Life Continues

I haven't written here in a while. Things are busy, but in a good way. Monday I have Ramona's kindergarten informational meeting. And it's also time to sign Ruby up for preschool next year. And Eliza turned one. How quickly it all goes.

Today I got sucked into reading a huge article about heroin addiction. (You know how the internet is always doing that sort of thing to people.) It really made me think about how, though some things are hard now, other things are so easy. Our kids are safe with us for now. They are happy and loved and it is enough. There are so many scary things ahead, and all I can do is hope that I will prepare them for the difficult choices they will make in the future. Not just about drugs, but about people, friends, partners, jobs, school- everything. I'm doing my best to enjoy this time when things are easy in the best way, and hard in a way that I can handle.

But now I will reflect on these silly kids and their silly actions.

Enjoy that I can make them wear matching jammies on Christmas morning

And love every little grin I get from these little kids who have no idea how much I love them and how much they mean to me.

And they probably never will unless they have kids of their own. And I hope they can keep their cheesy grins and love of life.

I certainly have kept mine- mostly because of them.

Gotta Get Away

A couple of weekends ago, we decided to get out of town. We hadn't gone anywhere in a while and just needed some space for adventure. It was Joe's birthday weekend, so when he mentioned going to Cleveland so we could eat at Great Lakes Brewery, it sounded like a nice, not too expensive way to spend some time together and get out of the house. Joe reserved us a room at a cheap hotel downtown (with one king bed- I did not realize that fact until we got there. All five us slept in the same bed. Yes, it was an interesting night. Surprisingly more sleep than I anticipated, but hardly a restful night's sleep. Remind me not to do that again.)

We went to Great Lakes first. It was bustling by the time we got there, but the kids happily ran around chasing pigeons while we waited to be seated since they had spent most of the morning in the car. The food was good, but Eliza was hungry and wanted to be held and entertained, so it was a bit exhausting. But we did have a great meal, good beer, and a nice spot for outdoor dining and people watching. From there, we hit up the Cleveland Zoo, which was pretty nice. Great exhibits, lots of animals, and informative signs made for a nice afternoon. Ruby desperately needed a nap (resulting in the Great "Mommy Will Not Carry You, Walk Or Ride in the Wagon" Standoff of 2014) but other than that it was a lot of fun. At that point we were all pretty tired, so it was back to the hotel where we ate pizza and attempted to sleep. In the same bed. I just needed to point that out again.

The next day was super fun. We got brunch at a different brewery. (Market something? District Brewing maybe?) Then we headed to the Natural History Museum. We had talked up the dinosaur bones to the kids, but they were not really impressed. Ramona's favorite part was a display of a bunch of animals watching a TV with the world's "most dangerous animal" which just showed footage of you standing there looking at the display. Ramona was delighted to be on television despite the stuffed animals obvious appall at her inherent danger and kept finding ways to wander back to the exhibit.

The cutest moment was when the big girls decided to spontaneously hug and then hold hands as they walked around together.

We got a lot of pictures together. For this one, Joe told us to roar. Ramona and I got really into it. Ruby did not. Eliza wondered if there was a way to pretend not to know me when she was strapped to my chest.

There was a display for kids about getting into nature. It garnered the best picture of the entire trip:

After that we decided to take the little girls to their first National Park (and Ramona's third.) So we went off to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, specifically to Brandywine Falls. It started pouring rain as we pulled into the parking lot, but it died down to sprinkles by the time I had fed Eliza and we got ready to walk off to the falls.

The kids were completely nonplussed. I thought at least Ramona would be impressed, but no. Eliza seemed to like the noise better than her white noise machine at home, so I guess at least one of them liked it. There was a friendly guy down there with his wife and we talked to him a bit and he offered to take a picture of the whole family, which was awesome since we don't have many of those.

You could view the falls from the top as well, so we went up to go check that out, and as soon as we got a few feet down the boardwalk it started POURING again. Ruby found this to be hilarious, and it was kind of fun. It was one of those things where there's nothing you can do but just keep walking, so we were all dripping wet and laughing.

And as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. We got back to the car, changed into some dry clothes and drove back home.

It was a short trip, but a good time. The kids are such good little travelers and I love seeing everything through their eyes. I think we'll find out way out to Cleveland again soon. There are definitely more adventures to be had there.

It's- another girl!

Those are the exact words Joe used when he announced the new baby's sex in the delivery room after she was born.

On January 8, I went in for my midwife appointment, and she noted that my blood pressure had been getting higher for the past few appointments, which was unusual for me. There was no protein in my urine, and no real concern that something was seriously wrong, but she suggested I go to the hospital for induction that morning. We had been planning for me to go the next day, when I would have been 42 weeks, but I agreed to go in a day early to play it safe.

So, I called Joe and told him to ask his mom to watch the girls and headed home to pack a quick bag and get to the hospital. I got home and threw my stuff together and let my work know that it was go time and I was off. Joe did the same, and we left the girls with my mother-in-law and told them we were going to the hospital so the new baby could come out.  We had to stop off at the mall on the way so Joe could meet up with one of his co-workers and give him some keys, and then we finally arrived at the hospital.

