Snowy winter days for April 05 kiddos and mamas

[JustVanessa]

Thought I would start us a winter thread! How is everyone????

[AEZMama]

Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah! Merry Yule! And Festivus for the restivus! ::::

Hope everyone is well. It's been a craptastic week for me: Andrew got sick, then me (along with AF on the same day-ugh) then the icing on the cake: I fell down the stairs and more than likely rebroke my cocxyx...for the 3rd time. I'm a real kind of special for that one. A friend of mine did a distance healing that worked a near miracle, but I now literally have the pain right in...well, where the moon cracks a smile.... I'm hoping that things are better for the hours I'll have to spend sitting on the plane then in the car on Monday. Ugh.

Monday's the big day-we head to Mexico! So here is our "holiday card" to you all!

[wombatclay]

Happy Solstice Eve everyone!

We're snowed in pretty well... the big northeast storm dropped around a foot of snow and it's still snowing now. It's put a damper on our holiday plans since no one can get to or from patries and rituals. But it sure is pretty.

We all have a head cold, which is going to be nasty next week when we fly to Michigan for a wedding. It's our first air trip as a family and hopefully the girls at least will be healthy since I really want them to have fun! Or at least be well behaved. It's kind of silly since it's going to take us 1.5 hours to drive to the airport, and then another 45 minutes there to clear security/wait in the waiting area for a 2 hour flight, but there it is... the thought of driving to Detroit the morning after Christmas is a bit too much for me (the wedding is the 27th, I'm in the wedding party, the rehearsal is the 26th).

Let's see... solstice, snow, head cold... oh yes... check out my signature.

Be merry and bright everyone, have a wonderful holiday season, and enjoy your travels (Mexico sounds like sooooo much fun!)

[AEZMama]

CONGRATS WOMBAT!!!! Oh I'm so jealous!!! OMG! Such a baby boom again! One of my girlfriends in the Hudson Valley just told me she's due...with twins! Oh, to win the lottery to afford another child (in dh's eyes). Safe travels to Detroit. Are you flying out of Rochester or Syracuse? Maybe you can get a hotel late on Christmas night somewhere near the airport? And I suggest bringing along some decongestants if you can, at least for the girls. I'll have mine tucked in my bag for Andrew.

Yeah-Carlos is bouncing off the walls here tonight. This is his first Christmas with his family in 11 years. That's a loooong time. And they are nutso over there waiting for Andrew. My SIL won't let him go at the airport, that's for sure!

Well, we unfortunately have to go out to get stuff for a funeral tomorrow. Our friends mom passed away last night. Keep them in your hearts and thoughts this Holiday.

[wombatclay]

I could stand to win the lotto.

Seriously, this was totally unplanned. We wanted a third but not till Ro was stable and not until my own balance was better. And we've been taking care to make sure a babe didn't surprise us but... in one particular snuggle session the protection joined the party after a few minutes and apparently those high school scare tactics have a kernel of truth to them. Who knew? When we were TTC Rowan it took close to a year with at least one loss. So this is sort of a double surprise.

The birth climate here is poo. The only care provider who takes my insurance and attends vbac has a 50% primary c/s rate and only 2 successful vbacs this year. I may be too "high risk" (due to my previous birth trauma) for the one midwife who attends vbac mamas birthing at home (she'd be out-of-pocket as well but she has had some luck getting reimbursement from our insurance company). And realistically a two hour there/two hour back drive to the only really YAY VBAC HUZZAH practice just isn't an option. But we'll figure something out!

Yeah... we'll be leaving from Syracuse. We didn't want to travel on Christmas Day so we'll head out early... our flight is at 9am (they have later flights on the same shuttle service but they cost a lot more so 9am it is!). Fingers crossed that the weather is good.

I'm so sorry for your friends. I've been thinking about Mighty Mama a lot recently. Sometimes the holidays are just hard...

But hopefully we will all have a happy, healthy, safe, and warm holiday season with joyful memories for years to come.

[JustVanessa]

Congrats mama!!!!! Its kinda funny about the way it happened though.

[AEZMama]

Today is 1 year that we lost Jessica.

She's really been on my mind a lot lately, too. Especially since my girlfriend back in Rochester is going through this second round after they missed a tumor during her double mastectomy in April. She now has nodules in her lungs and all I could think of was how quickly the cancer took Jessica and I couldn't handle it. Another girlfriend and I are going to try to plan a spring trip to help do things like scrapbooking and making videos for her boys. Just in case. And I hate that I have to even contemplate that.

Oh, Wombat-I was the kid who took all that stuff they said in health class super seriously! That's why dh always know when I am a "no play zone" when not Nuva'd! (speaking of which...not that anything is happening while my butt's broken...)

hey-are any of you guys on facebook? if so, want to start an April '05 group there? Here I am...and Dara is already on as one of my friends!

[JustVanessa]

I know....I am thinking about Mighty too! :

[dara00]

Wombat, you did the 4/05 6/07 8/09 thing! my kids are the first two but not the third. congrats!

I've been thinking of Jess too. It's amazing that I have a friend on livejournal who just lost her daughter and I organized some fundraising for the family, just as I organized some of the milk donations a year ago for Jess's baby. So sad, all these tradgedies.

Ursula, Clay is on facebook too!

[wombatclay]

dara- yup, the little things in this pregnancy are the sort of things we couldn't have arranged if we tried. In the past I've joked with DH that we "needed" to get pregnant so we'd have an 8/9 to round out the numbers but the fact that it actually happened is a bit crazy. And the kids will all be more or less to the week the same distance apart. Which again would be almost impossible to plan.

