Wedding weekend fun!

Though we returned home to Boston earlier this week, we did not return to "normal" quite yet.  This weekend, we enjoyed a family wedding in Newport, RI.  My cousin Richard married Victoria, who actually grew up in the town next to ours in Massachusetts.  Who would have thought, moving here so far from family, I'd end up with family just down the street! 

Where to begin?  The search for a dress.  I'm about 17 weeks pregnant, and in that horrible "is she pregnant or fat" phase and the wedding was black tie, so I didn't want to buy and waste a maternity dress for just one night.  I put out the request on FB for a dress with an empire waist to hide my baby bump and so many of my generous friends offered their dresses for me to borrow!  I loved all of them, and eventually found one that didn't make me look like a "stuffed tuna can" (thanks Doug, for that lovely comparison, I'm not even sure what a stuffed tuna can looks like!).  A special thank you to the ladies who shipped  or dropped off dresses to try. 

The search for a sitter.  After arranging for the boys to have a sleepover at their friends' houses, some logistics with deployed husbands changed our plans at the last minute.  Again I turned to FB and had such generous offers from our friends here in MA.  Sometimes I feel like we're alone here in MA, but in reality, the friends we've made here are just like family, and I cried a little at how many people jumped in to offer help (being pregnant and hormonal, that's pretty easy!) .  In the end, it worked best for Miss M to come stay with the boys here at our house.  Miss M is not a sitter, she's one of the best girlfriends I could ask for.  With her wit and sarcastic humor, she's always a riot to come over for a dinner or a night of Grey's Anatomy.  And it doesn't hurt that my boys love her too, so it was super easy to leave them, knowing she's got it under control.  For a friend who doesn't have her own kids yet, she's the best Mommy I know!

The wedding itself was beautiful.  Victoria was a beautiful bride, her family and friends were friendly and fun, and the location was gorgeous.  I loved the unique cocktails offered while the bridal party took pictures.  Sadly, I was just able to sip a glass of champagne and imagine the Sundowner and the Dark & Stormy.  (Not the best timing, being pregnant this summer, missing all the great cocktails at our friends' weddings!)  The raw bar was fabulous, and I probably had 20 oysters.  Before you flip out on me (if you didn't when I mentioned sipping champagne) the dangers of raw oysters are from food borne bacteria and alge infections like red-tide.  Yes, I gambled, and since I'm not sick today... I won.  Someone take me to Vegas, I'm on a roll.

At one point, I spilled something on the dress, and waited in line at the bar to get a glass of seltzer water to clean it.  Of course, that was about 2 minutes before we headed over to take some group pictures, and now I'll be forever captured with a big splotch on my dress.  (Yes, KM I will be drycleaning it before bringing it back!)
So here it is, the very first picture I'm willing to post of BabyBump #3.

Have I mentioned recently how hot my husband is?  Check out that man, he's yummy!



The weekend concluded with a lunch at Fillippo's in the North End before Mom, Dad, Grandma and Aunt Kristine headed back to Ohio, Doug flew back to Miami and Ryan headed to Baltimore.  Greg and Danielle are staying one more night before heading home to Ohio too.  Thank you all for coming to visit and we'll see you again soon, I hope!

Where have you been?

Despite being mostly stuck on a couch for the last 8 weeks, I haven't blogged because I didn't want to whine incessantly about being sick and miserable.  It actually was nowhere NEAR as bad as my first pregnancy, so I was quite pleased with the improvement, but I still threw myself an entire first-trimester pity-party. 

We visited family, went river tubing, I did my parents' taxes.  The boys rode four-wheelers, went to Vacation Bible School and the story times at the library.  We survived a heat wave, a fall down the stairs, a toddler who won't listen and runs in the street.  The dogs only escaped a few times, and thoroughly enjoyed the lake and the island at Great-Grandma's house.  We skyped with Daddy while he spent time in Baltimore, Tampa, Boston and NYC.

I visited a few friends, so nice to see JM (now Shamp) and her three kids and with amazingly good luck on the timing, we got to see CF (now Cook) and her new baby B!  We didn't make it around to everyone, but considering I spent most of my time on the couch, wishing this baby would be nicer to me, I was pleased to get out a little.

Chester learned a few new words, like Grandma and Grandpa, More and Up.  He expressed his undying love of dinosaurs, and we checked out every dino board book from the library.  By the end of the 6 weeks, the shirts we brought at the beginning of the trip didn't fit an he had to wear Pete's shirts.

Pete learned to answer a phone (yes, like a real phone on a wall, not a cell phone- he was amazed and befuddled at the same time) and he gave us such dinnertime conversational gems as: I'll eat these five green beans and then my penis will get really big and I'll pee them out in the potty.  Clearly a few lessons in bodily functions are in our future, but I was impressed with his grasp of the general concept.

A true hero, Ryan flew to Ohio late on a Tuesday and woke up wicked early on a Wednesday to drive us back to Boston.  That 10-12 hour drive is only made tolerable by DVDs in the minivan.  And by the very end, even the DVDs weren't helping.  Thank God we don't have to make that drive again until next year for the combo trip including my 10 year college reunion/family vacation/Baby Threepete's baptism.

Not quite fully recovered, but ready to get back in the game, I took the kids to the YMCA the night after we arrived home.  I was ready for a workout and to see my friend K.  Pete was desperate to see his friends Tyler and Maddox too.  He talked about them the entire time we were in Ohio.  I would tell him we were going to a friend's house, or Grandma's friends were coming over, and he would hop right up asking if his friends Tyler and Maddox were coming too.  So sad.  (It was the same way when his first BFF Christian moved to Hawaii last year.)  But back to the YMCA- Let me explain that I've gained 13 pounds so far in this pregnancy.  Although I'm over 16 weeks and that would seem acceptable, let me just explain that it's ALL FAT.  None of this is baby yet, it was "eat whatever makes me not want to die".  So when I put on workout clothes last night and headed for the gym, I was pretty horrified at what I look like right now.  Not only am I pudgy, but I've been away from the zumba class for about 2 months so I don't know any of the new dances, my coordination is shot to hell and I'm falling all over myself.  Two months away will also cause me to lose enough of my normal fitness level so that I'm out of shape and panting heavily.  During one song, we bounced and jumped and all I could think was that I needed to get out of there and go pee!  Damn having three kids in under four years!  As a final insult, after I got the kids home and into bed, I tried to carry the remaining suitcases upstairs to the closet and realized I couldn't walk up the steps.  I just left them there in defeat, took some Tylenol and headed to bed. 

So we're back, and after one more weekend of crazy busy wedding and family visits and two more weeks of Ryan commuting to Baltimore, we'll be ready to settle down into our normal (if it's EVER normal???) life in Boston for another three years. 

Get ready for some more amusement, courtesy of the pre-schooler, toddler and soon-to-be lump of baby.