Chicago, that toddlin' town

Do you know that Sinatra song? It's a great one! Well we took on Chicago last weekend to pay homage to our previous stomping ground and as one last family hurrah before the baby comes. Oh and Brian played a concert with the S. L. orchestra downtown. Elliott and I flew in earlier so we could hang with some great friends and go to our old ward in Hyde Park. It really brought back a lot of great memories to go to church there, my first ward as a newly married person. It's just such a special place. On Monday we visited Roosevelt U., our alma mater, to sit in on some private lessons our old horn teacher was giving. For us it's the musical equivalent of general conference. =) We ate at the Bongo Room, the best breakfast place of all time and at Portillo's, our favorite Chicago hot dog place. Brian ate Baos, a steamed Chinese bun, at Wow Bao's-he really loves them! And I drank a Large Dunkin Donuts hot chocolate all by myself. It's the best. I bought expensive, wonderful shampoo at the C.O. Bigelow store in the water tower plaza. We got a steal of deal on a hotel with this view:



That was the great part of our trip. The problem was, Elliott was sick with a cold/getting over his cold and the terrible twos hit while we were there. It was so emotionally draining. We didn't know Elliott could act that bad. If I would have known he was going to be that bad, we wouldn't have gone. And that's saying something cause I would pretty much never give up something like that. I mean screaming tantrums, inconsolable, unbribe-able, prostrating himself on the floor of packed elevators with onlookers thinking they're having another one and they can't control this one?!, screaming until he coughed until he threw up while we were trying to get on the subway, refusing to wear his hat or mittens in wind chill factors in the teens, having a meltdown because I forced him to wear pants, socks, and shoes outside, screaming to the point of exhaustion so that he finally fell asleep in the stroller walking down busy, noisy State Street, dragging his feet under the stroller making it nearly imposssible to push and tearing up his shoes in the process. I'm sure one day we'll laugh about it but man, we have never been that frustrated with him.

All his wailing took my mind off how uncomfortable I was waddling around. One of my favorite hugely pregnant moments was on a bus when a sweet older woman said to me, "You're about ready." "Well I wish, but I have 6 more weeks to go," I told her. She replied, "Nope, I don't think you do." Or there was the time my old professor saw me in the hallway and said, "You're about to EXPLODE!" Sigh. He always did have a way with words...

A happy moment at the Shedd Aquarium, playing in a canoe with Daddy!

It's nice to be home. Elliott is coming around to his old self again. And now I'm just constantly saying things to myself like, "Thanksgiving, then Brian's birthday, then before we know it, it will be Christmas and then I won't have to be pregnant anymore." 33 days, just in case you were wondering since I never put the freaky floating fetus counter on my blog. =)