1, 2, 3, 4, Dinosaurs

Zachary has gotten into dinosaurs that past month. Not in the traditional boy way where you can name all the dinosaurs and play with brontosaurus and tell me which eat other dinosaurs and which is the biggest and smallest, but in a uniquely Zachary way.

Let me back up a bit and give some history. Zachary got a bunch of dinosaur and reptile and amphibian plastic toys from our 6 year old neighbor Jonah, who according to his mom, had enough to spare. He's been enjoying those a lot and got a little interested in dinosaurs, especially when our other neighbor friend likes to play "growl like a dinosaur" and the boys start chasing each other growling. Then add in a trip to the Texas Memorial Museum on the UT Campus last month. Greg had an all day Saturday conference on the campus and Zachary and I decided it would be a good time to go explore, walk around all day and see Daddy at his breaks. We hiked around campus and made our way over to the museum. Zachary was not impressed by the rocks and the gems, so we headed 1st floor to the Hall of Geology and Paleontology (where my favorite dinosaur is housed). He was at first intrigued and then very quickly got freaked out and wanted to go. But this is the kid who spends hours growling like a dinosaur and I was determined to make him look at just a little of it (esp. when 6 month pregnant mama walked across campus to get here and wanted some AC!). I picked him up and took him around and explained what different animals and dinosaurs and fossils were. We found sea animals and turtle fossils and wacky fish fossils, but the ones with the big big teeth kept freaking him out.

So using my mama scientist/teacher brain, I proceeded to explain that what we were looking at (a very not scary looking dead animal with very small teeth) was just the bones. No skin. That didn't sink in so I reminded him that he has bones under his skin. Lightbulb moment because he's been way into poking us and asking about our bones lately. "Yup, the skin is gone and all that is left is the bones. See, here's the head and here's the cheeks and here are where the eyes are, see? Feel mommy's cheeks and see how I have squishy spots where my eyes are. Ouch, gentle touch please"... well then he got it and then seemed to be enjoying looking at them. We talked about how the scientists found the bones and dug them out of the ground, just like we do at the Nature and Science Center. "Remember how we dig them out with shovels and brush away the dirt?" Then I explained that the scientists brought the bones back to the museum and they put them back together and Viola, skeletons at the museum.

Now fast forward a few weeks. Small son starts asking about how the dinosaurs got in the dirt. I explain they died and then got covered with dirt and then were found a long long time later by the scientists. Now starts up the "it died. It is dead" phase. Everything begins to be dead and to die. He begins to tell Greg how all these different things have died and were covered with dirt and sand. He asks me if the dirt will cover him when he is dead and if the scientists will carry his bones back to the museum after they've dug them up. This line of conversation has been going on for weeks, especially after we got back from the beach, where we did a lot of digging in the sand and after two weeks of dinosaurs theme in his preschool classroom.

So here's the fun part. At bedtime, part of our going to sleep ritual after Greg has completed all his daddy rites of sleep is that I go in and sing him a few songs and say a prayer (included in the prayers is our dinner prayer). So I sing him Hush Little Baby (Sylvia Long style) and a Sarah Hickman song and then a Beatles lullabye and he insists that I sing him the dinosaur song. I tell him I don't know it and can he sing it to me, assuming he'll break into song that he learned at school that week.

Well the song starts with "There are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11-teen, 13, 14, 17, 18, 13 Dinosaurs. Living on the Beach." (complete with crescendos and high and low notes). "1 died. and that left 3." .... the song proceeds till no dinosaurs are left on the beach. Then "the scientists dig up them bones. And take them back to the museum and put them back together again."

So we've been singing this as one of our goodnight songs the past week. The song has been shortened by mom... we count to 10 and then 1 dies and my bad math makes it 3. All the dinosaurs die till there are none on the beach and then we sing that there are no dinosaurs left. For a while I encouraged the dinosaurs to take off swimming or going for a walk or to dinner, but he's insisting that they die.

Crazy child. We are raising some poor kid who will be a nerd just like his mom and dad. I'm so proud.

3rd year birthday

My little guy turned 3 years old. We had a fabulous birthday and he's completely into birthdays, cake and presents. He kept wishing Greg and I a happy birthday too, so he's also into sharing the fun.

We splurged and got the boy a bike. A real bike too, a Specialized 12 inch wheeled bike. He loves it. Compass bell included. He has already crashed it 3 times into the woods as well and was a real trooper about it all.

We enjoyed cooking steaks and beets and spaetzle noodles for dinner. We opened presents and ate cupcakes at the park (his request to go to the park to eat the cupcakes and we obliged). We also had a small party with 3 of his friends and their families at Zilker Park, where we rode the Zilker Zephyr and ate cake and played. We kept things very simple and he had an fabulous time and we're enjoying our little guy getting older.

Senna

A few weeks ago, we bid a bittersweet farewell to our dog, Senna. Greg and I adopted Senna 6 summers ago from Town Lake Animal Shelter and she was our first fuzzy daughter (legitimate, that is. Maya the cat was from pre-marriage). She's been a member of the family and we miss her. But, when we realized we were about to become a family of 4 with 2 pets in a 1400 square foot house with an itsy bitsy yard, we decided that we couldn't handle Senna's sad eyes staring at us when we took care of our human kids first. So we were lucky enough to find friends who wanted to start their family and Senna is a welcome addition to their family of 3. We're so grateful to them and know that Senna is happy again.

