New Beginnings

Well it's been a long time since I posted. The kids are teens and almost 15 now.  They are so tall, I wasn't ready for them being taller than me (I'm 5'11"). They started high school last month. Last year, we applied to Chicago Public Schools that require tests (and grades) for admission and they both got in, so we bought a house in the city! Then within days my mom was diagnosed with stage four ovarian/fallopian tube cancer. So the year has been a bit of a blur. She's had multiple surgeries and multiple rounds of chemo since then, which she is almost done with now, at least for now. She turned 78 in May and will be fighting this for the rest of her life unfortunately. Since her diagnosis in March, we've spent every possible break in Wisconsin with her instead of on vacation. 

We "moved" over the summer, but since we are keeping our house in the suburbs (at least for now) we didn't really move that much. We bought new stuff for the new place. Thank goodness for the minivan, though it doesn't fit in our new garage. We are loving Old Town so far. The kids are getting settled in and making friends and getting ready for their first HOCOs. Marielle made varsity dance/poms so we've been doing football season and gearing up for competition season. It's been 21 years since I left the city (26 for DH) so we are being old in Old Town. Today is our 20th anniversary!!

Celebrating DH's 50th B-day in California last November

Me and The City

One of the gifts DH gave me this year was a weekend in the city (sans stroller, as he put it).  Since this past weekend was a veritable heat wave around these parts, I decided to go ahead and "cash it in" before the New Year.  Why waste time, right?

I got a nice hotel on Hotwire (The Whitehall) and finally booked my massage at The Peninsula.  I wore real clothes, ate at nice restaurants (Fred's, Ralph's, etc) and shopped the north end of the Mile, though I didn't buy much.  I didn't even tell my city friends I was coming in, since the idea was to give my introverted self some breathing room from never being alone.  I haven't done a very good job of meeting my goal of "balance" this year.  Next year will be better...

What some people don't understand about big cities, is they are about carving out your own little space and getting lost in the sea of many.  I love the anonymity.  I read some books (the latest by Malcolm Gladwell and Elizabeth Gilbert, which I recommend) and walked a lot and sat and soaked it all in.  Sometimes you just need to be by yourself (in a city of millions) and trade caregiver for doing nothing much to get back to center.

Enjoying the fireplace at RL...

Happy New Year!  

A last hurrah

Since the early summer, our family life has been rearranged for the big project that DH took on for our business.  Don't get me wrong, it was a great opportunity (courtesy of an old grad school friend of his, who is a professor at a local research university), but since I've chosen not to get help (or go back to work) yet, it has meant even more 100+ hour weeks for me solo with the kids.  We are glad to have daddy back soon, partly for me (and him) and partly because the kids are crazy about him, since we've finally come to the very last week of work.  We took the kids to the city on Saturday (since he had to go for work anyway) for brunch at Milk & Honey.  So so good and they are getting so big...

It is finally starting to feel like fall now, and I have so much from the summer that I didn't post about.  Maybe before November... :/  Happy Columbus Day! :)

When the heart of a home is gone

Last weekend, DH gave me the day "off" and I spent a whole six hours away from the kids, the most yet. It was nice to get out, but it also reminded me how much of my mental space they now consume.

One of the places I went to was Hinsdale, which is a haven for teardowns, but has an adorable historic downtown with several cute shops (now minus Lilly) that I used to get to on a regular basis and a few new ones I hadn't yet.  It is also known among followers of Giuliana & Bill Rancic as where they recently flipped one of their several investment homes.  Driving out of town, I happened past the Greek Revival that was the feature of the late designer Marija Stephens's blog "Holding Court" (which has been taken down, but the tribute blog "Holding Forth" has it now). I wrote about her passing here back in 2010...

So later I looked up what happened to the house and since I've apparently let my sub to Chicago Home lapse, I had missed this story from last fall.  Marija hadn't yet finished their family home she'd designed from the ground up when she was tragically killed in a car accident, so her husband had a friend of hers (Julie Edelmann of Buckingham Interiors) finish it before he sold it and moved with their two young children to my old neighborhood in the city before the story ran.  He'd written a beautiful final post on her blog about her and their life and their dreams and the house.  It is a lovely home, but when the heart of a home is gone, it is of course just a house...

  



12 month stats and Chicago at Christmas

The kids had their twelve month check up today, so we made the trip in to their pedi's new office, well the temporary one as his other floor is being built out.

Nice view, huh?

(minus the mediocre iphone pics)

Dr. Weissbluth (the Junior) just started his own practice and since we like him and we've been seeing him since the twins were in the hospital, we made the move with him.  I think he's a bit younger than us and single (how I have no idea) which he randomly mentioned today after asking us how we met.  Must think of someone to set him up with. 

He's gone all digital, so we no longer get the little slip with the kids' stats like at the old practice, which we didn't realize until after the appt., though we went through all of it together.  Their growth curves are very consistent, weights are still in the ~35th percentiles and heads in the 85th.  I think her height was about 65%.  He is crazy long, up to the 95%ile now, making me wonder if he'd be even taller had he not been so disadvantaged in utero, resulting in his disproportionately tiny size at birth.

Alistair:
12 months: 20 lbs. 10 ozs., 31"
Nine months: 19 lbs. 5 ozs., 29 1/2", head: 46.1 cm.
Six months: 16 lbs. 15.5 ozs, 27 3/4", head: 44.7 cm.
Four months: 14 lbs., 25", head: 42.2 cm.
Two months: 10 lbs. 2 ozs., 22 1/2", head: 39.5 cm
Three weeks: 6 lbs. 9 ozs.
Two weeks: 5 lbs. 15 ozs. (he surpasses her for the 1st time)
One week: 5 lbs. 6 ozs.
Four days/hospital release: 5 lbs. 2 ozs.
Birth @ 36w4d (breech/IUGR?): 5 lbs. 7 ozs. (5%), 18.25" (10%)

Marielle:
12 months: 18 lbs. 8 ozs., 29 1/2"
Nine months: 16 lbs. 11 ozs., 28", head: 44.9 cm.
Six months: 14 lbs. 10 ozs.,26 1/4", head: 43 cm.
Four months: 12 lbs. 7 ozs., 24 1/2", head: 41.2 cm.
Two months: 9 lbs. 9 ozs., 21 3/4", head: 38.7 cm.
Three weeks: 6 lbs. 7 ozs. (finally surpasses BW)
Two weeks: 5 lbs. 12 ozs.
One week: 5 lbs. 7 ozs.
Four days/hospital release: 5 lbs. 3 ozs. (unexplained 14% weight loss, day one)
Birth @ 36w4d: 6 lbs. 1 ozs., 19" (25%)

They did pretty well with their shots, thankfully, and we followed it up with a great lunch at Iberico (the best Tapas in the city), and a quick visit from Santa as we passed by The Peninsula to get mommy some of the best hot chocolate anywhere outside of France.

He gave them each Santa bears from his bag, which is funny because we got "paged" walking down Michigan Avenue last week, so they already had one Santa bear and one Peninsula Mini Cooper.

 

I have no idea why I posed in front of their foo dog.  I think foo dogs are super creepy, but they are an Asian chain, so I guess it makes sense they have them out front.

 

A little more Chicago for you...

A wreathed lion at the Art Institute

 

Love this city...