Sprinkles Cupcakes and Bill and Giuliana Rancic!

On Monday, the beloved LA cupcakery opened up a shop in Chicago! Brad gets them when he goes to LA for shoots and has always raved about how yummy they are. I've always been a devoted fan of the cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery so I was interested to see if they compared and couldn't wait to try them out! I'm not supposed to be eating sugar/dairy/wheat but I didn't care. I tasted them and YES, they are giving Magnolia a run for their money. I think I may have a new cupcake love! Not to mention how pretty they are! I let Baker have one, even at 11:15, and he seemed to love them too! We were sitting in the small shop when Bill and Giuliana Rancic walked in from the back! I was so excited. I knew they were going to be there so I hoped to see them. Brad and I watch their show on E! and we love E! News so we're fans! :) They are as nice as I thought they would be, and of course beautiful people too. Their white teeth make me sick!

Yummy goodness!

Our order...a gluten free red velvet (which wasn't my fave but that's thanks to it being G-free), red velvet which was divine, black and white and milk chocolate vanilla. Yummo!

Bill, owner Candace Nelson, Giulana, and owner Charles Nelson

Something must have been funny!

So cute.

Bill, Candace and Giuliana

The most adorable storefront ever.

I took a picture of everyone outside trying to catch a peak of the Rancics.

Baker and I were just hanging out when this nice man came up to us and was enamored with Baker. He was so friendly so we were talking away. He then tells me he is Charles' (the owner) dad and this is his mom. He pretty much gave me their family story and told me all about his grandkids and about how cute he thought Baker was. As we were getting ready to leave, he and his wife helped me clean Baker's cupcake mess up (as you can imagine was bad!), took the stroller out for me, and were literally some of the nicest people I've ever met. He wanted to take a picture of us so I asked if I could take a picture of them too! Then when we got outside, we met Candace's mom and her little girl. He then took more pictures of Baker with her. I seriously thought we were family! I'm sure that the owners are gonna wonder who on earth this strange girl and her little boy is in these pics though! Ha!

I promised Baker a trip to the playground afterwards. So we checked out a playground behind Water Tower Place that we haven't been to before and I'm so glad we did because we really liked it and will definitely go back!

I love the lighting in this pic!

Toy Story Underwear!

We've been using the thicker undies because they absorb more and cause less mess but still make Baker feel really dirty if he has an accident. But at the end of last week, we ran out so he wore his big boy Toy Story underwear. He was so excited!

He looks so cute in them! Such a big boy these days!

I love his little butt! Ha!

Boom Da Boom!!

That would be what we've been hearing non-stop around our house these days, thanks to Transformers 3! Baker has heard and seen so much gunfire that he walks around shooting everyone with a pretend gun and anything that he can turn into one. I always hoped Baker wouldn't run around doing this and who knew a 2.5 year old would even know what to do with one! I keep reminding myself that he has no idea what he's doing and praying he doesn't think of it as violence. He's have a blast though, that's for sure! I've been told that it's just what boys do. Let's just hope it's a phase and he'll be into something else soon!

Poor Bleeker was being held hostage. I kept hearing "boom da boom" somewhere else in the house and then I noticed Bleeker wasn't with me, so I tip toed to Baker's room and snapped this picture. Poor thing. Baker was shooting the mess out of him with his ruler gun and he just sat there and let him. Until I rescued him that is!

Baker with his power drill gun. By the way, I never say the word "gun" to him...I'm at least trying to keep that from him!

Video of his boom da boom madness.

Random Pictures From the Week

Having a blast in our clothes hamper. His face is absolutely priceless!

He's not happy about this one bit! :)

Taking a walk along the lower level of Michigan Ave bridge over the weekend. We had to take the lower level because they were filming Transformers 3 on the upper level. I love the view from here though!

Helping daddy push the stroller.

An old friend of mine from home, Ruhamah, came to Chicago for a Pampered Chef conference last week so I was thrilled to see her and have a nice dinner out. It's been years since we've seen each other so it was a really nice treat!

Baker loved her. I guess he could sense how good she is with tots...she has a little boy a month older than him!

The Dreadful Potty!

The time has come and we have officially started the potty training process. We have dreaded this for some time but Baker seemed like he was ready so we thought we'd try it out. So, I went shopping for all of our supplies - training pants, Pull-Ups for nap/nighttime, flushable wipes, tons of juice and chocolate milk, chocolates for rewards, ice cream, M&Ms, salty snacks, video, books, you name it. We talked it up for days but we've been talking about it occasionally for a year now. After reading Potty Training 123, we planned to train for 4 days, going nowhere. So, we did just that and hunkered down in Fort Blackmon for what we thought could be potty war. We chose to do training underwear instead of Pull-Ups during the day and Pull-Ups for sleeping.