We love you, Sennacita.

Sandy and Windy

For Mother's Day weekend and simply just for a break, we headed to Port Aransas last week for 4 days and 3 nights of sand and saltwater. We left on Thursday before naptime and arrived early in the evening. Favorite quotes from our drive were "why are we going to the beach" about a zillion times. Favorite pictures from the drive were Zachary using his potty on the side of the road by the Guadalupe River outside of Gonzales.

We headed straight to the beach after checking into the motel and I was delighted to see Zachary attack the beach with such force. He loved it. We had to peel him from the sand covered sidewalks at the beach entrance and once he discovered the water, the wet sand, the shells, the unlimited fun, there was no turning back. Literally. He wouldn't go back to our little new house (as he liked to call our 50's beach motel). He was totally into the beach and we were delighted. He loved being wet, sandy, covered in sunscreen, beach snacks and wet sand. He loved splashing in waves, going into the deep water, sitting on his beach chair early Friday morning when he got cold "just watching the waves" as he told me. We loved his enthusiasm and enjoyed our last trip together as a family of 3.

I look forward to heading back next year to the beach again, taking enthusiastic Zachary and baby boy 2. We'll have fun and I'm sure Zachary will make sure his little brother enjoys himself too.

Bella Luna

Last night, as we were leaving the stores from shoe shopping, I pointed out the moon to Zachary.

"Look, it's the moon".

"No, it is not the moon. It is bella luna."

Broke my little heart.

Then he said,

"I want to touch her, the bella luna."

"It's too high" I said.

"Maybe I can use a ladder to touch her, or a helicopter"...

Sweet stuff.

Creating the family vision

Greg said it today as we walked back to the car after lunch "This is what I have always visioned my family being."

This was in response to me tapping him on the shoulder to look back at our son. Zachary was slowly sauntering along the streetscape, his rain jacket bundled around him, hood on and his arm stretched out and his fingers brushing along each of the black metal rails of the fence next to the restaurant patio. He was walking his own path to his own time but in step with us as we casually walked from lunch at Jo's around the block to our car on a drizzly grey afternoon. These are the slow moments that we've envisioned our family being about. These types of moments are what I cherish the most about my best friend and husband Greg and seeing our small son enjoying the same peaceful moments as we slowly made our way around the block made the moment something I'll cherish forever.

I am happy I tapped Greg on the arm and told him to look back. Taking that moment to point it out has created a memory forever.

Happy Birthday Fishes

Here is Zachary and his 5 year old cousin Ian, enjoying hanging out with Nana and Papa a few weekends ago. Turns out while we were at dinner with friends, Zachary and Ian got to serenade the fish about 50 times. Lucky fish!

Happy Valentine's Day

We made our own Valentine's this year and I'm so happy I started Zachary out the right way. He is so into Valentine's now. Every heart is a Valentine, even Maya's tiny heart shaped tag on her collar. He loved taking his huge, glitter encased and foil red heart doily Valentine's to school and couldn't wait to give them to his school friends. He keeps opening his Valentine bag and pouring out the cards. He voraciously enjoyed his lollipop yesterday and even gave the other one to Greg "because I saved it for you Daddy".

Today we had a wonderful playgroup, ate scrumptious cupcakes, gave stickers to our friends and after nap we are going to make the last of our sugar cookies that we will share with Greg and his coworkers. These will be transportation themed because that is what Zachary wants and well, giving train and plane and car shaped cookies to transportation planners is just more fun.

What I have learned is that Zachary is very open and receptive to creating traditions and loves occasions that are marked by the creation of special things. Glitter and glue and construction paper turn into gifts for friends, food shared with others brings delight and time together creating with love creates the intentions that we want to live by.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Bathtub conversations

From the tub today as Greg wrapped Zachary in his towels:

Greg: Zachary, these towels are getting too small for you and I can barely wrap it around you. We will have to give them to the new baby and then we can wrap them around your new brother or sister.

Zachary: Daddy, I am not a tiny baby. I am a big boy.

Greg: Yes Zachary, you are a big boy.

Zachary: We will have a tiny baby.

Greg: Yes, we will. You will have a baby brother or a baby sister. And you will be the big brother.

Zachary: I am not a tiny baby. I am a big boy. I will be a big brother. I will have a baby sister.

Greg: Oh really. You want a sister.

Zachary: No, we will have a brother.

Greg: Well, I can guarantee you will either have a brother or a sister. Which one do you want.

Zachary: I want two.


We will make Zachary a big brother come late August, but we won't grant his request of having two!

What happened here?

The last few weeks have been a blur. I have been flopping between one cold to another and when I start to feel better, pregnancy fatigue mixed with
nausea takes over. I haven't been able to be the world's best mom or wife or friend these past few weeks either.

