A Big, Fat,Juicy Chicago Blog! -- Day 1: Getting There

First, we'd like to introduce you to our sponsor for this episode: The Chicago Dog! Notice: the Vienna Beef or Red Hots 1/4lb. all-beef hot dog, steamed or boiled-- never grilled! Nestled in the steamed poppy-seed bun the dog becomes the perfect foundation for all the things that make a Chicago Dog great-- first, green relish, diced onions and yellow mustard (dress the Dog, not the Bun!) then sliced tomatoes, a pickle spear and sport peppers, topped off with a sprinkling of celery salt! Oh, sweet Chicago Dog! We bow to thy snackworthy supremacy over all other manufactured foods!

We started this trip just like we start all of them-- waiting at the airport. We were a little worried about taking the kids, making it through security with a laptop, a carryon and two monkeys, but as usual, we ended up at the gate with plenty of time to spare. We made ourselves at home and played games and talked until it was time to board. Cooper thought that the new camera was hilarious! Everybody doted on him, but next time we are going to dress him in a less androgynous color. (Seriously, how hard is it to catch the hint! Yes, he is a cutie, isn't he?)
With Cooper teething we tried out some cookies called Biter Biscuits. Turns out they are made from clay, because the moment they get wet, they become extremely slippery and extremely messy. The good news is that it cleans up well when still wet. Cooper got a kick out of it, but we haven't given him another one since because of the mess!
Ian made a friend at the airport. I can't remember his name, but he was cute and he and Ian were really funny telling each other what to do and what all of the people on the ground were doing. Thankfully, Ian wanted to be Lightning McQueen and the other boy wanted to be Spider Man, so we didn't have any disagreements over superhero identities.

My mom gave Ian a bag of goodies for our trip back from Las Vegas. Since Ian and Cooper slept the whole way home (thanks, boys!), we gave him the stuff in the bag a little at a time on our trip. These are some little finger puppets she gave him and he loves them! He was really funny with them on the plane: "No, Giraffe! It's Lion's turn to look out the window!"

The very first thing Ian did when we got to our seats was to put his seatbelt on. Then he checked to see that Jenny, Cooper and I were seated with our safety belts securely fastened and our seatbacks and tray tables in the upright position. We didn't have to teach or coax him at all. Good boy!

Once the safety video came on, Ian started to get really excited about the idea that we were going to fly. What really tickled him, though, was the fact that the screens came right down out of the ceiling and that we were going to get to see Kung Fu Panda!

I had really expected that Ian would get a kick out of flying and that he might want to spend the whole dang trip with his nose pressed against the glass. He was remarkably blasé about the whole thing, and left the shades down on the windows a pretty big chunk of the time. He was a really good boy on the flight and it didn’t seem to worry him at all, but it also didn’t excite him the way we thought that it would.

Jenny was a trouper with Cooper the whole time. He was a very good boy—he slept and ate for most of the flight, but he got a little restless by the last hour of the flight. Jenny was great about keeping him happy and entertained, and we got a lot of comments about how good our kids were as we deplaned.

I don’t know where Cooper got the spoon, but he sure liked it. After three hours in a plane with a baby, Jenny started getting pretty funny, too!

We boarded the CTA Blue Line headed for downtown right out of the airport. Just a tip, no matter what the dude in the CTA hat tells you, CTA transit cards do not work on the METRA. There is no interoperability agreement. Thanks a lot for that one, CTA!

What is it with Ian and sticking his tongue out at people lately? He was a good boy on the train, but certainly didn’t let us forget who he really is. (See below)

It’s possible that I just might have been tickling him in this picture.

Jenny had Cooper in the Moby for a pretty fair stretch of this trip, starting with our train ride into town. Cooper slept in it remarkably well, and it wasn’t uncommon for him to put his mommy to sleep, too!

This is part of why we love Chicago so much! It is just fun to go and see all of the great architecture which is just scattered all over the town. After seeing nothing but Sun City planned developments and Ivory Homes (okay, and casinos, megaresorts and office towers), this sort of stuff is just so refreshing.

Cooper was a delightful kid for most of the trip—he got a tooth while we were in town, but did a great job putting up with the long days and the sleeping arrangements
Some more shots of the neighborhood we were in.



Coming soon: Days 2-5!

Home Again, Home Again

We made it back home to Provo very early this morning after leaving ahead of schedule due to Jenny's extra-speedy-awesome packing. We rolled up to our place about 1:30 in the morning and discovered than Nicole (with, we suspect, a little help from her Mom and Dad) had left the place looking pretty much awesome.

It only took a few moments to realize that it felt different than the place we had left. My epiphany this early morning is that though we really had become comfortable at our place in Las Vegas, that is not the same as feeling a sense of belonging which (I hypothesize) only comes from being a long-term member of a community. We loved our time in Las Vegas, and I am certainly not saying that we will never "belong" anywhere else, but for right now it is very clear to both of us that we are, in fact, home.

The Weird Things That Happen While Potty Training

So, just a quick update- Jenny ended up, um, going potty (er, peeing) on Ian's Froot Loops this evening. Ian was a little weirded out. Just thought you should all know.

Hello (and goodbye) Friend!

It was hard to get a good pic of two toddlers being nice and still for very long (does that ever happen?) but I had to post something about a fun, though short, Las Vegas visit from our good friends, the Fraziers. Mike, Elizabeth (Boo) and Max are from our ward in Provo and unfortunately won't be there when we move back this Friday! Mike is started medical school at UCLA (which is way impressive!) so they were on their way through Las Vegas a few weeks ago, moving to their new house in Anaheim. I was so glad to see Boo and Max, even just for a few minutes. I've missed seeing them while we've been gone this summer; it's sad that the timing of our moves overlapped! But hopefully sooner than later we'll plan a trip to Disneyland and get to visit them in their new house.
I am grateful for Boo, her friendship and example, and think she is such an incredible person (and really funny too!). Max is one of my favorite little boys in the whole world (third, of course, to my two boys; sorry to any other little boys I know and love, but the competition is pretty steep!). There is just something about that kid that melts your heart and makes you grin from ear to ear. (And talk about some of the coolest hair ever! I've never known a 1 year old who could brag about a head of hair like he has!). We'll miss having them in Provo, but are excited for their new start and adventures awaiting them in California. Plus, we've still got gmail chat and text, so really, I can't ever feel that far away from Boo! :) We love ya, guys!

P.S. Boo, no rush, but when you are more settled in, email me the pics you took. I'd love to see those, too! Hope things are going well!!

Part of a Nutritonally Balanced Diet?

Chris doesn't like when I diagnose myself or him, for that matter (Just please, for my sake, don't ask Chris the one criteria he doesn't fit for pyromania; and if he does tell you he thinks it is--don't listen to him, that is not the one he's missing!). But I have to admit I am beginning to wonder a little bit about Ian's eating habits. Since we've gotten to Las Vegas, he's had this strange fascination with licking (yes, licking) the metal bars on the stairwell next to our front door (I know. Gross.). The more we tell him not to, the more he does it, I'm sure. Oh, and now that I'm thinking about it, he's been eating paper lately too! Not that I'm really concerned about Ian being diagnosable, but being the therapist that I am, I figured I should at least be able to gratuitously throw out my hard-earned knowledge every once in awhile...So there is this condition known as pica, but thankfully Wikipedia did point out one criteria from the DSM-IV that Ian is missing: "In order for these actions to be considered pica, they must persist for more than one month, at an age where eating such objects is considered developmentally inappropriate." Pretty sure occasionally eating dirt as a 3 year old little boy is more than developmentally appropriate; in fact, I think it probably means he's alive and well.So two Saturday mornings ago, we decided to go on a walk. We walked down to a McDonald's near our condo then over to the Bird Park (as Ian likes to call it). We ate our breakfast, had a nice chat with a friendly elderly women named Barbara (we've met so many nice people here!) and Ian and Chris chased birds and played on the playground and ate sand. Well, just Ian did that last part. What's that saying? Oh yes. Boys will be...boys. Sand, anyone? What a little nut bucket!