This and that

Hmm, seems my superfast/lazy means of uploading pictures (aka my eye-fi card, which shoots the pictures right to my computer) is failing me at the moment. Thus the lull. Rather than resort to conventional means - as really I'm stubborn about such things - thought I'd do an iPhone dump instead.

Sass. Straight up from E-town.

Busted wrist. This went from being a mild, ignorable nuisance to a "hmm, apparently have no use of my right hand" kind of issue over the weekend. A little tippity tap into my trusty google bar revealed that this was not, in fact an unfortunate side effect from my spray paint-happy DIY weekend a few weeks ago, but actually this weird condition called De Quervain's tendonitis that moms get from picking up their babies. Usually around 8 months, usually if they are still nursing, usually after dropping the crib. Check, check, check. So that's special. Mama is on the mend now, thanks to this super sexy "thumb stabilizer" Miller bought me.

Top teeth. Any day now...(please)?

Busted muffins. Made these for my grandparents Friday. They are my super secret recipe and I have made them probably a hundred times, which obviously warrants an overconfident "I'm quite sure that is plenty of PAM" moment as I slid them in the oven and proceeded on with the glamorous morning. Diaper, story, naptime, dishes, laundry, coffee, pinterest, oh yes the muffins. Every single one of them broke upon exiting the muffin pan, causing me to reconsider my future as a world-famous muffiness. So then I did what any sane woman would do: I ate them all weekend long. Yikes, that's a lot of muffins. Pretty sure they aren't on the new year's resolution diet. But that's OK. I forgive me.


I took this after she fell asleep on me one rainy afternoon last week. I let her sleep on me a bit before laying her down in her crib, as it was one of those ordinary, every day little moments you just drink in. Lawd have mercy, she is a love.


Our precious little fishies at their "swim class." This little lady is all about the pool, my friends. This week, she had her first solo "dive" into the water from this little ledge you see here and is already kicking her legs behind her. It seriously does not get much cuter than these kids in the water. It is hands-down, my favorite thing we do together.


We do everything together. I'm a little attached you see, and having a hard time with how much I am going to miss our little miss in a few days. The Millers are taking us to Vegas on a big family trip, and well, who am I to turn them down? Plus, if you can believe it, I've never been to Vegas before. Unfortunately I'm told it isn't the most baby-friendly of places (exhibit a: "the Hangover") but fortunately E's Gigi and John are very excited to have her for two whole nights! I'm not one bit concerned for her, as my mom is wonderful with her and she probably won't even know we're gone. But...this mama will be sad. They say you have to leave them at some point, or else you just never will. I have to admit, the idea of not being a slave to the nap schedule, consequence-free hangovers that can be given the attention they deserve, long bubble baths, champagne, spa-ing, delicious food...sounds pretty perfect to me.

Night night dearests, hope you had a lovely weekend!


- Posted from my iPhone

Eight

Let me just start by saying, these shoots have gotten harder as she's gotten older, and this one was near impossible. The light is best around 4 in the winter and our dear old "dada" isn't home yet. Meaning, there are a lot of close-ups, because in between each shot I was keeping this child contained in the chair, as hands were flying - picking up dolls, the chalkboard, tossing stuff on the floor, peering precariously over the side to see where they went; I had one hand on her, or up in the air, shaking things to distract her and a few pillows below her in the event she launched herself from the chair without warning.

(this is me wildly shaking some teething keys over her head)

So, in other words, our curious little miss is on the move. And I am bound and determined to get these pictures. She is bound and determined to dismantle our little set-up. Our first showdown.

(it seems we're already perfecting the "get away from me, mom" face. I'm sure it won't be the last time we see that one make an appearance.)

Please note that her mouth is open in the vast majority of these. That's because she wakes up singing, goes to bed singing, and doesn't stop talking all day long. Honestly, while I find it adorable, it's become white noise around here - as it's literally incessant - and it's only when we're out in public that I realize just what a little chatterbox she is. Though I certainly don't want to crush her sweet, exuberant spirit, in a few situations I've had to start gently encouraging the use of her "indoor voice" as I'm hyperaware that not everyone finds her joyful blabbering and singing as precious as I do. For that matter, I'm hyperaware that no one finds any of these babyhood minutae posts remotely interesting...so thanks for reading, whoever you are! We sure have gained a little following these past few months, in spite of these boring posts.


