Ada's First Cultural Lesson

Being an educator all his life, it's in Bobpa's blood to make sure Ada learned something during her time in Lake Geneva. What better way to learn than with some Saturday morning cartoons......en Espanol!

Apparently, he also taught her a new game involving her silky pajama pants that somehow makes the leather couch into a sort of slide. Never a dull moment.

Moral of the story: An opportunity to enhance a child's learning should never be overlooked. Even if it isn't in their native tongue.

A Windy Easter Sunday

The final leg of Ada's whirlwind weekend with Grandparents was a trip back into the city for Sunday Brunch. DD brought her back in our car and Bobpa lead in his car so they'd have transportation home. It worked out quite nicely for us since we didn't have to go anywhere and just had to give up our car for a few days. Thankfully we have public transit.

As with any trip home for Ada, the first half hour is spent unloading all of her loot. Somehow, she's got these grandparents all suckered into buying her cute things. They justify it by this being a holiday and Spring and she's outgrowing her Winter wardrobe. I think they forget that I have 1050sf and only one room of that belongs to Ada--and will soon be shared with her little brother-to-be.
This time her loot included new clothes, three new pairs of shoes, socks, an unidentified stuffed animal, Easter baskets, an Easter hat, dress, and sweater, a book, a coloring book, candy, a Spring jacket, and surely a few things I've forgotten.

Since it was such a nice day, we decided to walk to the restaurant, Mon Ami Gabi, across from the Lincoln Park Conservatory. Ada again got a good deal since she only had to walk a few blocks and then hopped into her awaiting chariot, chauffeured by Bobpa.

Lunch was nice, minus the micro burst tornadoes that carried away our menus, broke drinking glasses, stole my napkin, took Ada's masterful artwork and crayons several tables away and tried to steal Bobpa's jacket from the back of his chair three times. It was really windy and the wind block on the fence couldn't stop the powerful swirls that kept us on edge waiting for the next burst to blow our meals away. At least the food was good and the rest of the family enjoyed the bloody mary bar so that made up for the wind, mostly.

After several attempts, I was able to get in this decent photo of Ada's Easter dress and hat. Don't look too closely or you might notice the 12 inch stripes of blue crayon she added to make it her own. I'm not ruling out a career in fashion design in her future just yet...

The walk home was a windy one, but Ada didn't seem to mind... until she got to the corner and ran out of energy.

Bobpa kept her from blowing away and tucked her into the stroller for the trek home. Not surprisingly, she passed out on the way.

Moral of the story: It's hard work being spoiled, but well worth it for everyone involved.

Hoppy Easter

Ah...
So smart of me to ship Ada to the Grandparents' for the weekend.

It took a ton of coordination (okay, an hour maybe), but boy was it worth it.

A huge thanks to Great Aunt Terri for driving Ada out to Sycamore and for signing songs to her until she passed out at Rt 59. (I'm not sure who had more fun. Terri was pretty excited...maybe she always wanted a little girl???)

Another huge thanks goes to Grandma Ba and Grandpa Rich for swooping her up and entertaining her for day one. Rumor has it that Ada had fun testing out the cushions on the couch shopping trip. And her Easter egg hunt at home prepared her for the real deal Saturday morning in Lake Geneva. She had to show those Wisconsin Cheeseheads how it's done.

My only question is...who is the yellow animal in the green dress? I know it's a character from a Dr. Seuss book and it came from Kohl's, but I can't find a name of the thing for the life of me. I think it's a bird of some sort, so she remains nameless...
And a final big thanks goes to DD and Bobpa for venturing to Lake Geneva with a two-year-old in tow. Not an easy feat, but one they made look super easy (which secretly enrages me since Ada's been such a little devil for me lately and she got rave reviews from all of the grandparents, including being referred to as an "angel". Is it possible that they are blinded by love?)
In Bobpa's house, you can't go Easter Egg hunting on an empty stomach. Turns out Ada likes his cooking (and I think he likes cooking for her, too.)

After a rain delay in the park and relocation of the big event to the dry indoors, DD, Bobpa and Ada arrived just in time for the hunt to begin. Somehow, DD rigged it so Ada got in with the "Under 2" category and could dominate the competition with her 3 month age advantage and towering size. She came out with 5 eggs, 2 of which she shared with a little boy who had none. That's the spirit DD! Get her nice and rich and teach her how to donate to the less fortunate. Now all she needs is the "Future Philanthropist" bumper sticker on her tri-cycle.

I'd say the hunt was a huge success since one of the eggs had a coupon for a free treat from Culver's inside. Lucky duck.

Then there was the photo opp with her newest furry friend. This is also DD's maiden voyage with my camera so I have to give her credit for getting it in focus and not cutting Ada's head off. She gets a B+ for her first attempt.

