Chicago Marathon! Go Aunt Lindsey Go!!!

Well it's been a whirlwind weekend!  Friday morning, Lindsey, Tate, my parents and I took a 7:25 AM flight to Chicago to watch Lindsey run the Chicago Marathon on Sunday 10-10-10!!  We had a fabulous time. 

I wasn't quite sure it was going to be a great time though!  Here's why!

Aunt Lindsey spent the night Thursday night, so we could drive to the airport together.  We finally get into bed after loading the car...bah...the amount of stuff for a 14 month old is staggering.  We would come to be glad I overpacked.

320 am I wake to the sound of Tate gagging, coughing and retching.  My poor baby has thrown up all over himself, his crib and all his little crib friends.  Now, he's had a cold for about a week, with this cough and allergy gunk all in his nose.  Blech.  So I assume he has thrown up because he was coughing so hard.  I throw all the stuff in the wash and run it.  Get the sheet and mattress pad off as well for the laundry(thankfully there are still 2 layers of sheets and waterproof mattress pads underneath!!).  Strip Tate and into the bathtub, most unhappily I should add, he goes.  329am the washing machine is going, Tate is back in bed asleep and I'm off to dreamland as well as we have to wake at 445am.

445 am I'm up, dressing, loading the last bits into Lindsey's car.  Lindsey is moving around downstairs.  I get Tate up and dressed, and we are walking downstairs and I feel his little tummy rumbling.  This cannot be good, but nothing comes up! (I do see him swallow pretty hard...EEWWWWW!!)  But again, don't think much of it. 

530 am We're in the car on our way to IAH.  I'm in the backseat with Tate and he's happy as a clam. 

6 am Aunt Lindsey drops us off at the airport with ALL of our luggage.  We check in and yay there are Grandmommy and Granddaddy!!  Lindsey gets back to the terminal, and we're off to the gate with more stuff than should be allowed.

7 am I give Tate some breakfast...cheerios, milk and banana. 

730 am Tate falls asleep.

750 am We take off for the Windy City


825 am Tate throws up all over himself in his sleep and wakes up beside himself.  Aunt Lindsey is horrified and can barely bring herself to look at him.  So much for all my 'help.'  Tate and I make our way to the teeny tiny airplane potty, change his clothes from head to toe.  He is then a happy camper.  I now realize he has some sort of stomach bug.  I'm praying it's not like the last time he had a stomach virus because then I came down with it 48 hours later, Aunt Lindsey was sick 60 hours later and Grandmommy was sick 72 hours later.

10 am We're at O'Hare.  Lindsey, Tate and I are picked up by our driver and off to downtown we go, while Grandparents get to their far away from everything airport hotel.

11 am We check into the Swisshotel, get situated and off we go to see the city I used to live in! In the meantime I've spoken to the very very nice triage nurse at our pediatrician. We're to buy Pedialyte, give Tate bland bland foods once he's held the Pedialyte down more than 4-5 hours.
1 pmish Tate can't keep the first sips of Pedialyte down...time to change clothes AGAIN. We visit Niketown, Water Tower Place, Legoland and attempt Garrett Popcorn but the line is too long. The grandparents have joined us as well. Lunch was outside at a little bakery in the unseasonably warm, but gorgeous Chicago weather.

 

225 pm More pediatlyte same result.  But he's a happy boy and in yet ANOTHER outfit.  We decide to start all over with a couple of sips every 30 minutes per Fay's advice as I had given him about 1/2 cup.  This seems to do the trick, however Tate has no food whatsoever on Friday except breakfast.


5 pmish we all head back to the hotel, pick up salad for me for dinner and my parents grab some yummy sandwiches.


630 pm Lindsey leaves to meet a girlfriend out in the city


7 pm Tate is asleep in the pack n play.


The rest of the weekend was just awesome as well.  Saturday morning we all headed off to the Marathon Expo on the Marathon shuttle...a yellow school bus!!  Tate's first time on a school bus...he was not impressed.  He just oohed and awed at everything.  Lindsey and my parents went out to lunch after the expo, and I headed back to the hotel to get Tate down for his nap and to give him a bite of plain yogurt which he kept down!  Yay!!  We napped about 2 1/2 hours...in fact Lindsey and the parental units joined us for about an hour of that nap, so all the Cunninghams were well rested.  Granddaddy stayed at the hotel to watch football, and us girls grabbed the baby and headed off to Navy Pier.  Lindsey and I took Tate on the HUGE ferris wheel then I took him on the Carousel.  It was an early night for all as Lindsey had to be up at 5am to run the MARATHON!!!

5am Sunday came quickly!!  Lindsey was out the door to meet her girlfriend, Kelsie for the race!!  The grandparents arrived around 7am and we swooped Tate out the door after some cheerios and banana (his tummy was doing so much better!!).  He was super excited and we outfitted his stroller with a balloon to cheer Lindsey on!!  We found primo spectator spots in a position about 2 minutes into the race.  You can hear Tate in the second video saying 'woohoo!"  It was an amazing feeling to see all those beautiful runners out there and overwhelming to know my baby sister was out there amongst over 40,000 people running 26.2 miles!!!

We traversed the city to get to great spectator spots to see Lindsey run.  Our timing was a little off, so we didn't see her, but we saw some wonderful, dedicated people.  Those walking and running, old and young, healthy and hurting.  But they were all out there!!!  I met an older gentleman (about 65 to me) whose wife is a 3 year cancer survivor and this was her second marathon!! 


Tate and I had to leave to catch our flight at 1115 because sadly I have to work tomorrow, so we didn't get to see Lindsey finish the  marathon or party with her afterwards.  (bah I hate working)  She finished in about 4HR 45MIN.  She had some major trouble with her quads really tightening up and had to stop at the medics about 3-4 times to get some massage to help her out.  I spoke to her tonight, and she sounds like she's really hurting, but she's thrilled she's completed her 1st marathon.  They'll be home tomorrow and she'll be picking Tate up from daycare which he LOVES.


Oh and Tate has had a boom in his vocabulary!!!


He says....


Lindsey, ok it sounds like Dinsey, but it's very obvious he means her.
Vincent, so you have to know he's talking about the cat, but when you do it's pretty clear :)
He said 'bye bye' clear as day to some stranger on the plane on Friday.
cat, car, 'i did it', uh-oh, mama (and means it more these days)

Oh and he loves clapping his hands.  As I rock him at night he'll be laying with his head on my chest half asleep then he'll pop up and clap his hands 3 times or so, grin at me and lay his perfect little head back on my chest!!  LOVE IT!!!