Lugging That Great Thing About

Big Sexy had his 9 month check-up last week and is currently holding strong in the 90th percentile for weight and height. He weighs 23 pounds and is 30 inches long. I think I heard the doctor say that his head was in the 'somethingth' percentile, or maybe she said it was off the chart. I have tuned out head circumference measurements since La Luz was a baby. Struggles with turtlenecks and hats have made it obvious that both of my kids have gargantuan craniums so I have never really needed a number to back it up. I just hope that there is a correlation to intellect.

Whatever the numbers and stats, he looks just great to me.

At the 'fly' on Saturday evening:




After beignets with Nana and Papa-T:


Dancing to Sunpie at the COPS benefit:


It was yet another lovely NOLA weekend and it passed by way too fast.

A Few More Sweet Pics

I am leaving in just a few hours and imagine that blogging is going to be tough over the next few days, so I wanted to post a few sweet pictures so you have something lovely to look at:

Saturday Pictures

I spent the past hour putting away folded clothes. They had been building up for a week or two. I do not understand why putting clothes away is so difficult for us. It always seems like such a pointless exercise because tonight there were clothes drying, and tomorrow there will be more to put away, and it just never ends. But the alternative, stacks upon stacks of clothes, mad scrambles for uniform bloomers and matching socks and, the worst scenario of all in my opinion - the ritualistic unfolding and throwing into random piles that Christian does when searching through stacks for clean t-shirts - make my blood boil. Because the alternative is no good, I have to spend time putting clothes away and it often seems like such an unnecessary waste of time. Maybe one day someone will invent something that streamlines the process.

On to other important matters - pictures and brief stories from our lovely Saturday -

After hanging out at the Bywater Arts Market with Katie, Aunt Kate, and Meenokshi and meeting dozens of precious, adoptable dogs, La Luz and I headed to the garden show at City Park to check out her class scarecrow, Purple Crow A Licious:





On the way home we stopped by GG and Papa George's house to pick up some of GG's fabulous vegetable soup and joined them for a lovely lunch:





James, spending time in the playstation at home with Daddy, poor guy has been sniffly and we didn't think he would enjoy the excursion:


Loki, enjoying the sunshine patch, where he spent most of the weekend...dogs are so good at finding just the right one:



I am going out of town for work on Wednesday morning but, fortunately, Nana is coming to the rescue. She arrives tomorrow night and La Luz can barely contain herself. I am so glad she is going to be here because I know I do not need to worry about everyone while I am away. Maybe, just maybe, I will catch up on some much-needed rest.

Wiped. Out.

After 2 weekends in a row of being the one to wake up first with the kids and then 5 or so nights of rocking and bouncing James at 3 a.m. I am exhausted. It hit me this afternoon when Christian got home from the Saints game - I could barely muster the energy to change a diaper.

That said, the cold weather over the past few days has been invigorating and - realizing it is probably temporary - we did what we could to enjoy it and spent most of the weekend outside - with the exception of a few hours this afternoon while La Luz and I were watching the Saints and making our first gumbo.

An activity-filled weekend, a Saints victory, and tons of quality time with friends and family is about as good as it gets in my world. So, even though I am tired, I am filled with joy.

It was cold; I am not kidding. See for yourself.

Here's James, bundled up for a morning run:


La Luz at the Bywater Arts Market, falling in love with Scout, a gentle German shepherd desperately in need of a home:

An Additional Expense - Dry Cleaning

I left work at around 5:30 today and it felt like I had a part time job. I am not sure there was much advantage to leaving at 5:30 because the traffic was awful and it took half an hour to travel 5 miles, but it was a liberating sensation. My early departure was due to baby Elizabeth's first birthday party. I had to swing by the house, collect the kids, and make it to Tiffany and Mike's before the 6:30 cake smashing. We did it, though barely, and it was worth the racing around. The party was perfect. The highlight was a whimsical Happy Birthday banner that Tiffany stayed up constructing until all hours last night. I hope she got some good pictures because I did not have a chance to take a single one as I was completely preoccupied with James and his spit up. My warning to all new mom's out there (and this is advice I should heed but don't and then end up kicking myself over) is to change into something machine washable before you pick up/play with/go anywhere within a 5 foot radius of your baby. If you are wearing something that happens to be dry clean only, you will, inevitably, be barfed on. As luck would have it, it happened to me tonight. I had on this:


my brand-new, birthday splurge, Banana Republic shirt dress which I bought specifically for work and intended to wear many more times before having to dry clean. Oh well. In addition to diapers and formula, don't forget to create a budget for extra dry cleaning because you will need it.

