Super Fabulous Super Saints

My friend, Jen, dresses her entire family in a particular theme each Mardi Gras and was sweet enough to include Luz and James in the choice for 2012, Super Saints.  They were both thrilled when they saw their Super Saint t's and James would probably wear his every day if I allowed it.

Here is Luz on Mardi Gras day with her favorite Nyx catch, a second line, Saints-themed umbrella:

And with Uncle Richmond...he is in costume, dressed as someone from a zombie t.v. show or movie (which I am too out of touch with to recognize, ugh):

I know, I am still posting Mardi Gras pictures!  And there are more, yes, plenty... Papa-T rode in a parade this year so there is so much to share.  Unfortunately, I was out of town for most of last week for work (and managed to fit in a quick stop in Downtown Disney World, which was really cool, incidentally) and then I ran 26.2 miles yesterday (and, consequently, can barely walk today).   At any rate, as is usually the case, things are way too busy around here.  So, I am taking deep breaths, slowing down as much as possible (and with my current physical limitations it is rather possible), and remembering to enjoy a few quiet minutes with the kids at the end of the day (even if those minutes involve being climbed on and shouted at - so goes the life of a mama).

It is a perfect Sunday night...a little rainy, comfy p.j.s, house mostly organized and ready for the start of the week and a three-day work trip, and the Oscars are on.  I allowed Luz to stay up a little past her bedtime because she was so enthusiastic about it.  She was inspired and awed and reacted exactly like I did as a child, imagining herself there one day. She was also incredibly confused about why Hugo was winning so many awards (neither of us has seen it yet, but now we are curious).  I love watching the Academy Awards.  I look forward to it every year and am thrilled that Luz enjoys it too.  I will have someone to watch it with now.

We had a nice, relaxing weekend filled with the mundane things that have to happen at the end of a long vacation.  There were a few trips to the park (Luz's newest obsession is dribbling and the incessant bouncing noise inside of the house makes me nuts; James' newest obsession is pretending he is in a marching band - he plays all the parts with gusto - one of these days I will get it on film, that activity, though incredibly entertaining, also makes me nuts),  a new haircut for James, soccer, READ class, one last longish run to prep for the marathon, and cooking (meatballs with  tomato sauce and patatas bravas with two different sauces - neither of which were great, except the aioli - try as I might, I just never get it totally right in the kitchen).

All in all it was lovely weekend that went by way too fast.  It is hard to believe how different things looked just a week ago:

I miss the endless fun, but getting back to the daily grind is ok too.  Now we just need to think of what we should be giving up for Lent.  Nobody around here is ready to commit to anything yet...we want to be good and sure we pick something significant.

Ash Wednesday

We are enjoying some quiet time, getting things back in shape around here at the house, and basking in the fabulous Mardi Gras afterglow.  It was a lovely couple of weeks and we were so fortunate to have plenty of time to spend with family and friends.  It is back to reality, for sure, and with that comes a bit of post-holiday depression for me.  After all, who would not enjoy an excuse to spend days and nights hanging out with family and friends, drinking beer and watching the greatest free show on earth.  I look around the house and smile when all around me I see evidence of a rather good time...

The Joints Are Jamming Packed

The rain was intense tonight but Luz and Christian refuse to miss out on a single float.  James and I were little soldiers and tried to make it through the second parade, but we just could not do it, there were not enough Skittles to bribe his tired 3 year-old body.  I was happy to head home with him and to miss the deluge.  He is excited though, we all are.  Friends and family are in town.  We have an excuse to stay up late and eat bbq and Zapp's potato chips and drink beer and wine (and king cake flavored vodka) long after bedtime.  And it feels nice.  If you have never experienced Mardi Gras in NOLA, you need to do it as soon as possible.  It is exhausting, but it is the best.

The Whole Street Is Jumping

Carnival season is in full swing here in NOLA and, consequently, there is not much leisure time around here.  Luz and Christian are in full parade-going mode and will not miss a single float.  James and I are still warming up and require bribes to get out there for every parade (Abita beer in a can for me, cotton candy for James).  I was even less motivated on Sunday after a long training run and a nasty wipe out mid-way through it (my knees are swollen and bruised and totally achey - my fingers are crossed that rest, ice, and IBP will get them back to normal by Wednesday).

