Andrew and I journeyed to Chicago this weekend for our little Babymoon getaway. It also happened to be 10-10-10 (no one would let us forget it!) and the Chicago Marathon that weekend.
We stayed at Hotel Indigo which was really nice. Yes, those are wet blueberries. Very different.
We were on the top floor, which was the "14th floor", because they didn't have a 13th floor because most hotels don't. Who builds a hotel with 13th floors anyway? That just seems like bad luck. But if you just ignore the 13th floor, apparently it goes away?
Saturday afternoon we walked all the way down Michigan Avenue. We stopped at the Playstation-something store to test out their new video game device. Oh here it is. The Playstation Move. They were letting people try out all the games so we had to try it. It's Playstation's version of the Wii. I was not that impressed. But we had fun trying to figure it out. Look at the concentration on our faces!
We were headed toward the Sears, ahem... the Willis Tower.
This is the route we should have taken...
That's almost 3 miles. But we went slow and stopped at pretty much every store and tourist spot. See?
Haha! Look at those dorky tourists!
We heard music and decided to go check it out.
But then we saw this sign. RETREAT!!
Not quite the right music for us. :)
We had to get a picture of the lions in front of the Art Institute of Chicago. The one Bears game we went to together had these lions wearing Bears football helmets on the tickets. Ah, memories. :)
As we're walking I'm thinking....We're getting so close to the Sears... sorry, the Willis Tower! Maybe we'll get to see the sun setting from the top! How cool!
Little did we know they send you through security, several elevators, and several gated lines before you can get to the top.
They at least had a movie and fun models to look at while standing in line in a crazy hot room.
Yeah South Bend! Represent! Actually, we're pretty sure if this map is somewhat accurate, you should be able to see our house from Willis Tower since we probably fall into the circle. Just barely. I don't know if I believe that.
About an hour later....
We're here! It's completely DARK by now but seeing the city at night is still really cool.
Here we are!!!! We're on the ledge of the skydeck!! I can't believe this is one of things I wanted to do! I'm deathly afraid of heights. No, scratch that, I'm afraid of falling to my death from 1300 feet. But I did some research to make sure this was safe (as if it wouldn't be???) and I tried it out. But you can still see me holding on. I'm a total CHICKEN!! Haha!
We got a professional picture taken but I haven't had time to scan it yet. I'll put that up later.
We grabbed a cab back to Rush/Division and decided to get fancy and eat at Gibson's Steakhouse.
Guess who ordered what?
Yeah, Preggs McGee ordered the prime rib that was the size of my plate. Andrew ordered a more sensible filet. The waiter brought it over to the table and said, "I hope you brought your A-game." I did not. Even with the both of us working on it, we couldn't even come close. Whoops. But Erin and Doug got some sweet after-tailgate prime rib and mashed potatoes!!! Delish!
The next day we went to the Shedd Aquarium. What did we see??
ROCK LOBSTER!!!
Sorry, I had to. That song blew my mind the first time I heard it.
ANYway, back to the aquarium. There are some funky things living in water, I tell ya! My pictures are a bit blurry since I was taking pictures through glass but the colors are so cool I posted anyway.
These things were freaky! Those are tiny little snakes that bury half their bodies in the water!! CREEPY!
I loved the penguins! I could watch them all day.
When we left the aquarium, I made Andrew travel with me to Dorktown and take dorko pictures. :)
He's a good man for playing along. He looks thrilled.
After the aquarium we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. It's hard for me to post pictures of everything we were able to see there since you just have to experience it. But I'll post some.
When you walk into the Farm Tech section, the first thing you see is a sign for Fair Oaks Dairy! Fair Oaks is just north of my hometown. They must give a lot of money! (Sidenote, if you're ever traveling south on I-65, you need to stop by Fair Oaks Dairy to get a milkshake. I'm just saying. Do it. You'll thank me later.)
One of their newer exhibits is the U-505 Submarine. It is gigantic. We watched the videos and they actually had to build the museum around it! HUGE!
Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!
We visited the Baby Chick Hatchery. An egg about to hatch...
This one had a little trouble flipping back over.
Cute chick!
They had a 747 airplane hanging from the ceiling that you could tour. This was exciting for Andrew because he sells the drills (tidbits and such, that's for you, Neals!) that cut the gears that go in 747 airplanes. He looks excited, doesn't he?
Now for some of the creepier things we saw.
Have you heard about the fetus room? It's a little creepy.
They have fetuses in all stages of growth. This baby is around Baby T's size right now. It's freaky because they are all real. (You can read more at the link.)
They also had a baby at 37 weeks growth (he was HUGE!). I have no idea how that's going to fit inside my belly! I guess I have some more growing to do. :(
Here's some more creepy stuff! The human body in pieces!! Ewww!!! Looks like something from a Tool video! Kinda awesome at the same time.
We did a lot more walking back up north on Michigan Avenue again which I love because I could take more pictures of the architecture.
The Wrigley Building is one of my favorites.