The last month has been one of those insane, mothering is kicking my ass type of months. I really do adore this job, which might surprise a few people, but it has all the job descriptions I have been looking for in a "real" job.. flexible hours (sort of!), lots of time outside, environmental education, gardening, good food, laughter, not many computer technical skills necessary, painting, construction, field trips, spontaneous outings to parks and streams, visiting Greg at work at random hours. But this month I just haven't been on my game and I am looking forward to the fun days of Spring and 2nd trimester ahead when I will be better situated to be a good mommy and do a good job.

Birthdays and Christmas cheer at CasaGriffin

This weekend was filled with simple seasonal pleasures. Zachary and I enjoyed ourselves at our Saturday morning trip to the Farmers Market, where we came home with a cornucopia of fabulous greens from our CSA, a bag of tangerines and 2 bags of the last of the season apples. Poor Zachary won't have any more tiny apples for a little while. After naps, we picked up Madam Mam's and headed over to the Capital for the annual tree lighting and sing-a-long. We ran into a few friends, sang songs, ran around the grounds and cruised up and down Congress Avenue taking in music and the lights.

On Sunday, we celebrated Greg's Birthday. We picked up our buddies in BBQ and adventure, Peter and Rebecca, and drove to Elgin, where we ate sausage and brisket at Southside Market. Then we headed over to Evergreen Christmas Tree farm. Talk about fun. Zachary immediately spotted the tractor and hay wagon and we hopped on and headed out to the tree fields. We roamed the trees, avoided the ant mounds and cactus plants (this is Texas!) and picked our trees and chopped them down. We enjoyed the games and pinecone painting and wished it wasn't 80 degrees outside so we would want to roast marshmallows in the firepits.

At home, we ate a birthday dinner for Greg, had cupcakes to Zachary's delight and decorated the Christmas tree. Our tree is a bit wooley... That is we picked one that was less trimmed and more wild, which looks great in the sandy soils of pine tree country but a little big in our tiny living room. But after some selective trimming, we decked the tree out in holiday cheer.

I think it was a great way to welcome in the holidays and to celebrate Greg's birthday. Friends, songs, bbq and trees.

Conversations from the backseat

Yesterday, after picking Zachary up from school, we were chatting on our drive home and he was telling me about things he saw out the window in downtown.

"Mommy. That's silly. Mommy, that is funny."

"Yes it is honey."

"Mommy. I am silly. I am silly and funny."

"Yes Zachary, you are silly and funny."

Really, the kid is silly. And funny. Truly, I didn't know a 2 year old could be so silly and so funny.

2 AND a half

As of last week, my little Zachary is 2 and a half. Not 30 months, 2 years and a half. No longer do I have to add up months, I can just tell 2 1/2. How time has flown and I'm still not sure how we have gotten here so fast.

My little guy has gone through his independent 2 year old stage (what others might term Terrible Two's)... we came through it with a fabulous independent little person who yearns to do everything on his own and to do it on his terms. He gets into his own carseat, buckles the top buckle, gets out himself. Don't do it for him or else you won't be leaving the garage anytime soon. He puts on his own shoes, decides if he'll be going down the slide by himself or not, demands to open the door to the house, let the dog out, and so on. I think my favorite is when you do something he wants to do, like put away books after reading. He'll go over to the bookshelf and state "No. I do it myself" and remove the book and then proceed to put it away. Again.

Once we realized the benefits of this new independent nature, we've been sailing through toddlerhood in a much easier ride. It can be so much easier to just pick up the little guy and put him where you want him, but respecting his decisions, his voice and his wants is much harder for us. But once we learned to deal with it and give in, we've enjoyed our job as parents so much more.

Anniversary

Today is our 7 year anniversary. Seven years. We got married after having dating seven years. We've been a couple for 14 years and have been friends for 15 years. That's almost half of our lives. I think that I am probably one of the luckiest people out there to have met my soul mate so young, to have kept a hold of him and to have grown together and to be lucky enough to marry him.

I love him. I love our family. I can't believe how time has flown. I can't believe that we are now three. Tonight in the fall crisp air in 2000, we danced under the stars . We enjoyed the company of our closest friends and our family. We danced the chicken dance and laughed at our mothers, grandmothers and friends mothers dancing with us. It was fabulous. But nothing compared to the life we have lived together since then.

What a journey. Mr. Greg, I look forward to the journey ahead of us.















photos by: Sarah Bork Hamilton

Ohh, I thought of another one.. add on to earlier post

See that picture down below from this summer, the one with his "camera bagel".... yup that one. Kiddo likes to take pictures with anything that he can put across his eyes and pretend it's a camera. Today it was my Blue Bell ice cream stick (yummy yummy).. He held it up to his face, put it in front of his eyes and announced that he was taking my picture. "Mommy. Say cheese. I take your picture. See Mommy, look at your picture"... He does this with sticks, with food, with his harmonica, with a bagel... cracks me up every time.

Okay, now that I'm thinking. Something that he hardly does anymore but still does occasionally. At some point this summer he started grabbing his microphone and would shout into it "Twwwoooo Winners!!" Again and again and again. Don't know where he got this from. I figure some TV show. Yesterday he demonstrated while running up the Observation Hill at Town Lake Park that he knows what "I win" means as he exclaimed it as he got to the top before me (I let him win.).

