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!