Just Blew in From The Windy City

Valentine's week started off with lots of fun with Grandma Hogberg and Aunt Theresa. Grandma came over to watch Thomas last Monday and they had lots of fun. He really likes pulling around bags, as Grandma caught in the first picture above. A few nights later, Aunt Theresa was over and he decided to pull around her bags, too. Theresa's bags were a bit more of challenge, since her backpack had school books, her laptop and a lunch bag attached to it. He also insisted on carrying his pop-pop toy and wearing his backpack. After a little bit of this exercise, he decided to put down the toy. A short while later, the backpack came off as well. Then, he continued to pull the bags back and forth in the kitchen, while grunting the whole way. The look on his face was priceless...very determined.

Thomas and I headed to Chicago this past weekend to see my sister and her family. (Side note...For those of you who enjoy musicals (as I do), you can appreciate my choice of titles for this blog. For those of you who do not enjoy them....well, too bad for you! :) The reference is to my favorite musical growing up, Calamity Jane, with Doris Day and Howard Keel. One of the best movies ever! A musical about Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hicock, what could be better?) Anyway, Thomas and I flew in on Friday and stayed through Monday. We had a great time! These are just a few pictures of our adventures. We ate Chicago deep dish pizza, which Thomas seemed to be an bottomless pit about, watched the Olympics, played with toys, made cupcakes, went to the zoo and Karin and I had sister time in downtown Chicago. It was a great adventure.

Thomas and the giraffes. So...I did a usual "Annism" and left my camera at my sister's house, when we went to the zoo. I took a few pictures from my cell phone, hence why Thomas's head is so close up! He loved the giraffes and the bears a lot. It was such a great place to visit.

Thomas thought that Anna (Ya-Ya) and Becca (Bubba) were lots of fun. This is a picture of them having too much fun on top of the girls' bunk bed. Anna and Thomas had lots of fun together, although they also seemed to know how to push each other's buttons! They were so excited to see one another, but weren't quite sure about sharing toys or affection. :) Becca was so patient with them and is such a good sister/cousin.

On Sunday night, Karin and I ventured downtown Chicago for a bit (thank you, William, for watching all three of the kids). We took the "L" downtown and then walked down the Magnificent Mile. We ended up having supper at Ed Debevic's, which is a crazy, themed restaurant. We went there in 1990 with our parents and then we both went back in high school with different choir trips. It was just as much fun as we remembered. The wait staff is very rude and proud of it and the burgers are phenomenal!

Thomas was not a very good sleeper on the trip. We ended up cuddling for most of the nights, which meant I was woken up anywhere between 4:30a-6:30a with a kiss from Thomas and a big "hi!" It took some convincing to get him to understand that it was not morning yet, but...it didn't always work. I think he was just so excited to get to playing with his cousins that he couldn't be bothered with sleep.

We got home on Monday afternoon and were greeted at the airport by Grandma and Grandpa Hogberg. Thomas was pretty excited to be able to run in the baggage claim area, since he had been cooped up in the stroller and/or airplane for the last many hours. All in all, he was a great traveler. He made many friends on the airplane. He was very excited to see his daddy this morning.

His vocabulary and motor skills grow day by day. We are starting to understand more and more of what he means/wants. He's really becoming quite the little man.

Until next time...