Overnight

In the 3 years of Claire's life, I've left her overnight twice: our two-night hospital stay when Kyle was born. I had never left Kyle overnight. Until now.

Lucian turned 40 last week, a milestone I thought deserved something big. I booked a hotel downtown Chicago and got a reservation at one of our favorite fancy restaurants. I was really looking forward to it, as I have dreamed many times of sleeping in or even sleeping through the night over the past year.

My parents stayed at our house so we could get away. We are grateful to have such willing family members to watch our little ones.

Reading Claire's bedtime stories together on Fri. night

We had Vietnamese food in Uptown on our way to the city and wandered the Art Institute looking at amazing pieces of art in the afternoon.

Admiring a Monet

Dinner was fabulous and I even had a few cocktails, another little pleasure that has been scarce over the past year (or three).

Tiny (delicious) tacos

 Blood orange margarita

The kids behaved well, slept through the night, and were all in one piece when we returned. Overall this was a huge success, even though I still woke up at 4:30am. We will be doing this again:)

The view from our room

Claire catching snowflakes