We are looking forward to a chaotic week and a house filled with friends and family. Unfortunately, the house work is not complete.  I was hoping to have it freshly painted and nicely decorated in time for the weekend, but it has been so rainy that everything is behind schedule.  Overall, even with just a coat of primer, it is a huge improvement.  The addition of the transom numbers on Friday night made a big difference too.  Incidentally, if you are looking for someone in New Orleans to put your house numbers on your transom, check out www.nolatransoms.com.  The guys there were very helpful and did a great job.  I will take a picture of the handiwork soon so you can see for yourself.

Oh, and tomorrow is Valentine's Day...I know, it is a silly holiday, but having children makes even silly holidays more fun.  There is something to be said about spending one day out of the year thinking about the people that make your heart full, right?

King Cake Taste Testing

Luz got the king cake baby last week so tomorrow it is her turn to bring the cake.  I saw the old timey Gambinos sign while cruising around in Metairie last week, as I tend to do now that I work out there, and I started to feel nostalgic.  So, I stopped by today and picked up a Gambinos king cake for Luz, one for Christian to take to his homeroom, and a one for me to eat this weekend (I plan to run a bunch of miles and will need a good reward).  

I am not wild about the packaging (something about all the plastic makes it look less appealing) but the sugar to bread ratio looks about right.  I got a traditional one, as usual, and it looks like it has cinnamon on the inside.  I am looking forward to trying it and am curious to see if it rivals my current front-runner, Haydel's.  I will let you know...

R. E. A. D.

For the past six months James and I have spent a peaceful hour together on Saturday mornings at R.E.A.D. The weekly, hour-long class focuses on reading enrichment and development through movement, music, art, and creative play.  I wish I had known about the program when Luz was little because I know she would have enjoyed it.  James looks forward to Saturday mornings and I do too - not just for what it provides him - but because I like the one-on-one time together.  At the end of each class the kids can check out a backpack that centers around a book(s) or a theme.  Last week we had 10 Little Monkeys. This week we have a zoo themed backpack.  The socialization and the learning that happens on Saturday mornings at R.E.A.D. are worth every penny of the cost.  He might not know his colors, but he can sit still for and appreciate a good story.  Let's see if this increases his chances of getting into our Nursery school choice next Fall...truly, nothing is automatic in the world of education these days.

I highly recommend the class for anyone in the NOLA area with a little one looking for some interaction with other kids and enrichment.  There are classes during the week and I know we would go more frequently if I did not have to work.  You can check out the R.E.A.D. website at www.readnola.com.  Oh yeah, and if you sign up for a class, you get a cool shirt like this one:

The weekend was filled with all kinds of awesomeness -

1.  Our first Mardi Gras parade of the season (and the only reason it did not rain on us was because I carried around a gigantic, golfing umbrella all night);
2.  Excellent dinner at Iris with friends;
3.  Sleeping as late as we wanted this morning since the kids spent the night at mom-mom's house;
4.  The last piece of Ikea furniture assembled;
5.  A major excursion to Kenner Target to stock up on more Mardi Gras supplies (do not be jealous - there was not a stitch of Jason Wu clothing on the shelves); and
6.  A LONG training run out of the way...I have one more really long one and then I think I can start to taper, finally.

The bad news is that I think I now officially have either allergies or a cold, so I am going to sleep.  But first, a little more awesomeness, because you do not have a heart if this does not make you smile :

She went to see The Blue Man Group today with Christian (thanks to mom-mom) and she LOVED it. It was entertaining to listen to her recount what happened and to attempt to explain it.  I gathered that she was trying to think of a diplomatic way to say "you had to be there"... which makes total sense.

And if you have not seen The Steven Gleason Story, watch it here -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSS10h0BKig

It will break your heart all over the place.  I have said it before and I will say it again and again and again, life is fleeting and filled with joy and sadness all of the time.

Sneak Peek

Just in case you are as excited as I am to finally see a fresh coat of paint on my house...

It is just primer, but if you look very closely you can see two variations of what will ultimately be the house color.  Christian - who, I have recently learned, is actually profoundly color-blind, cannot even detect the two shaded areas. The shutter color is close, not quite right yet, but getting there.  Now, if it would just stop raining...

NOLA CBD

As soon as I packed up my office on the 40th floor of One Shell Square and moved out to the suburbs, super-awesome things started happening downtown.  Many things were in the works long before I made the switch, but seeing (and - occasionally - experiencing) these incredible changes makes me miss being in the CBD.

