Chicago

I'm home from what was likely my last trip to Chicago before Luci's arrival. I left Monday morning & spent the afternoon with Holly & her 3 month old baby Noelle. It was great to finally meet baby Noelle & also served as a bit of sneak peak of what is in store for us. She is adorable & still very small! Her eating, playing, and sleeping schedule was like clockwork. My favorite was playtime...I may have even witnessed her first giggle! Holly is a very loving, capable mom & I'm sure she will continue to be another great source of information for me in the coming months.

Tuesday I went to work (which makes it sound easy...it was actually quite a task - I've lost my Chicago pedestrian commuting skills) where I did much more chatting & catching up than working! I hardly got anything done because every time I saw someone I was drawn into a 30 minute conversation! Many of my co-workers were able to go out to lunch at My Thai (my favorite Chicago lunch eatery) and it was great to catch up. My friend & co-worker Anita gave baby Luci a beautiful little blue & white linen dress with an adorable blue & gingham diaper cover!

Tuesday night was the second mini baby shower for Luci! My great friends Liz & Jaime hosted a fantastic mini shower complete with Dags pizza (my favorite Chicago pizza) and cheesecake! The girls enjoyed champagne & the ever thoughtful Liz had a wonderful sparkling lemonade on hand for me. Luci again brought home many beautiful baby things including a few books - Little Pea - who wants to eat spinach but has to eat his candy first ;) and Goodnight Chicago - like Goodnight Moon, but Goodnight Chicago with lots of great Chicago sights. She also brought home lovingly hand-made goodies from my economist-by-day, crafty designer-by-night friend (known as Cajankow) including knitted baby booties, a shirt with two kittens on it who resemble our very own Milo & Tallulah, pants to match and a very pretty burp cloth. Luci also received a wonderful green & brown blanket with the softest material known to man on the other side, a fuzzy bunny outfit & matching bib, and her first bottles. She also will be receiving the Sweet Pea boppy and a Pack & Play soon in the mail! Some big, can't deny a baby is coming gear! Thanks for sending those to my house ladies...they would have been tough to get on the airplane! More motivation to get going on the nursery...the rocker is now overflowing with her belongings! And not to forget about Mom & Dad...we received a Chicago landmarks plate and a book of Chicago stories, along with a drying rack for Luci's bottles! If they ever get the opportunity to share baby war stories I'm quite certain Clay will want to get the scoop from Scott (Noelle's dad) on the 'system' he's developed for Noelle's feeding things. I believe the drying rack is required at some point in the process...

Wednesday morning I tried to work very quickly to make up for all of my chatting on Tuesday. I'm much more productive at home (despite the occasional blog break). I left on a 2pm flight and was home by 6:30pm. I'm a pretty anxious flier (and yes, I married a pilot) and the flight home was about as turbulent as I can handle without becoming panicky. Luci was very active during take-off & then periodically on & off throughout the flight. I was trying to decide if she was excited active like her dad, or nervous active like her mom but I couldn't tell. Clay falls asleep whenever he's not actually flying the plane, so maybe she was like me? But I hold my breath & don't move, so that makes me think she's like her Dad. I guess we'll find out in due time!

I feel very blessed to have had such a wonderful trip seeing all of my friends but I'm also very glad to be home in my little cocoon with the stinkpeas Milo & Tallulah. They were excited I was home so they could go outside & play again. Now as soon as Clay gets home my little world will be complete again. I've gotten many requests for an updated belly photo...as soon as Clay is home on Tuesday we'll get right on that ;)