My first few weeks as a SAHM!

I've been an official full-time SAHM (Stay At Home Mom) for a few days short of 3 weeks! Considering we spent 1 of those weeks with family in PA and the other weeks running around house hunting, I don't feel that Connor & I have gotten into a rhythm or routine. I'm guessing we won't find our routine until we are settled into a house. Who knows how long that will be!?

In the 2 weeks that Connor and I have been in IL, we have tried to keep busy. There were a few days where we were stuck indoors due to storms (today being one), but other than that we've had a blast! Let's see...we've done some shopping, explored the downtown area, gone for long walks to explore the area, gone to a children's museum, and gone to the zoo & the pool. We have been able to meet a few new people. I met a mom at the pool, at the children's museum, AND at the zoo. Hopefully I can continue to meet up  with a few of the moms and form friendships. Connor met a little boy at the museum and they "clicked". It was very cute. Connor's form of "loving" someone is by putting his forehead up to your face (my family calls it "eye-eye"). Well, when he met this little boy, he immediately gave him eye-eyes. I had to explain to his mother what he was doing so that she didn't think we were weird! Ha ha.

Connor is taking off in all directions!! He is cruising around our little apartment & making laps nonstop! Of course with walking comes the bumps & bruises. I am really struggling with that because he's starting to collect a few on his face. Ugh. He is also becoming insistant on feeding himself. If I have yogurt or something else REALLY good that he likes in a pureed form, he will let me feed him, but that's the only time. We have learned the hard way that spaghetti makes a big mess when we let him feed himself! :) But, man it is so darn cute!!!

We are getting visitors tomorrow - Meme & Pappy (my parents). My dad does business in Chicago and is coming for a business trip. Of course my mom is tagging along and he extended the trip through the weekend! We are planning to do a lot of fun things. We are hoping to go into the city over the weekend & show them the downtown area. I am hoping the weather is nice because we'd like to take Connor to a splash park & to a few festivals going on here this weekend. Should be fun!

Well, that's it for now.. we have a lot of fun things planned for next week! I'll post an update later in the week!

~ The Windy City ~

Connor and I reunited with Ryan on Saturday! We were so excited and happy to see him at baggage claim after a long day of delayed flights! Connor did well considering the circumstances. We took off from State College at 10:30 am and arrived in Philly shortly after. It was a very short flight. Connor does not want held anymore; he wants to be on the go, go, go!! So, I had to fight him a little bit to stay still on the plane. He fussed and whined for me, so I was glad that it was a short flight. Let's just say that the first flight made me nervous for the next, much longer, flight. We were supposed to take off in Philly at 1:50pm, but as you can guess, we were delayed. First it was 25 minutes, then 50 minutes, then 70 minutes, and then finally 2 hrs and 5 mins later, we took off ! Our time in the airport was challenging...again because Connor doesn't want to stay still and because he was tired and couldn't settle in the busy airport. I guess our struggles in the airport were a blessing in disguise because he slept throught he entire 2nd flight, even with having it extended 35 min because we couldn't land in O'Hare due to storms. I was extremely nervous about nursing him in public over this trip (yes, he's still nursing full-time ~ we are cutting back when he turns 1), but it went really well and he fell asleep within minutes of nursing!

Ryan, Connor, and I are living in a western suburb of Chicago called Naperville. It's amazing. It's beautiful, busy, and family friendly! We doubt we'll settle in Naperville permanently because of the cost of living, so we're looking to buy a house in Plainfield. So far we 've seen about 10-12 houses, some for a 2nd time, and we have agreed of a favorite. Actually, it's perfect minus one small thing...the commute! However, it's move-in ready, we love how the previous owner painted, it's on a cul-de-sac in a community with a lot of kids, it has a finished basement, it has a huge back yard with a fence, the yard backs up to an elementary school (I could walk Connor to school if we are still living here when he starts school). The only downfall is that it'll be about a 45 min commute for Ryan. We've realized that he's going to have a 30-45 min commute regardless of where we settle. We've decided that we are going to put buying a house on hold for a few weeks because Ryan's company (Sara Lee) is considering a move into the city. That would mean an hour + commute for Ryan if we live in Plainfield, and we don't want that. We are hoping the company announces a decision in the next week or two so we can move forward.

The furnished apartment they have us in is nice, but small. Connor has already put teeth marks in the TV stand and pulled down one of the blinds. He keeps me busy in this apartment trying to prevent any further destruction.

We haven't had too much time to be tourists yet. We've eaten at a few restaurants and went to the riverwalk downtown. We are hoping to have time to do more sightseeing this weekend!

Connor has been doing great with the transition here and with the time change. He's been very pleasant and has slept through the night each night so far! He even slept through horrible storms we've had two nights in a row. See the link below...after this storm, the temp dropped from 102 to 57!!!

Chicago Storm ~ 6/9/11

In addition to transitioning so well, Connor has also started walking...he's on the move!! He's walking between furniture, across rooms...anywhere his little heart desires!!

Ryan and I are meeting up with other couples with kids tonight at Central Park in Naperville. We found this group through http://www.meetup.com/! We're hoping to be able to make friends with other couples our age who have little ones. Hopefully the weather holds out!!

That's all for now! I'm hoping to be more diligent about updating the blog now that we are hear and 'kind of' settled!