Fun in San Antonio, Texas

Upon arriving in San Antonio on Saturday, my parents had the Toyota Highlander gassed up and ready to go from Hertz. We got the car seat installed and were off immediately to the River Walk.

Downtown San Antonio is truly the bright spot of this city. The Riverwalk is vibrant, full of energy, and is the heart of the action with it's restaurants, shopping, and hotels. Doesn't my mom look awesome? She's lost almost 50 pounds since her heart attack! She is truly an inspiration. And no, there's no magic pill to lose weight. It's all diet and exercise.

First things first, we sat down for margarita's and chips. Mmmm, icy cool liquid lunch.



Nana and Hadley are reunited at last.


















Grandpa is equally as excited to see baby girl.
We had to slug down our drinks fast so that we could go check into our motel in Helotes and head to the surprise dinner for my Aunt Betty. The anticipation was building for us as we sat and waited for everyone to get there. In the car ride over, we called Susan to let her know we were running late, but she put Betty on the phone with my mom who had to FIB about being in between meetings in Pennsylvania. I told everyone to move away from her in the car because lightening was going to strike for sure. My mother is awful at not telling the truth, but apparently she did a really good job because doesn't Betty Lou look surprised?

Aunt Susan made reservations at a restaurant called The Lodge, which was located in an old mansion that had been converted into an eatery. The head chef is only 31 and quite the up and comer in the city. We had a beautiful private room on the first floor and the seasonal menu was a fixed price meal with six courses. I had a seared scallop over brioche with a potato puree appetizer, followed by an heirloom tomato with grilled watermelon and balsamic reduction salad, seared salmon over wild rice with fiddlesticks and olive tapenade main course, and for dessert a Soufflé Inspired Nutella-Dark Chocolate Cake with Homemade Caramel, Banana Fritter and Peanut Butter Mousse. There was also a complementary pasta course and a bacon wrapped fig with blue cheese. Good thing we were on a diet last week.

Before dinner, we watched a slide show that DG made of 70 years worth of photos of Betty Lou. Our entire group included: (From l-r back row) Aunt Susan, DG, Janny, Dad, Aunt Betty, Betty's daughter (my cousin) Linda, and Hadley and me. (bottom row) Loretta, Sue, and my mom.



After falling into a food induced coma and sleeping through the night, we got up and went to Susan's for breakfast in the morning, followed by a trip to Sea World.
Even with the big crowds, we never lost each other, because all you had to do was look for the ladies wearing bright cantaloupe.

We saw the Beluga Whale and Dolphin show first. At the end as I was clapping, Hadley started trying to imitate me, arms flailing about, attempting to clap, and hitting herself in the face. It was just about the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Then we headed to the Sea Lion, Otter and Walrus show. Well, minus the walrus because she was still sleeping. The main woman in this show lives on my Aunt's street, so she gave us a backstage tour afterwards. It was so fun. We got to see the walrus up close, all 2,100 pounds of her. And we had our picture taken with Spanky, who at 600 pounds has retired from show biz and lives out his days eating fish and swimming around. That's actually Spanky smiling on cue.

We also bought some slimy fish treats to feed the Sea Lions. They are greedy little buggers who catch fish really well.
















Of course, you can't leave Sea World without seeing Shamu. Now which one is Shamu again?
Hadley managed to beat the heat and remain cute through the moist humidity.

Until it got to be too much and she needed a nap. She missed the dolphin petting pool and sharks, but by then it was time to go home for all of us.

Happy Birthday Aunt Betty

Saturday morning, we took Hadley on her first plane ride down to beautiful San Antonio, Texas to go to a surprise party for my mother's sister Betty who was turning the big Seven-Oh. My mother is the baby, Betty is the oldest with 13 years separating her and my mother, and Susan is directly in the middle.

My Aunt Susan is no stranger to swooping in and suprising people, having done it many times over the years. So when she wanted to plan this wonderfully extravagant week-end, complete with surprise guests, including ourselves and my parents, we knew we definitely had to go. Especially since Aunt Betty has been such a big part of our lives over the past several years, coming up for the wedding shower, baby shower, and wedding. And remind me to tell you sometime about the road trip that we took one year from Denver to Muncie, Indiana because I didn't feel like flying home for Christmas.

Here's to you Aunt Betty, aka, Miss Apple Stuckey. I hope you had a wonderful week-end. Love and kisses, yours truly, Miss Chocolate Pop Tart.