A Few Pictures

We celebrated mom's birthday with a lovely dinner at GG's house last Friday and, since both kids were bathed and in nice clothes, I forced them to sit still for a few pictures. Enjoy:





By the end of the night La Luz had gone from a fancy dress to a two-sizes-too-small nightgown and James was rolling around on the living room floor in nothing but a diaper, gagging himself on the toy dog's tail. Most nights end in this way, a slight variation of the same theme:

James, 9 Months

James is now nine months old. Nine months. Yikes. In just nine quick months so many incredible things happen and I wish I could slow it all down, just a bit. The most newsworthy milestones are the top two teeth with an absolutely irresistible gap in between and crawling. I haven't properly documented either one yet. It is challenging photographing top teeth when all James wants to do is put anything that comes within reach into his mouth. The crawling presents a different set of challenges. I guess the main reason I decided not to document it is because it would look like a clip from one of those Discovery Health shows that come on late at night, "No Limbs, No Problem" or something like that. Because although it is technically a crawl, it appears to be a bit more of a propelling and dragging sort of thing going on. He can get wherever he needs to go but that is thanks, in large part, to the developing upper body strength. The legs play no role in this whatsoever - at least, not yet. The good news is we likely will not have to vacuum again until James starts walking.

The monthly photos are becoming incredibly challenging. I had to enlist La Luz's help this time since Christian was not around. The results:







In some of the most anti-climatic news ever - the birthday present for mom completely backfired. We got her an iphone and she was actually totally psyched about it and ready to embrace it BUT then AT&T reared its ugly head (the one that made me break a contract and switch to Verizon over a decade ago) and we basically couldn't make it happen unless she wanted to break her current contract (which does not include a data package) and get a new phone number. Unfortunately, mom will have to wait until June 2010 to actually use her present. Bummer.

Feliz Cumple Mamela!

Tomorrow is mom-mom's birthday and, at least in La Luz's world, birthdays are VERY big deals. I am sure that mom would be perfectly happy if the day came and went without much ado but, as far as La Luz is concerned, there better be cake and clowns and music and balloons and, well, failing those things, at least a few presents. So, we (the kids and grandkids and son in law) sort of went out on a limb and selected a present that we all agree is just the best, but we are not sure how it will be received. There is a little hill, or mountain, that must be climbed to get to what makes it 'best'. I am, perhaps, building it up just a bit too much. It is nothing sentimental and nothing close to a trip abroad, but we all think she will like it. I promise to update on the status of the gift at some point and let you know if it was a success. It is going to take a few weeks before we will know one way or the other.

Until then, in honor of her birthday, I leave you with the most rad picture of my mom I have ever seen. Molly uncovered this one when we were digging furiously through pictures after Pop died, holding on to every little bit of him and making his memory inside of our hearts.



Don't you totally want to hang out with these guys? Happy Birthday Mom, with all the love...

Anyone Have A Spare Set Of Gills?

It is October. Usually by the first week of October I have a little spring in my step because I can actually breathe when I walk outside. Not this year. The weather is so incredibly hot and humid that it feels like we are living in a soup bowl or a fish tank or something. I am not asking for anything out of the ordinary. I would just like an 80 degree day and humidity below 90%. I would like to hear my ac turn off now and then and be able to cool my house below 78 degrees.

At the rate we are going there is no way that James will tolerate his Halloween costume - a hand-me-down that would probably fit him perfectly this year...if only. We tested one part of it out tonight and still managed to work up a good sweat:

James, not sure what to think:


Had enough, I don't blame him:


Trying to convince him it is great:


Still a bit curious:


Deciding maybe this is not his favorite costume:



By the looks of things, you would imagine we have all the time in the world to goof off, trying on Halloween costumes and engaging in tom-foolery. I promise, we don't. There were cupcakes to bake for treat day on Friday (baking tonight, icing tomorrow night), pink outfits to pick out for Paint The Gym Pink tomorrow to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the class book to review, school bags to fill...and it goes on. Sometimes three minutes looks and feels like three hours of fun, fortunately.

