POD "Watching and Waiting"

Today's POD is just a shot of my favoritest boy in his favoritest spot. He's watching the puppies play outside and waiting while mumma gets ready to take everyone for a walk in the cold.
He's the cutest. :) Of course, I'm a little biased.

ZZzzzzzZZZZ Stalker

In organizing my photos yesterday, I discovered I may have more photos of Finlay sleeping than I do of him awake. :) Sighhhhhhh... But they are just so darn peaceful and cute when they are sleeping. I will put my sleepy stalker photo obsession to good use: to show you how much our lil nugget has GROWN! Tipping the scales at 18+ lbs now!!! C H U N K!

A Return to Normalcy... or Something Like That

I can't believe it had been over 6 months since we'd taken the puppies to the beach. In the words of my father "POH PUPPIES!" So when we loaded the car yesterday morning, they were howling with excitement. No, but seriously, they start howling and we can't get them to stop and I think our neighbors wonder about us. Anyway, they were both VERRRRRRRRRRRRRY excited to get some sun, sand and sea.

Actually, Fin didn't act too disappointed either, and happily squealed and EHHHed whoever would listen and EHHHH back.
Koda waiting very patiently for Daddy to throw something.
Everyday things are getting easier and we are able to start doing more of the things we did before the Finster arrived. Yep, there is a return to "normalcy" happening en la casa de la vida fantastica and it's great! Of course, it's a new norm, but we wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Here's a lil footage of our time. Enjoy the sound of the waves. Oh... and listen carefully for Fin's little "Eh!" ;)

Trial and Error, and Error and Error

Needless to say, living waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over here in Spain, we don't have family around to guide us and give us pointers. With the 6 hour difference in time, sometimes even a phone call is out of the question. This was hard enough before August 4th, 2011. Now... add a newborn baby to that equation. :)

As you can imagine, Matt and I had to do some figuring out on our own. Thankfully, I did lots of reading while I was pregnant ('cause the good Lord knows that once the baby arrives there is no time for that) which helped a little with the zillions of questions one encounters as a new mom. Beyond that, we relied on the help of a few close friends, some really good educated guesses and ... gut instincts. :)

WHICH MEANS... we made some funny mistakes. Now, it's been six months, so there's been lots of fantastic mistakes that I can't recall. However, I'll try to give you a couple that I'm sure I'll never forget.

Goof numero uno: I discovered on about day 4 that Fin's neck was very dirty. I had been doing daily sponge baths, but I MUST have been missing his neck?
Tristin's thoughts: *Gasp* The visiting nurse is coming in an hour, I better get that neck clean so she doesn't think I'm a neglectful parent. Wow, this must be milk that has dribbled down his neck? Man, this stuff is sticky and not coming off well. *Scrub, Scrub* (Fastforward an hour.)
Nurse: ..."Also you may notice some skin peeling. Perfectly normal. Maybe on his neck and other areas... but... (taking a peek at the squeaky clean neck) he looks pretty good right now."
Tristin: "Yeah, yeah... ummm I'll keep an eye out for that." DOH! I was scrubbing not milk... but skin! Poor little nugget!

Goof numero dos: WOW. I had no idea what a long, painful recovery I'd have. A few days after Fin was born I headed to the pharmacy to get a new prescription. My name was called and I left Matt and Fin waiting while I eased my way up to the pick up window. I noticed a sign above the window. Well would you look at that, it says that if you're pregnant or breastfeeding you should notify the window attendant. I better say something. So I leaned forward and as discreetly as possible whispered to the young man. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm breastfeeding." Then I flashed him a smile. Not making much eye contact he went on to tell me about my medication and how it could/could not affect my milk. When he was finished I smiled again, grabbed my brown paper bag, turned, and headed back to Matt and Finlay. That's when Matt's eyes got really big. "BABE!," he whispered, and he was pointing at his chest. OH YEAH. Leakage. Big time, obvious, breastfeeding leakage. This was no "well, maybe she spilled something on her shirt..." *Sighhhhhhhhhh* That kid in the window had to have been like "Uhhhhh No sh*t, you're breastfeeding!"