There is the beautiful Merchant in the old, and recently renovated, Maritime building on Gravier St.:

This place is a little oasis in the middle of downtown NOLA, a perfect blend of cool and delicious.  Although pretty much everything on the menu is tasty and the crepes look fantastic (I have not indulged...yet), my favorite treat is just a classic iced-coffee, expertly blended with fresh roasted Illy coffee.  It is the perfect pick me up and my new favorite iced-coffee destination.  If you are curious, peruse the menu, it does not disappoint : www.merchantneworleans.com

Another new discovery is City Greens.  Someone just like me ate one too many Subway sandwiches ( over 10 years I probably ate at least 1,000 6 inch, whole wheat, veggie and cheese sandwiches) and then thought, "I can do better than this".  City Greens is a modern, impeccably clean, incredibly fresh, express-service salad bar with interesting ingredients, signature salads, and a build-your-own option.  I cannot wait to go there again and again and again.  Thank you, thank you to the person who was just like me.  Now, will you please open one in Metairie?  Oh, and some of my friends would like you to carry Diet Coke.  Go see for yourself at www.eatcitygreens.com

Those are the two places that stand out most because I have experienced the wonder.  There are two additional recent destinations I am looking forward to checking out.

There is a truly urban grocery store, courtesy of Rouses, which opened the week I moved to the suburbs and I almost cried.  I cannot tell you how many times I wished there was an easy in-and-out grocery store I could stop at on my way home from work or during my lunch break. Now it exists, only it is no longer useful to me.

There is one last gem...the newly restored (and seemingly totally rebuilt) Hyatt.  It is beautiful and, at least according to my friends, does not disappoint.  I am hoping that my first Hyatt experience will be next month for Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation Gala.  Tickets start at $1,000.00 and I am hoping someone might need a date.  You can check it out at www.nighttomakeitright.com.

Hi There

We are in hyper-drive over here...still building furniture, watching paint dry (the first coat of primer is on and my heart is full), juggling some rather crazy work schedules, running (all the time it seems), and gearing up for Mardi Gras.  In between all of that are tiny bits of awesomeness. I wish I had more time and energy to tell you all about it...about the little moments like this:

We are looking forward to a quiet weekend - there is plenty of cleaning and organizing to do around here to get this place in gear for Mardi Gras.  I am also hoping that the incredible thunderstorm this morning was the last of the rain around here for a while.  I am starting to get slightly edgy about getting the house painted.

And just to make you smile...a picture of Jamesy holding a gigantic, stale loaf of french bread for the Audubon Park ducks and sweet Luz on the moonwalk during a recent trip to the French Quarter:

House Stuff

In addition to the new Ikea furniture, there are a few other home improvements going on around here.  We are (it seems) midway through a massive house face lift.   What started out as a paint job has become a tiny bit more involved...

I guess as with many home improvement projects, as the work progresses, new problems are revealed.  The good news is, we will have a new front porch.  The bad news is that the project is rapidly becoming more expensive than we ever anticipated.  I have miniature panic attacks when I get a call from Christian during the day right now.  I find myself holding my breath, bracing for news of some expensive new problem.

The weather has not been ideal for painting so the pace has been rather slow.  I had hoped the work would be complete before Mardi Gras, but at this rate I do not think it will be possible.

New and Exciting

Nana and Papa-T came in town this weekend and delivered a carload of awesomeness...

the result of a romantic night out at Ikea last time we were in Atlanta.  We have new bookshelves, a new bed for Jamesy, and a chest of drawers (or 'chester' drawers as Luz likes to call them).  Needless to say, there is a great deal of building going on around here, not by me though. So many home improvement projects going on at once overwhelms me. Strangely, instead of obsessing about timelines and freaking out about mess, I am operating around the stacks of paperwork and out-of-place furniture and overlooking the sanded and miserable-looking facade of the house.  I am sure I will reach a breaking point eventually, but for now I think we are all sort of enjoying that I am not completely losing it amid the disorder.

...and speaking of losing things, check out Luz's new smile.  Doesn't she look so grown up?  

I am in the middle of this book:

by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman and would like to sit down and read it cover to cover if I had time.  It is fascinating and entertaining and troubling all at once. The premise, and you can see it for yourself on the website, www.nurtureshock.com, is essentially that many modern parenting strategies/formulas are completely backfiring because some of the "twists in science have been overlooked."  I am half way through it and apparently have operated under some misconceptions about how to parent and support my children since their birth.  I am not going to completely change my style at this point, but it is certainly food for thought.  I highly recommend it if you are at all interested in the psychology behind parenting/child rearing.  I cannot get enough of the stuff because who wouldn't want to try to get everything right?

