I have less than 10 weeks until my due date now. It is Christmas time. Or at least for me, it feels more exciting than Christmas. This is the part where the pregnancy begins to be more uncomfortable. I can’t reach my feet to tighten my new sandals. I can hardly get up from a sitting position. My brain only works half as well. The round ligaments in my abdomen are screaming that they have been stretched too far. My joints pop after pretty much every movement. The gravity of the situation is becoming very heavy. I’m not recording these things to complain. I look at these as signs that the time is getting so very close to when we will welcome this new baby girl to our family. And I welcome every pain that reminds me that she is coming soon and that I need to be preparing not only physically, but spiritually and mentally as well.
About a week ago we began some very important preparations thanks to the sacrifices of Ben and Jamie and their family. They drove 10+ hours to meet us in Nashville for the day. They brought us some very valuable baby clothes and other items and we were able to hang out for the day. It wasn’t exactly how we had planned, but we enjoyed every minute.
We met at the Grand Ole Opry and were going to go the free museum there, but were unable to as it closed 7 years ago after a flood and has never reopened. So we took our picture in front of one of the big guitars, or kitars, as Taivan says it.
We decided from there that we would go to a fun dragon park and let the kids play. We showed up at the park and it started pouring. We had looked at the weather previously and it was supposed to be clear until the evening, but not our luck. We all got soaked and ended up laughing about it.
The kids were all hungry by this point anyway so we decided to head over to the Loveless Cafe. It is a famous cafe in the area that sounded yummy and we decided to try it out. Turned out that it was super famous and everyone wanted to eat there and at 11:30 am there was a 2 hour wait for us to get in. We decided we would pull out the snacks and hit up a nature reserve close by while we waited.
As luck would have it, it was closed for the 4th of July weekend. At least we could look around at the pond with a turtle and checkout the garden which was very tempting with tomatoes and peppers that could have easily been picked by little fingers. Thankfully, the rain kept our visit to the garden very short. 😉 And as soon as we got back to the cafe, it was our turn to eat. I love these pictures of all the love and craziness at the cafe.
All but a few of us
The pictures wouldn’t be complete without a crazy face from Taivan.
Matthew sharing love with his cousins.
Matthew is warming up his baby-holding his arms and getting some love from his sweet cousin.
Tommy is sharing his love.
After we ate, we had a plan to do ding, dong, ditch a special someone that we know in Nashville who has been hit by the sickness train in a very inopportune time. So we went to Trader Joe’s to get flowers and healthy food to drop for our special someone, along with some some not so healthy food for ourselves. We can’t go to Trader Joe’s without getting Mochi Balls to share in the parking lot. There are no vases at Trader Joe’s or Walgreens nextdoor, so Jamie and I walked a block or so to Kroger and found a vase for the flowers. Then the exciting part when we actually dropped off the goods without being seen. Jenny saw the special person but we were stealthy enough to not be caught. So of all the things we had planned for the day, this one went the most smoothly, and was definitely the most rewarding.
At this point it was getting on toward our last couple of hours together and we went to Ben and Jamie’s hotel. They took the kids swimming while I took a nap. It was a difficult thing for me to do because I felt like I was missing out on our last hour of fun, but I hadn’t brought my swimming suit anyway and I needed to get some rest to get home safely anyway. This last picture I took right after my nap/swimming. The whole day was a success because as long as we are spending time to together, no matter the activity, we are happy. Thank you, Ben and Jamie, for the sacrifice! We made some great memories and now Baby Girl Loveland has a full dresser of clothes for months to come and some comfy ways to sleep and rest! Almost ready for Christmas Baby’s arrival.
