A 10 day whirlwind

10 days is actually a really long vacation, in the grand scheme of vacations. Mia and I weren't even gone that long when it involved a 10 hour plane right to get to Paris and back. And yet, our little summer trip to Chicago had us away from home from 10 days.

This is basically how I felt the entire time we were away!

We spent a lot of good family time with both my brother and B's family, and I think Mia really got to know that side of the family. I always lived far away from my extended family, but my parents always made an effort to have us spend plenty of time with them when we did travel back to their respective home countries, and I think B and I are doing a good job so far making sure Mia bonds with her far away family members.

We had 2 reasons to make the trip this time. First, for B's younger sister's second baby's Baptism, for whom we were the Godparents. It was a really nice event, and the grandparents really went all out and got their little granddaughter a limo for her grand entrance, much to Mia and her cousin Tyler's delight. Apparently, no car seats are necessary for the 5 minute limo ride!

The rest of the time was basically packed with family activities. Aquarium, tons of restaurant visits (B's idea, not mine since... I am still not keeping all my meals down), and much cousin bonding time. B's family even threw a little early birthday party for Mia (for which we are very grateful, since she now has a full summer wardrobe!!)

Then, B and I drove (yes, DROVE) from Chicago to Charleston, South Carolina for one of my college roommate's weddings. The drive there was pretty miserable, since we were under a time crunch to get there in time for the welcome dinner. We ended up leaving at 1am, for a variety of reasons including bad weather, and its lucky we did, because the drive took about 2 hours longer than google maps said it would. My first trimester sickness gets worse if I don't get enough sleep, so poor B was stuck driving the whole way while I... was just miserable. But! We did manage to get a very good night's sleep, a great day of Charleston sight-seeing, and pulled ourselves together to look dapper at this very fancy, very beautiful wedding.

The only picture we managed to get of our carriage tour. Highly recommended if you go to Charleston!

My most telltale sign of pregnancy: swollen face.

Beautiful Charleston double house

The drive back was significantly better, since we got a full night's rest before embarking on the drive, and made it back in the scheduled google maps time (including 3 hours driven by yours truly). We got back to Chicago with enough time to sleep another full night, pack our bags, drive around to say our goodbyes, load onto our last airplane ride for the foreseeable future, and pull into our driveway by 10pm.

All in all, an excellent trip, with not much drama or controversy to report, and a happy almost 3 year old!

Mommy Car

B and I bought my car in a big big hurry. I graduated from law school, we had a car, but B drove it to work every single day. I had fully intended on getting a job in downtown Chicago, and to take the CTA to work every day, just as I had done for law school. I never anticipated that I would end up working in the suburbs, and my perfectly placed condo, 5 minutes away from both the Red Line and the 145 express bus would be basically useless. B's cousin was the finance manager at a Honda dealership, so we rushed out there after my first day of work to pick one out. We fully intended on buying a used Accord or Civic, but on an new paycheck and emotional high, I wanted a Hybrid. His cousin pointed us in the direction of their new hybrid car, the Insight. He promised us that we wouldn't pay a penny more than he would if he bought one. I recognized it as Leslie Knope's car from Parks and Recreation, asked if they had one like hers, in white. They pulled it around, and I signed and drove off.

As a 26 year old who was buying her first car after her first day of work as a real lawyer, I clearly did not look at my five year plan. I can't believe I never even considered that I might have a child before my car payments were up.

But, I loved my car. I could fit it in the tighest of spots, which was number one on my list of car-needs. My street in Chicago was one way, narrow, and crowded. Past 7 pm, you would be lucky to get a spot within a 3 block radius. I get 45 mpg, which was amazing for my over an hour commute from my city condo to my suburban office. It' so narrow, that I could drive speedily down any tiny Chicagoan two way street without worrying about side-swiping the parked cars. It's a cute utilitarian hybrid that I was just head over heels for. The only time I ever questioned my car's awesomeness was on a trip back from the airport for my Bachelorette weekend, when I had three people in the very small backseat, and 4 people's weekend luggage in the hatch. I swear, it was the only time.

Until I was 7 months pregnant, with backpain, shopping for carseats and living in a city with ample parking dominated by SUVs and luxury sedans. My little car stands out like a sore thumb in this place.

With the carseat installed, the front passenger seat has to be pulled all the way up. Like, all the way, knees hitting the dashboard for anyone over 5 feet. So yeah, that's not awesome. Luckily, it's mostly just me and Mia in my car. If my Mom is in town, B and I will switch so that we can enjoy the luxurious and spaciousness of his Honda Civic. (Yeah, it's a problem when your big car is a Honda Civic)

I've been complaining that my car is too small for this city, for this family. Wanting a new car seems so silly and indulgent, considering that my car is three years old and was purchased brand new. But with Mia's stroller, carseat and one other person, this car is just too small for us. We decided that we'd wait until at least one of our cars was paid off before we could consider another car. Having only one car payment would make such a difference in our budget. A couple of weeks ago, he announced that his payments would be over by the spring of 2013. I got so excited! 6 more months and I could get a real car! Since bigger cars cost so much more, I started looking at used car listings. I fantasized about a Mazda CX-9, or really anything that would allow for two carseats and still fit a passenger in the back. B and I started having very serious discussions about gas mileage v. a third passenger row. Serious, serious, serious.

But, he double checked, and it's the spring of 2014. BLARG.

