As a last minute treat, my office closed between Christmas and New Year's.  This gave Mary, Jack T and I a chance to spend some awesome time together both having fun going out and just hanging around the house.  We also (finally) got to use three of the Groupons we'd purchased over the last few months!

Our first event was a trip to the Museum of Science & Industry.  There are sooo many exhibits there we'd like to see, especially me since I haven't been there since the good ole' days of Highland School.  This Christmas we found out that Jack T LOVES Christmas trees.  Every time we turned on the tree lights at home, his face lit up as he pointed to the tree with jaw dropped.  So our first stop was to see the Christmas trees from around the world.  We walked through the entire exhibit, and stopped to look at the trees that we liked the most.  Jack T really loved it, almost as much as Mary!  After the Christmas trees, we spent a little time looking at the model trains in The Great Train Story exhibit.

A few days later, we decided to stick with the museum theme and we went to the Chicago History Museum.  This is something Mary and I have wanted to check out for a while, so we were excited to finally get to it.  Although it's not big, it was really pretty cool.  There really wasn't that much for Jack T to look at, aside from the old trolley car, but there was a lot of great Chicago history to soak up.

We also finally got to take Jack T to his first Gymboree class.  The first session was all about tunnels.  Big tunnels, little tunnels, long tunnels, short tunnels, I think you get the idea.  The class was about tunnels.  Jack T was a little skeptical at first, but with a little coaxing and patience, he finally decided to crawl through most of them.  He also loved the parachute at the end of class, but I think could have gone without getting bubbles blown in his face!

That same night, Steve and I had a man-date to go see Tron: Legacy at the Navy Pier IMAX Theater.  It was my first 3D experience, and while it took a little getting used to, I'd have to say it's the only way to see that movie.  Awesome.

Finally, we spent New Year's Eve with some close friends.  We enjoyed dinner, some baby play time, some adult Wii time, and comparing New York city's countdown events to Chicago's countdown events.  I have to say, as much as I love Chicago, it has nothing on NYC's New Year's events, despite Ryan Seacrest.  Although I wasn't looking forward to going back to work after the time off, I truly felt mentally refreshed after having so much fun with Mary and Jack T!

As previous months, Jack T had a lot of firsts in his 11th month! Mommy noticed Jack T staring at her while drinking water from a cup, and so upon offering him water, he drank several sips of water directly from the same cup. He got a big toy bus to push around the condo and chase Bentley. After playing with it he went from taking a couple tentative steps on his own to full-fledged walking in about two weeks. He tried all kinds of new foods including cantaloupe, pineapple, blueberries, cheese, turkey, sweet potatoes, and stuffing (yummy Thanksgiving food)! He had his first really bad cold, however, despite being stuffy and tired, he was still a very agreeable baby. His 7th and 8th teeth came in on the bottom and, after several months of showing him the baby sign, he started making the baby sign for “milk.” Jack got to enjoy lots of time with family and friends for Thanksgiving; seeing both sides of his extended family, “playing” with all his cousins, and spending time with Mommy and Daddy's friends when they hosted Friendsgiving.  After Thanksgiving, Jack also started to enjoy his first Christmas season by going to see Santa Claus (of course he had been a good boy all year 'round) and gazing in awe at Mommy's beautifully decorated Christmas Tree!  Every time we turned on the tree lights he was simply delighted!

(If you're viewing this on Facebook, be sure to click the "View Original Post" link to see the pictures)

This month was packed with exciting new things for Jack T. Just after his 9-month doctor appointment, he started some finger foods. The first item on the menu were puffs. After about three days of trying he was eating them with no hesitation. After a couple weeks of puffs, he started (slowly) eating some other finger foods like banana, cheese and bread. We also took Jack for several mini-adventures like a 5K walk to support the fight against breast cancer, a trip to the pumpkin farm, and trick-or-treating for Halloween! Of course, he also got to spend some quality time with his best buddy, Ben C. Jack excited us this month with a lot more interactivity. He started responding when prompted with “so big!” by raising his hands straight up in the air over his head. He also started waving when someone says “hi” or “bye” and clapping both on his own and when prompted. At the end of the month, he started pushing things around while standing up. It won't be long before he starts walking!

Well, another Christmas has come and gone.  This year marks the 2nd Christmas that Mary and I have been married.  I have to say, it really was a great one, too.  Not because I got the so-and-so I always wanted or because we went away on vacation.  No, it was mostly due to the time I got to spend with people.  Christmas was about family.  I really enjoyed all the time with both Mary's family and mine, young and not-so-young!

We also had just a few people over to watch Elf (hopefully a new annual event?).  No big spread or anything fancy, just pizza, some dessert and friends.  It also just happened to be a couple days before Mary's birthday, so we were able to get a little extra celebrating in!

