Day 4 Part 2

We went out to dinner tonight with friends at one of our favorite restaurants in Ft Wayne, Casa D'Angelo's. After dinner we went back to Chris, Amy and Owen's house. Their basement also known as Owen's world might as well have been Disney World to Cara. He has a train that two can ride, a ball pit, a slide, log cabin, and lots of other toys. Cara was in heaven, and Owen was pretty happy showing us all his toys too. Cara was so proud riding around on his train. It gave us adults quite a workout just walking along holding onto her so she didn't fall off. She had a ball and it was great hanging out with old friends that we don't get to see often enough!

Day 4 Part 1

Today was a really fun day hanging out with Grandma, Grandpa, and other friends. After brunch at Cracker Barrel, Grandma and Mommy headed out shopping. After a productive stop at Babies r us, we headed to the mall for Cara to meet the Easter Bunny. She smiled perfectly for the camera and we got a great picture of her first time meeting the Easter Bunny.

Day 3 Part 2

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house after a long car drive. Cara did great on the drive, slept over half the way and happily played the rest of the time. The Easter Bunny made an early drop off for Cara knowing that she would be visiting. She got the Polar bear that goes with her Sing and Go Choo Choo set. She also got a bunny cuddle toy and a new outfit. She enjoyed eating her dinner in her new booster seat. She is able to eat at the table without having to be held. She is getting to be such a big girl. Cara is enjoying lots of playtime and all the attention from her grandparents!

Day 3 Part 1

Mommy is trying to get Cara dressed for the day, but she is more interested in Daddy's camera
Hitting the "magnificent mile" for shopping
Shopping in Talbot's
In the Water Tower shopping mall; Cara and Mommy on the 1st floor, Daddy on the 7th floor looking down to take a picture
Mommy and Cara on the Magnificent Mile, aka Michigan Ave.




We started our day with breakfast at the hotel. We then headed out to hit the shops on the Magnificent Mile. Our hotel was on Ontario Street, just off of Michigan, and was right in the heart of the best shopping in Chicago. We hit the stores, with nothing particular to buy, just a lot of window shopping. Lucky for us the weather was much better than Wednesday. Still a tad chilly, but at least the sun was shining.

After spending a few hours shopping, we went back to the hotel and packed up to head to Grandma and Grandpa A's house. We had a long drive ahead, and Cara was just ready for a nap, perfect timing.

Day 2 Part 2

Dinner at the ESPN Zone with Jay and Julie

Cara eating dinner (squash), it is covering her face because everytime the spoon got close she turned to look at Jay

Time for dessert at the Ghiradelli chocolate shop!

This evening we met up with our friends Jay and Julie. They were also spending a spring break day in the windy city, so we all went to dinner together. They met us at our hotel and we headed off for the ESPN Zone. The weather states it is in the upper 40's, didn't even feel that warm. Lucky for us on the walk over that Cara was sound asleep in her stroller so we were able to have her all bundled and covered.

We enjoyed a yummy dinner all while Cara slept. She woke up and ate her dinner, then we were off. We headed to the Ghiradelli chocolate dessert shop. Scott enjoyed a nice mint and chocolate sundae. I enjoyed a large hot chocolate. I had already stopped in at Garrett's popcorn shop on the way for my bedtime snack, so I didn't want to fill up on ice cream.

We had a cold walk back to the hotel. Cara was fussy in her stroller so I carried her which made it easier to keep a blanket around her since it was getting pretty cold out. Now we are in for the night. Check back tomorrow for more of our travels!

Day 2

We are now on day 2 of our spring break road trip. Cara did not sleep well last night, bummer. So a tired Mommy and Daddy started our day early. A friend of mine (a former nurse at St. V's) met up with us for breakfast. She is now married and living in the Chicago area, just a few minutes from Ikea, so we were glad for the opportunity to meet up this morning. We hopped into the hotel lobby for some juice while we waited for Andrea. To our surprise we found a huge breakfast spread, MUCH more than the typical hotel breakfast. So we decided since it was free to hotel guests (and their friends in our case) to eat there instead of going out. After we stuffed ourselves on eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, waffles, juice, etc, we said goodbye to Andrea and went ahead with our day. It involved a return trip to Ikea. This time we did not escape without purchases. We bought new lamps for our computer room. We mulled them over yesterday and instead of making an impulse buy, we took the night to think about it. Then it was onto downtown....