Going to the hospital for a planned induction is pretty lame. There's no real drama. I told the women at the nurse's station that I was there for an induction and they told me to go down the hall and wait in a room until they could get me set up. Joe and I hung out and discovered the greatest horror of our hospital stay- their wi-fi was down. What a bummer. They finally got me hooked up to the monitors and an IV around 1pm. Joe went and got lunch and picked us up some magazines at some point. I ate a bunch of popsicles. This was the boring waiting part where I always feel guilty making Joe even be there since it's literally sitting in a room waiting for stuff to happen. I was having contractions but they weren't horrible or anything. It was mostly me just laying around and Joe reading magazines.

The staff stopped by and asked how things were going pretty regularly, and I let them know I was having contractions but they weren't killer. They finally checked m around 9pm and said I was about 5 to 6 cm. The midwife suggested we turn off the pitocin since my body seemed to be kicking into gear by itself, and break my water. This was when I started getting nervous. Breaking the water is always when shit gets real for me. Everything starts to hurt more and go faster. And, true to form, once that happened, things kicked up and the contractions started to hurt more and come faster. I told Joe I didn't want to do it. Like, if there was a way to get the baby out without going through another delivery, we should do that. I just really did not want to go through all the pain again.

Joe told me I'd be fine and get through it. I said I didn't think so, and thought I should get an epidural. We went back and forth over it again. I just felt like I was only dilated to 5 and MAYBE 6, so it was going to be hours more of this and I just couldn't take it. So, around 9:40, I asked the nurse for an epidural. She got the anesthesiologist and he showed up around 9:50. He was doing everything and asking me to stay still and it was SO HARD because it hurt SO MUCH and the contractions were coming SO FAST. When he said he was doing the last part, right at 10:05, I felt a gush of water and felt the baby drop into the birth canal and yelled, "This baby is coming NOW!" I instantly started feeling the urge to push.

The anesthesiologist said "I'm done! You can lay down!" Then realized his instruments were all over the bed and yelled, "Wait a minute!" and grabbed his stuff and I laid back. The epidural had not kicked in and I started yelling, "I do NOT want to feel this!" because the baby was wiggling around so much and I had never pushed without an epidural before. But, the urge to push was overwhelming and as the midwife appeared suddenly and asked if I could wait a minute to push because they were setting things up, I told her I just could not resist pushing. It was a force outside of me by that point. She said to go ahead and push if I had to, and I did. She then asked if I wanted stirrups or to hold my legs up and I yelled, "I don't care!" (I did a lot of yelling. Everyone was nice about it.)

I was pushing and the epidural was starting to work a little, but only in my leg it seemed, which I didn't really need. I felt the baby crowning and the infamous "ring of fire" and, yeah, that's appropriately named. On the next contraction, I pushed out the head. Then I kind of relaxed, forgetting that I had to push out the rest of the baby. The midwife and nurses started shouting, "Megan! We still need to get the rest!" And I was internally like, "oh yeah, there's more baby." So, I got back to pushing and out popped the body. Baby was born at 10:15.

And then I laid there. The midwife had said earlier that she would let Joe announce the sex of the baby since it was a surprise. For nearly two full minutes Joe stared at the baby. I began to wonder what was going on. Did Joe somehow not know the difference between boys and girls? Should I have drawn him a diagram? Was something wrong? Finally, he said, "It's- another girl!" And I was happy. I had been so sure she was a boy, but I was wrong. And of course, I was happy. Mainly because I was not super confident about circumcision decisions, and I got to avoid them yet again. But also because I do love my girls and was happy to add another one to the pack. 

One of the coolest things with Eliza is that we got to cuddle with her for the first hour after she was born and I got to nurse her right away. Both Ramona and Ruby were taken to NICU right after they were born, so we had never gotten to do that before. Usually I was left while Joe ran off to be with the baby, but this time we got to spend time together and it was really nice to just bond with the three of us. Finally we were moved to a recovery room around midnight and I received a text from my mom asking if anyone had been born that day, and I responded that her new granddaughter had arrived.

And that's how we added another daughter to this family.

These Kids

Life has continued happening even though I have not been posting about it. Ramona turned 4! I don't think I took any real pictures of her birthday because I was kind of stressed out at the time. I'm kind of sad about it, but meh, she had a lot of fun. We went to trick-or-treat at the zoo and then had family over. She is excited to be four, and already can't wait to be five.

Halloween was good. They delayed our trick-or-treating due to weather fears (that were pretty much unfounded.) Ramona changed her mind about what to be for Halloween about a million times. She finally settled on a fawn about a week before Halloween. Then she changed her mind the night before Halloween when we were getting ready to go to the store to get supplies to make her costume. I admittedly didn't do the best job on this costume, but she was happy with it, so whatever. Ruby was a Ru-bee. (Hahaha, I am funny.) They both did pretty well walking around (well, Ruby was in the stroller) and Ramona was really good at saying trick-or-treat and thank you this year.

Joe was very unimpressed with my rainbow costume. I guess he'll just make the next conceptual costume our child comes up with the day before Halloween.

