second tooth!

last thursday night, justin had a work function, so i was hanging solo with the mini.  in the bath, she was trying to chew on my fingers (as usual), and i noticed her new tooth felt different.  sure enough, i looked closely and there was tooth number 2, nestled next to its buddy on the bottom left.  two teeth in about 2 weeks.  i hope this trend doesn't keep up when she starts losing teeth; otherwise, the tooth fairy is going to be broke!

23 weeks.

no, i'm not randomly, secretly 23 weeks pregnant again.  there are 23 weeks until october 29, which is the weekend of a half marathon in new braunfels, tx.  i'm not running these days.  i'm not really doing any physical activity, other than lifting and monkeying around with my increasingly heavy bunny.  somehow, these activities are not getting me into fighting shape.  i know, i've been shocked too.  

anyway.  i am considering signing up.  for a few reasons.  

1. it's before emme turns 1, so technically that means i've gotten back into some form of shape (the ability to run 13.1 miles kind) before she's a year old. 
2. i'm turning 30 in august and i'm kind of (really) freaking out about it (even though i know that's lame, i just am, ok?), and i'm thinking training for a race will give me something positive on which to focus my age angst.  
3. i am apparently incapable of doing things like exercise just because they are good for me and i need some sort of deadline/quest to get me off my (fat) butt.  

the training program i think i'll probably follow (if i decide to do this) is 17 weeks until the actual race (plus two recovery weeks afterward).  which means the 23 weeks i have to go right now is kind of perfect, since i should probably do some pre-conditioning before going whole hog into a training plan, due to the aforementioned atrophy of my muscles while growing a human.  

but, i am scared.  i keep making a lot of excuses about time and all that, but it's really not that much of a time commitment when you look at the schedule.  i can make it work.  but i'm scared.  i'm scared of how disappointing it is that i've let myself get to this point.  i'm scared that i will do the runs and feel horrible and be judged (and worse - judge myself) by everyone on the trails/road.  moving forward (literally and metaphorically) is so much harder than the status quo, even when the status quo makes me feel frumpy and discontent.  

so i guess we shall see.  i'll start this weekend if i'm going to start.  maybe.  at most i've got 5-6 weeks to pre-train before i have to make a real decision about actually training.  5-6 more weeks to figure out if the frump is really detestable enough to get me off the couch....

an afternoon.

dear emme kay,

today i had to come home early (by 2) to hang out with you because liga had somewhere to go.  i love/hate days like this because all i want is to be rolling around on the floor playing with you but i have to work and stay on top of stuff, so i am torn.  i have a world of toys and stimulation set up on a big blanket for you on the floor, while i work on my laptop on the couch.  it's a decent compromise, but i am constantly distracted by your cuteness and hilarity.  you have had a case of the giggles all afternoon and it is the most delightful sound to hear you chuckling away.  i treasure these stolen moments with you, little bug.

love,

mom.

hunger games.

allow me to nerd out for just a moment.  recently, i read the hunger games trilogy.  and when i say read, i mean devoured - staying up late, taking an actual lunch break to read, etc.  it was so good.  it's an easy read trilogy about a future dystopian society.  totally written for teenagers.  but, well written and thought-out nonetheless.  i loved it.  total brain candy, which i need on occasion (or quite frequently, really).

anyway.  they are making it into a movie!  or, three movies i would presume.  i'm stoked.  and they've just announced the cast.  and it's amazing.  and i agree with probably 99% of the casting decisions, which is so excellent.

i'm excited.  and a huge dork.

national potato chip day 2011

our friends, the riders, throw an annual chip party that is growing in size and popularity. i'm also pretty sure a potato chip party can be found somewhere on stuffwhitepeoplelike.com. this was the 3rd annual chip party celebrating national potato chip day and was an awesome celebration of carbohydrates. this being the only celebration in the free world of its kind, i brought my camera along to document the party. chris went all out this year with fancy chips, or "crisps," shipped from our friends in the UK, Canada, and Australia. a couple guys from a local salsa/merengue band provided musical refreshments. emme didn't try any of the crisps this year, but did manage to meet the 2 drink minimum chris was strictly enforcing.

craftacular weekend.

i am still recovering from this weekend.  rather, i need to recover, as i don't know if that's really started yet. it was a great weekend, but super busy and with emme kay up at night because of that pesky tooth, i am beat.  i also need to maybe do some sort of physical exercise to help with my energy levels, but i digress.

