A Play Day with Lola

Don't even think that you can leave your child with me and I won't find a second to snap some pictures! We've had a busy, busy day... the girls are on opposite schedules -- one naps while the other gets a diaper change, a feeding, a playing, a snuggling, more snacks, then eyerubs that lead to more naps which leads to the other baby awaking and we do it all over again.

Nevermind that this morning we had the most frightening thunder and lightning storm where the whole house shook! I thought for sure we would catch fire so I planned to grab my kid, my dog, my friend Robyn and head out without anything else.

Good thing it didn't come to that. Enjoy the pictures while I nap!

There's Nothing Like Two Precious Kiddos Being Sweet To Each Other

Minus the times when Brett was being a normal 2.5 year old screaming to have his way and magnify all the sweet times he handed Rosa Jane her new favorite toy and you'll soon find your own household up to your eyeballs in chil'ens. I said to Caren, "it makes you want two, doesn't it?" and she quickly said, "I don't think they'd be that sweet if they lived under the same roof." HA!

Well, at least we got them lookin' sweet in the bluebonnets.

The funny thing is that my smaller camera was set to video, so instead of more stills we have footage of "Brett, put your hands on your knees! and RosaJane, over here! ACHOO!!"

A Picture Worth One Thousand Words

Fire up, buttercup, it's time for the annual Liberty Jubilee! All the way down here we reminisced about the great Jubilees of the past.

Robyn's first was ten years ago and was marked by a special appearance of singer Zona Jones. Ironically, I found his autographed picture (signed to ROBYN) in my bedside stand before going to bed last night. I know she barely got any sleep because she had so much anticipation for the joy that would come this morning. Six years ago, we introduced donr to Jubilee magic when he also met my parents for the first time. And on this fateful day today, Rosa Jane got her first whiffs of alligator-on-a-stick, funnel cakes, and Texas Twister drinks. Maybe next year she'll get to go one step further and actually taste them. No promises, buttercup.

All was made extra sweet by our own little game of DEAL or NO DEAL with our Boston condo. Let's just say we hit the deal button as soon as we could. And now we're all breathing a little easier.

Click on the picture to see more from our exciting afternoon with goats and ponies and later a snack of squash. Good times!

1/2 Pint at 1/2 Year Birthweight Squared

Rosa Jane had a successful trip to the doctor's yesterday. She weighs 16.5 pounds and measures 70% weight and 30% length. Very soon we'll start her on her first yellow veggies and 3 servings of rice cereal a day.

In other exciting news we got our first offer on our condo in Beantown. Stay tuned for more news on that front. If the deal is solid, we're gonna get some boots to mark the event.

Rosa Jane Participates

Today we got up bright and early to participate in a study at the Children's Research Laboratory at U.T. She had to wear this little cap which was injected with saline so they could analyze her neural responses to computer generated women's faces. It was brilliant. She stayed focus for a good four minutes when all they needed was three. They also said that many babies cry or rip the hat off... but not our even-tempered Rosa Jane. She's a cooperator. Just look at her! Game for anything. And that's just one of the million little reasons that I love her so.

Rosa Jane Sits!

Sitting Pretty Cute

Rosa Jane has got her eyes on the six month mark. We head to the doctor's office on Friday to celebrate her accomplishments with more vaccinations. But first we're heading to the University of Texas' research department so RJ can participate in an infant study designed to capture her brain responses when shown different images. The woman who called yesterday to set up the appointment said, "don't forget your camera; it's sure to be a cute opportunity for pictures." Little does she know I'm already on it!

Meanwhile, Rosa Jane is still scootin' backwards, but she is up on her knees. Gotta go, it looks like she's heading to her room now.

Auntie Robyna and Silly Pants Rosa Jane

Auntie Robyna plays with Rosa Jane after an exciting day of business casual dress for her 2nd interview and margars and queso on the deck of El Arroyo. Enjoy the fun video by pressing play now.


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You Are Austin

A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. You're totally weird and very proud of it. Artistic and freaky, you still seem to fit in... in your own strange way. Famous Austin residents: Lance Armstrong, Sandra Bullock, Andy Roddick

What American City Are You?

Prepare Yourself to Laugh: This is Rosa Jane Laughing at 24 Weeks. Press the Play Button.

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As mentioned previously, Rosa Jane has been feeling so crummy lately that getting her to laugh has been pretty much unthinkable. Today while doing something inadvertantly, she giggled so I set up the video cam quickly to capture all her laughing glory. The result is the video above. I can watch it over and over and over and always laugh along. She's so cutie-pants even when she's snotty-nosed.

It's Bluebonnet season in Texas -- time to get smiley with the flowers!

These pictures were taken in the spring of 2004. Driving around town and seeing bluebonnets on the side of the road makes me very happy. Inside I'm plotting what I'll make the family wear this weekend as we set up the tripod to get some pictures! Ah, the joys of living with a photographer who must capture the moment.

24 weeks now, isn't that special?

So we wanted to make a big stink about Rosa Jane reaching the 24th week mark, but the sick bug hit our household and shook up all our plans. Instead of frollicking in good times, we've been spending the last few days in bed. It's hard to get a good rest when your nose is all stopped up. Just ask Miss Rosa Jane. She knows. She has been in relatively good spirits despite her feverish temperatures and snotty nose. If you look closely at this picture, you'll see her two new teeth working their way in. She loves to chew and will bite ya real hard if you give her the chance. I prefer not to do that. We're on the upswing from our illness. Every day we're smiling more and enjoying the beautiful spring weather.

