Hello from Chicago

Wednesday morning Nadia stayed awake most of our drive to the airport (which took about 1hr and 40 min). She did cry some of the time, but it wasn't too bad. She was very alert while the bus took us from long term parking to the terminal and while we were in the terminal. What proved the most helpful in keeping her happy in the terminal and on the plane was food rather than books or toys. She wanted to either stand in my lap or eat a banana (she ate an entire one) or Puffs. She started crying a little on the plane so I walked her up and down the aisle a little which was a challenge as it was a small plane (each row had 2 seats on either side of the aisle). She then cried a little more later, but then fell asleep in my arms and didn't wake up until they lowered the wheels to prepare for landing. She cried about 5 minutes total on the plane so that wasn't bad. The flight was full so there was someone sitting next to me. Thankfully the man has a 5 year old son and was very accepting of having a baby sitting nearby. I learned the hard way not to order a drink. It's impossible to manage a drink with a baby in your lap on an airplane. :-) She probably wouldn't have cried at all except they didn't have a microwave to warm her bottle. They gave me a little cup of hot water when they brought me my cup of ice water (so you can picture me trying to hold a baby as well as two cups of water at the same time while trying to pour hot water into the bottle without spilling any of it). She still didn't want it, but eventually she fell asleep anyhow. Of course I loved having her sleep on me as I haven't experienced that in a few months. :-)

Wendy, Adam,and Susie met us at O'Hare. We stopped for lunch and then Wendy dropped me off at the Westin on the "Magnificent Mile" for my conference. She took Nadia home with her. I took a cab to their home after attending a session that interested me because the speaker is the author of the textbook I use in my class that is meeting Monday nights this semester.

My session went well yesterday. It was a tough day for Nadia as she's just not used to Aunt Wendy and she was really missing her Mommy. I had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory for the first time, which was a treat yesterday. Last night we picked up some deep dish pizza that Chicago is famous for. It wasn't exactly a good day for my diet, LOL. I haven't actually been very diligent in that regard lately - with either diet or exercise. I need to get back in gear as I still haven't hit my pre-pg weight yet.

All the pictures in today's post were taken by Wendy. The 2nd one was taken yesterday during "nursery rhyme time" that my sister does with her kids prior to their afternoon nap each day. Nadia's 1st two naps were very short yesterday, so Nadia got really tired long before it was a reasonable time for her 3rd nap to start. So my sister bundled them up and took them for a walk to try to keep Nadia awake (3rd picture). Today we went to the science museum. Nadia especially enjoyed seeing the chicks; 3 hatched while we were watching (4th picture). The last picture was taken on Wednesday night. Susie had dressed Nadia up in a ballerina tutu and shoes.

I am sure Daddy is glad we are flying home tomorrow! He actually almost cried on Wednesday morning when we left, and I think it's been more than 9 years since I've seen him cry. He was very worried that Nadia would forget him. I'm sure she hasn't forgotten her Dada!!!