Good morning, good morning!

Today is a special day because Ishu’s Nanu and Nani are coming to visit for the week! I’ve been trying to explain to Ishu that they’re coming, but not quite sure he understands. He just says “Nana” and then points to the TV.

So he’s going to get quite the surprise when they show up and give him all the slobbery kisses.

I’m so excited to show them all the things we’ve been up to here. I’m going to take them to the playgrounds, the Children’s Museum, Ishu’s new school, the river, the lake, everywhere!

Ankur was trying to figure out which of the tourist attractions we should get tickets for. And my response was, “I’m pretty sure they don’t want to do any of that.” I’m pretty sure their biggest attraction is this little toddler.

Anyway, I should PROBABLY be folding laundry and getting the apartment ready for their arrival. But, I just wanted to pop on here and upload some pictures of our fun weekend adventures. If you follow me over on Instagram/FB, you may have already seen all the videos from the Children’s Museum and the zoo.

The videos capture this little guy’s excitement more than any blog post could. But, still, wanted to share some photos here since I’ve been pretty good about keeping up with the blogging too!

Friday

On Friday morning, we met up with Allie and her daughter, Davis, at the Children’s Museum. I’ve been following Allie (Miss Behavior) for a few years. She’s in special education and she’s been a great resource for me as a teacher. But in the last year or so, we’ve also connected as new mamas and I was SO excited when we could meet up in person.

We spent most of our time in the Pritzker Playspace with Yola!

I was blown away by how intentional this space was for our little ones. I knew that, after one visit, that this membership is totally going to be worth it. Especially in the winter!

We both decided to head home around noon so our little ones could nap. But Ishaan ended up only napping for half an hour so we both went BACK to hang out with Yola.

In addition to the playspace, we hung out in the “Zoom Room,” a place with the craziest car tracks. We played with the big fire truck, the Treehouse Trails (where Ishu didn’t want to stop pushing the button that made the bird sounds). But, of course, we made our way back to Yola again. It’s so nice to have a space where I didn’t have to pull him off things or pick him up and move him because he was standing in someone’s way.

This space, specifically designed for babies and toddlers, had a Montessori feel. And, by the end of the day, Ishu was completely enamored with Yola. They were best friends.

When we left the museum, we decided to put his swimsuit on and splash in the fountain a little before heading home.

He is LIVING THE LIFE over here.

It goes without saying that he was pretty pooped by the end of the day. By the time he took a bath and ate some dinner, Ankur was home. Ankur put him to sleep (which took only a few minutes) and then we were both able to enjoy a date night on the couch!

Saturday

On Saturday, we went to the zoo for the first time! The Lincoln Park Zoo is free for the public; we only had to pay for parking so that was pretty great.

Our first stop at the zoo was to see the monkeys. Which might have been a poor move on our part because Ishu just wanted to see “mo, mo MUH” (more more monkeys).

He kept running around, banging his fists together, chanting, “mo, mo MUH.”

Kid knows what he wants.

He was still pretty pumped to see the other animals. But, we’re pretty sure monkeys are his favorite. He also does a pretty great impression of the monkeys.

We saw the rhinos, ostriches, flamingos, giraffes, seals, otters, penguins, and other reptiles. And we took Ishu for his first train ride! And then, by the end of that, we decided it was unbearably hot and time to go home.

We stopped to pick up a popsicle for Ishu on the way out and then drove the 15 minutes home. Can’t believe this great, fun, free place is so close to us!

Sunday

On Sunday, we went BACK to the Children’s Museum so Ankur could see how fun it is!

We spent an hour there and then got hungry so we picked up some kebab wraps and ate them outside.

It was too hot and too sunny to make a stop at the fountain before going home. So we went back into the museum for a little bit before calling it a day.

The other great thing about having a membership is that you can just pop in for a little bit without feeling guilty that you need to take advantage of ALL the things. I imagine many more pop-ins just to play in the playspace for a couple hours!

Ishu took a pretty solid nap when we got home, which allowed Ankur and I to clean up the apartment and organize things before my parents come today!

We still have work to do, so I’m going to log off now and get some stuff done!

Hope you all had a beautiful weekend!