Pregnant me, my sister and the kids. Miles was a horse. It was pretty cute.

Life has been really really good lately. The kids are just really fun to be around. Ramona is my little buddy. She's getting into doing crafts, baking, and playing games, so we always have some sort of "project" we are working on together. It's fun to teach her new things. She's learning how to write and draw and is obsessed with spelling. Hanging out with her generally feels like  you're in a constant spelling bee, which does get old sometimes, but, I love that she loves to learn.

Ramona with her worm friend.

Ruby is firmly in toddler mode, which means more than a few tantrums (especially when she's tired) but she also has a big grin and can be pretty charming, which makes up for it most of the time. She's an "I do it myself" kid, which was not the case with Ramona. Sometimes that's really great, others, not so much. I mean, she just is incapable of doing some things, so it gets frustrating for both her and us when she desperately wants to do something and can't and won't let us help. But, such is the life of the toddler. She is starting to talk and has a little list of things she says- mama, daddy (although never when Joe wants her to, much to his annoyance. I don't think he would mind as much if she didn't totally mess with him by responding, "Mama?" every time he asks her to say daddy.) She says yeah and no, bye, ball, bubble, apple, balloon, baby, water, thanks, clap, Ramona, and cat and does a few choice animal noises. She also says, "I did it!" and "Yay!" from a book about using the potty that she is obsessed with. "No!" also started from reading Where's Spot? And "Hop on Pop" is something she says when she jumps on Joe as well as what she calls any Dr. Seuss book.

Ruby loves pizza as much as the rest of us

New baby is doing well (I mean, from what I know.) This baby is not dropping and so I cannot breathe, but other than that, the pregnancy is going well. I'm looking forward to being able to climb around with the kids and play more, but I'm trying to enjoy this pregnancy since it is most likely my last. We finally have names picked and are super excited to find out if we'll be an all girl family or if we'll add a boy to the mix. I've got about five weeks left until my due date. Then we'll have another kid. WEIRD.

I'm looking forward to expanding the family. The more kids, the crazier and busier it gets.This family makes me pretty happy.

We have these moments, when we can't make everyone happy.

And these ones- everyone loves playing "elevator" in our closet.

Mother's Day pIctures

It's been quite a while since I last wrote in here. I blame school. I've been out of school for a few weeks now and am out until near the end of August, so maybe I'll update this a couple times before I get sucked into that black hole again.

Much has happened since last I wrote. I got a promotion to a new job that I like much more than my old job. I am a happy lady with a fuller bank account. I get satisfaction from my job. It's nice.

We also bought a house. We are moving into it next weekend. This weekend, Joe and I are painting pretty much the entire upstairs. That should be fun. Not really, but at least it will be done. My mom is watching the girls while we do it, so at least we won't have the kids getting into the paint.

I also am pregnant. "Again?" you are thinking. Yes, again. This is theoretically our last kid, but knowing how we are, don't rely to heavily on that statement. It's our last planned kid. Not that this kid was planned. But, whatever. We are excited to bring another baby into the mix. I found out I was pregnant around the time we started our house hunting, so we did manage to get a four bedroom.

So, there's a lot going on and many good things. My life is almost too good right now. It's kind of concerning. Like, what horrible thing is going to happen to counteract all this awesomeness? We shall see. I was convinced our new house would be destroyed by a flash flood or tornado before we even moved in, but so far, so good. As for now, we are happy and things are going well.

Third pregnancy is so weird. The first one is kind of remarkable. It's so cool the way your body just changes and does stuff and just somehow knows how to do it. Very impressive, body! The second time, it's kind of a smug rehashing of the first pregnancy. "I know this deal. I'm not a lame first time mom anymore. I'm too cool!" That is the second pregnancy attitude I possessed. Third pregnancy is more like, "I"m pregnant? I forgot again." I don't have time to think about this pregnancy at all. People ask how far I am, and I'm like, "Uh, somewhere between 15 and 17 weeks. I forget which."

We are not finding out if this one is a boy or a girl (until birth, I mean. I'm assuming it will be fairly obvious after the child is born.) I think it will be fun to have a surprise this time. I need something to shake this pregnancy up and shoot some excitement into it. That's another thing about third pregnancy. Everyone seems less excited and is more like, "Oh, you're doing that again." Like it's your unseemly hobby or something. "Ugh, Megan is having ANOTHER baby we have to pretend to care about. I'm so over it."

Anyway, enough about baby number three (who we are very excited about, despite my joking.) I missed blogging about pretty much everything that happened so far this year, so here are some pictures of things we did over the last few months. First, Ramona ran the kids' marathon again this year. She was more excited about it this year, and "ran" it fairly enthusiastically. She lost her shoe twice, so I guess next year I'll have to get her lace up shoes or something.

And, referring to the title of this post, I also had my fourth annual Mother's Day pictures, and first (and I guess last) pictures as a mother of two. Joe got some good ones, and I was not disappointed.

That was probably the best posed one, in the sense that everyone is looking at the camera. Not great or anything, but me and my kids, on "my" holiday, as requested.

