Grocery store gives pregnant lady renewed hope...

Most of you who read my blog have already emailed me, called me or texted me and you know that we still don't have baby #2 yet. And yes I have been dilated to a three now for quite some time and have been having contractions and back pain for a while as well. And as you can all imagine, I am getting very impatient.

I experienced renewed hope today at the grocery store today when in the dairy section. I realized that we WILL have a baby before our milk expires. Thanks for that bit of humor God:-)

Water Baby!

Unfortunately when your mommy is 9 months pregnant, having contractions on and off and it is super duper hot, you don't get to play outside a lot. And when you have to play over and over with the same toys day in and day out inside the house, you get bored quickly with them. And when you get bored with those toys, you start amusing yourself in other ways like staring at your reflection in the oven window...and putting dish towels on your head.

So this is just one of the ways Judah has recently been trying to amuse himself while I keep us holed up in the house lately. Well if you read my last blog entry you would know another reason I have been hesitant to leave the house...who knows when a huge summer storm will blow in and knock things into your car, leaving you with dents and scratches on your hood....Anyway...

So getting back on track, Judah had some salvation from boredom today thanks to my mom. I had a doctor's appointment and so I dropped him off with my mom at that huge new recreation center in Plano where she trains some of her clients. (By the way, I really wish our little town Lavon-yeah right-or at least one of these bigger cities bordering us would get on board with these recreation centers-they are awesome! Stevie works out at one in Frisco too that is super cool. OK sorry I keep getting off track!)

So this center has the coolest indoor and outdoor swimming facitilities-many pools, huge water slides, lazy river, wonderfully large and clean bathroom facilities-very important to mommies of little ones-and a great indoor and outdoor toddler area. This outing was wonderful for Judah especially since he recently has turned into a mega water baby. The last time we took him swimming we struggled with him because we were in a big pool and he tried time after time to get out of our arms and swim on his own (which he doesn't know how to do just yet). We also frequent the splash park in Rockwall which he loves but he can't immerse himself in water there.

So today was heaven for him. The toddler area is 1 1/2 feet deep and he thought he was on the Olympic swim team or something! My favorite is how he insists on completely sumberging his body and moves his legs and hands along as if he is swimming to get from place to place. Sometimes he would go all the way under and take in some water but it didn't matter to him. He'd get right back up and do it again. He loved the slide a lot too! I have to say that watching him today I saw a combination of childhood traits from myself and Stevie that I really liked - Stevie's courage coupled with my independence-it was fun to watch him in action! My mom said that when I left the life guard had to keep him from going into the big pool because he tried to run from my mom and jump into the big one! Ay Judah! You will definitely keep us on our toes!

Going down the water slide

Judah's version of swimming

Absolutely Ridiculous!

When you are 37 weeks pregnant with a 17 month old at home, you can get pretty restless! At least that has been the case for me for quite some time now. Since Memorial Day I have been experiencing numerous contractions (some that landed me in the hospital at 1 minute apart) and lovely cramping as well. On the days I am home alone with Judah all day long I find some moments to be quite challenging as he is in full blown toddler mode. I feel so bad sometimes that I cannot keep up with his level of energy or inquisitiveness. So today I thought it would be a good idea for the two of us to get out of the house for a while, even if it was just a trip to the store. I had no idea that there was a torrential downpour on its way.

All I wanted to do was to make a quick trip to Big Lots in Garland to get a few of those really big Sterilite plastic storage drawers on wheels. We needed some for our office closet. That should be a quick and easy trip right? Well as soon as I got up to the register to pay I see the dark clouds closing in and pray that the lady at the register speeds through this process. Of course, she doesn't. So I thought I would be able to make it to the car before the downpour started but as soon as I got to the double doors, the soft pitter patter turned into what looked like a F-4 tornado. So I put Judah back in the cart, left our purchases at the front of the store (there was no way I could fit 3 of those shelves in the cart) and did another run around the store to simply keep Judah occupied.

Finally the rain let up enough for me to decide it was time to go. After all, by this point it was past lunch time for both of us and closing in on nap time for Judah and I live almost 30 minutes away from the store. So I return to the front of the store and tell the employees (who are sweeping about a half inch of water that came in through the doors back out to the parking lot) that I am going to put my son in the car, pull the car up as close as I can and load my purchases from there. At this point, things start to get ridiculous.

The entire front of the store is flooded with water. I am 9 months pregnant, carrying a toddler and wearing flip flops trying to take the babiest steps possible to get out to the parking lot. There are 4 employees and about 6 customers (3 out of the group are men) at the front simply watching me do this. No one offers to help me through as so I don't take a dangerous fall. Oh this is just the beginning. Then from the store front you can see the best surprise yet. An entire shopping cart carrel (you know the thing that you return the shopping carts to) has been uprooted by the wind and landed on top of my hood and against the entire driver's side door. Lovely. So I make it out of the store (some rain still coming down mind you) and to my car. I put Judah is his car seat, the diaper bag in the front seat and take my phone out to take pictures for the claim adjuster I will be contacting later. People inside the store are simply watching me as are people in the parking lot in their cars. Now it gets really good. I have to lift this entire shopping cart carrel off by MYSELF! People see me doing it, they're watching me from their cars and from inside the store (employees included). No one offers to help...nope they just watch me and my very pregnant belly lift this huge thing (probably weighed a good 80 lbs or so) up off of the hood and then I drag it to the ground so I can get in my car. Oh but wait, there is more!