All in all not a bad 2 days for Ada.

Rick and I on the other hand...I guess it really isn't the other hand if we had fun too. We had our first date in months as we kissed Ada goodbye and wished her well on her Easter adventure. Thursday night was an average dinner at a local pub and early to bed. Friday I got a ton of work done, and laundry too. I met up with Rick and his co-workers downtown for happy hour at the Lakefront Brewery Rooftop. His thoughtful co-workers found me a chair since they felt bad for the preggo having to stand at a bar drinking lemon water as they partook in the local fare. So sweet of them.

Then we went for a fabulous dinner at La Scarola, an Italian family restaurant on Grand near Halstead. I had the best Sea Bass I've ever eaten. So delicious. And then we came home and grabbed a slice of banana chocolate cake from the Bagel Deli near our house and nursed that over the next 3 days whenever my sweet-tooth craving kicked in.

Saturday we went to breakfast at a local diner on Clark (The Golden Nugget) that was AWFUL. So beyond bad we should have just left. At least now we know better. It was rainy and I wanted to try something new, but close since we didn't have a car. That was our best solution as I thought a friend had recommended it. Clearly I was imagining the recommendation. We won't make that mistake twice.

Luckily, we made up for it with a trip downtown to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland -- in 3D! I'm sad to admit, but it was our first 3D movie since the new technology has become so popular. I was shocked by the ticket prices and almost fell over at the kiosk. Yaozers! But it was worth it. We are crossing our fingers that Avatar comes back to IMAX in 3D at some point so we can see that one as it was meant to be seen since a 3D flat screen TV isn't in our near future.

My mishap of the weekend involved a bit of spilled water -- typical me. I forgot to check my SIGG bottle to be sure the lid was fastened securely inside as I filled it with water from home to take into the theater. I stuck the bottle in my purse and hopped into a cab. Poor Rick was worried my water broke in the back seat since I slid out at our destination and the seat was drenched. I quickly assured him it wasn't me, or the umbrella, but my water bottle. The contents of my purse weren't spared, including my library book and a membership application to the Shedd Aquarium (How ironic--I wonder if a place full of water would accept a wet check?). Whoops. I'll be making a donation to the Chicago Public Library here in the near future to make up for that poor book. It did air out nicely at home so it wasn't a complete loss.

And the final highlight of our weekend was a trip to a new local restaurant that knocked our socks off. Chilam Balam is a new place that opened just a few months ago and is super close to our house(yeah!/dangerous). It's BYOB. They use sustainable ingredients from local farmers=tasty. And the food is delicious -- Mexican inspired tapas. The waiters all wear t-shirts from Threadless, which happens to have its first retail store 30 feet south of the restaurant (way to support a local business!). And, of course, we had dessert. The chocolate mousse cake with some sort of creamy goat cheese inside and an orange sauce with marshmallow something on top...whatever it is, it's delicious. And I'm a fan of the virgin sangria. YUM!

Somewhere amongst all of that eating, we watched Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll admit that the critics had tempered my hopes of it being anything close to good, but I was delightfully surprise and entertained.

I also managed to get a ton of work done so I could meet my Wednesday work deadline. Whew. All in all, an awesome weekend... and we haven't even made it to Sunday yet...

Moral of the story: If you have the good fortune of loving family members nearby, bless them with your children so you can again experience freedom and maintain your sanity.

Ode to the Baby Wipe

Baby Wipe Baby Wipe
how great art thee,
taking away all the poop
and the pee.
For sticky hands
and faces,
so many uses
and places.
Baby Wipe Baby Wipe
how I love thee.

The Day Care Update

Five weeks in and we are getting encouraging reports from Ada's new day care.

The Good:
She's fitting in. She gets along well and participates in all of the activities.
She behaves well, isn't using her high-pitched squealing voice anymore, except on the indoor play area where they think she gets a little overwhelmed and excited.
She's a good eater.
It seems like drop offs and pick-ups are a bit less dramatic. Still the occasional screaming fit and the "Mommy/Daddy don't go", but we are seeing improvement.

The Bad:
She isn't really napping for very long. Maybe thirty minutes, maybe more or less depending on the day.
Her use of a big girl cup instead of a sippy cup is improving, but could be better. Same with her fork and spoon.
Somehow, she keeps blowing out her diapers during nap time. I don't understand how this is even possible since she only naps for a few minutes, but she's coming home in backup pants more frequently.

In my quest to learn more about how she is acting at day care and if they are having the same issues with diaper changes and overall whineyness that I'm having at home, I wrote a little note hoping they could answer some of my concerns. Ms. Monica, her main caretaker, took time to write back in detail and was very encouraging. Her biggest concern is the whole napping thing, or resistance to napping to be more precise. I'm trying to come up with new solutions and tricks we can try to remedy that little issue so we'll see how it goes.

