The Lily Pad

I will miss you.

In three days I will be checking into the hospital to start the induction process. To say that this is completely unreal to me is an understatement. My days are spent thinking about how this time next week I'll have a little baby girl in my arms. My anxiety has reached all time highs as I worry about labor, delivery, and what happens afterwards. I calm my fears by knowing that she will be in a loving home and Chris and I have gone to great lengths towork on our relationship and communication skills to ensure that we can provide the best for our new little addition. That said, I am off for a nice night of a fancy dinner (reservations required), non-alcoholic mojitos at our favorite bar*, and a nice walk downtown for coconut cake. It is our date night and I am so excited to spend it with the father of my child, the love of my life, the man who can make me smile when all I want to do is cry. Tonight anxiety takes a back seat. *To call this place a bar is a gross misrepresentatio...

Dear Froggyhusband, Sometimes in pregnancy it's easy to overlook the daddy's role in the gestation of the baby. I haven't overlooked you. I promise. You have been so supportive and loving, more so than I ever could have imagined. I felt that as soon as my belly began to grow you would see me as a baby incubating blimp, instead you have constantly told me how beautiful I am and how much you love me. I don't know that you'll ever be able to understand how much that means to me, how absolutely fabulous it makes me feel to hear you say that and know that you mean it. I know that this hasn't been easy for you, the mood swings, the grouchiness, the late night need for candy but you have stuck through it even lying to me and saying it hasn't been that bad. You are happy to do things, happy to be there and to be a part of this process in every way that you can. You do everything in your power to make things easier for me, from holding your cheeseburger out o...

On holidays I think forward to how they will be when we have our own child. I think of what my parents did with and for us and imagine doing those same things for my own child. It's the small day to day things that shape us into what we are. In our house, Valentines Day was never about romantic love, even though Mom and Dad obviously loved each other and did things for one another. It was always about love, family love, friendly love, the love that encompasses us daily. It was a day where we got a red heart filled with chocolate, a box of conversation hearts, those heart jawbreakers, and cute card. Nanna always sent us a Valentines Day card - ALWAYS arriving on Valentines Day. Nanna had great timing with her cards - perfect timing. Mom always got the larger Whitmans Sampler Box and all of the kids would take turns picking what we wanted from what mom didn't care for (and sometimes what she was really saving for later because it was her favorite). Daddy got red hots. Tho...