Clyder Rotten

That's what Graham just named Dean's new baby doll. I record it here for future use -- Dean's rock and roll stage name, perhaps?

Catching Up: Muchos Videos!

Highlights from the month of December so far:

We had a lovely time at the annual Sights and Sounds of Christmas event. Graham's favorite booth was ice skating -- the children scooted around on linoleum sprayed generously with Pam.


Meanwhile, Dean had a nice time mingling with the reindeer.


They both loved the jiggle bug train, petting the camel in "Bethlehem," and the carousel.


Zach and Dean at the Mother's Day Out Christmas pageant.

Graham still hasn't actually sung in one of these productions, though his antics are often amusing. I may have to reevaluate my predictions of him being the singer/songwriter in the Thomas boys' band...

Graham finished up his soccer season. Go Boas! Maybe next year he'll score a goal.


Of course, my month was remarkable largely for coming down with shingles, followed by a really brutal cold. Today was the first day in almost two weeks that I woke up feeling pretty normal. I celebrated by taking the boys to Going Bananas, an "indoor playnasium." They have toys, slides, and many inflatable jumping/climbing things set up. It totally wore us out, but we had a blast.






Because of the shingles, I had to quarantine Dean all week waiting to see if he would come down with chicken pox, as he has not yet been vaccinated against it. He did not, and I admit I am miffed. If I had to deal with a whole week of stir-crazy children, we should at least have saved ourselves a shot! Bah humbug. Anyway, it was good to finally leave the house.

Today I also finished assembling their new teeter totter. They love it (and will probably love it more when Dean's a wee bit bigger.) Out of state readers should note how Graham's not wearing pants. It was 80 freaking degrees today.


I highly recommend this thing. It was simple to assemble, it's cute, and it's a friendly size for small children and small yards. Also cheap! I found it for $30 on eToys with free shipping. I loves me a bargain!

I see that I must be more regular in my posting habits if I'm going to be posting videos on here. A resolution for the new year, perhaps?

31!

Today is my birthday. You may leave your love letters in the comments.

My 30th birthday was angst-free. I was really delighted to be entering my 30s, and was happily secure in the knowledge that I was exactly where I wanted to be in my life. All was well in Elizabethland.

This year, however, I'm feeling a little more glum about the passage of time. Mainly the whole "what the hell am I going to do with my life?" question looms a little larger. Also, I have a lot more gray hair that I did a year ago. And I realized that I'm now in the Botox marketing demographic. I'm not planning to get it, but still!

Anyhoo, I'm still planning to rock this birthday -- and this year! I got off to a good start with my fabulous birthday present from Zach: a Flip camera! We are already having fun with it:





Maybe we should just get them a giant roll of bubble wrap for Christmas.

The Year of the Ox!

Help my friends Mark and Farley keep their new baby Neko in diapers and make your wall stylish doing it with one of Mark's awesome calendars:

They get to meet her in two weeks!!! I'm so excited for them.

50 Rules for My Unborn Son

Good advice.

Entering the Heart of Darkness

This evening we had dinner at Gattitown. This is the sort of thing I thought I'd have nightmares about. I was actually hoping to make it through both kids' childhoods without setting food in Gattitown or Chuck-E-Cheese. And yet, I had foolishly promised Graham the children's museum today, not remembering that it would be closed. And oh, how my boy did weep. In my desperation, I scrambled frantically for a consolation. Pizza and video games, son! Anything to mend your wounded heart.

The food was nothing great, obviously. But the place was clean. It wasn't crowded. Graham had SUCH a blast playing games after dinner, and Dean was dazzled by all the sights. The really surprising thing for me was how much fun *I* had playing. I need to work on my skiball skeelz, though.

Anyway, it's always nice to discover that something you'd been rather snobbily dreading really isn't so bad. We'll probably even do it again one day.

Look who wants to potty train!

