Eli Day

It was Elijah's 4th birthday last weekend. He is growing up too quickly. Sunday we took him for a day in Boston. We first stopped a Dunkin Donuts for some snacks, however I seem to have 'lost' that picture, oops. Our first stop was Fenway Park. We were going to do a Fenway Park tour but because of the construction the tours only involved watching a movie which seemed pretty boring for a 4 year old so instead we just walked around the park. We went inside a restaurant that looked out onto the field so he could at least see the field but there was a football game on in the restaurant and Eli could have cared less about the field. (PS disregard the dates on these pictures. I changed the batteries in the camera but didn't reset the date!)

Eric and Eli on Yawkey Way

After we walked around Fenway we tried to find the Children's Museum. However, my navigation wasn't cooperating so we decided to go to the Museum of Science instead. The Museum had a disappointing "Discovery Zone" for kids. Eli liked it a lot though. I don't think Eli understood that there were other places in the museum to check things out and he refused to leave the Discovery Zone which led to a mini tantrum and us leaving the museum altogether because he wouldn't apologize for his behavior. I think he was just tired. Eric and I try to stick to our guns when he gives us a hard time but we really didn't want to because it was his special day!

Once we left the parking garage Eli apologized. We were glad because we didn't want to end his special day. We gave him tons of praise for making the right decision and made an another attempt to find the Children's museum. We thought we would just never make it there but then out of nowhere it appeared. The Children's museum was so much more fun! Plus because we got there in the last hour of it being open, we got to go in for free!

Eric and Eli in front of the Children's museum, near the water. Clearly professional photographer is not my calling because these pictures are very dark.

Me and Eli, same time of day but Eric took this one so it came out better :)

Eli really liked this ball launcher at the museum where you pull a weight and then let it go and it sends a tennis ball flying up in the air.

This bike was supposed to light up light bulbs if you pedaled hard enough but it was broken.



I found this picture and in case you can't read under it it says "Future Star of the Boston Red Sox". Of course Eric insisted on putting his face in it.

Eric's days of possibly being a Red Sox player are over but Eli's are not!

My favorite city at night :)


Eli was exhausted at the end of the trip so he slept for most of the car ride home.

Further news

So in further news, as of today my gramma is doing well. She's finally had something to eat and has gotten up today. She will most likely be going to a rehab facility at the end of the week. Unfortunately she may not be able to join us for Christmas at our new place but at least she's still here with us and that's what's most important.

Something I forgot to report on in my last blog is that at the family Christmas party over the weekend there was another announcement.... great grand child #14 is on the way and will arrive in July. So here's the rankings:
#10 my cousin Jason and his girlfriend's son is due in January
#11 my cousin Pete and his wife's son due in February
#12 baby Eric due at the end of March or perhaps beginning of April
#13 My cousin Jane and her husband are due in June
#14 My cousin Andrew and his wife are due in July

HOLY BABIES!!!
I think that's why my gramma is somehow sticking around through all of this. That woman I tell ya, she takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.

