Our Second City

This is our second day officially in our second city...and we're off to Alaska in a few hours already! We're all looking forward to seeing family and Shanleigh and Collin's baptisms.



Friday, I finished my job and Lillie said goodbye to all her friends and teachers at daycare. It was a very tough day for all of us...I had a little breakdown before we headed to the Hampton's for the weekend. I felt like I was saying goodbye to family in both places - they all know us so well, and are really amazing people.




Once I was able to wipe away the tears and see the road, we were off to see our friends in East Hampton. Three ferries and a lot of traffic later, we arrived to a restful weekend. Molly's parents graciously hosted us all and we had a terrific weekend. Lillie discovered that she loves the pool, and spent over an hour in it on our last day. While out on the town, we spotted a couple of celebrities: Alec & Billy Baldwin chatting at Starbucks. Later we saw Alec driving away in a car that looked very similar to the Jeep in Beetlejuice!

We haven't had much time in Chicago, but we're getting adjusted to our new surroundings. We have our closing on our new place next week and can't wait to start moving in! It will be a slow process, but we're so close.

Duckies and Turtles and Sharks, Oh My!

Our weekend started off a little rocky - Lillie was under the weather on Friday so plans for the weekend were looking gloomy. Saturday came and she was feeling good again so we decided to make our way to see the Make Way for Ducklings statues in Boston Common. How could we leave Boston without a trip to see the ducklings? Lillie wasn't so sure about those big ducks, but she looked pretty cute sitting on them! We also walked along the Charles and enjoyed the great weather. While stopping to rest along the way, we got this great shot of Lillie's tooth coming in.

We also made it to the New England Aquarium and saw all sorts of very cool things, like penguins, sharks, Myrtle the Turtle, sea horses, and more! Lillie was so excited to see all the big fish swimming around the giant tank. I think we've decided that we must have a little fish tank in our new house for Lillie.



There were so many people out enjoying the weekend...as we walked along the new Greenway, we snapped this picture of one of the new fountains. It looked like so much fun! Now that the Big Dig is over, this is such an amazing area to be near.



Our little girl is really moving along now, using her newfound freedom to check out anything and everything around her. Since we're pretty much living out of suitcases, we have a limited supply of toys with us. So we experimented with a homemade drum set - a plastic spoon and a metal colander. Not only did she love making music, but she loved seeing her misshapen reflection in the round bowl!

So there it is, our last weekend in Boston came and went so quickly. I think we packed as much into it as we possibly could. Now the countdown begins...only 8 more days until that flight to Chicago.

It happened!

Lillie took that first crawl forward today! And yes, I cried a few tears of joy.

Independence Day

Oh, we had such a fun weekend! On Friday afternoon, we visited Justin, Karen, and Annie. What a beautiful little peanut Annie is. Afterwards, we picked up Moira and were off to Wellesley College to see Nick and Anya get married! It was a beautiful ceremony lakeside with an intimate gathering of family and friends. We rounded out the day by watching the Boston fireworks from my office on the 19th floor. Lillie woke up just in time to see the pretty show.

On Saturday, Aunt Moira babysat for Lillie while Conor and I went to see Wall-e. What a cute movie. But it didn't stop there, because we were also able to go out to my most favorite Boston restaurant (now with the worst name ever), Moo. It wasn't quite the same experience as the Federalist, but it was still wicked good! Sunday was a day of rest and relaxation, while all three of us recovered from such a busy couple of days.

We're finally able to see that little tooth of Lillie's. She's not quite moving forward yet, but she's getting closer and closer. In the meantime, she has mastered clapping, and boy does she love it! Perhaps we do have a budding cheerleader after all? Coming up is our very last weekend in Boston. There's so much we want to do, but it will be impossible to fit it all in just 48 hours.

Faces of Hope

I recently completed a year-and-a-half long design project for the Children's Hospital of Boston. It's a wonderful book called Faces of Hope. My involvement started through my graphic design program at CDIA, where I started working on it before I became pregnant with Lillie, and ended it when she was 6 months! The book features pediatric cancer patients and their families sharing their stories - from diagnosis to treatment and recovery. Through the hard work of Summer M. at Children's, the book is being distributed to hospitals nationwide so that others in the same situation may find some hope and strength. It was an amazingly rewarding experience, and one that came with many hours of work by myself and a few other very talented and dedicated designers and photographers.

The CDIA Team with Summer from Children's Hospital

Last month was the book release party where Conor, Lillie, and I got to meet some of the families who participated. There were some current photography students present to document the evening and they captured this shot of Lillie with Dad. As you can see, she'd had a long week and was ready to go home and go to bed!


In more recent news, we had a very busy and exciting 4th of July. I'll try to post more about the weekend (with pictures) tomorrow.

On the Move

In more ways than one! We are officially no longer home owners, and we're now staying at a friend/co-worker's condo for the next few weeks. Lillie has her first tooth pushing through those little gums, and she's mastered moving backwards. I'm sure she'll change direction and start moving full steam ahead in the next couple of weeks.




It was a sad day when we had to say goodbye to Bartlett Street. This was our first home. It's where we brought our first child home from the hospital, and sadly, the only memories she'll have of her first home (and of Boston) will be through photos. Thankfully, we have plenty of those precious moments caught on film. There have certainly been many ups and downs with living in such an old building, but we did love that money pit. For now, we've moved only a few blocks away until we say goodbye to Boston forever. I guess we need baby steps to actually leave our lives here. First Conor starts his job in Chicago, then we ship all of our worldly possessions to Chicago and move out of our house, then I finish my job, then we'll take a one way flight to our new city. Oh but no, we won't be able to move into our new home right away, so we'll slowly get adjusted to living in Chicago for a few weeks while living in the corporate apartment, then we'll move into the new pad. Whew, maybe then life will slow down a bit (yeah right).


Lillie seems to be adjusting ok to all these changes. I think she's missing her comfy crib and the green walls of her nursery, but for now she's ok with a Pack'n'Play set up in the master bathroom (hey, it's clean)! We're hoping that she doesn't get too mobile until we can get into a place that is properly childproofed, but I doubt that will happen. These days, she's really into all sounds that start with a "b." Our little "b"aby is getting so big!

The technology available to us is severely limited these days, so we'll try to update the blog as best we can. We'll be in better shape come August.

Lastly, a big shout out to our friends Justin and Karen, who welcomed Anne Griffith Ferguson into the world in the wee hours of Sunday morning.