Emma in Chicago

Right before we left for our first church meeting in Chicago. Emma is wearing my dress from when I was little.  Our meetinghouse is almost 5 miles away so we took public transportation to get there--but still ended up walking over a mile. I had like 10 blisters on my feet because I wore some new wedges. The upside: my legs looked fantastic so I'd say it was worth it.

On Monday Emma was a little more worn out than usual when I was making dinner....

She NEVER does this, so I knew she was coming down with something to make her fall asleep all over our teeny apartment (this is a different spot than the pic above).

Then a day later I changed her diaper and found this on her legs. So gross. I took her to urgent care the next day and they had no idea what caused it. So they told me to give her benadryl and it cleared up after one dose.  

She'd also had a fever for a few days and the doctor told me it was because of an ear infection. Poor baby! So I got lots of snuggles. 

Emma was even feeling sick enough to do this while I showered. She does not like it when I shower and don't let her play around in the tub so this was crazy. 

But it's also been pretty fun in Chicago. Emma loves how much time we spend outside finding things to do. This was at a splash pad in Millennium Park.

Stuck under the coffee table. This coffee table (that we did not pick out, our apartment came furnished) has very sharp corners so Andrew and I are always on edge since she still falls over constantly.

We took a walk along the lake. It was so beautiful! I loved looking at all the sailboats and yachts. Andrew and I kept picking out ones that we would purchase. Obviously mine looked like they came straight out of VH1's Yachts of the Rich and Famous.

There are a bunch of free events at the Pritzker Pavilion (sp) in Millennium Park, and since it's just a block away from our apartment we went to one last week. We brought a picnic dinner while we waited for the show to start. Emma was more interested in feeding us than eating it herself. 

The show was an orchestra performing Louis Armstrong and Etta James music, and Emma looooved it. She kept dancing and clapping her hands. It was adorable. As is everything else she does.

Andrew won tickets to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes from work so we took Emma with us (we don't have a babysitter yet). I had absolutely no desire to see this movie so I was kind of hoping Emma would freak out and I would have to take her out, but she did really well and only fussed a couple times. If only she behaved that well during church. The best part was the free popcorn and drinks we got. Score!

Random

I don't think many people read this blog, but Emma is too adorable to keep from the world. And there's only so many times in a week that I can instagram.

 We've been spending a lot of time at playgrounds since Emma learned how to walk. She's a fan....

 ....Mostly. Sometimes the park is just too much fun.

 She loves our bubble machine. And her beads.

 She does not like to part with the beads.

 Just waving to her subjects.

 She absolutely loves the girls I babysit. 

 Strolling with a leg up. 

 We dogsat for Andrew's parents last weekend and so I spent five days chasing Emma who was chasing the dog (and wanted nothing to do with Emma).

 Thrilled I gave her an entire oreo.

 She loves water.

 More bubbles!

 More playgrounds!

 She wants everything to turn into a necklace. Not pictured: her tantrum when she couldn't figure out how to get all our laundry around her neck.

 Trying to act like a big girl.

THIS FACE. I die.

Ireland

 We took a redeye flight to Ireland, and thankfully Andrew and I ended up having three seats, so Emma slept on the floor. The entire way. Because she's an angel baby made to travel. Multiple passengers around us and flight attendants told us how surprised they were when they saw Emma at the end of the flight when we woke her up during landing.

There was a protest going on downtown when we got there. This made it so the buses couldn't move so we ended up walking most of the way to our hotel (pictured above) with our luggage. It was a beautiful day so it wasn't too bad. That and Andrew rolled my suitcase for me since I was pushing the stroller.

One of the first things we did was tour the Dublin Castle. Very interesting.

Really old part of Dublin Castle.

 Just crawling around. 

We did the hop-on-hop-off bus while we were in Dublin. Totally worth it. The weather was partly sunny and not cold, so I loved sitting on the upper deck.

Waiting for the bus.

We toured Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells. Andrew was excited to see the library at Trinity because it's so unique. The books are arranged by size so it's very aesthetically pleasing to look at.

We also toured Kilmainham Jail. 

One of our only group shots. Andrew was behind the camera for most of the trip.

Emma was happy whenever we let her crawl around on the ground. 

After two days in Dublin we rented a car and drove around the countryside for the next two days. Our first stop was Kilkenny Castle. 

View from the back

Next stop was Rock of Cashel. This was the coldest part of the trip. I was freeeeeezing.

 But we got this cool jumping pic so I'd say it was worth it. The views were pretty cool.

 We stayed the night in Cork and started the next day with Blarney Castle. It was my favorite part of the trip! It was a beautiful day and the grounds were gorgeous. We were also able to climb up the castle and explore.

 It was a little treacherous getting to the top to kiss the Blarney Stone. I was glad Andrew was wearing Emma and not me. I would have probably tumbled to the bottom.

 Kissing the stone was slightly terrifying since we had to bend over backwards over a grate way high up, but the views were awesome.

 Irish countryside=the bomb

 We drove along the coast for a while and saw Dingle, a small coastal town. That was pretty cool. Our last stop was the Cliffs of Moher. Emma enjoyed crawling around.

We loved Ireland! It was a great spring break trip!