Sister sister sister

I was looking back on my blog entries and realized I may have been a bit confusing. Here is the deal about my sisters...all of them. I have 2 biological sisters, Karmen & Karri. We have a Japanese sister, Tomomi.

Karri has a daughter, twin boys, and two stepkids. She is in the Marine Corp and is currently stationed in Texas. She was the first female navigator. That makes her pretty darn awesome. She did a 8 month tour in Iraq when Kayla was just 13 months old.

Karri and family

Karmen has 2 adopted 11 year olds and is currently pregnant. She is a scrapbooking guru and currently is a swim instructor/aquatics director. She is the one that has us on pins and needles. Her story is here. She sees the doctor twice weekly with NSTs and ultrasounds. She will be induced on May 6th. These last two weeks are creeping by so slowly. Mom called me this morning to tell me Karri is flying home as a surprise to be here for Karmen's birth. Yeay!!!

Karmen at 31 weeks

Tomomi just had her first child, Abigail after IVF. She is a Project Manager for a Detroit based company that is connected with the automotive industry. I know, confusing right? All I know is that she does a lot of translating and travels back and forth to Japan often. Thankfully, her family back in Japan was not affected by the recent earthquakes and tsunamis.

Abigail

This family is growing like crazy! I'm sure my mother is wishing we would have spaced them out a little better :)  I thought I had waited a long time to start a family. I'm the youngest one of the bunch!

My little bunny

We had Dominick's 6 month/Easter pics taken today at JCPenney. They turned out great. I was a little nervous taking him to a chain studio, but the photographer was fantastic! She made him laugh several times. I was on a mad hunt for bunny ears this week. It took me 4 stores before I found them. I almost gave up. The one photo I wanted was of him grabbing his feet with the bunny ears on. He grabs his feet all the time at home and I think it's the cutest thing ever. He refused to do it at all. We even tried ignoring him to see if he would relax and do it, but no luck.

Please don't ask about the hair. I'm lucky I was dressed at all.

Love this!

Jason picked out his little suit. I underestimated Dom's cuteness. It was overwhelming when I saw him in the suit. He looked like a little man. I can't wait to take him to church on Sunday in it. It is a size 12 months and I could barely button the cuffs. He's such a chunker.

Tomomi had her baby!

So Tomomi had her baby in the wee hours of the 18th. I've been waiting for them to name her so I could post. Still no name, but she is GORGEOUS!! Looks very Japanese except for the bald head. I'm so excited to see her in action as a mom. I wasn't able to go see her in the hospital because Dominick and I are sick. Jason has a golf tournament coming up soon close to their house, so we'll have to wait until then.

One down and one more to go. Karmen is next!

My other pregnant sister

Have I mentioned that I have 2 pregnant sisters?? In addition to my oldest sister, we have a non-biological sister that is also pregnant. Back in 1988, she came from Japan to stay with us for a a few months and never left. She still has her family in Japan, but she lives here and we are her family here. My father gave her away at her wedding and she is just like a sister to us. Well, she is pregnant with her first.

Tomomi & Karmen taken in January 2011

Just as we were cleaning up from Karmen's baby shower today, Tomomi calls to tell us her water broke. She was due May 4th, just ten days before Karmen. She is currently at the hospital in a room and we are waiting anxiously for each update. I can't wait for these babies to arrive! Dominick will have 2 cousins to play with.

I can't believe we all waited so long to have our kids. I was 36, Karmen is 42 and Tomomi is 39. Karri, my other sister was 31 when she had her first. We used to joke that grandma and grandpa will be too old to babysit if we didn't hurry up.

My sister

I have 2 sisters. This is a story about my oldest. She is currently pregnant and expecting in May. This is a miracle in itself. She and my brother-in-law have been trying to have a baby for 10+ years. They never ventured into IVF, but she did HCG and Clomid injections. She got pregnant in 2002, but suffered a fetal demise at 26+ weeks. It was the saddest thing we as a family have ever experienced.

Fast forward to 2010. She has 2 adopted children both 11 now and had long since given up and having her own child. September 10, 2010 she sends me an email with only this picture in it:

Holy crap. Words could not explain how I felt. I was elated, but I also thought of the looooong 9 months it was going to be for the family and for her. I could not imagine the turmoil in her heart. What an awesome gift, but how scared she must have been seeing that stick.

It's been a long 7 months since then. She sees the doctor twice a week now and is going to be induced on May 6th. They might do a c-section, but they will make that decision on the 6th. She's got a fibroid the size of a softball and it's location will determine the course of action.

I'm so excited for her and breathe a sigh of relief with every day that passes. Dominick and I go to most of her doctor appointments with her. We are all so excited to meet her baby girl!!

Dominick with Aunt Karmen and her baby bump!

