Chicago Visit

Well, I just left Chicago two days ago, after five days with my two young nephews, ages 3 1/2 and almost 1. My mom and I came to tag-team babysit while my sis and her hubby were out of town. We came, we loved, we got the stomach flu, and then I headed back home. Well, my mom didn't get sick until after I left. The boys already were sick when we got there. Man, it was wicked.

Before I got sick and after the boys were feeling better, we did have One Grand Adventure. It was my mom's idea - go to the nearby firehouse! She called and said if we could come by with the boys. They said great - they even were doing a water exercise out in a field when we got there. My nephews were amazed as the water shot high into the air. One fireman came over quickly to introduce himself to my older nephew, who is at the age where he can get nervous around new things. He went from that to helping shut down the fire hydrant. When the firemen suggested he look in the truck itself, though, it was too much. Time to go home, he said. And when they offered to let him put on a fire hat - oh my goodness. I did show him the hat, and showed him the eagle on the hat. They said to come back any time. As we left, my nephew (teary-eyed and ready to "go home," as he put it) took hold of my hand. I said, "Say 'thank you,'" and pointed to the firemen. He turned around, waved and, between tears, said, "Thank you." Even in the midst of tears, he's able to be polite. So sweet. In his defense, it was a pretty big truck.

We had other fun in the sun too. On Sunday, it was a Great Windy Day. My mom had gotten a kite at the store - not big, but manageable and with a dragon as its face. She got photos of me trying to tame the kite, hair blowing everywhere.... the kite won. She also got photos of my nephew holding the kite - and one photo of the sky, when we actually got the kite up and running. Now that photo is of the sky, not the kite in the sky, as somehow the kite evaded photography at that point. Still, it's an illustrative pic of what we accomplished. Within a few moments after that Kite Success, the wind was too much and destroyed what was left of the winged creature. We got a photo of that too (will try to add some later).

Still, with all the illness, it was a chopped-up visit. As I was getting ready to leave on Monday afternoon, I looked at these two lovely boys and wondered if we had laughed enough. The baby was teething too, though everyone seemed to have recovered from the flu part of the five days... So in the final minutes of my visit, I gave them both a bunch of belly raspberries, going from one belly to the other, and then a bunch of kisses too. It made them both laugh, even as they squirmed to get out of my grasp. The baby's giggling seemed to help him forget he was teething, at least for a few minutes. We definitely all needed the laughs.