Inspiration to Make it Through the Day

It's one of those days. I went looking for something to help get me through this day with lots of discomforts after little to no sleep. I found this little poem. It's short, sweet, a reminder of the wonderful reason I'm going through all of this and will hopefully help me make it through. Thought I'd share.

A Note To My Son
© Dacia Lockwood
Time is moving slowly,
The day is almost here.

The anxiety and joy is building up,
For my baby boy will soon appear.

I can't wait to see your smiling face,
And hold your little hand.

Just then I'll know deep inside
that you’re my little man.

I have so much to share with you
day after day.

And to you my son I will give my love
in each and every way.

"Final" Weekend in NH (at least for a while)

If you've talked to me at all in the last two years or read my blog on a somewhat regular basis, you'll know that Mike and I LOVE to get away to our condo in the White Mountains of NH. We love experiencing the beautiful scenery and great outdoors in all seasons. It truly is a relaxing and refreshing get away for us. So, it's with much sadness that we won't be able to go back for a while.

Apparently, if I want my insurance company to cover the costs of the birth of our child, we have to stay within their coverage range for the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy. Unfortunately, their coverage range doesn't reach into the mountains of NH. We would have to drive at least an hour from our place there to get close to a hospital they'll cover. So, until we have a baby boy to take up with us, we won't be visiting our place in NH. We'll really miss it!

So, the weekend before last, in spite of the fact that I'm growing so large that doing anything is becoming increasingly difficult, we decided to have one last weekend there. We had to play it by ear as to what we'd do there, if anything, since we just don't know from day to day what, er, "joys" (ie aches, pains and discomforts) the pregnancy will bring. Somehow, the stars fell into place and the full Saturday we were to be there, I felt better than I had in a while. So, time to play!

We have tennis courts at our complex there. The last time we played any tennis was our February vacation in Puerto Rico when my belly was quite a bit smaller. But, we decided to give it a try. I obviously can't run around too much and zig-zag around the court, so Mike and I just hit the ball around - he aimed for right around me and I aimed away from him so that at least he could run around and get in a fun workout. It actually worked out great! Amazingly, playing tennis was easier for me (mostly on my sciatic) than walking is! So, we had a great time hitting the ball around for about an hour.

After going back to the condo, cooling off and having some water, I decided that I just couldn't have my last weekend here without some time in the woods\mountains. So, we decided on an easy (ie mostly flat) trail that's close to our house and we've only been on in winter (snowshoeing). First, getting some lunch was in order. We went to our favorite local store to grab some deli sandwiches and were heartbroken to find out that the economy had grabbed it as it's latest local victim...it had closed 2 weeks earlier! Sadness. So, we headed to another, not so exciting, sandwich shop for some grub and headed into the woods for a little picnic. We found a nice rock next to a stream and had a view of a small, runoff waterfall in the distance. After filling our bellies, we headed off making lots of stops for pictures.

Mossy Ledge by the Stream

Ventured Down from the Ledge into the Stream

Mike by the Brook Looking up from the Brook at the Moss Covered Rocks

After Mike helped push me back up the little hill from the brook to the trail, we continued on. The second "half" of the trail was mostly in the woods and not as scenic. It being mile 2 of the trek, I was fine not stopping much because I was getting a tiny bit tired of walking and ready to get to the end. Unfortunately, we didn't bring our map and were relying on our obviously not reliable memories because when we got to the "end" of that trail, we were still 1.2 miles from our parking area! Ugh! The upside to our little mistake is that we got to see this little waterfall.

Did I mention the monstrous mosquitoes that attacked us? There were a couple of times when I had to stop to rest. The second we stopped moving, they swarmed in! Normally, mosquitoes don't notice Mike when I'm around (apparently my blood smells sweeter) but they were even giving him a hard time. So, we tried to keep moving and get back to the car as quickly as my tired self could go.

Even though it was a bit more of a strenuous day than I had planned, I was really happy to have taken advantage of it being a nice day, feeling physically well (those days are pretty limited right now) and getting to enjoy several of the aspects that I'll miss about our NH place for the next few months.

What's in a Name??

Well, a lot if you're in charge of assigning one to a little person that they'll have for the rest of their life! We've obviously given a lot of thought as to what we're going to name our little guy, but we can't imagine tacking that name to him until we actually see\meet him. So, our plan is to go to the hospital armed with a small list of favorites and decide after the birth. We've narrowed down the list to each of our top five (well, I've got 7...couldn't quite edit it down to 5 yet) and are playing with middle name combinations. I thought we were making pretty good progress....until yesterday.

Yesterday, which was a beautiful Sunday and I was feeling better than I had most of last week, we had my good friend and her husband and 8 month old daughter over for a little afternoon cookout. It was a great lunch with great people and I enjoyed it immensely! However, I knew that she had delivered her adorable little girl early and remembered to ask her how far along she was when she had her. Her answer....36 weeks! Uh, yeah, that's where I'll be in 2 short days! Yikes! Perhaps we should work hard on 2 things this week - packing some sort of hospital bag and working on our name list!

