As you can see from the cover, we are now a trio. In early March the stick was blue. On November XX we welcomed the (sorry Rio,
you’ve moved to fourth spot) third member of the family. Connor Luke Ernesto Martinez. He came in at 19
¾ inches, 7 pounds 9 ounces. Marco and
Nita’s fathers, respectively, Ernesto and Luke are deceased. Mom, Dad and Baby are very happy or is that
sleep deprived delirium? Thanks to God
and all of you for thoughts, prayers, and support. The nicest thing about being the last in your
group to have the baby is all the stuff.
Nita actually purchased three pairs of shorts. Three!
She had three friends give her bags full of maternity clothes. We also ended up with three exer-saucers,
bouncy chairs, gymini mat, bassinet, car seats, etc. Nita’s friends, family, and the club all
threw showers so we ended up with tons of stuff and clothing. It was very fun to watch the A&M v. Texas
rivalry play out in baby outfits as well.
A HUGE thanks to all of you experienced mommies and daddies who made our
transition easier. We would also like to
thank Amy, April, and Pete who meticulously walked the house to point out all
the baby dangers.
Cruise, butler. We
booked a cruise for our fourth year anniversary. We decided to pick a location that would be
closer to home “in case” we became pregnant.
BINGO!! So we decided that this
might be the last big trip for the two of us so we upgraded just short of the
penthouse. We ended up with a Butler who
was fantastic and who invited us to a cocktail party in the penthouse suite by
the way. We met the Captain a few times
who instantly said, “Is a boy” in his thick Greek accent. “I see in her (roll the “r”) face.” Too cute!
The cruise was fun and somewhat void of drama. After trying to get pregnant for two years we
did nothing that would put us in danger.
No motorcycle rentals, no horseback riding, no jet skis, no scuba,
etc. But we ate well, went to art
auctions, gambled, and of course Marco
drank them out of scotch…seriously. My
favorite part was one day while playing scrabble in our suite and Venu (the
magical butler) bringing another bottle of scotch to the room my lovely wife
said, “Honey, what day is this?” And I
had no idea. None! I’m not talking about the date, I mean the
day of the week. No clue. For those of you in high stress jobs, how
awesome is THAT? That should tell you
how fantastic our vacation together was.
Every day we’d walk the track and solved the world’s problems, just the
two and 1/3 of us.
Floors, rugs, chair rail, pink paint. So in our last hurrah of let’s make the house
nice just before Connor ruins it, we decided to do floors, rugs, chair rails
and repaint the formal living and dining.
So I originally planned to attend Omar’s 40th birthday bash
in Reno and had already made travel reservations etc. About one month later, the floor guys stated
they could come two days before I was to leave and would stay for a week. I had no fear because we had meticulously
planned all the materials needs. Since
we have a sunken living room we decided to do a few special cuts in order to
avoid an optical illusion of depth or lack thereof. Long story short, more cuts equals need more
wood. We didn’t quite plan well
enough. So while having a blast in Reno
Marco received a call, “Honey, they ran out of wood.” “What?” “Yes, they are out of wood and
another thing, the air conditioner went out.”
So with one day to go in your trip and a pregnant wife who knows you’ve
been hanging out with your buddies all weekend, there is very little you can do
or say to console your lovely wife.
“What can I do honey, I’m drunk in Reno.” This by the way is the wrong thing to say. Something more remorseful or understanding
might have worked. But drunk and
gambling just aren’t two things an annoyed pregnant red headed Italian needs to
hear just then. Maybe ever, come to
think of it. I digress. Now before y’all think I’m too insensitive,
we have three air conditioning zones in the house, and only one went out. So my suggestion was, “go sleep in one of the
other rooms,” each of which were in a different zone and had ceiling fans. I’m thinking in spite of the logic I lost her
with “drunk” and “gambling.” The next
day I flew home and the floors look great, the chair rails look great…and there
was pink paint in the formal living room.
Now, Nita hired an interior decorator to help with a few things and the
color scheme was one of them. She
decided against the designer’s advice and “created” her own color. And the dining room color had to go. I lost my Maroon dining room despite throwing
out every argument in the book. When I
saw the formal living room my jaw dropped, but I said nothing. I told myself in six months, I’d get used to
it. Thank God Nita walked upstairs and
said, “That is WAY pinker than I thought it would be. Let’s repaint it.” I made another donation to the church. This was clearly a miracle. I took the high road and Nita came to it
herself. So long story short… the room
is no longer pink, everything looks great.
We also bought some pretty nice rugs for the formal living room and the
family room. They are really incredible…
I can’t wait until Connor drops chocolate ice cream on them or Rio decides to
break his own record in the butt drag event, which to date is pretty impressive
already.
Baby’s room mural.
Our thoughts were instead of relying on video to entertain, why not try
to get books to become more magical. To
accomplish this we decided to hire a mural artist to come and paint the baby’s
room. Well once we got started on what
would go where and which characters…it got a little out of control. But our artist was AWESOME and now we have a
classic pooh parade, Wilber and Charlotte with “Connor” written in the web,
Calvin and Hobbes playing baseball, Ferdinand the Bull, Baloo and Mowgli from
Jungle Book, and Robin Hood (the Disney fox character). I know.
To see the pictures go to connormartinez.multiply.com. We also got so much fun stuff from family and
friends. Connor is pretty set for a
while.
Getting ready for the change. I had no idea there were so many classes
associated with childbirth and nursing.
And I had no idea how many really stupid people are breeding. I take that back, I knew but I haven’t been
forced to sit in a room with them for a while.
The good news is I feel so much better about my parenting skills and
readiness to be a parent. If these
yahoos have gone through it, how hard can it be? I can actually feel some of you laughing at
(not with) me right now. Seriously
though, when I heard some of the questions and expectations from the groups it
really made me think that you should have to show identification to some
official before you can reproduce and to vote for that matter. Really, you can’t buy glue, beer, or get on a
plane without showing your ID, but you can vote and have a child. Wow.
Shed be gone, trees be gone.
Three staples in the Lee’s head later the cedar trees are gone and so is
that nasty shed.... Rumor has it that on the space one of the cedars and shed
previously occupied there may appear a batting cage/indoor driving range within
a few years. Yes Marco is serious and
crazy enough to do it.
So there has been talk of replacing the television in the
family room for a couple of years.
Nothing too serious, but just hinting around. But in fairness to Marco he stated that he
wouldn’t do anything until it died. So a
couple of months ago his friend Pete was over and the red went out. They both looked at each other like children
on Christmas morning when it happened.
As they discussed what the “room would hold” I made one request. Please don’t get anything that astronauts can
see from space. Long story short we now
have a 73” Mitsubishi diamond DLP.
Marco’s response was, “Honey we don’t have skylights. There is no way anyone could see this from
space.” So there is that.
Labor and Delivery.
Nita was an absolute trooper leading up to everything. She had a pretty awesome pregnancy. No morning sickness, some minor numbness in
one leg and some lower back pain. Then,
one week before her due date she started getting the Braxton Hicks contractions
(false labor for all the boys out there).
So we packed up the car and really got excited… days went by.
No one warns new parents of cluster feeding, 10, 11, 12, 1,
2, then 3. Ha ha everyone really funny.
After delivery you regret most of those times you snuck out in HS, etc….
A good friend comes over unannounced. A great friend knows your security code and
is already there when you get home, drinking scotch and watching SportsCenter. I don’t want to give that person away, but
let’s just say than an anagram of his name is Port Steeple (have fun).
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