It’s 2017! I can’t get over how futuristic that sounds. J and I spent spent New Years Eve playing Monopoly and drinking champagne, and we actually stayed awake until midnight! Go us. And also, how did we ever, ever stay up later than that?!

2016: what a year. I’ve been having a hard time summing up how I feel about it. Of course, we got Hudson! I became a mom. That will always make it a special year when I look back. But as I’ve mentioned here before, I experienced a feeling of transience during pregnancy—like I was in some alternate place, not my pre-pregnancy self and also just waiting to become… whatever was next. (We also just ripped through the series the supernatural series the OA this week, so if you’re wondering why I’m talking like a crystal healer in Sedona, forgive me.)

I thought I’d recap the year here in photos, and I’m so glad I did. We actually did a ton (besides, you know.. having a baby) despite feeling like we spent 2/3 of it just waiting around.

2016 is also the year I started this blog, and I’m so, so glad I did it. It’s helped me realize how much I love to write, provided a place to share some of my illustrations, and is handily serving as a pseudo-baby book until I get my act together on that front.

It’s funny, because all of the photos are of the big things that happened this year—mainly, trips and events with friends and fam. But what I actually spent most of the year doing, and loving, was laying low with Blitz. I know, I know—I’m a crazy cat lady. Bear with me as I wax poetic about my little kitty shadow, who spent January-July glued to my side. My first trimester exhaustion was intense and while I got a few months of relief in the 2nd trimester, I was back to being super tired all the time again by the time summer rolled around. Translation: a ton of Netflix and laying around. Blitz was always, always, right by my side if not curled up and hugging the bump.

So with that thrilling homage to my cat complete, here’s our 2016!

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January

In January, work brought me to London—one of my favorite cities! I spent the trip pretending not to be exhausted and pukey in front of my colleagues, and leaning on the “no drinking in January!” excuse HARD. The morning before my flight back to Chicago, I walked all over the city to squeeze in as many sights as I could. I remember standing at Buckingham Palace and thinking about how crazy it was that someday I’d tell my baby I stood their with them when I was newly pregnant.

February

In February, Jason and I headed out to Palm Springs with his family. We stayed at his sister and brother-in-law’s beautiful new house in Palm Desert, and I soaked up the sun like a pregnant lizard. Jason surprised me with an epic prenatal massage at a beautiful spa… turns out I love the desert!

My mom and I hosted my sister’s combo bridal shower-bachelorette party here in the city. We rented a beautiful hotel suite overlooking the skyline, found her the most perfect wedding dress, got massages, then had all of the girls over to the suite to celebrate before heading out to dinner at Carnivale. Though my sister hates both surprises and celebrations in her honor, I like to think we pulled off a good party!

March

In March, we celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary! My impatient self found a place to do non-diagnostic prenatal ultrasounds, where we could find out the gender a few weeks earlier than our 20-week doctor’s appointment. We asked them to not tell us the gender at the appointment, so before we headed out to our anniversary dinner that night, Jason opened the envelope that they’d sealed with the gender so that he could tell me himself. We’d both suspected a boy from the start, but J was POSITIVE and never wavered even a little bit. So finding out he was right all along was awesome, and led right in to an amazing dinner at a French restaurant in our neighborhood. Just a year prior to that day we’d been standing in front of all of our family and friends in Mexico to be married, and then there we were, anticipating the arrival of our baby boy in five short months. Life is crazy.

Work also took me to New York, and I seized the opportunity to visit my “baby” brother, who’d recently moved to upstate New York for work. We only had about 6 hours before he had to get on a train back to Albany for work the next day, so we did a fast and furious walking tour of the city. If I remember right, I think we walked almost 10 miles! It was an awesome day with one of my favorite people in the world. I’m so proud of him, and getting to spend some solo time with him is really rare.