6 month check-up

Dominick's check-up went great today! He weighed in at 20lbs 8oz and 29 inches long. The doctor said he looks great and he's ready for real food. I already had some sweet potatoes and apples pureed in the freezer waiting for him. He tried the sweet potato and it was so-so for him. I attributed his lack of enthusiasm to the fact he got 2 shots and an oral vaccine today. We'll try again tomorrow.

Thank God for Jason. He held Dominick's arms while he got his shots. I couldn't do it. I considered leaving the room, but I knew I would hear him cry and that would be worse. I'm such a hot mess when it comes to this. I just paced back and forth until it was over. He's in such good hands with Jason and I'm so thankful for that. For the record, I'm just a pansy when he's with me. When Dominick was admitted for an infection at 19 days old, I was the only one with him when he got poked for blood cultures, an IV, an I & D of the wound and straight cathed for urine cultures. I was fine the whole time (although I have no idea how). It helped that the ER nurses were beyond awesome at their job.

So now we begin the fun filled world of Dominick vs food. I'm trying to find things he can pick up and feed to himself. That should be fun!

6 months already?

Tomorrow my baby turns 6 months. I feel like I'm in some weird time warp. I feel like Dominick's been with us for longer than I was pregnant, but I can't believe he's 6 months old already! Everyone was right when they said the time would fly by. I remember when I could rock him to sleep and we could take him anywhere and he would stay asleep. He's so aware and distracted by everything around him. It's been so much fun watching him get this far.

I'm most looking forward to feeding him real food. He's mastered the oatmeal and rice cereal. I've got sweet potato and apple purees ready for him in the freezer. I'm anxious to see his reaction to these. I'm also looking forward to him learning to feed himself. Lots of Kodak moments there I'm sure!

The kitty cats

When I moved back into my house after the divorce, I wanted a cat. I'm a cat person. Always have been. My ex was not. I really missed having a cat around. The cat I had since I was 12 died when I met my ex, so it had been a long time since I had one. My sister had a kitten they couldn't keep and I gladly took her in. This is Snickerdoodle Puddin' Pop. We just call her Snicker.

We love her markings. She's split right down the middle. Her left paws are black and her right paws are tan. She;s a really good cat. She's pretty chill most the time and not super cuddly. She does like to play though (duh, she's a cat!). Her favorite game is fetch. 

It wasn't long before we realized Snicker needed a playmate. That's when we got Chloe.

She's something else. Still a kitten technically so she's a little raw. In the first month we had her she chewed through a phone charger, 2 laptop chargers and several shoelaces. She is the most affectionate cat I've ever seen. She always wants to be next to you, on you, around you, in your lap, under your nose, or laying on your chest. She also LOVES Zeek. She always tries to lay with him. She rubs up under his chin like she wants him to lick her. He never does. He likes to chase and play with her, but doesn't want to cuddle with her.

Since the arrival of Dominick, the cats have been sequestered to the basement. It gets too crazy sometimes with Zeek chasing them around and Chloe trying to chew on everything. She's calming down some so I guess their sentence will be over shortly. Don't worry, the basement is finished and they have chairs and a couch to lounge on and countless toys to play with. They also have a kitty tree house they love. They are upstairs with us during the day most days, but are in the basement each night.

Zeek the dog

Zeek was our first baby. Jason really really really wanted to get a dog. I did not. I knew what having a dog entailed and I was not up for it. After months of negotiating, I said I would get a dog if he could find a brindle pug that was already house broken. The very next day, he finds Zeek.

Zeek was 14 months old and lived with a family about 45 minutes away. They had him bred, then decided they didn't want to breed pugs anymore. We took him home and feel in love with him immediately! At first, he was this sweet little dog that was very shy. He didn't bark, but he did prove that he was NOT house broken. After about a month, his true personality started to show. He barked non stop at everyone that came over, pooped and peed in the house and was just overall crazy. One day, I gave Jason the ultimatum: Fix the dog or else!

He found a dog trainer that came to the house. He worked wonders with Zeek and with us! Now, he's a great dog and gets better every time when company comes over!

 

Zeek became the center of our universe. We bought him clothes and accessories. He has a Michigan jersey, Tigers jersey and several Halloween costumes. When Dominick came along, we were very concerned he would get jealous or feel neglected. He did great. He's been just wonderful in every way!

Who's going to see this blog?

I have no idea. I don't even know what I want to say yet. I guess that will be decided when I figure out WHO I want to see it. Is my life exciting enough to blog about? Only time will tell.

Right now, I'm hanging out at Grandma G's house with mom. I like to come when I can so grandma gets to spend some time with Dominick. She didn't get much time to see him when we came for her 90th birthday party. I also think Jason enjoys the time alone with his dog. It would be nice to spend some time alone in the house, although it would feel so weird to me. It's funny how all I want sometimes is just some peace and quiet and a chance to get some housework done, but the minute I'm away from Dominick, I miss him so much. Ahhh, the "curse" of being a parent! Your life is not your life anymore. It's completely intertwined with someone else forever.