We conceived Punk on October 11, 2006. In Boston.
Celebrated our birthday on the 17th.
Received a very generous gift certificate to a fancy pants sushi place from my smurfbrother as a birthday gift.
Got a positive pregnancy test on the 22nd.
Moved away from Boston and had a kid and never used the gift certificate... until now.

We're going to attempt to use it this month. Only three years late. SCORE!

My uncle recently acquired my e-mail address because I made the mistake of thanking him for a picture he sent to me via my brother. Since then, he has sent me a bazillion e-mail forwards that I typically delete without even opening. I made the mistake of opening one this evening, and not only is it falser than false (of course), it is politically inflammatory. (My uncle is the lone conservative in the family.) BLAH!

I sent him an e-mail pointing him to the snopes link for the falseness and a request for no more forwarded e-mails. Argh. I hate this stuff. I'm pretty non-confrontational for the most part but I /hate/ the political crap and he knows it, too.

Barf.

We have been having so much fun with Uncle Ick and Auntie Gretchen (who, sadly, had to leave yesterday)! Punk just loves them to pieces and we seem to do so much more fun stuff (and neglect so much more chore stuff) when they are around.

Just this weekend alone, we: went to the spray park twice and visited the playground both times, had a birthday party in the back yard, watched kid TV and ate junk food, and today we took the toddler to Six Flags. Oh yes we did. We dragged her two-year-old butt to an amusement park and she wore. us. out.

We got to have some fun in Thomas Land, and then Wiggles World, and the Looney Tunes area. There were rides and water fountains and snow cones bigger than your head. She even took a little stroller nap later in the afternoon (but I woke her up for more rides, heh). She loved riding the helicopters and the cars and the airplanes and the jeeps, and of course the Thomas train. And while she took her little stroller nap, Rick and I rode the re-done Bizarro coaster, which was pretty freaking awesome.

Then we stopped at Bertucci's for dinner, a quick bath for the Punk who was fully sunscreened twice and had ratty "I played in the fountains" hair, and then we tossed her in the crib. And I am right behind her, I am pooped!

Having a kid is the awesome awesome.

We had a successful and small birthday party for Punk but now there is a lot of cake in my house. And I do mean a LOT. Please won't you come over and eat some cake? Please?

My brother and SIL are visiting from SC, and my grandmother and my aunt came out from RI. Julie and Moey came down, and Beth and Cathy came with Hannah. The three toddlers had a grand old time, but I think the biggest hit was stuffing them all in the red wagon and bouncing them across my bumpy back yard. Good times! I can't believe my tiny baby girl is two years old!

My brother and SIL got Punk a big wooden doll house with furniture and dolls and everything, and Rick put it together last night so it would be ready to go today. It was a HUGE success. Everything was, really. She was so into opening presents this year. And everything was so up her alley: a puzzle, a giant coloring book, stickers, the doll house, a tee-ball set, Yo Gabba Gabba bath stickies, books, LEGOs, and an Elmo and Abby birthday video that my brother got in the impulse area of the grocery store.

And then, when we were winding down for the evening, a black bear cub sauntered into my front yard. So cool!

So who's coming over for cake??

So Father's Day is next weekend, and I'm finding myself at a bit of a loss.

It's been four years now since my father died, and now it's been two months (yesterday) since my grandfather died. I am so used to at least celebrating /something/ for Father's Day, and now what? It's been four years since I bought anything for my father, and now I don't even have to scout around for that perfect gift for Grandpa. Super sad.

Jen's father is alive (and well), but I don't usually take responsibility for that - she usually gets a card or whatever and I always concentrated on my side of the family. And I can't imagine not having Punk do some little Father's Day thing. I'm sure they will make something at day care (not sure; we started after Father's Day last year) and then what do we do with it?

My mother has been married to a man for 24 years. I do not consider him a father figure. Is that odd? This man has been in my life for 24+ years. I have never called him my step-father, only my "mother's husband." I did not live with them. I did not spend a ton of time with him. I saw my mother on Saturdays and John was often working. He was not parental; it was not his thing. He refers to himself as "Poppa John" WRT Punk. (Not to be confused with the pizza, I suppose.)

