Last night Adam and I celebrated our anniversary at Sepia. It received one star in the Chicago Michelin ratings. It’s also reviewed often as a romantic place for dinner. The chef is Andrew Zimmerman, formerly chef de cuisine at NoMi (At the Peninsula). The food is considered “seasonally focused contemporary American”. It had a lot to live up to!

It did not disappoint. The food was all cooked to perfection with interesting and unusual flavors. And as I’m currently obsessed with locally grown, naturally farmed foods (that’s for another blog) and that is Sepia’s speciality, I was very interested in experiencing it.

However, I think I have been terribly spoiled by my husband. So much so that an expensive dinner at a trendy restaurant is a normal occurrence in my life. As such, it just felt like a normal date night with my husband, not an anniversary.

The real feeling of fulfillment for having such a wonderful partner in life and great kids didn’t come that evening. It came the next day, while Adam and the kids were at a birthday party and I was at a bridal shower.

As I watched the couple opening presents, I marveled at how much Adam and I had been though already.

A short seven years ago it was Adam and I up there, opening up presents that would start our lives together in front of (pretty much) the same audience.

Who knew back then how much our lives would change? New dwellings, new car, most importantly – new little people. We are a bona fide family now. I certainly couldn’t imagine then how great things would be now. How much the kids have enriched our lives. How much Adam and I have grown together. I’m feeling very happy today.

Ice Skating?

This afternoon we were invited to an ice skating party at Bicentennial Plaza. It was the first time our kids had experienced ice skating. Okay, the kids didn’t end up doing a lot of ice skating. Adam was the only one who got a real work out. Mostly they sat on the chairs and danced to the music while Adam pushed and spun them around. But hey, it’s a start!

It was one of those occasions I really wished I wasn’t pregnant. Normally that feeling only happens when everyone else around me is drinking, so it was a surprise. It just looked like so much fun!

I can’t wait to go back when I’m able to skate. The party we went to was a private rental from 1-3:30 but they are open Monday-Friday, 1-9 p.m and Saturday and Sunday, 3:30-8:30 p.m. There is a teen skate every Friday, 5-7 p.m. It’s $7 for skate rental and admission is free. I’d try to get there by public transportation. We couldn’t find street parking and ended up parking in the Millennium Park garage for 3 hours and were charged a whopping $30 dollars.

Adam’s newly merged law firm comes with some new perks. Like a sky box at Gillette Stadium. So Sunday he flew out to see the Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens.

Before he left, he left me this note, which I think due to my pregnancy hormones made me all teary….

Note from Adam

It’s stuff like this that makes me think I married well above myself. Above you see his reaction to going to the game. My reaction when I heard?

“Wow, it’s going to be awkward having my boyfriend and husband in one place.” (At our house the big joke is that my boyfriend is Tom Brady.)

Adam, “I think I can handle it.”

It’s funny how we change as mothers as time goes on.

When we had play dates with our first born children, we would all sit around in one room, watching the kids interact closely. We would reprimand them for any little misbehavior, all while comparing every detail of their lives, from the hardships of getting them to eat a balanced diet to the color of their poop.

Such were my thoughts when I opened the bathroom door at my friend Lottie’s house this afternoon to find my second born son in the bathroom with her third born daughter. Both kids had their diapers and pants off. Ben was sitting on the mini-potty and Georgie was standing behind him complaining it was her turn.

Playdate at the Clayton's

I have no idea how these two little 2 and 1/2 year olds who are not even potty trained yet decided collectively they should go into the bathroom, close the door, take their pants off and pee together.

Now that we all have more kids, Lottie and I were busy in the kitchen preparing dinner and talking about things that have nothing to do with diet or poop.

Still I was upset that I didn’t have a camera ready to record this odd moment which struck me in the funny bone. I actually think since it was Lottie’s third, it wasn’t even that funny for her. Just par for the course.

After Ben’s first round of antibiotics (Amoxicillin), he was doing much better. No more chesty cough. He was back to his usual giggly self. However, the rash which first tipped us off to Strep persisted.

We had given him Amoxicillin in the past and it didn’t work, but it was to clear a bacterial infection. We were told by the doctor’s office that for Strep, Amoxicillin was quite effective.

So, last weekend Adam asked me to bring Ben back to get another Strep test. They looked in all the cavities in his head and they looked fine. Then she looked at the rash. She said it wasn’t the normal look of a Strep rash. However, his bumpy, goose pimple-like skin was. She gave him the test again.

It came back positive.

I was surprised, so was she. She said she almost never sees it after a dose of Amoxicillin, but perhaps he caught it again or maybe he’s a carrier.

At this point we looked at Ben. He was laying on his stomach licking the floor of the doctor’s office.

We are now finished with another round of antibiotic (Azithromycin). At first it didn’t clear the rash, but we were also given a topical steroid cream (Hyrdrocortisone) and it seemed to work. I’m not even sure the two were related (the rash and Strep) but I’m just glad that we live in an age where these things are easily rectified.

Finally Ben is sleeping well again at night. I’m not getting woken up until somewhere between 4 and 6am. Given the past month, it’s considered a windfall.

Of course, as soon as that situation was solved, another one surfaced.

Last night just as Adam and I were going to bed, Jack woke up and threw up all over his bed. Nothing like having a sensitive nose from pregnancy and be bombarded with the stench of puke.

Unfortunately it didn’t stop. I sat upright on the couch while Jack slept on me, waking up every hour or two to puke. (Jack felt better in the upright position.) Adam got up and cleaned the various puke filled blankets each time. At 4am Adam and I switched. Just in time for Ben to wake me up, but I settled him until 7am. Adam didn’t get so lucky and was basically up all night.