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.

Longest Weekend of the Year

And what a weekend it was! It's taken me a while to get back to posting this week...we're very busy with the big move. We had such a busy weekend. Our offer was officially accepted on Friday, and now have a place to live in Chicago. It's in a cute little area of Lakeview - we're very excited about it (more on the new abode still to come.)

Saturday was the Summer Solstice, and we had a little bbq with family and friends - one last get together before we pack up for good and leave for Chicago. It was so much fun, Lillie really enjoyed hanging out with everyone.

Then on Sunday, Lillie experienced her first Red Sox game! The Cardinals put up a good fight, but too bad for them the Sox were ready to impress our little one for her first MLB experience. We cornered Wally for a photo op, what luck! Lillie couldn't quite make it for the extra innings, but she had a blast while she was awake. After the game, we hopped on a Boston Pedicab to get back to our car. It was pretty cool to be pulled along in the open cart. Lillie was loving it!

My Dad Rules!

Happy Father's Day! We just got back from our second trip to Chicago. Lillie is sound asleep and we're busy unpacking and watching the game. We're a little giddy from such a great trip! It was a bit of a whirlwind day, but it was nice.


We saw several condos while Grandma & Grandpa Murphy watched Lillie (how fun for all!) and it seems we've narrowed it down to four finalists! Perhaps an offer this week?? We'll see.

It was great to hang out with the dads. I tried to give Conor a great relaxing morning...he was off diaper duty and, as a special treat, I made his coffee (well, I tried my best anyway). His big surprise was tickets to next week's Red Sox game against the Cardinals. We can't wait!

Hope all you dad's enjoyed the day.

Here, Lillie enjoys the view from the plane. Hello Mr. Blue Sky.

B-o-r-i-n-g

The flu has hit. Lillie had to stay home from daycare for most of the week, which meant spending most her time with mom. I snapped this photo this morning...I think it sums up how she's feeling right now. She's missing all her friends in her classroom, but they're all sick too! Hopefully things will go back to normal next week.

We're heading to Chicago tonight for another round of house hunting. Keep your fingers crossed!

Halftime

The c's are down 5 at the half, but we're not worried. Celeb sightings so far include Joey Mcintyre, Donny Wahlberg, John Kerry, Magic, and, of course, the king of pop (above).

Beat LA!

I'm going to try something new and techno-nerdy for my first entries to sillielillie and live blog from the Celtics finals game... Just getting ready to start!