Goodbye my Friend...

Since Tara and I were together, we have owned a Mitsubishi Eclipse, Ford Explorer, and a Mercury Sable.  The Jeep Grand Cherokee was the one that we spent the most time with and created the most memories.

The Jeep brought home our son from the hospital (after Tara drove to the hospital after her water broke by herself), along with numerous trips to Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin and road trips to Kentucky, West Virginia and the far northern section of Wisconsin.

The Jeep went to the race track and the auto body shop (twice).   And it brought our new family out to New York City.  Once out in NYC, the time came to part ways as it wasn't the easiest to have a car parked on the street that wasn't being used.  A quick posting on craigslist and after weeding through the responses a good couple purchased it.  Looking back it's amazing how you can form attachments to inanimate objects especially ones that gave you so many happy memories.  The Jeep will be missed.

The third trimester

I tend to think that pregnancy as a whole is both a sprint and a marathon - it flies by yet at times feels like the biggest waiting time period every. I think that the third trimester makes this even more concentrated.

The third trimester was very normal and healthy and without drama. Everything was tracking along fine for both me and baby. Sometimes it is easy to get a little nonchalant about this but then I read a story about someone who lost their baby at 38 weeks and it brings it all back to perspective. Thank goodness, we were both healthy and that those frequent doctor trips were uneventful.

It is at some point during this last stretch where you feel like you have been enormous forever. I am one of those annoying women who enjoy pregnancy and don't have a lot of the negative side effects but yet I do find myself getting a little out of sorts by being so a larger version of myself. I hate to admit it but those feelings messed with my head quite a bit in the final weeks. At the beginning of the third trimester everything is rosy, you feel great and have  big bump but not too big... by week 36 I felt a little on 'omg am I really this big' side of things.

I kept active by running after my favorite toddler. Bending and squatting and getting up and down repeatedly all day to keep up with 16-18 month old is a work out when you aren't pregnant - add a couple dozen pounds in your middle and it becomes quite the work out.I am still moving quite well and have avoided the waddle, thankfully.

I seem to keep note of what I ate during my pregnancies so won't skip that part now in the final trimester. I found that I didn't have room for a lot of food - half a sandwich was more than enough.  But I ate frequently lest you think I was dieting. I ate a lot of yogurt, Potbellies sandwiches (a wreck to be specific), salt and vinegar chips, swedish fish, dark chocolate with almonds and sea salt, salads, and ice cream. Lots of ice cream. Oh and tons of oranges. I mean tons of oranges. But some of my favorite cookies were now waaaay to rich and I couldn't eat them. Don't worry, I ate lots of fruit and veggies too.

During this pregnancy I tended to be very tired. I get up at least three times a night to go to bathroom and then there were quite a few times that Jaime was sick or teething so basically it has been forever since I slept a full eight+ hours.

During the final weeks Dan and I plowed through the tv show Person of Interest. And Modern Family.

I read quite a few books, enjoying the time to myself. And not pregnancy books or the happiest baby books - just good old fashioned novels.

I thought a lot about how it will be to be a mother of two. How I will balance the needs of my family, encourage sibling friendship instead of rivalry, make sure everyone knows exactly how much they are loved. At bedtime Jaime still snuggles against my chest for a lullaby, I sing Peace, Green Trees and Taps (the trio that ended every day at camp). I remember one distinct evening where baby girl put out a kick against Jaime and I wondered what he thought, there was no way he didn't feel it. I have also wondered what this baby girl must think about the loud crazy house she is hearing and if she will recognize the laughter.

This little girl is quite active. You can't always see big movement from the outside but she wiggles away. And she takes quiet long naps, I wake her up sometimes if I haven't felt movement in a while. While Dan thinks it is quite strange and alien to feel the baby move, I love it. It is like our own little conversation. I will miss that.

At the final sonogram I saw my sweet little girl just chilling. The profile looks so much like Jaime but also her own. I can not wait to kiss that little cheek.

January Days as a Family of Three

January 2014 can be split into two sections - the last days a family of three and the first days as a family of four.

Those first couple of weeks in January were kind of tough. It was so very cold out with packed snow and I was very tired so we didn't go far. Our family days were trips to the library and the museum and time spent at home reading piles of books, making muffins, and family naptimes.

We did get to experience the dinosaur floor with it practically all to ourselves. There was a big snow storm and it was frigid for several day so our trip there was super peaceful and Jaime was able to run freely.

So our days were quiet. I had thought we would get out to do "big adventures" around the city during those last weekends as a family of three but the quiet days were what we needed.

It was getting harder and harder to pick up my baby boy and to have room for him to sit on my lap for storytime. But we made it work.

December wrap up

December flies by and before you know it the new year is tomorrow.

Besides the bigger outings and work days, December was filled with Tecumseh playground visits, 50 degree days in Central Park and Riverside Park, bitterly cold days at the library, reading by the light of the Christmas tree, brunch at Taralucci and le Pain, walks at the Mall, visits to the Natural History Museum, and baby growing...

So long, 2013.  It was a very excellent year filled with so many awesome memories.  Seriously, so many memories, so many laughs, so many things to be thankful for.  Cheers.

Christmas Morning

We had a nice little Christmas day.  It was pretty fun to see Jaime's face when he headed out to the living room for his morning banana to find a teepee and then see the pile of presents. Pretty neat, indeed.

We spent the day listening to tunes on Jaime's new music player, hiding out in the teepee, playing with puzzles and stackers and such.

We set up the tripod to take a picture of the three of us and it was the first time that my curious little boy had seen the tripod and the flash... oh man. He thought it was pretty fascinating. After each photo he would run over to see it on the back of the camera with little shrieks of excitement. It was so very cute.

This was our second and last Christmas as a family of three. I am so thankful for my happy and healthy little family.