But this was my favorite. I was tickling Ruby and making her laugh and Ramona ran over to get in on the fun.

Giggling babies are the best.

And speaking of the soon-to-be middle child, she is funny and opinionated. She's a handful but also very lovable and sweet. She's an awesome cuddler and she can meltdown like nothing over anything. Every day is an adventure with that kid. She still isn't walking yet, but she's getting close. She has the occasional step every once in a while, but no concentrated intentional walking. It's coming very soon, though. And then no one will be safe. Time to baby proof this new house.

Ol' Ruby Two Teeth

Some Free Time

I've been meaning to write in here (as always) and now I have some more free time. Life has been good. I went through a big funk from the beginning of December through most of January. I don't know why, I just wasn't happy. I can name a lot things that were weighing on me (one very stressful class, the Sandy Hook shooting, exhaustion, and just general malaise) but I have finally started feeling good again.

My classes this semester are much more enjoyable. I have one online and one I actually attend and they are both interesting and require a lot of attention but aren't overwhelming. School is actually a positive thing for me the semester and I'm enjoying it. And, despite what I said when I was in the middle of my drama-fest, I will actually be happy and proud when I graduate. In fact, picturing myself in a graduation gown is pretty much my go-to motivator these days.

Some friends started a weight loss challenge and that has kept me going on my Ruby's pregnancy weight-loss goals. I was having a hard time at it and I finally realized it's because there was no accountability or competitive edge to my efforts. I am so much more productive when there is that aspect involved. (Joe was losing weight after Ramona, which is why I had so much success losing weight after her birth.) I should be back to normal by her birthday and am feeling good about it now.

The girls are really making me smile a lot. Ruby has two teeth now (and the timing on them was spot on-exact to-the-day timing as Ramona if you consider the one week difference in their gestational age versus birth.) She is SO ready to crawl and really REALLY wants to walk. She gets on all fours and rocks, but hasn't actually crawled yet. She gets around through some army crawling and a lot of rolling. It's fun to see her roll around since Ramona didn't really do that (probably because we had so little space when she was this age.) She also started waving recently. I do take pictures of her, but I feel bad because there aren't as many as I took with Ramona. Some of it is just being the second kid, but a big part of it is that I haven't had a point and shoot camera that I really love in awhile. The one Joe got me for Christmas a couple years ago is good outside, but it takes really crappy indoor pictures, which is obviously a majority of what I want to do. So I take most pics with my phone, and they are also really crappy.

Ramona is getting better at having full conversations and thinks of a lot of funny and sometimes clever things to say. For example, potty training has been a big ordeal, and she is pretty much 100% trained in the art of peeing. Pooping is another story, and we are at about 50% there (and that is probably being generous.) So, we were in the car the other day and it was smelly. I wasn't sure if it was her or Ruby, so I asked, "Ramona, did you poop in your pants?" And she responded, "Not yet!" I laughed SO HARD.

Things with Joe are good. We are quite the team these days and are doing lots of saving for a potential house purchase sometime in the hopefully near future. We do have some trips planned for the year just to make life a little more fun (a weekend in Pittsburgh to visit my brother's family and a week up in northern Michigan are in our budget at the moment.) I'd also like to take a weekend trip with just the two of us at some point, but will see how that plays out. We definitely need some time to connect and be grown-ups. (Although, that generally means we need time to be immature together- are we the only ones who mean "be irresponsible" when we say "be grown-ups away from our kids?" I've always assumed that's what most people mean, but maybe I'm wrong.)

Life is good. It's always getting better. I am happily awaiting spring so we can be outdoors and enjoying the fresh air a bit more often. I can't wait to break in the new bicycle trailer for the girls we got for Christmas. There will be picnics at the end of University Trail all summer! That's what I've been thinking about lately.

An Impatient Woman

I have a feeling the next year of my life will feel the longest. There are many things I want to happen that require patience and/or work.

I want a lot of things. I want to be DONE with my Master's degree. It is really killing me. It is so much work and I am pretty permanently unhappy about it. There was a time when I would think, "Oh I'm going to be so proud of myself when I finish! This is a million times harder than my undergrad, what with all the technical work and having kids." Now, I just think, "I want it to be over." I don't think I'll be proud of myself when I'm done, I will just be relieved it's over.

I've thought a lot about cutting down and only taking one class a semester instead of two to make myself less crazy and stressed out. But honestly, the idea of graduating in two years instead of one makes me want to kill myself. I want to be done, and dragging it out another year just doesn't feel like a real option.

We're also working on saving money and raising our credit scores so we can buy a house next year, which is equally unpleasant. I've budgeted us pretty tight until March at least to get the credit cards down to nothing and the savings up higher, so we don't have much fun money.

My job has been kind of frustrating lately. I feel like I need to throw some new energy into it and make it more exciting for myself. Just kind of make things happen instead of wait for them to happen. I need to focus and make it happen.

I feel like I don't get to spend enough time with Ruby. She goes to bed pretty soon after I get home from work. It makes me sad.

I still have 25 pounds of weight to lose from my pregnancy and I just don't have the energy to deal with it.

