nonsils.

ek: "my friend henry has to get his nonsils taken out because they made him sick. they're in his mouth."

this happened.

this past week was a blur. we're now only a few days away from a week off and the kids' transition to their new school. i'm trying to be optimistic and calm, but those are both really hard for me. especially when it comes to my kids. anyway...it will be what it will be. i called the new school a couple weeks ago to make sure we were all set and they didn't have their act together at all. did not instill confidence. then, when they finally emailed the teachers' names for each kid, supply list, etc, i replied with a few clarifying questions (can they bring the napmats they know and love? can we send hollis with his cloth diapers?). that was last thursday. today is tuesday and i still haven't gotten a response.

i'm trying to be calm.

the weekend was fun. saturday morning, ek and i went to a classmate's birthday party out at the dinosaur park. it's a trek to get out there, and super hot this time of year, but a neat spot and really fun for us to spend some quality time just the two of us. the highlights for emme included seeing planes land right over us as we passed the airport both times (!) and eating a cupcake with blue icing.

sunday we had oliver's birthday party on a boat at the lake. the day was somewhat overcast and even a little chilly on the water, but better that than sweltering. the kids did pretty well with/in the water and loved watching it off the side of the boat. they were both super exhausted afterwards - hollis fell asleep on justin on the ride back to shore and proceeded to nap through the ride home and continue another two hours in his bed. after nap, we went on a little bike ride for some fresh air. i love our neighborhood.

we (luckily) get a lot of hand-me-down clothes for our kids - more emme than hollis, but hollis got a few things a couple weeks ago, including some undershirts. sunday after nap, jb changed his clothes and just put him in the undershirt with no overshirt. hilarious. i had to leave him like that since we weren't really going to be seen in public.

happy father's day.

we had a really great weekend, not the least of which was father's day on sunday. hollis was up early (shocker), so i scooped him up and he and i spent some quality time with him in jammies and bare feet at central market. in general i'm really bad about taking one on one time with each kid (especially h), so i need to do better about that. he and i headed home around 8 and emme and jb were just waking up. i brought justin a latte from houndstooth - the best coffee place in the history of the world.

after that we headed back to CM with the whole fam for breakfast tacos and playing on the playground. emme is super obsessed with rocks right now and comes home with pockets full of them daily. she also refuses to wear shoes 90% of the time, but she's my child, so there's definitely a genetic component to that. CM is right next door to zinger's, this amazing local hardware store, so we headed there after breakfast to grab some paint and other random gear. they have a zillion toys set out for kids to play with, which is super nice because our kids were in heaven and didn't really want to leave. they also have cute kid-size chairs outside that make me want to go on camping trips all the time.

after nap, we headed to our neighborhood pool where we bumped into nanny mandy, uncle justin, and amelia. super fun. hollis went buck-wild in the water - he was walking around and splashing and so so so happy. he also went under several times and would come up grinning and laughing. funny kid.

we rounded out the day at trudy's for mexican food, completely negating our whole30. oh well, it was worth it! after the kids were in jammies, i forced everyone outside for a mini photo shoot. i'm so bad about taking pictures with the good camera, especially on significant days/events. i have hardly any pics of me and the kids or the four of us, or especially me and jb. i hate selfies, but i may have to start adding them to our agenda now and again.

it was a dark and stormy night.

last night, jb and i were couch lounging post-dinner, watching the spurs/heat game (side note: i hate lebron james).  we kept seeing tornado and thunderstorm warnings for counties west and north of us.  the weather people said we should be on the lookout in travis county too, but we sort of ignored that because the weather people are always wrong with central texas weather.  especially when they say we're likely to get any form of precipitation - ha!

anyway...i dozed off for about 15-20 minutes, and when i woke up from my couch nap around 10, it was pouring buckets and the wind was insane.  there was also near-constant lightning and a low rumble of thunder.  jb and i stood in the back door to the porch and watched the spectacle.  i really love a good storm. and no, of course i don't love when people or property get hurt, but i can't help but get really amazed at the forces of nature at work.

so, next thing we know, the electricity is gone. at nearly that moment, we hear a huge crack, and one of our elm trees split in half. super bummer on so many levels. definitely another $500-$700 we didn't need to be spending right now, but what can you do? i think we'll lose the whole tree, too, which i hate because that one provided awesome kiddie pool shade during the afternoon.

the postscript to this story is that ek woke up about 5 minutes later. i think the lack of white noise from our a/c, her fan, her little noise-making vent thing, plus the addition of thunder noise and lightning cracks woke her up, and then she was in a super dark room all alone. poor kiddo. hollis, on the other hand, had the best night of sleep of his entire life. literally. i was up most of the night because i had a 3.5 year old monkey in bed with me and it was hot, but i got up for real around 6:15. by 6:45 i couldn't stand it, so went in to h's room to check on him because he's NEVER slept that late. he was racked out, but of course woke up immediately when the door creaked. sigh. maybe he's turned over a new leaf?