I'm also trying to figure out how to change her or clean her up before I take her home for the night. Thursday, when I picked her up, I got her outside just as I realized she had a poopy diaper. Since I'm five blocks from home and coming straight from work, I never have diapers or wipes on me. I'm thinking I'll try two things. One, always check her diaper before we leave the building and ask to change it if needed. And two, putting a small bag of wipes and a few backup diapers in her bag in case we run an errand straight from day care and need to make a change along the way. I'm also going to have to just accept the fact that I should always have a small container of wipes in my purse for all of their many uses. They really do come in handy.

Moral of the story: Transitioning into a day care routine isn't easy, but can be made easier through good communication and being on the same page.

Pregnancy and the CTA

I've started to write about this before and how much I hate taking the El train when I'm pregnant during the winter because people can't tell I'm pregnant and rarely give up their seats for me. That and I have to walk up two flights of stairs or take an elevator sure to trap me until my due date, leaving me huffing and puffing or praying that the doors open when I arrive on the platform. And the whole feeling I get when the train is taking curves at speeds faster than I like just makes me think I'm going to be on the train that tips over and causes mass chaos. Will they tend to me first since I'm pregnant? Will the belly protect me from disaster? Am I more likely to be injured severely because no one gave me their seat? I'm too busy and stressed to deal with this crap.

So, I wised up and started taking the bus yesterday. It turns out, after some hunting on the CTA website, I can walk five blocks and go almost door to door with Ada's daycare instead of trekking to the El, huffing up 2 flights of stairs and being pissed that I don't get a seat. Sweet. I don't really like the bus, mainly due to all of the potholes and the jerkiness of the trip, but it is cheaper, faster, involves less walking, and doesn't involve stairs. The recording reminding passengers to give their seats up to passengers who are elderly or disabled, also includes "expectant mothers" which don't get promoted on the El. I feel like I've moved up in the transportation world just a notch.

And the CTA has a few new features that let me know when the bus will arrive at my stop so I don't have to wait so long, which I love. There is a bus tracker that works online for some routes, but I can't get my stupid blackberry to figure that out yet, and a "bus texter" feature where I can text a code and it tells me how far away the bus is from the stop. Love it.

I almost forgot to add that I really enjoy being able to thank my bus driver for the ride, too. I can say "good morning" when I get on, and "thanks" when I get off unlike having the El driver locked in a box at the front of the train with your only hope of communicating being that you accidentally hit the emergency button in the train car or happen to walk by his or her open window as they pull up to the platform. And instead of thinking the train will tip over and cause a mass catastrophe, I now dream about how, if I went into labor, the bus is already driving right by my hospital and could just run express, dumping people out that get off before the hospital so they could wait for the next bus, and taking the rest with us as they whisk me there mid-contractions. It's a much nicer daydream to have, and since the bus driver is now my friend since I said hello to him or her, it's all good. He's got my back. Ridiculous. I know.

Moral of the story: When it comes to public transit, know your options, and keep them open.

Thank Goodness for Family Nearby

I've been so burned out this past 2 weeks since I got back from Minneapolis that I just needed some time to catch up... on sleep, housework, work, relaxation, and just un-bury myself. I'm writing this at 3 am so the sleep thing isn't working yet, but I'm optimistic.

In my burnout mode today at work, I figured out a way to have Rick's Aunt take Ada and our car out to Sycamore (she works downtown and commutes via the train usually) for the weekend. Ada's spending the night with Rick's parents, then going to see my mom and dad tomorrow to spend the weekend with them in Lake Geneva, and driving our car back here on Sunday for Easter brunch. I get 2 days of peace and quiet to get stuff done, albeit without a car. I have a massage scheduled, and don't have to travel for Easter, or cook even since my dad is taking us to Mon Ami Gabi. Whoopie. Too bad I can't sleep. I'm hoping that gets better tomorrow once I have a full day's worth of getting stuff done under my belt.

Of course, I have 2 deadlines next week for work and am nowhere near close to meeting them. Awesome! At least I can see the surface of my desk at home. And now that I don't have to chase, tickle, reprimand, cuddle, or entertain Ada for 2 days, maybe I can kick up my feet and relax the belly. It's been giving me more pain and I just fear the Dr telling me I have to "take it easy" or go on bed rest for a bit. I really don't know how people do that, but I sure don't want to have to find out. And I'm sure it isn't anything bad. Likely just a pulled groin muscle that I just have to deal with, but it still hurts and I'm exhausted.

Moral of the story: Live near family when you decide to raise children. You just can't do it alone.