The Week In Review

I had a doctors appointment on Tuesday. I went by myself because Eric wasn't able to get out of work early enough. Although he was tempted to somehow make it to my appointment at 4 in Worcester from Boston when he left Boston at 3:30. One of my concerns was whether I was gaining enough weight or too much but apparently I'm right on track, 12 1/2 pounds so far. The doctor says that everything looks great and the heart beat sounds good. It was different for some reason this time to hear the heartbeat knowing that it is my son's heartbeat and he has a sex and name attached to him this appointment. I feel much more bonded with him now that I know what he is.
Everyone tells me that I've "popped" this week which is not really my favorite thing to hear (you know "Wow! You've popped!!"). Frankly I wouldn't proclaim that to most pregnant woman to their face but I guess that's just me. My favorite thing to hear though is how good I look for being 6 months pregnant. I could hear that all day. Or how cute I look in my maternity clothes. Those are my favorite things to hear.
Eric has been able to feel the baby kicking a few more times. Everytime I tell him the baby is kicking (which is quite often), he tries to feel it and then of course the baby stops kicking. But Eric talks to my belly when he knows baby Eric is awake, it's really cute. If I poke my belly a little bit I can wake the baby up but Eric gets upset when I do that. He's very over-paranoid. I have a feeling that I will be expected to call the doctor at every little thing wrong with the baby because Eric will be so nervous (not that I won't but babies are so new to him).
So this weekend was a good and hard weekend. Saturday Eric took a class and then we went to the Union Christmas party at Union Station. It was really nice. The food was catered by Maxwell Silverman's (where we got married). We were able to see Alex, the manager at Maxwell's and he remembered us which was pretty cool. When we walked in the door of the party they gave us a raffle ticket. The prizes were great! I was half-heartedly listening to the numbers they were called when I heard my number called. I sent Eric up to get the gift. We won a $50 gift card out to eat. At one point in the night the live band played "Wonderful Tonight". There was only one couple on the dance floor but Eric insisted that we get up in front of the 300 people there and dance. So we did and it was really nice. Eric was so proud to have his family see his accomplishment of being in the Union. I'm so proud of him too.
So for the tough part of the weekend.... Saturday was also a family party that I ended up not going to. However, my sister called me before I had left for Eric's Christmas party to tell me that my Gramma (who just had two heart surgeries back to back) had fallen in her bathroom at 7:30am and no one found her until somewhere between 2 and 4 (it depends on who you talk to). She was on the floor yelling for help the whole time. It breaks my heart to know that she was alone and in pain for so long. She has diabetes too so anything could have happened to her during that time span. Finally a neighbor and my aunt and uncle got to her and called 911. They took X-Rays at the hospital and found that she had broken her hip. I guess this is something my gramma has always been afraid of. So yesterday they were able to do surgery at about 7pm. Eric and I had gone to see her. My mom and dad were already at the hospital. One of the doctors had come in to see her and told her that the hardest part of the surgery was going to be that she could have a heart attack afterwards because her heart is so weak (she's was recently told that she has cardiac failure and is on medication for it). When they came to take her to surgery she started crying which broke my heart. She has been through so much over the years and she is so strong but she was so scared. A part of her wants to meet my pepe in heaven but a part of her is scared to die I think so she got pretty upset. She didn't think she would make it through the surgery. When I hugged her she told me that she hoped that I would have a happy and healthy baby and that's when I lost it. Everyone was crying (even Eric) as we watched them take her to the OR. My mom called me at 10pm last night to tell me that she made it through the surgery so I have a little sense of relief but she's not totally in the clear yet. I really hope her heart holds out because she's going through enough with all of her health issues and a broken hip. The last thing she needs is another heart attack.
So that was my weekend in a nutshell.....

an update or two

So the baby is moving even more than ever. I swear he's doing the back stroke or something. We had Elijah sleepover this week and he said "I'm so glad you guys are having a baby." He really liked seeing the baby room even though the furniture is not set up yet.

So in other news... In an interesting turn of events, our baby has been bumped up on the baby roster on my mom's side of the family and this will be great grand child #12, not #11. I'm not going to go into details of why on this blog but you know me, I always have a story! Needless to say babies #10 (due in January) and #11 (due in February) are boys. So it's up to my cousin Jane now (she's growing baby #13). There should really be a study on my family!

All moved in

We moved into our new apartment and have been here for a little over a week. It was quite a move. I had convinced myself that we didn't have much to pack because we were throwing a lot of stuff away and replacing it with all of our new wedding stuff. However, Eric and I quickly discovered that packing the morning your supposed to move never really works out. It was pretty chaotic and we decided not to rent a UHaul truck this time which made for what felt like several hundred trips back and forth on Rt. 9. Once we got here Eric insisted on being completely settled and have everything put away which was not easy for me because I have been so tired when I get home from work. However, Eric did an awesome job putting the place together and it looks great.

We also got the new baby furniture thanks to Eric's cousin Mike and his wife Jess. The furniture is gorgeous and looks brand new. We don't have it set up yet because we found out we can paint the walls here so we've got to tackle that first. Mike and Jess are giving us a list of stuff for the baby so once we find out what the colors are on all of that stuff we will resume painting.

