Emily’s Musings

Hannah goes to bed between 6:00 and 6:30 every night religiously.  She absolutely cannot stay awake past 6:30 (we have tried), she just turns into a pumpkin.  The other night I put her down at 6:15, wide awake like I always do.  She usually falls asleep within minutes because we can hear her humming/singing to herself as she falls asleep over the monitor.  This particular night, she made no noise, which led me to believe she had fallen asleep immediately.  At 6:50, 35 minutes later, and WAY past her normal bedtime, I hear this over the monitor:

“Mommy?  Mommy.  Mommy?  Moooommmmeeeeeey?”

David and I can’t help but smile and we both walk into her room to see her laying down flipped around in her crib with her smiling half moon eyes looking at us as we enter.  She then says, “Hi mommy” with a big grin.  While she is smiling, she stands up next to the crib railing to give me a squeeze (not a hug, there is a difference).  My heart melted as she laid back down, grabbed her Pooh Bear and  waved “night, night” to us.  As we left with full hearts, David said, “How does it feel to be the center of her universe?  She has ‘motheritis’ in a serious way!”  I reminded him that if he was the mom, he would understand.  She knows who’s body she tormented for nine months and nursed from for 12.  I think she knows I’ve put a lot of hard work into her.

In two years form now, this little one that I am incubating will be 17 months old and I hope they call me into their bedroom just to give me another squeeze goodnight.!  That makes this whole yucky pregnancy thing all worth it.

Posting has been light the past few weeks and several of you have expressed concern that Hannah is growing up and and I’m not documenting it! Well, for those of you who are in need of a “Hannah Fix”, these photos are for you.

None of these photos were staged or posed. This is Hannah in her naturally cute state!

I know, I disappeared. I have been sick. Not just kind of sick, but the really sick kind of sick. Since I have been sick 90% of the time, the other 10% of the time when I feel somewhat decent, I have to be a mother, wife, house cleaner, chef, dog caretaker, and entertainer to Hannah. I feel somewhat behind on life, but life certainly has not come to a standstill. A few things have happened in the last few months: we watched New Year’s fireworks from our patio from three different islands, we ACTUALLY left Saba and spent Christmas on Emerald Isle, North Carolina, and oh ya the sick thing . . . it’s not the contagious kind of sick, I am pregnant!

This pregnancy is very similar to my pregnancy with Hannah. I have to keep looking at Hannah to remind myself that feeling like trash is part of the program. Baking a baby is big work! I kind of forgot how exhausting it was until I got pregnant again. I am due on David’s birthday in July. Hannah was a birthday three days later, so they will be two years apart. I am in my 13th week of pregnancy now, just 27 more weeks to live through. YUCK.

David’s brother and sister-in-law own a beach house on Emerald Isle, North Carolina. David’s parents surprised us and bought us plane tickets to go out there for Christmas with them and his sister and her family. We hadn’t seen either his brother (who lives in NC) or his sister (who lives in GA) in over five years. They both have kids we had never met. It was great to get off this Rock and actually be with extended family for Christmas. This was David’s first time off Saba in a year, and his first time out of the Caribbean in two years. I was expecting him to have some culture shock (believe me, it happens to everyone, even when you have lived in the states your whole life), but it never happened. It may be because he never left the beach house. Maybe it’s because he didn’t got to Walmart with me on the Saturday before Christmas. Maybe it’s because he only saw a handful of people when he did actually leave the house to attend church. Maybe this is why his mind wasn’t overwhelmed with choices. Like all the candy available. Everywhere. Specifically Swedish Fish, and Red Vines. Let me rephrase, fresh Red Vines. Soft chewy candy, what a luxury!

We traded our ocean view on Saba, for another on Emerald Isle. Except, the beach house has private beach access, which is more than that I can say about my house. In fact, David and I ended up in “opposite world”. Pretty much everything we don’t have on Saba, we had at the beach house.

Let’s just note some of the differences:

Emerald Isle Beach House: 10 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, four floors, media room, sauna, hot tub, pool, two kitchens, three automatic dishwashers, ocean view, private beach access, kid play room, adult game room, and an elevator (because who wants to carry their pesky luggage up to the four floor?). Oh ya, and plenty of sea shells by the sea shore. You can rent this beautiful place for $12,000 a week. It can sleep up to 30 people.

Saba house: Two teeny tiny microscopic bedrooms, one “convenience” bathroom (where you can shower, go to the bathroom, and wash your hands all at once because it is that small), one “grand” room consisting of the kitchen, dining, and family room. Oh, we also have a large 13″ TV. Not flat screen, of course, but I know somewhere out there, someone is feeling better about their house after reading about ours. Our house does provide a beautiful view of the ocean and five other islands. It really is amazing. Our place can sleep up to four people and would rent for about $200 to $400 for a week.

Not only was it nice to get away from paradise, but it was nice to spread out. All over the house if I wanted to. Hannah was IN LOVE with the stairs, all four thousand of them. That meant that someone had to be on “Hannah stair duty” at all times, and since I could pull the sick prego card (which was legit) that left it up to David most of the time.

Here are some photos of our Christmas getaway:

Hannah and her cousins Ara-Jean and Micheal watching a movie.

Hannah and David on the top story of the house.

This is the front of the beach house. If you look closely, you might be able to see David!

This is the back of the beach house.

This is the view of the beach from our bedroom window!

Dennis, Gloria, and some of the grandkids out on the beach.

Most of the family out on the beach. I was on camera duty . . . so I got to watch most of the fun.

Hannah on her beach stroll.

Hannah and her Daddy on the beach.

This is Jake, Mike and Mary’s dog. He lives at the beach house and this is his turf.

Jennifer and Eliza walking the beach.

The ocean view from the balcony off our bedroom.

The back of the beach house.

One of the only pictures of Hannah and me. Proof that I was actually in North Carolina for Christmas.