Just let me introduce myself

Ok, it’s a working title for now. I’m not 100% about the title, but I do hope the idea is coming across. I have wanted to start a blog, a real one that I can actually keep up with writing, for a few years now. I have “started” a good few times, created, chosen a layout, drafted a few posts and then left to die in cyberspace. Thankfully, I don’t believe (and WP insights tell me) no one has viewed, commented or shared any of them. So we’ll call this my first real foray into writing this thing.

A few things about me. I am married to a chef. We met 7 years ago while both of us were going through a “party like a rock star” phase in our lives. We had both been married and divorced before the age of 35. Neither of us had any intention of settling down again but after a year or so of the wild life, we started to realize that we did, in fact, want more. We moved in together, enjoyed late dinners, sleeping in, Sunday cocktails and brunch with friends, and even the occasional vacation.

me and my friend michelle during the summer of awesome (2009)

Then we had the talk. The “have you thought about kids?” talk. I mean, of course. I was raised by Cuban and Peruvian catholic parents. That’s practically a given. In fact, by all accounts, I should still be married and seeing my children off to high school and college by now. But aside from what I was told I should do, I always enjoyed children, playing mommy to my little brothers and other people’s kids. I always assumed I would have my own one day, but after an ugly divorce and a rough few years, I thought maybe I was just supposed to be an awesome aunt.

Jagger in the belly

Fast forward to 2010 that all changed, when my then boyfriend (now husband) and I moved to Grant Park. After a month in our cute little bungalow, I got pregnant. At the ripe old age of 38! I was thrilled, scared, excited and most of all SHOCKED! I mean, I knew it COULD happen, I did take sex ed in school and all. But we’d been rolling around without contraception for 2 1/2 years and had hoped it might happen, but after two years thought it just wasn’t in the cards for us.

Happiest I think I’ve ever been.

The troublesome trio en route to Puerto Rico for a last hurrah before baby.

We brought home our son in early 2011 and couldn’t have been happier. Then I got the bright idea that our little boy needed a sibling and I needed one more go around as a prego (which, to me, is one of the best feelings I have had the pleasure of experiencing). Bam! One month of trying and here I was, prego again with baby number two. The doodle was born in February of 2013 and we were very quickly a family of four, in a tiny bungalow (that we were thankfully renting, so we could move easily) and a husband who had just accepted an Executive Chef position in a new/larger/much more demanding restaurant.

The first love of our lives

 

 

 

doodlebug as she is known today has completed us in a way that we didn’t even know we needed

And here, boys and girls, is where our story begins …