fall days

I've spent most of the past few weeks hibernating. If I can be laying in bed and/or asleep, I take the opportunity. This pregnancy is totally kicking my butt, and I have the worst nausea I've ever had. That said, when the Zofran does its job, I do my best to get out and about with G. We've had a terrific fall so far.

Have I mentioned lately that my baby is huge? It feels weird to still call him my baby, especially since we have an actual baby on the way, but I guess he'll always be a baby to me.

I like how he looks like he's fishing with this stick. I couldn't get him to really smile for the camera, but at least he was willing to stand around for a while.

Kiddo even threw some leaves in the air for me.

I love this one.

Toward the end, he got tired of walking around and came to sit in my lap for a while. He took this photo of us, hence the fierce look of concentration on his face.

I hope I only have another month or so before my energy level goes back up and the nausea eases off. I'm 9 1/2 weeks, but since the symptoms kicked in high gear at 5 1/2 weeks, I feel like I've been at it forever.

More to come about this pregnancy, but I thought you might enjoy some cute pics of the kid.

grayson says, I love the park!

Grayson says,

I love going to the park! It's been really hot this summer so we haven't gone out except on great days. But when we go, it's awesome.

I love to run in circles. Circles are the best. I mostly only draw circles too.

And then I climb up and down these stairs.

Sometimes I'll sit and pose for mama.

And then I'll run some more!

 This wheel thing is hilarious.

This wheel thingy is hilarious too!

Oh mama, did you say this was the way back to the car?

Oh wait, what's that?

Haha, psyche. We're not going back to the car yet. Silly mama.

I gotta show you these alphabet letters first. You know I stinkin' love the alphabet.

Here is the W. That's my favorite.

Um. (So much pressure.)

Here is the A.

And there you have it. The alphabet!

these last days of summer

The past couple of days have had glorious weather in the 80s instead of the high 90s and 100s we've suffered through since late Spring. I'm feeling the need to do all the things I wanted to do this summer that I haven't already. Once of those was taking G to Cumberland Park, which is right next to the Titans stadium, just across the river from downtown Nashville.

Cumberland Park is fantastic because of its water jets and wading pool. It's perfect especially for tiny kids, so I was hoping G would love it. At first, he clung to me like a monkey, but he reluctantly let me put him down after a bit. He had a tight grip on my hand for a while after that, and then eventually he was off on his own. He'd return now and then to touch my leg, as though reassuring himself, and then he was off again.

I know he looks pretty serious in most of these pictures, but I swear he was loving it by the end. He didn't want to go and protested having to leave. We had already been there for over an hour, and our feet were very wrinkly!

I didn't really want to leave either... but it was taco night. Nothing really stands in the way of taco night.

first swim of summer

This afternoon, we took G to my father-in-law's community pool for the first time this summer. He did so well last summer that I wasn't expecting much trouble. Well, at first, he was so not digging that pool.

The poor babe was actually kinda trembling and clinging to me for dear life. He spent most of the first ten minutes gesturing wildly outside of the pool as in I wanna go that way or trying to climb out if we got close to the edge.

Yeah, that's him throwing his leg way up over the edge of the pool. And me laughing because he looked so darn funny.

He never actually cried, so we decided to keep him in the water and make him tough it out. After going in deeper and spinning around a lot, he gradually decided that the pool wasn't going to kill him. In fact, he became a huge fan of the pool after that.

The next time he whined was an hour later when we made him get out of the pool. That boy can kick! We would hold him in front of us on his belly and he would kick like mad, his little face smiling with delight and his mouth panting with the effort.

I'm thrilled that he warmed up to playing in the water - I'm stuck on the idea of getting him swim lessons this summer so he can go through life being a much stronger swimmer than I am. I felt so much cooler after that swim too, so I know pool time will be fantastic as my belly gets bigger.

playgroups are awesome

Well, I almost made it the entire month doing a post a day. Whoops! I'm going to blog twice today to make up for skipping yesterday.

Yesterday, I met up with Annie at Letters to Mo and her super-cute son Cash. Yay!

We got home late, especially after I went the wrong way on the interstate and almost had a horrible, horrible wreck. An 18-wheeler I had been driving behind only 10 seconds ago apparently didn't measure the height of an underpass correctly and shaved off the top of the large wooden shed it was carrying. The car behind it had to quickly pull over, and the 18-wheeler was still ahead of me to my right as it also began pulling over. Scary stuff! I ran over a bunch of rubble, but luckily we escaped unscathed.

But the playdate was grand! I've been trying to expose G to more children his own age. He's not exactly the most sociable toddler, but he loves being out and about. Annie's 14 month old tried to hug G at one point, and Grayson was all like, yo! get out of my face! uh, okay? Hahaha. G's first reaction to people he doesn't know is to usually 1) ignore them, and 2) if that's impossible, go all blank poker-face. I'm kinda jealous that Annie's son is so happy around other people - he'll just pay your knee and smile all the time, whereas G has on his "stranger-danger" face.

Poor thing. He's kinda like his mama in that regard, though I've come a long way in the past ten years. I think teaching forced me to have to talk to people with confidence, so I can translate that to real life. Mom says I was hugely sociable when I was a kid, so maybe I can get back to that eventually? I took G to a playgroup Friday morning with four other moms and kids, and it took him 45 minutes to get out of my lap. Once he decided he was all cool about the place, though, he was good. He got off my lap and ran around the room after that. Next time will probably be even better.

