Another Stork Visit!

 If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know about me and my Storks.  If you haven't been reading for a while and you want to know about me and my Storks go to the Post Topics on the right sidebar (scroll down, it's on that side --> ) and click on the label "Storks".  Oh, nevermind, I will do it for you.  If you want to read about me and my Storks, click here. Read from the last post up.  Once you've finished reading about me and my Storks, you may continue reading this post ;)

It's always exciting when you get to meet a new Stork.  Always.  I've spoken with so many of the girls on the phone, a couple of us text each other constantly, and I've been blessed to meet a bunch of storks in person, too!  Dave used to be pretty nervous about my meeting with what he called "people who aren't even real", but he's relaxed a lot and has even met a few himself and now he doesn't even make run down the list of "I know she's a real person because she has met this other stork, who met this other stork, who met that other stork, and that other stork met this stork who I have met before, too!" anymore. 

Let's see, I know Ang and Susan in real life (IRL), and it turned out Nicolle didn't live very far so we've hung out quite a few times and now I consider her an IRL friend.  I've also met Erin a few times... at least 3 I think, maybe more... and Keisha has come out here twice (okay, she's been out here 3 times, but due to my paranoid husband and my being 10 months pregnant with Jack, I had to miss her the first time).  Becca (who dubbed herself my evil twin!) came out on a business trip, Heather was here for a wedding, and this summer Aimee came out with her husband for a business trip (and I got to rub her miracle baby belly!) and I rushed to meet her the second I put the boys to bed the night we got back from Shaver Lake (did I mention that I got to rub her mirable baby belly?)!  I was so stinkin' excited when Carrie and her husband came out in October on their way to the port to go on a cruise!  I was such a dork, though, and in my incredible excitement for these last two meetings (we call them "Stork Meetings" but they're really just visits with good friends!) I forgot my camera!!!  I couldn't believe I did that, especially since it is usually glued to my face and since we all try to make a point to get a photo at each Official Stork Meetup!  So, when Deb told me she'd be here in December I tattooed the word "camera" into my brain so that I wouldn't forget it again!  And, since I have a picture, I'm posting it here :)

Me, Ang, DEB!, and Nicolle :D 

I seriously love me my Storks ;)   

(and no, I don't know why I'm leaning sideways like a dork!)

More Storkage, And Downtown Disney

This January we had another opportunity for a Stork meetup when Keisha's family came out for one of the Bowl games! Her family are big Longhorn fans, and so they followed their team out here to watch them at the game. While they were at it, they turned it into a family vacation and spent a few days at Disneyland. Of course, us So Cal Storks were thrilled with this, because it gave us another opportunity to hang out with a good friend. On one of the days they were out here, we met them at Downtown Disney's ESPN Zone for lunch! The kids had a blast, and we all had a great time catching up. We couldn't believe how much the kids had grown up since they had been out here in June... Cayden hadn't even been born yet and Ang and I were just barely pregnant with our little ones at the time!

Isabella, Keisha, Dylan, Nicole, Cayden, Susan, Ang (and McKenna), Austin, Me (And Samuel) and Jack Jack

Special thanks to Keisha's sister Kimberly, who took the picture. It was fun for me to meet her, too, because I know that she is a fellow Friends fan! And, of course, she is just as awesome as I'd expect a sister of Keisha's to be :)

After lunch, Keisha and her family went back to Disneyland and everyone else had to run somewhere else, so Jack and I took the opportunity, while we were there, to hang out at Downtown Disney! One of the things we did that Jack loved was the Lego Store! While we were there he remembered our trip to Legoland and was telling me all about it. He got distracted halfway through his story, though...

By a giant giraffe!

We also checked out Build-A-Bear (we didn't build one, though... we just checked it out and watched other people 'build' their animals), the Rainforest Cafe store (they have really cool fishtanks!), and grabbed a frozen lemonade from Wetzels. Jack's favorite part of Downtown Disney, of course, were the water fountains! Have I mentioned how much this kid loves water?

Yes, I had to remind him not to fall in


And while I'm sure he would have loved to jump right in, he settled for splashing... a lot!


He may have even been considering trying to take a drink of the water


I have to admit, it was a pretty cool fountain


But I was really glad that he didn't actually climb in!

(I have to admit that the reason I posted almost all of the pictures was because I'm just so stinkin' excited about my new camera!!! I still haven't gotten to play a lot with it, but I do love many of the shots I've gotten so far! I really need to work on figuring out the auto-focus, as it is different on the 7D than on the Rebel... definitely way more sensitive with way more focal points to choose from!)