This post is kind of a bummer, but I've been kind of bummed out lately. Usually if I'm unhappy with my present situation, I'm scheming of a happier future one, but with things as they are right now, a happier future is probably a year away. It's hard to get excited for something that far in the future.

I just want to fast forward. 

I Will Write More Someday. Promise.

School is just REEEEALLY killing me lately. I wake up early, pump milk, go to work, go to lunch, go back to work, pump more milk, work more, come home, make dinner, feed children, put Ruby to bed, do homework, bathe Ramona, do homework, put Ramona to bed, do homework, and go to sleep. Feed Ruby once or twice in the wee hours of the morning in sleep-walk mode. Get up and do it again. So, there is little time for things I actually enjoy in life now. Except seeing my kids be cute, of course.

Ruby is just the sweetest baby in the world. She is so happy to see me. And pretty much anyone, really. She makes eye contact and gets this big goofy toothless grin. I brought up the jumper the other day ago and she LOVES it. She bounces around and spins the toys. She is growing so fast and I feel like I barely get to spend any time with her, which makes me sad.

Ramona turned three and this has been a great time. Turning three was fun. It was the first birthday that she really understood what was going on. Halloween has been the same. She actually gets it which is really fun. We've gone trick or treating twice now. Once at the zoo, and once at our church's trunk or treat. Tomorrow we're trick or treating in Oak Harbor. It should be fun.

I Think About My Husband Too Much

Well, Joe and I have been married for over a year now, which seems weird. It doesn't seem that long ago. I'm still finishing my recaps on weddingbee and I don't feel like an ass about it because it doesn't seem all that long ago. But, we have created another human being in that time, so I guess it should feel different. But adding Ruby to the mix hasn't changed things as drastically as I thought it would. It wasn't half as difficult as I imagined. She fits right in our family in a way that makes it feel funny that she wasn't there before.

Getting married didn't change things either. I mean, it did in a way, but not in a real way. We were already a family, and I don't feel different about that now. I'm still childishly in love with Joe the same way I have been for a long time that feels like my whole life even though I know it isn't. I miss him a lot. I miss him when I'm at work or he's at work. I want to be with him pretty much all the time. I never get tired of him. I do get annoyed by him sometimes. It's not that I never need my space. I just need that space to be adjacent to his space. I enjoy times without him. But the best times are with him. And that is the very childish part of our relationship-the longing to be together. We are messy and silly and spend too much time playing and making each other laugh.

There is a mature part of our relationship as well. We talk about serious things and don't play games with each other's feelings. There's so much trust and little to no jealousy. We want to help each other and support each other and do things we don't really want to in order to make the other's life a little bit happier. We sacrifice and reflect and apologize.

We work together. We are a team.

Is it any wonder that I want to be with him all the time then? It's funny because I don't think anyone knows how great we are together. We aren't one of those couples you look at and think, "Jeez, they are so happy, that is such a perfect couple. I want THAT relationship." But we are so lucky and so happy and it's almost more special that no one gets to see how perfectly we work together. We are like the little cogs of a machine that fit together perfectly. It doesn't seem that miraculous but it kind of is.

This is cheesy and sentimental, but that is what anniversaries are for. If every year of marriage is this simple and beautiful, the rest of our lives will be easy. I doubt it will always be this easy, but you know I'd like to think it will be. It's only the first anniversary; I retain the right to remain optimistic.

Ruby

I will do a long post with a birth story and all that when I have the energy to do so, but I feel that I should acknowledge that Ruby Erin was born June 16. She is sweet and tiny and quite possibly the easiest baby ever born. She hardly cries and already sleeps better than Ramona.

Baby Plans

I met with my midwife this morning and came up with my plan for this baby having.

Friday I have an appointment at the hospital to have some monitoring and fluid checks done. If everything looks good, then I can wait until the next week to do another monitoring and fluid check (probably on Tuesday.) I meet with my midwife on Wednesday morning as usual. Then monitor again on Friday. If the baby is not here by that Sunday, then I have an induction.

So, somewhere between now and June 24th, there will be a new baby. I'm trying to be patient. I'm doing okay. I'm just tired and sore. And ready to be tired and sore in a different way.

We're trying to make these last few days with one child "special days" for Ramona. This past weekend we asked her what she wanted to do and we ended up going to the beach again and going to the zoo. She had a lot of fun.

I've been doing a lot of walking. My first class for the summer wraps up next Friday, but I'm trying to get it done early so I don't have to worry as much about when the new baby decides to show up.

Way to Rub It In, Babycenter

Um, because I AM still pregnant?

Graduation Time

The other thing that happened this weekend was that my youngest sister graduated high school. She's going to go to college here in Toledo, so I'm pretty excited to have her nearby this fall.

We had her graduation and her graduation party on Sunday. My parents, sisters, grandparents, and I went to the actual graduation while everyone else just did the party. It was one of the fastest graduations I've ever been to. There was no commencement guest speaker and they ran through everything quickly. Not that I'm complaining. Graduations aren't exactly super fun events, especially since the high school always has them in the stupid gym where it's hot and uncomfortable. Luckily, I got there early and reserved us some seats in the back row of bleachers so we had the wall as a backrest. But even with that, my 39 weeks pregnant ass was incredibly uncomfortable by the end of the ceremony.

