Highs and lows

Jack and I shared a bed for most of last night. When he woke up this morning (though his eyes were still shut), he grabbed my arm and said, "Mama feels better. Jack's not crying." I said, "Yes, mama likes it better when Jack's not crying." Then he said, "Sorry for hitting last night."

I'm not sure if that was my favorite part of the morning or if it was when we went to breakfast at my favorite breakfast place EVER. It's a place called Nookie's (Old Town). If you haven't been here, it's worth the trip to Chicago just to eat breakfast here (followed closely by Ann Sather, which is where we'll be headed tomorrow morning). When we visit my sister, we usually eat a small snack in place of lunch and a smaller dinner because these two breakfast places are always on the top of our list.

They always have amazing seasonal specials, including a sampler in which you can test a select three of their specials all in one plate. This morning, I had a "small portion" of:

1. An amazing corn flake crunch french toast with creamcheese filling, strawberries,
2. Bread pudding pancakes with white chocolate chips and toped with cherries and cherry syrup and
3. Banana oatmeal pancakes topped with a friend banana and toffee coffee sauce.

I'm pretty sure that my minimal weight gain so far during this pregnancy has just been foiled by this trip.

From breakfast, we walked to the Lincoln Park Zoo and had a good time there. It wasn't super crowded so we were able to let Jack get down from the stroller and walk/run most of the time. He was in a decent mood and obeyed well, so there were few confrontations.

We planned our day so that he could nap in the car since yesterday proved that napping at my sister's apartment was probably not going to work. It worked! He was out within a few minutes. We dropped my sister off where she needed to go downtown and started out toward the suburbs to visit some friends.

On our way out there, we got a text message that our friends' kids were a little under the weather so it probably wasn't going to work for us to get together. Kyle and I decided we'd continue on toward that area and visit the mall and IKEA.

This is where the story turns ugly.

Jack slept for about 1 1/2 hours in the car by the time we dropped Karina off and battled traffic to the mall. He was seemingly happy when he woke up, but when he came to the realization that our afternoon plans had changed . . . minor meltdown. We were at the mall for about 30 minutes and headed to IKEA because he's usually pretty happy at IKEA. But then we had a major meltdown at IKEA that resulted in us just leaving. He won. We were all miserable.

On the way back to my sister's apartment, we contemplated just packing up and leaving early, but decided it wasn't the best option. And of course, he decided to be happy and charming from that point on. He insisted on a "family hug" when we got out of the car and kept saying, "Good driving, dad."

Later, he was reciting his book "Gossie and Gertie" to us . . . the part where they say, "Gossie and Gertie are friends. Best friends." I said, "Jack, who's your best friend?" At first he said, "Jack." So I said, "Who's Jack's best friend?" He said, "Dad is."

And now we're back to bedtime. Kyle's taking a turn right now. After all, he is Jack's best friend. I will say that there's less screaming and violence, but he's still protesting. Bed time is rarely a problem at home. I hope that these episodes don't result in bedtime problems when we get home tomorrow.

I know it has a lot to do with him being tired. And maybe there's a little bit of an effect from the lack of nutritional value in any of his food for the last two days. I really do appreciate the comments and e-mails I've received. In my head, I know that this is "normal" and that "this too shall pass" but hearing it from other people is reassuring.