We arrived at the Shedd aquarium to find that most everyone else in Chicago had the same idea. It was cold, rainy, and too miserable to be outside, so why not go to the Aquarium. We were grateful to have Cara in her stroller because the stroller/wheelchair line was MUCH shorter than the regular line. It was also a pleasant surprise to find out that the educator discount they have allowed Scott free admission! Of course we spent almost all of the $23 saved to eat lunch in the food court.

Cara was so good at the aquarium. I think she enjoyed watching the people, especially little kids, more than any fish, but it was still great. We spent our time just walking around looking at the penguins, whales, dolphins, turtles, fish, etc. We also went to the dolphin show. Cara was much too excited to even think about napping, so of course she was getting a bit fussy after a few hours, so we knew it was time to go.

We needed to get checked into our hotel anyway, we wanted to beat rush hour traffic (is that possible in Chicago?). So here we are hanging out for a bit before we head out to dinner. We are giving Cara lots of opportunity to roll around and play now after being held or strapped in her stroller/car seat all day.

Road Trip Day 1

Playing on our hotel bed with Daddy
We are currently on our first family road trip vacation. Scott is on spring break from work, and I was not about to let him be the only one not working, so I took the week off also. So what vacation can you take with an almost 8 month old baby? My ideas of going to a beach or to Disney World were both vetoed. So we decided to spend a few days in Chicago.

We drove almost 3 hours today and got to our destination of the day, IKEA. Our hotel is right across the street from IKEA. We have been long time fans of the IKEA catalog, and most of Cyndi and Dan's house was furnished from IKEA, so we wanted to check it out in person. It was an overwhelming store, Cara was out loud giggling for the longest time when we got there, must have been all the bright lights and bright colors. She was definitely due for a nap but there was no way she was missing out on this shopping experience. After at least an hour of shopping she decided she couldn't take it anymore and fell asleep in her stroller.

The day of shopping concluded with no purchases (shock!) and dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!). Cara was so good today considering the changes in her schedule and environment. We let her have as much play time as possible in the hotel room. We brought everything to go swimming since our hotel has an indoor pool, but upon entering the pool to check it out the fumes of chlorine almost took our breath away. So we decided Cara's delicate skin was not quite ready for this much chlorine. Bummer, we were really looking forward to trying out her new swim suit.

Tomorrow we will head downtown for a day of fun. We will staying on the "Magnificent Mile", so here's to hoping Cara is as readyto shop tomorrow as she was today.

(great big thanks for Grandma F for loaning us her laptop to keep everyone updated on our travels)

Rolling Around

Big Bathtub

Cara became too "splash happy" to stay in her baby bath tub. So today, we took our first bath in the big bath tub. She loved it!

Night Owl

I haven't been up with the baby at 1:30 in the morning since she was about 4 weeks old. So why are we up tonight? Right now as I type this I have Cara sitting in her exersaucer playing. Cara went to sleep at 9:30 tonight, but for some reason she decided to wake up at 11 acting like it was morning and she was ready to play. We put her in bed between us for quite a while, that usually works and when she falls asleep we put her back in her crib. Not tonight! I tried EVERYTHING to get her to go back to sleep, in fact I tried to let her cry it out in her crib, which I never do, but even that didn't work. So after 2 hours of restlessness we are downstairs hanging out. We needed to leave the bedroom so Daddy could maybe get a little sleep before working in the morning. Hopefully letting her play for a bit, she will expend some energy and get tired! Wish me luck!!

What a Fun Weekend

Daddy onstage conducting his middle school band

Getting hugs from Seth

Mommy finally put me down to play at the concert, I was tired of being held

What a fun weekend I had. On Friday night Mommy and I went to Daddy's school for his middle school concert. I got to spend some time with the choir director's son, Seth. He kept giving me hugs. It was fun "talking" to him. I was pretty talkative and fidgety during the whole concert, Daddy could even hear me babbling all the way onstage, and Mommy and I were sitting in the last row.

