john's mom works

a little backyard chaos and shenanigans i will forever remember this summer as a time of shifting sibling dynamics. john and charlie have always alternated between playing beautifully together and beating the snot out of each other -- pretty standard fare for brothers, from what i understand. they are each others' best friend and arch nemesis, rolled up into one jack-and-jill-bathroom-sharing package. it's made for amazing times when they create and build and explore and entertain each other. it's made for challenging times when they get under each others' skin, antagonize and bully one another, and scream. man, can those kids scream. when bean first arrived, of course, not much changed. if anything, the bigs got closer. they got good at occupying each other when the baby needed "too much" attention. the flare ups didn't stop, of course, but i wouldn't have expected them to. but now at two, bean is a real person with real ideas and real ima...

kitchen bandit 3.0 my dear sweet little bean, you are two! you are two. how have we had you for two years -- the unexpected perfect capper for our little family? i still think you are in my belly, or maybe a teensy little baby bean in my carrier on my chest. but no! you are a dude now. a HAPPY dude: i've never known a baby (ehem, toddler) who smiled so much, and laughed so much. your sparkly little eyes light up so bright and you brighten everyone's days, from your family to your friends to your teachers to strangers at stores who are taken with your little impish grin. you are fearless and very big for your little body. i think you think you are the same as your brothers, that anything they can do you can do and nothing is stopping you. you have discovered the pool this summer, and you love to swim and "play water" and splash in our kiddie pool in the backyard, too. you love koalas. you call them kolalas. it makes me smile every time you see one in a book...

'bout sums it up. one great thing about working out: my brain doesn't want to focus on what my body is doing, so i get some great contemplating time. this morning i contemplated excuses. and reasons. and whether there is a difference between the two. and if so, what it is. see, there are lots of reasons i sorta fell off of the gym bandwagon. in early february, i was there every single day. that's not a sustainable pace for me, and i know it, but i hoped that when it "died down" it would be 3-4 times a week. and then john got sick, and i missed a few days. and then i went a few times. and then it was mardi gras and i missed a few days. and then i went a few times. and then ... who knows. some reason. or is it a reason? we've been watching "the biggest loser" this season, and their theme is "no excuses." so what is the fine line between reason and excuse? i think it's legitimate that when i have to stay home sick with my son, my gym...

pic of the day: passed out baby after a long bike ride. so today, we packed john up and headed to mandeville to bike on the st. tammany trace. it's one of the many rails-to-trails projects around the country, and in our case we road 9 miles one way to the abita brew pub, had lunch, and biked back. we rented a bike trailer for john to ride in, and he *loved* it. he cooed for a while, then just grinned like a goofball until he finally passed out and slept for much of the ride. it was such an amazingly beautiful day, and the trail is mostly shady, so it was just awesome. it's an easy ride - very flat, as you'd expect from an old railroad bed, but it's just beautiful. we got a great workout, and had an awesome time. john was great the whole day. he met a big mastiff doggy at the brew pub, and spent most of lunch laughing hysterically at the big dog. he shared my sweet potato fries, then happily got back into the trailer to ride behind daddy all the way back to mandev...

pic of the day "... and then my mommy strapped me in my carseat and disappeared for 20 minutes while i screamed for her." we had a great weekend with buddy. he is definitely a fearful dog - he did a fair amount of barking at my husband, as it seems that men particularly scare him. but he's made some progress, and we're ready to be patient so we can persuade him that he has, in fact, found his forever home. never underestimate, however, the chaos associated with adding another member to your family. at 7:30 this morning, i was very proud of myself: john was dressed and ready for school, i was dressed and ready for work, buddy had had a walk first thing, my schlew of bags was packed and ready to load into the car so we could get this monday started. and then. (isn't there always an and then?) as i put on my shoes, john was crawling around our bedroom and knocked over a canoe paddle propped against the wall. big boom, etc. poor buddy peed all over th...

pic of the day: the first family walk with buddy our family got a little bit bigger today! buddy joined us today about 2:30 pm when he arrived from the long drive from nacodoches, tx. ann and another volunteer from st. francis anmal rescue over there were kind enough to take the time to bring buddy to his new home. buddy was a little nervous at first - it is clear that he has been mistreated at some point in his life, and he is particularly wary of men's hands. but in the less than seven hours he's been here the change is already phenomenal. he follows my husband every where he goes. he's happy to lean against us and almost get in our laps. he wags his tail and is happy to see us when we walk in from the other room. in short, i don't think it will be too long before he's 100% settled in and loving his new life. we went for our first family walk this evening. buddy definitely spooks when there are strange noises behind him, but he did well overall. he did pull...