  

Some Good Things

Yeah, the Saints lost...and we all walked around feeling punched in the gut for a while there, particularly on the heels of the ugly LSU loss...but so it goes in the world of stuff.  In the wake of all the sadness, though, we woke up to an incredibly beautiful day, most of which we spent outside (feeding the ducks at Audubon Park, a nice long walk, soccer practice at the fly, cafe du monde and a French Quarter stroll).   And there is other good stuff - I have the day off tomorrow, my first official MLK holiday in 10 years.  (Unofficially, however, I have plenty of work to do and need to find about 3 quiet hours to get some work done.)  We had a Haydel's king cake tonight after dinner with a lovely Chilean lady who is in town for a few weeks as part of an exchange program with the Sacred Heart school in Chile.  Haydel's still reigns as my favorite king cake in the city (it helps that they give you a cool porcelain figurine, a go cup, Mardi Gras beads and a choice of "Saints colors" or "traditional").  Which brings me to another good thing....Mardi Gras is just a few short weeks away...and you can feel it all across the city.  It helps take the blues away.

 

King Cake Season

Have you had one of these yet?

We are just 4 days in and I have already had two pieces of king cake.  It is a good thing that Mardi Gras is only a little over a month away.  So far I have had a Rouses cinnamon/traditional king cake (I never eat filled king cakes, ever - I do have limitations) and a king cake from the Cake Palace which is somewhere in Kenner but they also make their king cakes available at the P.J.s near our house.  Again, I had a cinnamon/traditional.  Of the two, my favorite was the Cake Palace king cake, better all around on all areas where I give marks (cake consistency, icing, amount of cinnamon, portability, type of baby inside).  The Rouses was okay but it was VERY dry.  

By the end of the season last year I realized that I am no longer a  McKenzie's purist.  I still appreciate the simplicity of the brioche-style cake, but I absolutely love the cinnamon and (gasp) the copious amounts of white icing that appears on most cakes underneath the obligatory purple, green and gold granules.  My favorites last year were Diane Randazzo's and Haydel's.  If the lines ever go down or someone brings me one I will try them both again, until then, I will likely sample everything else in between.

Jamesy Is Three!

We celebrated James' 3rd birthday with pony rides at the park down the street.  We lucked out with incredibly mild weather, well-behaved ponies, and enthusiastic kids.  It was a simple and lovely birthday celebration but it will always be a memory that stands out because of the incredible serendipity... a perfectly timed visit by the Roman Candy Man right before we sang happy birthday and cut James' birthday king cake, a sea of Saints jerseys on tiny bodies that took over the otherwise quiet playground and the end of a fabulous day capped off with followed by an incredible Saints victory and, unbelievably, there is still more celebrating and fun to come.

James' very special birthday is celebrated at a very special time in a very special city.

Photo Overload

I finally moved 300 photographs from my memory card to the hard drive.  It took almost an hour as the communication between the computer and my Rebel is deteriorating (and I have no idea why at this point).  At any rate, there are photographs dating back to early December that I need to sift through and, eventually, share.  Until then, here is a cute one of Luz and James with their cousin, Liam at Stone Mt. for the Snow Moutain Extravaganza (if you live in the ATL area, have kids and have not checked this place out, GO). I did not take as many pictures as I would have liked to while we were in Atlanta because my camera battery died.  To make matters worse, it died before I was able to capture a picture of the cousins together - Pete is sneaky.

On another note, I cannot BELIEVE that James is going to be 3 on Monday.  Once you are 3 you are officially more a kid than you are a toddler.  To say my heart is aching is inadequate.

Hey There 2012

We are back in NOLA after a lovely week in Atlanta filled with, in no particular order, the following awesomeness:

1.  tons of times with family and friends we do not see often enough;
2.  late bedtimes and mornings spent in pjs, lounging around;
3.  some incredible (but hilly) runs in a beautiful public park;
4.  great meals;
5.  a night in one of the most luxurious hotels I have ever been in;
6.  a trip to Ikea and H&M;
7.  my first-ever trip to Stone Mountain, GA;
8.  a late afternoon arrival in NOLA to our house mid-way through a massive, much-needed paint job.

There are tons of exciting things going on over the next few weeks and, although I am not totally psyched about getting back in to the routine and I am going to be in a bit of a post-holiday funk (especially when my sweet sissy heads back to NYC on Wednesday), I am looking forward to James' 3rd birthday, the start  of the Mardi Gras season, a freshly painted house, friends in and out of town for various football games and events over the next few weeks and whatever other blessings 2012 has in store.