Chicago Trip

About a month ago, Benjamin’s brother Abraham, his wife Chelsea, and their daughter Pearl flew from California to Chicago for a conference that Abraham was participating in. After their trip to Chicago, they drive Houghton, Michigan to their brand new house! We couldn’t resist the chance to see them. Its not very often that they are just under 6 hours away!

We crashed on the floor of their fancy hotel room. They treated us to some yummy deep dish Chicago style pizza (my mouth is watering right now). It was an interesting experience. We pulled up to the hotel, but there was no where to park to unload our things and the fancy bell hops and valet parking guys were all over us trying to help us take in our things, but we felt kind of embarrassed unloading an air mattress in front of them, so me and Stella hoped out, took as many bags as we could and went upstairs with Chelsea and Pearl. Abe and Benj went to try to park the car. They drove all over trying to find something that didn’t cost an arm an a leg. After finding a spot quite far away, they found out that they needed to print an email or something to leave their car there. So they walked back to hotel to print the paper only to find that the email didn’t actually send. So they walked back and ended up bringing the car back to the parking garage right across the street from the hotel. It was $60 to leave the car there over night (or was it $40? I can’t remember), but after driving around in busy downtown on a Friday night, they just needed to find a spot! They walked the air mattress in the stroller with a bag on top, so the bell hops couldn’t see how ridiculously cheap we are. Haha. It was stressful, but now the whole thing is kind of funny. Also, Stella’s first tooth was cutting through that night, so Benj and I spent all night awake with Stella trying to shush her in the bathroom and put ice on her gums so she wouldn’t wake up little Pearl. (Does this whole experience remind you of anything, Mamma Kaye? That time we all slept in the same room in Utah?)

The next day went a lot better. Stella was so worn out from the night before that she actually took great naps on the go in her stroller (something she usually wont do). We checked out of the hotel and started exploring Chicago! It is such a happening, busy city!

Those are antique sewing machines in that window:

It was so much fun hanging out with Chelsea! She is the most generous, giving person! She used her Cheesecake Factory gift card to treat us to cheesecake. She bought me hot chocolate from Starbucks, super cute printed jeans from Macy’s, a teether for Stella, and she even gave us a box of her beloved Trader Joe’s Jo Jo’s for the drive home. If you know Chelsea, you know that she loved Trader Joe’s. She was moving from having it right down the street to a town that is no where near a Trader Joe’s. She stocked up in Chicago. When we come visit you guys in Michigan, I am bringing you lots of Trader Joe goodies!

The Windy City was a bit windy.

 

That picture was taken right after Pearl’s stroller tipped back a little. Pearl was fine, but the lady in red behind Abe, was started by it and kept getting right up in Pearls face asking “IS YOU OK?” over and over. It was pretty funny.

We were shocked that it was freezing cold in July! We didn’t pack Stella any warm clothes. Good thing she has a cute cousin Pearl to borrow a jacket and shoes from! Isn’t that just the cutest little jacket? It zips in the back. I love it.

I hate my face in this picture ( I think it was a Stella-Stop-Sucking-On-My-Hair face), but I think the look on Abe’s face is hilarious!

We visited “the bean”. It is a giant chrome, reflective sculpture that looks kind of like a bean. It was my favorite part.

Can you tell these cousins adore each other?

They show their love by trying to eat each other:

And grab each other:

Let’s play Where’s Waldo! Can you find Benjamin in the reflection?

These next few pictures are from underneath “the Bean”.

We stopped in to a Best Buy to use the restrooms. Stella and Pearl outside the restrooms:

Guess who we saw at Best Buy? George Lucas and his wife!!! Can you believe it? People kept walking up to him and asking for his autograph. He was very nice to everyone, but we felt a little bit bad that the poor guy couldn’t just go look at TV’s in peace. So we didn’t bother him, but Benjamin did push record on the camera hanging around his neck to see if he could get a shot of him. In the video you can see some eager people walking away from him excitedly.

That night, Abe and Chelsea picked up their new car and we drove to our hotel. Abe had a bunch of Marriott reward points saved up and he was so nice to book two rooms with his points. We bought frozen pizza’s and ice cream. Between that and Chelsea’s Trader Joe’s stash, we had a little late night feast. Stella did much better that night. We did late check out the next day and enjoyed a morning hanging out in Ave and Chelsea’s room. Stella and Pearl got some more playing time in:

It’s hard getting a decent picture of two wiggly babies.

They are never happy at the same time:

But sometimes they are both sad at the same time. Can you see Stella’s pout and her little tear?

And then there are all the crazy faces they make:

When one is smiling, the other has their eyes closed:

Or they are both laughing at something else on the other side of the room:

Or one of them is looking at the other to see if they are smiling or not:

I think this is the best one we could get:

We ate a picnic lunch on the grass outside the hotel after check out and bid each other farewell. It was so great to see them and we are so grateful for their generosity! Congrats on the new house and job!

