jb's birthday and randomness.

a few years ago my mom got emme an advent calendar with all the little drawers you can open on each of the 25 days of christmas. i've done sort of different things with it every year, but this year i just put in two m&m's and a little note with an activity. the activities were mostly provided by my friend emma who did all the hard work of coming up with them, typing them into a doc in a cute font, etc. jb and i just cut them up and rolled them into little scrolls and assigned them to the days we thought would be most appropriate for each activity. some days had gifts (christmas jammies, a christmas book, slippers), some days were for more charitable activities (get canned goods to donate, toy/coat donations, etc), and some days were for crafts or an outing. two highlights were: going to a christmas movie (we saw the peanuts movie - so cute!) and going to see christmas lights. we went to mozart's coffee shop for their 15-minute outdoor light show and hot cocoa. so cute.

also stuck in the middle of all the christmas hoopla was jb's 35th birthday! i managed to snag a babysitter and we went to uchiko, our most favorite restaurant in the world. it's totally a super special occasion place for a dinner like that - we do it at most once a year - but it is worth every bite. the food is gorgeous and beautiful and the experience is really unparalleled, topped off by fried milk for dessert. i feel like his birthday gets the shaft every year, especially since we had kids, but it was super nice to take a night off from everything and just enjoy each other's company.

knife skills and other things.

so i went to japan a couple weeks ago and it was awesome. one of the awesome things that happened was i got justin this gorgeous knives. these knives are sharp, as you might expect. one might even call them ninja sharp. anyway...sunday night i asked jb to chop up an onion for me so he could test out the sweet new blades...

(side note: justin has mocked me for YEARS about my knife skills (or lack thereof), but i would just like to state for the record that as of today i have not had an ER-worthy knife injury. i did jack myself up on a mandolin slicer like a year ago, but i just wrapped that thing right up...)

within a slice or two of the onion, we had a nice cut on his thumb. ouch. there was a lot of blood, and he wouldn't let me look at it (my dude hates the sight of blood), so i suggested we kick it to urgent care. amazingly, the bowmans were walking up to our house at that exact moment, so they were able to hang out with the kids while i drove him to the closest ER. amazingly, we were pretty much the only people there, so it was pretty quick. the doc suggested stitches, but said he could get by with steri-strips, which is what my needle-averse husband chose. there was a traumatic moment or two when the doctor cleaned out the wound (squirting some solution directly into it) and lots of blood happened, and jb would probably say the worst part was having to get a tetanus shot...but he didn't cry :).

anyway...i've been sure to provide plenty of mockery to aid in healing. 

in other news, this weekend was super rainy. all day rain on friday and saturday and most of sunday. the kids got creative with hiding places, ejecting the laundry from the hamper so they could occupy this nook. 

and, finally, on an unrelated note, i snapped this pic of hollis before school on monday. he "wanted to hug emme's pumpkin" before school. that kid, man. 

the thing about dads.

i basically lucked out in the dad department. my dad is awesome. he's quiet and funny; he's wise and a great listener; he's contemplative and morally upright (to a flaw sometimes); he is the most loyal person i have ever met. even though he's a man of few words, i probably reference something my dad has told me at least once a day. when i want to really talk about something - anything - my dad is the person i can count on to really really listen. he will weigh in if it seems appropriate, but he's also amazingly adept at knowing that sometimes what i really need is just a sounding board. my relationship with my dad is not boisterous or demonstrative...it is the type of comfortable, calm, solid relationship that comes from being a real kindred with another person.

i recently read an article where it listed many statistics of how much better kids' lives are all the way through adulthood and life when they've had a dad around - and especially a good, involved dad. i didn't need a bunch of research to tell me that.

i'm so, so grateful for my dad. i'm thankful for the dad he is to me, and for the extension of that role into his grandfathering and father-in-law-ing.

i'm also extremely grateful that the father of my own children is carrying the torch of awesome-dadding to ek and hollis. jb is different from my dad in a lot of ways, but the core of loyalty and regard for family is a fundamental part of who he is. justin is the playmate, the optimist, the it's-ok-if-they-stay-up-late-this-one-night parent. he's self-reflective and works hard to become the person and father he wants to become. he adores our children and puts our family at the forefront of all his decisions, but he still maintains his sense of self - his pursuit of his own goals. i think that's such an important example to set for the kidlets in a time when so many people become shells of their former selves in the pursuit of parenting perfection (i *may* fall into that category sometimes).

anyway. two dads in my life. and i'm super happy and lucky to know both of them. happy father's day!

happy birthday daddy.

justin's birthday goes by the wayside a lot. not entirely, because we always do something...but having a birthday four days before christmas when there are small children in your house and work schedules, etc. to contend with is a recipe for less than amazing bday action.