Swings, Swimming, and Sworks Storks

We've had a few busy days over here! On Monday, Jack Jack and I stopped by my mom's work to drop some stuff off for one of my customers (yes, I still sell CTMH! Contact me for a catalog!), and while we were there we took some time to play on the playground! It was really fun for the both of us. My mom works at the school that I used to attend from Kindergarten through 8th grade. I also worked there for a few years in the Day Care, so I've spent many hours playing there and watching children playing there. But I don't think I've ever had quite as much fun as I did playing there with my own child! He had so much fun playing around and I had so much fun watching him! I even put him on the Big Boy swings all by himself for the first time, and he did great! He even pumped a little bit to keep the swing going!

On Tuesday Jack and I met Ang and Austin at swim class again and had the added bonus of having Susan there! Jack was thrilled to look up from the pool and see Auntie Susan! After swim class he got to play with her for a bit, as Ang and I had to shower really quickly so that we could meet up with some friends for lunch!

We were sooooo excited for lunch! Remember my post about my Storks? We had another opportunity to meet up with a Stork friend on Tuesday! Ang and Austin, Susan, and Jack and I headed over to Ruby's, where Nicolle and Dylan were meeting us, so that we could all have lunch together with a friend from Texas! Our friend Keisha was here on a work trip/family vacation, and I was soooo excited to finally be able to meet her!

Note: The last time Keisha was out here, I wasn't "allowed" to meet her because at the time, I looked like this, and Keisha hadn't yet been verified as a non-DOM (Dirty Old Man- the Stork joke is that Storks that haven't met any other storks in person may in fact be Dirty Old Men hiding behind their computers!). As I was about to pop with Jack, Dave wasn't comfortable with me putting myself in potential (but nonexistent!) danger. His other excuse was that he didn't want me that far away in case I went into labor!

Anyway, Nicolle and Ang had met Keisha before, but for Susan and me, this was our first time! I was expecting Keisha to be super nice, and she exceeded my expectations! Keisha brought her 15 month old daughter, Isabella, her husband, Michael, and her MIL, Martha, and we took over a huge spot in Ruby's! Many Stork Meetups have taken place all across the country, but this was the biggest Stork Meetup yet! We had 5 Storks, 4 Stork-kids, and 3 Stork-kids-in-utero, as Nicolle, Keisha and I are all expecting our second child.

Shoutout To My Storks

When Dave and I decided that we were ready to try for a baby, I decided that I wanted to keep it a secret. I had always had a feeling that fertility wouldn't come as easy to me as it did for the rest of my family, and I really didn't want to deal with people checking out my belly, keeping track of my cycle, and asking me if I was knocked up yet. I ended up getting pregnant that first month, but was devastated when that pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. I was encouraged to learn that it turned out I was wrong about my lack of fertility, but as the months went by without any more pregnancies, I began to worry again. Knowing that I could get pregnant really didn't mean anything if I couldn't stay pregnant, and it seemed like I had been waiting a really long time to get pregnant again! To keep myself sane, I reacted the way I usually do... research, research, and research some more! I learned as much as I could about fertility, infertility, treatments, pregnancy, and even breastfeeding. (Yes, I'm a nerd. I love research and information. Although amazingly enough, even with this love for learning, I hated school! Go figure!).
In my obsession, I also did something out of character for me... I talked about it. Okay, I only told one person (Ang), but that one conversation (that lasted about 10 hours and didn't end until the wee hours of the morning) paved the way for me meeting about 40 women who had the same obsession that I did, Ang included. Ang was also secretly trying to have a baby, and had joined an internet message board that was based on women who were trying to conceive (TTC) their first child. She encouraged me to join, and I hemmed and hawed, desiring support but not sure how much of myself I was willing to share (especially with complete strangers!). Eventually, I decided to join, and I am so glad that I did!!! I met some great women when I joined that board, and it didn't take long before the group of us discovered that we had something special. Though we all came together based on our similar desires to become a mother for the first time, we quickly realized that we had many other things in common, too. Over the last three years, this group of women (whom you may have heard me refer to as Storks, since the name of our bulletin board, and now our private website- by invitation only, we've become a very exclusive group... but not in the bad way- was called The Stork's Nest. You may have heard me refer to The Nest, as well) has gone through everything together. We've been there through positive and negative pregnancy tests, miscarriages, illness, 2 weddings, infertility and infertility treatments, the birth of our first child, the beginnings of starting the adoption process, and even in a few cases the birth of our second child (yes, we've been together so long that some are already done with #2!). I won't try to explain to you the bond that these women have because I'm fairly certain that it's unexplainable to someone who has never experienced it for him or herself, so I'll just tell you that I love my Storks! And all my Stork nieces and nephews, too!