Dean has recently become obsessed with sitting on the toilet! He wants to sit on it (changing potty seats every 30 seconds and dropping little bits of toilet paper into the bowl) every day for multiple long stretches. He also enjoys sitting on and playing with the training potty. He hasn't actually used either one yet, but he has peed on the floor next to the training potty many times.

Wouldn't it be amazing to have him out of diapers on the early side? I would be doing a major happy dance. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I anticipate many hours of puddle duty...

Halloween Parade

The boys and I went to Casa Gardner last night for their neighborhood's annual Halloween parade. It was a blast!



Clever Amber gave me the idea of "buying" the kids' candy from them, so when we returned home, they each got a toy. (Graham did get to keep 4 pieces of candy, since he's 4 years old.) Graham got a fabulous set of Zoomorphs, and Dean got Pirate Mr. Potato Head. We played with the booty until bedtime, and from the moment they woke up this morning, of course!

Zach will be carving pumpkins with the kids on real Halloween, and there will probably be some more trick-or-treating, too. Hooray for Halloween!

Maker Faire '08

Zach and I took Graham on a special outing today. We drove into the wilds on Northeast Austin and attended Maker Faire. For those of you who don't know what Maker Faire is, it's kind of like Burning Man with fewer naked people and more crafts. For those of you who don't know what Burning Man is, just visit the link. I'm too tired to describe.

There was a ton of cool stuff, and Graham was impressed by everything, but his favorite part of the day was seeing the fighting robots.

From maker faire

Actually, that might be his favorite thing of this entire year!

More photos...

Playground

Celebrated perfect weather this afternoon with a loooooong playground visit. As you can see, we had a lot of fun.

From playground

Photos from Saturday, and an update

We had some fun last weekend! We started with a trip to the pumpkin patch in the morning with our friends Amber & Michael and their two boys. The kids enjoyed the hay ride, hay maze and obstacle course, painting pumpkins, and playing with their friends. We were able to satisfy all of our pumpkin shopping needs as well!



Afterwards we headed to Kerrville to visit Zach's mom and dad. It was a great visit. Mom's doing great -- she looked and acted terrific, and her doctors are taking good care of her. The boys had a great time playing and being silly while we watched football and ate barbeque. (Both teams we were rooting for won -- go UT and TX Tech!)

Graham made some college plans while we watched the games. He said he wants to go to Tech because he liked their red and black football uniforms the best. We have let him know that we support his choice of Texas university as long as it's not A&M. But I'm still hoping that if he goes to school here that he'll pick UT. We figure it's way too expensive to drink too much in Austin, so he'll get into less trouble and see better music.

In other news, I'm planning to go back to school in the Spring. I'll be taking prerequisites at Texas State for a Bachelor's degree in Nursing (hopefully from UT). I'm exploring a few options, but currently my plan is to get that degree, work in Labor and Delivery for a couple of years, and then get a Master's in Nurse Midwifery. That would give me the flexibility to work anywhere -- hospital, birth center, or home -- and hopefully bring me into contact with a broader spectrum of women's health. I'm really excited about it.

Off to post about cooking adventures with Graham on a Year of Dinners. Check it out!

The Series of Disappointing/Stressful Events

The past few months have been hard. Not necessarily all bad, but not easy. And while nothing that has happened has been catastrophic, I'm in a pretty bad funk and need to get it off my chest.

In semi-chronological order:

• Costa Rica was not an easy experience. The toll it took on Graham's happiness almost the entire summer sucked. The bugs sucked. The isolation sucked. It was also beautiful, exciting, enriching, etc, but we are very glad to be home. Glad we went. But glad to be home.
• Tom, Zach's favorite uncle, has cancer and is undergoing treatment for it.
• My midwifery apprenticeship simply did not work out. My kids are too small, my husband has to travel too much. Quitting was the right decision; I don't regret it. But it was heartbreaking, too.
• Esme the kitty cat is gone (almost certainly forever). She was a good cat, and I had her for about 11 years. I miss her sweet purr and her opposable thumbs.
  
