What did you just did today?

So much to post, so little time. My friend Kim & I are starting a website with things to do around Ann Arbor with your kids. That should be at the top of my priority list but I have some other things to cross of my to-do list first (sorry Kim!).

Anyways, here we go.

We had a wonderful weekend in Wisconsin & Chicago. As I mentioned before, the ride west wasn’t so fun. Chicago traffic is THE WORST and Carson is not a big fan of the stop & go. He screamed bloody murder for most of the ride through Chicago. That wasn’t very fun.

But we arrived at the hotel in Racine and Rick got registered and checked in and stuff and we had an early dinner. We ate at the hotel restaurant and I enjoyed a really good margarita. I just found these alcohol tester strips that you can test the level of alcohol in your breast milk so you know if it’s safe to nurse or not. Needless to say it was a little while before I could nurse Carson. But it was a really good margarita so it was worth it.

Sunday was the race. Rick was up at 3a to go have breakfast at Denny’s and then was back to the hotel to finish getting ready before he left at 5a. Let me tell you that living in a small hotel room with four people, three of whom shouldn’t be awake that early, wasn’t very fun. We all woke up when Rick did at 3a but the kids & I fell back asleep for a couple hours before we all got up at 5a. It was 6a Michigan time so I shouldn’t have been that surprised that everyone was up but it was still too early! Plus since it was a Sunday and we wanted to catch some of the triathlon, its not like we could just go shopping or whatever to waste time, you know?

Anyway, we had breakfast at the same restaurant we had dinner the night before – and as we were walking to the table, Mallory told me that we’d eaten dinner there last night. Her observation skills are unbelievable. I know it’s not that weird that she’d remember a restaurant, but we came in different entrances each time, so it’s not like it was all the same.

I let her have chocolate milk with breakfast but she ended up drinking it all before her cancakes (pancakes) came. When she asked for more chocolate milk, I said she could have regular milk but that next time she might want to save some of her chocolate milk for when her food comes. Fast forward to Tuesday morning and she was allowed to get chocolate milk with breakfast again. She told us she wanted only a little in a cup because she wanted so save the rest for when her cancakes came. Of course Rick had no idea what we were talking about. LOL.

Back to Sunday – we made the 1/2 mile trek up to the triathlon; the plan was to hang out along the last straightaway before they transition from bike to run. We got to the corner JUST as Rick was making the turn! I joked that thank goodness I didn’t stop to go poop or something otherwise we would have missed him completely! He was FLYING on the bike but I yelled his name and he looked back and raised his arm at me. :-D

Then the kids & I wasted some time (1:48:42 to be exact) and got to see Rick cross the finish line. I was feeding Carson and Mallory was trying to nap so I’m sure I was a sight yelling at Rick and trying to juggle both kids so we could catch him across the finish line.  He finished FIFTY MINUTES FASTER than last year which is INSANE. He got a triathlon bike so I’m sure that is part of it but he also trained his tushy off, thanks to his uber-supportive wife allowing him all that training time. I still don’t know how he was able to walk after all that – but he went over to the lake to ice his legs off after the race was over so apparently that helped a lot.

* * *

After the race, we headed south and got to Chicago around 5p on Sunday (after dealing with more traffic – SERIOUSLY how do those people deal with it all the time??) and got checked into our fancy suite at the Hilton (gotta love Rick’s free hotel points). Mallory loved the elevator and wanted to push the buttons all the time. Rick got her started on trying to guess which elevator was coming next and she spent the next two days asking us “which one gonna be” every time we walked up to the bank of four elevators. She would pick one, and then Rick would pick one and then I’d pick one and then she’d come pick mine with me. Rick was the winner – he guessed correctly every single time. He must have been cheating somehow.

On Monday we met one of my college friends for breakfast. Her name is Julie but I call her Jules so I told Mals we were going to see Jules. She said it was just like her Fancy Nancy book. In case you didn’t know, Fancy Nancy’s neighbor has a Papillon dog named “Jewel”. That was hysterical.

After breakfast we hit the Lincoln Park Zoo and met up with my cousin Whitney who is in Chicago for grad school. Mallory had her first ride on a carousal and got to see lots of animals up close. Mallory refused to call Whitney by her name, but kept referring to her as “your cousin”.

We went to Lou Malanti’s for pizza after the zoo – Whitney had never been before but I totally turned her on to the wonders of the deep dish chocolate chip cookie with ice cream dessert. Mallory was really good during dinner too but as soon as dessert was over, she started to fade fast…she hadn’t had a nap all day and plus it was way past bedtime. She almost fell asleep in her chair but crawled on to my lap just before collapsing and she didn’t wake up until 7a the next morning. The amazing thing about that is that she can hold her pee that long and not wet the bed!

Tuesday was a quick trip to the Sears Willis Tower – they have these new balconies that are glass bottom so you can see straight down. I thought I’d be a little freaked out but it wasn’t bad at all. I think because you are SO high up that it doesn’t seem real that you are so far above the street.  As we were getting closer to the Tower, we asked if she wanted to go to the top. Mallory told us “but I don’t have a ladder!”

Here are some miscellaneous items that I don’t know where else to put:

• Mallory isn’t a fan of barrettes, and Rick doesn’t like the one ponytail look, and if she doesn’t let me braid the front, her hair ends up being all over the place. While at dinner one night, I was trying to tuck it behind her ear and she reached up, took my glasses off my head, and started tucking my hair. I remember being in the first grade and being SOOO jealous that Debbie Zerwis could tuck her hair behind her ears because her hair was long. I’m jealous that Mallory has tuckable hair already!
• We were trying to get Mals to go potty at one point and she said “I don’t like to go potty” which is what she says whenever she doesn’t want to do something. It’s really annoying. But I asked her to tell me how to go potty because I had to go. She was watching a show so she didn’t get off the couch but she said “you just have to lift dis up (raised her arms up, showing me how to lift the lid) and then pull down your big girl underpants and then sit on the potty and then hold on like dis and then wipe your tushie and then pull up your big girl underpants and then you have to flush the potty and then you have to wash your hands!”. I asked her to show me again how I lift up the lid and she hopped off the couch and said “I will go potty and show you”. Go me!
• She still sings the alphabet song when washing her hands but this weekend she started to sing “A-B-C-D-E-F-G—B-I-N-G-O” as she started to trail off – because she confused herself with the mid-song switch. I was CRACKING up!!!!!!
• A few weeks ago, Mallory was trying to feed her little baby some food (pizza & cake, actually). Mallory had her doll sitting in the bumbo and I overheard Mallory say “You need to turn your mouth towards me! You were just turning towards the horsey (the rocking horse)!”

And this is the best – because she likes to push the elevator buttons, she does it as soon as we get to the elevators. Monday night she ran to the elevators, pushed the down button and the elevator must have been *right* there because she hopped on and the doors started to close before I got to the elevators. I FREAKED OUT, yelled “MALLORY!!” and frantically pushed the down button a ton of times. I was DYING – trying to figure out what I was going to do. Rick was in the lobby so I didn’t know if I’d be able to call him to run to the elevators in case she showed up there or did I call security and tell them to lock down the hotel? THANK GOD she didn’t push any buttons in the elevator car, because once I pounded on the down button, the doors opened back up and there was my sweet girl SOBBING. We used it as a learning lesson – that if she doesn’t stay with mommy that she will end up with a new mommy & daddy & dog.

Ok, this is way too long of a post and I have some other stuff to get up so here I go. Peace out.