Ann vs. Jason

By Jason

The second leg of our Easter trip was to Cleveland to see my side of the family.  It had been a while since Mom, Dad, and Ryan last got to see Athena in person and there were of plenty of new people for her to meet, including her great-grandmother.

We flew in just before the customary early Easter dinner.  Athena by this time was an experienced flier.  After a brief stop at my parents’ house we went to Gram and Aunt Linda’s to see everyone.  I was a bit worried that Athena would be overwhelmed by all the people and the attention but she was fine.  Here is Athena’s cousin Luke with her Uncle Ryan and Fake Aunt Laura.

Aunt Sue holds Athena while Ann examines the loot.  We came home with a ton of new clothes and toys.

Gram was overjoyed to hold her great-granddaughter for the first time.  I have to post these two pictures, I especially like the second where they are both smiling and looking off-frame.

After eating we did several rounds of family portraits.  My Nikon D60 is nice enough that we didn’t really need to run off to a studio or hire a photographer.   To be honest I’m not entirely happy with the shots – I couldn’t convince the rest of the family to wait a bit before taking their own photos, so a lot of the sunlight I was counting on was blocked and many shots have people looking in different directions.

I’ve got a bunch more family shots in the Flickr album but I had to post the four-generation shot (above) and the big group photo (below).

Athena and Luke are only a few weeks apart in age and they got along just fine.

It actually took a little while for them to both figure out there was another tiny person there.  In this shot they look like they are playing together with a baby book but at this point they hadn’t really noticed each other yet.

Of course, Athena’s first reaction to anything (or anyone) novel was predictable:

In the end they did interact quite a bit.  Here’s a shot where they were holding hands.

I like this picture of the three of us a lot.

In this rather goofy photo, Ron and Ann test out the hypothesis that two babies together might be as tall as my mother.  Not quite, but check back in a couple months.

Later we headed back to my parents house and met up with Ryan and Jessie, who have their own baby on the way.  Judging by the ultrasound, their kid may already be taller than my mom.

We got to spend some more time with Mom, Dad, Ryan and Laura the next day.  Here’s the correct way to feed a baby:

Here my brother demonstrates his  incorrect, cry-inducing method:

Ryan had already been in town a few days and had cleaned out the closet of our old bedroom.  He found boxes with our old toys, including Transformers and various super hero action figures.  It reminded me of a Christmas morning, somewhere around two decades ago.  In retrospect, we had a lot of toys – though I clearly remember most of my friends having many more.  I guess at that age I judged anything short of the full collection of every available Autobot as insufficient.

Spending time with Mom and Dad:

My Dad quickly figured out Athena’s sense of humor.

This is interesting, though you’ll have to click through to see the full-sized photo to read it.  It looks like a note sent to my Grandmother when she was getting married.  You can see that my sarcasm is clearly genetic.

Later that evening we met up with a bunch of friends at Tommy’s on Coventry in Cleveland Heights.  This is our favorite restaurant, so we always make a point of visiting when we’re in town.  The photo below is the result of Ann asking if someone could hand her something for Athena to play with.  Clearly none of these people are responsible enough to be parents.  We hung out at Jess’ place for a while afterward.

Our last day in town got off to a late start, and we didn’t leave my parents’ house to see Gram and Aunt Linda until much later than we originally planned because all three of us kept dozing.  Athena took an epic, almost 4-hour nap, probably just exhausted from all the excitement.  Ann was actually pretty sick and I (it turned out) was coming down with a stomach virus.

We eventually did get ourselves together and went to Mariachi Coco’s to meet up with even more friends and family.  It’s getting late, so I’ll have to refer you to the Flickr page for photos (to be honest there were so many people that I didn’t get a lot of shots) but it was a great time.  It’s really too bad we couldn’t stay longer and spend more time catching up.

By: Ann

I’m sorry for the delay in my post. Soon after we got back from Cleveland my parents visited, and then this past weekend we spent in Monterey and Carmel (that’s all Jason…stay tuned) as a last hoorah before the baby comes. So we’ve been keeping busy these past couple of weeks.

The Shower

First, picking up where Jason left off, the day after Michelle and Andy’s wedding, Jason’s mom planned a nice little baby shower at Casa d’Angelo’s in Macedonia, the same place that had the yummy food when I had my wedding shower. It was really nice spending time with close friends and family again. It really made me dread coming back to California with my unpredictable pregnancy hormones and such. I love being able to see my brother and sister-in-law whenever I please, but it’s great having lots of friends around, too. There were still a couple of people that we didn’t get to see during our short time in Cleveland, but I guess there’s only so much time and energy.