I took lots of pictures, and they're all terrible. I was messing with the stupid settings on my camera trying to find the best settings for the location, and none of them really turned out very well. Also, my camera likes to not take pictures when I push the button. It's really annoying and I was pretty pissed at it by the end of the ceremony. But I got pictures of her with Mom & Dad, Grandma, & Sam, and me & Kathleen. They're not the best pictures, but whatever. A little red eye and blur never killed anyone.

 We had the graduation party at the same park we had my and Kathleen's graduation party when I finished college and she finished high school. It was fun. There was a ton of great food; a lot of people showed up. Kathleen insisted on taking a picture of her leaning on my pregnant belly because she thought it was hilarious. Judge for yourself.

Anyway, it's kind of weird that it's been ten years since I had my own high school graduation. So much has changed and so much has stayed the same. At one point, I was talking about how it's kind of creepy how Kathleen can't wait until the new baby comes and wants me to have the baby in the early afternoon so she can stop by the hospital and see it after work. Erin said she was excited because it would be her first niece/nephew born nearby so she could come see the baby right away. It made me realize that it's not that creepy. I mean, I get excited about other people's babies. And it's not like people just want to see me in the hospital, they want to see the new baby ASAP.

And since it was Erin that said it, it made me think of how badly I wanted to go see her in the hospital when she was born. I was SO excited about Erin. I wanted another little sibling so badly. My parents didn't find out if she was a boy or a girl before she was born, so we had no clue, but there were names picked out for both. *Fun fact* Erin's name would be Jason Tecumseh if she was a boy. Anyway, when Dad called to tell us Erin was born, he wouldn't tell us whether she was a boy or a girl, so I was desperate to get to the hospital to find out which she was. I remember running into the hospital room and asking mom if it was a boy or a girl, and my mom just giving my dad a look like he was a total ass because she didn't realize he hadn't told us yet. And I remember just falling in love with her the moment I saw her. And now that little baby I loved so much from the first moment in the hospital graduated high school and can't wait to see my little baby in the hospital.

Ah, the circle of life. Time to watch Lion King.

OWEfest

I'm making a dumb fat face, but Ramona is making an awesome face. We shared a shaved ice with lemon and cherry.

And Ramona got popcorn, her favorite treat, and did an interpretive dance while she ate it to share her joy.

We pretty much walked about and looked at the booths. There was a lawn ornament for sale shaped like a spider that I liked, but didn't buy since we don't have a lawn. Ramona kept calling it the itsy bitsy spider even though it was like half her size.

I was going to buy some air plants to replace my ones I killed, but they didn't have any that would fit my pods by the time I was planning on buying them.

Memorial Day Parade

So, last time I wrote, I said we were going to see my sister's last high school marching band parade. We did, and it was a fun day.

 Some lady sitting near us gave Ramona a flag. She was pretty excited about flags the whole time. I told her the night before that we were going to go see a parade and there would be a marching band and flags, and for some reason she really fixated on the flag idea.

My sister did a nice job marching along, and the band director let them wear these hideously unflattering outfits instead of their usual band uniforms. Seriously, and with those shoes and black socks? Yeesh.

Ramona was also excited about the fire trucks. She was pretty well behaved until we got to the cemetery portion of the show and then she got bored and kept saying things like, "I want ice cream!" So I took her around to look at grave stones, which went pretty well except she kept trying to take the flowers off of them.

It was also crazy hot, and she was starting to get pretty red and looked pretty warm after the ceremony, so we went to Drown's and got ice cream to cool down. Then we headed back to my parents' house to cool down in the air conditioning before we went to Joe's parents for a barbeque. We ate way too much there and had a pretty great time.

All around, it was a really fun Memorial Day.

Beach Day!

Ramona talks about the beach a lot (almost as much as she talks about Christmas). She doesn't remember ever going to the beach since she hasn't been since she was 9 months old and we went to San Diego. So, we've been really wanting to take her. We decided to go to Maumee Bay today if the weather was nice, and it was, so we packed up our beach stuff and grabbed lunch at Subway so we could have a picnic on the beach.

She wore her new sunglasses almost the entire way there because she thought that is what you're supposed to do at the beach, I guess. I think she half didn't believe we were actually going to the beach, because when we got to the parking lot, she didn't seem that excited. From her height, I think she could only see the grassy hill and not the beach behind it. I really regret taking her ahead while Joe unpacked the car because her crazy excitement is now one of my favorite memories. There really is nothing as precious as the pure unadulterated joy of a child, and that was exactly what exuded as soon as we walked over the hill and she saw the beach.

"The beach! The beach! Fishie, look! We can play in the sand!" She immediately crouched down and started playing in the sand. I told her to look up and she saw the water. "The water! The beach!" So we walked down to the water and waded up to our ankles, but I told her she had to wait to go any deeper for Daddy to get there because we had to put on swimsuits. (I didn't do the swimsuit thing since I'm 38 weeks pregnant and did not want to subject the world to my pale, bloated body. Although the great thing about swimming in Lake Erie is that no matter how huge you think you are, you will never be the biggest person there.)

