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Chicago, Part 1

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. πŸ™‚  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. You can click here to learn more about it.  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.

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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:

I’m Stuck

stuck

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.

About the Author

Colleen

This is a blog where I will share my adventures and mundane tasks as a work-out-of-home-mom. I now have 2 kids and my wonderful husband, so the juggling has gotten a little bit more tricky (man-on-man defense). We also have 2 dogs and 3 cats (we used to have 4) so as you can imagine, our household is pretty busy. Since I never feel like I'm being listened to, I figured I'll just start talking at the general Internet community and see what happens.

12 Comments

Colleen

Flea, I wouldn’t doubt it…as you can probably guess, that child has never said “no” to anything I’ve put near his mouth.
Hot Mama, Believe me, it has been a bit of an anomoly for him to sleep through the night. Suffice it to say that I usually stuff him full of dinner within an inch of his life, then follow about an hour later with a bottle (or in your case, a boob), before tossing him in bed. But I’ve got Coop on a lot of solids (er, purees) now. How he’s not bigger, I don’t understand, since he eats nearly twice what Gavin did at that age (though not quite as big as your cutie Sumo Baby). But this afternoon I did come to the realization that we might have to scoot up to size 4 diapers. *sigh* Gavin wasn’t in size 4’s until he was 2 yrs old.

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LaskiGal

Oh boy . . . I don’t miss the plane rides to and from Chic town . . . and I didn’t even have a baby then–KUDOS to you!!!

Cooper is a month older than J–J still wakes up to two times a night. Hmmm…may have to consider stuffing him a bit more (I actually think I don’t feed him enough–great mom, eh?).

Used to live in River Forest (attended school there) and then later in Bartlett. Heard of either???

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Burgh Baby

He slept through the night just to screw with you. I bet big bucks he didn’t on your first night home, thereby causing you to try to get back into the regular routine while sleep-deprived. Kids are evil like that.

Alexis has been wearing size 4 diapers since she was 10 months old. She probably needs moved to 5’s, but I refuse on the grounds that she just needs to potty train already and get over her diapered self.

Glad you had a great trip, and can’t wait to hear about the rest of it!

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Colleen

LaskiGal…yep, my dad used to live in Berwyn, so I was in River Forest plenty of times; Bartlett however, not as much…I just know it’s up north. I grew up on the far-south side: Riverdale, South Holland, etc.
BBM…not to make you cry, but you may need to wait a little longer…at least till she’s closer to three. Break out those coupons for the size 5’s! πŸ™‚

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Maya

Oh how I love that you too take photos of your son stuck before removing him!!! πŸ™‚

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Jesse

Great pics! Hope you’re enjoying our fair city πŸ™‚ And please, be careful with your razors and appendages!!! πŸ˜› (Of course, I have lost many a pint of blood the same way)

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ascapecodturns

Going home is always nice, isn’t it? I have done the same to myself with the disposable razors. Why can’t a company improve on the disp. ones like they do the regular ones?

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Chicago, Part 2 | Wine Please

[…] 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.Β  She also has a […]

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