Should I send him something from Punk? I didn't last year. I have never sent him anything Father's Day related from myself. But when it comes to my side of the family now, he is the only grandfather-ly person Punk has.

That feels so odd to me. Fatherless on Father's Day. Punk has always been fatherless and I know how to deal with that, because we planned for that... but not for me.

Phooey.

Busy around here. Busy busy.

Last weekend, my smurfbrother was in town, and lots of fun was had. We picked up the free playhouse that I got for Punk from freecycle, we went to the Forest Park Zoo, we had good times.

This weekend, Jen's parents are in town for the first time in forever. It's actually the first time they have slept over our house since Punk was two weeks old. It has been a good time. Yesterday we took Punk to the park, and today they took her to the mall while I went to visit my grandmother. We have gone to a lot of restaurants in the last couple of weeks. Wow.

This coming weekend, carina_s and the twins will be here! Exciting! I haven't seen them in a million years. I wonder what it will be like having three more people in our little house. I wonder what it will be like having the twins with Punk. I wonder what they will do while I am at work.

And I am at work a lot. Like, a lot. I typically work until 6, sometimes after 7 (at least once a week). They are long days and when I get home, the last thing I want to do is chores. (But yet, chores still have to be done.) I feel like the weeks fly by because I don't really get to breathe until the weekend... and the last couple of weekends have been so busy!

The weekend after next, we are going to a birthday party at Edaville RR. (amyura, wanna get together?) Then the weekend after that, it's 4th of July weekend and we'll be celebrating Punk's birthday and my brother and SIL will be here again (yay!). Holy crap, we will have a two-year-old.

When did the weekends get so BUSY??!?!

We took my grandmother out to lunch today (belated Mother's Day) and we had a good time, just the 4 girls. Punk didn't really want to sit at the restaurant since it wasn't her lunch time, but she loaded up on snacks and even had popcorn for the first time. At one point toward the end of the meal, she was getting incredibly antsy and crazy and the server asked if she could take her to go and get popcorn from the popcorn machine. I let her go and she walked away with Punk and I thought Jen was going to have a heart attack. Oops! But all was well, she took her on a little walk around the restaurant (all within view) to get a paper bag and then to the popcorn machine. Good times.

My grandmother is doing really well with her recovery and is getting stronger by the day. She uses a walker to get around at home (just for safety's sake) but she doesn't really like to bring the walker out in public, so she walked around just holding my hand, and made it up and down the flight of steps to the restaurant no problem. I am so proud of her and how hard she's worked to get better. :) She also gave me lots of gossip about my cousin which is always a good time.

Grandma has been cleaning out her desk in the office and today she gave Punk a big envelope full of random stickers (real stickers, not just the free address labels that she gives Punk all the time) that must have come in the mail over the years or whatever - lots of smiley faces and stuff. Very exciting! I managed to take a couple of new pictures of Grandma and Punk that I will have to upload sometime.

I love my grandma. :)

There are a million things I could post about, if only I had more time.

1. New Job - I like my new job so far. The people I am working with seem pretty nice and very supportive, and so far no one seems ridiculously crazy. There is a little tension that I am picking up in the office, but nothing major and otherwise everything should be swell. I have to park in a parking lot a million miles away and take a shuttle bus to the hospital. It feels like I work at the airport. Also, there seem to be a healthy number of queers in my office, which is a nice change. Regardless, I'm now working at one of the major employers of the area and it's one of those situations where you never leave, you just change jobs sometimes. So I guess I know where I'll be working for, like, ever.

