to be a soccer prodigy really excel in soccer, which unfortunately did not come to fruition (yet). But he did have a lot of fun this time, and he was a lot more interested, that didn’t translate to much as he made contact with the ball exactly 5 very few times the whole season, but it’s something.

A couple of times, when he came out he was asking to go back in, and every time he did kick the ball, you would have thought he scored the game winning goal…

His cheerleading section sure looked cute! Even though Miss Priss is obviously giving someone a look in this picture.

I won’t be opening any baby photography studios anytime soon if this picture is an indication. It’s hard to get three babies to look at you at the same time unless you’re acting like a total crazy person (like mom, she’s got that crazy person thing down, babies love to look at her).

Speaking of Miss Priss, she is becoming more than just a little spoiled. She has been fussing a lot lately just so you will pick her up, and the minute you do, she’s fine. She especially knows her daddy will pick her up, so she lays it on thick when he’s around!

We had a great season, and Z was happy to get his trophy (and cookie) at the end.

No soccer star here, but he sure does look cute.