Joe got everything down to the beach, got us set up, and we ate lunch. Ramona was very impatient for us to finish eating so she could get in the water. She dug in the sand to pass the time, but really didn't want to wait much longer.

I thought she might be afraid of the waves, but she had a blast.

I laid on the blanket and took pictures. I was having a nice time there until some annoying people decided to set up their stuff two feet away from our blanket (literally) even though there was plenty of room on the beach and no reason for them to be so close. So I got to listen to some middle aged mom of teenagers talk about how she is a cool mom because she totally lets her kids smoke pot and get laid. She was telling this to her daughter's friend, which seemed kind of weird. She also told her daughter (who she said was 14) that she would take her to work out all summer so she would be super hot, which also seemed odd. I guess what I'm saying is, thanks for never pimping me out, Mom, especially when I was 14.

But other than that, it was a good time. Ramona was so happy, and it made me so happy to make her so happy. We had a lot of fun. Looking at pictures of me made me kind of sad since I'm so huge now, but I'm super pregnant, so what can I do? I did this weight gain and loss with Ramona, and I'll do it again with this kid.

I'm a little sun burned, but not too bad. Ramona got a bit of sun on her shoulders, too, even though she actually got sunblock. The kid is just SO pale, it's hard for her to get any sun without burning a little.

And look at how long her legs are! Kid is KILLING me with how big she's getting. It's hard to believe we'll be starting over with one of those unbelievably tiny kids again in a few weeks.

Anyway, I see many more beach trips coming up this summer and I'm even more convinced we need to spend a weekend up in Traverse City to play on a beach with nice sand and cleaner water. Tomorrow we are heading to Oak Harbor to see my little sister Erin's last marching band performance with her high school in the Memorial Day parade. Then, we're heading to Joe's parents house to eat barbeque and hang out. It should be fun.

Mother's Day Weekend

Our family fun for this weekend wasn't very exciting (mostly just because we didn't do anything new.) Ramona and Joe went to the zoo on Tuesday with our friends Becky and Dan, and their daughter Olivia who is a few months younger than Ramona.

She has been talking about the zoo non-stop since, so Joe and I decided to take her again on Saturday. Joe made us waffles for breakfast, and then we headed out. I wanted to see the new baby lemurs (who are SOOO cute and definitely worth a trip there.) I didn't bring my camera and didn't even remember to bring my phone so I don't have any pictures of them.

That night we went to Joe's parents' house to make his mom a Mother's Day dinner. I felt bad because I wasn't very entertaining, but Ramona was, so it was okay. I was just really tired and not feeling well and spent most of the time laying around on the couch watching TV.

Sunday, we went to church, where Ramona cried in the nursery the whole time again. She gets herself so worked up over it even though it isn't a big deal. I feel bad about it, but what can I do? I'm dreading her Child's Day Out program in the fall because I'm worried she'll cry every time. Especially since it's at the church.

Then Joe cleaned my car for me, inside and out, and it was pretty awesome. I feel like such an adult when I get in my car and it's not filled with garbage. He even used our carpet cleaner to get all the gunk out from under Ramona's car seat. After that, we headed to Pearson Park (hitting a new metropark!) to let Ramona run around on the playground and take my annual Mother's Day picture. I don't think we really got any good ones, since Ramona was non-compliant (she was either too tired to look at the camera or too excited to play depending on what time it was.) Oh, well.

After that, we headed to my parents' house to visit for awhile. We went up to Drown's and got some ice cream and then just hung around. It was nice to see everyone and it was a pretty relaxing weekend.

Another Great Weekend

I feel pretty cheesy about it, but I had an excellent weekend. It was a lot of socializing, and a lot of fun. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty "meh" on socializing in general. The idea of meeting up with people, and then talking to them and dealing with things can be overwhelming. It's funny, because when I was younger, going out with my friends was THE BEST. You know, hanging out with your buds every day after school, talking on the phone for hours. Friends were pretty much the best part of life.

Then, I grew up. I started dating and turned into one of those lame chicks that hangs out with her boyfriend most of the time, and then I had school and work and blah blah blah. Overwhelmed by life, with little time to do what I wanted, I just kind of fell out of the habit of socializing and got really bad at it. Like I forgot how to have a conversation. The internet always gives me the feeling that I'm having social interactions, so I just let that make up for the fact that I didn't spend much time with other people. There are always periods of strong friendships throughout my life (we had a great group of friends at the Grand Canyon we would hang out with all the time) and then friend droughts (the Death Valley years) but the worst has been since we moved home. A big part of moving home was supposed to be having our friends and family around, and while we have been enjoying that to a degree, it's not been to a high degree.

There's something about being an adult, and especially after marriage (or moving in together) and even more so after having kids, that kind of drains your desire to go places and do things. How lame is that? You're finally old enough to have the freedom and finances to go do stuff and you're too lazy and boring to it! This realization was the catalyst of my "do something every weekend this spring and summer" initiative. I miss having friends and things to do. I let myself get overwhelmed with responsibilities and miss out on fun. I let the drudgery of getting ready and wearing pants and a bra stop me from leaving my house. But no more!

