Animalia takes a trip.

So we took the Animalia to Chicago. It was more difficult than traveling alone or with the drunken adults that I'm used to traveling with but not so difficult that I wouldn't do it again. I was a little concerned for her tiny ears on the flights but she was fine, charming even. She chatted and smiled at flight attendants and other passengers, wiggled around, ate and napped. Nice. She was lovely.

There were more tears once we got there though. I think it was because she was in unfamiliar territory and not following her usual patterns of eating, sleeping and playing. That AND she's teething. That's right. No false alarms this time. There are two teeny tiny baby teeth peaking out of her bottom gums. They're cute to look at, interesting to touch and I'm sure they're incredibly painful for her. Pobresita.

She met her Aunt Barbara and cousin Cathy for the very first time. She bonded with Cathy. She also made friends with BL, smiling at her and trying to eat her watch every chance she got.


Other firsts on the trip:

Her first Cubs game. EVERYONE in the bleachers thought she was the most adorable baby ever in her Cubs cheerleader outfit and red legwarmers. There were even some drunk guys sitting behind us who were discussing the best way to smoke in the "no smoking" ballpark and they were trying to decide whether or not to light one up right there. They decided not to. Because of the Animalia.

Her first frijoles. She had her first taste of frijol at Frontera Grill, the Rick Bayless restaurant. What can I say? She's fancy. She liked the beans too.

Her first (brief) visit to a zoo. We took her to Lincoln Park Zoo. It was near closing time so she just got to see a tiger, monkeys, takin, and sea lions. She liked the monkeys and tiger, she chatted and smiled at them. Didn't even notice the takin. She liked the sea lions too, their big bodies swimming by surprised her I think. Now google "takin."

Her first museums. We took her to the Museum of Science and Industry. She was cranky. The Art Institute was better, though she split her time between cranky and chatting at the paintings. We got dirty looks from people either way, whether she laughed or cried, so we left earlier than we wanted to. At first I didn't care what everyone thought but after about 30 dirty looks it starts to get old so we left a little earlier than planned. She loved the Field Museum, I'm not sure why, maybe it was because there were things to touch, it wasn't as loud and insane as Science and Industry, and there were more animal type things. Or maybe it was because her teeth didn't hurt so much.

Her first aquarium. She LOVED this. She loved the turtles, brightly colored fish and dolphins.

Her first trains, both the CTA in Chicago and the small train on the Jelly Belly tour. Two completely different things, I know, but I thought I'd put them both under the same heading.

What else? She mostly just liked walking around, making her happy noises at passers by. She got some things, souvenirs for when she tells us we never take her anywhere and we tell her that she just can't remember when we did. She got to spend time with Tío Tío and crawl around on his floor. She also got to play with a stuffed puppy that he has and try to chew on his (dirty) carpeting.

I think we can do this again sometime too. I hope our future holds a trip to DC to visit the Nina, a potential jaunt to the Cayman Islands to visit begrid, and maybe a weekend in Puerto Peñasco. Now we just have to win the lottery.

See my next post for information on baby poop while on vacation.