A Visitor! {Best friends make the best visitors}

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's July and our first visitor of the year just came to town! You would think with all of the adorable pictures of Hunter people would be banging down the door to get in and visit but not even grandparents have come in 2013! Crazy! (Hint hint we are great hosts).

So, we were delighted to have my childhood bestfriend come to Chicago and we had a blast. This was Corky's second trip to Chicago (her first was at Christmas time so there was so much to do and see this time that she didn't do last time). H fell in love with her and we had the best time hanging out, sipping tea, shopping, architecturing, being Hawks Fans and gushing over the amazing new Art Exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. Oh, and eating lots of delicious food of course!

I let Corky take the official pictures of the trip on her camera, but here are a few teasers from my iPhone.

First things first, we went to tea at the Drake, which was so lovely.

Prime seating by the fountain and the harpist.

Hamburgers on pretzel buns for dinner, with homemade grilled fries. Yum!!

 

A beautiful sunset from our apartment.

The Fabulous Miss Corky with her signature fan on the architecture cruise!

H staying cool with his water bottle.

A gorgeous day on the lake.

After lunch we headed to Navy Pier where the highlight was the stained glass museum. Corky was teaching H early about art. H likes the blue tones we learned.

We let H get his wiggles out by crawling and walking around.

An evening picnic and concert in Millennium Park.

After a rough evening and morning and some meds for H, we headed to Oak Park for the Frank Lloyd Wright Tour.

Lunch at Graziano's-- the best Italian sandwich in town! H loved eating with Corky (she shared her yummy mozerella)

We had an AMAZING afternoon at the Art Institute, but no pictures allowed...so here's one from online. This is one of Corky's favorite pieces of all time, it was so cool to see in person, along with all the other pieces from the D'Orsay!

On our walk to dinner we ran into at least 30 maybe 50 zombie brides...which if you know Corky, she was excited about!

Dinner al fresco at an irish pub, tapping into Corky's heritage. Delicious! And H was of course hamming it up with anyone who looked his way....

We finished off the night with Sprinkles! Yum!

 Corky, thank you for a fabulous visit!! Can't wait for your next one-- you are welcome any time! And I hope this will entice our other friends and family to come and visit us!

Baby H {11 Months}

I'm so bad at posting these on time!! Oh well. It's so hard to believe it is July! Partly because time goes so fast and partly because Chicago has had an unusually cool spring/summer. It's July 2 and 60 degrees outside....with a high of 69 today. Crazy.

This little guy is so happy!!

Stats:
22lbs - according to my bathroom scale

My little man is almost 1 year old! It's so hard to believe a year has gone by since I was very very with child and so anxious/excited/nervous to meet him. My life has been filled with joy and love and admiration for this sweet little man. He is a happy, fun-loving, fun baby and I have never been more confident in who I am and what my purpose in life is until I was a mother. Thank you, H, for giving me the greatest joy I have ever known!

A Few Milestones at 11 Months:

- 7 teeth! H got another tooth on the bottom this month! I love his toothy grin and watching him figure out how to use those chompers when he eats. Speaking of eating, boy does this guy love to eat. He just eats and eats and eats.

- Squawking. H is like a little bird when he wants to tell you he wants something. Especially with food. If he sees someone eating. He will squawk at you until you share.  It's actually quite embarassing especially when we are out at a restaurant!

- Fearless. I have to watch him so closely because he really is fearless. He has already faceplanted in the pool while trying to crawl right into it. I was far more scared by it than he was!

- Funny. This kid is so funny and he knows it. His facial expressions are priceless. I love to watch him ham it up when others are around. He's playing them like a fiddle.

- He loves to get into our media console and play with the DVDs. He will pull them out one by one or 3 by 3 until they are all spread out around him.

- He loves to eat! He will eat just about anything and loves to stuff his cheeks full especially with grapes or watermelon.

- H also loves to drink -- he's figured out how to suck from a straw so he will get water from my camelback waterbottle, use his sippy cup, or even drink some of my smoothie from a regular straw. Such a big boy!!

- He has discovered our cupboards. Ryan has child-proofed most of them but he has figured out which ones are proofed and will go and pull things out.

- He stacked his first blocks!! So cute to watch him figure it out.

- He has always been good to entertain himself and play, and now he has learned to read his own books! I love love love to watch him sit and flip the pages and 'read' the books. Its soooo cute.

- He can stand and hold his own weight!! He likes to climb up on me and then let go and stand for 30 seconds before falling. I love to watch him crawl around but I know walking is just around the corner!

- H loves dogs. We go to the park all the time to sit and watch the doggies play, and sometimes, the owners will bring the dogs around to H. He get so excited and even lets the dogs get close to him/give him kisses.

H is our little bundle of joy and we love watching him grow and learn and develop. This is such a fun age and we just can't get enough of him!! 

Taking pictures on this white blanket has proven to be more and more difficult. This look --- 'you want me to do what?' made me laugh out loud!!

there's my happy baby.

The only time he laid down.... I think he got tired!

