Monday, May 19, 2008

One Year Ago...

Finnegan Reid Keaty
Born: May 17th 2007
4:43 pm
8 lbs. 1 oz








Finnegan Reid Keaty
May 17th 2008
23.5 pounds
4 teeth
Head of hair, Curly in the Back!

Chubby and Cute

Brownish Green Eyes

Crawling!

First Words: DaDa, MaMa, Car, Cow







Thursday, May 15, 2008

My First Mother's Day

I had a wonderful weekend and I'm happy to fill in my loyal readers on all the details!
This weekend was my FIRST Mother's Day.
It was incredibly special as my Mom made the trip to Chicago, as did my sister, flying down from Minneapolis. I took two MUCH needed days off of work and spent that time hanging out with my two favorite women in the whole wide world.
The highlights of the weekend included:
1) Many trips with Grandma to Dunkin Doughnuts for coffee, walks in the neighborhood, giving Mom the tour of the brand new HPP!

2) An AMAZING girls evening out for dinner, (Nacional 27), the food was amazing, and the drinks were even MORE amazing. We shared a flight of mojitos, and they were so delicious we had a hard time not begging for MO' MO' MO' mojitos. Seriously delicious. My meal was a tender pork simmered with plaintains, black beans and coconut rice in a buttery orange sauce, with a cuban spice twist. So good!
3) Following dinner we headed to the hit Broadway Musical, Wicked! Which is SO good! Mom and I had seen it, but it was Greta's first time.....so that was fun. I just love that show. We had killer seats. Front row, first balcony. It was amazing.
4) Just hanging around! I think sometimes when you live in the city there is pressure to go do! and go see! which is nice, but the weather was kind of nasty, (typhoon pastry run?!) so we just chilled lots, played and snuggled Finn and watched movies.
5) Delicious dinner on Mother's Day at Moe and Jim's. It was fun to see Nick's family and his Mom on the special day to celebrate with them as well. Here is a fun fact! People in Illinois have NO idea what rhubarb is! Crazy huh? Mom whipped up one of her amazing rhubarb desserts and Nick's family had never had rhubarb before. So odd!
6) Getting a beautiful card from Nick and Finn and learning that Nick has bought me a VERY nice and amazing keepsake, a gold bracelet with Finnegan's name on it, for my first Mother's Day. I will include a picture when I actually get it. It has links so I can add future Keaty babies names to it. I can't wait!!
As Finn gets ready to turn 1 this coming Saturday, I can hardly believe that I've been a MOM for almost an ENTIRE YEAR! It's hard to remember NOT being a mom. It is everything I thought it would be and so so so much more.
I see super amazing pregnant ladies around now, ready to pop, and I think back to this time last year. How nervous I was. How excited. How LARGE I was. I know what is in store for them! The labor, the first few days, nights, weeks. The first smile, laugh, the first clap, tooth, etc. I just want to grab them and say, "Aren't you SO excited! Oh my god being a mom is SO AMAZING, you're going to love it!!!" Obviously I can't do that because I would be arrested.
So much has changed in a year, and the one thing that continues to change is how much deeper my love gets for Finnegan, and my excitement for what the future holds. It's truly indescribable.
Here are some pictures from the weekend!
Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!
MOMS RULE :-)

More gifts from Auntie Greta for Finny's birthday, bath toys and snuggly dog!
M IS FOR MOJITO!



WICKED!


Now HERE is a great group shot!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Fashionably Late (With This Post)

Trying to catch up!
Fun Outing Post!

Last Thursday evening, my dear girlfriend Shanna and I, attended the Make A Statement, Design for the Cure Fashion Show!
Invited by my other dear friend, Maggie Connell, who serves on the Aids Foundation of Chicago's Junior Board as the President!
The event was held at Le Passage, and yes, it was that kind of cool.
Steven Rosengard, from Chicago, and from the last season of Project Runway was a witty emcee.
Shanna was the perfect person to give her beady professional fashion eye to all of the designers and models we saw showcased on the catwalk, and it was really just a nice time to get out into the Chicago "It" scene, have a few cocktails, and have some fun.
Really the best part was seeing Maggie in her element. She LOOKED beautiful, the event was a HUGE success. I was just so proud of her! I KNOW how hard events are, I know the effort they take, the planning, etc. and I just loved watching her. She has been the biggest supporter of Open Books and I really appreciate all that she has done for us.
Here are a few pics of us being fab and fashionable.



I wish I would have gotten some more pictures of the fashion show, but it was jam packed!

More posts of my AMAZING LONG weekend, Mother's Day and time spent with my Mom and Sister in Chicago coming soon.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

An Ode to Running


It's dark outside
I sneak out the house
trying to be quiet as a mouse
Ipod? Headphones? Cell Phone? Check!
This might be my best run yet.

Optimistic as I start
I can already hear my heart

Oh how I love you South Bound Lakeshore Path
With your many pretty features
Museums, Beaches, Harbors and Parks
filled with loads of woodland creatures

The Lake glistens, winks, and smiles in the sun
The waves crash magically
I never take forgranted how beautiful; my run

I smile and say hello to all the others I pass
It's a simple test to see if I'm running out of gas
My knees hurt these days, is it because I'm too heavy?
If I try to run this much and DIET, I will for sure turn crazy

Half way point, time to turn around
Can't believe I'm marathon bound
This time I take all for myself is good for me and for my spouse
To burn off energy good and bad
To be able to run, I'm forever glad


Had a tough 7 miler today. Started composing this poem in my head to help pass the time. My KNEES HURT. So that is a new physical barrier to overcome, sigh. Not sure what is going on there.

Missed my mileage goals this month by about 8 miles. Decided to be judicious about not overdoing it before my PT test. Which I PASSED by the way! :-) Felt SO amazing to have that cloud not hanging over my head anymore. My pushups can use more work, sit-ups too. The run? 2 miles of sheer hell. Thank god I'm in decent shape there. It was like 35 degrees and we ran in winds around 35 MPH. I rocked it though. Must have been the pressure. My time was 16:30. Not bad considering how nasty it was.

This month brings my first race of the season! Hopefully this body stays in one piece. Madison Half Marathon in 24 days! Woop Woop.