Stop me if you've heard this before

   In one week from today my mother-in-law will be arriving to spend a week with us. We haven't seen her since Nixon's birthday and I was not at my best, mentally wise. She'll be here one week before Mother's Day, which is cool since we haven't seen her for Mother's Day since....well, before Nixon was here.

   That story goes like this:
Mac and I got married in March 2008. I found out I was pregnant in late-March/early-April, but we decided to wait to tell everyone because I'm superstitious and it seemed awesome that the end of the first trimester was very close to Mother's Day.
Not telling family for 11 weeks....hardest thing ever!
Mac and I had already made plans to fly to Miami and spend the weekend with his mom. We saw my family in March, so this was our first trip to visit his family since getting married. We had planned on not telling his mom until Mother's Day, but had to change that a little. I had horrible all day nausea and I'd lost over 15 lbs by the time we went to Miami. His mom knew something was up. I looked awful! I was super tired (tried passing it off as being tired from the early flight without success) and I couldn't keep anything down.
We went out to dinner with Mac mom, step-dad, brothers, sister-in-law and her family. I was trying to eat and not get super sick. Mac and I decided, since everyone was there and it was obviously going to be a long weekend, we were going to tell everyone after dinner.
As everyone may or may not know, Mac's mom is Vietnamese. Mac is half-Vietnamese but never showed much interest in that side of his heritage. (trust me this is important)
As everyone was getting coffee and dessert, Mac puts his arm around me and says to his mom, "Mom, how do you say "grandma" in Vietnamese?". She starts to explain, it depends on if it's the maternal or paternal side of the family. Then pauses and says "Why do you ask?". Mac says, calm and deadpan as can be, "Well, because you're going to be one."
Cue my mother-in-law asking "Are you serious?" a few times, other family members giving us hugs and congrats and my mother-in-law telling me "I knew you looked more than just tired!"

   (Fast forward to our next visit to Miami before we left to move to Okinawa, when I fell in love with my mother-in-law's Pho...it's a soup that is A-maz-ING! But when I was pregnant, I could barely stomach the smell, let alone the taste. Thank gods, Nixon left my body and I could like my mother-in-law's awesome food once he did)

   It seems crazy that it was five years ago that we told everyone Nixon (at the time Squishy) was incubating in me. I can not imagine my life without him, without Mac and without my awesome mother-in-law.

  Here's to an awesome visit, a wonderful night-out with my husband and Nixon getting some quality time with his Nana while I remain in much better spirits than our last visit.

The saddest day as a mom so far

   Every mom knows there comes a day their child will say something just to hurt them. I never expected to hear it come out of my precious 4-year old's mouth, but I knew I wouldn't be the only mom on earth to not hear it.

   Tonight, after Nixon's shower and after he was told it was bedtime, Nixon turned to me and said "I don't like you, Mommy." Simple as that, not hate-fueled, just very matter-of-factually in the same sweet tone he uses to say "i love you". I was shocked, I was hurt, I was heart-broken. What I was not, was angry. Anger wasn't going to get me anywhere in this situation.
   We stayed in my bed for a minute longer, while Nixon continued to profess his "bossy" ways. I told him, very quietly and calmly, that his words hurt my heart a lot and they made me very sad. I didn't force an apology out of him, I didn't yell or do anything really. I was just very hurt, and shocked, that he said that to me over something he knew was coming! I make sure I give him advance warning on bedtime.

  He brushes his teeth, gets onto his bed and sits there.
He says to me, very quietly while he's fidgeting with his BeBe, "Mommy, I sorry I was bossy."
I say to him "Nixon, I'm used to you being bossy. That's part of you being 4, being a little boy. What made me sad, made my heart sad was when you said you don't like me."
Nixon said "I was only being bossy."
I replied, "Nixon, that wasn't bossy baby. That was very mean."
I gave him a kiss on the forehead and started tucking him into bed. Nixon puts his hand on my cheek and says "Mommy, I'm sorry I hurt your heart. I love you. Your my best friend."
I tell him "Thank you for apologizing baby. I love you too! You are my favorite baby boy!"

  I know he's going to say things to hurt me as he gets older. I said far worst things to my parents, but to be fair my parents were far worst parents than Mac and I are to Nixon, while I was growing up. I hope this is as bad as it gets.

broke my heart and made it better, just by using that little mouth of his. 

A fair day indeed

movie theater with recliners...WHAT?!?

 
 I've been at F's since stupid-early Wednesday morning. The drama and hoops she's dealt with to get Peanut into before-and-after care has been an almost commitable level of insanity. While she was dealing with all this, Peanut was still in school and F was working. I came back to make sure Peanut got to and from school while F was at work. 

  

Mac came up for the weekend, since he was off. Friday we had a date night (Resident Evil Retribution 3d) 

   



Sunday was a joint family fun day! We had talked about and decided to go to the County Fair. Peanut had decided we were going to go before she even asked F or anyone for that matter. While the kids skated a thin line between good and naughty we ultimately went to the fair. 

I swear, he really did like this ride!

    This was Nixon's first time at a large outdoor event. The first thing I did, after we arrived, was get down on my knees, to Nixon's level and show him who to find if we get separated. There were county sheriffs wearing brown uniforms standing close to the entrance. I told Nixon "If you lose mommy or daddy and you can't find us, you go find a "naughty" (Nixonese for police officer) who looks like those men right there *points to the uniformed officers* and you tell them you're lost. They will help you find us." Thankfully, we never needed their assistance but I felt better just making sure Nixon knew who to go to for help, if it came to that. 

one of the last rides of the day, Peanut and Nixon together. 

Such a great day!

    Nixon was not all about the fair food, and it seemed he'd be a bust on rides too. F and I got the kids a bracelet that let them ride (and ourselves) unlimited times. Nixon was not feeling any of the rides, either crying immediately or deciding to jump out of line during the wait. Finally, we were waiting for a small ride with motorcycles that caught his eye, when he decided he HAD to ride a different ride, right now! I took him over to it and we got on right away. Nixon was in love with the ride! It was a simple ride (called Wiggle Worm, it was similar to a roller coaster seating-wise, and had an oval front wheel so it was an up-and-down ride) but he LOVED it! After that he wanted to go on a kids ride that looked like the Pirate Ship ride. It was AWESOME! It started moving forward and back like the Pirate Ship, but then moved in circle movements while still going in the front and back movement. He loved this ride so much, we went on it twice!
    Bad mom I am, I did not take a single photo of these moments! 
    We went to see some animals and ended up going back on more rides before leaving. It was an amazing day, all-in-all. Fried dough on the way out made it a complete success at the fair!
   


We came home and everyone (tried to) took a nap. Poor F was sick, food poisoning is assumed to be the cause.  

Nixon and Mac napping together, after the fair.