Chicago!

Our trip began early Friday morning and made pretty good time. Lucy did well most of the trip but the last hour or so needed a change so I started driving while Craig went to the back to play and read to her.

This change of scenery for her worked great except for one thing. It meant I was driving the last few miles of the trip – in downtown Chicago! I’m not a bad driver but I’m not always very confident and there was a  lot of traffic, both cars and pedestrian, not to mention construction going on right in front of the hotel. I missed the valet station the first time and had to circle around again. It was incredible stressful and I practically needed to change my shirt when we got there but we all survived and I only got yelled at once.

Once we got in, we let Lucy have some downtime in our room then popped her in the Ergo and headed out for the Sears Willis tower.

But on our way to had to stop and show Lucy the pigeon. Could we be more tourist? But she loves the pigeon books and she enjoyed watching them for a minute so I don’t care.

This was the one thing I really wanted to do but honestly, I wasn’t sure how much it would hold Lucy’s attention. Turns out, she loved it.

 

She kept pointing out the window and signing “bug,” not quite sure why – perhaps everything looked bug-sized?

  Towards the end she started to get fussy but the Ergo was great since she could nurse without my having to find a seat (because there aren’t any!). Then we did the unthinkable. We put her on a leash! We had been given a monkey backpack leash a while back and this was its inaugural use. My pre-mom self would be shocked at this and I don’t think we’ll be using it that much, but for this situation, it worked. 

After that, she did okay until we were waiting to go out onto the clear platform. Craig didn’t really want to but I was brave and Lucy was oblivious so we waited, or tried to wait. She didn’t grasp the concept of waiting in line.   She threw a huge fit but as soon as we got out there, she relaxed.

If you watch the Duggars, you’ll know that one of the older girls had a lot of trouble with this platform and I understand why now. It’s scarier than I thought it would be. I didn’t stay there long at all!

It was only about 4:30 by the time we left the tower but right next door was Giordanos Pizza which was personally recommended to me by a friend who used to live in Chicago. Even with us being there so early, we had to wait 40 minutes for our pizza. 40 minutes is like an eternity in toddler/restaurant time.  But Lucy did amazing. One thing that really helped was the group sitting next to us, they were a guide dog raising organization so under the table were about 5 sleeping golden retriever puppies. Cute and entertaining! Between that, a packet of applesauce and a couple of walks up and down the bathroom hall, we not only survived but had a delightful evening (and allowed others to have theirs as well :-). And the pizza was worth the wait, it was so good. We weren’t the only ones to think so, by the time we left, the line to get into the restaurant was getting pretty long so I was very thankful we had gotten there so early.

The next morning, we got up nice and early and went to explore the parks next to the hotel. We thought about going to the Navy Pier but didn’t want to take Lucy in a cab without a car seat. I know it is legal but too scary for a first time mom. This ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip anyway. 8am on a Saturday morning is a nice quite time in Chicago apparently, we only saw a handful of people and it was nice calm way to start the day.

 

We got her a new stroller (Macleran Volo) and this was our first time testing it out. I didn’t like our old one at all and neither did she but this one is awesome. She just sat back with her sippy and enjoyed the sites of the fountains and “wildlife” like pigeons, seagulls, bunnies and squirrels.

Of course, just because we’re the parents shouldn’t mean we do all the work. She had to do her fair share of pushing our stuff around. Here she is “building her character”

Next up was Millenium Park. We were waiting for a children’s festival to open but on our way found Cloud Gate. It wasn’t on our agenda, we aren’t big modern art folks and I didn’t really get it, but I’m so glad we didn’t miss it. It’s a toddlers dream. She had a blast running around and looking at herself.

   

And it was kind fun trying to get a picture of ourselves and the skyline. I might have to post the “outakes” later.

We spent a little bit of time at the kid’s festival but she was getting really tired so we ducked out early and went back to the hotel for some downtime before we checked out. But the fun wasn’t over yet!