Then on Saturday my Grandma and Grandpa A came down for a visit. It was so fun playing with them. Daddy was busy at school all day and Mommy had to work that night so it was great that they could come stay with me. Sorry I don't have any pictures of their visit!

On Sunday we went to my Grandma and Grandpa F's house for a birthday party for my Daddy and Grandma. It was great playing with all my cousins. Here is a picture of all 5 of us playing with Grandpa.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

New Car Seat

This week Cara has been upgraded to her new car seat. She was outgrowing her infant carrier. So far she loves her big girl seat, she has a musical light-up toy that hangs on the back of the seat, and now she can push it with her feet to make it work. She thinks that is pretty neat. She sits up taller and can see out the windows now, so she thinks she is such a big girl.

Daddy and Grandma's Birthdays

Cara giving Daddy his presents to open from her and Mommy

Daddy letting Cara help him open his birthday presents

Cara's first experience at trying Cheerios, while out to eat tonight, despite her facial expressions from when the Cheerio was first put into her mouth, she did manage to gum/chew quite a few

Daddy enjoying his King Crab Legs

Grandma enjoying some Cara time after we ate

March 14th is a special day in our family because we have two birthdays to celebrate, Scott's and Grandma F's. His students started off his birthday celebration by decorating his classroom early this morning before he got to school. One student even cleaned up his office for him! Then after school he came home and opened his birthday presents from Mommy and Cara. For his special birthday dinner, we went to Red Lobster so he could get King Crab Legs. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for dinner so we could celebrate with Grandma as well. Following our fabulous dinner we came home to celebrate with a Maggie Moo's ice cream cake (this is in addition to the chocolate cake we got at Red Lobster!). Now that we have super full bellies and out sweet tooth is sweeted out, time to adjourn for the night. Hope Daddy and Grandma had a terrific birthday!

New Wagon

Cara and I were left with quite a dilemma today, Daddy had the stroller in his car and he was at work, and it was 77 degrees and sunny out. Hmm... How do we take a walk without a stroller? Mommy came up with a great idea, go buy a wagon. We would need one eventually, so no time better than the present. So after Mommy got home from work this morning and fed Cara, we made a quick trip to Walmart to purchase one. It worked out perfectly for Mommy and Cara that Grandpa was here babysitting today while Mommy slept, so he was able to put it together for us.

Wagons today aren't like the wagons we had when I was a kid. Today's version has a back rest, seat belt, and drop seat for the legs to have room to hang down, and even cup holders. Cara is still a bit young for hers, but she sure thought she was hot stuff sitting in that wagon today.

What A Beautiful Day

Mommy and Cara took a walk outside today, it was so nice out!

I don't know about anyone else but cabin fever was starting to hit at our house, the temperature was in the 60's and sunny today, so we jumped at the chance to get outside. Cara and I took a long walk around the neighborhood. This was the first time she used her stroller without having the carseat attachment on it, so she was sitting up like a big girl. She loved watching all the other kids out and about in our neighborhood. It did seem strange to be outside without being all bundled up and still having snow piles on our grass. Hopefully a weekend of weather like this will help melt all of it away.



Hi Everyone!

Cara is getting pretty good at scooting backward, she backed all the way from the center of the room to this door, then she got mad because she couldn't go any farther. She will speeding away from us soon, so much for Mommy laying her down with a couple of toys while she works on blog entries!

cara laughing

I am 7 Months Old

I am already 7 months old! I can sit up all by myself, occassionally I weeble wobble, but I do pretty good. I love to roll over, again and again, until I am stopped by furniture or a wall. I am trying to crawl, but so far I can only manage to go backward. It is a work in progress. I babble, coo, and laugh a lot. These adults sure make me laugh by acting pretty silly. I love to eat too. So far sweet potatoes are my favorite, but applesauce is a close second. I am still pretty picky about textures and not quite sure about anything other than baby food. I can hold my sippy cup and take drinks all by myself. Water sure is yummy, especially when Mommy lets me have drinks out of her Dasani bottle. I sleep all night, usually, every now and then I just want to make sure Mommy and Daddy are close by, but I do like my sleep.

Well, that about sums me up, afterall I am only 7 months old!