Cleveland Part II: The Luck of the Irish

Kyle is half Irish. Yeah. His dad is the oldest of nine. He has approximately a billion cousins, ranging from age 6 to almost 30. Almost the entire family live in the same zip code. Holy cow is right. While we were in town, Grandma held her annual Irish corned beef and cabbage feast. Because they like to celebrate St. Patrick's day for a whole month. Because they are really into being Irish. Here is some of the decor, but I will have you know that their house looks like this year round, not just for this particular occasion.

Shamrocks on everything!

Just in case you forgot!

They do it up right.

Kyle's grandparents live in a modest suburban single family home. Approximately fifty people were at the party. And it was still too cool to move the festivities outside.

Yes you did count six tables. Suffice it to say, family gatherings can be overwhelming and exhausting. But also fun when you only have to do it once a year.

My brother-in-law, Chris with our cousin Kelly

Bonnie explaining the meaning of all of her bracelets to my mother-in-law.

Omigosh! An iPad!

We also spent some time with our friends and took in a baseball game, and Kyle ate at a few of his favorite local restaurants. One Chinese place in particular remembers him and still knows his regular order! We had a good trip, but I am so so glad to be home. 

From Seattle Rain to Cleveland Showers

Well, we're back in Seattle, and so glad to be home. Our trip was great, but spending time with Kyle's family is exhausting, and it's a relief for things to return to normal,  or at least as normal as they can be on the eve of my third trimester.

We got into Cleveland on Wednesday morning, but we didn't do a whole lot that day. Kyle caught up on sleep, as he is terrible at red-eye flights. Mostly just some catching up with the in-laws, and enjoying some free time off from work and home responsibilities.

On Thursday night Kyle got a chance to spend some time with some of his college buddies when my Mother-in-Law threw me a baby shower. It was fun, if very traditional and totally not me. I joke that I get to have a midwestern version of everything. We had our traditional midwestern reception in Ohio after our offbeat Seattle wedding, and this was definitely my traditional midwestern shower.

MIL got the whole set of corny decorations, and had me put my merchandising skills to work doing the decorating.

The shower was "small" with "only" very close family. So, about seventeen of us. And lots of wine. It was rowdy, to say the least. I think rowdy is the only way that Kyle's family does things. We'd played dumb shower games, and had some of Kyle's cousins show us their latest Irish step dancing routine.

We made out with a ton of loot, including some of the "big things" that I was starting to get anxious about, but my favorite gift was inexpensive and homemade. My MIL sent a piece of origami paper to each home in Kyle's family and had them all write us a wish. And then she folded them all into paper cranes and turned it into a mobile.

It is beautiful. Like, I gasped. It was hanging in the dining room when we first arrived, and I noticed it right away. "Wow, that is so pretty, when did you get that?" I asked. I was totally blown away that it was for me. For us.

I can't imagine taking it apart, but I also can't wait to see what's been written inside all of the cranes.  I think I'm going to unfold each one, take a picture of the message, and put it all back together, and then make a blurb photobook or something, so we can enjoy all parts of it. Seriously, I love this.

Dear Baby

Dear Baby,

Hey boy! You are wiggling around underneath my laptop right now. It's wonderful. I'm feeling you move around a lot these days. You are getting big and strong, and sometimes your kicks can even be a little painful for me. No matter, I wouldn't trade them for the world. You do a lot of your kicking in the car when I am driving home from work. I think of that time as us time. I play you lots of music, and I hope you are starting to develop an appreciation for it. I know you won't like everything I do, but I think it will be good for you to be exposed to a wide variety of stuff. Although perhaps today's Avril Lavigne was a little much.

This week is week 26. Things are moving along very nicely. When I say "July" it still sounds very far away, but this means we've only 14 weeks left, and really that's not very long at all. And we've both got a lot to do in that time. You're very busy in there working on getting bigger and stronger. Your Daddy and I out here are doing our best to prepare for your arrival. You already have a pretty nifty little wardrobe, and we're slowly acquiring other gear. In another month here we'll start our birth classes, so we'll be better prepared for your entrance into the world.

Next week your Daddy and I are going to visit Ohio. It will be our first time seeing your paternal grandparents since you've been around. And your uncles and great-grandparents and great aunts and once-removed cousins and honorary Ohio aunties. They are all so excited to meet you. And don't worry, they will meet you on the outside, too. We will bring you there again in the fall!

Baby boy, I can't wait until you're here!

Love, Mommy

I'm Back!

Back in Seattle and from vacation. Well, technically I am still on vacation until tomorrow because I am very smart and requested myself an extra day off of work.

This trip was simply wonderful. This was the first vacation I've taken since I've been promoted to full-time at work, and have exciting things like paid vacation, and not having to worry about being broke when I get home is fantastic and amazing.

The rest of the trip was pretty good also. I'm generally not ever super excited to visit Ohio or to hang out with my in-laws, but maybe I'm getting older or things are mellowing out or maybe it's that I'm finally had enough visits to really get to know them all enough to actually enjoy spending time with them. I don't know, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Chicago was fun. We were only there for the last two days, but I haven't seen my middle brother in law since right after we go married, and this was the first time I met his boyfriend. It was nice, especially since last year we got in a big stupid fight over email, so just having fun together was relieving.

It was even better being in Cleveland again. And I can't believe I'm saying, er, typing that. But seriously. First of all, family. Husband's extended family is well, completely overwhelming, but so welcoming and exuberant.  And he has two adorable eight year old girls for cousins (and like 30 others, age 5 to about 30), and they love me and are so excited to see me and want me to braid their hair (poorly) and offered to pay the fifty cents for me to play arcade games with them. And did I mention they are adorable? And Irish and freckled and adorable.  My youngest cousin is something like 20 years old and I know so few people with kids, and oh. my. god.  I'm pretty sure that this particular variety of adoration that has been bestowed upon me is reserved for "special occasion people". You know, the cool not-really-your-aunt that you only see twice a year and buys you your first eyeshadow palate when you are eleven. But still, I just can't get enough. And watching Husband interact with his little cousins killed me. Want. Want want want want.

The second amazing thing about Ohio was Husband's friends. First of all, Husband's best friend C... how do I even explain this. No one in the entire world, not even myself, can make Husband as happy as C does. Even just anticipating spending time with C, Husband's eyes get all twinkly and glittery, and I'm not even jealous because I love seeing him and C together. His wife L says that C is the same way. Amazing. And the rest of his friends are so much fun, too. They all have wives and girlfriends, and a group of couples is something we're so missing here in Seattle. And even though I've only met some of them a few times, and a for a few it was our first meeting, they never have made me felt like the new girl and I just jump right into the festivities.

I started feeling so guilty that Husband moved here for me away from all these people that he loves, even though he wanted to move anyway and how he always tells me he's glad he's here and so I offered to move back to Ohio if he ever wanted, even though I kind of hate Ohio because watching him be so happy with his friends back home just melts my heart. He of course thinks I am crazy so home we are, for good.

I am feeling extremely happy and relaxed and in love right now.

P.S. We had sex four times and only one fight on vacation. I'm pretty sure that is a record. Definitely a better ratio than our honeymoon.