Day 1 on My Own

These pictures sum up the day pretty well
(Eli started the day off with lots of yelling and tears...)

Last night Charlie was up from 1-2 a.m., then 4-5:30 a.m., and then Eli woke up at 6:45 a.m., screaming and crying for "DA DAAAAAAAAAA!" Too bad Ben left for work at 6 a.m. and I was alone, exhausted, and not looking forward to cheering up my very cranky toddler. He and Ben have yucky colds, and Eli was coughing pretty much the entire night. The good thing was that Charlie didn't wake up until 8, so I had time to feed Eli breakfast AND get shower/dry my hair right before he was up. Hooray for the shower!

Charlie was a little fussy today. I don't know if it's something I ate that was bothering him, or if his stuffy nose was making it hard to be happy? Who knows. It was a day when he was not content to be anywhere for very long - whether it was the swing, bouncy seat, on a blanket on the floor, in my arms...

Thankfully, there were at least some happy moments in the day when Eli wasn't throwing fits or crying. I think Mondays are just hard. He was entertained by Ben all weekend long, only to find today that it was just his tired mom and baby brother around to play with, poor guy. I kept wishing we could go out for a walk, but it's just too cold. Tomorrow we're supposed to get MORE snow, so help me!

That's the hard thing about having a baby in the winter - you can't get much fresh air when it's freezing cold like this. The upside is you can be a bum at home all day and not feel too bad about it... here's to another exciting day at home tomorrow :)

Enjoying Eli

With a short amount of time left before baby #2 arrives, I'm trying to spend lots of quality time with Eli. He loves picking out books to read and we'll go through a huge stack in one sitting. He also loves playing with trains and looking at the pictures of all of the different Thomas trains (we have a paper that came with one of his trains that shows the whole collection).

Today I went to the doctor - I'm still just 1cm dilated (same as last week), but now I'm slightly effaced. So that's all good news! I have plenty of Braxton-Hicks contractions and have had some cramping this week, but there is no indication when this baby will decide to make his appearance. It's fun to wonder what our second little boy is going to look like - will he be just like Eli or totally different? Will they look like siblings? Will he have blue eyes, blonde hair? I think Eli realizes the baby is almost here (we definitely talk about it more).I'm happy to say he has been much better about napping lately, which is a huge relief. But he is getting more bold too - climbing on things more... And finally, the air is so dry in our house that we often shock each other with static electricity (not on purpose). Eli loves to say, "shock" - and I think it's so cute because he says it with a Chicago accent - "shahhk" or however you would write that phonetically. And since I love to complain about the weather - the actual temp right now is -4 degrees. Wind chill is -23. The sun is shining brightly though, which makes it not seem quite as bad. Some parts of our house are pretty cold - the closets, the family room (which was an addition at some point), and our kitchen nook must all have zero insulation, because they are chilly - especially the floors and walls.

I should be writing my article due next week, but I think I'm going to go climb into my warm bed and take a nap instead :)

Icicles

Here are some winter scenes from our house this morning - the main attraction is the massive collection of icicles on our back porch:

There are a few that are HUGE!

Here are our trash/recycling bins outside in the alley
(would you like to drive through all of this snow? My Altima is not a fan)

Here was my snowy path from the garage to the house this morning after some snow last night (no, I did not shovel... it's all waiting for poor Ben tonight when the low is -10 degrees... yuck)

Tomorrow's forecast - SUNNY! Whoo hoo. Too bad it will be practically arctic:

High: -1 degree

Low: -13 degrees

This is officially the coldest winter Chicago's had in eight years.
Thank goodness it's not the norm!

Tomorrow I have another doctor's appointment. Fun times... thanks for voting on the names! Keep your votes coming :)

Gray

There's a theme to all of these pictures from this morning as I was driving to playgroup...

Everything was very gray.

(except for the snow everywhere)
But overall, the mood of our weather today felt very quiet...
The blizzard that was supposed to hit us yesterday fizzled, but we got slammed with snow last night and throughout the day today. I was glad to not be driving in rush hour traffic on the highways, which I heard was an absolute nightmare.