Oh, and he is no longer Zachary-baby as of last week. He now calls himself Zacharyroni - like macaroni. I realize I've called him Zachary-doodle and Zachary-roni-like-a-pepperoni before but I guess he liked the last one. Now it's "Zacharyroni is going to get chocolate milk. Zacharyroni wants to play trains"... I'm sad that I probably never got him saying Zachary-baby on film. Sigh. A lifetime of sighs I guess.

Conversations

Conversations with Zachary these days are hilarious, entertaining and absolutely delightful. He is playing pretend, makes up situations, creates words and phrases all his own and also knows how to ham things up for a laugh.

Take yesterday. Greg and him are outside painting a little wooden biplane he got as a party favor. They are painting the wheels. Zachary calls the different wheels "milk" and "other side". That's what he calls, well, me or more precisely, my breasts. Milk and other side. And he's very particular about which is which. You can also ask him on himself and he'll consistently answer the same way (yes and for those of you who didn't know that we are still nursing at 28 months, get your jaws off the floor! It's not the end of the world!).

What else? Well, milkstache has morphed now into whatever he is drinking or eating + stache. "Mommy, I have a waterstache. I have a yogurtstache" Funny stuff. More. Roosters say "toot a tottle tooo". Last week we were playing playdough, his all time favorite activity right now and we made a few brown dogs with this press thing. I'm off in the side yard pulling weeds and he is squishing each of the brown dogs into butterflies and saying "Brown dog brown dog, what do you see? I see a brown butterfly looking at me"... he loves that book and we play "what do you see" all the time.

Oh, towels and tents and forts. The kid could live under a towel. He loves hiding. He loves being found. He yells "Found You" when you find him. He hides under the towel at the end of bath every night. He hides under the blankets on my bed. He rips off the throws from the couch and makes a fort between the chairs and hides there. He races across the room when I am folding sheets to hide under them.

Others: Eieio pants. That's what he calls any pants that are overalls or plaid/striped. Anything that looks like it could be Biscuit and Beauford from the Biscuit Brother pants. He loves them.

More later. I should go sleep. It's just that I'm constantly thinking about wonderful things to write down that Zachary does and I'm always super busy chasing him, playing, painting, chasing him some more, reading books, dealing with sleep, trying to make him sit and eat just a bite that I never get a good solid chance to sit down and write those fleeting but thrilling thoughts. That's the life of a parent.

Trains

IMG_0110
Originally uploaded by CasaGriffin

We went to Fort Worth recently via Amtrak. I'm not sure who had more fun, Zachary or Greg. Does it really matter?! Now Amtrak is not for the impatient folks who require everything to happen exactly as the schedule says, but it is for those who like the romance of the tracks, the choo choo of the engine and scenery you don't normally see from a car or plane.

We enjoyed ourselves. Zachary was tickled to be on the train. Everytime the train sounded it's horn, he looked for the train. I had to remind him that WE were that train. He loved running everywhere, loved looking out the windows, climbing all over the seats, watching cows and other trains from the window.

On our way home on Saturday, we got a sleeperete.. a tiny room with 2 seats and a pull down bed. It also came with a full dinner in the dining car, a shower for the whole family, and a place for Zachary to sleep. I'd highly recommend the tiny sleeper cars.

We'll go again soon. Greg wants to go everywhere via train now. Zachary expects a train to transport him to all locations too. Just like Daddy.....

Rainy Days

So here is how you make it through an extremely wet, rainy Friday when you are housebound by lack of car. You create one activity after another. We started our rainy day by watching a little more Sesame Street and Biscuit Brothers than we normally do. This allowed the mama to drink an extra cup of coffee or two and to have some rainy day induced down time before breaking out her bag of tricks.

To divert wee little one from the television marathon, I offered up the suggestion of making bagels. Of course he was delighted to help. Climbing up on his stool, he began to bark orders... "salt please. baking soda please". We mixed up dough and he rolled and kneaded his little section and I kneaded my portion. After we finished the dough and left it to rise, it was nap time. After nap we shaped the bagels and boiled them. Zachary enjoyed stacking and restacking his bagels on the pan.

He also enjoyed playing camera with his bagel.

After consuming a few hot bagels from the oven under his tent (aka quilt between chairs) in the living room, we moved on to the next task. Since it was again pouring outside, I brought in his race car. Since it had been on the side yard porch for the past few weeks, it was covered with spiderwebs and rollypollies and grass. I figured I would vacuum it off and he could race around the living room. Instead, he spent the next half hour vacuuming the car and the house. Who knew!

Later in the day, we put on our bee boots and grabbed babes new umbrella and headed outside for some puddle splashing and to check out the digger at the end of the block that is being used to fix the trail. Of course, by the time we made it to the end, the rain was coming down again. No coats on us, just some water shoes and a toddler sized umbrella. We stood in the rain admiring the digger for about 15 minutes and then walked home, or actually I carried the toddler home under the tiny umbrella and made sure his bee boots didn't fall off. We got back, soaked but happy. Upon changing clothing, we ate some more snacks and got ready to head out to play.

