Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day Clayton and I have a grand tradition of saying we are not going to do anything for each other, then breaking our promises. He surprised me a few days early by picking up these prints for the baby. They are by his friend JJ. I saw one on his blog a while back that I adored. It's of these two robots in love on a moped in Paris. JJ didn't have it for sale on his site:

http://www.bampop.com/

but Clayton asked him to make a print and now we have it for our baby's room.

Here it is sans frame.

And Clayton got one that he loved as well. It's called Ice Cream Social. Note all of the robot superheroes. JJ also has a whole series of ninguins that are pretty adorable. Oh- a ninguin is a ninja penguin of course.

So I got an amazingly thoughtful gift of super-cute prints, and Clayton gets... frames for them. Ya. I am a wild romantic. Poor guy. Is there such a thing as a romantic V-Day gift for guys? Madden? He already has it. Anyhow- we did even more for the "big" day. We flew to Chicago!
If any of you are keeping track of the creepy floating baby off to the right here, you may have noticed that I am a few weeks away from delivering. I got the wary ok from my doctor, but was too chicken to ask her for a formal letter saying I could fly. The good news is that Delta has no restrictions for flying. You can fly on your due date if you want to. The bad news is that Delta has no restrictions... so ya- we went. And it went fine. We had gone in October but wanted to go back for one reason. Clayton's all time favorite art piece (Picasso's The Old Guitarist) is at the Art Institute of Chicago. When we went in October the Impressionist wing was closed, so we couldn't see it. It opened back up in December. However, for a reason no one could explain fully to us, it isn't on display right now. Argh! Poor Clayton. We had a great time anyways, and really enjoyed the exhibit of photographer Yousef Karsh. You can check him out here:

http://www.karsh.org/

Even without the Picasso, we had a wonderful time.

Here is Clayton in front of the Sears Tower on Adams street. He looks a little pained, but it really wasn't that cold. Of course I am a traveling E-Z Bake Oven, so maybe my opinion on temperatures doesn't count. Our hotel was right behind Clayton in this picture. Just between the Sears Tower and the museum, and a train ride from the airport. I love the convenience of not renting a car.

We had dinner at a great sushi restaurant called Oysy. Lest you think that I am breaking all of the pregnancy rules, rest assured that I only ate what I should. Also- sushi gets a bad rap. As long as you watch for the fish you shouldn't eat anyways, (ones with possibly high mercury) sushi is only as dangerous as a cold cut sandwich. (Did you know that you aren't supposed to eat cold cuts when you are pregnant either? Ya- lots of fun rules.)

Here is a picture of the rolls. The one on the right is a dragon. Cute food is always better.

This is an untitled piece by Picasso. Familiarly called the Chicago Picasso. Not the one we went for, but great none the less.

Here is a comparative shot of me from our trip in October at four months. John Singer Sargent is one of my favorites.

And in front of the same Sargent piece in February. Notice anything different?

Here is Clayton and a Rembrandt. One of his favorite artists.

And here we are outside. The weather was lovely, and we really enjoyed our LAST trip until the baby comes. I swear. Once she's here, who knows, but for now I am staying put.