And the prize goes to

Amy, for being the first to blog about our family reunion this weekend! Thanks, Amy, I don't know when I'll ever catch up!

Thanks for translating Carmen's note to Mason, too, since I don't have a copy! I do have a picture of poor Mason after his bee sting and when he was feeling better with a popsicle!

A bad dream

I haven't been sleeping very well--well actually sometimes I do, but I sleep very lightly and I wake up frequently.

And so last night when I had a bad dream, it seemed to last all night. The dream was that I was having a miscarriage. It was a bad thing, but I wasn't very emotional. In fact, I remember thinking, oh great, that's Murphy's law, since I spent several hours making room in my closet (and David's) this weekend.

Today, I couldn't quite shake the memory, and I was talking to my friend Louise about it after work.

She didn't know about the two miscarriages between Gabriel and Paloma, one of them at 14 weeks, 2 weeks past the stage of pregnancy I'm in now. And she agreed, it's not something you really ever get over, especially when you have more than one child and you know how precious, how unique each child is from each other one.

So I'm hopeful that this won't be a recurring dream.

And while I'm on the subject, does anyone else think it's a personal question to ask, "Was this planned?" or "Was this a surprise?" I can't believe how many people have said those things to me, especially in front of a group!

David's joke is that he needs Nintendo. My boss's jokes were, "What does this make, 6?" And , "Have y'all figured out what's causing this?"

I am trying to have a sense of humor, but sometimes the totality of the comments gets to me a little.

I realize it's not that common to want more than 2.5 kids, but it's not that weird, is it? I can't think of anything more rewarding than motherhood and parenthood have been. All of the kids are great. There hasn't been one that is "difficult". There haven't been major health issues. Paloma has actually been easier so far than Carmen & Gabriel because of Carmen & Gabriel. They are so helpful with her, mostly in the entertainment department!

Paloma had a hard week

She climbed to the top of a playground structure and fell off, hitting her mouth on a pole. Jackie called David who came home to see her. He brought a big popsicle on the way, hoping the ice would prevent some swelling.

Hours later when I got home, the other kids were enjoying popsicles on her behalf.




and Paloma's natural reaction was to say "cheeeeese" when I turned the camera her way.

The next day, however, her lip did look a lot worse.

Just in time for our family reunion... and I was planning to have her 2-year-old pictures made.
Poor baby. She asked for medicine for days afterward. We were worried about her teeth, but everything seems fine now.

Our Mother's Day gift for Mom

From: Amy
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:48:10 -0500
To: Allison , Angi
Subject: Photo Op

I still would like to arrange to have our pictures made… just the 3 of us would be fine with me b/c I'm sure arranging anything more than that will be next to impossible.

This was supposed to be my Mother's day present to Mom…. I still never got her anything.

When can y'all do it -- I figured if it is just the 3 of us, we could be a lot more flexible not having to worry about tired / hungry / grumpy kids or anything like that - we could even do a week night or something???

Let me know what your schedules look like over the next week or 2.

Thanks.
Love, amy


From: Allison
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 8:54 AM
To: Amy
Subject: RE: Can I email you here?

I‚m pretty open. I would just like to do it sometime after I get my hair done. I have an appt with Deena on Sat @ 12:30. So whatever works best for you and Angi is fine ˆ I think ya‚ll have more things going on than me.

Allison

On 8/2/07 1:11 PM, Amy wrote:

Angi - how about you


From: Angi
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 4:33 PM
To: Amy
Cc: Allison
Subject: Re: picture?

Ok. Sorry, we haven‚t been home much this week and I didn‚t reply...
My face is horrible right now but should be cleared up by next week, I hope.
Do you have a color scheme in mind?
If we go to Portrait Innovations, I want to bring Paloma (if you didn‚t see my post about that, I don‚t have a matching pic to go with C & G).
Oh, I work Weds & Thurs next week. Could still do Weds. I suppose but not Thurs., we‚re going to the circus.
Any other evening is probably fine.
Angi

On 8/3/07 8:53 AM, Amy wrote:

Yes, I was thinking Portrait Innovations. Their studio hours are: Tuesday - Sunday 9 am - 6 pm

Is this weekend out for y'all? We don't have anything going on -- except the normal errands and stuff. We could do Saturday evening, like 4 or 5? Or even Sunday sometime -- although Sundays are usually pretty busy. Since they close at 6 pm, I guess it would be harder for me on a weekday unless I took off early. If we can nail a time down, i'll see if i can get an appointment.

