It seems that March is the Month of Birthdays this year. I think we've got birthday parties lined up to attend through at least the first three weeks. Given all of the unpredictability that seems to surround the last weeks of my pregnancies, I can't yet say how many of them we'll make, but we did manage to get out today so that Abby could help celebrate her buddy's second birthday at a local park.
I brought a camera with the intention of getting in a couple of cute shots, but I should have handed it off to Tom. He was the one who took Abby on her many short excursions to the playground, while Michael and I hung out in the party pavilion. There was no way that I was going to be able to keep up with Abby once she was set loose, so I resigned myself to keeping tabs on Tom and Abby from a distance.
I think that she had a good time, despite the cold. She's always excited to see the familiar faces of her peers in the play group. On her trips to the playground, she rode a swing, and climbed on a couple of structures, including a bus-shaped enclosure. Tom tried to coax her into singing some verses of The Wheels on the Bus while she played there, but she seemed to feel that she was being put on the spot, and would not cooperate.
I was worried that Michael might get chilled, so despite his apparent complacency from his spot in the stroller, I soon took him out and kept him with me. This meant that I had to carry him each time that I got up, but thankfully my back was behaving today, and I didn't stand up much, or for very long. The big bonus was that he ended up keeping me warm in the end. He was like my personal, portable space heater. His hands, nose, and cheeks did get quite cold, however, and I felt badly that I had been in too much of a rush to bring mittens for him. He didn't seem to mind, though.
I was quite proud of myself for how much energy I managed to muster up through the festivities, and how well I was getting around with Michael. I noticed something interesting, though, when we returned to the car to go home. Once I no longer had him perched on one hip, and got out from behind his stroller, my stride suddenly felt much less fluid. I guess it was a weird weight distribution thing. With my hands free and my posture more upright, I suddenly felt incredibly burdened by my own belly. Or maybe Raspberry chose that approximate moment bury his or her head down once again, because the pressure that I'd been feeling some relief from up to that point began to return, and has plagued me for the rest of the day.
And that wonderful energy? That was pretty temporary, too. It seems to be my pattern now, though, that no matter how confidently I start off the day, I fade out drastically by the end.
Here's hoping I can start fresh and strong again tomorrow.