Now I pull my car up to the store front (I'm soaked to my underwear by this point because as I was removing the huge contraption from my car, the rain picked back up). I turn on the hazards, get out and tell the lady who is still standing in the entry way watching me, that I am coming back to get my items. She watches me make it halfway to where I left them and then offers to help me get them. Only she brings them just to the door because she doesn't want to get wet. GIVE ME A BREAK! So I meet her at the door-3 times-and load the trunk of my car by myself. And yes there were still employees and men in the crowd watching me do this.

That is the most ridiculous thing I have see in quite some time! (I tried to post the pictures of my car but blogger won't recognize them since they are from my phone I guess.)

Busy Weekend!

The Martinez Family

Father's Day 2008

Wow did we have a busy weekend! Friday night we had Presley Pointer's 2nd birthday party at the splash park in Rockwall. It was so much fun and the weather was perfect! It was fun to watch all of the kids splashing around in the water, playing, eating hotdogs and cupcakes and just having good old summertime fun. Saturday I helped to host a baby shower for my friend Nicole Galitz. Straight from the shower we went to my dad's park to join my family for my little sister's 7th birthday party-yes 7th! I cannot believe it has been 7 years since I held each of them in my arms at the hospital when they were born! This was Judah's first time at my dad's park so it was fun to watch him playing on everything. He really suprised us by climbing up an 8 foot slide. As soon as he got to the top and saw how high he was though, he shook his head "no" that he did not want to slide down and his tio Louie had to hold him as he slid part of the way down. Then Father's Day of course was Sunday. We took it pretty easy on Sunday and spent the evening having dinner and opening gifts at Stevie's parents house. Aside from the million (ok not really but you know what I mean) contractions and cramps I had all weekend, it was a great weekend!

Presley's party

Judah, Tifani & Estefani

Father's day

Growing up fast...

I know it will seem like Judah is such a big boy when his sibling arrives. I cannot believe all of the things he can do. It is amazing to watch him grow day by day and a little sad at the same time. I am trying to savor each moment...and take more pictures like I should! Here are a few pictures of him with his trucks and playing in the dirt with them. And I couldn't believe it at breakfast the other day-I thought I would see if he could eat cereal with milk and his spoon and he did it! Such a big boy!

He also really suprised me at the pool the other day. He loves to blow bubbles, go all the way under (although he hasn't mastered the art of completely closing his mouth), jump off the side into the pool (which we won't be doing too much of because it seems very dangerous!) and he struggles to get out of our arms so he can swim on his own (although he doesn't realize he can't swim yet)! He is turning out to be such an independent little guy!

*** be patient with the video-it starts out sideways and then I turn it right side up - we took it with our digital camera instead of digital video camera***

Crazy June!

It's been a while since I've blogged but so much has been going on. In addition to the tons of activities June has brought with it for us (our high school reunion, 3 children's birthday parties, two baby showers, Stevie's brother and sister's birthday, my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary...just to name a few things!) we are also spending more and more time getting everything as ready as we can before Baby Martinez #2 arrives. Stevie has been working so hard doing the stuff I can't while I have been in the official nesting mode, cleaning out closets and reorganizing and stuff like that. Last night I decided to clean and mop the kitchen floor at 10:30. Don't ask me why....crazy pregnant stuff. However each day gets more uncomfortable and my energy levels get lower and lower.

I figure I should post some pictures of our lives lately. For starters, let me just say that Stevie and I have finally come to terms with the fact that we basically suck at recording life events. We always get so wrapped up in the moment that when it is all said and done, we go back to look at pictures and realize we maybe took one or two. So that is what happened to us with our high school reunion unfortunately. I am hoping the photographer got some good ones that we can buy because as you are about to see...we didn't take too many. We realized the next day that we didn't even get one together and we were high school sweethearts! Oh well, what can we do about it now. We did get a few of Jackson and Judah at the park, one of me doing the electric slide at 9 months pregnant (that caused some concern for some people in attendance;) and one of me and Brandi and Cara-wives of two high school friends but neither of them graduated from GHS. I love them both dearly but I cannot believe I didn't even get pictures of me and my high school friends. UGH! I've GOT to get better at this!

Sweet Jesus, Sweet baby boy

So a few days ago I was working in the guest bedroom/soon-to-be baby's room. I was cleaning out one of the nightstands in there and Judah was with me. He was having fun just opening and closing the drawers to one of the nightstands when I heard him saying "Jesus". I turn around to find him with two rosaries-one in each hand. He had pulled them out of the bottom drawer and saw Jesus on them. He then proceeded to give Jesus kisses and encouraged me to do the same. I think my heart melted all over the carpet in that room. What a blessing to watch-my sweet baby boy kissing my sweet savior!