It's not a big deal of course. Nothing in our lives has changed. We have one child, one car seat, and  small dogs. We want Mia to be at least three years old when she gets a sibling, so we're not even in the realm of trying for a second. But, for those couple of weeks, I was really looking forward to some leg room.

Chicago Vacation, Part Deux: Early Birthday

Since my in-laws have been absent for a good percentage of Mia's milestones, we thought that once the wedding festivities were over (literally -- we went from the wedding brunch directly into the Mia-centric portion of the vacation), we should tack on a couple of days to our trip so that we could celebrate Mia's 1st Birthday, despite it being a bit early. While we were attending all the wedding functions, Mia stayed with her Grandpa, and hung out with my two sisters in law, so that by the time Sunday (and the little party) rolled around, they were all old friends and Mia didn't play shy around anyone.

The birthday party was exactly as expected. A big group of Italian-Americans in B's grandparents basement, eating Italian-American food and chatting. Mia had a lovely time watching her older cousin run around, while being terrified of the balloons that he was pulling after him. Unfortunately, Mia was too excited to sit down and eat anything, and her dinner was basically just a bit of her birthday smash cake. Just as the party was winding down, Mia vomitted like nobody's business, and I was afraid that she had caught another stomach bug, but it turned out to be an isolated incident.

Anyhooo... Chicago weather continued to be basically crappy, so we spent our Monday down at the aquarium. We were joined by SIL the younger. Mia clapped at the belugas and dolphins, and pointed at a great many fish tanks.

Our flight home was scheduled at 6am, so we set our alarm for 3:30am, for a 4am airport departure. Just as I was getting ready to switch Mia from her crib to her carseat, I got a text message that our flight was cancelled. After being on the phone with Southwest for a painless amount of time, we were rebooked for the 5:40pm flight, and I tucked myself back into bed. Other than the dogs having to spend one more night at the vet, we got to spend one extra day in our lovely city. We drove to nearby Oak Park (of Hemingway and Frank Lloyd Wright fame) which is the closest to a city-type neighborhood to B's grandparent's house. We also got to enjoy the only nice day the Chicago weather had to offer.

Chicago Vacation Part 1: Wedding

Well, we're back! Six days in Chicago, and I need a vacation from my vacation. The first few days were packed full of activities. As soon as our Southwest flight got in, we dropped our bags off at B's grandparents' house and headed over to visit friends for lunch. Mia made a great impression (of course) thanks to her being fully rested from sleeping the whole flight over. She was fast friends with their new dog, so cuteness abounded. That night, we skipped the first of the wedding festivities (cocktails at Greg Achatz's new place) and had dinner with the in-laws. Mia was, again, a perfect angel, eating everything put in front of her, including a little bitty piece of B's favorite Italian Sausage from his favorite Deli.

On Friday morning, I headed downtown to meet up with the Bride's entourage for mani/pedis. This being the most relaxing portion of my trip, I was not disappointed when they took me to the "spa suite" away from the crew for my pedicure. I embarrassingly had to explain to the manicurist that I lived in the desert, and that was why there was so much to scrape off.... Incidentally, I tried a gel manicure for the first time, and as I type this, my nails are still perfect and chip-free. Although I don't have any experience with actually removing the polish quite yet, I am very happy with the results and will not hesitate to get this done again. I've heard they can get very addictive once you start, though. The Bride had reserved a little room for us at the Spa where we were able to have mimosas and a bit of lunch and we had a lovely little time hanging out with everyone.

Just before the rehearsal was to start, my high school group and I (minus the Bride) stopped at one of our old lunch break restaurants to have a cup of coffee and knock out our toast. We had a lovely time coming up with stories, most of which were too embarrassing or inappropriate to include, but you know, that's half the fun. I think we came up with a few gems that would cause the required amount of embarrassment. B was of course in charge of the camera, so there is no picture of our hilarious toast. Pretend to picture 4 girls and a crowd roaring with laughter. Well, I don't know about the roaring part, but we were funny.

But, back to chrological order. The night before the wedding, we attended a very fancy and very big rehearsal dinner at Spiaggia (where Barack and Michelle go on their anniversary, natch). It was more of a pre-wedding dinner since many of the wedding guests were invited, and there was a three course meal and open bar. I was so excited to see that I was seated with the lovely LagLiv and the rest of the Bride's law school friends, on whom I'm sure I made an excellent impression, being half drunk on Prosecco and black truffle arancini. I've always loved the parties that lead up to a wedding because they give you the chance to get to know the wedding guests before the big day, so it's a much nicer sence of community. It was great to meet her, and she is as awesome in person as she is on her blog, so you should all be very jealous. LL and I shared a couple of dances at the wedding itself, and managed to snap a pic together. She is VERY tall and svelte, so I look like an oompa loopma next to her:

Anyway... the morning after the pre-wedding dinner, I woke up (slightly hungover) thinking that the wedding had already happened, but wondering why I could not remember the way the Bride looked in her dress. I quickly realized that I had to get up, take som Advil, eat some carbs and head downtown to start getting ready. The Bride went all out with the pampering, and I got airbrushed foundation, and false lashes, both of which I absolutely loved. Don't judge the results from the above pictures, since this was post ceremony, dinner, drinking, and dancing. Here's a before ceremony, dinner, drinking and dancing shot:

I thought the result was very MadMen Peggy Olson.

The ceremony and reception were beautiful, and held at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, so everything was garden-themed. It didn't rain, but Chicago in May can be pretty unpredictable, so it was freezing for the ceremony. But we sucked it up and stood in the atrium without shawls. But, everything was beautiful and they were married!