pic of the day this is clearly not buddy :) it is nola, the new puppy belonging to our friends who came to the camp with us for easter. but john loves nola, too. breaking news first: buddy is coming to live with us on friday! we've passed the home test and jumped through the hurdles, and he'll be arriving friday afternoon. easter sunday was a big day: we brought john to the camp with us for the first time! for those of you not from south louisiana, "the camp" is a very fascinating local entity. most families have a camp somewhere. they're typically in the middle of nowhere, on the water. some people have hunting camps, some people have fishing camps. ours is sort of a general recreation camp. it's a well-loved ramshackle cypress shack on a small spit of land called graveyard island. about eight feet from the back door is the belle river, with a dock where the boats are parked. about eight feet from the front door is the gravel road, then the lake, wher...

pic of the day where did this big child come from, and what did you do with my tiny little baby?  i know i say this all the time. but where in the heck does time go? leaving for work this morning, my husband was still asleep and so was the baby. (the daycare is closed for good friday so my husband stayed home with john.) when i peeked in at john sleeping, he looked like a big kid (see the picture above). not like a sweet little baby bundle, but like a big ol' boy. sure, he's still small in size. but the way he holds himself, even when he's sleeping, has more child in it than baby. and yes, i'm waxing philosophical here a bit, but i can just tell i am going to bat my eyelashes and he'll be driving. he's coming up on a year already ... and then two ... etc. i know it's the natural way of things. i know every single mama in the world feels the same way. but i just look at this little creature that i nurtured in my body for 9 months and i think ... how...

pic of the day john shares his mom's guilty pleasure of reading trashy gossip rags 5:30 p.m. hurry to school to pick up peanut. enjoy his laughing/yelping in joy when his mama walks through the door to get him. distance traveled: 3.1 miles 5:45 p.m. hurry home so that peanut and mommy can go for a walk to the park. distance traveled: 4.1 miles 6:15 p.m. load john in the stroller and head on down to the park. should be a 1 mile round trip walk. 6:22 p.m. r ealize i was supposed to stop at the produce market on the way home from work. decide we can't go to the park after all. stop in my tracks and turn around. distance traveled: .65 miles 6:35 p.m. load john into his carseat. ignore his standard scream-when-you-put-me-in-a-carseat act. head to the produce market. did i mention the produce market is back near my work? distance traveled: 6.4 miles 6:55 p.m. back in the car. head to albertson's for the item or two i couldn't get at the produce market. re...

pic of the day: a quick cat nap on gigi's (great grandma's) couch before we got on a plane to fly home on monday.

i have a question for you, dear readers. i have reached the end of my 30-day promise to post a picture a day of the little bug. i did really well right up to the end there - i think i missed days 29 and 30. so, please comment here (or on my facebook if you have difficulties here): should i keep posting daily pics? is it annoying? or is it entertaining? do you think, "oh, what's the little dude doing today?" or do you click "ignore" on my facebook status? (and do be honest!)

pic of the day: day 29 a silly blue monkey. and next to him, a stuffed animal. real updates coming soon, i promise. kiddo's super cute and we have stories to tell!

pic of the day: day 29 sleeping on the couch - what an angel

pic of the day: day 28 only a rare few climbers have ever successfully summitted mt. mommy, but john's determination pays off. his climb was done without the aid of oxygen. sometimes, i forget. i forget that i can no longer pack 8 hours before i get on an airplane to go on a trip. i forget that one little carry-on bag will no longer hold everything i need for a long weekend. (i forget that i can't hit snooze 4 times and still expect to get everything done in the morning.) i guess when you spend 29 years NOT packing for a baby, you have lots of practice not-packing-for-a-baby. so tonight, i will go home and pack ... lots of stuff. thank you, southwest airlines, for allowing me to have to free checked bags. i will need them! we're heading to gigi and great grandpa's house in florida this weekend, for passover*. it will be tons of family jammed into a little 3-bedroom condo. and it will be fantastic! and john will have lots of people to play with. and lots of ...