April

The highlight of April was easily my sister’s wedding. She married one of my longtime friends, and there is no better feeling than welcoming a friend into your family… especially when that’s kind of how it’s felt all along. They are so perfect for each other, and I loved celebrating with them in this insane private home in Arizona. My sister had a vision for the wedding, and I totally cry just thinking about how beautiful it all was.

I’m also pretty sure I cried tears of joy at a week’s worth of access to a pool, because at that point I was definitely feeling very pregnant, and floating in an inner tube was total bliss.

May

I actually can’t believe I packed as much into May as I did, especially at six months pregnant.

In the beginning of the month, we went down to Marco Island, Florida for a last-minute “babymoon”. We met friends there and spent a great weekend on the beach, drinking virgin pina coladas and getting more floating time in. Unfortunately, the trip ended in the emergency room after a bad case of food poisoning. It was my first real scare while traveling, and I was so, so grateful that the baby was okay and that Jason was with me. Definitely a crappy ending, buttttt I’ll choose to focus on the beautiful sunrises and time with great friends before that little bit 😃

We spent another weekend with my family in the burbs to celebrate my beautiful mama’s birthday!

Then, I was off to my last work trip before the TSA banned me for being too pregnant: San Francisco. (Just kidding, by the way. They don’t ban you, but you do get some crazy looks!) SF is my favorite city besides Chicago so I remember feeling grateful for one more trip before the babe, and also for all of the great food I’d be able to take down while I was there. I also lucked out with a killer view of the bay from my hotel room.

This photo makes me laugh. That foot belongs to none other than… Mike Tyson!

I headed straight to Arizona from San Francisco for another friend’s wedding. I was dreading another flight after a long week and obviously super-preggo, but the flight gods were in my favor. I had maybe my best travel experience to date: zero lines, upgraded, and Mike Tyson and his foot were just a few rows ahead of me on my flight. Totally reaffirmed how much I loooove travel when the going’s good!

My husband stood up as the best man for one of his long-time friends in a small, private ceremony. It was beautiful, and after the ceremony in Scottsdale, we headed up for a night in Sedona. I’ll be honest and admit Sedona would have been pretty far down my list of places to go, but it was stunning and a place I’m so glad I can say I’ve seen in real life.

June

In June, we finally settled in for a summer at home. Which, after a pretty crazy first half of the year, was really nice and necessary. One of my favorite memories in June was celebrating Jason’s birthday. We went to Spiaggia and had a ridiculously good dinner, and then, proving just how much I love that man, we went on an evening fireworks cruise on the lake. The awesomeness of the activity itself was never in question, but Navy Pier on a very hot Saturday night was my third trimester definition of hell. I survived and it was totally worth it: the views of the city lit up by fireworks were breathtaking. I love our city.

 

My mom, sister and mother in law threw me the most perfect baby shower in June. The whole thing was travel themed, and they thought of every last detail — even the food was a nod to different destinations Jason and I have visited together. I loved celebrating our baby to be with so many special women in my life… definitely something I’ll never forget. May I also never forget Jason diapering a teddy bear.

July

I cannot believe I could stand at this point. The human body is amazing.

Not to be dramatic or anything, but July was pretty much purgatory. I was convinced, beyond all reason, that Hudson was coming early so every day was like, “wellllllll guess it’s not today…” Of course not, Laura! Most first babies come late. So, when I think of July, I think of waiting… and walking. I wish I had my fitbit back then to tell me how many miles I logged, taking my huge pregnant self up and down the lake front and around the parks.

Another major highlight of July was GAME OF THRONES! Midway through my pregnancy, I decided we’d watch it in the last month because neither Jason or I have ever watched any of the seasons. I know myself, and I knew I’d need help to get through the end days. It was such an awesome (if slightly violent) way to kill time, and I’m glad we spent so much time just the two of us before Hudson showed up!

August

August can be about nothing else besides Hudson. On the fifth, he fiiiiiiiiinally arrived, and changed our lives forever in the best way. I’d read so, so many delivery horror stories in the NINE MONTHS that I had to let my imagination run away with me… so having such a positive delivery experience was an incredibly pleasant surprise.