We had dinner that night at Carmine's which was AWESOME. We met Erin, Doug, Holly and Jeff there. I was so mad I didn't get a group picture of all of us at the table. But I did get a picture with Holly at the last minute.
The Babymoon was a complete success. We hadn't spent quality time in the City of Big Shoulders (did you know it was called that?) since we were in grade school on field trips. It was nice to explore at our own pace and stop where ever we wanted. We are really lucky to be so close to such a great city. Oh Sweet Home Chicago.
Here I am, folks. 31 weeks and still barely fitting into my Purdue shirt. Yeah! (I thought I'd wear my Purdue shirt to see if it could bring the football team any luck, but I think they need a miracle. So Purdue shirt? That's your cue. Perform a miracle!)
So what's Baby Thornburg doing these days? Babycenter.com:
This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. He weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He's probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby's kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy.
Blah blah blah 3.3 pounds, bag of oranges, sock full of nickels, etc.
Enjoys yawning, sucking his or her thumb, kicking mom in the diaphragm.
Turn-offs include: getting the hiccups, really loud noises and you trying to do all that boring “sleeping” at night.
You:
Can totally round down your answer to “two months” when people ask you how much longer you have to go. DO NOT focus on the crazy week-to-month-ratio math at this point in pregnancy, particularly when there are breakable, smashy objects within reach.
Can now play everybody’s favorite game, Guess The Body Part That’s Sticking Out Next To My Belly Button! Elbow or heel? Head or butt? Did I seriously just maybe feel my baby’s BIG TOE?
What about the Mama?
Feeling pretty good! I'm pretty sure I felt his hiccups a couple times recently. THAT was weird. It was either that or he was practicing an extremely slow drum solo for an As I Lay Dying song. Where could he have possibly picked THAT up?? :)
We have officially finished our Birthing class as of last night. We didn't have to sit by the awful couple last night but we could still see him texting the whole time. Barf. Now we have a Breastfeeding class and a class called After Baby Comes left.
31 Week Appointment
I had my 31 week appointment. They have me in and out of there in less than 45 minutes now. They do the urine test, blood pressure, belly measurement, listen for the heartbeat and then say "Don't let the door hit ya..." but I never hear the end of that sentence because I'm already scheduling my next appointment. It's crazy! But it's nice to not have to take that much time off work so I shouldn't complain.
The Great White Belly Button Mystery
Soooooo, I have this issue. My belly button has a white ring around it. I thought it was a little weird so I started showing it to people. They thought it was weird too. So I googled it. Turns out, there's not much about it online either. The only thing I found was THIS. That's IT!!! So now I know (because of Yahoo! Answers) that there are at least 4 people in the world with this weird belly button.
Usually when you look up something pregnancy-related, you find millions of pages of information. But not this. No, I'm just "lucky".
I asked the doctor if she knew what it was. She said, "Well it's obviously a skin pigmentation issue. (NO CRAP!) A lot of people have dark lines by their belly button but I guess yours just happened to go lighter." So she had never seen anything like it either. WEIRD!
So do you wanna see it??????
Ok, brief nudity to follow. :)
Well that's brief nudity in my book. (Who put their belly button online anyway??)
So there you have it. That's the white ring around my belly button.
One white ring to rule them all. :)
Finally your preggo lessons of the week... just had to add some more brief nudity.
I would like to wish a big and happy 29th birthday to my dear friend Krissi!! Sorry it's a week and a half late!! Boo me! But we were all busy with the reunion and I totally let it pass me by.
So here's an oldie but a goodie...
Another somewhat old picture but still lots of fun...
And remember what happened that night?
That poor woman (not Krissi) had too many cocktails and didn't see that light pole coming!
So Happy 29th Birthday Krissi! I'm sorry I missed it on the blog but hey, you're the first to be wished a happy birthday by a car!
This weekend I made my way down to Indy for Megan's shower for Baby TJ. (They call him TJ in reference to Tristan Junior, which I think is adorable. But no name has been decided on yet, just like us.)
Here's a group picture of the girls left at the end of the party. Look at cute little Cameron!
All strapped in and ready to go! She is such a sweetie. She hardly made a peep during the whole shower.
The nice part about having Megan's shower at Megan's house is seeing Baby TJ's room! Look at how cuuuuuute his room is! Love it!
I love that lamp. So cute. Everything is so well put together but Megan has always been good at that. Good ol' Megan Martha Stewart! :) Haha!!
I've gotta say, it makes me quite jealous because this is what our baby's room looks like.
HA! Do you think Baby T will like it?? A little adult-like, don't you think?
Actually I have an ulterior motive for posting these pictures. We need to get rid of this furniture so we are selling this bedroom set. If you are interested, let us know! The whole IKEA set (queen size bed, two bedside stands, two dressers and a wardrobe; mattress not included) is for sale for $200. You haul. So please get them off our hands so Baby T has a place to sleep! We also need to get started fixing up and painting his room so if you know anyone that needs a bedroom set, pass the word along. We would appreciate it.