Looks Like The Daddy?

He doesn't look anything like me, does he? Honestly, I look at this picture and don't see any way that this kid came from me, except that he looks somewhat like Christian, I guess:

I Just Want Four Walls And Adobe Slats

Here are a few things that are entertaining me these days:

The new Lorrie Moore book, A Gate at the Stairs:


I loved everything she ever wrote until Birds of America and, even though everyone else loved it, it sort of fell flat with me. I think it must have been a case of "wrong time, wrong place" and am determined to try it again, just in case.

The new-to-me Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion:


Josh told me to get this ages ago when La Luz got her first taste of Animal Collective during her rides to swimming lessons with Josh. Quite predictably, my favorite song so far is track one, My Girls.

You Cannot Stop Him

Over the weekend, while La Luz and Christian were in Georgia for the UGA v. LSU game, James and I had quality time together. One of the highlights for James was a very brief trip to the Children's Clothing Exchange where I scored a walker for $15. I am still not certain if walkers were discontinued, but I figured they wouldn't be selling one if it was dangerous, right? After scrubbing it down with bleach water and washing the seat part, it looks as good as new, for the most part. And now, well, James is basically a terror on wheels.

It is time to start the overwhelming task of child-proofing. He has already been in the garbage can and cleared out the Tupperware cabinet. I fear that unless we take action, the next stop is the knife drawer.

Here he is, making a break for the door:


and La Luz, ever the protector, putting a stop to the nonsense:

He Eats Cheerios, People

I had to drop off James at daycare this morning because Christian had an early meeting. It is a task that always delays my arrival time at work, but I love it because it means extra time with Big Sexy, something I cannot ever get enough of these days.

I was particularly excited to have drop off duty today because it has been a while since I set foot inside of James' daycare and I was looking forward to an opportunity to chit-chat with the caregivers about James' most recent milestones. In particular, I was thrilled to inform them that he has started eating puffs, the instantly disintegrating bite-sized baby food that you generally feed to babies who have mastered the art of crawling. True, James is not crawling and, much like La Luz, is not showing much interest in doing so, but I threw caution to the wind a few weeks ago and tested him out with puffs and he loved them and, more importantly, didn't choke to death when eating them.

When I arrived at daycare this morning and informed them of the newest development the caregivers looked at me like I was crazy and said, "puffs, really mama, he has been eating those for weeks, he actually prefers Cheerios". I was instantly slack-jawed. My baby ate Cheerios, eats Cheerios, and I had no idea? What else does he do that I don't know about? As I turned around to leave they placed him in a walker. Yes, it is what you think it is...a baby contraption that I am pretty sure was discontinued and recalled years ago. But you know what, he loved it.

Here's the gang this morning, watching Dora and getting geared up for another exciting day:



And you know what? It was cool enough to drive to school with the windows down. Wow. Helloo cooler weather, we have been waiting for you with open arms.

When I Turned 36

Last Friday I turned 36 years old. I feel very old. I have felt very old since I turned 30. I guess now I sort of am old-ish so it is okay to complain. I remember when I was younger my dad would complain that he couldn't sleep late anymore because it made his back hurt. For the past month my back has ached every morning as I get out of bed. Either I am getting old or we need a new mattress. It is ten years old so I am hoping it is the latter.

We spent the weekend celebrating in as low-key a manner as possible, thankfully. I am just not one for fanfare at all, at least fanfare directed at me. On Friday night we had dinner at Crepe Nanou with mom. James and La Luz were total champs. I think James was by far the better behaved of the two, but I know not to expect too much from La Luz at 6:30 on a Friday.

I didn't get to sleep late either morning (the whole back pain issue) but I didn't need to. I was looking forward to spending time with La Luz and James anyway. As I was tickling James on Saturday morning I discovered that his top, front teeth are breaking through. It explains the waking up in the middle of the night thing and the generalized fussiness. I was getting exasperated and all along he was teething. Poor guy. I am sure he would've benefited from Tylenol and Anbesol for the past few nights. Lousy mom.

