I forgot something that I really wanted to add, but already saw that Law Student Hot Mama was up late and already commented…

On Monday, Cooper was very cranky…especially in the evening.  I finally realized that really missed Gavin, so I pulled up some videos of Gavin we have on YouTube so that he could see his big brother.  These were his favorites and made him smile and laugh the most:

Alright…goodnight!

Okay, so now that I’ve drawn this out forever…

Monday–We get up and Mom, Cooper, and I go over to my aunt’s house to spend a little more time with her, my cousin, and the kids (and for me to shout exiting orders to that baby in the belly…STILL in there, as of this post).  We just sat and chatted while Mom and I laughed at the kids bickering (they were tired), and then all four of us adults just sat around on the floor with Cooper while the two older kids napped.

After a few hours, we drove back to Mom’s and waited for my brothers, Jeremy and Doug, to stop by to see Cooper one last time (or for the first time, in Doug’s case) before we left.  Mom was good and took pictures…I was bad and forgot.  If she ever emails them to me, I’ll be sure to post.  My brothers left and I put Cooper down, then watched a little TV with Mom.  Cooper wanted to make sure his grandparents didn’t forget him and got up at 4-something screaming for a bottle, again.

Tuesday–We’re up and at ‘em early, getting ourselves out the door to catch our plane back to DC.  We give my Mom a million hugs in the freezing, windy, 35-degree weather, check the bags, and run into the building.  We get through security even easier than a few days before (Midway had more lanes open than Dulles did), and walk around in the over-priced shops before going to our gate…where we seem to be missing a plane.  We stroll around some more, then I finally give up and just sit and sit and sit.  Plane finally shows up (and um, they refuse to tell us where it’s been, all late, running with that rowdy crowd), folks get off and we hustle on there. 

Once we’re at cruising altitude, we’re told we will more than make up our 40-minute delay because we have a very helpful 145mph tailwind that will shoot us into DC right on time.  So we land a couple minutes early and then wait AN HOUR for our bags.  You’d swear that the bags were on a different plane that didn’t have the benefit of the tailwind.   Unfortunately, this is always the case with Dulles.  So consider yourself warned if you fly into there…they take forever to get bags out…although that is my only gripe about that airport…everything else is really good and efficient.

Justin greets us at baggage, and when we finally get the bags, we haul ourselves out to the car, pick up Gavin (who barely acknowledged me, but was happy to see Justin and Cooper), then run to The Best Target in the World so that I can get a new hairdryer:

Ladies, this would be the Conair Infiniti Cord-Keeper Tourmaline Ceramic Ionic Hair Styler.  I used to have an ionic dryer and this one completely blows it away…my hair’s dry in about 1/2 the time it was with the old dryer…and this one’s lighter, quieter, and it’s got a fun little button to zip up the cord!  I am usually a very cheap thrifty shopper, but I thought I’d splurge a little and snapped this puppy up for about $35.  I’m glad I did…it was worth the money.

So we’re finally home and we fell right into our usual routine again.  We put the kids to bed and HALLELUJAH! that child chirped a bit in his sleep a few times, but he SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT.  And has done so every night since!!!!  WEEEEEEEEEE!

Crap.  I probably just ruined it, huh?

The continuing saga…

Saturday–My mom invited my aunts and uncles and associated cousins to come by the house to hang out, meet Cooper, and have some food.  Oh, and ooh-and-awww at her kitchen that my uncle and aunt remodeled.  Since I suck and didn’t actually get pics of the kitchen itself, you will have to look past my family stuffing their faces to see the new cabinets, stone tile backsplash, granite counters, fresh paint, lighting, and laminate floors.

My parents have been in this house for 15 years and the kitchen was out-of-date then.  Think dingy-blue commercial carpet, tacky and peeling wallpaper and border, white formica counters (that marked up even with opening a can of corn!), and dark dark dark obviously faux-walnut cabinets (they actually looked more like MDF covered in contact paper even darker than this).  My mom just finally replaced her microwave from 1986 (no friggin’ joke…it’s the one featured in the “trapped Cooper” photos) and put the new one above her stove to open up a bit more counterspace.  She also has a pull-out garbage can hidden in a cabinet drawer, which cleared up some floorspace for her to create a taller pantry-style cabinet so she can quit keeping half her food in the hall linen closet.  It’s gorgeous, long overdue, and I kinda wanted to sleep in there with the dog (If you live in the Chicagoland area and want to see more work that my aunt and uncle have done, click on the link above or the one on the side —–> for Gallery Designs & Remodeling LTD.  The project labled “Kitchen-MLH” is one from their previous home which is actually part of “General Contracting-LH”.  At least you know they are willing to live with their own designs and handiwork!  They actually have better pics of my mom’s kitchen but they’re just not up yet).

Okay, so um…off that tanget.   I got ready, and while drying my hair, my hair dryer decided make the lights in the bathroom dim a few times and then the motor on the hair dryer started shrieking like some sort of angry, possessed weed-wacker.  It was awful!  I turned it off, turned it back on, and still the shrieking.  Ran into the kitchen, set it on the table and informed my mom I needed her hair dryer.  My parents didn’t believe me that the dryer was shrieking, so I gave them a quick demo.  My stepdad immediately brought it out to the trash and I ran willy-nilly to go use mom’s dryer so that I didn’t have half my head styled and the other half all stringy and crunchy from product and no style.

