NBA Finals

So the NBA Finals are here in OKC. Who would have thought in such a short time that OKC would be playing in the finals. I have to be honest, I have not followed THAT closely. I did watch some of the conference finals. I do however like James Harden. Ya know, the mohawk guy with the long beard. Gotta love him.


In honor of him, this parody cracks me up!!!


Go THUNDER

ENT Update

Spencer had tubes put in his ears in 2009. We have seen the ENT about every 6 months since. Our last visit was in December in which the doctor said that he thought his tubes were getting ready to come out.

Today was his check up and the tube in his right ear appeared to be out, but he couldn't tell in his left ear. He asked if it was ok if he went in and cleaned out the ears to confirm that the tubes were out and the eardrums had healed. He said that it wouldn't hurt, it would just be scary for Spencer, but I could stay in the room with him, so I agreed.

We were taken into another room where a papoose board awaited Spencer. One look at that thing and DUH, yeah, it isn't kinda scary, it is flat out horrifying!
I understand the concept behind it, it immobilizes a terrified child.

Now, don't let this picture fool you. I truly believe that this is a dummy doll and not a real child. NO CHILD would like being put in this thing.
Spencer clung to me and the two nurses peeled his arms away and strapped him in.
Spencer cried and cried, "mama, I want to hold you" he said over and over. Whenever he wants me to pick him up, that's what he says. He doesn't say, "mama, hold me" he says "I want to hold you."

The crying continued as the doctor began to pull some nasty stuff out of his ears (eeeewwwwww) and then there was a SCREAM. A holy terror scream and Spencer yelling that it hurt.
What happened to, "it won't hurt him" part? Bullllllllll
Spencer was in pain.
The poor baby suffered through this in both ears and it was finally over.
All the gunk and tubes were out.
Spencer held onto me like a baby chimp hanging onto its mama's back. He would not let go of me and could barely breathe. I could barely pay my co-pay or get the van door opened up.
I felt awful.
It was done and over with and his ears are fine. I just was not prepared for that.

My Regret

I did not take my good camera on the trip to Chicago. I knew that if I did, I would be worried about breaking it, loosing it or just taking pictures and not having a good time.

While walking up Michigan Avenue we came across the First Presbyterian Church and
I.
about.
died.
Magnificent, beautiful, historic.
Regret, regret, regret.
So, here is from my phone.

Last Day

We spent the morning at Adler Planetarium. This was definitely NOT Spencer's favorite thing. It was very quiet, dark and museum-like pictures and displays. There was a small 5 minute video with a robot on it that he enjoyed. We kept searching for the robot in the gift store, but couldn't find one.

Justin couldn't escape work!

After the planetarium, we headed to the Magnificent Mile; shopping on Michigan Ave.

 The Hershey store was by
far everyone's favorite. We definitely enjoyed the sweet treats. Justin and Spencer got to be a factory worker for a day and the day's pay was a bucket full of candy!

Madison on Madison Street

We also enjoyed the Disney store. Fun, fun, fun. We walked about 5 miles that day, so we were dead tired.

We finished at a pizza place around the corner, delish!

Wet Mess Part II

After being soaked and cold, we decided to head to the Navy Pier Children's Museum. It wasn't a fabulous, huge museum, but it was great for Spencer to burn off some energy.

Zerkus Circus

Construction and tools!!

Just what we needed, more water.

We walked around inside the pier, but didn't get to see any of the outside. We could see some of the boats through the windows and the large ferris wheel. We finished with dinner at Harey Carey's Tavern.

One of my favorite pictures.

Wet Mess

I bought tickets to tour Wrigley Field about three weeks ago. Of course, the day we went was less than perfect.
It was cold, downright cold.
It was windy.
It was raining. A steady rain.
The tour was held rain or shine, so with Spencer wrapped in a blanket. We proceeded to Wrigley.

On the subway, cold and wet.

 In the visitor's locker room. Everyone from Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Pete Rose has been in that room.

View from upper deck.

View from press box.

 The really, really, really wet field.

 Spencer wrapped in his blanket, trying to stay warm.  Don't let the smile fool you, he was fussin and whiny and shivering.

In the dugout.

This was the most disappointing part of the trip. Justin had brought his and Spencer's ball gloves to through the baseball around on the field. We still got to see a lot of things and learn some history, but we all wish it was warmer and sunny.

Brookfield Zoo and the Metra

We headed to Union Station to catch the Metra to Brookfield Zoo. Union Station itself was really neat. If you ever watched The Untouchables, there is a huge scene filmed in Union Station and it was like we could reply it in our minds.
Spencer thought the train was cool and it went WAY FAST!
Our excitement for the zoo quickly diminished when we arrived along with 50 school buses loaded with kids.  The first couple of hours were AWFUL! We couldn't see any exhibits and it we were indoors, it was SO LOUD due to the yelling kids.
We finally got away from so many of the groups and started to see some animals. The polar bear was pretty cool, it was awake and moving around. Most of the other animals were sleeping. Another favorite was the giraffes.

 We stopped on the carousel and Spencer didn't want to ride an animal, he wanted to ride in the couch. Ha, he was hilarious. It wasn't the typical carousel music either. We went from Lady Gaga to Michael Jackson, strange.

 We headed to the aquatic show with a HUGE line. We took seats that were available in the SPLASH zone. The 6 dolphins were awesome. They interacted with the crowd and, as we found out, splash the crowd without being instructed to do so. We all got wet and Spencer just laughed!

 It was time to head back, Justin and I enjoyed a cup of coffee and Madi and Spencer enjoyed some ice cream.

 The clickety-clack soon put Little Man sound asleep on the train. The only problem was our train was arriving at Union Station at 5:23pm. YEP, total RUSH HOUR. I placed Spencer into the stroller and we inched our way through the sea of thousands of people towards the exit.
We knew we were not going to make it getting on the subway with him being sound asleep and them being packed with commuters, so we walked the whole way back to the hotel. He slept the entire time.

We got back to the hotel and waited for him to wake up.
He didn't.
We were all hungry, so we decided we would go around the corner to dinner and he would wake up to eat.
He didn't.
He slept through rush hour, thousands of people, a busy restaurant and still didn't make a peep.
We got back to the hotel.
He woke up at 8:30pm, not ready for bed.