And there were many more funny and even embarrassing times that I may have not have had if Matt and I weren't here in Spain, on our own, feeling our way around in the dark (or however that saying goes). We're still figuring things out and we learn something new every day. Trial and error. and error. and error. ;)
OH and one other thing: don't even bother with those silly handprint kits. "EASY" the box says. TWO EASY STEPS. The directions "suggest" waiting until the baby is asleep to push its little hand into the mold. Yeah, ours didn't turn out. But I think there was something missing from our kit: drugs. Because sleeping baby or not, you aren't getting a frameable handprint unless your child has been administered one of those dart things they use on monkeys. Let me tell you what is going to happen and just save you some money and clean up time. You're going to have plaster everywhere. The baby's going to wake up, grab a fistful of plaster, and next thing you know you've got the baby's head under the faucet, yelling to your husband "QUICK, QUICK! GET IT OFF HIS FACE BEFORE IT DRIES! FRIG THE STUPID MOLD! I DON'T CARE IF IT'S GETTING HARD!"

;)

I'M BACK, PEOPLE!!!

The time has come. The anticipation is over. Are you all sitting? I'M BACK PEOPLE!!!

SIX MONTHS. SIX MONTHS. It has taken me SIX months to figure this whole thing out. What's this, you say? If you haven't been following the pictures and posts on my Facebook, you probably thought I was taken out by a mob of stray Spanish cats. Or that I consumed a bad dish of tapas and was lying in a coma in the hospital. Or that belly that I was growing was infact an extraterrestrial who took over my body and returned to the mothership. (If you thought it was that last one, you were close.) For the last 6 months I have, in fact, been living in a strange new world, but it wasn't a mothership: It was motherhood. :)

A friend suggested to me that I need not feel pressured to catch you all up on the last 6 months of our lives. "Tell them that facebook ate your blog for the last six months," she said. I did manage to squeeze in about 20 minutes a day of facebook time. Just enough time to post a few pictures, keep family and friends updated on my life and make sure I wasn't missing any action back home in the states. However, how could I not update you on what has been the most trying, most exhausting, most emotional, but most AMAZING six months of my life. How could I just skim over that part? So, before I get back to daily life in la casa de la vida fantastica, I am going to try to write a series of posts to share some of the hillarious, heart warming, humbling and sometimes even horrible things we've gone through.

And so, it begins.

August 4, 2011: When it all changed... for the better. Finlay Jaemas Thomsen entered the world at 5:08 AM and I cried because in that moment it became real. Matt and I had created this BEAUTIFUL creature and he was ours. He was so tiny and helpless and when we looked into his itty bitty face, we could see a little of each of us. Matt's ears. My nose. Sometimes they say babies have a face "only a mother could love." Now I know why. Because no matter what that lil angel looks like to anyone else, the parents stare into that red face with its squished features and see themselves.

It feels good to be back.

How to keep yourself entertained... (Day 6)

How to keep yourself entertained at forty weeks???
The "Last Supper," of course.

Now, if you're like us, and have been ready for the baby since week 38, you've probably had a FEW "last suppers" by now. No, but really, this better be our "LAST, last supper."

So what is a "last supper"? Well, for us, it mostly means our last night out as just the two of us. It was our last delicious meal out (for at least a couple weeks anyway,) until we have this baby, heal from the trauma (Matt too) and then feel brave enough to venture out again.

Truth be told, we are not the type to hole ourselves up in our house and become hermits once the baby comes. Yah right, I'll go bezerk. BUT... our next dinner out is TRULY never going to be the same again. We'll either:

A) Bring the niño, but potentially spend a majority of the evening tending to a fussy baby in a stroller.
B) Bring the niño, but spend the entire evening staring in silence at our beautiful creation.
C) Leave the niño at home with a close friend, but worry the entire time.
or
D) Leave the niño at home, but spend 1/2 of the evening talking about him and the other 1/2 trying to NOT talk about him. (I have a sneaking suspicion these discussions will include serious talks about frequency and consistency of diaper contents.)

SO, while you're DYING on day 6 of week forty waiting for your miracle to arrive... make some dinner reservations and GET OUT! It MAY just be your "last supper." Here are a few photos from ours. I wish I had remembered to snap some pics of our meals. I would have forgotten pictures ALL together if it weren't for Matt's reminder that we needed POD pics! :) Good Matty, Good boy.

