My First Mothers Day

On Sunday I celebrated my first Mothers Day. Even though Jackson hasn't arrived yet, it was very special to know that he is only a few days or weeks away from being born and officially making me a mommy.

It was nice to be home for Mothers Day this year. We typically go to Dayton to celebrate Brian's mom's birthday, which fell right on Mothers Day this year and the year that she was born. But that means we usually celebrate Mother's Day with my mom on the Saturday before -- Kentucky Derby Day. This year, though, it was nice to have both moms together and to be able to share my first Mothers Day with both of them.

Brian and I spent the week beforehand cleaning and getting ready -- it was a great excuse to get the whole house in order for Jackson's arrival and gave us a deadline to do it. I painted crown molding, washed baseboards, deep cleaned the kitchen sink, oiled the furniture, and throughly enjoyed the nesting instinct. Now we only have a few more tasks to do -- Dad needs to install the countertop, sink and faucet in the guest bathroom, Brian needs to spread mulch in the flowerbeds, and I need to find flowers for the planters. It's exciting to know that our To Do list that once seemed ridiculously long is finally getting manageable.

On Saturday morning, I went off to prenatal yoga, while Brian finished up some cleaning around the house before his family arrived from Dayton. I can't begin to say how helpful prenatal yoga has been lately. I feel so much more energy and so much more centered after I've practiced, whether it be at home or at the studio.

We enjoyed relaxing on the deck with the family on Saturday afternoon and discovered that we have a baby bunny living under our deck. We also learned that there's a slightly smaller version of the gigantic snapping turtle that fell into our window well last spring wandering around the neighborhood, so now there's two big, slimy reasons to worry once Jackson's big enough to play outside by himself.

On Saturday night we went to the Red Cedar Grill for dinner -- yummy as usual -- and had Summers Dream Cake to celebrate Mom's birthday. Then on Sunday we went to church and cooked brunch for Brian's family and mine to celebrate Mother's Day. We made quiche and cheesy potatoes and ambrosia. It was very yummy and we've been enjoying the leftovers.

On Sunday evening, after I took a much-needed nap, we finally installed the car seat bases in both cars. That was quite an experience -- we had to push the base into the seat as hard as possible so that it wouldn't move more than an inch after the belt was snapped into place and the base was released. This involved me sitting on the arm rest and throwing all of my substantial baby-weight onto the car seat while Brian pulled with all of his strength on the straps and locked it into place. We joked that if I ended up going into labor because of the car seat installation, at least we had to have them properly installed! Fortunately (or maybe not, depending on how sore and tired I am at the moment) I didn't go into labor and the car seat is now safely installed and ready to be inspected.

Brian also assembled the stroller and we practiced taking the carrier in and out of the stroller and car seat base. And practiced taking my stuffed Thumper in and out of the carrier. We feel pretty confident that we can get Jackson comfortably situated in his carrier now that we've had time to repeatedly adjust the straps for a stuffed rabbit.

All in all, Mothers Day weekend was both special and exhausting, and I'm sure I'll remember this first Mothers Day for the rest of my life.