Manic May

I have so much to be grateful for and I have been blessed beyond my wildest dreams, yet lately I'm having a hard time remembering that.  As one of my favorite books, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society quotes, "I much prefer whining to counting my blessings."  Now this is not true most of the time, but I certainly go through phases of this unfortunate attitude.  

Matt and I are still thrilled to be having twins, but some of the realities of that are definitely coming in to focus now.  The risks of a multiple pregnancy are much greater, so instead of this pregnancy flying by (as I assumed it would), it's dragging on and on, as I count my way up to God-willing 37-39 weeks.  The possibilities that I could go in to pre-term labor, put on bed rest, or my babies spending ANY time in the NICU terrifies me.  The most difficult thing for me to accept though is the fact that I have to come home in mid-July.  This means Sienna and I won't see Matt for a minimum of 6 weeks and depending on baseball, that could stretch to 10 weeks.  I hate that.  And speaking of baseball, the glamour and glitz of this life has faded considerably.  The 10 day road trips that take my husband away from me, leaving me in Columbus, OH, with a toddler and no family and friends are not my favorite thing right now.  The fact that we have no idea where we will be or how much money we will be making next year is also a bit overwhelming when I think about flying all over the country with 3 children under 3.  

Okay, I think I am done whining now.  Please have grace and forgiveness if you find me ungrateful and pathetic.  I will count my blessings now.

1. I am pregnant with twins!

2. Sienna knows around 30 words (including "boob").

3. Sienna's "crazy eyes" (she narrows her eyes, tilts her head down and peers at us from furrowed brows.  It's the best.

4. Matt and Sienna reuniting this month.

5. Watching "How I Met Your Mother" with Mattie every night after games.

6. I have still had a very easy pregnancy health-wise.

7. Summer has hit Ohio!

8. Beautiful and wonderful wives here in Columbus.

9. Mom and Dad came to visit for over a week!

10. Sienna is sleeping over 12 hours still at night.

11. Sienna's kisses and hugs

12. I have a great church here (still not as great as GFC of course, but good!)

13. Sienna's social butterfly personality

Do those make up a little for my beginning of this blog?  I hope so.

I walked in to our bedroom and found Sienna up here.
She will do anything for gum.

Home Depot with Dad

Talking on the phone

Huntington Park
Columbus, OH

16 weeks!

March and April

So I am NOT living up to my new year's resolution of blogging monthly.  I vow (again) to get better.  

March brought us to spring training which was a spring training like no other.  We knew Matt was still recovering from hip surgery.  We also knew that he would not be able to play for the first few weeks.  We did not know that he would not play any spring training games and would have to stay in Arizona through the whole month of April to play in "extended" spring training games.  Of course this was not good news, but as always there was plenty of good to come from it.  The best thing about Matt being injured during spring training is that his days were MUCH shorter than usual.  In the past, he would leave for the field at around 7am and return between 5 and 6pm.  This year, he left around 8am and returned between 1 and 2pm.  It was wonderful! 

When April came along, I decided to go home because my dear friend and polevault teammate, Natalie Moser, was getting married the first weekend in April.  We assumed Matt would be in Arizona at the most 2-3 weeks.  Turns out, he was there the whole month.  Selfishly, I was unwilling to fly back 5 hours with my charming and extremely active Sienna.  Therefore, we were apart for over four weeks.  I have to admit it went much faster than I would have expected, but I still didn't like being separated for so long.  

March brought us the wonderful news that I was pregnant.  April brought even better news...we are having TWINS!  After three weeks, it has finally settled in, but I think it took about that long for it to feel real!  I can honestly say it was HUGE surprise, but a spectacular surprise.  We are over the moon and can't believe we are so blessed.  We are hoping for two boys (but at least one out of the deal)!  If we ask Sienna where mommy's babies are, she lifts up my shirt.  She will be in baby heaven come November!

Speaking of Sienna...(I shake my head and smile as I think about what to say next).  She is talking more!  She says, "dog", "hat", "please", "boo-boo", "ba ba" (bottle), "eat", "no", "hi", "bye bye", and probably a few more I'm not thinking of in addition to the words I mentioned previously.  "Dada" is still far and away her favorite word.  Whenever baseball comes on TV, she points and says "Dada".  She loves him.  She climbs in to her high chair when she is ready to eat.  If she is tired enough, she takes my hand and leads me in to her room, so I will put her to bed.  Whenever wind blows in her face she shakes her head back and forth.  She still LOVES chapstick.  She puts it on her lips and cheeks.  The other day, she was playing with a toy vacuum and I noticed she was throwing animal crackers on the floor, so she could vacuum them up.  She loves baby dolls now.  She loves feeding them and holding them and trying to put diapers on them.  My mom taught her ring around the rosy, and she constantly want to play by taking your hands and saying "ro ro ro".  Thanks Mom.  Of all, I am most proud of her accomplishment in doing the "Gator Chomp" when I say "Go Gators!" : )  In short, our Sienna has more personality than we know what to do with!  She is the love of our lives. 

Go Gators!

Celebrating my birthday!