yeah, it doesn’t look like a baby to us either. but there he or she is! little bug PowerDriver, due sometime around 3/21/14.
this explains my absence, my exhaustion, my overall disinterest and inability to engage in anything beyond sitting on my couch watching ramona play with blocks or, if she needs more attention than i can give her, watching her watch television. a lot of it. way more than is good for a two-year-old. power to the mothers that rear more than two offspring bc this first trimester has been a good reminder to jp and me of why two, at least when it comes to child-rearing, will most likely be our lucky number.
with ramona, we essentially talked one night about having a baby, tried one night to make a baby, and then 40 weeks later, had a baby. this little bugger took many more months’ effort. and it has been humbling to experience the emotions of anticipation and disappointment and impatience and fear and insecurity and the unknown. our bodies are incredible things; the way we work has me in awe. i do not take this privilege of carrying this sack of life inside of me lightly.
|| weekly belly posts to commence at next week at week 12. i’m huge already. ||
this man. the best man. the only dance partner for me. i am the luckiest girl around.
happy anniversary, jp. i love you.
more snapshots of our wedding here. photos by nancy beale taken at prairie production in chicago.
dear ramona,
today you are two years old. it seems both a blink and eons ago that you came into this world — but either way i remember the day clearly. you waited for a full-moon and then demanded your way out. your papa working with me and me working with you to make this so. once in your mama’s arms, we clicked right away. and we have continued to do so, with the exception of a couple grumpy days here and there.
you are light and joy and smarts and movement. you are glee and silliness and chub. you are toots and pitter patters and big hugs and wet kisses. you are song and dance and wiggles and wrestles. you are rain and sun and helper and reminder to me that yes, sometimes life does get to be just about tea parties and building blocks and splashing in puddles. you are you. wholly and perfect, you.
my prayers for this new year, your third year of life, are that you continue to learn new things, have the freedom to play a lot, that you keep on exploring your independence, learn to ride your kick bike, climb higher on the playground, watch less barney, and keep making mama read you all those books you love. i pray you remain steadfast in your fearlessness and your desire to make friends with just about anyone. you are tough and gentle, and i pray you develop a good balance of the two.
it is inconceivable to me, our life without you. i’m glad that you are ours and we are yours bc it just makes quite a lot of sense.
heaps of blessings and hugs and snuggles and love to you, my sweet minka.
i love you. love, mama.
this past sunday we celebrated the resurrection of jesus christ. this is the most important holy day in the christian faith and one that has always been dear to me — obviously for the significance of historical events as well as the ways i’ve celebrated it in the past, both with my family, with jp’s, and with our little family of three. this year, taking stuff from both our pasts, i was really able to make it our own; jp and i worked together to create a powerdriver-feel to celebrating this high holiday that i’m excited to see continue and evolve in the coming easter sundays.
1. church: having vowed never to miss an easter sunday service after sleeping through it last year –or tending to a wee one, it’s all cloudy– we pulled ourselves out of bed and headed over to nearby church. ramona had on her easter finest and there were so many other families, young and old, gathering to worship and proclaim: christ is risen! he is risen indeed! though we do not have a church of our own that we attend regularly, it felt good to slide into those pews and crack open the hymn book and sing praises on high with the congregation.
2. family brunch: swedish pancakes. my mother has a recipe that she has been making since as long as i can remember. my memories of rolling these paper thin pancakes into tubes after pouring some maple syrup on them is brought back when i see my niece and nephew do it themselves around my parents’ breakfast table — each weekend, when my brother’s children stay w my parents, they get swedish pancakes. so i did my best to make these sweet, light, eggy pancakes in my own kitchen and this attempt was met w success! ramona gobbled down half and refused our offers of adding maple syrup or peanut butter to them. i took that as a compliment since this girl would bathe in those condiments if she could. jp, requiring savory w his sweet, invented his own way to eat the cakes: rolling up ham and cheese inside. and i ate mine simply, with a tad of syrup.
3. easter egg hunt: every year my mother does an egg hunt for the little ones present at her easter lunches. as we got older, this hunt turned quite competitive — so much so she had to give us our own color of egg so we’d leave each other alone. this year, our closest friends came over with their little ones and baskets to “hunt” for the eggs i had “hid” around the yard. with four children under two this just meant convincing them to pick up the brightly colored plastic eggs strewn visibly about the yard and put them in their basket. the twins and little max rocked the house and filled up their baskets. mo? after successfully placing two or three eggs in her basket, that girl just wanted to sit and eat the one stray piece of candy she found. (without wikipedia-ing it, i have no idea where the tradition of easter eggs and hunts came from but i love it).
4. community supper: the thirteen adults sat down to a long table on our back patio with five babes playing musical laps. jp and i roasted lamb and others brought delicious dishes (asparagus, beets, orzo salad, garlic cauliflower, falafel, rolls with honey and salted butter, oh my!) and tasty beers and wines. after a prayer of thanks we feasted.
5. egg boxing: a tradition that jp’s family introduced me to. you take hard boiled eggs and smash them into another that another person is holding. one will break and one will stay intact. you go around to everyone smashing your egg into theirs (or holding your egg while they smash theirs into yours) and the last one with an intact egg is the winner! each time i think i’ve found a maneuver to win, i lose — my egg smashed so badly and pathetically. while the adults were getting into this, the little ones stripped down to their skivvies and started running around the yard in a sugar-induced crazy. a perfect end to a great day.
jp and i are truly blessed with an amazing community of friends here in denver that i have never experienced before in my past. it was an honor to sit down and break bread w them to celebrate the freedom in life and love christ gave to us through his sacrifice.
and now i leave you with some photos taken by my dear friend, lashley rhodes:
happy valentine’s to you and yours! much love from the powerdriver clan and all our creatures. we hope your day is filled w lots of snuggles, sweets, surprises, and smooches.
family portrait by paul michel of mountain vs plains, sent to friends and family enclosed in a homemade card inspired by this one. see other valentines from years past: 2012, 2011, & 2010.
welcome