'nana.

hollis can take down an entire banana in approximately 3-4 bites.  this is not an exaggeration.  he also wakes up every morning and begins chanting "NANA!" throughout the house immediately after nursing.  don't try cutting the banana into reasonable sized pieces, though.  he won't touch those.

whole30.

a whole lot and not very much has been happening lately.  these are always the weirdest times for me - when i feel busy (albeit not overwhelmed), but there's not anything specifically going on like an event or a definitive project or whatever.

justin and i decided to start/try/dabble in the whole30/paleo eating this month.  it's been going amazingly well so far.  i don't like diets (duh), but i love food and science and the complex interaction between our bodies and what we put in them.  i'm definitely not the healthiest eater as a general rule.  i am a big over-consumer...i don't really have an off-button, especially when certain foods are involved.  foods like chips and salsa (hello, i live in texas).  bread.  cheese.  butter.  crackers.

but!  there is hope, i think.  because i do love vegetables.  like, i really love them.  more than fruits, for sure.  and you sprinkle a little salt on 'em and saute or roast them in coconut oil and i'm a happy camper.

anyway.  there were a few reasons for us to work on this conscientious eating shift.  first, our energy levels haven't been the greatest.  mine have been better because of the working out, but definitely with the heat of summertime upon us, i need to ward off the lethargy.  second, our kids were pretty good about vegetables, but lately they've been struggling a little bit - preferring toast and cheerios and other low-nutrient foods.  so, this helps have veggies around all the time, which should lead to them eating more of them, ultimately.  third, we were in a pattern of eating out a ton, which is terrible for our health and our wallet.  and finally, there's the whole over-consumption, can't-say-no thing i have with food.  i wanted to see what i could do about breaking the psychological attachment i have to what i eat, so i'm giving it a whirl.

the rules are pretty simple.  real, whole foods.  no grains, legumes, dairy, or booze.  focus on veggies, protein, and healthy fats.  i was most concerned about drinking my coffee black, but it's actually been totally fine!  i brew it a little bit weaker than usual so it's not so intense, but i normally drink it with only cream, so the taste isn't too extremely different.  i was also concerned about cheese, since i adore cheese and find it to be an easy, delicious go-to protein/fat source.  i don't think i have issues tolerating dairy (especially cheese), but so far it hasn't been bad to not have it.  the hardest part so far has been the evenings...my energy levels haven't ramped back up (supposedly, after day 7 or so, your energy levels become amazing...but the detox beforehand is not energy-inducing), so i am sleepy after we get the kidlets down and really want some chocolate or a glass of wine.  or both.  ha.  anyway...i've managed to hold off for now, so that's good.

what we do eat is amazingly delicious, and this week we've eaten breakfast and dinner as a family every day, which is SO nice.  morning meals are eggs and veggies with a little fruit - this morning, we had eggs scrambled in coconut oil with sauteed baby bok choy and half a kiwi.  delicious.  mid-day meals are usually a salad of some sort.  the best one from this week was our tuesday salad: baby spinach and arugula with leftover salmon, roasted peppers, roasted beets, roasted zucchini & squash, avocado, pistachios, and a drizzle of olive oil.  the beets were so tasty!  for the evening meal, it's the same, basically: last night was chicken with a sundried tomato/balsamic/garlic deglaze and carrots, zucchini and yellow squash roasted with garlic olive oil and sea salt.  not too shabby.

i am still offering the kids some grains and cheese sometimes.  for example, they both LOVE fresh mozz, so i keep that around and let them snack on it.  they also love rice cakes, and get those at school during snack a lot, and i'm obviously totally fine with that.

my hope is that after these few weeks/month or so, we are all feeling really great and have tried lots of different foods.  i fully intend to reintroduce some things and see how they work after a while off, but maybe i'll feel so incredible after this time that i'll never need to keep cheezits in the house again!

the story about the chair.

when justin and i got married, we got a lot of gift certificates to crate&barrel.  after our wedding and honeymoon, we piled them all up and headed to the store and picked out a chair.  it was red and a really cool woven fabric and it was symbolic of our new union - the first piece of furniture we bought as a married couple.

i'm sentimental.