Fathers Day and Baby H {Mini Me Ryan}

With Fathers Day around the corner, I was just looking at photos of myself with my Dad as a little girl. As I was going through photos I thought, 'hmm Hunter does look like me'. Then, my father-in-law posted these photos of himself, and then of Ryan, and I realized, Hunter does NOT look like me at all!! He is a mini-me of his handsome Daddy! And gets a lot of his genes from his Pop-Pop as well. See for yourself:

My Daddy and I -- vs. Hunter and I

From Left: Thomas (Pop-Pop), Ryan and Hunter. Crazy how much they all look alike!

Happy Fathers day to our wonderful dads!! We are so grateful to have Fathers who have been such an incredible influence on both of us in our lives, and love to see the Grandpa's they have become to our sweet Hunter :)

Baby H {10 Months}

I wrote this post a few weeks ago and just forgot to publish it....so sorry for my delay. H was really not in the mood for pictures when we took these photos, can you tell?

Poor guy is subjected to being dressed up by his mom and expected to pose on the spot. Not this time!

This was the best I could do...

Stats:
20 lbs 3oz, 50% weight
28" long, 75% height

Clearly H has tapered off on his weight gain -- he has been approx 20 lbs for almost 6 months now, which is crazy to me. He definitely thinning out and becoming more of a toddler than a baby.... which kills me, but is also so so fun. A few things he has been doing lately....

Gives open mouth kisses (my absolute favorite).

Crawling like crazy-- loves to get into the dvd's, into his own book basket and toy bin.

Pulls himself up and does a little couch walking. He also pulls himself up on anything he can -- the trunk, the backs of the dining room chairs, my bed, etc.

Waves like crazy most of the time, but also sometimes gets shy and ducks his head into my shoulder.


Figured out he can push my hand away if I try to tickle him (or anything else he doesn't want me to do).

He currently has 6 teeth!! Sometimes I wonder if the next two are trying to break through...

Sleeps through the night but lately has been waking up at 6am or even 5am, which is when I bring him to bed with me and nurse him while we cuddle (or I want to cuddle and he wants to play).

Gets soooo excited when Daddy gets home!

Likes to crawl up my legs and whine until I pick him up.

He will eat anything we offer to him -- this past week he had pizza, Korean food, ice cream (from his dad of course), banana bread and lots of other yummy food! He is such a good eater!

He loves dogs and we often take him to the dog park to watch the dogs play. If he is lucky, there will be a nice person who will bring the dog up close to him and Hunter will squeal with delight-- its so cute!

He loves to find his own reflection -- in the mirror or in my phone, or the refrigerator or the oven. He will go up to it and kiss himself!

Love him! Squince!

To be honest, he loves to grab himself. At least he's wearing a diaper in this shot!

It's so hard to get a picture of H on this white blanket when all he really wants to do is sit up!

East Coast Tour {H Travels}

I am working part-time these days and as part of my job I travel occasionally. Luckily for me, H has a grandma that also enjoys doubling as nanny.

Hanging out in the hotel room.

 

Working girl. Diaper bag doubled as work bag.

NJ is beautiful, isn't it? Who knew.

Since we headed out there the week before Mothers Day, I thought what a better Mothers Day gift than to spend the afternoon in one of our favorite cities? We hopped on the train from EWR and headed into NYC. We spent the afternoon walking through the West Village, eating amazing food and shopping. Hello, amazing. H was a champ through it all and by evening we were headed into NJ.

Park in West Village.

Mom's favorite tree- the dogwood.

Lunch at La Esquina- so delicious.

Running into old friends -- Emily and Hudson are New Yorkers!

Hunter's entertainment while Gma shopped.

Hanging out.

Being a working mom is hard, but I am grateful for my job and the opportunities it gives me. After a few days of work-- we drove south to DC to pick up my Grandma's from the airport. What a treat to get to spend time with both of my Grandma's!! They are lovely, wonderful women-- we laughed, played and enjoyed the time together.

H was a champ in the car for a LONG day.

GGma and Hunter!

Gma Barbara and Hunter

The final icing on the cake was getting to see Marc graduate! I am so proud of him for going back to school and working so hard in school. 2 years down and 2 to go-- and I can't wait to see him graduate from UVA next! I love their cute family.

Gmas and Hunter and I.

Cousins. So. Stinkin. Cute.

Love love love these women and girls.

The whole gang!

Aunt Tarin loves baby Hunter!

We got up Saturday morning super early to fly back to Chicago and reunite with Ryan. It was a welcome reunion and we were so happy to be home!

Spring in Chicago {my favorite}

Spring in Chicago is my favorite. The rebirth of the city from winter is so beautiful and majestic in a subtle way that only us locals can recognize.

We went on a family walk one Sunday afternoon to admire the city in its spring glory -- here's a few photos from our excursion.

As excited as I am for summer, I'm sad spring was so short this year. Its the best!

Art Institute of Chicago

The Magnificent Mile

My handsome little devil

Family photo!

Beautiful flowers

love.

Blossoms and flowers.