Where To Start?

I intended to start this blog when I found out I was pregnant to journal my pregnancy and my soon-to-be child's life and milestones...well, Avery is now 6 months old and I am sitting here at 12:19am, starting this blog. I am not sure what I will write about, and hopefully this will not be some silly, mundane blog about every minute of Avery's life, but something funny and honest and maybe enjoyable to read. Might be asking a lot, but hey, we all need motivation, right?

As Maria in the Sound of Music sings, "let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start..." while strolling through a beautiful village with the Alps as a back drop, I will start at the beginning, Our beginning, while slouched on our 6-year-old very comfy striped couch (which is the backdrop for many pug and baby pictures) listening to my 2-year-old pug, Grover, snoring, as he sleeps under my feet. Husband, R, is upstairs asleep with Baby Avery, Pug Malcolm, and Pug Parker. I only show 48 minutes left on the battery on my MacBook so hopefully I can get this all out and posted while still motivated to write.

Ryan and I met about 9 or 10 years ago at a friend's house. We have never been good with anniversaries and when we really started to date, go out, whatever...I do know for the first year after we met, we tortured each other, playing the normal 21/22 year old games until at some point we decided to get serious and stop.  I knew he was the guy. The guy I wanted to buy pugs with, marry, have babies with, and grow old with. He makes me laugh and he laughs at me. He calls me out when I am being unreasonable and crazy. And I respect him more then anyone. He is kind and understanding, hardworking and patient. I could not ask for a better husband or daddy to our tribe of 4 and 2 legged offspring. Of course he has his faults, he is not perfect just like I am not. But we are figuring out this life together, and there is  no one else I would rather do it with.

Anywho, when we started dating, I had Ice, the sweetest dog you will ever meet.

When Ryan would come over to watch a movie, Ice would sit across from us and stare at him with his human like eyes. As soon as one of us would get up to get a drink or go to the bathroom, Ice would dart over to sit in between us. It didn't take long for Ryan to win him over just like he did me.
After a year of dating, and about 4 years of pining for, we got a pug. The prodigy known as Malcolm:

He was the craziest puppy in his litter and we fell in love from the time I scooped him up and he covered my face in kisses.

A year after Malcolm, we were looking for French Bulldogs. During my Internet searches, I came across this black female pug who was almost 4 months old and a fraction of the usual price of other pugs. So I convinced Ryan to just go and LOOK at her (HA!). Poor thing was from an Amish puppy mill. She had a growth on her eye, her head, she was covered with dirt, and I knew if we didn't take her, she would probably be killed because she would have been no use to the Amish farmer.  So in June 2005, Parker joined the pack.

In 2007, Ryan and I got engaged.

                                                                  (this was the picture that was used on our engagement party invitation)

In October, 2008, we got married in Negril, Jamaica.

with our close friends and family

In June of 2009, we bought our first house but I'm not throwing those pictures out on the Internet just in case I do get some readers and one of them turns out to be a creeper.

Last August 14th, 2010, we found out we were expecting our first child...

Yes, that is pee on the stick...gross!

At 8 weeks...

At 20 weeks we found out we were having a little girl...although I insisted we would have a boy, deep down I knew it was a girl. When the u/s technician left the room, I lost it! And all I really remember blubbering to R was "we are going to have so much pink shit!" When we left the appointment, we went and did what any other normal couple who just found out they are having a girl would do...we went and got a gun and some bars for the window.

Just kidding.

But I did give R the option. He chose the latter, which was go to Babies R Us and get her her first outfit.

I intended on adding the sonogram picture of our 20 week appointment but cannot seem to find a copy anywhere on either of my computers. I do have the print out from the Dr but to scan and upload requires way more time that I do not have. And I figure if I wait any longer to start this blog, for real, this child will be able to write her own!

The remainder of my pregnancy was quite uneventful. Baby girl measured big at every appointment so I was granted another peep at her at 36 weeks...coolest thing. It is just. amazing.

The last 2 weeks of being pregnant my blood pressure was getting a little high. Not sure why, but I was kept closely monitored and nothing ever came of it. Thank God.

R and I "discussed" baby names for months and weeks and days, never really agreeing on The One. It was the night before I actually went into labor that we agreed.



And there I will end this long post, much more to come!

xoxo