within a matter of days/weeks/months, our cat pippa had basically destroyed the chair.  she had claws, and no matter how much we covered the chair with blankets, sprayed her with a water bottle when she was on it, or any other act of terrorism towards her, she was hell-bent on clawing that chair.  apparently, she really liked the weave too.

here's the thing.  we knew the chair was in bad shape, and getting worse.  but...i am terrible about buying furniture.  a) i'm picky b) i'm indecisive and c) i'm really really averse to spending large sums of money (and justin is really really averse to cheap things).  so, the chair just sat in our house, then moved with us to another house.  then another.  six years, give or take.  that's a long time for a busted chair.  at some point, my mom had apologized to guests on our behalf for the state of our chair enough that i couldn't take it anymore, so i started to see about options to reupholster it.  the bones of the chair were still fine, it just needed some fresh new fabric and maybe a little sprucing on the stuffing.

i got several quotes in excess of $750.  that was not including fabric, which could range anywhere from $50-$450.  yikes!  as i said before, i have a hard time spending large sums of money, and to spend a lot of money to fix an expensive chair seemed like one of those fool-me-once scenarios.  i thought there HAD to be a better way.

side note: i really REALLY want to learn to reupholster and i feel like i would like doing it, but i don't have the time or room to learn right now, and this is a more advanced project than i would be ready for (or so i rationalized).

enter needto.com.  i heard about needto on the radio - it's a local startup that connects people who need jobs with people who need jobs done.  i thought this would be incredible - i could give someone some work and get something done, and ideally pay a more reasonable amount for the whole thing.  win win.

so i posted my "need" and i offered $400 for the job (minus fabric, which i was going to acquire for myself).  i thought that was reasonable, but hoped for competitive offers to get it for me for less.  i got a lot of offers - probably 10-12, which was great.  one of the most compelling was from a guy - let's call him zach.  zach said he had a degree in industrial design and set decoration, had lots of tools and experience, and that he's easily be able to do the job for $250.  perfect, right?

this is where things start to go awry.  the last weekend of january, justin was traveling for work.  i arranged to meet zach near his bicycle shop downtown.  i loaded up the kids and the chair and the fabric and texted him when i arrived.  he came to my car, got the chair and fabric, and said he'd be in touch.  i told him not to worry about timing too much, since we'd been dealing with a busted chair for 6 years, and he said he'd be done within 3-4 weeks.

in early march, i sent him a facebook message asking how it was going and i got no response.  i sent a follow up message a day or two later and he apologized profusely, said he had injured his hand a couple of times, but that he was making progress and should be done by sxsw (end of march).  i said fine with me, just let me know.

sxsw comes and goes and i hear nothing.  i reach out to him via email, facebook message, phone, and text in early to mid april and i get no response from anything at all.  justin and i begin to suspect we're never going to see our chair again, and i realize we have no recourse and start mentally berating myself for making the terrible decision to trust anything peer-to-peer.  in a desperate attempt to do something/anything, i reach out to needto.com directly with my issue.

i get a response from a guy at needto.  let's call him wade.  wade is apologetic and assures me this has never happened to another client ever before.  he says he plans to make it right and will do everything he can to get our chair back for us.

i should say at this point that i gave zach no fewer than 10 opportunities to walk away from the project all together.  in one fit of desperation, i even offered to pay him JUST to get my chair back (reupholstered or not).  no response to any of it, ever.

anyway.  wade and i go back and forth several times over email.  he employs social media and whatever other sleuthing skills he's got to try to track zach down.  the best luck he has is through a mutual facebook friend of his and zach's who agrees to contact zach and try to get a response.  the gist of that conversation was basically that:

• zach is some sort of stalker (according to the mutual friend person)
• he had nearly completed the chair, but had been super depressed because one of his friends was critically injured in the sxsw accident
• he and his girlfriend were down to one phone which is why he hadn't been in touch
• he would contact us that night/that weekend and arrange for pick up that weekend free of charge for everything he'd put us through

needless to say, none of those promises came to fruition.  i emailed wade to let him know we were still chairless and incommunicado with zach.  he said it was his personal mission to get our chair back (finished or not at this point was moot).  i gave him zach's work address, home address, and all other contact info i had for him.  

and then...silence.  i sent a couple of emails asking for status/if he'd had any luck.  no response.  i sent a facebook message to zach's girlfriend, apologizing for contacting her, but asking if she could help intervene.  she responded, but was not helpful and never replied again.  