Rosa Jane is scooting backwards these days. In the pictures, she started on her playmat, but ended up opening the closet door which pushed the office door closed so it left her no place to go.

CFS Tour 2006 Round III -- Threadgills Home Cooking

Thursday's specialty at Threadgills is Chicken and Dumplins. It was all we could do to stay course and order our usual appetizer of onion rings followed by their world famous Chicken Fried Steak with mashed potatoes and cheesy rice and broccoli. This is the place to go when you want a real meaty CFS. It was real good, but I have to say our first stop on the tour still holds a place in my heart as my favorite. I'm just glad I'm not doing this tour thing alone. It takes two to distinguish between flavors and a background in cooking helps.

We're realizing that this tour is just as much about the people who are dining in the next booth over as it is about the steak. At the first stop, it was pretty surreal because we had a Yankee from the Boston yakking his trap in the most obnoxious way. (Truly, I'm NOT making this up!) There wasn't much noticeable at the second stop. At the third stop, we sat next to some fine tattooed folks who seemed to be meeting with their psychic wearing rose-colored glasses. In the next booth over, a quartet lunched which included a Neopolean Dynamite look-a-like.

Meanwhile, we're all sick at the Ranchette, but I think little miss Rosa Jane has it the worst. Or at least she sounds the most pitiful with her little cough and nasal congestion. The doctor's office said she was too young for any medication, so we got our precious cutey a frog humidifier and we're armed with a suction bulb to help her breathe. Don and Robyn are on the mended upswing while RJ and I are down in the depths of despair. Though RJ is just as smiley as ever and does a little dance everytime she sees me walk into the room. Who's heart wouldn't melt at the sight of that? Speedy recovery, little girl, Speedy recovery.

Bloggerversary

I can't believe how far we've come in the last year. We're a dog down and a baby up. We're NE down and TEXis up. We're photoschool down but we're best friend in the house up. We're poohead IONAit down but up in the land of dark corners. We're snow/coldmiserable weather down but beautifully warm miserableallergy weather up. I'd say it's been a wild and crazy year, but I'd do it again and again as long as my monkey boy is beside me and we're laughing all the way.

Pixie Magic

The Pixie landed on Thursday and the days took off fast! We always have such a great time when we just add the Pixie to the mix. When she leaves, we're left with pixie dust and ten bags full of hope that she'll return again real soon.

Over the weekend, we sat glued to DEAL or NO DEAL, browsed the shops on SoCo, shopped amazing deals in San Marcos, and westernified the Pixie with some bona fide TEX-is boots! What did RosaJane do, you ask? She frolicked and played the whole time and basked in the glory of big sis. We had the best intentions to feed RJ some solids, but with the reindeer not feeling so great and RJ's schedule all out of whack, it was difficult to pull it all together. We fed her rice cereal for the first time last night.

I've been reading a book called "Sleeping through the Night." I was pretty determined to get that girl down as close to 7 as possible and we pulled out all the stops by wrapping her up tightly in her too-small miracle blanket. RJ didn't make a sound until 6:30 this morning, but she did bust out of her blanket some time during the night. Today I'm subscribing to the sleep every two hours method and if you were here, you'd see that RJ is down for her first morning nap in her crib! This is a big, big day and thanks to my little counter of a husband, we can chalk it up to her being 162 days old or if you prefer, 5 months and 8 days. Either way, I am more in love with her than ever for she is my little monkey. And who doesn't love a monkey?

Sometime you'll have to get Robyn to tell you the story of her dentist hygenist who never wanted kids, so she got her husband a real-live monkey. All was fine and dandy until the day the monkey hit puberty.

[Insert your own vision of monkey flinging poo here or hanging from the ceiling fan whathaveyou.]

Wonderfully Fun, But Awfully Exhausting

We had a wonderful visit with Mary and her babies, Caeden and Bailey. Her girls are so sweet, gentle and kind that I only hope Rosa Jane will be so, too. Baby Cae-Cae kept saying that Hank dog was her new best friend. Baby Bailey looks so much like her father that it makes me smile. I love Mary and Chaddy. They are doing a beautiful job rearing their children. (Click on the pictures in the flickr badge to the left to see more pictures from our days together.)

After the last baby went to bed at 8pm, we headed out to the patio and stayed up way too late drinking margars under the festive lights and eating tons of guacomole, cheese product also known as queso and fajitas. I grilled chicken for the very first time. It was too bad my philosophy on grilling chicken is alot like roasting marshmellows -- make it burn!! Thankfully, Robyna came to the rescue, turned down the heat and made sure that I didn't ruin the fajitas completely. What would we do without our girlfriends?

Don has been very sick these last couple of days with a nasty headcold and I'm just holding my breath that the rest of us don't get it. For there is no time to slow down. Sara comes tomorrow for a long weekend with the fam. We are all so excited about her visit we can hardly stand it. Among the many things we'll do, we are definitely going to start Rosa Jane on her first solid of rice cereal as a family.

Long live 20D. May our friendship grow ever stronger and may the next time we see each other be not that long at all.