We met up with our friends for dinner. After filling up on chips, salsa and tasty Mexican at La Reyna, we headed over to the Bob Bullock Museum for some free music - a Ska band - and toured the museum. Zachary was delighted to have his best little dude buddy, Levi, for company. They were crazy toddlers, running, spinning, singing, laughing and sweetly being friends.

When our darlings were about to turn into pumpkins, we all headed back to our cars and headed home. After an extra lap or two of the neighborhood, Zachary fell asleep and we ended our rainy day.

Zacharyisms

I've got to write these down before I forget them. Zachary has all these "isms" that are his and his alone and they are adorable and sweet.

- Aah Choo mama - When one of us sneezes, he replies with "Aah Choo, Big Sneeze" This Zacharyism is also applied to flatulence. When the dog farts, he replies, "ah cho poopoo Senna"

- Milkstash - What he calls his milk mustache

- Happy Cake - This has taken the place of Happy Birthday. He sings "Happy Cake to You" all the time. Yesterday when we were at Bookpeople, Happy Birthday was sung over the PA system to an employee. Zachary grabs my hand and takes off from the children's book section. I ask what's up... "Happy Cake? Where is Happy Cake?" Can you tell what this child likes?



More to come as I remember them or hear them.

I'm a Super Nutty, Ultra-Crunchy Granola Earth Mama

I don't usually do many of these sort of surveys, but this one looked like fun. Not much of a surprise that I'm a Granola Earth Mom according to this one. I had a friend in college who called me "Granola crunch crunch" and I think I'm one of the few people in Austin who has more Birkenstocks in her shoe collection than other shoes, and wears them daily. I scored a 129 on this one... If I'd birthed at home and made my own organic diapers, I would have scored higher.

http://www.naturalmotheringutah.org/granolafactorquiz.htm

Happy Fourth of July

Happy 4th of July. I realized today that this is Zachary's 3rd Fourth of July. His first was in San Marcos and he helped celebrate the holiday with his Nana and Papa on the river when he was almost 6 weeks old. Last year he took his very first steps at Little Stacy Park and we ate a lovely dinner at the Haller's house and watched fireworks from Daddy's office building parking garage. This year we started the day by organizing a neighborhood playdate at the park. Lots of families braved the drizzle and humidity and came out, which was exciting. After nap, we went to a friends house to play with lots of other toddlers and their parents and eat wonderful food and fabulous hot dogs (Thanks Katie!) and get muddy and run wild. Afterwards, we drove back into town, parked our car and rode our bikes over to Zilker Park. We grabbed a spot near the Symphony, enjoyed the music and some hot wings and watched the fireworks. Zachary loved them this year. He was talking about them all day in anticipation. "Fireworks. Pop. Bang"... While we were watching, he kept reaching up with both hands and tried to catch the fireworks.

Other fun from today. I caught Zachary singing the Beatles Blackbird today. Sweet. He also insisted on bringing Macie doll with him today. "Macie come too? Peeeaaase?"

Happy 4th of July all.

Summer fun

Today while eating lunch, I look over at Zachary, who has a few black olives on his fingertips and is eating them one at a time. "Hey Zachary, what do you have on your finger?" I ask. "A plum"....a what I wonder? "Stuck in my thumb. Pulled out plum" he responds..... So I haven't read the kid the Mother Goose in a few months (those things whig me out) and Greg says it's been at least a few weeks since he read any Mother Goose and that Little Jack who was such a good boy story. Anyways, things like this just keep pouring from is little self. I'm amazed daily at how much he knows, how his words are all there, how he follows the conversations Greg and I are having and gets it. We had his 2 year checkup last week. Dr. Ward shines his little flashlight thing on the ceiling and Zachary looks up, points and says "A light. Up here".... The Doc. starts to say "What great words. You use them very well" when Zachary starts a soliloquy about "Look, the light. It is the Moon. Up here"... The Doc stopped his "good words" at that point. Yup, kid has imagination.

We now have to play puppets all. day. long. He loves to grab a stuffed animal and make them talk to the mama animal. He'll hand me somthing and say "mama talk" and I have to talk and make it move. He always starts the conversation with a "Hiiiiiii" in this slightly higher pitch voice. Tonight at dinner he said "hi" to the ice cream cone at Mr. Natural. He said "Hi" to the helmet and the cow in his barn. He is great about talking to anything he hopes will bounce around and have a play conversation back.

I love this kid.

Big Smile. Peeaasse.

Zachary has learned to smile on command. And he uses this new found talent all the time. Cameras come out and my little man announces "Big Smile.Pease" and then puts on the goofiest and cutest smile ever. We were at a wedding over the weekend and he announced this everytime the camera came out.

He is a hilarious kid. I laugh all day long. He cracks me up and he knows it. And I love it.

Mother's Day...

