A Special Day for ME!

So Robby planned a special day for me for my birthday—and it was to take place in July. He said it was a getaway and he had arranged for his mom to watch Kylan.

Poor Rob—I then started getting finicky the beginning of July. After the poison ivy outbreak and the steroids, I just wasn’t into going out. Not to mention, with this pregnancy I often have days where I just want to stay at home and sit on the couch with a good book (not that I can find the time to do so.) So I was real wish washy with Rob on whether or not I wanted to go. One minute I would say yes, the next minute I would say no. Poor guy—little did I know the real plans I was making.

Anyway, so I finally said okay (at the very last minute of course) and off we went to Chicago. I volunteered to drive (dumb me) so Rob could do some homework on the journey. Once we hit the Illinois border we got stuck in traffic. They narrowed I-94 to one lane! Can you believe that! Okay preggo-hormonal lady who needs to pee is stuck in traffic! Argh—not a good start to this get-away. I think I handled the situation pretty well though---until the pigeon incident.

We are finally in downtown Chicago looking for our parking garage when this dumb pigeon refuses to move out of the road. I have to slam on my brakes. You are a city pigeon! Don’t you know that these large moving vehicles can turn your fluffy feathers into a pigeon pancake? Yeah…there was some cursing and yelling. Hey! I am hormonal and I have to pee.

So we park under Millennium Park and Rob tells me there are potties there. Now I am a woman with a mission. I take off. And almost walk past my best friend Liz and her husband Adam. It turns out that Rob has actually arranged a weekend for me to meet up with her. (Liz lives in Indy by the way—so I don’t get to see her very often.) So then I start crying—hormonal—remember?! Wow did he really surprise me. And poor Liz and Adam and Rob—one day I was saying sure I will go on this trip—the next I was saying no.

Okay so after some tears—I quickly explained I needed a restroom and off we went. BTW—since we have been talking about hormones and tears I would like to take a minute to say that I have enjoyed the experience of being a more emotional person. I know this sounds odd—but I also realize that all my hormonal emotions will soon be leaving (at least I am assuming) once the baby is born. I think that by being affected by things so easily has really gotten me to take the time to think about life a little more. It is sad when so many of us walk through each day without noticing the little things. Or when we are so numbed by our own problems or life that we don’t see or feel when other people are hurting. Yes I have cried at commercials. Shouldn’t we all? The news really affects me right now—so I really have to be careful how much I watch—but shouldn’t our hearts all be reaching to the people in these stories? It also reminds me of the innocence our own children have. They have not (or should not have been) exposed to much of the violence or sadness in our world—therefore, why shouldn’t they cry when they can’t have ANOTHER piece of candy. I am happy that that is the worst thing that can happen to my child right now. It also reminds me that I need to continue to protect him from the world until he is ready to handle it. Yup—my tv is off most of the day. Ky’s enjoyment is Thomas or Signing Time—and the newly introduced Potty Power video. (We are potty training today—I will let you know how that goes in the next blog.)

Alright alright—enough profound thinking…back to the blog.

So we hung out at Millennium Park for just a short time. I think we were really just trying to figure out our plans for the day. The fountains there are really cool! They have images of people (famous in Chicago) and every now and then the people spit on you! How fun is that!

So we decided to get some ice cream at another nearby famous park and then to check-in to our hotel. Yeah—bad memory. I don’t remember the name of the ice cream place or the famous park. But I do remember that “While you were sleeping” was filmed at this park. (You may recognize it from the pics above). I had yummy strawberry Sundae. BTW—one of my cravings has been cookie dough ice cream with fruit topping. Robby thinks its weird—I say yum! We took some nice pics at the fountain and caught up with what we had been doing and then took off to our hotel. (Boy I wish I could remember more—I guess this is what happens when you blog 1.5 months later…but to be honest—I had already started this blog and then blogger lost it—so this is my second attempt at it! That’s also why my pics are out of order---right now I am not going to mess with blogger with fear it will mess with me!)