On Saturday evening we went to Oktoberfest. It is technically not October and the weather is not festy in the least, but we figured it might be our only free Saturday in October and took advantage of the free night. The weather really was awful. It rained off and on all day and then the sun came out. It was the nastiest mix of humidity and heat imaginable. I guess it was about 91 degrees, sunny, and then a bit drizzly. Just awful...but then there was this:


and we all thought it was amazing.

La Luz, waiting so patiently for the chicken dance:


James, making me even sweatier:


James and me with Bit, his first love, and Tiffany:


James, grabbing at Uncle Richmond:


I was a nasty, sweaty mess but we had a great time and ended the night at Brocatos with Catherine, Richmond, and Meenokshi...perfect way to wrap up a very hot birthday weekend.

Our Weekend

Once again, Sunday night arrived way too fast. The weekend was nice, but somewhat busy; consequently, I do not feel rested and ready to start the week in the least.

On Saturday I took La Luz to City Park to celebrate Betsy's 3rd birthday. In yet another great example of how 'life is what happens while you are making other plans,' Betsy and her dad didn't make it to the party because they were both up the night before with a terrible stomach bug. Despite the fact that the guest of honor was not there, the party was a total success and La Luz had a great time.

She is still terrified of the carousel, however. Check her out trying to act all, "I've got this"...can you see the white knuckles:


La Luz had two friends over to play and exhibited the worst behavior I have seen in about a year the entire time. It was such a shame because I waited all week for some fun time with La Luz and there was nothing fun about her attitude on Saturday. Needless to say, she fell asleep at 6 pm and missed out on the fun of having a babysitter. She had been waiting all week to spend a few hours with her cousin Molly but slept straight through it. I hope the behavior was attributable to a lack of a nap and not some new, lingering virus. I cannot take another illness in the house right now. It is bad enough that La Luz had the honor of taking the class stuffed animal (and all of her outfits) home on the same weekend that we got a note about a lice incident in her class. Lovely.

Here is James, who was, incidentally, quite perfectly behaved all weekend. He is watching La Luz and her friends at the playground:


Saturday night Christian and I had dinner at Rambla followed by Josh's show at One Eyed Jacks. Dinner was delicious, particularly because of the lovely company, and the show was great. I was especially excited to here Telefon Tel Aviv's cover of "I am on Fire". I didn't know Josh had such great range. We didn't get home until after 2, just a few hours before La Luz was ready to wake up and start the day. Lucky me.

Ho-Hum

This afternoon I sort of reached my breaking point in what his been an overwhelmingly heavy week for me. Things at work have been needlessly hectic and anxiety-inducing. I seem to be doing a lousy job of making people happy and at home there is little improvement. Arriving home at almost 7 p.m. most nights this week has resulted in very little time with the kids and what time I do have is not necessarily pleasant. La Luz is generally wiped out, in need of some one-on-one attention, and feeling rebellious and cranky. James is done by 6 p.m. and will only spare us the dreaded screams if he is held and allowed to shake, convulse, and squirm around until he can grab on to something, anything, usually my carotid artery or hair. Needless to say, there are days and weeks when I wonder what the point of it all is...working so much to make things work at home and not really doing a proper job on either end seems silly. Did I mention that James rolled, rather, launched himself off of the bed last night and on to the hard, wood floor? Yes, that was my fault. So, I am thinking, why not trade it all in and retire to farm or live on a beach somewhere selling macrame bracelets and relying on the kindness of others? It is possible, of course, but the risks of not succeeding and the lifestyle those options prevent...well, I am just not sure if it is for me. On the other hand, sometimes the alternative is just daunting. I am hoping, as is usually the case in September, that the first cool breeze lightens things up and makes it easier for me to breathe.

Until then, I can hang in there, even knowing that my quality time is limited to this:


Thursday, 7:45 a.m., 5 minutes before departure to school. This is a snapshot of the 50 minutes I get to spend with the kids in the morning (and this is not uninterrupted, quality time...we are packing bags, making lunches, collecting bottles, going over assignments we missed when we failed to unload the bookbag the night before, showering, dressing, and eating breakfast).

It breaks my heart a little because I know how fast this will pass by me.