So a few of my aunts and uncles and cousins came over for a few hours, and after impressing everyone with his Kabelis lungs (read: excruciating, mind-numbingly loud) and his Rummel temper (sorry, but he’s got Justin’s short short fuse), Cooper charmed them with his big smiles and dimples.  I also got to spend some time with my godchildren, Becca and Mitch (my cousin’s children) and got to demand to the baby-on-the-way to show up “very soon”, perferably while I was there.  As usual, the baby did not listen since my cousin is currently 39 weeks and 3 days along (and she has a vicious doctor that won’t just induce her already, even though this is baby #3).  I had a great time with my family and bravely endured all the “so when are you moving back” questions.  I even got to hear some really funny stories about my grandparents and my aunts’/uncle’s/mom’s childhood.

Cooper, so excited about everyone and everything, thought he’d relive the fun and adventure and got up at 11pm, 12:30am, 1:30am (which is when I dragged him into bed with me), and then demanded food at 3:30am (can’t say I blame him, after I have a late night partying, I usually want food around 3am or so).

Sunday–My dad picked me and Cooper up in the morning and we drove up to his place on the west side to visit with him and my stepmom.  For lunch we ordered Portillo’s where I got a yummy Italian beef sandwich, which I can’t seem to get anywhere in DC.  Falafal, yes; Italian beef, no.  *sigh*  Just for the record, in case any of you care or even know what I’m talking about, I got a dry cheesy beef with gravy (au jou, really) on the side.  I can’t have a wet sandwich unless I’m eating it within 30 seconds after they pour on the gravy.  And just, yum.  We also talked about family stories on Dad’s side…like my great-grandparents I can barely remember, and sharing what info I found on ancestry.com, etc.

While at Dad’s, we found out that, unlike Gavin*, Cooper is NOT afraid of Tickle Me Elmo, and in fact, LOVES Tickle Me Elmo.  Of course the pics and video don’t do it justice…but he was just laughing his head off at Elmo, chirping at him, trying to get Elmo to respond to him.  And yes, that is a vintage Elmo, circa 1998.  Guess I’ve got his birthday gift picked out!

I realized that after all my belly-aching and obsessing over the closing of St. Francis Hospital that I never actually shared with my adoring public the details of my trip to the Windy City.

Thursday–after fighting rush-hour traffic made worse by the rain, Justin got Cooper and I to the airport, where I wisely checked my bags and his carseat at the curb (there was a healthy line inside at the ticket counter).  Strapped the kid into the stroller and jogged to security because we were kinda pushing it.  I mean, not to brag, but I can get through security with a non-standing baby, stroller, diaper bag, purse, baby blanket (can’t fit in diaper bag), baby jacket, and my coat, faster than many other travelers there who are traveling on their own or with another adult.  Once, when flights were cheap and I was WAY more homesick, we flew a LOT.  Gavin was on a plane by the time he was 6 weeks old.  This was Cooper’s first flight.  Felt a bit deficient as a parent. :)  But we got through security without a hitch, got to our gate, fed Cooper his jar of breakfast, changed his diaper, and waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Turns out Southwest airlines was trying to fix a broken bulb somewhere in the inner-cockles of the plane.  Took them an hour.  Oh, and instead of being able to pre-board since I was traveling with a child 4 years or under, I had to wait and do “Family boarding” after Group-A…the BS explanation I got was that there were people who opted to pay more to be in boarding group A, and supposedly these new boarding rules went into effect in November.  I know this is total BS because when I bought my ticket on March 1st, I was not offered the chance to squander more money for the sake of getting boarded first.

The flight itself went great and Cooper was tremendously well-behaved.  I gave him a bit of a bottle and forced him to snooze, which lasted a whole 40 minutes.  Thankfully we landed shortly thereafter…got off the plane, waited a little too long for our luggage, watched the snow falling while waiting for the luggage, griped with my mom about the rude traveler in the row ahead of me, then we finally got our bags, loaded up the car and set off for Mom’s house. 

On the way, I asked her to just stop “anywhere” because I was starved.  I spied a Brown’s Chickenand hollared, “in there!  in there!  Brown’s!  Brown’s!”  Man, did I miss that chicken and cheesy potatoes…yum!  I’m considering opening my own Brown’s franchise, except that I might eat all my profits.

We got to the house, dropped off the luggage, bothered my brother, Jeremy, a few minutes, then loaded up the baby and headed out to the grocery store.  Afterwards, we grabbed my brother and all of us went to Pepe’s.  Since this was Cooper’s first visit to Pepe’s, I made sure to document it.  Doesn’t he look ecstatic?  Maybe if I allowed him to have the Chili con Caso or my yummy enchilada suizas he’d be happier.

Once back at Mom’s, got Cooper ready for bed and he graciously slept the whole night.  I thought I’d hug him to death out of sheer gratitude for getting a full night’s rest after a day of traveling and running around.

Friday–Everyone in the house had to work…Mom, my stepdad, and my brother.  So it was just me and Coop hanging out.  I took a shower and stupidly thought I’d shave my legs (I was to the point where my socks itched).  I forgot that I have been spoiled by a nice ladies razor since college, but only brought a “lady bic” shaver in my bag.  Bad idea.  I nearly severed my right leg at my ankle, and in an attempt to not sever my left ankle, I instead nearly severed my left leg at the knee.  I totally forgot how you can bleed like a stuck pig for three days after those kinds of razor injuries!

After my blood-letting, Cooper and I hung out with Mom’s little dog, Chaz, and ooh’d and aww’d at her marvelous kitchen.  He also tried crawling, but only managed to commando-crawl backwards and get himself wedged in-between the piano and a microwave (um, my brother was in the process of moving…they don’t usually keep kitchen appliances next to musical instruments).  And since I’m such a stellar mother, I made sure to take pictures:

Mom got home a little before dinner.  We ate, watched a little TV, then went to bed.  Cooper slept the whole night again.

Keep an eye out for our next installment of the Chicago trip…when I have time after cleaning, showering, and going to a birthday party for our little friend, Peyton.