Right now though I am cursing the gods of morning sickness (or rather, all day sickness). I had bad MS with dd1 but not so bad with dd2. This time though it's pretty bad... not certain if it's at dd1 level but if not it's close. Today I spent about two hours on the couch hoping I'd die. But I've managed to eat two oranges and a chicken wing today and they stayed down so that counts for something!

DH is cooking a chicken pot pie/chicken stew thing and it sometimes smells good and sometimes makes me gag. Finger's crossed that I'm in a "good" space when it's time to eat since I think my body would appreciate some veggies.

[AEZMama]

Hey mamas! We're back! Hope you all had a very Happy Christmas and Hannukah!

Clay-get anything lemon for MS (hard candies, tea, fresh squeezed in water). That should help at onset. Also, keep almonds around and have 5 or 6 continually throughout the day and/or eat just small amounts routinely throughout the day (suggestion from my MW friend in Boston).

OMG-Let me just start out by saying how much I LOVE my IL's and Mexican Coca-Cola! I burst into tears when I had to say goodbye to my SIL at the airport in Laredo yesterday. We wouldn't let each other go. When pictures and video are up, I'll link.

I also finally met my sdd. That poor little girl has a LOT of drama to deal with right now with her mom, so I was very careful with her and just let her take her time in talking/interacting with me. She is a great kid, but certainly has been raised quite differently than I have raised Andrew (a bit more drama there). Sadly, due to her mothers constant need to get married, not only is she marrying in Feb, but moving all the way to Iceland with sdd so it was very emotional for dh because he really has no idea when he'll see her next.

Andrew on the otherhand had a BLAST! He was the VIP from the very first moment we landed. He was also asked to be in dh's cousin's wedding as ring bearer in October, so we have another trip to plan! And they seriously asked him after being at my FIL's house and meeting him after an hour! Hysterical! He had everyone in stitches dancing to the new Beyonce song "All the single ladies" with his 17 yo female cousins. Man-my neices and nephews are some great kids. They literally took him when there were any adult gatherings (and when there weren't) and just played with him. I also met my nephew from dh's brother who died 8 years ago-he's 13 and a straight A+ student, receiving a special commendation from the dean of his school, which I guess is rare and a big honor.

Andrew also had a HUGE language explosion! He learned more English in Mexico from his native Spanish speaking cousins! Too funny! But he does sign and ask for "mas" (more), also says casa, rojo (hoho), tia and tio.

Well, I'm 64% uploaded in pics. After that, video.

[wombatclay]

Sweet! What fun! I'm glad the trip went well.

Isn't non-US cola nifty? They use the original recipe (instead of the US version which replaced the cane syrup with corn syrup) and it really does make a huge difference.

Iceland... that's hard, but you can actually get there pretty easily and inexpensively from Boston. Every later winter there are travel packages from Boston for weekends in Iceland... Mike and I used to talk about how we'd do it "some day". I recall it wasn't exactly frugal, but it was cheaper than most US based flight destinations and the travel packages came with hotels and attractions too. But that's still really hard. And Iceland is a tough country to be an immigrant in. I hope your sdd adjusts easily.

[AEZMama]

Oh Wombat-if you only knew the whole story. In short-dh's xw met this guy online in late October...yes, 2 mos ago. She met him once and got engaged. Now sdd's life is going to be uprooted to more than likely only return back a few months later if the x keeps up her pattern (this will be marriage #3 or 4 in about 5 or 6 yrs...I'm losing track).

On a better note-here are pictures.

Happy New Year Mamas and Babes and Babes 2B!

[AEZMama]

: HAPPY NEW YEAR MAMAS & BABES!! :

[Alathia]

just popping in to say HI and hope everyone is having a great 2009! we had snow, were snowed in and couldn't leave the house for almost two weeks, then rain, then flooding, and sporadic power outages since Dec. 17th. It was crazy weather here! Then, apparently the computers in our house decided to die and I have the only working computer, so my husband and I fight it out for who gets to do their work on the computer. :P needless to say, i'm hoping the rest of 2009 isn't as hectic!

[JustVanessa]

Sorry I have been MIA. Everything is good here....I am on a massive cleaning reorganizing kick. I moved Billie into Byron's room yesterday and the first night went great...I am so happy to have my personal space in the bedroom back. I missed DTD in our bed!

[AEZMama]

Bump!

Alathia-hope you guys are starting to defrost in PacNW! Yikes, did you guys get slammed. I'm so sorry for everything you went through!

Yay Vanessa-glad that Billie's doing well and the transition to his new "big boy" room with his brother is going well (well, was).

Not much going on here. Pretty ho hum hum drum. Looking forward to Inauguration Tuesday and hoping for the best from then on.

Hope everyone is well!

[wombatclay]

Hi all! It's cooooooooold!

[JustVanessa]

Hi everyone....for once its not cold here....hovering right around freezing. Things are good here. I am still cleaning and am looking at opening a licenced daycare so I am super busy. I just started taking family child care course. Byron starts his very first swimming lessons (without mama in the pool) tomorrow.
I can't believe how big our kiddos are getting.

[AEZMama]

Wombat-going to blow some warm air up your way...though we did wake up to 20's & 30's around here, so it's not much warmer...I don't know how my brother spent the bulk of the day out snowmobiling yesterday.

Check this out mamas-got this link from Jen (Avena) this morning. It's a great interview with her by an NFL blogger in RI and it's complete with photos of Jen, Keith and the kiddos.