(check out those long, flowing locks.)

She's repeating some real sounding words now too (but only to the trained ear): Dog, Duck, Georgia (jaja), bee, Dada, and some fleeting "mamas" but I'm not willing to call that one yet. She has called a few pictures of dogs "Jaja" so we know that one is sticking. She loves both the dogs, as Maddie has surprisingly taken quite a shine to her, but I think she and Georgia have a special bond.

Maddie, ever the protector, is always close by,


-but spends much of the time keeping watch for squirrels and other potential invaders, a job she takes very seriously.


Georgia lies next to her as she plays.



Once our silly, simple-minded pup, she's grown wise and maternal.



We think we heard her repeat her name "ediiiiduh" but that's another one we aren't quite sure about. They are always sounded out after we say them. She has also learned "Hiiii!" while waving (repeated a Hiiii Dada! this morning), and though she doesn't always do it on command, it's currently the thing that makes my heart melt a little. That, and the thumb-to-mouth, snuggle into my chest cuddle.

I know I've said it before, but rocking her before sleep is a pure high that doesn't ever wane.

Oh right...and we are teething (again). Those top two are primed and ready.

(snarly upper lip = teething face.)

So, we've graduated from this stage (the stuck and frustrated under chairs stage - not the "assorted yard debris on the floor" stage. Our dogs ensure we never graduate from that stage.). Eliza gets where she needs to go now, though the all-fours crawl just makes flickers of an appearance, in between this impressive plank-forward lunge move that, to us, looks much harder than crawling itself. She's still a little annoyed with the whole affair, preferring instead to cruise coffee tables and perfect the drunk stagger. But this scooting business gets her into things too, and she appreciates that very much.

So, that about sums up life with the two-foot boss these days. Busy, busy - chatty, joyful, mobile, wonderful. I love everything about 8 months. Everything. The spontaneous hugs, the decisive kisses, the confident chattering, those snuggles that freeze time. We cannot get enough.

Mama has been busy too. This little blog, which I've always said would be a smattering of whatever I'm up to (which for the past 8 months, has been pretty much pure baby), may start to skew a little less baby-centric in the coming weeks. There will still be a healthy dose of Miss E. as she grows, as well as more honest ramblings on motherhood. But I'm hoping to throw a little more of my projects and creative stuff in here, as appropriate, since I've recovered a little bit of my long-lost right brain over the past month.



Hope y'all will still join me for the ride, as I so enjoy taking it with all of you. xo

Happy Sunday

Brought to you by the letter E.










- Posted from my iPhone

C.r.a.w.l.i.n.g

The past couple of weeks we have a very antsy, independent, eager little baby on our hands. Grabby, opinionated. Her preferred mode of getting from point A --> B: the stagger. She's launching out of our laps into walking, which looks a lot like a determined, confident drunk staggering home from the bar. She happily does a few steps on her own, though you have to catch her inevitable fall (not the same thing as walking. at all.). It's funny, but terribly ungraceful - wonder where she gets that from? (answer: both of us). Thus, rather than letting her fine-tune this hilarious, highly unsafe mode of mobility, we're enforcing a LOT of tummy time these days. So far, we've mastered the 360 belly spin and the backwards inchworm, which means I'm finding her crammed into odd corners of our living room in the time it takes to put a few dishes in the dishwasher.

And Eliza just wanted you to know:

Learning to crawl is hard.

Really, really hard.

Especially when every time you try you end up inching backwards, not forwards.

Winding up stuck under chairs, coffee tables. Spinning on your belly in a circle and ending up right back where you started. It's frustrating knowing where you want to go, but not knowing how to get there. But sometimes you have to move backward before you move forward.

It just takes a little focus, practice and determination.

Keep your chin up, Lizzy Lou, you'll get there one day soon.

Monday ramble.

A few things:

*5:15 is still happening. It ain't pretty, but it's happening.

*so is the dining room makeover...though still not totally sure where it's headed, I spent the weekend huffing paint fumes and making multiple trips to Lowe's. And I'm digging it, wherever we're going. Change is good.

