Riley @ Pizza Metro, East Ukrainian Village, Chicago
Last Saturday Nancy and Riley came down and brought some boxes and helped me pack. Riley loved Dallas and was having fun playing with him and hugging him and kissing him. She was only shy for about 5 minutes when she first got to the house. After packing up most of my books, we went to Pizza Metro for some slices of pizza (I’m goingto missthatplace!) and then went to Wicker Park. We could only stay at the park for a few minutes because it started raining. Nice to see Nancy & Riley again and extra thankful for the boxes and the help packing!
I didn’t realize that there’d be free birth control at Riley’s birthday party, but pretty much, that’s what 20 little kids who are mostly from 4 months – 4 years old running around like mad and screaming will do for you. The kids had a ton of fun though. It was Riley’s 2nd birthday and the party was at Gymboree, which is kid paradise. Tons of stuff to play around on and a crazy instructor lady who gets them singing and dancing and jumping and riled up, in general.
My brother brought my nieces, Jessica & Stephanie (on the left), so it was nice that I got to see them too. One of my old coworkers from when I lived in WI more than 6 years ago came to the party. I hadn’t seen Linda since Nancy’s baby shower and I hadn’t seen Bruce, her husband, for even longer. And I’d never even met her kids, Jacob and Joshua, before. So it was good to see all of them. So weird, though. I’ve seen so many photos of Jacob and Joshua that I feel like I’ve seen them grow up even though I never met them in person before.
It’s early to celebrate Christmas, but December weekends have been filling up fast for a while now. This weekend I went up to Nancy & Josh’s house in Wisconsin for a few hours to exchange gifts and cookies* and to spend some time with them. I don’t see them nearly as much as I should. Riley has grown so much since the last time I’d seen her (wow, was it really this long ago?). She’s at a really fun age – a year and a half. I tickled her belly then told her that my toes were really ticklish so, of course, she had to tickle them every chance she got and even though I could barely tell she was touching them, let alone tickling them, I had to laugh hysterically.
It’s funny how kids, even at her age, have already developed such strong personalities! She’s a great kid and listens well, but you can already tell how strong-willed she is! It will be fun to sit back and see how Nancy & Josh handle that .. in like 10 years! ha!
* I baked a TON this weekend. Look for those posts soon!
Jessica, Rachelle, Stephanie :: Shedd Aquarium, Museum Campus, Chicago
From January 14 – 20th the Shedd Aquarium is offering free general admission. The regular entrance fee is $23/adult and $16/kid, so Richard, Amanda, Stephanie, Jessica, Nancy, Josh, Riley, Melissa, Nick, Noah, Trinity, and Gabe came down from Milwaukee to join me in facing the cheapskate crowds – you had to constantly remind yourself to be tolerant or you’d go freaking insane but we still had a fun time anyway.
Other aquariums I have been to – Birch Aquarium at Scripps in San Diego, SeaWorld San Diego, SeaWorld Orlando, the Seattle Aquarium, the New York Aquarium at Coney Island, and Oriental Garden in Chinatown (ha!). Shedd was probably the best of them all, although I did really like how the Seattle Aquarium had an area where you could touch things like rays and sea anemone and sea cucumbers.