a very prego christmas

what a week! friends and family visits on both sides of my husband and i turned our little vacation in milwaukee into a full out marathon. deep sighs and some tears (mostly mine) on our way back to the airport was indicative that you never really get as much time with loved ones as you want or plan. oh, i love where we live and the life that we've been slowly carving out for ourselves but i do still get awfully homesick for my life pre-baby bump and pre-move to the pacific northwest. i had my hangouts, my groupings of friends and my comfortable routines...and then this guy just had to appear and make me all weak in the knees and sappy as hell and want to do crazy things like run off to the mountains and learn how to snowboard and paddleboard and many other activiites involving boards (hmmm, headboards? oh hell yeah), the bastard. ;)

anyway, no need for an exhausting rundown of all the people and places but there were a few significant moments worth mentioning:

1. snuggling my first newborn in quite a long time (given that my nephew is almost 5 years old already, good lord). my cousin gave birth a month ago and i got to hold and feed and photograph her little darling, lily. (not to mention watching ND with her was really comforting. he is sooooo good with kids. i think i mentioned before in a previous post that if we weren't already expecting i might be hurrying the process along a bit - and coming from me, severely frightened by something so life altering, that's saying something). it definitely helped solidify a lot of things swirling around in my head. i CAN do this. it's not always going to be easy, but i can do this. rocking and walking around with her while family sat around and chit-chatted was a very zen-like experience.

2. all the prego cousins swapping stories and experiences thus far. myself and two other first cousins on the same side are all pregnant, all with baby boys, and all due THE SAME WEEK. so unbelievably crazy. family keeps trying to make jokes about "something being in the water" but the three of us all live in different states now. the aunties are all placing bets as to which one of us goes into labor first. connecting with one of my pregnant cousins over facebook at length lately has been particularly meaningful to me. we were the best of friends as little girls and over time have drifted apart but having this major life event in common has been a great unifier. i just love talking to her again.

3. time spent with ND's kids. often hurried and with restrictions and limitations placed on all of us by "the powers that be" (that we try very hard not to get us down), it's still so wonderful to see them as much as humanly possible. they are fantastic kids*. plus his mom is just the bee's knees and i can't say enough good things about his whole family.

4. all the friends i got to see - in groups and individually when i/they could get away for small bursts of time. i feel loved and supported x a million.

5. my mom feeling the baby kick. more tears (but happy ones, of course)


*kids? what do i call them? they're 13 and 17 years old, fer crying out loud. but i guess they'll always be ND's babies. ;)