so this week, i get a suggestion from facebook for needto.com.  in my frustration, i gave them a one-star review and said something along the lines of "good business idea.  bad business when your worker steals your stuff.".  i could have been much snarkier, but i try to tone such things down on the internet.  

lo and behold, this morning an email pops up from wade.  it has been 37 days since he last wrote to me.  this is a direct copy/paste because it's amazing:

Just wanted to give you an update, was waiting to just bring it to you but, still don't have it. Here's the deal, Zach, is all coked out and a thief, got fired 2 months ago for stealing at {business name}. He still is in Austin and one of his house mates still rides so trying to contact her. Talked to detective last week and he suggested filing a charge on him.  I'm still waiting to find out where he lives and just go there. What ever we need to do to make it right because Zach is not a representative of the thousands of awesome helpers on the site.

so here we are.  over four months later, and my helper is a cokehead who stole a beat up chair from people who would willingly give him money just to get their own property back.  i can honestly say this is the most bizarre situation i've found myself in in recent memory.  i'm weirded out, frustrated, angry, and a little bit scared.  do i press charges against this guy?  i don't want to get in to some sort of crazy legal situation over this.  i just want my chair back.  

17 months.

yesterday, my baby turned 17 months old.  whoosh that was fast.  i haven't done monthly posts for him since his birthday (and even his first year, i wasn't super awesome), but i feel like there is just SO much going on with him right now.  the language explosion is amazing and right underneath the surface.  just last night, jb was saying "that dude doesn't say much, but he understands EVERYTHING".  which is really true for him.  he is saying more and more every day, even if his articulation isn't fantastic yet, but his comprehension is incredible.  he follows multi-step directions and is usually really responsive when you ask him or communicate with him.  he's still a toddler, for sure, but surprisingly reasonable for a toddler.  ha.

physical/motor: hollis is a short duder.  i haven't measured him since his last doctors' appointment (and thankfully we haven't had one since his 15 month well child visit!), but seeing him next to other kidlets makes me notice what a shrimp he is.  ek grows just like that, too, though, so i am not worried.  she will not move an inch for nearly a year, then shoot up 4-5 inches in a couple of months.  he's also feeling denser when i carry him lately, so maybe he's primed for a little growth spurt.  his feet are still little empanadas and he's in a size 4/4.5 in shoes mostly because of his foot chub.  molars are all in (not fully, but through), and the front 8 are there too.  in terms of motor skills, he's trying to run/walk with purpose a little bit and it's super cute.  he's definitely more interested in the gross motor stuff right now, and has less patience with fine motor activities, though he'll give them a little bit of effort before getting super frustrated.

food/sleep: oh this baby and his sleep.  we've made some progress here, and i think that we have a lot of potential.  he has had multiple nights where he's slept past 6am, and he's consistently going down and staying down until at least 4:30, so that is great.  i am still nursing him before bed and in the mornings, and i think that is a huge part of why he's waking up so early.  i'm just not ready to wean him yet, and i'm ok with that.  before bed, we do bath and jammies, then i nurse him in the living room or ek's room, then we head into his bedroom for a couple of books and a song before lights out.  this routine is far superior to my nurse-to-sleep routine of over 15 months.  woops.  putting himself to sleep has been huge for both of us.
on the food side, hollis eats everything or nothing.  as with most things in his life, he is not ambivalent.  some mornings (at least two mornings this week), he will eat two whole bananas plus whatever other fruit or cheerios or whatever we put in front of him.  other meals (like dinner this past monday), he won't touch a thing and will squawk at you for daring to offer him food.  he's not nearly as adventurous/willing to try stuff as emme was/is, but we'll work on him.  and, honestly, i can't complain - he is still a great eater.  his preferences are: fruit, cheese, toast, any other type of bread, and stuff that is whole.  he gets annoyed when i break things up into bite-sized pieces.

likes/dislikes: the book thing.  ohmygosh.  hollis is obsessed with books and they are everywhere in our house.  everywhere.  he is especially fond of any book with a dog in it, or really any animals/noisemaking things (like trucks).  he's super into making sounds these days - animal sounds and vroooom especially.  he also loves drumming, splashing in water, trying to screw on bottle tops/sippy cup lids, being outside, climbing stuff, and balls.  emme is still pretty much his favorite person ever (although he really really likes me and justin too).  he loves to give hugs and kisses and is a super affectionate, cuddly dude.
he does not like: diaper changes, food he doesn't recognize, being strapped in to anything, being asked to sit down/sit still for meals.  he gets super focused on something and will definitely lose his temper if you try to move him from it or don't give it to him quickly enough (in the case of books he can't reach).