Grody to the Max, Like Totally

My brother and his wifey, Yoon Mi recently had a fun day of going out and having little fish eat dead skin off of their toes. Ok, I'm also supposed to say that this is not a real South Korean 'thing' as Yoon Mi was completely disturbed and a little bit disgusted by it. But notice how the fish want nothing to do with her foot, but my brother is a veritable buffet of dead skin for them to feast on. He's like the Bonanza of Daegu for these fish.
I should mention that you had to pay for the pleasure of having fish nibble at your feet, but only after you got coffee and ate breakfast at the cafe/fish nibbler location. I wonder if Starbucks has ever considered starting these at test locations in the US? NOT!

I will stick to my pumice stone thanks.

Li'l Squirt Baby Pool

I couldn't resist, I had to get this. Even though she will probably not enjoy it until next summer, I am enjoying it now. Imagine my excitement when in 2 years I will be able to get her a slip n slide?!?

I ordered this squirting pool from One Step Ahead and we tried it out this week-end. I posted video to YouTube of her hestitant try with it. She was unsure of how chilly the water was.

I would really love to take a Mommy and Me swim class at the local rec center, but am having trouble getting the times to work with our schedule. I want her to learn how not to be afraid of the water and how to roll over if she falls into the water.

Peaches? Not so much.

In case you were wondering whether or not Hadley is 100% angel baby, here's some proof of her being little miss finicky. We've been experimenting with lots of different homeade foods. When she loves something, she opens her mouth and gobbles down the whole portion. However, when she does not like something, (take for instance these peaches) upon the first mouthful she gags, acting as if I was trying to feed her liver and onions. Then she will purse her little lips together and clamp them shut. Not even the chuga chuga choo choo train will get her to open up.

GOBBLES DOWN: sweet potato, peas, rice cereal, pears
GAGS: avocado, banana, peaches, prunes

This week we are moving on to super porridge (oatmeal) and squash. She's got to love oatmeal, I ate it almost every day when I was pregnant.

Proud Papa

The first time I went up to DGs new cube, it was littered with pics of the dogs and his family, but none of me. Get married and your wife becomes day old mexican food. But here is DG outside of his cube at work, where he has surrounded himself with a wall of Hadley for people to see as they walk by. Olin Mills eat your heart out. I personally would want to stare at it all day. I would never be able to get work done.

I didn't do a Father's Day post because DG already took care of it, but I would like to take the time to wax on poetic about what a great Dad DG is, and not just because he prints out pictures and plasters them on his cube. 1) He loves her so much it hurts. 2) Listening to him play and read to her is enough to make me want to have 10 more of his children. 3) He has a special touch feeding her that no one else has. and 4) He is completely excited about parenting. I love me some DG.

Square Foot Gardening

Guess what dad? We are going to plant vegetables.

Gibson and I are going to help a lot, providing moral support.

Last year, with the move, we were unable to get it together to plant our garden. Though DG did make these boxes for me so that we could try to square foot garden. He prepped them this week-end filling them with our fresh compost, manure, soil, and vermiculite. Though we are bit late in the game, we are still hoping to get a good crop of cucumbers, yellow peppers, cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, lettuce, and carrots.

Sitting Pretty

In the past couple of weeks, Hadley has learned to sit up on her own. She loves to sit and play with her toys or watch the dogs. When you tell her to press the flowers to play music, she understands and will reach out and grab them. This is good for at least 30 minutes of fun.

During our physical therapy assessment last week, I was hoping to WOW them with her feats of strength. And though they were impressed, we still have a few milestones to hit. So we are trying to train her to bear weight on her hands so that she can begin to catch herself when she tips over and we are also giving her more tummy time trying to get her to roll from her tummy to her back. (She can already roll from her back to her tummy.) It is so fun to play with her and watch her progress.

And in other news, her first tooth has broken through! I was on video Skype with my parents this week-end and when Hadley started chewing on my finger, I felt something sharp. I got so excited, I threw the camera down and started digging around in her mouth. I am now on tooth watch 2008 and monitoring the progress. My baby girl is growing up so fast. ::sniff::

Mama Needs a Beer

Today marks the first day in a year and a half that I had the desire to have an alcoholic beverage. Well, if you can call Michelob Ultra Lite alcohol. Maybe it was the 97 degree day we had, or the BBQ atmosphere, but it was pretty tasty.