We started Mother's Day with a little haircut for Zachary. I couldn't stand to cut his lovely locks, but once the baby mullet was gone, I think he looks pretty cute. We had a very busy but lazy day. We started the day slow, played outside, did a Mom's day car cleaning (thank goodness!), then Zachary napped and when he got up, we packed up, went bathing suit shopping for me and then headed to Central Market and got some picnic food for our evening. Then we headed to Barton Springs for some swimming. I had a nice relaxing swim down the pool and Zachary enjoyed playing at the pool edge. After swimming, we walked over to the Zilker Hillside Theatre for a Mom's Day concert by the Austin Symphonic Band. Talk about a lovely evening. Zachary was beside himself. He ate tamales and fruit and chocolate milk and conducted the orchestra and we all hung out drying in our suits under our clothes and enjoyed the weather and no skeeters either! We had a little extra long drive home trying to get Zachary to sleep and he finally conked out and we're happy campers.

My little green bean

This afternoon in the garden, after Greg got home and just before we had a lovely dinner together, Zachary came into the backyard to help me in the garden. He came over and pointed to the purple green beans and said, "umm umm" which translates to "tell me tell me". I told him that was the green bean that we planted, that the flower had turned into the bean and the bean had gotten big enough to eat. He replied with an "eat eat" and we picked it and he put it into his mouth and bit it, the bean snapped with freshness and my dear son lit up with delight. He ate it up and asked for more. I beamed with pride as my son gobbled up the green beans that we had planted together, watered together and tended to over the past month.

I'm amazed at how easily we can influence and impact these little people. I knew the power that parents had, but I had no real idea how influential we could be. My son is turning into a more educated and curious naturalist than I will ever be. I am so excited, so proud. I'm delighted to say the least. Plus, he likes green beans

Amen

Zachary is so alive. So much activity, so much new awakenings everyday. We've entered the world of 4 and 5 word sentences, which are delightful and cryptic. He's saying everything, communicating with us and delighting me with who he is. I'm as much in love with him as a person as I am with his daddy. Funny thing. I'm still mystified daily that there his a third person sitting on my couch somedays. Thing is this other person is this tiny little guy with a baldish head!

Dinner tonight was delightful. We all sat down at the table and I start eating and look at Zachary and he's sitting there with his hands folded in front of him and saying "more office. More office"... not sure how he got that, but he wanted us to pray. He loves it when we say grace and asks for more each time. He has on occasion folded his hands, but never as a request for prayer. At the end of the Lutheran common prayer, he said "Amen"..... Delightfully sweet.

While Zachary and Greg were playing today, he started saying "Where are you" which comes out "weeerrrRRRRRUUUUU" . He was filling the bird feeder with Greg and was looking for the birds. He kept saying "where are you birds. Food birds. Fill bird food full. Come birds" Oh my gosh I'm delighted.

He's also into sitting at the table and saying "I got it. FLY." At a dinner a week or so, Greg attempted to swat at a fly that was buzzing us and that started a new dinner tradition of pretending to catch a fly and then hold hands above our heads and proclaim "I got it. FLY."... He's also enjoying picking up my seashells, holding them to his ear and saying, "Listen. Ocean. Listen, Dolphin"..... Fabulous.

I'm blown away by him. Makes it so much easier for me to be here at home with him when he's a delight, but I'm just so amazed and so in love........

Second Baby blues???

Hold your horses cowboy. No, we are not having a second baby. But we've been thinking about it a lot lately. We've actually been thinking about not having another baby. For at least now that is. This line of thought seems to really throw some of our friends and family into a tizzy. Many of our friends are having baby number 2 or 3. Many have children the same age as Zachary and are pregnant, due in a few weeks, or trying for their next child. I am delighted for them but at the same time, not ready for another child. This weekend I held a 7 day old baby girl. She was lovely, simply perfect but didn't get any of those baby making hormones to start running. Greg and I have always said that we have the love in our heart for another child but that we just don't need ne right now. I think to better explain the line of thought is that we know that love is infinite and that we can continue to grow our love and that if we were blessed with another child that our love would expand to love the new child. That's great, I don't doubt that at all. But here's the deal. I really like what we have right now. Really really like it. My love for my son, my love husband, my love for what we are creating as a family together is so incredibly strong. I don't want to do anything right now that might tip the scales and throw the balance off. Selfish, I know, but parenting is that way. I am just getting used to everything, just beginning to recognize my life again as my life. Becoming a parent was such a huge change and everything that I knew before was now different and now everything that changed is becoming familiar to me. It is all really really good right now. So I don't want to do anything right now to change it. Having another child would change my incredible love for my son and for my husband. I don't want to change things right now. I am not sure if I want to change things so dramatically again anytime soon. Greg and I had over 10 years of establishing ourselves together before we had the baby. We've been working hard to incorporate being parents and friends and to begin to recognize ourselves in our new job descriptions. So for now, this is what we are going to do. We are going to just relish in the good times and enjoy having our son in our lives. No matter if folks think us to be wierd or whatever.......

Ice Storm 2007

We survived Ice Storm 2007. Greg was home for 2 1/2 days plus the Monday for MLK day, so we had a great time being stuck at home with everyone. We played a lot, we baked bread and cookies and muffins (see a theme here). We did a lot of painting and coloring and playdough and short, cold walks outside. We installed a closet system in Zachary's room and I organized the pantry and we went to Randalls one evening for supplies and we let Zachary run all over the place. Great place to take a housebound toddler during an ice storm! Overall, we had a really good time having to stay inside and be together as a family. But I did enjoy getting out this morning and heading to the Children's Museum for a little fun but now I really miss the beautiful icicles hanging from my house and the frozen grass that crunched under my feet and the frozen toys and having Greg home.

