“You know, this is likely our last lazy Saturday morning doing nothing in bed together,” Sean said as we watched cartoons (Adventure Time and Justice League) following a late breakfast.

The past few weekends have been low key since we’re not making many plans, but earlier in the summer and spring we were driving around Southern California for family events and preparing for Meatball’s arrival.

April

Sean and I met up with the cousins for Café Tacuba at the Glass House in Pomona. I’ve seen Café Tacuba a few times with Rene, but this was the first time I’ve been to a concert with Vanny and Junior. Rene represented us in the pit while the rest of caught the show from further back. Even before pre-pregnancy I wasn’t up for the craziness of the pit. Rubén, Meme, Joselo and Quique put on a great show. I’m happy I got to see them perform songs from the new album (favorites are “Olita del Altamar” and “Aprovéchate”) as well as my old favorites. Unfortunately, I left during the encore because I started feeling lightheaded and had another one of my dizzy spells.

After choosing a color, Sean and I painted the nursery. He took the lead on putting together the furniture and other baby items we bought or were gifted. We’d been using the closet for storage.

May

We visited some old friends in San Diego. Every time the baby did something baby-ish, J warned Sean “this is gonna be your life.” After getting some tacos and carne asada fries, we visited Balboa Park. J and A were super generous and gave us a bunch of clothes their son has outgrown as well as some other items.

Ernie and Tamara surprised the entire family by flying out from their home in Germany unannounced over Memorial Day weekend. It was awesome to see them, meet baby G and catch up.

We also attended the grand opening of my cousin Paulina’s graphic design and photo business. Her business is located in a part of East LA with a lot of history and cool murals and mosaics.

June

All our weekends were taken up by parties or classes to childbirth prep classes. We didn’t mind.

We attended a wedding shower at Malibu Wines for Erika and Shaun. I’m not sure we’ll be able to make their wedding in New Jersey in September, so it was nice to be able to attend some of the festivities and see them again. They throw great parties.

After the wedding shower we headed over to Ontario for a small gathering to celebrate Valerie’s birthday, graduation and confirmation. Even though Valerie’s the tallest amongst the cousins, it’s still weird to think she’s an adult. I remember seeing her as a newborn and being a little obsessed with her as a baby.

Early in the day we went to the Baldwin Park Kaiser for the second of the prepared childbirth classes. Afterward, we headed to neighboring El Monte. Ingrid and Tony hosted a Jake and the Pirates themed party for Minel’s third birthday. I didn’t get any pictures of the kids dressed up, but it was pretty adorable to see them in costume.

The following weekend we had the baby shower and work on Sunday. It took us a while to get everything in order and our home looked like Babies R Us exploded in it, but we got through all the newborn stuff and stored the other items for later.

I chaperoned a trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific on the final Saturday in June. It was much more crowded than last year, but we still got the chance to check out all the exhibits.

After the fieldtrip, Sean and I took off to the desert to hang out at my parents’ timeshare. We hung out in the pool, watched TV and played card games with the other guests my parents invited (Adrian, Alexis and her parents).

July

We celebrated Sean’s birthday with a couple of pool parties.

And later that weekend with the best home karaoke set-up ever.