As you can see, Hadley was in the spirit too, as she was two fisting Erin's and my beer. I had to tell her NO BEER, until you are 21 and I take you to Vegas to celebrate your birthday. And YES, she will want to go to Vegas with her mom, because even though I'll be 57 ::sob::, I'm still going to drink bloody mary's at 8:30 in the morning like they were juice, get up on the bar and dance (cougar alert), and slip her $1's for the thunder from down under male australian strippers (that I've hired to come to our room). Ok, maybe it's excessive and she would rather stay at home with a good book, until I enforce my next tactic of mocking her relentlessly and guilting her into coming to Vegas with me.

Week-end in Review

Last week-end was a whirlwind of fun times, including all of my favorite summer activities. First, while DG was off building fences, Hadley and I met Lora and Liv at the Cherry Creek Farmer's market. Slathered in sun screen and a hat, we walked through and got some amazing tomatoes, cucumbers and a loaf of Udi's ciabatta bread. On Sunday, we met Lora and Liv again at the Market in Larimer Square for lunch and Piazza del Arte, otherwise known as the yearly chalk art festival. Here are future BFFs Liv and Hadley getting to know eachother. Here is the little snippet of their conversation: "Hadley...Hadley... cute." :giggle blush: "Liv, so pretty. Wanna play dress up?" They are 13 months apart.

Here is one particularly good piece that caught DG's eye.

Here is a close up of the detail. Less than 4 hours after we left, all the hoses came out to wash all of these away!

And finally on Sunday night, we packed up the picnic back pack and headed up to our old hood to watch a free jazz concert in City Park. This is a weekly event in the summers. We met Kurt, Marie, and Luke who were in our Baby Class. We feasted on grilled chicken, potato salad, snap peas, red pepper, cherries and special Tiramisu from Sushi Den.

Happy Wedding Day!

Congratulations to my baby brother who has officially married his fiance, Yoon Mi. I've mentioned my brother many times on the blog, usually having to do with maggots and poop slippers, or wearing weiner bachelorette tshirts. He moved to Korea in 2001 to teach English to 5-6 year olds. All the moms demand their kids are in his class. He is so good at it, and he loves it so much that he has never come back. Well that and he met the love of his life.

Here is a video of his graduating class singing Yellow Submarine.

Doggie Day Care

While my BFF Holly is out of town on vacation, we are babysitting her australian cattle shepherd/blue healer mix Ali. For some reason, Ali and Gibson love eachother. LOVE. Well Gibson loves to try and hump her and Ali loves to smell his wiener and try to get him to play. Tica and Ali do alright, but we've learned they can't chase the ball together because eager Tica gets sacked like a high school quarterback.

Here is an example of how high Ali can jump while trying to catch a frisbee. This shot would be better if she actually had the frisbee in her mouth. She must have been having an off day.

Ali is a great dog and has taken to sitting at my feet under my desk while I work, until I kick her out because her rancid breath is about to make me vomit a little in my mouth.

2, 4, 6

From left: Oslo is two months, Braxton is 4 months, Hadley is 6 months. We were just missing Sailor who is 8 months. Babies are us.

Kim, my friend from Seattle, and Oslo's mom was in town this week-end visiting family with her new baby. So sweet and precious and looking like a spitting image of both his mother and his father, Kevin. Right before she took the shot, Lisa said "VH1 Behind the Music is going to be so happy we took this picture", as all these babies come from musical families.

And just because I can't resist, here is Kevin circa 1998 in a digitally enhanced photo that he created as a joke. I don't even think my chest was that big when my milk came in.

Daily Dose of Baby

Hadley just ate carrots, is in a new hand-me-down outfit she has not yet worn, can sit up on her own without support for a few minutes at a time, and when you tell her to "push the flowers" to play music, she does it. She can also go from her back to her tummy and her tummy to her back, but only if I've turned my head for 2 seconds.

I have to type fast so that I post this picture before DG realizes what I've done. Finally I'm the first to post about something new!

The New Improved Me

DG took this photo at 11:15pm last night in the bathroom when I was getting ready for bed. Even though you guys were no help at all, I got a new shorter cut for the summer with some lighter highlights including a honey, blonde, and an auburn tint. (Sometimes a girl just has to try and feel pretty.) Hard to see the lovely colors in the bad bathroom light. DG got his haircut too, and our hairstylist at Grand, Jessica, lives near us and gave me a ride home after so I didn't have to take the light rail. Now that's service!

