Ketchup

I wrote this yesterday, and just got around to posting it today:

• I'm pregnant! Due December 20th, and we're so excited! We waited to tell Marissa until I was almost 12 weeks, and she actually guessed at the ultrasound appointment before we could even tell her! (Oh, did I mention I'm going to be in my brother's wedding in October? At 30 weeks pregnant? Talk about a whale...)

• We just got back from a business trip with Dan for his work. We drove to Chicago Monday, spent Tuesday and Wednesday there, and drove back today. Tuesday and Wednesday Dan had training, so the girls and I (along with the wife and 3 year old of another guy from Dan's work) spent the days together.

• Monday night, the first night in the hotel, Arianna went to sleep quickly, then woke up 2 hours later and screamed her guts out for hours and hours and hours. Nothing we did could calm her down (except let her sleep on our shoulder while we stood up - not exactly ideal). Finally, after some tylenol and a few hours wandering the hotel lobby with Dan, she ended up asleep in our bed, on top of the covers in between us. That made us extremely worried about the other two nights, but she was back to her usual "only wake once or twice, go back to sleep easily" routine for the rest of the time. Otherwise we would have driven right back!

• Tuesday, Lisa, Kaiya (3), me, and our girls went out for breakfast, came back to the hotel and swam at the pool for a while, then went out for lunch, then came back for nap. It was a nasty rainy day, so we didn't do much else. That night we all went out for Giordano's stuffed deep dish pizza.

• Wednesday, all us girls got up, had breakfast at 9, and then headed out to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We took a bus from the hotel to the airport, then a train from there, then another train to Armitage Road, which we had to walk to the end of to get to the zoo. Well, the trains took about an hour total, the whole time Arianna was trying to climb out of the carrier (Baby Hawk Mei Tei - awesome, wouldn't have survived without it!) by pulling both her arms out the top and pulling on both of my earrings, pulling my hair out of my ponytail, and screaming. I was carrying our travel-system-stroller, had a backpack on, had Arianna in the front carrier, and was strongly holding Marissa's hand (I don't do well in cities) We had to go up 3+ escalators (the elevator was broken!), and the first time we got on one, Marissa kinda missed the stairs, so I pulled her back down and we tried again, then again! Then by that point she was terrified of them. So a nice guy ended up carrying the stroller up 3 escalators for us, while I picked up Marissa and put her on the stairs properly, all while still holding Arianna in the carrier. Then once we got on Armitage, we walked the wrong way, so we had to turn around and walk to the opposite end (we looked it up later, the road was 3 miles long I think!). I put Arianna in the stroller for the walk on Armitage, but Marissa had a hard time making it that far, and ended up riding in the other girl's stroller for a while, then I tried to carry her, then I tried to put A and M in our stroller together (it worked when they were smaller!), then I tried to carry Arianna and let Marissa ride in the stroller, but Arianna wanted to get down and that would have NEVER worked. Needless to say, it was a loooooong walk! When we finally made it to the zoo, it was lunchtime already! So we ate lunch, then took one loop around the zoo and saw zebras, alpaca, moose, and a few others. We saw some cows and goats in the farm section, and Marissa freaked out when the cows started walking. She was screaming and crying and running away, even when I told her they were stuck in a fence. Then we tried to go into the lion house. Marissa completely flipped out, terrified again. I explained over and over that there were fences and gates and windows, and the people who made the zoo make it all safe so we can't get in and the animals can't get out. But she ran away crying when I tried to show her. So we didn't see the lions! Then we went in search of the carousel for the girls to ride on. When we finally found it, we realized it was cash only (duh) and neither of us had any cash! So both big girls were completely crushed. We ended up going to get ice cream for a treat, and then we were ready to leave! So we walked almost another 3 miles back to the train station, rode the first train for a while, then got on the second train, and there were so many people there was no room for us to sit! So I was standing, trying to hold onto the bar, and the stroller, and Marissa so we wouldn't all go flying every time the train moved. We almost wiped out a few times, but recovered. Finally a nice lady offered us her seat, but we really needed 2 seats for all of us, so Marissa just ended up sitting. Then FINALLY enough people got off that there was enough room for us to sit together. And unfortunately, I'm not even really showing pregnant, plus I was wearing Arianna on my front, so nobody else offered their seat to us, even though the train was full of young healthy adults. That was probably the longest day of my life, and I was wearing flip flops! I am SO SORE today - the tops of my feet from the flip flop straps (at least they were nice flip flops and didn't wear down to nothing), my calves from pushing a heavy stroller over 6+ miles of bumpy sidewalk/road, my forearms from pushing the stroller one-handed while I held Marissa's hand, but most of all my neck/shoulders/back are sore just to touch them from the straps of carrying Arianna in the carrier. It was quite an adventure, and when we got back, Lisa said I get to pick where we go for dinner no matter what! We ended up eating at Ihop because no one else could decide. Lol.

• Today we drove back, and the girls did pretty well in the car, but we are SOOOOO exhausted, and Dan says he will NEVER let us come on a trip with him again! And I agree! He really wanted to go downtown and enjoy some of the city, and get more Chicago pizza. But it was just so difficult, and the night he wanted to go downtown was the day we had our horrific adventure, so we couldn't possibly do all that again. I did enjoy spending time with the other family we went with though.
  

• I'M GLAD TO BE HOME! It just seems like we're so busy around here all the time!