Chicago: French Toast and Shedd's

While I would not categorize our first night at the Ritz as "awful", I will say that my little man stirred (cried loudly without waking) at least four times that night, leaving me a little sleep deprived the next day. That said, we had a day full of fun planned, and I was not about to let fatigue get the best of me.

We headed downstairs to the 12th floor for some fancy breakfast, and Baylor actually tried french toast! Well, not in this picture.

But in this one he's eating french toast! My little boy, who shuns all things bread-related, tried and seemed to love french toast! I was so proud of him! And so happy that my sister was willing to share her breakfast with him (I had already slathered mine with syrup and wasn't ready for that kind of sticky).

After breakfast, we headed down to our car and drove on over to Shedd Aquarium, one of my favorite spots in Chicago. Once there, we paused in front of the building to admire a statue they had of a giant man holding a giant fish.

After beating all the school kids into the building, we paused briefly to check out some catfish in the Amazon exhibit; my son's first glimpse of the wonder that is an aquarium.

Knowing that they had a penguin exhibit, we headed downstairs to beat the rush and see what they had to offer. The jellyfish were so cool, though, that we had to stop there and let the little man see the floating wonders.

Then we scurried over to the penguins, and, let me tell you, it was a hit! The little penguins he's seen in books finally came to life and were interested in him! How very exciting!

I know you can't see it in the picture above, but this was his view.

Since a stroller is no place to enjoy the aquarium, we got him out so he could get a little closer to the action. And, boy, did he enjoy it!

He even blew the penguins kisses!

Then we moved on and saw a dolphin.


And some other assorted fish and underwater creatures. Sadly, he quickly got tired and needed a nap, so we headed back to the hotel. Here is his "I'm tired, Mom" face.


So we headed back to the hotel; he took a nap, and I sat in the bathroom for two hours while he slept. Not the most fun I've ever had, but he was so happy after his nap and I felt better knowing someone was in the hotel room with him. Such is life!