Last year at this time Amy and I were in the windy city of Chicago for the La Leche League conference. We shared a room with friends Laura and Heather and their daughters Emily and Haley. We had so much fun it was like a big slumber party.
One of the highlights of the conference was listening to Dr. James McKenna speak on co-sleeping. After the session someone asked him if he'd ever thought he'd have such a following like a rock or movie star. He just laughed. If you never heard him speak or read one of his articles you don't know what you are missing. We met Dr. Sears and his wife and attended their session. A few sessions we had to leave because there was only so much a 14 month old could take and that was okay too because you could always find someone else chasing a toddler in the hallway. It was so amazing to talk to people from around the world. We had lunch with some LLL Leaders from Ireland and talked about all sorts of interesting things. The world bazaar was exciting a lot of the groups had tables with highlights from their area and goods for sale and lots of freebies.
We did get out to see part of the city. We rode the bus and the trolley visited the Bean, Millennium park, The Cultural Center , Trader Joe's and much more. One night we went out to eat and stopped at this diner and the manager asked if we were going to nurse in the diner. I said maybe. I'd left my ID on plus the sling and you have those crazy ladies.
So he goes on to say "We'll seat you in the family section" right by the kitchen a real family spot. not. We waited for about 20 minutes and nobody took our order so we finally got up to leave and he caught us at the door. Why are you leaving? Nobody waited on us. "Let me give you a free meal" blah, blah, blah So we went back in and ate our free meal. There was another family sitting by our table that was from the conference too. I should have wrote them a letter but we didn't. Most of the moms I know are pretty discreet about nursing so that place left a bad taste in my mouth. Luckily that was about the only bad experience we had.
Starbucks every morning- Mochas, iced mocha's, frappuccino's it was hard adjusting when I got home. I could go on and on but it was an amazing experience. We also met almost all of the founders of LLL. The ending ceremony Billy Dean sang "Let Them Be Little" It was amazing to be around so many nursing families and feel
normal.
I can't forget the funniest part. Laura and I ended up walking from the hotel to the L station. We each had a child in a sling pulling a suitcase and carrying a couple tote bags. The first block wasn't too bad, than we started laughing and had to stop and take a break. It reminded me of a Lucy and Ethel moment. We finally made it there in one piece, thirty minutes later.
