A week in paradise

The last couple weeks have been eventful and I finally feel back to normal.

Normally, coming back from vacation, I hit a post-vacation depression.  This time, after seeing Brady for the first time in 9 days, I had a post-vacation high.  Oh, post-vacation depression came, it just about a day later when I walked out and it was 40 degrees instead of 80.  Then I took a nap and got over it and now I'm back to normal.

My time away from Brady started the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  I was supposed to leave for the Maui trip on Friday, but my grandfather's passing moved up my trip a few days.  I dropped Brady off with Eric's parents on Wednesday and flew to St. Louis for the funeral.  It was good to see my family and while I missed Brady, I didn't miss him on the flight and it would've been tough to have him during the funeral, burial, etc.  My dad is the oldest of 8 kids and they were all together for the first time in years. 

Grandma and her children

On Friday, I flew to California where the team was playing Long Beach State.  Someone sent this screenshot to Eric during the game.  Note that the time on the DVR was 11:59 Central Time, which was 12:59 Eastern Time, which was all past my bedtime.  Coach Williams happened to catch my TV appearance when they were watching film the next day.  He told me that he was impressed that I was still clapping.

 

 

 

Saturday we flew to Maui.  It was relaxing and wonderful.  Eric had to work much of the time, but I relaxed enough for the both of us.  We did get to hang out a bit.

 



 

Here's one of the pools at our hotel.  Eric and the players are spending their time away from basketball playing basketball.  Great form, but I'm pretty sure he missed this shot.

 

 

On Thursday, Eric and the coaches had no work duties, so we went out on a 4 hour boat trip.  Besides being the only really cloudy day of the trip (therefore a bit chilly), it was a blast.  Our first 30 minutes in to the trip, we saw a beautiful whale.  We also saw flying fish (didn't know there really was such a thing), tons of dolphins that swam right up to our boat (including baby dolphins that made me miss Brady), and sea turtles (which we saw while snorkeling).

 



 

We flew out at 8pm on Thansksgiving and arrived home around lunch time on Friday.  The problem with being so well rested that its harder to sleep on the plane.  I managed a few hours the latter half of the trip, but not like my husband who slept about 9 of the 10 hour flight.  He stayed up the night before and was less rested than myself.

I'm not sure Brady was as excited to see us as we were to see him, but it was a fun reunion.  I think 9 days in toddler time is like 1 year in adult time.  He seemed to have aged so much in a week!

Here's to hoping Eric still has a job at Carolina in 4 years!  Looking forward to Maui 2016!

Then vs now

Maui 2008

 

Maui 2012

State of affairs in the Hoots house

I'm almost through my first trimester and overall, this baby hasn't caused too much havoc, although he's sapped any remaining energy that Brady hasn't stolen.  My energy is finally returning and I don't feel like I need to go to bed at 8:30 every night.  With my first pregnancy, I remembering being so tired and wondering how I'd do it the second time around with a child to chase around.  In reality, its been easier because when I was pregnant Brady, I didn't have the luxury of the beautiful invention called naps.  Recently, I've felt like I am back in newborn mode when Brady and I took naps together.  My productivity in other places has decreased, but if you can't keep your eyes open, its hard to be productive at anything.

I've had some bouts of nausea and food aversion but they've been infrequent and tolerable.  I didn't have any of that with Brady, so of course, Eric is convinced we're having a girl.  I am only convinced we're having a baby.  We won't find out until May, so there will be lots of time to ponder.

I had an appointment last week and my midwife was reassuring me that delivery was easier the second time around.  She compared it to making pancakes: making first one is difficult, but once the pan gets hot, the second one is much easier.  Of course, the second pancake isn't any better than the first pancake and you love both pancakes equally, but the process of getting the second pancakes is quicker and smoother. Since I had just made pancakes a few days prior (and really struggled with that first pancake) I appreciated this analogy and hope it holds true.

I have to say, I'm already experiencing a tinge of 2nd child guilt.  With Brady, I could have told you if Brady was a blueberry, a bean, or a lemon during any given week and what sort of cool things he was doing as a fetus.  I have no idea what fruit or vegetable this baby can be compared to, only that he definitely is in there and judging by my protruding midsection, growing in the right direction.

As far as our day-to-day life, we are settling in to the routines of basketball season.  With Eric gone a lot, Brady and I are not short quality time together.  Eric gets home around 7:45 each night, just in time to play for a few minutes and get Brady ready for bed.  The days are long, especially when weekends don't look all that different from weekdays, but I'm thankful that Eric doesn't have to keep up the schedule 12 months a year.

If you'd like to read about our brief weekend trip, click here and scroll to page 11.  And as a bonus, you can see Eric's picture on the first page.  I'm not bitter that he's on page 1 and I'm in the double digits.

Tomorrow is voting day.  Since we're in a safe place here, I'll admit with embarrassment that I am 30 years old and will be voting for the first time.  What is the best time to go to the polls?  I'll be toting a toddler who's a bit on the active side, so I'm really depending on short lines to perform my civic duty.  Is it to late for early voting?