Instead, I just drove around my town, my car slipping and sliding on the messy, unplowed streets under the gray, gray skies.

Crazy Bears/Packers Game

Last night the Bears beat the Packers in overtime (Go Bears!). That's pretty exciting (sorry Rebekeh, my friend who grew up in Green Bay), but the thing that got me was the amount of bare skin exposed to the elements last night! Check out these pictures from the Chicago Tribune:

Is that shirtless fan out of his mind?? Last night it was a whopping two degrees, wind chill -13 degrees. I think he was just really drunk. It was the coldest Bears game EVER at Soldier Field.

Rebekeh and her sister actually had tickets to the game, but wisely stayed home. It would have been so miserable to be outside for that long, no matter how bundled up you were!

And of course there were lots of tough guys on the football field with bare arms. Crazy, crazy crazy. Ben wasn't feeling well last night and went to bed early, so I ran out later in the evening to do the last of my errands before our next round of snow (we woke up this morning to more snow, and it's not supposed to stop for a few days).

Sometimes I really wish we had a car with four-wheel drive... Eli and I got stuck in the alley yesterday afternoon, just as I had feared. I hacked away at the snow for a good 15 minutes before a neighbor drove in, saw me struggling and helped dig me out - with the help of her metal shovel and some sand. Winter is not starting out so well!! We are guaranteed a white Christmas though, so we'll try to stay on the bright side :)

The Joys of an Ear Infection

Eli has had a miserable couple of days - I know the pictures on Friday make him look happy, but he was still fighting a bad cold that he has had since last Sunday. Over the last few nights, he woke up multiple times in the night crying pretty hard. On Saturday, he spent much of the day crying or hitting the sides of his head out of frustration - it was so sad!! Then this morning at 5 a.m. when I was up with him once again, it clicked in my head.

Eli had an ear infection.

Hello!? He'd had a week straight of a congested cough, runny nose, fever, and his head was hurting him... Why it took two bad nights for us to figure it out, I don't know.

Ben had things he needed to do at church today, but Eli and I stayed home and I took him to the doctor, who confirmed that Eli's left ear was infected, the right ear had fluid in it, and his throat was red/sore. Poor little guy!! Thankfully, we filled the prescription right away and Eli had a full dose of the antibiotic by tonight. I also was more diligent about giving him tylenol and motrin throughout the day.

What a difference! I took these pictures tonight with my old point and shoot camera, so the quality stinks, but I can't believe how much happier Eli was! He woke up this morning screaming, so this was a major improvement. I'm hoping tonight is more restful for all of us. By this time last night, Eli had already woken up crying two times, so that's a good sign.

Eli is pretty possessive of his Spiderman couch - anytime Ben tried to put his head on the couch when Eli was off doing something else, Eli would run back over, move Ben off the couch, and laugh because he had it to himself again. Ben couldn't resist teasing him though, and put his head back up on the Spiderman couch anytime Eli ran away from it.

Darn. I just heard him crying! I spoke too soon. It probably doesn't help that it's super windy outside (making the windows rattle). Tomorrow our high is 14 degrees, wind chill below zero (the forecast shows the worst of it will bring us down to -10 degrees for the wind chill, because the wind could be gusting 20 to 30 mph). This is WAY too cold for December! I expect this more in January and February, but December isn't usually THIS bad.

Think warm thoughts for Ben tomorrow as he commutes by train and then has a long walk to his office. I made him promise he would wear a coat, hat, gloves AND scarf - he hardly ever brings the scarf, which I think is nuts. I'm a firm believer in covering everything but your eyes in weather like this.

Poor Eli. He's still crying, so I'm going up now to check on him. We may still have another long night ahead of us...

Trying to Beat the Virus

Here are some pictures from my very unproductive week - basically I played with Eli when he was awake, and when he napped, I would go back to bed because I had zero energy from being sick. I'm slowly starting to feel more normal again, but still have a bad cough and constant headache. Eli did get sick and had one night with a fever of 103, but his body fought the virus much faster than mine (thank goodness).

We're still having really crummy winter weather here. Today it's supposed to rain and snow - what else is new?? The good thing is it should be a little warmer on Sunday. Whoo hoo!

Let's add an ear infection to the mix - and Happy Casmir Pulaski Day!

Eli was doing a little better on Friday, but by Saturday, he wasn't sleeping well, screamed when we tried to change his diapers, and was pretty irritable and fussy all day.

Eli didn't sleep well on Saturday night and woke up in a miserable mood, so this morning we brought him in to the doctor for a sick visit... sure enough - he has an ear infection. It's very common for kids with RSV to also get ear infections. Poor little guy. Now he's on an antibiotic and I'm really hoping things will improve in a few days.

Today our weather was in the 40s and the snow was melting, so there are huge puddles of water all over the place. The big grassy area in front of our building looks like a big pond of murky water. I will say I got a little grumpy when I heard we have more snow in the forecast for this week. It's MARCH for Pete's sake!

I realize this is a random post - tomorrow we celebrate Casmir Pulaski Day here in Illinois. Pulaski was a Revolutionary War calvary officer who trained soldiers in the US military. He was from Poland, and since we have a high concentration of Polish people in Chicago (our city has the most Polish speakers outside of Poland), the city celebrates this day with a parade and gives the kids a day off from school. My favorite part of the holiday is saying his name with a true Chicago accent - practice with me now: "Caaah-smeer Puhlaaahhski" with lots of emphasis on the "a" sound. Like how you would say "back" with a strong eh/ah. Ben says it's like saying "yak." It's hard to describe!

*If you want to learn more about the Chicago dialect, check this out.

Happy Birthday Casmir Pulaski!

Pictures from this week (at home)

Eli is now 9 months old. Here he is with his one and only sippy cup that works for him (Nuby). We tried about 10 brands before finding that this was one he could use. The high point of today was that he balanced standing up for a few seconds! He gets SO excited about walking with us (holding our hands) and practically runs anytime we try walking.

Here he is laughing at Ben being silly. Today I came home to find Ben crawling around on the floor with Eli's stuffed lamb on his shoulders, totally cracking Eli up. (I think his idea was to show Eli that crawling is fun :)
Snowflakes on the ground... it feels like we have had snow every single day this month! (But I know there were a few days without it, so I'm exaggerating)
The usual attire when we go anywhere: the blue bunting and red hat. I can't wait for summer when we don't have to bundle up to go anywhere...
With my friend Rachael at Lake Michigan today after going to Carrie's baby shower/open house. I took this as I was crouched down on the ground, about to slide down the ramp to get onto the beach (there is still a ton of ice as you will see below).
Are you tired of Lake Michigan pictures? I can't get enough!
Notice just a little strip of blue showing in the water.
Ice everywhere!
Freezing bits of the lake. Tomorrow the high is 35 degrees and mostly sunny - I can't wait!

Soaked up the Sun in Florida!

(I started this the other day but it's taken me a while to put the post together)
Well, we're back in FRIGID, ICY, BITTER cold Chicago after a fabulous 5 days in SUNNY Florida! The traveling back and forth was not my favorite, but we made it and had such a wonderful time relaxing in the warm sun. Here are details from the trip (it's lengthy, sorry - feel free to skip below if you just want to look at pictures):

Friday: my friend Jenn drove me and Eli to O'Hare in the afternoon (thank you Jenn!!). Ben was taking the el train from work to the airport, so I had ALL of our stuff (except for his backpack that he had with him). This included: 3 suitcases, stroller, car seat, peapod plus (kind of like a baby tent that is so much more compact and lighter than the pack and play - great for air travel), diaper bag, another large carry-on bag, and camera bag. When we pulled up to the airport, we didn't see the USA3000 airline on the terminal signs... it turned out that this tiny, random airline flies out of the international terminal in a really obscure part of the airport - and it didn't have curbside checking (which is what I had been counting on).

Jenn noticed a stack of luggage carts on the other side of the road, so I ran across, grabbed a cart, loaded it up with all of our junk, put Eli in the stroller and slowly pushed him and the cart through the line (a woman in front of me helped pull the cart, which was great). I checked in (this airline does not print your ticket - everything was handwritten!!) and felt lucky that the guy let me check 3 bags even though Ben wasn't there yet. I am paranoid about lost luggage, so I opted not to check the car seat and instead had it on my back in the Pac Back car seat carrier (which I LOVE!). I think I looked a little ridiculous though with all of my stuff.

Ben's train got in a little after 4 p.m., and he had to catch a shuttle to get to the terminal - then he had to wait in the line to check in and get his handwritten boarding pass, so I went through security with Eli (and ALL of the stuff, minus the 3 suitcases). Our flight was boarding at 4:45 p.m., so Ben really had to hurry - through security and then to the very end of the terminal to our gate. He made it in time and we boarded the plane... only to realize he didn't have his backpack. It was somewhere between security and the gate, and the flight attendants wouldn't let us off the plane to look for it. When we got back to Chicago, we called and luckily the bag was in security's lost and found. Phew!

When we arrived in St. Petersburg, we picked up our rental and drove to Tampa to stay with my old roommate Faye and her husband John. It was really fun to hang out with them all weekend! Faye is a high school Spanish teacher and John is in pharmacology school, so it was great to hear what they have been up to lately.

Saturday: We spent the day at a beach on Siesta Key. The sand was amazingly white, powdery soft and fine. The beach was super crowded, but it was just wonderful to hang out on the beach for a few hours and soak up the sunshine. It felt like summertime!

Sunday: We went to church with Faye and John. Eli was fussy and tired, so we left early and went back to their house and took naps for 2 1/2 hours! It was a very relaxing day, and in the evening we had fun taking a walk in the nice weather.

Monday: Ben, Eli and I packed everything up (thanks Faye and John for letting us stay with you!) and headed down to Longboat Key. Before arriving to the key, we stopped at the Mixon Fruit Farm so Ben could get some fresh Florida fruit - we got to sample delicious orange and grapefruit juices and slices of fruit, and bought a huge bag of murcott oranges and ruby red grapefruit. Yum!! They even had my favorite Coconut Patties, so I had to get a box. :) We also stopped at the Manatee Viewing Center at the Tampa Electric power plant, but the water was too warm for the manatees, so we didn't see any.

At Longboat Key, we stayed at a place on the beach called Sun 'n Sea - nothing fancy, but it was perfect for us. We did the cheap route by staying in the smallest apartment, but it had a full-size fridge, stove, sink, etc. and a screened-in porch. The beach was pretty empty there, so it was fun to walk over and play in the sand with Eli.

Tuesday: We drove around while Eli napped and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We stopped at the Siesta Key beach again and took a long walk up and down the pretty shore. Then we battled traffic to get back to the airport for our flight that evening. When we got home, it was SO cold - 8 degrees with a wind chill of 20 below zero.

I loved getting a break from the ice and snow!!
(But I still feel like I'm catching up from being gone... and I have zero desire to get on an airplane with Eli anytime soon :)

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Eli loved the sand!
Ben buried Eli in the sand... here he is kicking back :)
There were tons of college students there for President's Day weekend... not the most family-friendly beach environment, but that's okay!
Where did his legs go? :)

The sad state of the real estate market in Florida (and many other places) right now
Eli, me, and Faye
Eating some sand
John, Faye, and their dog Mia
We loved wearing short-sleeves outside!
Ben was in heaven at the Mixon Fruit Farm (he is such a produce guy)
At the Manatee Viewing Center (all we could see was the ugly power plant!)
Here we are at Longboat Key
Cute sandy feet
Beautiful beach!
Ben and Eli chasing the birds (the sky got really dark like it was about to storm, but it never rained...)