friday night, we met the riders for dinner out.  it was fun to see them, as always, but we were a little later than originally planned and e was not a fan of missing her bedtime.  no matter, she went down without a hitch, and loved being in a high chair and part of the whole dinnertime scene.

saturday morning, aunt kerry anne came over and we went for a stroll since it was pretty much the most gorgeous day of all time ever.  ek loves her surrogate aunties and ka is a true baby whisperer.

after that, we headed to shady grove to meet the pippins family.  more outside time, but my favorite part was watching ava make emme laugh.  it was adorable.

saturday afternoon, aunt genna came over and we had more outdoor porch time.  blowing bubbles and watching the dogs and catching up.  a great day.

saturday night was a craft explosion.  i am taking a class at the stitch lab in june (yay!!) that justin gave me a gift certificate for for mother's day.  i had a few dollars leftover from the class, so i picked up a little bit of this adorable alexander henry fabric and made a little somethin' somethin' for the little miss.  i'm really pleased with how it turned out, especially for how easy it was!  i also sewed a pillow from a shirt i bought justin in dubai that is too small (apparently the middle east sizes things differently).  i don't have a pic of that here, but it was the easiest project EVER, and super fun just to have my machine out and making stuff.

sunday we took the dogs and emme to the park, where emme wore blue jeans for the first time (some cute hand-me downs from one of kk's bosses).  she also wore a precious texas onesie my cousin made for her.  we had lunch at mike and kim's with the perques.  laing's homemade pizza on the grill is always a treat.  after that, justin shot a wedding (ceremony only) in the evening, i put emme to bed and frantically cleaned the house to get ready for the week.

 all in all, a whirlwind.  but a good whirlwind.  it was really nice to catch up with so many friends and to enjoy the pristine weather.

firsts.

i'm not really sure how to count firsts of this nature, but i want to mark them down for some kind of journalistic posterity.

may 8, mother's day: first time sitting up.  i guess?  in any case, you sat up for almost a whole minute, by yourself.  such a big girl!  since that day, you've been getting better and better and sitting for longer stretches.  this morning before i left for work, you were just hanging out, sitting across from vincent as y'all grabbed toys from each other.

may 14: first tooth!  you were up twice in the night on friday night to nurse, and your daddy discovered a little nub of a tooth, your bottom right, on saturday morning.  it looked just like a red cut in there that day, and now it looks mostly like a little piece of glass, but it is definitely there.  it's funny because at your appointment last week, the doc said your gums weren't even really swollen and we *might* see a tooth before seven months.  you've gotten up once or twice a night the last couple of nights, but other than that, you are not fussy or overly drool-y at all.  i am sure your little toothy smile will be absolutely precious!

new yorker genius.

another re-post.

leaving the house.

way back when, i was out and about all the time.  i would head down to book people and curl up in a chair and read there.  i would duck in and out of boutiques, music stores, grocers.  i would languish for hours at friends' houses, in cafes, at random restaurants.  when i started grad school, i became a bit more homebodied.  homebodied?  sure.  being at work all day and then at class until 9:30 two nights a week, i started to relish my time in our house.  this also roughly coincided with us owning a house, so that may have something to do with it too.  in any case, i kept it closer to the casa, but i could still pry myself away for a happy hour or yoga class or dinner with friends.

since having emme, i feel like i have crawled into my little hermit shell with my young and i am not budging.  in addition to wanting to keep it closer to home for the bunny, i am a control freak (shocker, i know).  i feel like tying myself to the house gives me some small sense of dominion over the deluge of chores that i face daily.  i live in a mountain of laundry (i can't decide if i hate clean or dirty laundry more...), i wash bottles incessantly, i attend to the living creatures that cohabitate with us, all of whom have needs (alas, the joy of pethood, motherhood, wifehood).  despite knowing that our house will never stay clean, that there is no place to put things to feel more organized, that i will never have time to read all the books/do all the crafts i want, i feel like being there at least puts those pipe dreams into the realm of the possible....  home is my safe nest, regardless of any accompanying frustrations.  i feel the possibility of control there.

last night, though, i was coerced out of my abode to meet some girlfriends for a  chick flick.  i'd read the book and i'm a sucker for a cheesy romcom (hate that term).  the movie was fun and seeing the girls was lovely, despite not having too much of a chance to visit.  and somehow, when i got home, it was the sweetest place i have ever been.  i was happy to be loading the dishwasher at 10:13 and hauling clean diapers out of the dryer at 10:46.  it was such a little thing to do, leaving the house.  relinquishing that control over my fiefdom for just a minute.  i was gone for not a full three hours.  but it gave me brand new eyes coming back.  i will have to consider doing this more often.