I proceeded to go out and strut my stuff at nine 75 to celebrate Meaux's big old 40th birthday! It was great seeing all of my old friends, who mostly now have kids. Three of us have babies just 2 months apart.

We had goat cheese ravioli, won ton tuna tacos, chipotle lobster tacos, and flash seared yellowtail sashimi to start. Then I had the shrimp and scallop risotto. I highly recommend this fun restaurant. Now I just need to go try and make it around the park again today though I'm still a little sore from earlier this week.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Today you turn 6 months old. Already you are such a big girl. You can lay on your back and roll side to side, and when we have you sitting on the floor, you can balance on your own for 10 seconds. After several weeks, you've finally started to talk again. We love to hear you cackle. Everyone also wonders how you have red hair, and why you are so tall and skinny? Who do you look like we ask ourselves? You are 100% pure Hadley.

Glasses Cleaner

As it turns out, babies do more than just eat, cry, and poop.

Seriously, you need to go out and get one of these. They make the perfect glasses cleaner.

Now if I could only start teaching her how to do the dishes?

Rice and Banana Casserole

It has officially been one week since I started Hadley on solid food. And by solid, I mean soupy. It's like feeding her cardboard flakes (organic of course) soaked in breastmilk. Even though it is not much, she is so eager to please that when I say the word "Open" she kicks her feet, grins and opens her mouth up wide. She's such a quick learner that after the first few feedings, she just sees the spoon coming and opens her mouth. It is so cute, in a cute and amusing way that only a mother could love.

I am going to attempt to make all of her food instead of buy jars at the grocery store. The book I am using that Jinnie passed on to me is Super Baby Foods. It is a wealth of knowledge. Yesterday she ate banana for the first time! Even though she furrows her brow at the taste and acts like I've just fed her something Gibson barfed up on the floor, I continue to smile, encourage her, and act like she's eating the most scrumptious lobster dinner. Next week we will try sweet potato and the week after that avocado.

I'm a Whore for Yarn

What a girl won't do for a skein of some awesome yarn.

I have a new ad on the blog for Vickie Howell's podcast about all things craft and knitting. Remember when I talked about her here? I just downloaded all the podcasts from ITunes and can't wait to listen to all of them myself.

If you enjoy knitting, you need to check out her blog too. She has tons of free patterns and recently has been giving away lots of fun knitting accoutrements.

I'm Not Ready

I always told myself that I would breast feed for 6 months and then assess the situation and go from there. I'm not sure where I came up with this number. I must have pulled it out of the air. Well, Hadley turns 6 months old in 7 days and even though my milk has substantially subsided, I am really not ready to be done. Yes it would be easier for me to stop because I could finally go on a diet, stop pumping every couple of hours, and take my body back. But emotionally, I'm not ready to give up our bond. When I feed her, and nourish her from my own body, and she stares up at me, it's like nothing I have ever felt. I don't mind getting up in the middle of the night to be with her because it is our special time together.

Ok, and there's one other thing, and it's kind of selfish. It's my one trick in the bag that no one else has. If she's over tired and having trouble getting to sleep, pop a boob in her mouth. If she's fussy and nothing seems to be working, pop a boob in her mouth. It's like magic calming juice. If I don't have the magic juice, I'm afraid I'll just be that old broad in the corner with her shirt pulled up.

Etsy

It's called Hot Dog Bee Print by Liz Adams. Two great tastes that taste great together.I found this on my new favorite site: Etsy which is like Ebay for crafters. Everything is handmade, from jewelry to prints, photos, pins, clothing, furniture etc. The prices are so reasonable too. DG bought this print for me for Mother's Day for our office. See that green eyed girl in the corner, she looks just like me...10 years ago. Hot! And for those of you who don't know my bee theme, it comes from my maiden name: Allbee. I've turned into my grandmother, embraced the name (which I kept as a middle name), and love all things bee. In fact Hadley's room has quite a few Bee pictures as well.
Etsy has some of the cutest cleverest ideas. Take these little tags for example. So cute and I'm sure I need them for something. Maybe to wrap gifts. And how about these pillows made from original vintage fabric? I'm so excited because today I FINALLY found the crib bedding that I've been looking for. I ordered the bumper, bed skirt, and quilt picking the fabrics shown above. Custom made. I can't wait!

Mommy Blogging

The new buzzword these days is "Mommy blogging". There has been a recent media blitz about mommy blogging, including on Nightline and NBC.