From: Angi
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 9:30 AM
To: Amy
Subject: Re: picture?

Yeah, that‚s fine I guess. It‚s just my face. But see what‚s available tomorrow.

From: Amy
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:31:58 -0500
To: Angi
Subject: RE: picture?

oh, forgot about your face. okay - well we can wait if you want.


From: Angi
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 9:47 AM
To: Amy
Subject: Re: picture?

That‚s alright, it‚s always something. It‚s way better than it was the other day already. Go ahead and see if you can get a 4 or 5 tomorrow. I won‚t be bringing Paloma, though. She hurt her face at Pump it Up and has a big ol scab on her face!


From: Amy
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:48:48 -0500
To: Angi
Subject: RE: picture?

okay - well, i really need to get M&M pictures made sometime soon too, so you could bring P when i do that.

From: Amy
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 12:30 PM
To: Allison
Cc: Angi
Subject: RE: picture?

i was able to get a 5:30 appt tomorrow. if i need to cancel i can.



From: Allison
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 2:09 PM
To: Amy
Subject: RE: picture?
Ok, sounds good. Is that the one by Market street?


Allison

From: Amy
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 2:10 PM
To: Allison
Cc: Angi
Subject: RE: picture?

yes, that's right.
what should we wear?



From: Allison
Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 14:34:18 -0500
To: Amy
Cc: Angi
Subject: RE: picture?

I have no idea… let me know what ya’ll decide. I’m sure Angi will think of something but I reserve the right to veto if she wants us to dress up as some kind of candy or circus person.

Allison

****
So... I spent a couple of hours getting a color scheme together (which they made me change, BTW) and we went to have our pictures made on Saturday evening, the 4th. As I pulled up in the parking lot, we ran into MOM! She was going to Market Street. So it didn't take her long to figure out the "surprise".

The photographer was less professional and less friendly than the ones we usually have there. She put us on a tan background at one point so all of our hair blended into the background, for instance. She didn't even try to get us to smile or let us know when she was going to shoot when we were all wearing black, so we didn't buy any of those shots.

These are the ones we eventually picked:



So, Happy Mother's Day, Mom! We love you!

Paloma's party

For now, I'm going to reference Amy's blog for details about Paloma's party!

I am soooo far behind.

I have been back blogging, if anyone is really bored. I just went ahead and posted 9 posts I never finished from July and one from June. (And I still haven't finished--that doesn't even include Independence Day!)

Ugggh, this is supposed to be fun... but sometimes reading other people's blogs makes me want to do a better job and I put off finishing posts thinking a clever headline will come to me later, etc. But I should have learned by now, there will never be enough time for that as long as I'm working full time!

Our first glimpse

I visited my new OB today for the first time and everything looks great! Of course I heard the term "advanced maternal age" while at the office. (Thanks, Charis, for escorting my sophomores to the homecoming pep rally!)

I was thrilled to hear the heartbeat and even more thrilled that I could see it, too when the doctor wanted to do a sonogram. I was also glad to see it's just one baby (though I hadn't thought about the other possibilities much)!

The internet had calculated my due date as April 2, but this sonogram put me at 10 weeks, 4 days--so maybe April 7?

I called David between the doctor's office and the lab to fill him in, and he was audibly disappointed he missed the sonogram. I didn't know they'd do one today.

Anyway, so far so good! And thank you for the prayers!

I have lots of good excuses

As I just explained to my Aunt Beverly in a belated email response, I've been back to work for three weeks. But that's just part of why I can't blog right now.

Because I've been back at work, and the first of each trimester is always crazy, I'm behind on all things at home. (I think there was an ENTIRE large laundry basket full of David's blue & black socks to match up last night. Does he really own a month of socks? As he matched them, he admitted, "I was getting a little low. . . " My response: "Next time you get a little low, feel free to start a load of laundry!" Not that he doesn't help out around the house. He does. Just not much on the front end of the laundry.) Anyway, the computer naturally takes last place.

