New in 2018 - April and May

OMGoodness, y'all!  I have been slacking these past weeks and am overdue for a post.  Couple of reasons for that:  May is one of the busiest months of the year for my family.  We have birthdays galore (mine included), Mother's Day (for lots of moms/grandmas/godmothers), Jammy's last day of school, a big, weekend-long Memorial Day celebration with extended family, etc.  PLUS, this year, we kicked off the month of May with a week-long, three generation family trip to DISNEY WORLD!!!  I know, right?  It was cray cray and exhausting and magical.  These be my excuses.  (You can read that like a thug or a pirate.  Your choice.)

All of this being said, I did not get to a New in 2018 post for April or May, and shall be combining them into a single post here.  Honestly, the huge trip with the kiddos and my family to Orlando sort of blew everything out of the water, and I still haven't gotten back into the mindset of monthly writing.  I know that, in the March edition, I left you with a few previews of what was to come.  Among these cliffhangers, one gem stands above the rest:  rap parenting.  However, after much consideration (about three minutes), I decided that rap parenting probably deserves its own post entirely.  I mean really, seamlessly incorporating Kanye and Snoop into your children's everyday repertoire takes practice and finesse.  Don't you agree that the confines of this series are too limiting?  Furthermore, there were a couple of other April and May happenings that deserve posts of their own.  I'll touch on those in a bit.

So let's pick up where we left off...

APRIL

April was whack!  I left you with a teaser in the March edition of New in 2018 about a long-term birth control method that was (is) new for me:  I started out the month of April by getting a friggin' IUD.  However, much like rap parenting, I felt that this also merited its own post, and will be expounding on this later in June with my new TMI series: Raw, Rude, Real.  Stay tuned for that debacle.

Also in April, I mentioned in a previous post that Habibi and I had a public speaking engagement, where we shared a chapter of our personal journey through adoption.  This sort of public speaking was certainly new for both of us, and definitely earned a place in this series.  You can read more about that here.

Finally, during the month of April, I did two things I had never done before:

1. I took the kids out to lunch...by myself!
2. I took the kids to the zoo...by myself!

Now, before you roll your eyes (if you haven't already), both of these things felt like major accomplishments to me.  I had previously been somewhat nervous about this sort of thing because what if I had to go to the bathroom?  What if Jammy did?  I couldn't leave one kid alone while I helped the other, or relieved myself.  Sure, quick trips to Target where they have family bathrooms, or a sprint to the grocery store in our neighborhood were always completely manageable.  Going to the local Barnes and Noble was easy enough.  But managing three plates of food at the deli in our favorite grocery store while pushing a cart with two kids and then making sure they both eat said plates of healthy food while doing the same myself on an empty stomach?  Not easy.  Spending an entire morning at our monster-sized zoo, juggling kids, coolers, stroller, and furtive requests for ice cream?  Also not easy.  But guess what.  Both outings were fun, and basically left me feeling like Wonder Woman...especially the part where I successfully managed potty breaks at the zoo.  I know.  I'm awesome.

Ummi:  Do you have to go to the bathroom, Jammy?

Jammy: No.

Ummi:  Are you sure?  We're by one right now.  Let's just try.

Jammy:  No, I don't have to go.

Five minutes after we leave the convenience of a family restroom where the stroller -with Ribbers still in it- will fit easily in the room with us...

Jammy:  Ummi, I need to go potty.

Ummi:

MAY

As I mentioned earlier, we began this month with a major family vacation to Disney World in Orlando.  This trip included my family of four (Habibi, Jammy, Ribbers, me), my parents, my sister, and my brother-in-law.  There were eight of us in total.  Honestly, I thought it was going to be a stressful time where I spent the week herding cats, but it was so much fun.  It certainly wasn't a relaxing trip, but it was definitely a vacation.  It was a week full of fun, memories, magic, and a break in the monotony of everyday life fo sho.  I loved it. 

 

One of the best parts about this trip was the fact that I didn't have to lift a finger in planning it.  How? you ask.  Well let me tell you!  My sister B -basically a Disney travel expert- planned and coordinated the entire thing from our hotel reservations to fancy dinners out for each adult couple to fun fireworks shows for all of us to the Fastpasses to get ahead of the lines on the rides/attractions.  In fact, she did such an amazing job at putting this mess together and including everyone's preferences and bucket lists for the trip that I asked her to write a guest post for me.  Thankfully, she agreed to put together a how-to guide for anyone like me, who would be stressed out and overwhelmed by all of the moving parts involved in planning a family trip to Disney World.  Look for that post later this summer!  It is sure to be helpful and informative for anyone considering such an adventure!

As you can imagine, Disney sort of took the cake for the rest of May.  Then, with all of the other important dates and events of the month, I sort of forgot to be mindful to the whole "what new things am I experiencing this month" thing.  I did, however, experience Ali Wong on Netflix for the first time.  For those of you who don't know what that means, Ali Wong is a stand-up comic who has two specials on Netflix.  She is very pregnant in each of them.  Her first one (Baby Cobra) came out a couple of years ago during her first pregnancy.  The second one (Hard Knock Wife) debuted recently, during her second pregnancy.   

When it comes to stand-up comedy, I consider myself pretty difficult to offend, provided the bit is still funny.  (Basically, I don't care for vulgarity if the punchline is lame.  If it's still humorous, I don't really mind a foul mouth as I myself have to curb my own on a regular basis.  Just ask my mother.)  Anyhow, I do think Ali Wong goes a little too far on a couple of her jokes but, overall, I found myself relating to her as a wife, pregnant woman, and mother.  In fact, I think she says a lot of things that many of us think, but are too ashamed to admit.  If you are a mom, you will definitely appreciate her, especially the first half or so of Hard Knock Wife, where she discusses the horrors of motherhood.

That wraps it up for April and May, but don't let your anticipation of my mediocre experiences peter out entirely...I'll be back next month to tell you all about June.