• We tried to buy an awesome old house. Inspection revealed that the house had many un-awesome qualities. We backed out. It made us sad.
• Zach's mom suffered a stroke. Her prognosis is apparently good, but it was very scary for all of us.

I feel untethered at the moment. I need a plan, a project, or a mission of some kind. Frankly, I'd just like to feel excited about something.

On another note, I'm back to blogging here for the time being, until/unless Zach and I start a joint Texas blog. I'll try to be regular in my habits. Feel free to nag!

Bad Mommy Blogger

I haven't posted in a while. Hey, I've been busy!

But here's a tribute to my baby boy's first year, just one month overdue!

Dean's birth was the best experience of my life. It was so wonderful, empowering, ecstatic, and perfect. I would happily give birth again many times if it weren't for the pesky being pregnant part.

He's walking now, saying "Mama" (and maybe "cup"), and just yesterday he figured out how to climb up on the dining room table. He's going to give me many gray hairs.

Here's Dean's first year in pictures:



I love him SO much.

One small (wobbly) step for Dean

Dean took his very first step yesterday. We were at Tantra, and he was determined to get in on the action at the train table.

It was just one step, pretty much accidental, and not yet replicated. But I'm so proud of my little man. He's getting to be so big and adventurous.

It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since this...

Rockstars are cool. They just are.

Graham has become obsessed with Okkervil River. He first got to know it as Daddy's band, but these days it's all about the frontman.

"I want WILL!" he'll announce, as soon as we get into the car. "Play some Will rock and roll." He gets that Will is our friend, and occasionally even recollects the last time Will came to our house for dinner. Graham let him help build a puzzle -- a pretty big honor.

So lately it's all about Okkervil when we go out driving, meaning that other fine bands (New Pornographers, for example) are gathering dust. His favorite song on The Stage Names is "A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene," which he has condensed to "Hand Song."

Here he is age two at one of his first rock shows, Shearwater:


Can't fault this kid's taste, can you?

That's not the only reason we do it!

Actual dialogue between Graham and Mommy this evening.

Does this happen in other homes?

Things are disappearing 'round these parts. First it was my keys, which took off about three weeks ago. I know for a fact they made it into the house from the last time I went somewhere with them, but beyond that... who knows? I got a new house key made, appropriated Zach's key to the station wagon, and I soldiered on.

Late last week, we noticed that the olive oil was missing. A brand new bottle -- poof! We have looked everywhere in the kitchen, taken a quick tour through the rest of the house, and it hasn't turned up.

Graham is a likely suspect in both cases, obviously, though of course he pleads ignorance. Unfortunately, the next most likely suspect is me. I have been known to pull the whole "keys in the freezer" thing a time or two. But where, pray tell, would I have absentmindedly carried the (brand new, by the way) bottle of olive oil? And which essential item will be the next to go?!

Oh, happy day (it's Friday)

It's been a long couple of weeks. Spring break with both kids taking a turn being sick, followed by Graham's brief return to school, only to be felled by a stomach bug on Wednesday. Also, Dean is hardcore teething... It seems like I'm constantly scrambling to find my parenting groove. Is it always going to be that way?

Random moments from the past few days...
Part of our dinner conversation last night, or Elizabeth has no filter:
E: "Blah, blah, blah meconium!"
Z: "Why, why would you say that to me while I'm eating green curry?!"
*
Graham to Daddy:
G: "Daddy, am I old?"
Z: "No, you're still young."
G: "I'm three years old..."
*
Dean tried hummus yesterday and loved it! It's so nice to have a child who eats!
*

Off to try to read for a few moments while Dean's napping. Wish me luck!

Ways not to start a diet

1) With a hangover. Had a lovely time at Amber's wine tasting b-day, but should have skipped the margaritas at Curra's after...

2) With leftover pizza in the fridge. I've been offering it to Graham every 5 minutes with no success.