Birthdays and Graduation, a good day indeed....

Yesterday was my birthday. Yesterday I graduated from Graduate School. Very good day and a long time coming. It has been a few challenging months leading up to this day. I've been working like a crazy woman trying to finish by all the deadlines in the Graduate College. I took my oral comprehensive exams months ago, finished writing my final draft in October and have been editing and re-editing the thesis a few billion times. But it is done. All done. Complete. Never again. I am going to take a few months off and just be Mommy. I'm going to get through the holidays, going to finish unpacking a few boxes, organize some closets, play with my son, laugh with my husband.

Husband....while I'm on that thought, what an incredible man. Without him, I'd never finished. Thank you thank you thank you.

I had a great day. My dad met us in San Marcos. I walked the stage, talked to a lovely guy during graduation about his life, his fiance, and then opened gifts from my parents - birthday and graduation gifts, so nice, at the Fish Hatchery on the steps. Afterwards we enjoyed the gorgeous day by getting an early dinner at a cafe and ate on the front porch. The restaurant actually is the first house that Greg and I looked at buying in San Marcos. Kinda a nice way to end an era in San Marcos, wouldn't you say. Of course we drove by the old house - fitting and we realized that we can really move on now. We said 6 years ago that we were buying the place so that we could go to school and once we were done, we could move on. Now we can and we have. Anyways, that's our day and I loved every moment of it... it was quiet, not a big to-do, just my husband, my darling son and my dad. Perfect....

Weekly update

Zachary is enjoying his bathtimes these days. He likes to lay down in the tub and blow bubbles. It is stinkin' cute too cause his little naked tush sticks up out of the water as he plays. He also stands in front of the faucet and captures water in a bowl and blows bubbles into the dish. Yesterday we played outside on the lawn in the afternoon and watered the plants and he kept taking drinks from the faucet. Of course this led to soaking wet Zachary, but who cares. He adores the water and is quite a waterbug. I think we'll head to Big Stacy Pool and enjoy the 85+ degree weather this afternoon. Can you believe that, it is November and we will be going swimming! Guess it helps make up for the 30-some-odd days of 100+ degree heat that we suffered, but survived, through this summer.

Last week was Halloween and we had a lot of fun. We went to a party with around 30 other 1 year olds and Zachary and Greg had a ball. We did a little trick or treating too. I had my thesis defense on Halloween that afternoon and afterwards we ran out to the Outlet Malls in San Marcos and on our way home Zachary fell asleep. Luckily he woke up after the doorbell rang for the umpteenth time. We put him in his turtle outfit and hit the candy trail. We met a few neighbors, collected some candy and checked out lots of great decorations and costumes. Our neighborhood really goes all out for Halloween and boy-howdy, were there trick-or-treaters! Zachary had a great time checking out the big kids costumes, pointing at lights and pumpkins and enjoyed a piece of chocolate or two as well.

Chronicaling the cute, the sweet, and the non-forgettables

Every day Zachary does something that makes my heart bubble over. I tell myself at that moment that I must not forget it, I must write it down. As well intentioned as I am, it doesn't always get done. I hope my dear little bird will forgive me in the future and instead be happy with the love I gave him in other ways. So in order to chronicle some of them, here are a few cute ones from this week.

* AAaahhhh.. I have taught Zachary to say aaahhh after finishing a drink. I did this originally to be funny, but now he just does it. However to make it super sweet, here's what he did this week. On Monday when he woke from his afternoon nap, he signed milk and we settled into the rocker for a little baby nuzzle time. He took a quick nip and looked up at me and said "Aaaahh" with the sweetest smile. I almost died from the cuteness.

* Orange juice. The way he says OJ is sweet. Ung-juice.

* Go Gaw-gai = Go Outside. He sounds like he's speaking Thai but when he's pounding the door yelling GO GAW-GAI we know what he wants. I think it's a combo of go outside with go bye.

* The use of the word other. Other shoe, other kitty, other drink.

* Mommy! He now yells MOMMY when he's looking for me. We also play MOMMY-BABY, which is him saying mommy and me repeating with a Baby and I differ the ups and downs in the speech and he repeats them. Very musical in a very loud way.

* The tap. He now taps my shoulder with sweet little pokes and accompanies it with a Mommy and once he has my attention, he points to the thing of interest and proceeds with his Zachary speech.

That's a few for now. More to come later.

Hamilton Pool and lazy days

We went to Hamilton Pool on Sunday. We decided to change our Sunday plans (church, unpacking, naps) and just head out of town to the pool. I have been once years back with the kids from daycamp and Greg has never been. Crazy. It was the perfect day - in the upper 90's with scattered clouds. Zachary napped on the way out and woke up at the park. We loaded him into his Kelty backpack on Greg's back and headed to the pool. We found a spot in the shade on the rock beach and headed into the water. Zachary loved it. The fish there are totally tame - it's like jumping into a fish tank because all the sunfish and baby bass come swimming up to you and nibble your fingers and that delighted my little boy!

