Chicago: The Ritz and Giordano's

My mom and sister did all the planning for the trip (thanks again, guys!), and ended up finding that the nicest place to stay for the cheapest price happened to be the Ritz Carlton. So they got us two rooms, one for them and one for Baylor and I, and thus began the adventure.


While Mom and Christine were checking in, I decided to sit in one of the comfy chairs in the concierge area and rest my dogs. Little B and I had a great time looking at all the people and all the finery, when a hotel employee by the name of Kwame came up and started chit chatting with us. At first I thought he was just trying to be nice with my kid, but then I realized he thought I was a vagrant with a young son just using the Ritz as a resting spot. Awesome. I quickly told him that my mom and sister were checking us in, and he left us alone.



Upon realizing we were guests, we were treated very well, and they even gave my son a little teddy bear with a Ritz Carlton t-shirt and bow tie!

I don't think anyone appreciated the room as much as my son did. From the rings on the dresser drawers ... (so fun for flipping)

... to the pedestal lamp with the foot-press on/off switch ...

... to the view from the crib they provided, it was all wonderful. (And I appreciated that they put outlet covers on all the exposed outlets, giving me one less thing to worry about.)

The view was nice, though we had the shades shut a lot of the time for napping and whatnot.

And I got the big bed all to myself. Sadly, the bedding was predominantly down-filled, so I ended up with allergy problems. But I'll go into more detail on that later when it actually became an issue. For now ... isn't the bed pretty?!

After the hotel and a little shopping, we went to Giordano's for dinner. Little B ate while we waited for our medium deep dish cheese pizza (FYI for all of you thinking about enjoying a little deep dish pizza ... a small will easily satisfy the appetites of three ladies, even if one is pregnant). (That said, the pizza was amazing!) Then this happened.

Yup, he slept at noisy, crowded Giordano's for a full half hour! People walked by and smiled at him, his cherubic face smushed up against his pudgy little hands. My mom worried that his hands would fall asleep, but I knew he would be fine. Besides, I can't protect him from all the times his hands will fall asleep ... I am NOT going to his 8 a.m. college classes with him!

Anyhow, he eventually woke up, unstuck his fingers from one another, waited for his hands to return to life, and was happy as a clam again. He's an amazing kid, what can I say?