Siblings

I'm so glad I am one.

A sibling I mean.  There are only three things I love more than my siblings, those being God, my husband, and my children. They really are great. I have five of them and I enjoy each one of them.

And I count myself beyond blessed that my own kids get to know the joy of being a sibling. Belonging even when it feels like you could never belong anywhere else in the world. Knowing that no matter how badly you mess up or how dorky you act in public, someone is forced to at least tolerate you.

But really.

I am so excited that Amanda is going to come see us soon.  While each of my brothers and sisters are special to me, none in the world can top Amanda. She's my very best friend.

She has been there with me through thick and thin. Since she's been born come to think of it. She's sat through more than her fair share of video games. That is true love. And it might be our ages that make us so close.

And that's why I'm so excited for Ana and Aaron. I hope that they can be buddies the way I was when I grew up. I hope they can always count on each other the way I have always known Amanda was there for me.

Analie is already so good with her tiny new brother. We (you know this means mostly Jeremiah) are trying to teach her to hold and carry Aaron. She isn't so comfortable with it yet, but she's trying. When we take car rides you can sneak a peak in the back and watch her grab his hand and hold it the whole car ride. And we have been known to take some long car rides.

She's so sweet and loves to talk with him and be involved. I totally expected it from her, but it's so heartwarming to see. I knew she would be a good big sister but she always finds new ways to completely blow me away.

Aaron seems to enjoy her too. In the womb Ana was the one who's voice he would kick most for. And he smiles when she comes over to play. But mostly he's a baby. So more to come on his love for Ana in the future.

Louisiana

So... It's been a while.

I'm sitting in a starbucks right now with my mother-in-law and Aaron. There is a monsoon outside and so I suppose I will be here for at least a few more minutes. She just turned to me and said it was a good thing so we can be sure to keep the humidity up. Louisiana is one of THE most humid places I have ever been in my life. When I travel from Washington back to my new home here I always regret not wearing my scuba gear. Seriously getting off the plane feels like walking into a dirty pool.

There are a lot of different things about living here. When I'm by myself it just depresses me. But for the last couple of months I have had non-stop guests and when there is someone to laugh with I can see the humor. Like the 14 cockroaches we killed in one night while my mom was staying with us. Or the 2+ hours WAITING to go to a 5 minute doctors visit. Or being shouted at by some rude (and loud) wanna-be bouncer from the back of a walmart to the front while it is CLOSING at 11 PM because we were trying to do this silly thing called leaving out the front door when everyone knows only a fool wouldn't try the side doors first. Way more funny when someone is there to laugh with you.

So I would imagine at the end of the week when my buddy leaves I'll be back to wondering if I'm the only sane one in this state... or if I'm the insane one for expecting people to show up when they say they are going to and not 30 minutes after the fact.

And I guess I'm where I have always belonged according to my spectacularly punctual sister. But this is ridiculous even for me.

Anyway. The reason I have had so much company is because I literally feel like my life EXPLODED. Andrea came out earlier than we bought her ticket for because I was having really bad contractions when I was still pregnant and problems with what I thought was kidney stones. I probably would have had Aaron at 37 weeks if she hadn't been there to help with Analie. We were scheduled to move on the 16th and my due date was the 17th of may. The week before we were scheduled to move, I called in to make sure everything was going as planned. And of course since Patrician Management does the housing it wasn't. They had set us back to July 16th and didn't tell us.

That was upsetting since I had packed a lot of things and I wanted everything to happen at once so I could put my life back together all at once. Feeling out of control for a few weeks instead of a few months sounded better, but whatever. So I continued to have pain and found out it was my gallbladder. My OB wanted me to have it taken out just as soon as I was out of the postpartum stage. He also wanted to induce me at 39 weeks. I said that I wanted to wait until the 17th. He said he had classes that day so he would take me at 39 +6 May 16th. I agreed. So I was supposed to come in at 3 am. At 2:30 am I woke up with contractions and my water broke. I had him unmedicated at 6:14 am on May 16th. He was 9 lbs even and 21 1/4 inches long. We named him Aaron Danger (after 2 days of controversy I wanted him to be Elijah). But Aaron fits and I'm so glad to have him.

That didn't end my gallbladder problems and I was on percoset until I had the gallbladder removed. But before that happened my wonderful mother came out to spend time with us. It was so much fun and I really miss being so close to her. She helped us move. Housing told a friend of ours that we were moving early so we got to the bottom of that little problem and yes, we moved early. On May 26th we moved from Algiers to Belle Chasse. I really like the new house.