(BTW, as you know it turned out that I was among the fertile- I was just super impatient and unsure after my miscarriage... after 7 months of trying I got pregnant again, and this time I carried to term -okay, well past term- and now I have a beautiful, healthy, smart and handsome 2 year old son to show for it!)

And, while we're talking about Storks...

This Sunday, Jack and I grabbed Ang and Austin and headed down to Fashion Island! I know, you're thinking it's about time, right? I mean, I do need a lot of fashion help, so what better place to find it than a place called Fashion Island. However, and unfortunately for you (cause you're the one that has to look at me in all my unfashionable glory), we were not going there to shop! Instead, we were meeting Nicolle (she's a Stork, too!) and Dylan (her son, my Stork nephew!) down there to hang out with a Stork friend, Heather, from Pennsylvania! She was out here for a wedding, and we were very excited to get to see her and her son, Joey, face to face! We of course recognized her right away, and as all Stork meetings go, it was like we were meeting up with an old friend... if you had tagged along with us you couldn't have known that we had never actually "met" each other in person before! Storks are the best! The boys had fun, too! Joey is 3 weeks older than Jack and Jack is 3 weeks older than Dylan, and Austin is very grown up for a 7 month old, so they're all similar in age :D

BTW, I charged my camera battery and cleared off my memory card in anticipation of getting some really fun shots of our 4 boys but, believe it or not, I forgot my camera! Seriously!!! ME!!! Apparently it isn't attached permanently around my neck, as previously thought! Luckily, the other girls did remember their cameras, and were nice enough to share their pictures with me! Here are some from Ang's camera.

He didn't get a nap that day, but fell asleep as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. He loves sitting next to Austin in the car, BTW... he was holding his hand most of the ride!


Jack and Aunt Ang checking out the Koi pond... which he purposefully stepped in and was sopping wet all the way up to his knee


Nicolle, Dylan, Heather and Joey checking out the same Koi pond


Joey loved Austin!



The older three boys used a lot of energy playing together




Heather and Joey, who was very tired by the end!


Group shot! Me and Jack, Heather and Joey, Nicolle and Dylan, and Ang and Austin

Is That A Booger On My Ear?

Tonight after dinner, Jack and I were sitting on the couch watching some movies of him on my computer (he loves to watch movies of himself), when I decided that my ear itched and I should scratch it. So I reached up and scratched, and I felt something like a scab. So I grabbed it and looked at it... yeah, it was a booger. A big, reddish-blackish-yellowish booger. EW EW EW!!!! Then I realized that it was dried, so it must have been there all day! The only thing that I can think is that at some point in the day, Jack must have sneezed on me! Either that or it was already loose when he smashed his face up to my cheek to give me a kiss, like he does a million times a day (love that kid!), and it got transferred upon contact. Either way, my kid put a booger on my face! Niiiice, thanks Jack!

Perhaps a better name for this post would be You Know You're A Mom When... Hmmm, You Know You're A Mom When... you walk around all day with your kid's boogers on the side of your face and you don't even notice. Or, You Know You're A Mom When... you're hardly phased by realizing that you didn't even notice that you were wearing a huge booger on the side of your face. Maybe, You Know You're A Mom When... you realize that at some point during a long, busy day, any one of the friends you spent the day with may have noticed the huge booger on the side of your face and not thought to say anything to you about it. Although, perhaps that last one would be, You Know Your Friends Are Moms When... Um, I'm hoping they didn't notice ;)

So yeah, we had a long, busy day today! Ang and Austin came over and the two of them plus Jack and I met up with some Stork friends from Northern CA- Erin, her husband Craig, her son Zach, and her brother and sister- at the LA Zoo! We had a really fun day! All the kids were really good, and we all enjoyed seeing all the animals. We were really bummed that some of the exhibits were closed (no gorillas?!?!?!), but, with My-Dad-the-Coupon-King's discount tickets, we still got our money's worth. And even if we hadn't, it was so nice seeing Erin and her family that it would have been worth it anyway!

Ang, Austin, Matt (stealing Jack's hat), Jack, Me, Cecelia, Zach, Erin (Craig is taking the picture)


I Love Zach's amazing eyes!


And Austin's eyes, too! He has mirrors for eyes!


A Meerkat


The boys! Austin (almost 6 months), Jack (almost 2 yrs), Zach (almost 9 months)