For some reason, I was much more into Christmas than usual.  Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I found myself singing random verses from Christmas music a LOT (especially from White Christmas).  Maybe Mary's affinity for the holiday is rubbing off on me?  Maybe it meant more to me knowing that we'll have our own little one with which to celebrate, soon?  Maybe it was watching White Christmas three times this year (once at the Tivoli)?  Either way, it was a great feeling.

Any day now, we're expecting our new arrival!  It is so exciting (and at times overwhelming) to know that so many people are so anxious to meet him or her.  Mary and I seem to be doing good jobs of keeping each others' nerves in check as we grow anxious, ourselves.  Aside from Mary's annual meeting and Christmas, we've been working really hard to try and get everything ready for the baby.  Although things are not (and may never be) 100% ready, we're ready enough.  Now...it's just a waiting game!

It is hard to believe, but I am only 3 and a half weeks away from my due date.  When in the world did that happen and where did the time go?  It seems so long ago that we first found out I was pregnant, but at some point, life seemed to move in fast forward and we are now quickly approaching the time when our family of 2 will be a family of 3 (+Bentley, of course). 

As I am sure you'd guess from my absense on our blog these days, we've been keeping VERY busy.  The Annual Meeting for my work took place just after Thanksgiving, so there were 2 weeks where I awoke very early, worked 12 hour days on average, ate whatever we had on hand (although we had planned ahead well), and went to bed.  Jack made sure to take care of me, just as he has all the way along this pregnancy, but particularly those two weeks.  I always have a bit of a melt-down after the Meeting is over; it is an adjustment back to "normal" life, but this year, normal seems very up in the air.

I am happy to report that all of my doctors appointments are going well and I am going every week now until the baby arrives.  The docs aren't concerned about anything, so it is just a matter of waiting now.

We were fortunate to have two baby showers, which took place on the weekends on either end of the Meeting.  The first was hosted by my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law at a restaurant in Westmont the Sunday before move-in started.  The women from Jack's side of the family were invited, along with the close friends of my mom-in-law and all of my girlfriends.  It was so nice of her to include my friends in this one and I had a great time.  Both parties were smaller groups which was nice because it made it possible to talk to just about everyone.  And for me, it was nice to see girlfriends from various parts of my life all socialize together.  The second was hosted by my mom at my parents' house the Sunday after the Meeting.  Once again it was a smaller crowd of just the ladies from our family, but it was nice to talk with everyone and feel how excited they all are for us.  We are so very fortunate to have such amazing family and friends with whom we can celebrate this upcoming milestone and the gifts we received were very much appreciated!

The Meeting always puts a bit of a crimp on the time we have for the holidays, so Jack and I have been doing what we can to enjoy the Christmas season, as he knows I LOVE this time of year, while still making sure to work at our other priorities, such as making sure we are as set as we can be before Baby Minster arrives.  We bought our Christmas tree and put it up right away, but it still has yet to be decorated.  It's a task that I plan to get to this week as there isn't much time left!  We did put up the other Christmas decorations in our condo though for this year right away, so our place feels festive.  And Jack made sure to put up the Christmas lights on our balcony and in our windows during the Meeting, which made home feel very festive each night when I came home.  I made sure to watch "White Christmas" once already and we've had Christmas carols playing in the condo as we work through our many "to do" items. 

We've been working in the baby's room and going through boxes of papers and random things that were being stored in there, and I am happy to say it is looking more like a baby's room these days!  The crib, bookcase and drawers that we'll use for a dresser and changing table are in their spots and I am pleased with how it looks.  Now that doesn't mean that ALL the boxes are gone, but we've made great progress.  No decorations are up, but that will come with time, as we haven't hung pictures in the rest of our condo either.  We were able to put away just about all the gifts we received from the showers, so we are slowly almost ready. 

We also found time to buy a rug for our living room (which I think Bentley thinks is his new big bed) and a picture mantel for above our fireplace.  While we've been out, we've also been trying to pick up the items we still needed for the baby, so we are just about set with all that too.  It feels great to check things off our list!

I've also been trying to chip away at the Christmas present shopping as the longer we wait, the harder I know it'll get for me physcially.  As it is, I can tell that my pace is slower, I get tired faster than ever, and I am only able to get so much done before Baby tells me I am done for the night.    I promised Jack that I would do more online shopping this year, so after hitting a few stores for things I knew I could get easier in person, I plan to finish up the shopping online (hopefully tonight).  That leaves us with thank you cards, Christmas cards, and all the wrapping to do done, plus what feels like a hundred other little things still, but I am thrilled with any progress we make these days. 

And as if we didn't have enough occupying our time, I asked Jack if we could take a night off and see White Christmas at the Tivoli in Downers Grove tomorrow night.  As the loving, wonderful husband he is, he agreed!  I can't wait!