*note: i re-posted this because of the blogger mishap yesterday.  boo for blogger!

first mother's day (kind of).

even though last year we celebrated mother's day insofar as my parents gave me presents and jb gave me presents (who doesn't love presents?), this was the first mother's day where i had an actual human child on the outside of my body.  so fun!

we woke up semi-early, cuddled with emme kay in bed, and lazed around.  she went down for a nap and justin started prepping a delicious breakfast spread while i just sat in a chair and drank coffee and a mimosa with a splash of pomegranate juice.  yum!  the timing worked out perfectly so that everything was ready to eat right as emmeline was waking up, so she got to hang out in her high chair with us while we ate.  i thought it was appropriate to hang out with my child as much as possible, since she's the one who made me a mother....

breakfast consisted of eggs chesapeake (a dish created by the restaurant i worked at in college, chef geoff's), bacon, a delightful salad, and fresh bread.  eggs chesapeake is just like eggs benedict, but you use a crab cake instead of ham or canadian bacon.  it was heavenly.

after breakfast, we spent a little time driving around looking at houses.  when we got back, we played with emme and hung out.  in the evening, e and i laid out on a blanket in the front yard watching justin haul branches and limbs from the tree that fell on our house last week.  the bunny went down early since she had skipped her afternoon nap, and we had a mellow evening of tv and laundry and a quick dinner.

i should also mention that justin got me a gift certificate to the stitch lab - my favorite place ever!  i am busy trying to decide which class i'm going to take and when....

all in all, a lovely day spent with my family.  what more could i want?

six month stats.

emme kay.  this morning was your six month well-baby appointment.  you did great!  dad came with us to this one, which was fun.  your stats:

weight: 16 lbs, 8 oz - 60%
height: 25.5 inches - 25%
head: 43.5 centimeters - 90%

you surprised me with how short you were this time - i even re-measured you after the nurse left to make sure she hadn't made a mistake!  but the doctor said growth happens in fits and spurts and if you came back next week you may be an inch taller.  anyway...i was glad to see you so healthy and growing so well.  you gained almost 2 pounds since i took you in for the no-poop issue at 5 months, so that's amazing.  i think it's because you're spitting up less...i can only imagine what a little chunk you would be if you'd never been a spitter.

you did lots of babbling for dr. t and she was all impressed by your ma's and ba's.  she thought the old man face you make when you're talking was hilarious, and said your vocalization sounds like a 9 month old.  so advanced - haha!  your dad and i like to joke about how everyone thinks their baby is ahead in things, and of course we are so proud and delighted by every little bitty thing you do, but it's mostly tongue-in-cheek when we talk about it.

you had to get a shot in each leg today, which i always hate.  you cried a bit - i think a little more than at your 4 month appointment - but calmed down pretty fast and bounced right back.  i wanted to stay home with you today, but i couldn't, so the reports i've gotten from liga are that you are un-phased and having a great day.

the doctor also said you can eat any and everything and that i should be feeding you twice a day and adding proteins into the mix.  i think you might get to try some scrambled eggs or fish tonight!

here's a quick picture i took of you and your daddy dozing saturday morning.  you get your slow wake up skills from him, no doubt.

minerva louise.

i have been meaning to post about this for months, but as with what feels like everything else in my life these days, it just has not happened.

at work, my neighbor is jeff and he is great.  he's a sounding board and a buddy to walk to the cafe with, and he can always be counted on to goof off when the work stress goes a little overboard.  jeff and his awesome wife alicia have two sons who i adore.  their oldest and i have a special bond ever since he drew me an amazing picture of our chickens being stalked by a possum.  it's priceless.  anyway, jeff and alicia are incredible parents, so i have appreciated my friendship with them even more as they offer all sorts of great stories and advice about having a little one.

