Happy Father's Day!

This one was a little extra special because it's Mike's first "unofficial" Father's Day to our little bean. I got him a book: "The Dudes Guide to Pregnancy". It looks hilarious. Whether he'll have finished it by the time the baby gets here is another story. He jokingly remarked today, "Well, I'll have it read by the time baby #2 gets here!". LOL, he really hates reading and I'm not going to force him but I thought it would be cool. Maybe if I would have cut out the pages, drew comic-like figures and grouped the pages into mini books of 25 pages each I might have had more luck?!
I got to thinking today about how much I admire my Dad for being such a great father to us, all three daughters have a unique relationship with him and I really hope to mirror the way he and my mom raised us. I'm so fortunate to have them.
I also took some time to reflect on both of my grandpa's who have passed on as well as Mike's dad. I think about friends and family who have lost loved ones this year and it makes me appreciate my family and friends even more.
I'm excited that this time next year, Mike will be a "real" daddy and I just know that he's going to be a great one. I can't wait.
Here's to all the poppas out there, soon-to-be or otherwise, Happy Father's Day!!

We're Having A Baby!

I thought it would be neat to start blogging about this whole experience so we could look back and reflect on these exciting times when the house is empty or the kids are driving us crazy.
We officially found out a couple weeks ago that we're expecting, on 6/6/09 to be exact. That day was like any other day. I had almost hit the 25 lbs lost mark (as a side note, I was on a steady path to be a new and improved hot wife via calorie counting and exercise) when I started noticing that my breasts were really achy. Something that had been standing out in my head was the fact that I had missed my period in May, but I attributed that to the constant dieting and exercising that I had been doing with the resulting weight loss and the fact that my period was never regular to begin with.
But when I got home that day, something urged me to reach into my dresser drawer, pull out that little test, and make sure that everything was kosher. I remember walking into the guest bathroom clutching that wrapped stick so no one could see what I was about to do. So I did my business and sat there without much anxiety or apprehension about the matter. And after a few seconds, there it was: a faint little pink line with a brighter and more distinguished line right next door. Immediately in my mind I started rationalizing, it was an old test, I must have peed wrong (this one's classic), or somehow this was my mind playing tricks on me.
Let me interject here with my childhood fantasy of how I had imagined that this was going to play out. I always thought that when this time in my life happened it would be filled with much pomp and circumstance, this grandiose experience that would be cherished in the minds of my family members forever. This ranged from opening a baby themed present at Christmas, to placing an ad in the newspaper, to creating a slide show with our baby pictures ending in the image of my pregnancy test and ultrasound. If it could be conceptualized, I imagined it and worked it out in my head!
Enter reality. I really don't know what I was thinking, but my initial reaction was to go directly to the source with the most experience on the issue, mom. Looking back, I *should* have reached for Mike and I wish I would have done that. This is a prime example of how playing Halo makes you miss out on life, lol. In any case, I swing the door open and go around the corner to the dining room where mom was sitting and studying for the accounting class she was taking. I asked her to accompany me to the bathroom so I could show her something. God only knows what she was thinking at this point, but if I could guess, I'm almost certain that the thought of looking at a pee stick was last on her list of other gross things that can be evaluated in a bathroom. So there we stood. I asked her what she thought about that judegmental faint pink line staring back at us. She made a quick comment to the effect, "well I don't know, it's pretty light but it's there". Great, just what I needed to hear, more uncertainty! I looked at her in shock and covered my mouth. I think I looked up and asked out loud how this could have happened. LOL, yeah, I think we all know the answer to that one! Again this is just me, being 'rational'.
So I leave the guest bathroom and walk to the back bathroom where Sara was taking a shower. I knocked on the door and told her I had to ask her something when she was done. She told me to just come in and ask. So there I went, into that steamy bathroom. She pulled back the corner of the shower curtain and I showed her the infamous pink line(s) to which she screamed and jumped out of the shower butt-naked into my arms screaming something about that that was how her tests looked like and that she knew I was pregnant. This is where, in my 'rational' voice, I mentioned that it could be faulty and that we didn't know for certain to which she concluded in her all knowing-ness that I was indeed pregnant. So this an improvement right?! From uncertainty to certainty!
That's when I walked into the bedroom and showed Mike. Back to square one, more uncertainty. He said that the line was so faint that he didn't want to get excited until we took another test. Ok, I think that's more in line with the rational views I thought I was having. The ying to my crazy yang. But now what?
Later that evening we went to Elisa and Toby's house to get some expert advise from a 7-month pregnant lady. So I whipped it in the kitchen and showed her. She was excited and happy and said in some more knowing-ness, that she just knew when I called her. She remembered back to Mother's Day when I wasn't eating much and to a couple other times when I had mentioned that I wasn't feeling too hot. She had one of those ClearBlue digital tests left over and she said that I should just take it and see what it said. I wanted to put it off for as long as I could. I figured that if we waited a couple days that the results might be a little more reliable. But they convinced me to do it anyway. So there we (me, mom, and Elisa) stood in Elisa's bathroom. I called Mike in there while that little hour glass was working hard to tell us the fate of the rest of our lives. I closed my eyes and told them to tell me when the read out showed up. And then I heard it. Those giggles, followed by one of those ah-ha moments. There it was, 'clear' as day: Pregnant. I cried in Mike's arms and everyone got a little misty-eyed. I walked out and told my Dad who was playing basketball in the street with Jaime, he was going to be a Tata, AGAIN! It was a heartfelt congratulations tinged with a little bit of worry or perhaps disappointment, I think. Just that night before, I had decided that I was really going to do the LPGA certificaiton thing for sure and look into moving to Florida and get things going and over with. I think we were both excited about starting to practice and play again. But that's life right?
I wish I was as celestial as my sisters! I was so shocked by this that I was literally in denial at first. Without going into too much detail, let me just say that Mike and I were being very careful. We had tried a couple years ago off and on again without any luck and had decided that it was just God's way of telling us that this wasn't the time. Afterall, we have so much going on in our lives right now. His mom hasn't been doing well at all since she almost died in December, I was laid off, Mike is in the middle of Nursing school, and the laundry list goes on and on.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I suffer from type A personality. I have a very distinct way of doing things methodically, I am super organized, I'm a planner, and I like to be in control. This news, did not match that description of my life plan. I was side swiped. But I was so happy. And if I was happy, I don't know how I could begin to describe how Mike must have been feeling. He's been wanting kids for so long. It's definitely a natural role for him, he's great with Diego, Jaime and Mia. I joke about it, but I sometimes find myself a little hurt when the kids ask for him or light up when he talks about going outside or playing video games with them. He's in the most literal sense, a big kid and I'm thankful for the many ways that he keeps me young.
So that's it! We're having a baby! Based on my calcualations and with the help of Babycenter.com, it looks like we're due on my cousin Vanessa's birthday: 1/29/09. And based on all other information it looks like my conception date is right around Cinco de Mayo, or as we like to call it "Drinko de Mayo", and that's just what we did and probably the reason for the carelessness! So here's to our miracle and the many memories that are heading our way. Cheers!