Inheritance

Have you ever sat down and truly thought about your personality and traits, outside of being a mother? Maybe most women think about this while pregnant but recently, it's been hitting me over the head how June may end up with my, how do I say, difficult personality. She's wildly smart but incredibly stubborn (at 7 months. yeah.) and resourceful. Is karma going to bitch slap me for my teenage years? While thinking about all of these personality traits I began to worry about the physical traits we're passing to her as well. What if she gets hairy like Thomas? Oh god, that could happen, right?! 

What I Hope June Doesn't Get From Thomas and Me:

When I was younger, think ages 2 to 10, I constantly stubbed my big toe to the point that the skin would literally flap back and have to heal over and over. I hated wearing shoes but loved running around and my toes simply got in the way. My big toes were big. My cousins teased me and told me they were bowling ball toes. They had a point. I did eventually grow into my toes and I am unashamed of my bowling ball toes now but I hope June skips that whole shame of her toes part. 

Please note my excessively swollen feet. This was 11 days before I had June.

 

I married a man that is equal parts Greek, Samoan, Mexican and Irish. He is simply stunning to look at and while I hope that June one day looks as exotic as he does, I hope that she evades the hairiness that he seems to have fallen curse to. 
 

That's a lot of hair.

 

I don't see shades of gray. ((I don't mean the book, 50 Shades of Grey. I can physically see the book and then say, no thank you.)) I mean this in a figurative sense. In my mind things are very black and white, right and wrong, yes and no. There is no room for a "maybe" or for someone to play devil's advocate. While I can readily admit this rigidity, I simply can't change it. I've tried. Those shades of gray don't exist. I hope June is more flexible in her thinking. 
 

I am terrible at math. Terrible to the point that I think it's a learning disorder. Numbers have no meaning to me. Again, I've tried. I've been tutored, I've taken classes, but all to no avail. 

 

What I Hope June Gets From Us: 

A curious mind. I love to travel and explore the world. I find new places exhilarating. Travel, June, travel!  

Abby and I in Scotland on 4th of July 2007.

 

 

Thomas and I are performers. I just hope she gets a mix of our creativity and passion for something in the art world. 

Godspell. Not as bad as the production of West Side Story I was in but bad. Very bad.

 

 

I hope June loves her siblings the way Thomas and I love ours. My brother and sister are two of my best friends. I couldn't love, trust and admire two people more than I do my siblings. And I know Thomas admires his 3 sisters more and more every day.  

I know, we're a ridiculously good looking family.

 

 

I want to June to want to learn. Thomas and I are both inquisitive. I must learn something new every day or I get bored. I love reading, I love filling my mind with new facts, I love trivia. I hope June is curious.

I graduated! (Also, that gown hid my 6 month pregnant belly quite well!)

 

I just think this is funny.

Survival

I survived my jaunt to Arizona without my baby! It was a very long five days that I nursed my dearest Abby back to health. I watched a lot of interesting documentaries, ate some delicious Fruity Pebble frozen yogurt, gorged on gluten and slept for more than 4 hours in a row (not by much, but I did!). I FaceTimed with my Junie on Wednesday but worried that I would confuse her. She was adorable. She reached for the phone and tried to kiss me through it. I swear she she said, "mama" while we were talking.

We're feeling the repercussions of my absence though. She cries a lot more when I leave the room than before. She wants to be held a lot more than before. She's still her adorable, funny, smart self but seems a little more anxious. I'm chalking this up to me being going and also, I think she's going to get her bottom two teeth ANYDAYNOW. I'm doing my best to accommodate her and hold her as much as I can. 

I wanted to say thank you to everyone that has commented, e-mailed me, Facebook messaged me about trying to conceive. It is awesome to hear everyone's experience. The great news is, none of you have had extensive problems conceiving! The average was 3-4 months and quite a few "accidents!" 

I also feel like I should revise my last blog about how surprised we were when Junie came along. I am an avid/compulsive tracker when it comes to my body. I have tracked my period for over 5 years and had been using the iPeriod app, I was checking my ovulation and basal temps. So in all honesty, we should not have been that surprised. I figured that I wouldn't get pregnant because we weren't "trying." We had used spermicide which apparently is not a highly effective method alone. So I suppose I know the hows of getting pregnant. I'm now curious about the whens. Does anyone have any stories of what day in their cycle they tried? I promise, soon enough I'll be done asking for weird, awkward information. But for now, hang in there with me!

How Do I Breathe?

((One million points to whomever guesses the song I'm referencing in the title. HINT: It's Thomas' and my "song."))

Before June was born my BFITWWW (Best Friend In The Whole Wide World), Abby, informed me that she would be having surgery in the Spring of 2012. She's been my BFITWWW going on 8 years now and is like the sister I can't get to leave me alone. So my natural reaction was to force myself upon her and be her nurse. This would be a boring post if she lived nearby. However, my dearest Abby lives in ARIZONA. I figured, at the time, that June would be old enough to be sleeping through the night and that it wouldn't be a huge deal to leave my 6 month baby for a few days.

Spring of 2012 is here. It kind of came out of no where. Next Tuesday I'll be leaving for 5 days and 4 nights and my heart is starting to hurt. I always kind of figured that because June has been so loved by so many people and is passed around so much that I would never have to worry about her having too much separation anxiety. Or that it would at least start later. But neither is the case. My darling 6 month old currently cries when I leave her sight. How on earth are we going to make it through next week without one of us crumbling? It seems to be the worst when I first leave so I'm hoping that she will have so much fun that she won't even remember that I'm gone.

 

The best thing happened the other day and it was all because we left her at her Meema's. She spent the night there on Friday night because I had a Cherry Spitz show. Saturday morning we went to pick her up and she was just sweet as a peach. Thomas held her for a minute and then she saw me. She reached out her little arms, came to me and hugged me. Full on baby hug, both arms around my shoulders, face buried into my chest. It made my day. week. life. Baby hugs are the best thing in the world.

So while I'm sad to be testing these unfamiliar waters and leaving Junie, I'm also excited to see Abby and help her recover. And by help her recover, I mean making fun of her gimpy body. 

How am I going to be able to survive without this face (for 5 days)?!