a couple of months ago, jeff brought us a little gift.  it's a book called a friend for minerva louise.  minerva louise is a chicken, and in this particular adventure, she discovers that the farmers she lives with have gotten a new "bunny".  the bunny is actually a baby, of course, and she goes through the house looking for the bunny amidst all the random baby things that she misinterprets as something else (diaper bag = nest, etc).  i am pretty sure this book was written for us and it's the cutest thing ever.  emme likes books mostly for chewing on these days, but i think minerva louise has a special place in her heart.  it's certainly one of my favorite books to read to her.

happy half birthday!

my little bunny.  you turned six months old yesterday and woke up, as usual, full of fire and delight.  you are such a fun and happy baby every single day and your strong-willed personality is more and more prevalent.  you and i went to the farmers' market downtown in the morning, which you loved, and we spent the rest of the day hanging at home with your dad and your pups.

developmentally, you are making huge strides.  you're not quite sitting up on your own yet (i think you're capable, you're just way too busy reaching for everything and trying to go places), but you are pulling up onto all fours and really really trying to crawl.  it kind of scares me that you are about to be everywhere - you rock back and forth on your knees and if you could just figure out that you don't need to plant your forehead on the ground, you'd be motoring.  for now, you mostly roll, scoot, or "crawfish" as your dad calls it when you scoot yourself backwards.  you say mama and the ba sound, and i think we've heard a ga and a da in there, but they aren't regulars in your vocabulary yet.  it was amazing because one day you hadn't made a single consonant sound, and the next you were babbling all over the place.  you laugh a lot more now, especially in anticipation of being tickled or smothered with kisses.  you love most people, though sometimes you like to study a new person for a few seconds before you decide to light up with your huge grin.  you still don't have any teeth, but i don't mind that one bit.  your spit up is less and less every day, even though it's still present.  i would almost put you on a parallel with "normal" spits at this point.  you love to rip hair out of the pets' backs, and you and etta seem to have a special bond.

you sleep 10-12 hours at night and that makes us exceedingly happy.  my favorite time of day is getting you from a nap or in the morning when you're just hanging out talking and squeaking in your crib.  there is very little that makes you upset and you hardly cry at all for any length of time (except when we have to re-train you to sleep after traveling.  yuck.).  you love being outside.  you LOVE food (truly your mother's child) and have tried: avocado, pear, banana, mango, carrot, blueberries, oatmeal cereal, butternut squash, and sweet potato.  you think drinking water from a cup is the coolest thing ever, and you stick your whole tongue in there to try to lap it up.

you are still super busy all the time and in constant motion, even in sleep.  you make the circuit in your crib, and are forever kicking your legs and waving your arms around.  you have officially lost your ear beard, and even though i am glad for your sake that you're not destined to have an ear beard for life, i do miss those soft hairs and how little you were.

emme kay, you are truly a joy every moment.  i had no idea being a mother could be this delightful and rewarding - that just seeing you drift off to sleep or reach to grab stuff would be the greatest pleasure of my heart.  thank you for being you.

lafayette easter and festival internationale.

last weekend (end of april), we took off for lafayette to celebrate easter with my family and to meet up with justin's dad and uncle for the festival.  it had been five years since we'd been to the fest, what with grad school and having a baby and all.  it was a really nice weekend - the weather was perfection.  it's always a blast to spend time with the fam and be in my home town.

the easter basket from my parents, as i mentioned, was super cute and had all sorts of fun treats in it.  emme got introduced to bubbles (we need to get some pictures of that) for the first time, and she thought they were spectacular.  she also went to her first music festival, but it was a little too cold, windy, crowded, and loud to fully embrace the experience.  but, she made the most of it and i was probably more neurotic about her than anything (shocking).  it was especially nice that both mom and dad took a vacation day on friday, so we had an extra day for hanging out.  justin spent the majority of the time downtown with his family, so they got some quality hang out time while emme and i got extra one-on-one with my parents, which we loved as well.

will and ronald joined my family and gg for brunch on sunday morning before we hit the road back to austin, which was delicious and fun.  my mom made a feast of fried shrimp, corn grits, salad, garlic bread, and broccoli with hollandaise sauce, all topped off with warm cookies and fresh brewed coffee for dessert. mom is truly a master of southern hospitality.

the dogs had a blast, as usual.  etta and arlo are two peas in a pod when they're together, and the three of them wear each other out over the course of however many days we're all together.  that picture was taken with my phone, so it's terrible, but you get the idea....

easter.

by now, it's been two weeks since easter and my memory of it is fading, since i don't have a brain anymore.  but, i remember it was a nice day....