*yesterday I put 3 sweet potatoes in the oven to roast for baby food. 45 minutes later, Miller removed them from the oven for me as I was painting the aforementioned table. This morning, I found them, sitting on the counter where they'd been dutifully left the day before. In other words, project scatterbrain has already gone off the rails.

*last week I packed up all our beautiful Christmas cards. It's the hardest part of putting away Christmas for me, as I love having them displayed. While I love them all, we still get one from our friend George each year. It makes me happy.

(George)

*Pinterest makes bowl season bearable. LSU was not worthy of my attention tonight.

*my grandfather is making remarkable strides each day and has totally astounded his doctors with his recovery. Thanks, friends, for your nice notes. He is a testament to the benefits of daily exercise and healthy eating; it has paid off in dividends for him. It was wonderful to hug his neck on Friday and can't wait to have him home here in Austin with us.

(a favorite. wonder where that shoe is?)

*I used to call my pigtails my ta-tas. We're going to try hard to keep that one from resurfacing when little miss gets her long flowing locks in.

*M.D. Anderson is really the most wonderful, miracle-making place. But I hope I never have to return there. I made it home just in time for bedtime and rocked my baby a little longer that night. We are very, very blessed.

*diets don't count on weekends. Right, cheeseburger?

*not that all chubby thighs are bad:

*there are days when staying home with a baby can be a bit of a messy, fussy, please just take a nap grind. And days, like dark, gloomy, rainy today, when laying on a quilt with your tambourine-eater, curling up back in bed with coffee during naptime, catching up with friends on the phone and doing a little laundry feels pretty darn perfect.

*I'm so married to my 50mm lens these days, I forgot how much fun the other lens could be. Hello, other lens! Maybe we should play more often.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Winter in the park

We returned home from our winter wonderland to some sublimely beautiful 70 degree weather. Although the new year has delivered a healthy to-do list, lately I can't shake the feeling that we are on borrowed time: with this crazy beautiful weather, with our sweet babies who are growing up too fast. So instead, I'm finding any reason to soak it all in at the park. Not all parks are created equal, and I just rediscovered a favorite park from my babysitting days (Ramsey Park in Rosedale) that I love all over again. It's spacious. Lots of big trees. Toddler and big kid playscapes. Four bucket swings. Eliza loves her some bucket swings.

It even has the same high, rickety old metal slide, which I feel certain has to be outlawed at so many over-kidproofed parks these days. Which is kind of why I love it. Anyway, a few impromptu afternoon park playdates with our friends Blake and Piercy seem to be hitting the spot lately:

I'm pretty sure E. and Piercy call each other beforehand to make sure they are on the same page about their look (nibble-worthy sweetcheeks, blonde, blue-eyed and baldy - though it's clear from the above shot who has the edge in the hair department). Seriously, from some angles they kind of look like sisters. Maybe that's why they attack each other as if looking in a mirror.

(Katy, Meghan and I spend the majority of park playdates keeping the babies from mauling each other & eating leaves.)

The day after we returned home from Christmas, Eliza and I met up with Nicholas' cousin Denver, his wife Chrissy and their two daughters. Their visit to Austin overlapped just slightly with our return home, and since they are from upstate New York (and due to the post-Christmas bomb that had hit our house), I suggested the park. Their eldest daughter Anna was our super precious flower girl almost five years ago, and Maire was just a shy little baby then. They have both grown into such smart, well-spoken, lovely little girls. I hope Eliza was taking notes.

It was a great visit with them...and the random, unsupervised toddler who wandered over onto our blanket and proceeded to steal all of Eliza's toys.

At first it was kind of funny, this kid we didn't know in the pictures of Eliza and her cousins.

But after about 10 minutes of this poor child playing on our quilt with no apparent guardian, I actively started trying to find the mother. A woman on a bench said it was her friend's babysitting charge, and pointed off into the distance...to the woman walking away to the bathrooms, clear on the other side of the park. Are you serious?! The friend came and picked her up, like it was a big hassle that we didn't want to supervise her. Appalling.

By the way, Denver is an incredibly talented photographer. Chrissy is a yoga teacher and all-around fab mama. I wish they lived here as I'd take full advantage of our future babysitters, photography tips and yoga/fab mama pointers! Such a fun visit. Come back and visit soon, Rochester Millers!