Chicago, Chicago, My Kind of Town!!!

Okay, okay, sorry for the super long delay in posting again (and yes, I'm counting this as my wordless Wednesdays although it is quite the novel!)! Once again, life has just been super crazy with work and trips! We just got back from Iowa City this past weekend where we cheered the Hawks on to a great victory against Penn State (thanks so much to Travis and Jacquelyn for their awesome hospitality). I don't have the pictures loaded from that yet, except for D's 18 month picture. We took it on Sunday in front of Kinnick Stadium. They taught D how to say touchdown and raise his arms at daycare, so here he is striking the pose. He is in love with the Hawkeyes right now and whenever anybody is wearing a Hawkeye shirt he wants to point to it. And if he sees somebody else wearing a Hawkeye and he doesn't have one, he'll point to his shirt, look for the Hawkeye and say "uh-oh". It's super adorable!

How cute is D's hooded sweatshirt, complete with Harsch on the back!?! Thanks Holstad Fam, it's one of our favorites!!

We had D's 18 month doctor's appointment. D weighed in at 23 pounds 7 ounces (up to 25th percentile) which is a decent jump and is 31 3/4 inches tall which is 45th percentile. Although, he was freaking out when the nurse measured him, so I think he's actually a bit taller, but she didn't want to prolong it. He was a bit panicked in the doctor's office. He was okay in the waiting room (he loved drawing on the chalk board) but like I mentioned he did not like getting measured and weighed. After we went back into the exam room and I let him run around he was perfectly content. He was fine when Dr. Kate came into the room but wasn't super thrilled when she wanted to examine him. It made me sad that D is so freaked out about doctors because of his surgery. I mentioned to Dr. Kate that I was a bit surprised that he could remember his surgery since he was only a year old. She assured me that most 18 month appointments are the same. She said that she would be surprised if he remembered his surgery but that he most likely remembered getting shots at 15 months and that's why he was unhappy. She told me that they usually didn't schedule many 18 month check-ups back to back because it was demoralizing for the doctors. Dr. Kate gushed about how cute he is and he's doing great!!

Okay, now onto our Chicago adventures. We went to Chicago the last weekend in August for Remy and Dave's wedding. It was a bit of a hectic weekend, but we got to have lunch with Erin and Carrie Mac on Friday.

Talking on Erin's phone

We all had a great time at the wedding and are very happy for Remy and Dave!!

The next weekend we went back to Chicago for the 2nd annual memorial Cubs game for Zach. This trip was turned out to be quite the adventure! First off, we added Ella and Maggie (her first flight) to the mix. Then, our flight got delayed a couple of hours. Luckily, I managed to get us on standby for the next flight which at the time was only going to save us a few minutes, but our original flight kept getting delayed so it ended up saving us hours. The kids were actually all dolls and it turns out the airport terminal is fairly child proof :)

After we finally got there on Friday afternoon, Toni and Grandma Pat picked us up from the airport. We rented a great condo right across from Wrigley Field (and inches from the El). Toni had graciously gone grocery shopping for us and had even pre-prepared our dinner that night! We had a good time hanging out!
Unfortunately, the night did not go so well. D is and has always been about the best, most laidback baby in the world. Well, I think the universe wanted to give me a taste of what life could be like...Dylan had actually got sent home from daycare on Wednesday with a fever. His fever had broken by Friday and he was pretty much acting like his normal self. He was a bit fussy when I put him down (which is unusual for him) but eventually fell asleep. Unfortunately, he did not fall asleep for long. He kept waking up and just crying. Andrea and I were 99% sure that he had an ear infection that had caused the fever the few days before and why when he was lying down it was hurting him. Finally, out of desperation (and to attempt to get the rest of the apartment some sleep), my dad and I decided to take D for a ride in the car to try to get him to fall asleep. He was completely calm in the car, but wouldn't go to sleep. Every time I turned back to look at him, he'd smile and say mama (not so cute at 1 a.m.). Finally, we decided to just go back and put him in bed. He was quiet for a few minutes and then started crying again. I called the on-call line at the pediatrician which pages the Children's Mercy nursing line. Of course, as I waited for them to call me back, D fell asleep. The nurse assured me it was unnecessary to wake him up and take him to the emergency room and agreed that an ear infection was likely, but needless to say I had a hard time sleeping and kept going out to check on him.

I talked to our doctor's office the next day and they weren't overly concerned but thought taking him to an urgent care center was probably a good idea. He was pretty chipper, so we went ahead and went to the Shedd Aquarium as planned and planned to take him after his nap. We had a GREAT time at the aquarium. Ella and D loved all the animals and Erin took so many great pics!!

Climbing and sliding like penguins!!

Look at that cute fish face!!

Always one of the highlights for D...stairs :)

One of my favorite pics of the group!!


Erin and Maggie at the condo!

After we went back to the condo, we had lunch and put the kiddos down for a nap. D took a monster nap of over 3 hours. He slept so well and seemed to be feeling good, so I decided not to take him to urgent care. I wasn't super keen on exposing him to all of those germs in a city I don't really know. We had fun playing outside and watching the train. (They were Ella's favorite part! Every time the train went by (~5 minutes), she would jump, shout and wave hi to the people on the train. Ella and Morris even took a little train ride together!) We had a relaxing dinner at a diner in Wrigleyville and put the kiddos to bed. The kids all went down great, so the adults decided to meet Erin and Lars out for Lars' 30th birthday celebration. We had a couple of drinks and then decided to head home to check on the kids.

All was good, and after falling asleep on the couch, I headed to bed around 12:30 a.m. D woke up a few minutes later and started crying. Andrea came into my room and immediately said we needed to take him to the hospital. So, I woke up my mom and text messaged Nicki and we headed to the Children's hospital nearby. Of course, D wasn't crying by the time we got there and charmed all the nurses. They gave him some Motrin and we hung out in the waiting room waiting for the doctor. After a while, we went back to the exam room and D did indeed have an ear infection. They gave him some amoxicillin and sent us home. D went straight to sleep and didn't wake up.

Doesn't look like a sick kiddo, does it??

Sunday morning we woke up and went to Richard and Rhonda's for breakfast. We had a nice time and it was great to get to see Vito!

Sunday afternoon, we headed to the Cubs game. We had 50 tickets so we were surrounded by lots of friends and family. My mom and Andrea very sweetly volunteered to stay with the kiddos until they woke up and even though the Cubs lost, we all had a great time. Of course, as always everything was bittersweet...it was a hard weekend in general and that mixed with the lack of sleep/worry over D had me pretty emotional. But it was so nice to be surrounded by so many people that love Zach, Dylan and me. Thanks to all that attended!!! Sometimes it's hard to put into words how much you all mean to me!

After the game, we continued the tradition with some YUMMY Giordano's pizza!

Then, on the way home we took D's 17 month picture :)

All in all, both trips to Chicago were great...although I could do without the emergency room visit next time! A special thanks to Grandma Toni and Grandpa Karl for always making our visits to Chicago so easy and fun! We love you guys! Coming up soon...Quentin's first road trip to KC (JoAnne and Jeremy came too), Dylan takes Iowa City by storm, and Dylan goes to Phoenix!