Chicago

This morning was a challenge. Noah woke up at 6am. You read that right, SIX OH CLOCK. Unfortunately, with Noah, we have to cover his window with a blanket to help shield the light, because otherwise, he wakes up so early. We've been doing this for a long time, so last night I thought, maybe we don't need to do this anymore. I was wrong. I am tired of covering his window with a blanket, so I think we will look into some room darkening blinds. We all had to be awake at 7:30am for church. This was not an easy task considering I had slept for less than six and Brian slept for 4. (he stayed up way too late!) So, we all GROUCHILY (is that word?) got ready for church.

When we go to church, Brian and Noah head inside and I walk with Anna to another building for Sunday school. Noah is such a joy at church. He just sits so calm and enjoys the music and the crowd, when he turned 2 he was old enough to attend Sunday school, but we enjoyed his Sunday company so much, that we had decided to wait until next year, August, to enroll him. Well, due to his lack of sleep, he was not such a joy today. Therefore he is starting Sunday school next week! It's not that he cried or screamed, he just wanted to play and climb around and that is not what church is for, obviously. He and Anna will be attending the same class, Anna Helen Pletcher THREE is very excited about Noah going with her next week. I am a little sad, but we get to go to mass with both of them during the summer

We knew the day was just going to be more difficult because of all of us being so tired. So at 11am, we decided to take a short trip to Chicago. We had lots of fun! It was a little cold, but it was the perfect way to spend the day. Although, I should have stayed home to clean, I'm so glad we went. I think all of us are glad. Noah fell asleep for about 20 minutes on the way, which was just enough to get him through the day until his real nap time. Anna kept saying "there's the city!" Talking about Gary or some other area with lots of buildings. Finally she saw the city. She calls Chicago, Chitago. Very cute. She loved the buses and trains, the lake and the people. Both of the kids probably said hi to hmmm................50-60 people. Seriously, it was funny. They even said Hi to homeless people, which really taught me something about humans as we get older. To children, they don't see a difference in anyone, until they are TAUGHT to see a difference. They said "hi" to these people like they were old friends. "hi!! What's your name!?" They always replied politely with smiles. It's interesting that we can't even make eye contact, but Anna and Noah (any child) could have talked and played for hours without ever knowing the difference. We got home and 3pm. Anna woke up at 5:15pm. We had to drag Noah out of bed at 5:30, it was so hard to wake him up, poor tired boy!

Anyway, of course, I've attached pictures! Right now we are under a tornado watch until 6am. This system has produced multiple tornadoes today, I just heard over 100 reported from this system. For Christmas I asked my parents for a NOAA Weather Radio. They bought one for all six of us kids, so I feel so much better having that by my bed. I don't know if you recall, but late last November a tornado hit an area in Indiana in the middle of the night killing over 20 people. After that I knew I had to get one of these. You should get one, too.

The WINDY WINDY City!!

The Magnificent Mile! Magnificent it is!

Notice the green river? Every year they dye the Chicago River green for St. Patty's Day. They did it this morning at 10am!

Heading back to the car with some goodies!