Matty finishing up a glass of delicious red with our desserts. (Um yes, I was drooling on the other side of the table.)
Enjoying my tiramisu. Yummmmmmmmmmo.
The adorably quaint, La Dolce Vita, a new Italian restaurant in Rota.
The menu is small (just how I like it), but the food is absolutely wonderful: meats and cheeses shipped direct from Italy, freshly made pastas, and scrumptious desserts. Seriously, I cannot say enough about this place. The woman who I believe owns it (and waited on us) is SO sweet and kind and speaks perfect English. My appetizer, the bruschetta with pomodoros and burrata cheese, was the best I've ever had, and my dinner, the spinach ricotta ravioli in olive oil was DELISH!!! Here were the specials del giorno for last night.
Anyway, after our amazing dinner we decided to end our date night with a movie at the drive-in. If seeing Captain America is on your to-do list... cross it off. On a side note, maybe our child is a film critic wanna-be like his father and will be SO pissed that we ended our "last supper" night with such a horrible flick that he's going to come storming out today all like "WTF... really? Captain America???"!!!

:) So yeah, La Dolce Vita is my new favorite Rota restaurant. It really was a wonderful and a relaxing evening. Nights like that make being 5 days late a little bit easier.

POD "How to keep yourself entertained..." (Day 5)

Pretty soon here, we're going to have to change the title of this series of posts to "How to keep yourself SANE at forty-ONE weeks" !!!!! Let's hope I don't have to do that.

Anyway, keeping yourself entertained this late in the game is sometimes just a matter of remembering to take time for yourself. After baby comes, who knows how much time I'll actually have to do that. So, if you're a night person, enjoy what's left of your free night time movie watching, book reading or facebooking without interruptions. Or, if you're a morning person, like me, take that quiet time before the husband wakes up and enjoy that coffee. And by "enjoy" that coffee, I mean SLOWLY, savor and sip on it. I have a feeling for the next 18 years I'll have a reason to gulp it down.

Baby needs to nurse. (Gulp, gulp, gulp.)
Baby needs a diaper change. (Gulp, gulp, gulp.)
Baby is now crawling... and then walking. (Seriously... who has time for coffee?)
Baby fell down and is screaming bloody murder. (Forget the coffee even exists.)
Baby needs a lunch made and a ride to school. (Where is that darn travel mug?)
Baby has soccer practice at 6:30 AM. (Is there a Dunkins on the way?)
Baby needs a swift kick in the ass because his alarm has gone off 3 times and he's still not up. (I'm about to dump the rest of my coffee ON him.)

I think you get the point.

So, this morning, I spent a good hour sitting outside in the infamous "do-nothing" lawn chair, just relaxing. It was a cooler morning, so for the first time in like NINE months, I opted for a good ol' hot cup of American Joe.

I found a convenient place to sit my coffee: (Yeah, it's sort of like a table these days.)

I stretched my legs out (We all did):
I watched the pups explore the yard, and together, we listened as the quiet Saturday morning neighborhood slowly came to life.
And while enjoying the gentle rolling and squirming of the chunk that still resides in my belly, I sipped that coffee, and I OWNED that time for myself. :)

POD "How to keep yourself entertained..." (Day 4)

We all know that I've been a bit of a slug the last few days, and we also all know that slugs need to stay moist. ;)

So, today's POD is just a pic of a big 'ol slug, staying nice and cool and shaded and wet on a hot summer day. :)

How to keep yourself entertained at 40 weeks and 4 days? Find a pool. Not only will it be refreshing, it will make you feel weightless! Like you never gained that 15 lbs! (Ahem... or maybe more like 50.)

How to keep yourself entertained at 40 weeks (Day 3)

How to keep yourself entertained at 40 weeks? Don't. Just do nothing.

Now, hear me out, because I know how difficult this is. The type A, go-getter, "there's shit to do" kind of a person that I am had a bit of a hard time with this one when first explained to me. But this is how it works: apparently, you... don't do... ANYTHING. I know, confusing. How is doing nothing going to keep you entertained? Well, the trick is, for me anyway, that if you do NOTHING for long enough, you WILL end up doing something. It's just that the SOMETHING you fill the void with is normally an activity you'd classify in the "laying around, not doing much" category.

