Evanston Getaway

Jackson and I arrived in Chicago last night, and I must say that Jackson was a pretty awesome traveling buddy! I had booked the latest flight Southwest had from DC to Chicago, hoping that a certain someone would sleep. No such luck :( But, as a consolation, Jackson was such a good boy! The flight was about 40 seats short of full so we got lucky and had a whole row to ourselves in the back. Jackson sat on my lap through take-off with his little face plastered to the window watching everything going on with the big airplanes! I think he was in heaven! Once we got into the air, he was quite happy for most of the flight sitting in a seat all by himself! He's such a big boy! He liked playing with the seatbelt parts and pulling the pamphlets and magazines out of the seatback in front of him. He was so happy looking at books and checking out the airplane, that I got to take out my book and read too! By the time we had about half an hour left, the fact that we were over three hours PAST bedtime started to sink in and Jackson curled up on the seat with his blanket, sweatshirt pillow, and pacis and had some quiet time. He never did fall asleep (until his head hit the carseat in the car), but he was SOOO good! I was quite proud of my traveling partner :) Grandpa picked us up and we immediately went to Big Herms for a nightcap aka: milkshake!

This morning we headed out to meet Auntie Kelly and her two-month old daughter, Ryleigh! We were SO excited to meet her! Jackson was hooked as soon as he saw the awesomely huge wheels on Ryleigh's stroller! He held on to her stroller the whole way to Starbucks as we walked through the mall!

Kisses for Ryleigh!

He didn't seem jealous at all while I held Ryleigh and gave her her bottle. He was just anxious to "play" with her! He was so gentle and liked touching her hands and feet.

Auntie Dana enjoys her snuggle time :)

Who's this pretty girl?

I sat her on his stroller tray so they could get a good look at each other and Jackson immediately reached out his arms to hold her!

I let him "help" hold her and he was so gentle! He kept patting her back like he was burping her! It was too funny! I eventually kind of sat her in the stroller with Jackson and he had his arm around her and was just happy as could be to have a seat mate!

After hanging out with the Tadelman girls, we headed over to Nan's place to play for a little while. She was prepared and had a super cute lift-the-flap puppy book for Jackson! He liked it just a little bit... )

Enjoying time in a big boy chair in the dining room!

Testing out Nan's newly re-done balcony!

Nan got lots of hugs and kisses!

Nan introduced Jackson to chocolate Cheerios (and Mommy)! He was checking to make sure Mimi didn't try to steal any of his snack :)

There aren't any pictures, but Jackson ate a HUGE dinner when we met Grandpa at Lou Malnati's for dinner! He polished off half a box of mac and cheese, a package of ravioli, a few bites of chicken, and a pretty decent sized bowl of strawberries! He was still looking around for more food after that too! He really did feel quite heavy when I picked him up after dinner! I wonder where he is putting all of that...