Pizza and Ice Cream

We went for pizza and then ice cream at Amy's where I of course had to use the photo booth. This one was not working so well and it came out almost black and spotty. I scanned it in and tried to fix it as best as I could but it's still a mess. And that's a bummer because I had planned on just having Sam and I in the photos when Ben stuck his head under the curtain because he just couldn't be left out. Here is the conversation in the car on the way to Amy's: Ben: I want ice cream! me: We're on our way to get some. Ben: I WANT ICE CREAM!!! me: We're on our way there. Ben: (quietly) Okay.

Annika and Anjalika


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These are two of my favorite people in Austin. I haven't had much of a chance to get to know them but you know how sometimes you just click with someone? And my camera loves little Annika.

Life Is One Long To-Do List

Doesn't it just feel like that sometimes? Particularly after you have been sick for two weeks during which NOTHING got done. And even when I am humming along and getting stuff done I still know there will be much more the next day. It's as Dorothy Parker says "I'm a fool to rise at all" (from Inscription for the Ceiling of a Bedroom). Then I get into this "why bother cleaning at all" syndrome. The stuff will just get out of order again and need to picked up for THE MILLIONTH TIME.On a side note my friend Mike did a great blog entry about what winter means in California. I think he is spot on.

Amy's

We went for ice cream at Amy's last Saturday night with the Simons. Once the ice cream was gone, the kids played in the fountains and on the cow sculptures. Is there a better way to spend a Saturday evening than with a marble cow? I think not.

Serves Me Right

After all my bitching and moaning about the weather yesterday morning, of course the temperature plummeted. We left to go cut down our Christmas tree at around 2:00 and it fell from about 75 to 55 degrees in no time flat with rain to boot. That's what I get. So here are some photos to commemorate the day we cut down our tree and the day we ran our air conditioner in the morning and our heater in the afternoon.

December Texas Style

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It is almost 80 degrees in our house and REALLY humid. It is 9:00 in the morning. It is DECEMBER. It just doesn't feel right to be shopping for your holiday presents in shorts. Those of you who are in snow filled communities are probably telling me how lucky I am, but what I wouldn't give for some cold weather. It is so much harder to justify lying in bed all day when it is warm outside.Edited to add: Just turned on the AC. It is wrong I tell you. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Unless you're in Australia.

Bleak House

A plague on both my houses (okay I only have one but the plural has a better literary ring). It is a house of horrors here. Last week I had a cold. Saturday night at midnight I came down with a fast, terrible case of mastitis. Women really do have it so much worse. Why is this? Isn't it bad enough that we have to be pregnant and we have to give birth and then nurse the children? But we also have to endure hellish breast infections that give you a fever, headache from hell and nausea (my old friend) as well as making your boob hurt like the devil. And said boob is constantly getting leaned on by your two year old as he climbs all over you repeatedly.Thank goodness I talked to my friend Liz on Sunday morning and she told me to call the doctors office and not to pass go. Directly to the drugs. And once again pharmaceuticals saved the day. The RN on duty at my doctor's office on Sunday said she would call in the prescription after she got out of church. Church? Wouldn't Jesus want her to stop my suffering immediately rather than go back into church. So I called the Target pharmacy and begged Byron, who answered the phone, to call me AS SOON AS IT GOT IN. And then I stared at the clock. And the clock refused to move. Once I FINALLY got the drugs at 2:30 in the afternoon and gulped them down I could feel them starting to work. God bless the pharmaceutical industry. So yesterday I spent the day trying to get my strength back. And then last night it arrived. The sore throat which is always an indicator a new cold is coming. Somebody PLEASE save me.

The Phone Tree

It starts with the home phone. It rings. We're napping. I don't answer it. I think we're safe. Ben won't wake up. Then my cell starts ringing. Someone is being persistent. It stops. Amazingly enough Ben sleeps through it. Then the home phone starts ringing again. Who COULD it be? Miracle of miracles he is still sleeping. Now Josh's cell is vibrating. THANK GOD he has it on vibrate. All I know is that the person at the other end of that phone had better be lying in a pool of of their own blood. And then the doorbell rings. And the dogs bark as if someone was at the gate to slit our throats. Ben's up. Game over.

The Car

One the days that I take Ben to preschool I spend the drive back home planning my day. I think about all of the things that I am going to get done and how organized and productive I will be. By the time I get home and unload the car I am exhausted from all of my productivity and need to take a nap. And next thing I know it is 6:00 and I have gotten nothing done. It is a vicious cycle.

The Happiest Baby in the World

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Okay. I have to say it. I have the easiest baby in the world. Sam just sleeps and eats and barely cries. He smiles all the time and only wakes me up twice per night, sometimes once. I know. All of you moms and dads with colicky, sleepless babies hate me. As well you should. It is not right to be free of sleep deprivation with an infant. It just feels wrong. Feel free to hate me. All I can say is that maybe the karma is evening out after my HORRIBLE pregnancies. They say you get what you can handle and apparently I can't handle much. But if I were to write a letter to baby Sam it would simply say: "Thank you".

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Breastfeeder's Diet

bowl of cereal for breakfast = 300 caloriesscone eaten in car on way home from grocery = 400 calories sandwich eaten at lunch = 350 calories big ol' bowl of coffee almond fudge ice cream = priceless