Here are some pictures from the shower. There are many more pictures on my flickr page.

Ronnie’s (Jason’s cousin) wife Meredith, and I…she’s due 3 days after I am. Babies galore!

The Cake…perfectly matching the invitation

Jadyn (my niece) and Morgan (Jason’s little cousin) being cute

Aunt Linda, Gram, Rachel (Jason’s cousin), and I

Thank you, again, to everyone who came. We’re loving all of the gifts that we got for the baby. The baby’s room is coming along nicely. We’re not going to decorate the the room too much because we’re renting, but everything is in place. We might put the pack n’ play together in a couple of weeks, but we’ll see. We managed to pack most of the gifts with us on the plane. Southwest doesn’t charge until the third checked bag, so that worked out nicely (and free) for us since we only had to check 2 things on the way back. We got our baby bath tub and some other old timey miscellaneous items last week, thanks to Aunt Sue.

Visiting with the Newman Clan

It was especially great seeing my brother and the rest of his Newman clan. It was kind of touch and go for a minute there, with all of the storms that were going on in the Illinois/Indiana area around that time. They were left with no electricity for 2-3 days and their van needed to be fixed. It all worked out in the end and I was able to see them. I haven’t been able to see them since Christmas, so it’s been especially hard for me.

Big Brother Pauel and I

Lot’s of fun was had after the shower back at the hotel. The kids were super excited to go and swim in the hotel swimming pool, but first, since we had most of the family together, we decided to give my parents a call on the webcam. All 3 kids were really into it, with Jadyn showing off her missing tooth, Caleb demanding Bob’s attention to his catcher’s mitt, and little Cory calling out for Nana (my mom).

After the webcam session, my brother took the kids down to the pool and they all had a blast swimming. Auntie wishes she had brought something to change into, but oh well.

Newman Pool Time Fun: Featuring Dominique (my sister-in-law), Jadyn, Caleb, and Cory (my 2 nephews), and I

Visiting with Mommy and Bob

Last Saturday my parents flew into Oakland Airport (which was a good decision on their part because their original flight to San Jose probably never left the ground). The next day was a laid back day, filled with good times and good eating. All throughout the pregnancy (especially during the first trimester), I yearned for lots of my mom’s home-cooked Jamaican meals. My mom was able to grant my wish and more throughout that day by making ackee, steamed cabbage, rice and peas, johnny cakes (for me), and jerked chicken (for the rest of the carnivores). Bun and cheese came and went pretty quickly as a snack throughout the day. I also made some Jamaican fruit punch (minus the rum), which was quite tasty.

I was so stuffed that I could barely breath after dinner. I started walking the hallways of my condo. That’s when everyone thought it might be a good idea to get some fresh air and do a little walking on Castro Street. So we all took a stroll on Castro Street where we eventually ended up getting some gelato (probably a bad idea on my part since I was so stuffed, but oh well).

The next day, Jason was able to give my family the infamous Google tour. You’ll all just have to come visit us in order to find out about this tour. Words can’t describe it, but I guess you’ll want to walk away with a little of Google as my brother almost did with the whole cartons of milk. Yes, it’s community food, but it’s not like you’re supposed to take boxes of bulk food home.

Since Jason and I have no time off left, my parents stayed with Ahan and Julie for half of the week while we met up with them in the evenings for dinner everyday. Wednesday was Ahan’s birthday. Ahan, Julie, Mommy and Bob were able to drive down to Carmel (where Clint Eastwood was mayor at one point) and Monterey as we did this past weekend. They were able to enjoy the food and sites of Cannery Row, Carmel Beach, and some kind of millionaire/billionaire row. After that, we all met up at Santana Row (the fancy mall in San Jose) where we ate dinner at Maggiano’s.

Bob, Mommy, Julie, Ahan, me, and Jason and Maggiano’s

The Birthday Boy and Mommy

The next day was another relaxing day, since it was the last night my parents were going to be in town. We all gathered around the television while eating Jamaican food from Backayard (suggested by my OB/GYN) while watching the last day of the democratic convention. At the end of the night, before Julie and Ahan left, we were nicely surprised by the announcement of another Baby Newman. Julie’s pregnant! Jason was happy for Ahan and Julie, but you could tell his disappointment when realizing that we had to come up with another form of free child care since they, too, will have a little bundle in a few months to take care of. That’s the way it goes. I’m so excited that I can be an obnoxious Auntie to one more child finally. Also, it’s really going to be great having our child grow up near family. I always wanted that growing up in Ohio, with all of my relatives being in Jamaica. I’m so glad that our child will have at least a little bit of family to grow up near.