Reminiscing

As the date of Jonas' first birthday nears (it's coming up on Thursday!), I have grown increasingly sappy and nostalgic. I've been ticking down the weeks until this first anniversary, and in doing so, I've been getting lost in reminiscing about just what it was that I was doing at this moment in time last year.


It's fun to think about our present "routine" compared to that of a year ago. Despite all that has changed, we have managed to keep the things that are most important to us. Like so many other Sunday afternoons of last year, today we sat together on the sofa in the tv room watching another episode of LOST, while Jonas buzzed around on the floor flitting from toy to toy. From time to time, we'd need to turn up the volume, or re-play a segment that we missed, due to Jonas's latest outburst of "a-DAH"s and "guy-guy-GUY-guy"s. The constant flurry of movement at our feet made it a little harder to concentrate, but I've learned to adjust to that since becoming a parent. It feels so familiar, as if it has always been this way.

Then, I think back to this weekend last year. I remember it well. We were gearing up for the "big day". I was due the next day. To celebrate my last week at work, Joe and I treated ourselves to take-out from Five Guys Friday night. I figured I'd be burning off those extra calories soon enough, anyway.


Here I am that Friday night. Can you believe it?? Yikes!

And, yes, the rumors are true that Barnum and Bailey were calling me to see if I wanted to join "the show".







This is before my Five Guys' burger and fries. Just in case you're wondering.







Saturday, I walked and walked and walked. Nothing. I kept "checking in" with myself: do you feel any different? Anything going on there? Nope. Sunday we continued our afternoon ritual with popcorn and LOST. In fact we had a LOST marathon to wrap up the third season (on dvd) before Baby arrived. We ate a sumptuous pasta dinner with homemade sauce and lots of garlic bread. I've no shame in admitting that I chowed down--big time--and prayed that the red raspberry leaf tea and evening primrose oil that I'd been taking would start working their "magic"--soon! I was eager to just "get it over with" and be able to resume all the things that I'd not been able to do for so long. Simple things like getting up from the sofa without assistance, taking a full inhalation of breath, and eating more than 5 bites without feeling suffocated and bloated. I was no longer scared; I just wanted to move the show along and get to the good part.
As I sit here typing tonight, it feels surreal to put myself back to where I was last year on Sunday night. I have to confess that I'm glad that I had no idea of what exactly was in store for us for the next 48 hours. I remember that one of the last things Joe said to me before he went to bed was, "Liz, do whatever you can to have the baby tomorrow. I really don't feel like going to work." I laughed it off, as though there were anything I could do about it. Five hours later my water broke.

It doesn't seem possible that a whole year's gone by. Why does it go by so quickly? Not that I'd want to go back to last year and re-do it. In any case, one thing's for sure: we're definitely in the good part now. I can't imagine how it could be any better.