Happy 2nd Birthday Kellen

We are officially 7 days away from Baby Girl’s big arrival and I can’t tell you how quickly I hope those 7 days pass. But before the 16^th gets here there is a very important day taking place… Kellen’s 2^nd birthday is August 13^th! I don’t know that there is a 2 year old around who loves birthdays as much as my little guy. Not only does he force people to sing happy birthday to him on a regular basis, it is even sometimes our bedtime song, but he talks about the party and the cake all the time. Last weekend he rounded up his closest toddler friends and they all went swimming then of course we had birthday cake. He was in heaven, the very next morning he started asking for his next birthday party.

Maybe it’s the pregnancy hormones but I can’t help but be amazed that it has already been 2 years and how much my little mini has changed in such a short period of time. My once happy lazy bones baby is now a full out terrible twos toddler who fluctuates between a total snuggly love and a terror intent on finding Mom and Dad’s breaking points. I’m worried he just might succeed one of these daysJ.

Happy Birthday Kellen!!

The two most handsome brothers I know.

6 months old and boy did he fill out.

1 year old and ready to start trouble.

After that first year good luck keeping up.

And now he's 2!



Keeping Things Interesting

Well things are starting to get interesting in our household. So far this pregnancy has been so much easier than when I was pregnant with Kellen, I’m so thankful to have a great Doctor that has been really proactive in trying to prevent the blood pressure issues I had last time but given my history it was somewhat inevitable that at some point my blood pressure would start to creep up. A few weeks ago my doctor started to notice that my blood pressure was starting to go up slowly so she started with weekly appointments and Non Stress Tests each week. Last Friday it had gone up more than expected so I was put on bed rest until I can get in for an ultrasound and another visit that I now have scheduled for tomorrow. Tomorrow we will see if bed rest continues or I’m back to work on Thursday.

Last time we went through all of this I was barely 30 weeks and the first focus was making it to 32 weeks, then 35 weeks and eventually the little stinker was born at almost 39 weeks. Chubby cheeks and all he was healthy as can be. This time I’m already 36 weeks and honestly if baby looks healthy I wouldn’t mind meeting her sooner than later…  In reality no I don’t want baby to be born any earlier then she should be but in moments of weakness when I can’t breathe, bend over or sleep through the night I’m so over being pregnant.

So tomorrow we will see it’s either a few more weeks of laying low or back to work. In my wishful thinking I also keep picturing Jamie and my Mom suited up for the delivery again.

On the moving front things are starting to progress there as well. We now have packing dates; the movers will be at the house on August 15^th to pack our things. We’ve also started to work with the destination services people and think we may have found the right neighborhood for us. It’s called Maidenhead and is located in between Reading and London so is accessible both to work and all of the activities we could want in London as well. We’ve also gotten some clarification on how to navigate the Local Authority to get Patrick enrolled in school. Our visa process has been started and we’ve gotten the directions on how to get a bank account in the UK, which from everything we’ve heard is actually one of the most time consuming parts of the entire relocation process.

There is still a lot to figure out but I’ll take the small victories.

Disappointed in Us

I’ve been debating about this post for the last few days since overall I think it is a sensitive topic. Driving into work on Monday morning I happen to notice a bumper sticker on the back of a truck in the lane next to mine. It said, “I jump out of planes and shoot Muslims in the face for a living” and then the other side of his bumper had a Veterans of Foreign Wars sticker. I found this so offensive that I probably talked to 10 people about it that day because I was just so shocked that it was acceptable to have something like this on your car.

I don’t pretend to understand what our military service men and women experience in war, while I have seen quite a few ‘realistic’ movies,  I don’t kid myself to know what they’ve gone through and how that must shape their world view going forward. I also want to raise our kids to respect military service and those who to choose to serve should be respected for it. I would never want Patrick, Kellen or eventually Baby Girl to see that bumper sticker. To me it represents cruelty, hatred and is a scary sign of what has become acceptable in public places. Why is it even OK to have a sticker saying you Muslims in the face? It obviously isn’t just this one guy who thinks that’s something worth printing and selling.

When does it become too offensive? “I jump out of planes and shoot ___ for a living” insert Jews/ Blacks/ Women/ Catholics/ Americans, are we more offended by any of those categories? It was my Dad that brought up a good point, had it been a Muslim man with a bumper sticker saying he shoots Americans he would have been arrested within blocks. More importantly what does this say to the Muslim Americans that live in our communities or really any non-Caucasian group? Watch out, should it become acceptable we will also make jokes about shooting you.

After thinking about it some more it isn’t this one guy, who is obviously some overcompensating macho jerk, who scares me. It really is our overall climate. I was out of the country for a few months when 9/11 happened and I remember talking to my Mom and her saying that it was unreal, even rational people where out for blood, ready for war, anything to avenge what had happened. Well now it’s 10 years later and while we’ve soured on the wars and political focus has shifted it seems we still feel that it’s acceptable to degrade and hate an entire group of people. I don’t know how you change that but I feel so disappointed by the fact that it’s even an issue.