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.

I'm a Winner :)

I subscribe/read quite a few blogs on my Google Reader and have entered plenty of blog contests in the last year. Some of the effort has paid off! So far, I've won two different Bob the Builder DVDs (from the same person, but two different contests), a Mei Tei carrier, Ficklets charms (they're more for a young girl, so if anyone has a child who wears glasses and would like them, let me know and I'll send them to you!), some earings from an etsy shop, etc.

But in the last week or so, I have won two contests - the first was a huge prize from the company, Inspired Crib Bedding. It was through the blog, Project Nursery. On Saturday, I received a big box in the mail with these things inside:

A feeding/support pillow (basically a fancy Boppy) covered in the patterned fabric on one side, and a soft minky fabric on the other. Retail: $62

A Swaddler - Retail: $45

Hooded Towel - Retail: $52

Stroller Blanket: $45

The contest actually just had three things, but the Inspired Crib Bedding owner sent the swaddler as an added bonus! So, so nice.

And then today I got an email from the blog, Petit Elefant, saying I won a hospital gown! Retail: $89

(this is obviously not me in the picture - this girl is missing swollen ankles, uncurled hair, and no makeup :)

Hopefully the hospital gown will arrive soon! How fun is that.

In the meantime, Chicago is under a blizzard warning for tonight/tomorrow, and then it's going to turn into bitter, bitter cold. Check out our highs/lows in the next few days:

Tuesday: 14/-2
Wednesday: 19/-1
Thursday: 3/-6
Friday: 6/6

These numbers don't include the wind chills, so it will feel much colder than those temps. There is snow in the forecast every day, but tonight may be the worst of it with strong winds and limited visibility. This is one of the worst winters I've ever experienced here!! I feel like I need to make a treat for our mailman (or give him some hot cocoa if I see him in the next few days). Brrr!!

Sledding on Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve! We have had constant snow over the last few days, but it finally stopped by midday today. We bundled Eli up in his boots, snow pants, coat, hat, (my) gloves, and attempted to take Eli sledding for the first time.

We didn't count on the snow being crusty/icy, but it was pretty cold - this made it a difficult to pull him along.

Ben carried him across the alley, then searched for a better solution...
Sledding in the street was much better! It was slushy/icy, and more smooth than in the yard.

Eli thought it was lots of fun, but got cold pretty fast.

Zooming down the street

We were all freezing, so the sledding expedition lasted about 10 minutes before we ran back inside.

Here's Santa Eli, back inside the warm house and excited for Christmas!

Subzero Stinks

This morning when we went to church, the actual temperature was -6 degrees. Wind chill was -30 degrees.

As Ben put it, today was a day that SOUNDED cold when you were outside. Winds were gusting up to 40 mph, and at this awful temperature, it was bone-chillingly cold. This morning we woke up to another inch of snow, which then blew all over the place.

Here is my window as we were driving home from church, and below is Eli bundled up with a blanket to try to stay warm. Our car was still not warmed up by the time we pulled into the garage - and that's after driving the 10 minutes home.
Can you see Ben's breath as he walked into our house? Ben's smile is deceiving - all evening he kept saying, "Are you sure you wouldn't want to move somewhere warmer?" Poor California boy!! I reminded him that I don't exactly enjoy our winters either. I tried to tell him that it was extra cold all over the place, not just here, but that didn't make him feel better either, since most places were at least 20 degrees warmer ("You can't tell me there isn't a difference between 80 degrees and 100 degrees..." he likes to say. I still think 20 degrees is freezing, and below zero is just extra, extra freezing).
Here are some icicle pictures from our back deck -

Our friends, Heidi and Bryce Jones, emailed us early last week and asked if they could come visit for the weekend before they headed further west to visit Heidi's mom in Iowa for Christmas - we said sure! They arrived from Ohio late on Friday night, stayed for a day and a half, and left this afternoon. The Jones' lived here five years ago, and were some of our first friends when we moved to this area. When they moved away, their oldest son, Dennison, was just a baby. Now they have three little guys (Ethan and Lukas are the second and third).

It was fun staying up late, catching up with them. We hadn't seen these guys since they moved away, but we have lots of fun memories from the time that they lived here. I feel bad that they came on such a cold weekend - yesterday the boys braved the elements, bundled up, and had a snowball fight on the golf course near our house. Of course, yesterday was about 25 degrees warmer - absolutely balmy! :)

Tomorrow's at least supposed to be above zero, with a high of nine degrees, though the wind chill will still be pretty awful in the morning. I don't want to take Eli out in this weather, but it's hard since I still have plenty to do before Christmas.

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...

Freezing!

You know it's cold when the steam from your shower triggers the smoke alarm!! It was 61 degrees in our upstairs bathroom this morning. BRRR!!! I finally broke down and turned the heat on after that. Fall is a chilly season here!

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...)