Oh, and we're not sharing our name list so don't even bother to ask. With all due respect to friends, coworkers, family and even complete strangers, I'm not interested in opinions on our names. We're making this decision together....just the two of us with no outside influences. Love y'all though!

Our New Neighbor

I am always completely stunned that in such an urban setting (ok, we're in the burbs but we're still in the city of Boston city limits, not even the actual suburbs) that we see so much wildlife. Before moving to Boston, I used to see lots of interesting animals in Texas as roadkill on the long stretches of highway in between cities and "normal" city animals such as opossum, raccoons and squirrels actually within the city limits (even in Austin which I consider to be a lot less urban than Dallas). Since moving to Boston, though, I see a lot more wildlife at home.

When I lived in Jamaica Plain (granted, across from a very large park with lots of wooded areas), I used to get skunks in our yard pretty often. I always carefully walked up the back steps to my door after finding one on the porch one time. Since moving to West Roxbury, though, I've seen what I consider to be more "wild" wildlife. There are the wild turkey flocks that are around my home and work areas. I've also seen, of all the strange things, a coyote running down the middle of my street. One of our more frequent visitors are the wild rabbits that live about. We spotted one just out the back door last week. Luci, always at her back door post, somehow missed it because he was as still as can be. However, Mike saw him clearly and snuck out to get a great picture of him. What a cutey!

A Relaxing Memorial Day Weekend

As I've mentioned before, the long weekend we had with my parents was great but definitely took a toll on me. So, on the menu for Memorial Day weekend was lots of relaxation! It was spent the way the inaugural weekend of summer should be spent - being lazy, bbq's with friends, being outside and having fun!

One of the things I did that weekend was to cash in on part of my Valentine's Day present from my hubby - a day at the zoo with a picnic. We pass the Stone Zoo just about every time we go to Mike's parents' or sister's house. I've never been to it and Mike hadn't been in probably 20 years. It was time to drop back in!

The weather was absolutely beautiful that day and we had a great time walking around and looking at the animals. Below is the llama. I know, not the most exciting animal to be pictured, but he reminded me of the Llama Song (classic online sensation). If you haven't listened to it lately (or ever), it's time you did!

Not surprisingly, our usual favorites at the zoo are the large cats. This jaguar was napping right by the plexiglass so we got a good close look at him. He also did some super adorable stretches....he may have even stolen the moves from Mr. O.

Also cat napping in close view were the cougars. They were too darned cute! I have to keep reminding myself sometimes that these guys could literally rip my head off.....their bellies just looked like they were asking to be rubbed!

One of the highlights of the day was the Birds of Prey show we went to. We got to see lots of cool birds literally fly right over our heads or parade in front of us. Of course, it was also educational and we learned lots of fun facts. Here were some of our favorites from the show.

Egyptian Vulture - One of Few Species to Use Tools to Crack Ostrich Eggs

Vulture - His "Walk" Was Laughably Goofy

European Eagle Owl - Biggest Owl (He Was Beautiful)

Barn Owl - He Was Stunning!

At the end of the show, their "gimmick" to get you to donate was that they had a bird (can't remember the kind) "take" your donation and put it in the box. Well, it worked. There was a long line to donate dollars and I was in it.

After our trip to the zoo, we dropped by Mike's parents house for a little chat and a walk to the local ice cream parlor. Great weather, fun day at the zoo and ice cream...it was a GOOD day!

Kitties and Kid Stuff

For the most part, the cats have been pretty uninterested in all the baby stuff that's been flooding into the house. Sure, they pretty much now live in the baby's room, but it is the coolest room in the house now so who can blame them? However, all the swings, bouncers and activity centers that arrived and were assembled were untouched by the cats. I considered that a pretty good thing...no big territorial fights would happen between kitties and new baby arrival.

However, when this gift arrived (thanks AMF!), Luci quickly decided SHE had a new toy! Uh-oh! While we did get some amusement out of seeing her excitedly play with the mobile and "crunchy" toy on the tummy mat, I'm wondering what will happen when baby is on the mat.

I'm hoping that a slobbering, screaming baby will scare her desire to play with the mat away. I guess only time will tell!

Happy June and Welcome to the Countdown!

5 weeks people...that's (approximately) what's left of my time to be pregnant. That also means I'll have a baby to care for in that amount of time but that's a whole 'nother story! 5 weeks. Wow! Some may say that's not much time at all. I think it seems like a ways to go, well, depending on the day. Some days, I get to sleep and feel pretty good and it doesn't seem so bad. Others....well....let's just say that 5 weeks could be excruciatingly long. I guess that's natures way, though. You have to get to the miserable point to be willing to go through all the pain it's going to take to get the baby out of your body!

After the fury of activity the 5 days my parents were in town, we took it easy for a while and I, obviously, neglected the blog for a few weeks. I've got stories and pictures to catch up on the last couple of weeks and will be posting those in the next few days, as long as I have relatively "good" days that allow some energy left at the end of them to do so. Cross your fingers for all around me that I do have more good days than bad or cranky Kara might be coming out some more! And nobody wants that.....