This weekend fell into a fun place. My "do something" idea was to go to the children's museum in Grand Rapids. And that didn't even happen.

Friday night, my sister and her fiance ended up coming over and we had a little cook out/hang out kind of night. It was nice to spend time with them and just kind of BS about life in general. I really love that I live close enough to them that we can all get together at the drop of a hat like that.

Saturday, we got up and started our trip up to Grand Rapids. As we got to the Michigan border, Ramona said, "Oh no!" and then threw up all over herself. Poor kid. It was all chunky milk and super gross. Luckily, Joe's parents just happen to live off the next exit, so we went to their house to clean up and recover.

That left us with the task of deciding whether she was sick and we needed to go home, or it was one of her occasional morning vomits and she would be fine. Seeing as we had a nearly three hour drive ahead of us, we really didn't want to make the wrong choice. So, we gave her some time, she drank some water and ate some Cheerios and seemed fine. We decided to go for it. And it was the right decision (yay!).

When we got there I went out to eat with some blogger friends at a hibachi place and Ramona and Joe went to the mall and rode the carousel. After hanging out and talking for a couple hours, Joe picked me up and we decided not to go to the children's museum because they would be closing soon. Instead, we drove out to Holland and walked around the Tulip Festival. We got an insane funnel cake with peanut butter and chocolate sauce and just walked around looking at things. We got dinner at New Holland Brewing and then went home.

I was exhausted and Ramona was, too, so we went to bed. Joe went out to his friend's birthday party and came back later. The next day was a pretty typical Sunday- I actually got up in time for church, we went to the park for a walk and the playground for Ramona. She's been playing with other kids much more now, and it's reassuring to see her try to make friends. Whenever she's approached by child about her size, she says, "Hi, I'm Ramona. That's my Fishie. It's nice to meet you!" It doesn't work that well, but that seems to be more because kids her size are not very good at introducing themselves. Or communicating in general.

We went home and my friend Lindsey called, who hadn't talked to in awhile. It was nice to talk about stuff and catch up, and capped off my more social-than-usual weekend.

Freedom!

We had another busy weekend, and Joe and I both were camera-less the entire time, so you have to read words- oh no! Saturday we went down to Columbus for little Marielle's first birthday party. Remember a year ago when I was all, "baby, come out and play!" and then she did? Yeah, now she's walking and eating real food. It's crazy how fast babies grow.

As soon as we arrived, Ramona saw the cake and it was all she could think of until it was time to eat, at which point she wasn't that interested. Until she decided she wanted to eat someone else's cake (well, really, the icing) with someone else's spoon because she's kind of a jerk like that.

We had fun hanging out with family, and Ramona and Marielle's big sister Corinne helped open Marielle's presents, and then enjoyed playing with them. We got them the percussion set that Ramona has and it seemed like the kids had fun with it, so that was good.

I had been talking to a weddingbee friend (Mrs. Bunny for your reference) and we had been saying we needed to meet up in real life since she lives in Columbus. She also does photography and had mentioned that she would be able to do a maternity shoot, so we went to go get pictures at the Jeffrey Mansion at her suggestion. We had fun and it was really amazing how much Ramona liked her. She generally shows no interest in most people until she gets to know them, but she just kind of clicked with her immediately.

Anyway, I think the pictures went well (or as well as they can with Ramona preferring to play rather than be photographed.) I'm excited to see how they turned out (well, half terrified as well since I'm pretty huge and not feeling particularly pretty at this point.) Then we went to eat at the Cap City Diner, which was really good. They served rolls covered in butter that I will admit I have thought of ever day since then because they were awesome. Ramona was not particularly well behaved, but she wasn't a total terror either. It was nice to try somewhere new and we had fun.

Sunday I did a lot of sleeping. I've hit the wall in this pregnancy and am freaking exhausted most of the time. I just want to spend all my free time sleeping. Joe let me take a nap and took Ramona to go grocery shopping. They brought me back an iced coffee that Ramona was very excited about because she thought it was ice cream. I let her have a drink and she declared, "Ew! It's yucky! It tastes like customers!" which Joe and I have been saying about everything ever since then.

We're trying to go to all the metroparks, so we hit up Swan Creek. Ramona played on the playground and was pretty adventuresome. She tried to climb things she usually doesn't and actually interacted with some other kids. The best was when some older kid was sitting at the top of the slide and talking to her and she pushed his head in an attempt to make him look forward and go down the slide. If only adults could get out of conversations that easily, my life would be so much easier.

Anyway, the title of this post is alluding to the fact that I had my last final last night, so I have two weeks off before my summer classes start. Yay! I don't have any plans, and am probably too tired to actually do anything to celebrate this freedom, but it's nice to know I don't have to do anything after I get out of work.

And in totally weird thoughts, it is now May, aka the last month I will have only one child. That means I have to give birth in the near future, which is a pretty big bummer, but I also get to have a new baby, which is going to be amazing. And exhausting. It's always an adventure, right?