Happy New Year to everyone!

It’s going to take me 6 months to get the date right over here.

When I went to title this blog post, I wasn’t sure if it’d be considered a 2022 weekend or a 2023 weekend since the switch happened OVER the weekend, but whatever. It was a weekend. And we loved it. Ankur was home for all three days and we got to squish in a ton of fun kid-friendly adventures, but also enjoyed some down time at home.

Let’s do a recap!

On Friday, Ishu and I went to the Children’s Museum in the morning. Turns out, all the children in Chicago and their parents had the same idea. It was extra crowded. Probably because everyone was out on holiday break. But we still managed to enjoy ourselves until nap time.

On Saturday, I took the earliest OTF class while Ankur managed breakfast at home.

We watched Encanto at the Hollywood Bowl (and it was like watching Encanto for the first time all over again. So many tears and emotions!).

And in the afternoon, we went to Harry Potter: Art at Play, an interactive exhibit at Water Tower Place.

Lots of Instagrammable photo opportunities. Haha. I don’t know if we’d recommend this exhibit, especially if you’ve got a two-year old who doesn’t necessarily know Harry Potter all that well.

But, still, it was something to do. And Ishu is pretty much excitable wherever the heck you take him.

He had fun “mixing potions” and using his wand to practice some spells.

He also had fun running around the maze and in the enchanted forest (because they gave us flashlights and lanterns to hold).

We finished the excursion off with some Bertie Botts’ Every Flavor beans. Naturally.

Overall, it was a fun experience, but I probably wouldn’t jump at going again. Unless tickets were pretty cheap. Ha.

On Sunday, we went to Light up the Lake in one of the festival halls at Navy Pier.

Ishu went ice skating for the first time! And he did a few rounds of the choo-choo-train. And ran around all the lit-up exhibits. The ticket also came with a ticket for the Centennial Wheel. Overall, this was definitely worth it for me. Because there was just SO MUCH SPACE for this kid to run around (while also still being indoors and warm). We went last year too, but it was a lot less crowded this year. Probably because the holidays were already over.

In the evening, we did our Secret Santa with the cousins. It’s one of my favorite things. Not necessarily the gift giving or receiving piece of it. But just that we’re all on Zoom all at the same time. It’s not very common that every single one of us is available at the same time. So I just love it. And hope that we can find more opportunities like this in 2023!

And on Monday, we went to the zoo!

We’ve gone to the zoo many times, but the Pritzker Children’s section has always been closed off. This was the first time we’ve seen it open, so we jumped at the chance to walk through it.

We spent most of our time there.

Ishu could have spent hours watching the three turtles. We also got to see all the lions out. Jabari, the “papa lion” was pacing in front of the window. Protecting his family. It was amazing to see them all out and on the rocks.

And that’s it!

Now we’re officially in 2023 and my only hope for this year is MORE. More of the same. More meeting up with family and more OrangeTheory classes and more time to myself and more love and connection with the people I love.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!