Those early days are all such a blur, but I loved the naps together and just staring at Hudson, wondering how on earth we made that. (We still do that :))

September

No surprise, September was really, really similar to August except for that I started feeling better physically and got back to my city walks, only to find out they’re way more fun with a little buddy snoozing in a stroller. We also got brave, and took Hudson out with us to a few local patios… he was such a champ!

We also went on our first date, thanks to my in-laws, and it was pretty epic. It felt great to be just Jason and I again for a little bit… and then come home to our little dude.

October

In October, it started to feel like my days with Hudson were becoming more routine—in a good way. We had started to figure each other out, and though I’d never call these early days of parenting easy, it started to get a lot more fun. Also, a lot more adorable with lots of baby smiles.

We spent pretty much every day from about 4-6 in the baby wrap, at first out of necessity to calm him down during his “witching hour” and then because I loved having him so close to me. Cooking with a baby? No prob! I’m so glad we did that because he’s already too big and wiggly for it. (Sob)

My grandparents made a special trip out to meet Huds, and seeing them with my son was pretty mind-blowing. I will always cherish these photos <3

I became a Huffington Post blogger! I’m not really calling this a resolution, but I guess it pretty much is: one of my big goals for 2017 is to submit at least one post a month to the site.

And of course, the Cubs won the World Series! J had tried to impress upon me while I was pregnant the magnitude of what the Cubs in the World Series would mean for Hudson—he’d NEVER know a team that was anything but great. That coming true was so much fun, even for a non-sports fan like me. (But always a Chicago fan!) We put Hudson in his lucky Cubs suit for every game, and I dressed him up as a Cubs player for Halloween.

November

In November, we left for our long-awaited Mexico trip. At that point, it had been 5 months since Jason and I traveled together anywhere, the longest in our relationship by a while.  Though I was super nervous about leaving Hudson prior to heading out, I ended up surviving quite nicely, and so did Huds on his “vacation” with his grandparents 😃 Jason and I had the best time–one of our best trips trips ever!–and we realized how much more awesome travel has become with Hudson in the picture. I’m happy to report that we’ve found the cure for last-day-of-vacation-blues: drooly, gummy baby smiles.

We returned from Mexico to what Jason accurately called a “soft landing”, spending Thanksgiving at his parents place, reunited with our little dude. I missed seeing my family for Thanksgiving (the first year ever!) but we had a really nice, relaxing day and of course, an awesome feast. Couldn’t have asked for a better Thanksgiving… not to mention that these were the blissful days when Hudson was actually sleeping through the night. Food, wine, and sleep. Heaven, all around!

December

December was all about the holidays, and though our holiday celebrating was a little different than in years past, it was so great. We decked out our place immediately after Thanksgiving so we had a full month to enjoy the tree and lights.

I went back to work part time, and Jason’s amazing mom is kind enough to come into the city to watch Hudson a few times a week. We’re so lucky that he can be with family, and that my company is flexible enough to allow me to create an arrangement that’s working really well for us right now.

While we did a lot more holiday celebrating at home than in years past, it a nice, cozy month and having Hudson here made the holidays feel new again. Hudson nailed his first Santa photo, and we spent time with both of our families over Christmas. A great end to a big year.

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Whew. My intention was for this to be brief, but I ended up with The Longest Post Ever.

But I’m so glad I did it. Firstly, because writing things down helps me deal with my time-is-going-too-fast syndrome. But more importantly, because no life is without challenge, pain and heartache. My little family happens to be in a time when things are just awesome. We’re happy and healthy, and the same is true of our loved ones. I know I can’t expect that always to be the case, so for now, I am just so grateful for every one of these sunny days.

I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store for us… with any luck, more of the same! (To be clear, that’s without the pregnancy part.)

Cheers friends, and happy new year.