we woke up later than expected, so we scrambled to get ready for church.  easter is one of the two days per year that justin will attend church with emme and me, so we really like that.  e wore a green gingham dress that was precious.  i totally didn't even get a picture because we were at church (long mass) then home and then down for a nap (and out of church clothes) so quickly, it just didn't happen.  despite our scramble, we made it to mass right before 9, only to find out that it started at 8:45 on easter sunday.  we had to stand in the far back with all the other families and latecomers, but it was a nice service and emme was well-behaved and enjoyed people-watching (one of her favorite hobbies).

while e was napping soundly, justin made a fancy brunch of jamaican coffee, waffles with caramelized bananas, and eggs benedict, complete with homemade hollandaise and poached eggs from our generous chickens.  it was delicious, to say the least.

the easter bunny brought emme a very small easter basket this year, as he had already given her a swimsuit for jamaica and a playset thingy for her floor time that were both already in use.  so, this year's basket included a bunny decoration, a polka-dotted overcoat for this winter, a bunny rattle (whose ears she gums constantly), and some colorful socks.  we didn't make a big production over that part, since i think the family time aspect of easter is more important.

in the afternoon, we dyed eggs while emmeline looked on and mostly was interested in her cups and stackable toys.  she was a good sport about it, though.  justin taught me about coloring on the eggs with crayon before dying it, which was really fun.  we went for a walk with ek and the pups, and that was about it.  a low-key sunday, but a great family day nonetheless.

the weekend after easter, we went to lafayette (more about the full lafayette trip will be forthcoming) to celebrate easter with my family, and also to see jb's dad, who was in town for festivals internationale.  kk created the cutest easter basket of all time, centered around a handmade red rocking chair that a friend of my grandparents had made for my uncle.  so, it's probably about 40 or more years old and i love it.  emme was so proud of herself sitting in her new chair.

so, that's it.  it's so hard to believe that next easter this little lady will be almost 18 months old and we'll be hunting eggs together.

recent happenings and discoveries.

it feels like this little monkey is in to absolutely everything these days.  she loves to watch and reach for all our pets; she's yet to meet a food she doesn't like; and she gets fired up for every new experience.

when we were in lafayette, she got a little bit of floor time to roll around and took advantage of that time to try and play with ollie.  her interaction with him these days consists mostly of trying to pull out his fur and tug on his ears, but he is super patient and just lays there taking the abuse.  she is really trying to crawl (up on all fours, scooting, using her forehead to drag herself around), so i imagine it won't be long before these pups need to run for cover.

on monday, i completely forgot that we didn't have childcare for the day, and since i'd taken thursday and friday off to head to lafayette, i didn't feel right calling in to work (i have taken several vacation days lately between lafayette and jamaica and i just don't like to be gone that much).  so, i loaded e up in the car and she came to work with mommy.  she did really great, other than she had no desire to take naps at all.  it was really fun for me to have her here, but quite a distraction so i've been playing catch-up.

i also introduced emme to oatmeal cereal the other night.  i wasn't big on introducing grains as a first food (i've read way too much about everything, but it has to do with the maturity of the gut and me loosely following a baby-led weaning philosophy), but our pediatrician recommended including high fiber foods in her solids diet to ensure a happy digestive tract.  and, she's had lots of other stuff so far, so i figured oatmeal could just be one of the things she tried.  needless to say, she loved this too.  she really really wants to feed herself everything, so this was a really funny experience.

the red rocking chair i mentioned that my parents gave us for easter (that my gram found in her attic) is now stationed in emme's room, next to the glider.  she is not fully sitting up yet, but she is very content when propped in a seated position, so i let her hang out in it a few minutes here and there.  she is really interested in this book that has stuffed animals that make noise on it.

finally, yesterday i brought emme to the grocery store.  i usually wear her in a sling when we're at the store, but i thought she might want to ride in the cart like a big girl.  i was right - she thought riding around was the coolest.  she could squeak and blow raspberries at passers-by and have her eyes on me the whole time.  we have this hugga bebe thing someone gave us for our lafayette shower that is perfect for her size right now and also helps with the sitting up.

i feel like there are so many new things going on in this bunny's life every day and it is really a blast.

i can't take credit.

but i think this quote was written for me.

perhaps the approval of every person in the entire world doesn't need to be the goal of your life.