On an upsetting note I decided it would be a good idea to laminate the baby pictures so that they wouldn't get ruined. Thank goodness I saved them on the computer because apparently the heat from the laminator and the ultrasound pictures didn't mix and all the pictures went black. The only picture I don't have on the computer is the very first ultrasound picture we had when they were trying to figure out my due date. I'm not too upset because it really just looked like a piece of rice. So to everyone out there for future reference: heat+ultrasound pictures= a really bad idea!!!

We received some exciting news yesterday via Gramma McNeil. Hopefully I'm not spilling the beans too early but we just found out that my cousin Jane (see the picture of the 4 of us girls) is pregnant. So another chance at a baby girl in the family. This is great grandchild #12. She's due in June so we'll have to wait for a little bit to find out what she's having but if anyone should have the girl in our family it should be one of us girls!!!

And finally, after hearing the news from many people I made a revelation. Apparently the rule/law is that if a child does not have the same exact name as the parent then they cannot be a junior. So our baby boy will just be Eric Charles Hamelin. We will not be torturing our child by naming him Eric Matthew Wagner Hamelin Jr. He will never learn his name!!!

And the results are....

So before I begin to discuss what is growing inside of me (besides the obvious that it's a baby), I'd like to give a little background history. On my mom's side of the family there are 18 of us grandchildren, 4 of us are girls. Here we are. Mary Bridget on the left being the oldest, then Jane to the right of me, then my sister and then me.

Now we've all started getting married and starting families of our own and great grandchildren have been produced. Our child will be great grandchild #11. Up until this point my family has not produced a girl. So the pressure was on for me. My cousin's wife is pregnant and when she found out she was having a boy the girl factor landed on my shoulders. So I have to say as much as it is important to me that we have a healthy baby, I wanted a girl just as much as everyone else wanted me to have one. I don't know how to play with boys (even though I mainly work with boys all day!). I know girls scouts and hickory hill and softball. I don't know cars, I don't like getting dirty, and I'm not rough and tumble.

So yesterday we went in for our visit and here's the result:

In case it's tough to read and you can't see the blatant arrow pointing to the results, we are having a boy. I selfishly cried. I wanted so badly to give my gramma a girl. However, in being up all night (thanks Pokey) I've done a lot of thinking. So I have to give up my pretty girl name for now and return those girl clothes I bought, the fact of the matter is that this is my child. I've always wanted to be a mom and I always questioned whether I would be able to have children (just a feared I've always had) and I've been blessed to be a mom. So Eric gets his boy to name Eric Jr. and work on cars with him and do boy stuff with. However, We all know that a boy's love for his mother is like nothing else :). I hope our son is a combination of both of our best qualities.

It's interesting the questions that come up that you don't think about when you have children. First of all, the first question the doctor asked us was about circumscision. That did not cross my mind at all! Then Eric and I talked about getting the baby baptized and if we did who would be the god parents? We talked about religion and extra curricular activities and what being a parent means. We will have a lot of decisions along the way!

So even though I didn't get my girl this time, it doesn't mean I can't take over Hickory Hill again! And it doesn't mean that I will love this baby any less. And most importantly, it doesn't mean that I can't at least pick our child's middle name and stand my ground on this one! So (and Eric doesn't know this yet), the baby's full name will be Eric Charles Hamelin Jr. Charles is my pepe's name. Besides my dad and Eric he was the greatest guy I have ever met. He was so kind and gentle and caring and always made me laugh. So in 20 more weeks or so we will be welcoming our little man into this world and I can't wait for all the adventures that lie ahead!

Right before we got this next picture I said to Eric, "Now you have a boy to watch all your tv shows with", and this picture came up of the baby crossing his legs all ready to watch tv haha. He's got long legs like his mama.

Here's 5 little piggies :)

The Winner

I think it's important to post on this blog this very important day in history. I was up at 2:30am to see who won the election (not that I didn't expect the outcome!). I was very excited. Barack Obama will be swiping the presidential seat from George W. a few months before our baby is born. This means Barack will be his/her president.