Still not getting it? Well, THANKFULLY you have me. ;) And I will share a VERY helpful example of the proper agenda for "Do Nothing" sort of day. Now remember, this is ALL hypothetical. Of course, I didn't spend my Wednesday doing exaaaactly this. ;)

7:00 AM: Wake up. Kiss Husband good bye. (Make him come to you in bed, of course.)
7:15 AM: Decide you need to get up after all to empty bladder. Back to bed.
7:30 AM: Resume sleep.
9:15 AM: Wake up feeling rested and guilt free. You're 40+ weeks pregnant now, who cares if you sleep all day! DO NOT get dressed.
9:30 AM: Feed dogs and open window shutters. Let some light in. There's no need to be a vampire.
9:35 AM: Pour some cereal, and ignore the pile of dishes on the counter.
9:45 AM: Sit the empty cereal dish on the other side of the kitchen as to better ignore the pile of dishes near the sink.
9:46 AM: Sit outside and do nothing. Listen to cars, watch birds, smell the ocean... it doesn't matter what you're REALLY doing, but just SIT there and stare. Okay, you can let your mind wander a little bit, but don't start thinking about stuff you "should" or "could" be doing.
10:00 AM: Make an iced coffee.
10:05 AM: Return with icy beverage to your important doings outside in the lawn chair.
10:30 AM: Facebook stalking, status updating, and blog posting.
11:00 AM: Make yourself some toast. Avoid the dishes calling your name.
11:10 AM: Allow yourself to get the dishes done(if you want). While you're at it, throw a chunk of meat in the crockpot and call it dinner.
11:30 AM: Facebook check. Email too.
12:00 PM: Check in phone calls with family.
12:55 PM: Text your husband some random food request he should pick up for you on the way home. :)
1:00 PM: Feeding time again. Keep it simple, you wouldn't want to over exert yourself.
1:20 PM: Eat half a bag of peanut M&Ms.
1:30 PM: Bring a good, light hearted book to bed. Read... as long as you'd like.
2:30 PM: Shut the book, snooze.
2:45 PM: Wipe drool off your face. Resume snoozing.
3:00 PM: Look at clock, realize you have nothing better to do. Roll over.
3:15 PM: Zzzzzzzzz (Note that it took 15 minutes to roll over and get comfortable again.)
4:00 PM: Wake up feeling refreshed, possibly feeling a bit guilty this time... but ignore it.
4:05 PM: Back to the cabinet for more M&Ms.
4:10 PM: Start a bath.
4:11 PM: FB status update, photo commenting, homepage stalking...etc. while the tub is filling.
4:30 PM: TUB TIME!
5:00 PM: Husband arrives home! Yay! And it's time for Wheel of Fortune! Double YAY!
5:05 PM: Meet the contestants.
5:10 PM: Let your husband know how much you are DOMINATING this first round.
5:30 PM: Jeopardy.
5:35 PM: Listen carefully to the categories.
5:40 PM: Once again, let your husband know that you are DESTROYING him at this game.
6:00 PM: Feed dogs.
6:05 PM: Decide what you're going to do with the stinky pork in the crockpot.
6:30 PM: Feed husband, feed yourself.
7:00 PM: Settle into your corner pocket of the couch.
7:05 PM: Realize you forgot your water. Make husband get it for you.
7:06 PM: Small talk with spouse while you try to find ANYTHING watchable on television.
7:10 PM: Opt for an Oprah episode you've only seen twice before.
8:00 PM: Still watching random crap on television. "Resting"
8:15 PM: Time a few contractions to see if they are worth a shit or still those fake ones you've been having for days. ;)
9:00 PM: Take an evening stroll with the husband and/or dogs.
9:45 PM: Facebook check. Email check.
10:00 PM: Ready yourself for bed.
10:15 PM: Lay in bed thinking about your baby, thinking about tomorrow, and praying that tonight's the big night. Still, just in case, mentally prepare yourself for another day of "Nothingness."

:)

POD "Entertainment at 40 weeks"

The POD is a pic from last night. These summer days are hot, and it's hard to get any fresh air during the daytime. So, when in Spain, do as the Spanish! Relax during the day! Take a siesta in the comfort of your air conditioning! But at night, as the sun sets and the cooler air returns, THEN you can go for a nice stroll ("un paseo," the Spanish call it) and get your fresh air.

I've done lots of walking this pregnancy, but sometimes, a walk around the base housing just doesn't cut it. Last night we enjoyed some yummy tapas in Rota with a friend visiting from Sicily, and afterwards, we took un paseo along the beautiful shore. Walking just doesn't seem as much like work when you've got views like this. :) Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh