Wait for Mama!

Our trip to Chicago - two nights, taking advantage of a little time when Brian isn't teaching - was great. Not relaxing, really, but so so fun! Here are Ethan and Brian looking at the big, big buildings from our hotel room:
After the Pack & Play trial, we had the hotel reserve us a crib. Unfortunately, it was smaller than the Pack & Play, and way easier to get out of! I had visions of Ethan climbing out of it in the middle of the night, unlocking our hotel room door (which he can do), and heading down the hall to the elevator (which he loves). So we super-locked the door, put a chair under the knob, and yelled at Ethan every time he tried to get out of the crib when we were getting our room set up. (Not really yelled, but let's say "strongly discouraged".) And it was absolutely fine. No headers out of the thing, no missing baby in the hotel, and everyone slept just great. Whew.

And here is my hotel review: Families, if you need a place to stay downtown, I highly recommend the Omni. Not terribly expensive if you stay Sunday to Tuesday, and it is sooooo kid friendly. The snazzy hotel restaurant has homemade baby food, they gave Ethan a little paper backpack with some fun toys when we checked in, there were cookies and milk in a bag the morning after our first night there, and the doormen and women greeted Ethan with smiles every time we came in and out of the hotel. So fantastic! And being directly across the street from the Apple Store didn't hurt, either. I tried to get Ethan excited about a Dora computer game, but again, all he wanted to do was climb the cool stairs. "Going Apple Store" became a favorite refrain of his.

But we spent a lot of time elsewhere - the Chicago Children's Museum, which had Ethan twitching with overstimulation after about 30 minutes, a jog out to Navy Pier that afternoon, and lots of riding the escalator and elevators at Water Tower Place before the stores opened. All were big hits. At the end of the Pier, there was this gigantic anchor from the U.S.S. Chicago, and Ethan was happy to pose for us:

When we left this morning, we were tempted to head to the Aquarium, that having been a favorite place of mine when I was a kid. But we all woke up early and were a tad cranky, so when we saw the crazy price tag on entry to the Aquarium, we decided to wait until Ethan was a little older and we could really take advantage of a whole day there. We did pack in a lot in a short time, so I didn't feel badly about heading home a few hours earlier than planned and making sure that all of us got a little nap. :)

The funnest and most frightening thing about Ethan in Chicago was his temptation to just take off. He fussed and cried every time we came back to the hotel room, and took off running at full speed every time we left the place. I did lose sight of him once in the museum, and Brian and I decided that we really needed to do a better job of making sure he obeys us when we stay, "Stop!" Right now, he thinks it's a game and wants to be chased. (And since when he runs, we do chase him, I don't think we are correcting that assumption of his!)