i guess hollis is really a very typical toddler - big emotions, big developments in a little body.  i think he's delicious and delightful and just about the most hilarious and adorable creature i've ever seen, but i'm probably a little bit biased.

first dance recital.

ek's dance recital was on saturday and it was hilarious.  she started dance a few months ago, but i don't think it really clicked for her that the culmination of that activity was a performance on stage.  last week, we had parents' observation in her class.  she barely danced at all - mostly she looked at us and looked at herself in the mirror and kind of flopped around.  i was not optimistic about the amount of legit dancing we would see come recital time.

the dress rehearsal was a trip.  it was from 4-6 on a friday afternoon (side note: how are there this many women who DON'T work?  what year is this?), so i worked from home earlier in the day, then grabbed the kidlets from school, battled traffic to round rock, wrestled a sweaty emme into her costume, bribed her with lipstick, then deposited her in a dark theatre solo.  whew.  i didn't realize beforehand (communications were not the best) that she would have to be in the auditorium without me, so i didn't get to pre-wire her at all.  stuff like that freaks her out, plus she was super duper freaked out to go up on stage.  my kid is not the ham that some kids are, that's for sure.

anyway…hollis and i wandered around the performing arts center, reading the same three books about 492 times until i was allowed to grab her.  fortunately, that was at around 5:!5, so she didn't have to stay the full 2 hours.  she was bright eyed when she got out of the theatre - seeing the "big girls" dance, seeing everyone else's costume, the lights and darkness - it was pretty cute.  i asked her how she felt being up on stage and she informed me that she didn't go.  i guess she got upset when she got her leg stuck in the chair in the audience, so she sat on some adult's lap and didn't go up when it was her class's turn.

so i was not optimistic about her actually dancing on saturday.  when we got there, it was total chaos.  i'd had to wake both hollis and emme up from 3+ hour naps to make it on time, and there were zillions of families and kids everywhere.  it was a bit overwhelming, and none of us had had lunch!  fortunately, i brought a boatload of cheerios, so they were able to have a pre-recital snack.  em did better when i dropped her at the green room, but she was still a little freaked out.  hollis and i found a seat and waited for the show to begin.

emme's class went on 5th and it was fairly adorable.  she didn't do much dancing right at first, but then she tried a few moves and smiled and did her thing.  she's at least 2-3 months younger than the youngest kid in her class (they were all supposed to be three before the end of august and she's a november birthday), so i didn't feel badly that the nearly-five year-olds were much more focused than she was.  i was just SO proud that she got up on the stage and so so excited that jb made it in time to see her.  she applauded at the end of her performance, which i thought was super cute - i just know she was so relieved to have made it through.

they didn't allow videos in the performance, and i haven't decided if we're going to buy the DVD yet or not, but i snapped a few pics of them snacking before the show, and we got a couple more shots afterward, before she changed out of her costume in the middle of the parking lot.

reemerging.

man, a week sure does go by in a hurry.  this past one was a blur for many reasons.

two weeks ago, justin's uncle was killed in a car accident.  he was 56 and driving his son home from college when another driver veered over the center line, clipped his truck, and he flipped.  both his son and the other driver emerged with minor scratches, but brian was pronounced dead at the scene.  needless to say, this was a very tragic accident.  brian and marilyn were super close, and brian's kids have lost three grandparents and their father in the last year.  things like this always make me realize how fragile and precious life is - nothing is certain and it's a good reminder not to take even the most mundane bits of life for granted.

the kids and i weren't able to attend the services, but justin flew up and got to spend a few days with his family.  while he was gone, the kids and i handled up on emme's dress rehearsal for her dance recital, whole foods, and some serious park time.  emme's favorite spot to eat after school on fridays is the whole foods up north (near their school), but i have a feeling we'll be looking for a new spot now that it's crazy hot and we'll be at a new school in july.  anyway...she devoured 6 or 7 stuffed grape leaves for dinner that night.  it makes me irrationally happy that my kids eat things like grape leaves.  also, hollis defaults to playing peekaboo at all times right now.  when he sees you see him, he immediately covers his eyes (or at least one of them) and then flashes a big grin when he reveals himself.

justin got home saturday and drove straight from the airport to ek's dance recital.  he skidded in right as her performance was starting, which was magical.  even though it was short and pretty anti-climactic, i'm so glad we both got to watch her up on stage.  i'll write a separate post about that.

sunday we went on a mission to get furniture for our patio project, which is nearing completion (!!!!).  apparently, children love to go into large containers.  we may need to invest in some sort of decorative box for them.