sickie sickie, me not hank...

So sorry that I have been remiss in posting... again...

I've been sick :(

Here are some pictures, though, to tide you over...

A picture of Hank during his "first snow". I know, you can't see the snow, and he didn't look up. Now there is a ton of snow on the ground, but I can't take him out b/c I'm sick!


And a sweetie little picture of the boy.

Peek-A-Boo!

(Not so much) Fun with Santa

So Hank and I visited Macy's in downtown Chicago to see Mr. Claus for the first time. Here's how it went down. Not pretty.



Away from that man with the white beard!


Finally recovered and on our way to lunch at Macy's.

Turkey Day

Hope everyone had a marvelous Thanksgiving - we sure did!

We had several friends over for the big eating holiday. Craig was in charge of the bird. Here is a nice juicy picture of the star of the meal... and one with its chef. Craig chose to brine the turkey overnight, as per Alton Brown's suggestion. It was excellent - well done, Craig! We had to toss the cooler we used, but it was worth it :)


I was in charge of the sides, and all turned out great. We were able to celebrate with friends for most of the day. I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few... 2 are Hank hanging out with his Brit friend Lucca, both contemplating their first Turkey Day.







The Thanksgiving production couldn't have taken place without the massive help of the best little shopping helper ever, Sweet Baby Hank!

It's almost the end of November. What?

How cute is Hank?

So Cute!!
My friend Erin has been knitting up a storm and made a hat for the kiddies!! Hank loves his, though he was not enthusiastic about modeling it on Thursday.

Here's the sweetie using his new fave thing... a cup with a straw!

On Friday, Craig and I met some friends to play Whirlyball... Bumper cars + whiffle ball + scoop + basketball hoops. So. Much. Fun. And I have the bruises to prove it! Here is an action shot of Craig.

We went to Wishbone, our new every-weekend brunch place this weekend. When you're visiting Chicago, we'll surely take you there! It's quite possibly the most kid-friendly place we've ever been :)


And we're getting ready for Thanksgiving! Yay! Hank's friend Evy gave our playgroup the means to make some hand-turkeys. Our version is on our front door ready to greet our holiday guests!

Back in Chicago!

Hello everybody. I promise to try try try and update more often :)

Nice to be back home with Craig, for sure! We have been getting back into our routine. I actually joined a gym, and so one of Hank's new activities is to go to the gym nursery and hang out with his new friends. He seems to love it, so keep your fingers crossed that lasts!

Here are a couple of pictures of this weekend, excuse their quality!

We all went to a nice dinner on Saturday night... Craig and I had fish, Hank had the chew toy.

And on Sunday afternoon, we went to the zoo - so much fun! In the first pic are Craig and Hank in the cat house. Hank loved watching the Jaguar pace in his cage... entranced! In the second picture, he and Craig are looking at some monkeys with some crazy long tails.


And of course, we play, play, play!

A few more pictures...

But I have to warn you that they are from my phone not my camera, so the quality is mediocre at best!

The most delicious food in Memphis right now? I think it would be hard to beat the catfish at Soulfish!! Went there the first night we got in. Yum.

Ashleigh and Hank on Halloween at the Lynch's house!

Me and Hank at Hilary's house:

Hank in my bed!

Practicing his almost crawl...

Happily hanging out at Gee and Poppy's

Hank with Gee out to eat!


And here's me and where I spent the first 3.5 days of our trip while Hank hung out with Gee and Hilary:


Special thanks to Dupree and Ashleigh for helping me work the booth and to Hilary and Gee for babysitting!!!

Excused absence?

So sorry for the looonnnggg absence! Hank had a tummy flu, then a cold that turned into a double ear infection RIGHT before he and I left for Memphis for almost 2 weeks... Sowwwwyyy!!

And on top of my sorry excuses, I don't even have that many pictures to share!! Hopefully, Dupree will be able to send me some :)

Here's a recovering Hank before we left... He's even happy when under the weather - that's our guy!



Some photos from Memphis... Dupree with Trey and Hank, Dupree with all three busy little guys, Robb and Hank looking at Poppy while out to lunch and Hank hanging out at Gee and Poppy's house!

Halloween is around the corner!

Yep, Fall is definitely here in Chicago, and we are trying to take advantage of it every chance we get. It's been rainy, but yesterday and today were nice, so we are getting in the stroller with each opportunity.

Yesterday, my friend Erin hosted a Halloween party for our little ones. We had SO much fun, and the kiddies could not have been any cuter if they tried. Hank went as a duck and Craig and I went as Don and Betty Draper (from Mad Men).

Today, Hank and I met Bianca and Sydney at a pumpkin patch. After picking out our pumpkins (amazing what a difficult choice this is!), we then took our goodies to the park for a photo op. Perfect weather - so glad we did it! Trick was getting them to look at the camera, of course :)

Here's hoping that we'll have several more weeks of stroller weather!!