So we checked in at our hotel which was right downtown as well and next to the “L”. I was very excited to get to ride it later. I have never ridden the “L” before. Our hotel room was really cool! It was a suite—and we didn’t ask for one! If I remembered the name of the hotel I would also write that down—Rob—HELP! This pregnancy memory is really bad---you should see all the lists I have so I don’t forget things!
Anyway—so after stopping at our hotel we then walked to Dave & Busters. I was excited---this was another thing I have always wanted to do (and Rob remembered!) So Dave & Busters is basically an arcade for adults. They have all sorts of games (including Skee Ball) and a bar and restaurant. The other cool thing is that many of the games have service switches. So if you are in the middle of a really great game and are thinking “I could use a Vodka & Tonic (not that anyone at Dave & Busters would actually drink that!) you could just hit your little service switch and minutes later you have a waiter/waitress at your side. How cool is that! Of course being preggo I couldn’t take advantage of it—but I enjoyed watching others do it!

So the walk to Dave & Busters took much longer than we anticipated—but we were good to go. We did make a decision that we wouldn’t be walking back to our hotel though.

Mike-Liz’s brother met up with us at D&B’s. That was really cool! I haven’t seen him in years. He now works and lives in downtown Chicago close to Wrigley field. And let me just say Mike is like everyone’s brother. (Oh yeah!—in high school Liz and I always made sure to pick on Mike whenever he was in the room. You know—one of those little brothers!)

So we had a good dinner (and my goodness this blog is getting long—I better try to wrap it up or blogger might deny this entry as well!) and then went to play games. I was all over Skee Ball. They also had Trivial Pursuit which was fun—I actually won a round! And I never win Trivial Pursuit! Adam & Mike discovered a game where you sat in a red bubble and battled intergalactic forces—that was fun to watch—I personally was afraid of the red bubble. We also did some shooting games. I attempted to hunt deer---and well quickly learned that hunting was not a hobby for me. I think the deer were laughing at me as I left.

OOOH—and there was also the wall of gum balls that we all took advantage of. Rob being the big kid he is wanted one from the GIANT GUM BALL Machine. And yeah—it took a lot of work before he was even able to bite into it. That was pretty funny!
So after D & B’s we took the “L” home! Yeah “L”! And went to bed. The next morning we were up bright and early to catch breakfast with Liz & Adam before we all headed our separate ways.

We ate breakfast at a famous place downtown (of course I don’t remember the name!) where they give you donut holes as you wait for your meal! YUM! They also give ladies and kids candy! I got Milk Duds. It is a tiny diner just crammed with people—but they had good food! I got pancakes, Rob got an omelet (our usual affair) and we shared. They screwed up a little bit of our orders, but you can’t complain when the food is good and you have already gotten good free stuff.

After breakfast it was back on the “L” for us. We then dropped Liz & Adam off at their brothers’ so they could begin their journey home. Rob and I then went North to the botanical gardens (of course I don’t remember the name!) just north of Chicago. Of course we got a little lost on the way—but it was all a part of the journey. The gardens were beautiful. You can see many of my pics above. So many different flowers and plants! The gardens were also split up into themes. They had one place called Spider Island—which had poison ivy on it…Yeah we left that one pretty quick. I have had enough poison ivy for the next 10 years.

After the gardens we then went to another local place—of course known for ice cream. I had the Wild Berry ice cream—which had four different types of berries in it! It was good….BTW—I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but Rob and I have a goal when we go on trips. It is to find local homemade ice cream and sample it (since we are such big ice cream fanantics.) So we actually do take the time to research these places out on our travels. It is fun. Everyone should have a goal like this!

So that was my big Chicago weekend. Thank you so much for my present Robby! It was the best! I love you Liz! I am so glad we got to spend time together! Chicago! What a great halfway point!
Anyways—just a few Ky stories…

Kylan recently gave me a new way to look at a carrot. He bit through one and then looked at it and said “Look Mom! A circle!” He then continued to examine the carrot and said “It’s the sun!” Sure enough when I looked at it, I also saw the sun.

Ky is also really on top of learning his letters. He recognizes about 2/3 of the letters. He also is getting really good at learning the sounds the letters make. For example, the other day we were looking at the letter “X” and I told him X is for X-ray. He then said to me “and for eXercise!” What a smart kid! He identified the sound and put it in another word! Yes I will tell you that my child is a genius.

Hey I forgot to mention Abe! Yes--you do see a picture of Abe Lincoln and his wife! I guess they were making a special appearance in Chicago. The funny thing is---Liz used to work with him! HA HA!