I'm excited about meeting all of these new moms. The hubs and I don't know a lot of people with kids the same age (or with kids period), so all of these new people make me all giddy-happy.

I remember where I was going with this: the reason I skipped out on the blog post yesterday. I meant to nap after G's playdate with Cash, but it just didn't happen. The hubs and I did some shopping afterward with a cranky toddler who had refused to eat lunch then had a meltdown when we wouldn't go to CiCi's. I think that's a first. Then I had dinner with some of my English major classmates from my alma-mater and a few of our professors. A bunch of us went to get ice cream after dinner, so I didn't get home until 10:00. I crashed after about 20 minutes of TV.

Today, we're meeting up with my father-in-law to go swimming for the first time this summer. I can't wait to see how G does after doing so well last summer. Another blog post promised tonight.

For now, I must nap!

playground playtime

So this month's NaBloPoMo is all about play. I know I haven't been in the most playful mood in the past few months. Honestly, sometimes it takes a lot of effort for me to leave the house with G. Playgrounds aren't exactly stress free places for me. I had to stop going to G's Tuesday morning Gymboree because a mother there brought in her newborn named August. Sigh.

I find a lot of pleasure in getting G out and about, however. He just loves exploring new areas and being allowed to run off on his own. The more I force myself to take G places, the easier it gets to let go and let him be a toddler.

I hate this hat, but he has to wear it when we're out in sunny weather for a lengthy period of time, doctor's orders. We're doing all that we can for the next three months to help that scar on his eyelid heal.

Now, we all remember G's first emergency room visit. Aka, a moment of slide-induced mommy guilt that lasts forever. G ended up fine, but I haven't been able to look at a slide the same way since. I haven't even been able to even encourage G to go down a slide on his own, even though I know that's much safer than me going down with him.

But I've been trying to take a step back and not hover so much. I know my hovering is anxiety-based. I know it's because of the miscarriage and I don't want that to have any lasting effect on my behavior toward G. I feel like I'm only allowed so much freak out about it before it all gets ridiculous. I mean, do I really need to bring up my middle-of-the-night breakdown the week after my D&C when I thought G had stopped breathing? Yeah, let's not let that embarrassment happen again.

So I put on my big girl pants and decided to give G a bit of a nudge to go down what looked like a large, wide, and fairly calm slide at a park in my Alabaman hometown.

I can tell you, and I'm not proud of it, that I broke out into a sweat. What if he pitched forward and slammed his face onto the slide? What if he broke his neck? What if he broke a leg because his foot got stuck? What if he freaked out halfway down? Oh yeah, my anxiety was at a high.

But you know, the babe got it. He knew what he was doing. He sat down, pushed himself off the edge, and slid and scooted his way down that slide.

I was so proud of my toddler-babe. He had pretty much ignored slides until that moment, but with this slide, he was all about it. After he went down once, he was in love. I think he probably went down twenty more times before we called it a day. It was 85 degrees and muggy in deep South Alabama, and G's cheeks were bright red from the heat.

I know I need to back off more when it comes to G on playgrounds. I'm still his spotter, there to catch him if he falls and prevent any major spills. But I want him to gain confidence in his own skills, and for him to do that, I gotta hang up my mama hat sometimes.

And keep my anxiety to myself.

Miami Trip, part 3 (the wedding)

On day 4 of our trip, Saturday came along, the day of my cousin's wedding. G's crankiness came out in full force. He made it through the rather long Catholic mass ceremony without a glitch, but he was done by the time of the reception. Plus, our preferred way off Miami Beach was closed right after the ceremony due to a fatal motorcycle wreck, so that threw the reception hours off schedule. Needless to say, Dave and G had to head back to the condo before dinner even started. At least we did end up getting some cute pics of G!

Yes, I'm cutting a molar. What's your problem??

Strike a pose!

This one is my favorite. We're totally getting it framed. Such a handsome little boy! My baby is gone. Pardon me while I weep copiously for his babyhood.

Dave,Grayson, and me with my Cuban grandparents.

My parents with my Dad's parents.

I love my Puso! He had a profound influence on my life when I was growing up. He is still sharp as a tack. I loved seeing him play around with G.

After the ceremony, and after we all made it to the reception, it was time to party! This pic below was the first I snapped at the reception as I was fiddling with my settings. But I love it so hard! That's the hubs with my cousin Steve photo-bombing. Dave was hardly drinking since he had to take G back to the condo early, but you'd never know it from this photo. haha.

Me and my cousins (yes, they're twins).

The happily married and oh-so cute couple!

Most of our photos with G have him in this same position. He just wanted to run around all night long.

Gah, I was so bummed when the hubs and G had to leave, but it was already past his bedtime. I actually would have kept him up later, but he was having serious attitude problems. On the plane ride back home, less than two days later, we saw that he had cut his first molar. It's rough being a toddler! Ah well, my cousins and brother with his girlfriend kept me company on the dance floor - and we danced all night long. It's been almost a week since the wedding and my feet still haven't recovered, the mark of an awesome wedding.

We spent more time at the beach and more time with family the next day, so I'll finish out my series with pictures from last Sunday sometime this weekend.