So...yesterday Mom, Clara, Tom and I left around 1:00 in the afternoon for Chicago. Tom had been working a 30 hour shift (nope, not a typo...he has to work some crazy shifts) and he got home around noon. We dropped Chelsea off at the dog sitter's house and we were off to the Windy City. About 3.5 hours later, with some major traffic jams, we pulled into our hotel. We went out to eat at Giordano's, an awesome pizza place with deep dish Chicago style pizza. It was different...they put the tomato sauce on the very top of the pizza (with the cheese and other toppings between the tomato sauce and the crust). Yummm! After dinner, my Mom and Clara went to the hotel pool and Tom and I headed downtown on the subway for a Cubs game.
Wrigley Field was a lot of fun - Tom and I bought some tickets from a scalper and found our seats. We each drank an Old Style beer and shared a pretzel. The game was fun, but the cubs lost so we didn't get to sing the fun 'Go Cubs Go' song. Darn. 
Back at the hotel, after playing in the pool, Clara got a bath and went to sleep in her handy pack 'n play. This was Clara's first night ever away from me. She slept in my mom's hotel room all night :) She slept like a champ and I was happy to have a night off! The next morning we were excited...We all headed downtown to the American Girl store!! We had reservations for brunch at the American Girl Cafe. This was quite a place!! Wow...a little girls dream (and a big girls too). We picked out an American Girl doll to sit with us at our table...a cute little blond girl with long hair. They really try to make this special for the little girls and their dolls. The napkin holder is a cute hair scrunchy you can take home and the dolls are served their very own tea cup and saucer. The food was great and Clara was happy and well behaved. It was really sweet to see the excitement on all the little girl's (and big girl's) faces. Many were there for their birthdays and you could tell this was a special day. After brunch, we did some shopping and looked around the store. Can you believe they have a doll hospital, a styling salon for the dolls hair, and 3 floors worth of American Girl dolls? We spent quite a while looking around!
The doll styling salon 
Later on we met up with Tom down on the "Magnificent Mile" and went to Millenium Park. We walked around the reflective sculpture which looks like a kidney bean. After that we found these cool, urban fountains. After some discussion, Tom and I decided to let Clara play in the water, but we would take her clothes off so she wouldn't be soaked all day. After being in the stroller most of the day, Clara was ready to move! She had so much fun splashing and crawling through the shallow water. So cute!!
Here are a few video clips of Clara playing in the water.
After walking around a little bit more, we loaded back into the car and drove home. Clara was asleep within a few minutes of being in the car. So were my mom and I :) We had a great time and are hoping to go back again soon.