The queen of the mother bloggers is Dooce. And by queen, I mean that she and her husband quit their jobs and make a living off of her blog. The Wall Street Journal and other recent media have estimated the amount to be about $40,000 a month. What the?!?! I make .40 cents on Google Adsense and I giggle like a school girl. "Oh my mom must have clicked something." $40,000 a month! DG and I look at each other, sigh and start dreaming.

So the question that I ask myself is, "Gasp, Have I Become a Mommy Blogger?". And the answer is, well, um, ::foot shuffling::, sort of.

In the late 90's, every Monday morning, I would draft a "Monday morning email" to all my girlfriends detailing my lascivious rambunctiousness of the previous week-end. At the time, it was my own version of Sex in the City. It was the standard stuff, you know like drinking excessively, having guys pick up your tab and then take you to a strip club and give you a hundred dollars in $1 bills for the ladies, taking a cab home at 4am only to have the cab driver recognize you from the week before, going out at 10:30 am for a bloody mary and stumbling home 12 hours later wearing a 1/2 eaten candy necklace, or one of my personal favorites, going home with a guy I liked, only to have his girlfriend waiting for him outside of his apartment. Oh the good old days.

Anyway, I've always said this blog is ABOUT ME, so when I went and got engaged, my blog was about weddings. And through a natural progression of life, we now have a baby, so I blog about her because she's the cutest freaking thing I've ever seen. But now, instead of fun urban hip girl, I am suburban Mommy Blogger. I've gone from Girls Gone Wild to Girls Gone Child.

I'm not sure where this is leading other than to say that I post pictures of her so people out there, her grandparents mostly and my friends who are so far away can feel closer to us and watch her grow up. But have no fear, I'm sure I'll try to fit in some more sex, drugs and rock and roll. And by drugs I mean Vitamin C and Ibuprofen; and by sex, I mean watching Gibson hump Tica; and by Rock and Roll I mean GO buy the new Death Cab For Cutie album because it is awesome.

What Motherhood Means

On my first Mother's Day, I realized that I do not yet associate myself with being a mother. I mean I do know that by all technical use of the word that I AM a mother. I do all the standard things that new mother's do, like panic over the details, check to see if she's still breathing in the middle of the night, try to make sure her socks match etc. But just being the milk machine and chief soother does not make me a Mother. I think motherhood is deeper than that. It is a level to which I have not yet achieved.

That being said, one thing that I am really excited for in Motherhood is the passing on of tradition, something that my mother passed on to me. So it is with great excitement that this week-end we introduced the annual planting the pots.

Ok, Hadley, the first thing you do is buy a bunch of pretty flowers. Next year, you can help me pick out all of your favorite colors.

Now we talk about each of the flower names. These are pansies. They are your Nana's favorites! Today we picked out white and purple ones to be different from last year.

And finally, here is where we will let you get your hands in the dirt and make lots of mud and then chase Gibson and Tica screaming and smear it on them. But since you are not old enough yet, we'll let you stare for a little while longer at the pretty colors.

Ask and the Lord Shall Giveth

And on the 11th day, the Lord sayeth "Let Hadley poop"!

Now why didn't I think to make a shout out when I was pregnant, eating bran/flaxseed muffins, chugging Metamucil, and throwing down 7 prunes at a time with a Milk of Magnesia Chaser?

On the Pooping Prayer Chain

I've been beginning a lot of my posts with "When we were in the Hospital". Here I'll just say, during our unfortunate stay with the delightful staff at Children's, Hadley's name and our family were on quite a few prayer lists throughout the country. My mother had all of Connecticut covered with every American Baptist Church in the state. My aunt informed me that the Catholics in San Antonio, Texas were praying for us. I believe we had quite a few shout outs from Iowa, Colorado, and Arizona as well. With that many people talking to God, no wonder God listened. Even though we have been home from the hospital now for over a week, we remain in people's prayers and Hadley's face has been inserted into many the church bulletin.

Just tonight, my dad informed me that he has some Catholic friends in Connecticut now praying for Hadley to poop. (Note: She has not pooped on her own since April 9, and it has now been 9 days since she has gone at all. The stimulation, massage, and suppositories are not working. We have moved on to Milk of Magnesia, which I have a case of left over from my pregnancy.) It warms the cockles of my heart, (and not just because I LOVE poop talk) to think that the bowel movements of my baby girl are in the prayers of people across the country. A pooping prayer chain, no request too big or too small I guess.

And so, we are now in countdown to poop mode. Come on poopy diaper.