anyway. this year jb turned the big 34. officially mid-30s land. the kids and i woke up and tried to let him sleep in a little bit. we picked up a bagel and a gingerbread latte to bring him in bed. then we loaded up the kids and pups and went to explore allen park - a hiking trail on 10 acres right around the corner from our house that we never knew about. it was rad. it was kind of a dreary day, but we made the most of the fresh air. then we went to trudy's for some lunch and headed home. the kids napped and we rested and then i sent justin on a mission with the kids to get away from the house. he strolled them to the park and i told him they had to be gone at least 45 minutes.

while they were out, i scrambled around to get everything ready. i packed wine and water and tea lights in mason jars and brie in puff pastry, along with lots of other yummy snacky/dinner items. when they got back, miss crystal arrived to babysit, and i brought justin down to auditorium shores. we laid out our blankets on a hill overlooking downtown all lit up. it was pretty chilly and windy, but we made the most of it and it was nice to be outside and get a chance to visit without being interrupted 94 times each minute.

after "dinner", we went to uchiko for some fried milk for dessert. it was heavenly, as always.

someday we'll do something really spectacular to make up for all the mediocre years of daddy's birthday. until then, we're really lucky he's such a good sport about it all.

junior guess who?

emme got the disney version of junior guess who for her birthday, so we played it as a family the other night after bath. round one was fairly straightforward, and jb and i worked on dragging it out a little so the kids (mostly emme) could get the idea. in round two...

me & emme: "is your character a boy?"
justin & hollis: "yes."
me (whispering to jb): "does a snowman count as a boy?"
jb (whispering): "it's a boy snowman."
me (to emme, pointing at the snowman): "ask daddy if that's his character."
justin: "it's the second round of questions! chill out, tiger mom."

the conclusion of the chair story.

ah yes. the chair.

our tale continues the weekend before my birthday this year. end of july, we head out on a double date with some close friends. dining and drinking ensue and we take turns discussing all the things. at whatever point, the chair saga comes up, and my friend wendy says: "why don't you just tweet about it?". this was in response to my having emailed wade after his "zach is a cokehead" email and not getting any response after three weeks and a follow-up email.

so. i took to social media. sunday morning, i composed a tweet along the lines of: don't use needto.com because they are not responsive, use taskrabbit (a needto competitor) for this type of service. it wasn't the nicest thing i could have tweeted, but it certainly didn't involve expletives or anything too incendiary.

well. by sunday afternoon, i receive a two-minute voicemail on my cell phone from wade, ceo of needto.com, himself. he's rambling and somewhat incoherent and clearly very upset by my tweet (side note: this is hilarious to me. a tweet? c'mon.). i call him back as we're on our way to the neighborhood pool with the kidlets. 27 minutes of sitting in the hot car later, i get off the phone with wade. he has basically cried on the phone with me, telling me tales of woe about how insolvent his company is, how i'm the only person that's ever had even a slight issue, how he invested his life savings into this, how he used to sell books door-to-door in college, etc etc. it was a full-on therapy session for mr. wade, during which i felt like a complete jerk. which is ironic because, again, I JUST WANTED MY STUPID CHAIR BACK. or some other sort of resolution. because that's what should happen when you're a BUSINESS. i digress.

in the therapy session, wade let me know he was in california trying to raise more venture capital and would be back in austin tuesday, whereupon he would follow up on his lead on zach's girlfriend and i could expect to hear from him wednesday. fine. wednesday comes and goes, so late thursday afternoon, i send an email asking how it went with the girlfriend track-down. wade replies with more excuses.

that weekend was my birthday. i basically reached a catharsis after talking with my friend matt that i needed to just let it go and quit wasting everyone's time. which is solid advice. and probably something i should have done four months ago. or more. but whatever.

the following week, my heroic husband texts me during the day. he asks for a picture of the chair and for the number i have for zach, which i provide. the timeline went something like this:

afternoon: justin calls zach's number and someone else answers. justin asks for zach and the guy hesitates, says he lent his phone to zach several months ago and knows him. justin says he'd like to talk to zach about a job, if the guy has a way to get in touch with him.
moments later, justin gets a call from zach himself. he exists! they start talking and jb basically says "my wife is crazy, she's not letting this chair thing go, can you help me out?". zach says he has no idea where it is, but that last he saw it, he left it at the pedicab shop where he used to work (before he was fired for stealing or whatever...he didn't add that part).
justin calls the pedicab place and gets stephan on the phone, proprietor of said pedicab establishment. stephan says he won't be in until that evening, but he'll look around, but he doesn't think they have anything like that.