2. Grandma - We went to see Grandma yesterday and she is holding up as well as she can. She is having some trouble adjusting to going from having my uncle stay with my grandparents to having my aunt and uncle start to move in. It is kind of awkward and I don't particularly like it. My cousin, who is somewhat estranged from my family as he can't seem to get his life together and did a lot of shady money things, and his birth family have been spending a lot of time at my grandmother's house and she is not very pleased with that. I'm not really sure how this is going to play out. We went to visit Grandma yesterday and met my cousin's sister, her husband, and their two kids. The whole gang sat in my grandmother's living room all day watching the Sox game while Jen and I (and Punk) entertained their 8-year-old. Seriously, no one ever came out to check on him or interact with him or anything. It was incredibly sad and frustrating.

3. Tonsil - My new health insurance kicks in on June 1st, so it makes more sense to find an ENT in my new system rather than pay a $500 co-insurance. I need to get on that. I hope my new job doesn't freak about this tonsil business.

4. Punk - She is growing in leaps and bounds and impresses me every day with what she's into and what she's doing. She has a bit of a cold right now though, poor thing. This morning I took her to the grocery store and let her ride in one of those carts with the car attachment, and she was so full of glee and excitement. She sang for at least the first half hour straight. It was so cute, but I imagine I will NEVER be able to go to the store without one of those car things again.

5. Day Off - I now have Mondays off instead of Fridays. This is kind of a bummer because Jen gets off work early on Fridays, but it will give her some time to play with Punk too, which is nice. Also, it is nice to still have a four-day week.

I'm sure there's more, but I'm at a loss. Peace!

This has been a lovely couple of days. Simply lovely.

For starters, the weather has been /amazing/, very unseasonably warm (summer weather), and spring has sprung here in the Happy Valley. (It's funny, I was looking at posts from a year ago this week and it was the same thing, so I'm guessing I should expect late April springs out here.) The arborvitae is alight with yellow blooms, the violets and dandelions are taking over, daffodils and tulips are up everywhere, and the flowering trees are fragrant and beautiful. I love it. Except for the part where my yard is a disaster. But we are going to use the tax return on some of that action.

My mother has been in town since Thursday late afternoon and we had a nice visit. She enjoyed hanging out with Punk (of course) and Punk is always looking for an extra doting adult, so it was win-win. My mom hadn't seen Punk in nearly a year, so it was a big change and Punk is really engaging and fun these days - good times. My mom walked her around the neighborhood in her wagon, did endless amounts of puzzles and oversaw lots of coloring. (Punk likes to have an audience when coloring.) We went out to a lot of meals in restaurants and spent a lot of time outside, going to parks and hanging out in the back yard. And of course we took Punk to the carousel, as you saw. Mom left after lunch today and I know Punk is missing her. I'm sure it's mutual.

This afternoon, we headed out to Holyoke to have a play date with Julie and Moey at the home of some of Julie's friends. It was a good time and they had a great set up for littles - a gorgeous deck and cute little landscaped yard, kiddie pool, sprinkler, sidewalk chalk, the works. Since it was in the 80s today, Punk got to have some April pool action, which typically doesn't happen unless we are visiting Jen's parents in Florida. I can't believe my kid was in a kiddie pool in April! Wild! Anyway, she had a grand old time filling up a little watering can and pouring it on herself ad nauseum and she was terrified of the sprinkler. Whoops. It was nice to meet Julie's friend (a two-mom family with a 4 year old) and it was doubly nice to enjoy the weather.

Tomorrow I begin the first of two days of orientation at my new job. The hospital has a two day orientation where they provide breakfast and lunch. SCORE! Then I am off on Wednesday and will go to work on Thursday and Friday. I'm not sure what my actual schedule will be, but I do know it will be so weird to be working! I have been sitting at home for so long, hanging out in my pajamas, and doing random busy projects around the house. This is definitely a shift in the old gears!

This afternoon, we took Punk to Holyoke Heritage State Park to ride the carousel. We had a fantastic time and I don't know if I have ever seen her so excited in my life. When we walked into the carousel she was beside herself, but when the horses actually started moving, she was SO full of joy that I think my mother actually started crying. It was amazing to see that kind of joy.



( More including playing outside )

She is such a big girl these days I can hardly stand it.