When I've South Beached myself into pre-Dean weight, I'll look back on this and laugh...

Ooh, how I love them

Dean got into the watercolor pencils yesterday. Looks like he was going for a 'stache!



Meanwhile, Graham continues to be cute.


Here's Dean testing the gates Zach put up on our deck...


Which Graham helped him build!

Some recent photos of the boys

Thanks for the dinosaur adventure, Uncle Aaron:


Hmmm, it catches everyone's attention...


Victory!


I call this pair of photos "Dean is such a mammal."



Dean at Zilker Park:


Graham has come up with some pretty awesome ensembles lately:



Dean in his Starbunz diaper cover:

Teething

The face that launched a thousand ships kept me up all night.

And for fun:

(Sorry about the overexposed photo... light was terrible and the flash didn't really help.)

A New Project

Amie and I are starting a new blog! This one will cover pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding topics. You can visit it to hear about my recent experience on a panel after The Business of Being Born, as well as some thrilling breastfeeding stuff! http://birthspool.blogspot.com/

In other news, I cleaned the house today. It was long overdue. Also, last night I finished reading Run by Anne Patchett. It was the second marvelous book I've read in a row; the first was Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. BoS was transcendent -- Run was awesome, but not as good as her last novel, Bel Canto. Anyway, all are highly recommended.

Costa Rica, Here We Come (Part One of a Bajillion)

Last week Zach ordered an Eagle Creek trunk for our adventure in Costa Rica this summer. Packing our family's necessities for an entire summer is a daunting task, but Eagle Creek's luggage hasn't let us down yet. Hopefully a couple o' these babies plus backpacks will suffice.

Speaking of babies, here's one way we could save on airfare:

Dipping my toes back in doula waters

Earlier this week a local Naturopathic Doctor invited doulas and/or midwives to sit in on her HypnoBabies class. What an opportunity! Birth hypnosis is fairly popular amongst the natural birth crowd, so as a doula/future midwife, it's very helpful for me to be acquainted with it. I've already had two clients use some form of it during their labors.

In my experience, the more relaxed you can get during contractions, the easier your labor will be, both emotionally and physically. I believe you can accomplish this with a number of methods -- yoga, Bradley, hypnosis... really whatever appeals to you is what you should use. My only issue with the hypnosis people is their promise of no pain for the mother. Birth can be pain-free, ecstatic, and easy. It can also be hard as hell. I'm a little wary of anyone who sets moms up for no pain/discomfort in laboring, because I'd hate for a woman to a) feels she's failed if she isn't pain-free, or b) have no resources to deal with discomfort if she does feel it.

But anyway. Tonight was our first class, and I enjoyed it very much. This teacher has a lot of wonderful experience and a great attitude about birth. We learned a lot about instilling positive messages about pregnancy and birth in our subconscious minds, and we practiced deep relaxation and "triggers," such as finger drops. I enjoyed a very nice relaxed state when we did our exercises at the end of class, and I think I'll get a lot out of the next five classes.

It's also really nice to get back in the doula game, just a little. I may not get any clients soon, but I'm grateful for any educational opportunity that comes my way.

A Year of Dinners

Zach and I have decided to keep a record of what we eat for dinner this year. Visit http://ayearofdinners.blogspot.com/ and check it out!

Resolutions

In an effort to be a better, happier, shinier, more productive person in the year 2008, I shall:

1) Use OmniFocus and my Getting Things Done file system religiously
2) Learn to take better photographs
3) Nurture and improve upon my relationships with our families
4) Stick to my housekeeping schedule
5) Take my vitamins every day
6) Learn enough Spanish that I don't have a panic attack trying to buy groceries in Costa Rica

And if this post mysteriously disappears from the archives in December, you'll know I failed spectacularly! But that won't happen, of course.

We rang in the new year with our delightful friends Chris and Stacey. Toasted with a "sparkling wine made in France" and, for in-a-family-way Stacey, sparkling apple juice. Great fun!