Old house woes...how a day goes downhill

Hi all. I need to rant, so don't proceed if you don't want to hear it.

So I started my morning out great, as Zachary slept well last night and didn't do any 3 am wake-and-screams and slept in till 8! My day took a turn for the worse at lunch, when I checked my email and found one from a friend in San Marcos who informed me that my former house in San Marcos had won Yard of the Month. What??!! Crazy. See, I drove by the old house a few months back and was shocked to tears by what I saw. The new owners of my 100+ year eclectic house on a half acre had chopped down all the 200 year old Ashe Junipers and cedar elm trees that were out front and planted god-awful palm trees. I was so sad because these trees were my friends- they were old and grand and beautiful and these people were turning my eclectic house into something austere and gaudy.. At that point I knew it wasn't my house anymore. Anyways, the article talks about how the new owners tried to get a landscaping company to remove the trees and how the company refused to remove them (yea, they were huge and old!)... It goes on to talk about discovering plants that had been shaded out ( Umm, no, I put in 4 in pot mountain laurels 2 years ago) and well, the whole thing made me cry, especially where the article said they were considering redoing the backyard, which has a few trees that are very old and I'm sure they plan on wiping those out too.

Then my day gets worse. Truly. We just moved into a new house and thought when we were house hunting that we'd taken care of our landlord. He agreed to let us out of our lease once we found a house. Then when we told him we had a house in May he said congrats. Then we told him our move out date in June he said we'd be liable for a renter. What!? Well, we didn't have the agreement on paper, so what could we do. Our landlord then increased the rent on the house and we've been looking for almost 2 months for a renter to no luck. So last time we talked, he said he'd find someone and came down on the rent and had 25 calls in 1 day- we figured he'd have someone in a matter of days. As of August 1 we were not paying rent. He keeps refusing to meet with us to let us return keys and do a walkthru and I was getting worried. We've been dumb and didn't get anything in writing. His lease agreement has nothing in it about reletting, etc. So as of this evening, we got an email saying we owe another months rent or else. Great..... What next, paying for our next 3 months of rent?? So now we have a lot of questions and I'm calling the Austin Tenant Council tomorrow in hopes of learning how screwed we actually are. I guess the worst case is we shell out a few grand for rent and loose our deposit. Not that I don't have better things to do with the money now that we are a 1 salary household...

Ok, so now I really need some tres leches and I ate the last of it last night. I'm thinking of making a drive to get something sweet and sugary...

Thanks for listening/ reading. On the bright side, Zachary went to sleep again before 9 pm and I am almost unboxed and the guys come to install a garage door opener tomorrow. That will be fun. I've never had a garage with an opener!

Just in case you want to read the dreaded article, here it is....
A Stucco Success Story
Even though it is only 50 feet wide, the landscaping at 1217 Chestnut, between Windmill Drive and Ridgeway is hard to miss.

To read the rest of the story, go to http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/apstorysection/local_story_215114008.html

July 4th festivities

He officially walked today. Yes, that's right. He took 4 huge steps. Ok, so he's taken a few steps now and then, but no more than 2 or 3 and only on a few occasions. But today while we were at Little Stacy Park, he just let go of the play house and walked from one side to another. Greg and I squealed with joy and Zachary just looked at us like we were crazy and then gave us the super grin! He has been walking holding onto us for months. He's graduated to barely holding onto a fingertip, but he just hasn't been interested in letting go. But today he finally did.

Then of course he decided to show off for our friends, the Hallers, at our 4th of July dinner. He took lots of good steps for his buddy Levi. We had a wonderful time, ate some tuna steaks and veggies, drank some vino and ate peach pie. The boys frolliked like puppies. We left their house and drove to Greg's office to watch the fireworks from the parking garage. We also got to watch the lightening show, which was spectacular as well. Zachary hung out in the Ergo with me and kept signing "Light, Light, Light" continuously.

Fun fun fun around here. Ever wonder why I don't blog that often?! I'm having too much fun with my boys.

Little Bird Painting

I totally forgot to write about Zachary's birthday gift. Actually, it is more like my gift from my mom for Zachary. I have been looking for artwork for Zachary's room for a long time and have debated what to do. Well a few months ago while I was at Cafe Caffeine trudging along on my thesis when I decided to slipped over to the Moxie to do a little window shopping. There I saw a few wonderful paintings that I adored. The incredible local artist is Shannon Lowry and she makes these incredible "cakes" that are exactly what I've been wanting. I forwarded her website to my mom just to share and never meant anything by it except wanting to show it to her.

At Zachary's birthday party, Mom keeps telling me to be careful with one certain gift and then she finally come over and says I should open this gift immediately. The gift bag has a huge box in it Inside the box filled with Austin newspapers is a small package wrapped in waxpaper. I start to open it and she's gotten me, and immediately get teary eyed and say "look, my little bird." Then I notice that the bird is saying "Zachary" which is when I lost it and began to cry.

I love the painting. It is hanging in Zachary's room above his bookshelf where I can see it from the rocking chair as I put my dear little son to sleep or read him books or just rock.