Chicago with Friends

Yesterday we went up to Chicago for the day to visit with my college roommate, her husband, and their adorable baby girl, V. We left as soon as Baby O got up and had breakfast. She did pretty well in the car. This is the first long drive she's done in a while. It was certainly different than it used to be. She stayed awake almost the WHOLE way. Good thing I packed her plenty of books! (I also packed some smaller toys, but she had no interest in them--she was all about the books!).

We went to Lincoln Park Zoo first. She really enjoyed the gorillas and chimps. The white-cheeked gibbons were a hit too. The baby gibbon (born in January) kept running up to his mama to nurse. Olivia watched for a while, then turned to me and signed milk. Could be that she was asking me for some, but I got the feeling she knew what was going on in there!

After a little bit at the zoo, we had lunch and headed over to Shedd Aquarium. She really enjoyed looking at the fish in the Amazon exhibit. She kept signing fish to me (she learned that sign about a week or two ago--perfect timing!). She didn't really like the giant fish. She looked at them, but kept a really tight grip on me. I could tell they made her a little nervous.

The penguin exhibit was by far her favorite. It might have been Baby V's favorite as well. Olivia really enjoyed watching them racing around in the water. She had a hard time telling me what they were. She would point to the ones on the rocks and sign bird, but when they were swimming, she would sign fish. I told her they were swimming birds and kept signing birds to her. She looked at me like I was stupid. I can't believe we didn't get any pictures of her in this area!!

Side note: We might have to get some books on penguins. She also stole borrowed our friend Baby G's penguin pool toy last week and has been playing with it constantly when we are outside.

Another favorite exhibit was the play area with touch tanks. We didn't touch any real animals (I thought she would be too rough), but we played with the plastic animals in the smaller touch tanks. She enjoyed splashing in the water, and kept trying to climb up the side. Good thing she hasn't figured this climbing thing out yet!

After the aquarium, we headed back to my roommate's hotel and had some deep dish pizza. YUM!  I had one and a half pieces. So did Olivia! That girl has a serious taste for pizza, and a Buddha belly to show for it.

The drive home was pretty terrible. There were intense storms (including blindingly bright lighting) all the way home. Olivia slept through the whole thing. She was so wiped out, she is still sleeping as I write this at 8:30 in the morning!

It was great to visit with some old friends and see Baby V again. She has gotten so big since the last time we saw her when we went to Florida in December. Both girls were real troopers. They dealt with the heat, the lines, and the elevators (SO MANY FREAKING ELEVATORS) with no problems. Can't wait to do it again!

Playful Learners at the CDM

Last week, Pete and I took baby O to the Children's Discovery Museum for a call called Playful Learners. It's a discovery class for babies from 12-24 months old.

When we got there Olivia was a little shy. It took her quite a bit of time to warm up to the whole idea. One little boy ran up to her to give her a hug, and she wound up sobbing for quite a while.

Eventually she relaxed and was able to enjoy herself. It helped that she knew two of the other kids in the class. Baby B from a mom's group and Baby G from Kindermusik.

When we got there, the teacher had set out a bin of toys to play with. Olivia selected a noisy shaker. When it was time to clean up, Olivia had no problem putting her toys away in the bin all by herself.

After playtime, we read a story and sang a song. Then it was time for crafts (Mommy's favorite part)!! There were four station set up for craft time. We went to the play dough table first. It was green and smelled like lime jello. Olivia enjoyed smashing the play dough and running it over with textured rolling pins.

After a few minutes at the play dough table, we moved on to the stamping table. Olivia enjoyed pressing the stamps onto the paper. She got pretty excited to see what appeared on the paper each time. She even tried pressing the stamp into the ink herself, but that didn't appear to be as interesting.

We went to the puppet-making table next. We used paper bags and pieces of cut-out construction paper with double-sided tape to make a frog puppet. Olivia chose where to put the eyes.

Finally, we made a bug catcher. Olivia used Bingo dotters to stamp polka dots on hers. She selected a foam bumble bee to decorate it. Unfortunately, when we got home Baxter ate it.

After crafts, the teacher had set up an area with different play stations. There were tunnels, a playhouse with play food, and a water bin. Olivia enjoyed the tunnels best. (I think it's time to get out the tunnel I bought her from IKEA).

After playtime, we played with bubbles, read one last story, sang one last song, and then class was over.

The CDM offers these baby classes once each month. I hope we are able to go again in July. It might conflict with our vacation plans. We'll definitely go to the one in August.

Garage Sale Finds

I found this farm/train water table on the side of the road. Free for me! The previous owners had closed up their garage sale and dragged it to the curb. It was filthy! But nothing a good spray with the hose couldn't fix. I need to work on the train wheels to get them turning more easily, but otherwise, it's great!

Olivia doesn't seem to mind that the wheels are less than perfect.

I also found this awesome slide with a basketball hoop attached at a garage sale. They had it marked $40 (WHAT???) and I talked them down to $12.50.

Olivia is learning how to climb up the ladder side instead of trying to climb the slide. She's getting there.

Some other great deals this weekend included:

• foam floor puzzle pieces (2 sets)
• Little People house (with all the pieces)
• Little People castle (with all the pieces)
• 3 Melissa & Doug wooden puzzles with small knobs
• glow in the dark pink skeleton PJs (size 18-24 months) perfect for Halloween!
• Size 5 tennis shoes (never been worn) and size 5 dress up shoes (hardly worn)
• More PJs for fall
• Huge tub of Megablocks (Build & Play Kitchenette)

And other than the yard toys, everything else is getting saved for Christmas. Christmas shopping at garage sales saves SO MUCH MONEY!!!