  pic of the day: day 27 i wonder if he dreamed he was in jail? after yesterday's awesome* morning, i confess i was a little nervous which baby i would pick up at school yesterday afternoon: happy-playful-crawl-everywhere baby or angry-yelling-hate-everything baby. much to my delight, a day at daycare apparently put john in a much better mood! we didn't get to spend a ton of time together as a family - it's hard when my husband and i both go to the gym after work. john goes from school to the gym playroom, and we're all back at the house around 7:30pm, just in time for john's 8pm bedtime. but what time we did have was great, with a little sleepy snugglebug loving on his mommy and daddy and exploring the house. (it cracks me up that he will crawl the whole way across a room to get to the most breakable item in the room. i guess it makes sense - most breakable items are coincidentally shiny and pretty. and, in our house, breakable items are now in a closet...

pic of the day: day 26 not always sunshine and roses. john had a very bad morning this morning. which means, mommy had a very bad morning this morning. nothing was right. everything made a baby cry. even snuggling with mom didn't fix it. head-butting mom and possibly giving her a black eye - nope that didn't work either. trying to go to sleep didn't fix it. eating tasty avocados for breakfast didn't fix it. crawling around the house certainly didn't fix it. watching dad clean up the dropped jar of pickles with glass and pickle juice everywhere - no go. even *milk* didn't fix it. and you know that's a rough day. maybe he's teething? maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed? maybe he's tired of his stuffy nose and runny eyes? maybe he had a bad dream? who knows. but it's bad news, let me tell you. so here is a mama's prayer for this morning: dear lord, please take care of my wee one and let him be happy again. please don...

pic of the day: day 25 it took 29 attempts to get a picture of john while he was sitting still during our travels yesterday, john was SO good: he was stuck in his seat for a total of 10-11 hours, and he was such a good sport. yeah, he fussed from time to time - but so did i. he did so good just hanging out with us, i was so impressed and so proud of him. (as an aside: i don't think we'll be doing much more traveling like this again. john was great, but it is just exhausting. aside from the normal traveling wear and tear there's the constant efforts to entertain a busy kiddo, and both daddy and i were bushed.) when we got to nacogdoches, we were greeted by john and ann at st francis animal rescue. they are amazing, passionate people who love every single doggie they encounter. they have a beautiful home and a beautiful rescue facility on 15 wooded acres tucked right in town in nacogdoches. they didn't think it was at all strange that we were willing to drive 10 h...

pic of the day: day 24 nap fail i think the only way today's pic of the day could be funnier would be if it could have been shot with an infrared camera while i was not in john's room with him. he took a GREAT nap for daddy earlier in the day while mom was at work (more on that in a sec) but when i tried to put him down for his second nap, he faked me out. he fell asleep in my arms, plopped right into bed with bear and was quiet for about 20 minutes. then i heard noises and peeked in the room to see him ... and this is what i found. a little crawling creature talking to himself as he explored the crib, pulled every blanket down, and played happily. oh well, naps are over-rated anyway, right? no. but that's ok. the reason i had to work today on a saturday was two-fold - we hosted a set of three financial education seminars for kids between the ages of 5 and 15 this morning. it was a bit like herding cats - what youth-related event isn't - but i think some great infor...

pic of the day: day 24 baby godzilla wreaks havoc on the changing table   it is truly phenomenal how much a 16+ lb baby boy can get into in a brief period of time ... especially considering his little scooty-booty version of crawling doesn't allow him to move very fast. but in the two hours he was awake before we left the house this morning, he found and tried to eat or drum with the following: daddy's running shoes (drumming) daddy's shoe insoles (eating then drumming) the diaper wipes, diapers, pacifier, and nose bulb on his changing table (alternately eating and drumming) (see above) a gossip magazine (tearing to shreds) another gossip magazine (tearing to shreds and eating) (fyi: for some mysterious reason i have a subscription to "ok" magazine that i'm pretty sure i never paid for. i've had it for almost a year now. i wouldn't pay for it ... but if it comes to my mailbox free i can guiltily indulge. so if you sent it to me, thanks. and if ...

pic of the day: day 23 mommy don't go my boss has a saying that she shares frequently when we discuss the challenges of being a mom who works out of the home. she says, "wherever you are, be there 100%." surprisingly, that's not the part of being a working mom that i struggle with. when i am at work, i am focused on my work, in part because i love what i do and i love where i work. and of course when i am at home, i love being home with my family. i am blessed to have a challenging job that i don't have to take home with me, mentally or physically. no, the difficult time for me are the transitions. that, friends, is when the ambivalent feelings rear their heads. as i get ready to get out the door on the way to work, i want to go to work, but i don't want to let go of my little bug. towards the end of my work day, i can't wait to get home to john and his daddy, but i don't want to stop working on whatever project i am engrossed in. that is my ...