And even if I had time to be on the computer, I would be doing things for work, plus before I let myself blog, I'm making myself work on the thank-you notes for Carmen's birthday gifts (yes, now 3 weeks ago, but that coincided with the back-to-work week, but the main problem was I didn't have an idea right away).

I did have an idea for Paloma's invitation, but it was pretty time-consuming. Since Paloma loves Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and all of the sequels, we did a little book about her patterned after that book. I wasn't sure we'd get it done in time, but David did the finishing up of printing and assembling. We distributed them in person last week at mom's and then David took them to a belated party for Abuela (though I couldn't go; had to finish things in my classroom).

And since we had a birthday party today for Moma today (family only, but still big with both sides!), now we have thank-yous to write for her as well.

And besides getting ready for Paloma's party this weekend, our family also attended (and David & I shot video of) a wedding of a good family friend. Jennifer has been one of Amy's best friends since 3rd grade, and we were neighbors for over a decade, too. We met her husband Michael at her law school graduation party when Carmen was just turning 3, so we're glad they finally made it offical.

I've also been trying to print a year’s worth of photos for Irma (David’s mom) for her birthday (which was the day after Carmen’s) since that’s all she wants, but alas, I have not finished that project either.

Plus, last weekend, I went to Women of Faith in Dallas with many of my girlfriends from church. I hope to blog about that eventually. Most people I talked to thought I was mad to go the weekend before school started; I'll have to agree, but I wanted to see what was so great about it that my friends go year after year. (David managed to get P's invitations done and take care of the kids while I was at WOF. And yes, he did enjoy that acronym a little.)

And I didn't even get to mention or post anything about Gabriel's FIRST DAY of KINDERGARTEN a week ago today!

But, rest assured, I have drafts of many posts that I look forward to sharing with my readers very soon. (I found out at the wedding that I have more readers than I knew about.)

But before I do, I have one last excuse.

Today at Paloma's party, she opened her last gift:



For anybody paying attention to the wrapping, it was a hint: a Tiffany box always means something special is coming! Anyway, inside was a t-shirt that read "Big Sister".

So this was our announcement to the family, though I had thought of doctoring this photo:


but I didn't like the connotation, having seen the movie trailer.

Anyway, that is my best and last excuse for today. I am 9-10 weeks along, so I'm often queasy and easily tired. I'm glad the news is out because my clothes are already tight and uncomfortable and I didn't want people wondering/ guessing before we told them!

(Lauren was suspicious every time she saw me wear one of my favorite t-shirts--Anne Geddes--this summer. Paloma calls it my "black baby"--it's a black t-shirt with a white outline of a newborn. And the week before school started, I don't remember what was said, but I referred to a craving or something and my friend Charis said something like, "Do you have something to tell us?" but I could not even look at her because I would have given it away--I probably did anyway by not protesting!)

David wanted me to wait a while to tell everyone; he probably would have preferred I get through the whole first trimester, but seriously, folks, I didn't think I'd make it much longer. I understand why he's feeling cautious, but if anything bad happened now, it's not like I'd try to keep that a secret either.

But there is another reason I've needed to get this out: I need a doctor!

My last OB moved to Nevada to take care of his mother. The one before that, the doctor who delivered both Allison & Amy, quit delivering babies after Gabriel was born. (He's still my GYN, but knows I need more than that now.) My OB with Carmen was nice enough, but his office--not so much. They would let me sit for 2 hours and not tell me he was gone delivering a baby. And then there is the whole hospital story... why we had G & P downtown instead of 5 minutes from home. (I do not have the energy to tell that story now, but David wants to switch back. I have not gotten over my disapointment yet.) But having another baby downtown only seems to be an option now if I go downtown for office visits, which I cannot see happening.

I'm looking forward to hearing a beating heart and seeing a sonogram . . . I'll be sharing when that happens! Please keep us in your prayers in the meantime. I'm thrilled, but cautiously optimistic, as they say. Yes, that's an oxymoron, and I've never used it before. But somehow it fits this stage. We've been blessed over and over again, and this is another blessing from God!