To our surprise, Saturday turned out pretty well. He peed several times that morning but then had what would be the beginning of poop drama from here on out. So, he had a poop accident in his underwear. He did well on the potty the rest of the day, minus a couple of accidents. Sunday did not go so well and I thought we were both going to give up. Baker had like 5 or 6 accidents in a matter of 1.5 hours - 2 poops and 3 or 4 pees. It was ridiculous. Just when we were ready to throw in the towel, he had a great afternoon after his nap so we were encouraged again! Then Monday came and I was home alone. Once again Baker peed in the potty but refused to poop. So what does he do, crawls underneath the coffee table and does both in his underwear and pee all over the floor, despite me being on like Donkey Kong! But that was the only accident of the day so I viewed it as a success! Tuesday came and not one accident happened. I was even more happy when he waited to poop in his Pull-Up during nap. I am totally okay with that and could only hope that he'll make that a habit instead of in his underwear! :)

So, maybe we're not totally trained yet but I think it's going pretty well. I have threatened to stop many times, still do, especially when he refuses to use the potty when I ask him to, which is the usual. But I guess as long as there are no accidents, it's okay. And I get so drained with the constant bribes and rewards..."Don't you want a penny? Oh, look at that yummy cookie. Mmm, peanut butter cups." It never ends. Even more annoying when could care less about the reward! Ha! But we're on our way and I feel like I would be stupid to stop now and go back to diapers when he's done so well but I make no promises!!

Saturday morning - Baker was so excited to start training!

Last time in a diaper

Sigh...I love him in just a diaper so this is a sad picture to me.

I'm a big kid now! Wearing his underpants. Teddy Bear wore underpants too because he was training as well.

Let the snacks begin.

Teddy went pee pee on the potty too! Baker did this on his own. He was so excited to take Teddy to the potty. This worked really well for the first few hours and then the novelty wore off and he could care less about Teddy training anymore!

Later that day, there was something fascinating outside and both boys were at the window...too cute!

Baker was helping me make his plate for dinner - chicken tostadas!

This is a crazy video of us being silly. Baker got so cracked up when Brad and I were singing a song in his little microphone. He wanted in on the fun and was just a laughing mess. I think it was all of the sugar he had been consuming!

Bring on the Booster Seat

I finally got rid of Baker's high chair. We took the tray off several months ago so he could sit at the table with us but it never quite got him close enough to the table. It's supposed to be a booster seat too but it just hasn't worked well for us. With too much space between him and the table, the food mess was too much for me and I couldn't take it any longer. So, he graduated to a booster seat and he's so much happier in it and so are we!

Eating breakfast the morning we went to shop for a booster seat.

Of course, now that the high chair is on the floor, he wants to sit in it to eat and play! I've posted it on Craigslist and a lady is supposed to be coming by to get it tomorrow...thank God!

Look at me in booster seat!

Operator - This picture just made me laugh even though it has nothing to do with the booster seat. He has this little keyboard meant for kids that we haven't used yet but he loves to pull it out. The headset came with our computer camera. So when he put the keyboard on top of my laptop and then put the headphones on, I thought I would die. He's so funny!

A Trip to the Rainforest

Yes, we took Baker back to this place. How can we not when he loves it so much? Seeing the permanent smile on his face is worth eating the not-so-amazing food. He especially loves the fake thunderstorms and the animated animals!

What perfect timing! The minute we walked in the door, Cha Cha the frog was standing at the hostess desk. Baker was so excited! You would think that we dressed him to coordinate but I promise we didn't!

Our pretty boy

Playing with his lacing cards while we waited for our food.

Posing with the gorillas. He had just been doing the monkey dance but I was a little too late to capture it!

Day at the Aquarium

Baker and I took advantage of our annual membership and spent the day at the Shedd Aquarium. It was the second time we've been and I was amazed at all of the things that we missed the first time!

In the penguin exhibit, having some serious discussion with one of the workers.

Head first! That's my boy!

My little penguin...he's so cute!

How adorable is this? I'm pretty confident that this is a dolphin and the two beluga whales. They were snuggling for quite a while down at the bottom of the pool, all three, but as soon as I snapped, the mama whale swam off.

In the Wild Reef exhibit...what a great exhibit! I wish the camera would have done this exhibit justice...so beautiful!

Another day, soaking our feet in the water. We love this little dock in the middle of Millennium Park.

Sweet feet

Just Before the 4th

These are a few photos that I found taken just before the July 4th weekend.

Baker and I had a picnic on the grounds of Pritzker Pavilion on Thursday. There was a small local band called The Astronomers rehearsing for a performance so we got a little entertainment while we had lunch. It was so nice!

One of Baker's many art projects made at the Family Fun Tent. This one is made of spices and cloves...so messy and definitely not one that I would do at home but it smelled really good!

Brad had taken Friday off for the holiday weekend so we went to the Taste of Chicago since he had never been. Of course no visit to Taste is complete without riding the carousel! What will we do now that this carousel isn't there anymore?

Having so much fun!

Painting an elephant craft at one of the activity tents.

Work of art in progress.