evening: we get the kids to bed and jb heads out. he drives to the east side sketch warehouse that is the pedicab hub. he walks in to said warehouse and sees a group of dudes sitting around on crates and random old busted furniture, drinking beers and playing video games. jb asks for stephan, and a guy says "that's me!". jb explains who he is again, stephan is unbelievably nice and helpful, although not optimistic that they will find anything.
this warehouse apparently has like a billion rooms in it, so justin and stephan meander through, opening random doors and then moving on when no chairs are discovered. about the third room they open has two dudes playing video games in the dark. stephan says "hey guys, any chairs in this room?". the dude sitting on a random mattress says no, but then dude #2 says "oh, hey, wait, man, this is a chair", gesturing to the chair he's sitting on. they turn on some sort of light, justin looks over and says "dude, that's my chair".

meanwhile, i'm at home, text-stalking jb, praying he's not being abducted. fortunately, the pedicab culture is a friendly group. they helped justin haul our chair into his car, then invited him to drink beers and play video games with him for a bit, which of course he did because this is how dudes work (i won't get in to how alien this would be in the female universe). during this portion of the evening, jb was regaled with everyone's stories about zach, who has been dubbed "holocaust zach", a nickname i will refrain from commenting on. apparently, he owes everyone beer and money, is the least reliable person ever, and is generally a bit of a loser. can't say any of this surprises me in the least.

as for our chair, during its stint at the warehouse, it seems some sort of gross dog made it its home. it's literally too disgusting to bring into our house, so it's living in the shed right now until i buy some new fabric and bring it to a real, legitimate reupholsterer. but, it's home. the end!

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.

jb loves pinterest.

i didn't write about all the stuff we actually did on mother's day.  it was a good day.  we're in the process of re-doing our back porch - painting, cleaning, new screens, new doors.  we're doing most of it ourselves, but we have a guy that's going to put the actual screens on for us, since that part is wily and requires a level of expertise we don't possess (and/or a learning curve we're not willing to put up with).  but, pretty much everything else we're doing.  screen dude said he was going to come to our house tuesday, so we basically had the weekend to wrangle the whole project.

let me just offer an aside about how amazing it is that productivity begets productivity.  in general, we collapse on the couch at 830 or 9 at night after doing just the things that have to be done - lunches packed, dishwasher loaded, diapers stuffed.  but when we manage to start accomplishing things...it's like it gets addictive and we do more and more.  i love that.  it reminds me of what life was like before we were waking up throughout the night with small humans.  ha.

anyway...the point of this post was mother's day stuff.  jb made a fantastic brunch for me - eggs benedict, bacon, hashbrowns, and oj.  he's a really good cook.  but, since the adult brunch took some time to prepare, he whipped up a little platter of snacks for the kiddos so they wouldn't turn into gremlins, which they are wont to do when hungry.  clearly someone has been sneaking around on pinterest when i'm not looking...

future tennis star.

like i would assume many families do, justin and i like to joke about what sport/activity emme will play that will lead to scholarships/fame/fortune in her adult life.  tennis and golf crop up in our fantasy most frequently, but we occasionally divert in to soccer, dancing, art, writing, etc.  it's all a joke, but it's so much fun to imagine what things she will fall in love with as she grows. 
anyway...today i was messing around on quora - a Q&A site that is probably the best thing to happen to the internet in a long time - and i found a link to a question about introducing your children to activities (this one happened to mention tennis) at a young age in the hopes that they would develop a passion and ultimately dedication and skill in said activity.  i sent the link to justin, and here is his reply.  i love that guy. 

interesting. i have no desire to force emme to do/learn anything she doesn't have any interest in. would i love to see her to play tennis/golf? sure. and i absolutely think kids need guidance in picking sports/hobbies/etc. but she has to want to play for it to work. i'll absolutely have the grand slam tournaments on TV, hoping it sparks her interest, but i'm not going to sign her up for lessons at age 4 and tell her it's something she's learning. i look back at my ill-fated basketball career, doomed before it even had the chance to blossom. dad played high school basketball... and i was supposed to be 6'4-6'7 said the doctors when i was young. WHB decided to sign me up for basketball when i was 5, i think, without having so much as seen a basketball game. i was the worst kid on the team (at least that's how i remember it). the kids wouldn't pass me the ball, i traveled more than i dribbled, never made baskets, and didn't have a dad that worked with me to improve outside of practice. all very tragic i know. after two years of epic bitty-ball fail, i hated the sport. and still do. i mean, F basketball. putting a ball in a stupid hoop? that's just dumb. don't even get me started on why bouncing the stupid orange ball is necessary. and orange? really? orange is the color you picked for the ball?

i'm glad he and i are on the same page with this...