Chicago Suburbs with Baby sans husband. AHH!

My dad retired in January. With that came an expected "Let's GO!" attitude and he recently embarked on a 3 week driving expedition to Chicago suburb Aurora to stay with his parents. Naturally, we decided this would be an opportune time for Weston to meet his great grandparents.

May 24, 2017 - May 29, 2017

Learning to travel with baby was an experience. I'm used to packing a single carry on bag to the brim and THAT IS IT. Now I have a checked bag, a carry on bag, a stroller, a car seat, a diaper bag, and a sweet blue eyed boy in an infant carrier staring up at me. AKA: Great upgrade!

I went a little overboard with the "packaging" of our car seat... See that blue bag in the picture? Yea, somewhere underneath all of that is the car seat. Instead of buying a car seat bag like a normal human being, I zipped 2 jackets zipper-to-zipper around it, covered that with a stretchy dress, and then finally put it into this huge canvas laundry bag. It wasn't too difficult to maneuver because I had the stroller with me. I just put the entire blue bag on top of the stroller to wheel it around. If I was going to try and "package" the car seat at the gate it would have been a nightmare. #crazymom #THATmom In my defense, I went a little overboard because I didn't want to worry about it being in a "crash" when it is thrown around or jostled on the plane. I had great intentions, it just didn't come to fruition very well.

After a few flight delays, we finally took off. Wesotn was not a big fasn of these flight delays because we had timed his "nursing on take off" for when we were supposed to take off. 45 minutes off schedule and Weston still acted like a seasoned traveler.

My dad picked Weston and me up at around 10:30pm. Surprisingly Weston not only did great on the flight (Snoozzzzze), he also transitioned to the car seat for the 45 minute drive to Aurora.

Upon arrival to the house, Weston and I settled in quickly. I decided to travel without the pack n play. Yikes. This whole "I'm a cool mom" act was fading quickly. We set up a pallet on the floor with the Dock-a-Tot (yes that fit in our checked bag with some special maneuvering) for Weston. He was not super cozy, so we ended up co-sleeping with a one-armed Dock-a-Tot against the wall (Weston is a stomach sleeper so its too skinny for him to sleep with his arms filleted to either side) and we both slept much better.

Over the next few days we spent time with family, went on numerous walks (and got chased by a black bird), practiced outdoor yoga, and ate delicious food. My favorite was the family time though. No time for scenic tours of Chicago on this trip... we were here for maximum snuggle time!

One outing that was particularly fun for the family was to the Morton Arboretum. Weston is currently VERY into the color green so this place was very interesting to the little scientist.

Another fun outing we had was to Fox Lake to visit my dads friend from college and his growing family. The lake is about 45 minutes northwest of downtown Chicago and boy was it was beautiful! The weather was great for an outdoor dinner and great conversation in their backyard.

The rest of the time was spent as it should be, with family. Weston is a lucky little boy to be able to meet his Great Grandmother (Barb, AKA Nanny), Great Grandfather (Jim, AKA Grandad, AKA Weston's middle name!), Great Uncle Craig (my dads younger brother), Great Aunt Kathy (Craig's wife), Great Cousin Connor (my cousin and Craig and Kathy's son)), Great Great Aunt Sue (my Grandad's sister) and Great Great Uncle Tim (Sue's hubby). This is 4 generations of love right here people!

Chicago was a blast! Figuring out how to travel with our new little dude was interesting, but now I feel like Weston and I are both ready for the next adventure. How about this next time we bring Toby?