Stella on the way home:

Goodbye Chicago!

Stella is Six Months!!!

I can not believe how the time just flies right by. My little chunker is six months.

Can you believe she used to look like this:

and before long, she looked like this:

and now she looks like this:

I thought I would just do a not so quick update on Stella and her personality and developments. Just so you know, this is a collection of picture and videos of the past two months or so. So in some she may look younger than in others.

Stella has started eating solids:

Her first food was avocado. She also loves sweet potatoes, green beans, oatmeal baby cereal, carrots, and watermelon (Benj and I were eating it and she was opening her mouth like a baby robin, so we gave her some and her eyes got all big and she was so excited. So I threw a few chunks in the blender for her. After eating a whole bunch, we ended up just mixing it with her oatmeal cereal so she would at least get something besides watermelon before her stomach was full). She tried peas and didn’t like them at all. But she also got a rash from them, so I guess its ok if she wont eat her peas. She didn’t really love pureed zucchini either, but I am going to try again. This video is of Stella trying peas for the first time. She doesn’t like them, but she can’t stop smiling because Benjamin is smiling at her from behind the camera.

I let her play with her bowl and spoon after she is done eating:

The high chair above is our neighbors. We were testing it out to see if we wanted to make a trip to IKEA to get one of their high chairs. We ended up buying the one in the picture below from Once Upon A Child (a second hand baby store). I love it! It straps to a chair and it has a soft cushion that can wipe right off.

I made the mistake once of letting her play with a glass bowl and she was obsessed with biting it with her little teeth (yes, she has two teeth!). It didn’t last long because the sound of the little tooth scraping the glass gave me the shivers. She was kind of mad when I took it away.

I make most of Stella’s baby food. She still eats from a jar occasionally and I do have quite a stash of baby food jars, but I found it really easy to just chop up a few extra veggies while I’m cooking dinner and steam them or roast them. Then all I have to do is throw them in the blender or food processor, spoon it into an ice cube tray and freeze it. I put tin foil over the tray and the next morning I throw it in a ziploc, write the date and the food name on the bag, and stick it in the freezer. Frozen baby food lasts for 3 months and I think it tastes so much better than from a jar. I will eat both homemade and store bought, but she seems to like the homeade better. She will only eat 2 or 3 bites of store bought peaches, but she really likes homemade peaches. I don’t blame her one bit. I tasted those jarred peaches yesterday and they are nasty! Part of the reason I make some of my own baby food is because I find the variety of flavors of pureed baby food to be limiting. There are so many great foods that can be pureed for a baby that aren’t even made in a in a jar. I also don’t waste as much, because sometimes she can’t eat a whole jar of baby food in the 48 hours they are good for in the fridge. Anyway, you don’t have to watch this video because it could be really long and boring, but she really loves her sweet potatoes. We took this video not too long after she started eating baby food (a couple weeks ago) and I realize how much she has improved at eating from a spoon.

Stella LOVES her toys. Her favorite toys are her keys:

Her stuffed Eeyore (she sleeps with him and hugs him close. A med student in Benj’s class gave her an Eeyore, piglet, and Winnie the Pooh shoes. Wasn’t that nice?):

her board books (she loves to chew on them):

and random things like chocolate chip bags, paper plates, and the bag her wipes come in:

She really like the little neighborhood tree swing outside. It totally relaxes her:

She likes her swing inside, too, but usually only for a short time. She learned how to rock herself in the swing if it is turned off. It kind of scares me when she does this. I always make sure she is buckled in tight. This video doesn’t really even do it justice. She can really get going by leaning forward, then back.

She also really really loves her jumper. She gets really crazy in that jumper.

Stella can sit up, now. She is still pretty tipsy though.

She LOVES riding in the cart at the grocery store:

Have you also noticed that I can put her hair in little ponies and pig tails? So cute!

Sorry to those of you who may have already seen some of these pics on instagram.

She is a smiley little thing and lately she has been adding a funny little sound to her big smiles:

She gets in these little giggly moods and its so cute. Its usually when she is kind of tired and all it takes is something simple like me shaking my head and smiling.

This one is my favorite. She was so over tired that day. Watch for the part when I say “I’m gonna get ya”. It scared her pretty bad, but I was laughing so hard that she recovered pretty quickly,

Stella is very vocal. She is always babbling something. Her most common sounds are “hi”, “hey”, and “ha”. I show her a picture of Benjamin every day and point to it and say “daddy” to see if she will say “dada” first. She really loves her dad. She lights up when he is around. The following video is her reactions to a picture of Benjamin.

If you bounce her on your knee, she makes a sound so she can hear it vibrating:

She loves her dad to play the guitar for her, she loves to play out side, and she loves attention. She is a sweet little one and we are so happy that she is a part of our lives. She is going to be crawling and walking around before we know it.