Texas State Flowers

We always participate in the yearly Texas tradition of photographing your children in a ditch...I mean in a bed of bluebonnets.

Cuteness Parade

This is the cuteness that I am witness to every day after school:

Mugs and Bugs

DJ smiles.


Tillie observes bees.

Cannot Seem to Simplify

Kids grow so fast, you cannot keep up with their clothing. I seem to have piles of little outfits everywhere. Some are hand-me-downs from friends that Tillie is not yet big enough for. Some are hand-me-downs from Tillie that Django is not yet big enough for. Then there are the smaller piles of clothes that they have both grown out of and I need to get rid of. You'd think it would be an easy task, but they don't grow out of everything at once. Instead, they subtly grow out of one item, but you aren't quite sure so you put it on them and they look funny all day. I wish it were more formulaic, where I had 10 outfits that fit and that could be retired all at once and replaced by the next 10 outfits. Its not like I've even mastered sorting this out with my own clothing--winter from summer, fatter times from thinner, dressy from casual. I have more clothing than my dresser and closet can hold, but I don't wear all of it. When we lived in Dallas, I had the most glorious walk-in closet. I miss it. I'm not really a clothes horse, but I do like a good place to store the piles.

Yodeleihoo

Which should Tillie take first: guitar lessons or riding lessons? Well, from the looks of it, she needs neither!

Tillie's friend Kate found what must be Tillie's inspiration:

[image from: http://www.hlsr.com/concerts/images/history/autry_gene.jpg]

Diane Tilbus

Tillie took portraits of all the members of her family. She has a certain style, no?

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Mooblie Reviews

Tillie's Oscar Picks:

Today is the day that I get to really nerd out on movies. I just adore the Oscars. I love the challenge of trying to see all the nominated movies before the big day, I love drooling over the red carpet outfits, and I truly love bitching about the results and about how my favorite indy movie got beat by some blockbuster crap. (It is a yearly tradition since the Titanic swept in 1998.)

I managed to see 23 out of the 43 films nominated this year--not my best work, but I get a "good effort" award for having done this while maintaining a full-time job, raising a 2-year-old, and adopting a newborn. Here is my list of nominated movies that I saw and my one line review of each:

Avatar – pretty fluff
Coco Before Chanel – inspiring and chic
Coraline – spooky fun
Crazy Heart – heartbreaking with good tunes
District 9 – awesome, smart, and gross
An Education – smart coming-of-age
Fantastic Mr. Fox – cool, but also too cool
Food, Inc. – horrifying and extremely informative
Harry Potter and Some Guy – dark and dumb
The Hurt Locker – war sucks but this movie doesn’t
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasus – dazzling weird-cool (We all miss Heath.)
In the Loop – high-larious and cussy
Julie & Julia – dummy and yummy (Streep was brilliant, though.)
The Last Station – beautiful and sad
Nine – lameness to music (Go see an actual Italian classic instead.)
The Princess and the Frog – fun but formulaic
A Serious Man – seriously interesting and gorgeously shot
Sherlock Holmes – charming adventure with sass and blasts
A Single Man – sad and pretty
Star Trek – cornball adventure with blasts only
Transformers – truly awful
Up – delightful with one truly brilliant scene
Up in the Air – engaging but over-rated

And, because you really came here to see the picture of a cute kid, here is one that Scott took of us and used an iPhone ap to cartoonify:

Happy Faces

Parents of small children are either:
1. Bragging about how cute their kids are
2. Complaining about how hard it is to parent them
Let me tell you that this is all that is in our brains, too. When I shot the video below this morning, I was feeling the former. Now I am feeling the latter. Ug. I miss freedom.

Lil' Tex's First Snow

Let's NOT Talk about Our Feelings

We had to go to a 2-day seminar this weekend to get certified to adopt. After 9 hours of talking about every possible feeling birthparents, adoptive parents, and adopted children could have, I'm pretty much adoptioned out. I'm ready to just enjoy my kids and move on. Here are some random cute pics of DJ:

Family Fun

When you have small children, places that were once your personal nightmare become a magical dreamland. Baby day at the movie theater is one example. We enjoyed another example this past Sunday: a restaurant that sells tiny burgers, corn dogs, sweet potato fries, and cold slab ice cream, has a fenced in playground, and is crawling with small children. Only families with kids under 8 years of age dare attend. It is very loud. Every surface is kind of sticky. The tables are designed to be cleaned easily by a hose perhaps once a day. Tillie is finally big enough to enjoy the playscape, which usually engages no fewer than 15 screaming tykes. I think she did the circuit about 25 times. Scott and I had a little indigestion afterward, but the kids both took 4 hour naps that afternoon. Mama like!

De-evolution of the Family Portrait

Lone Field Flower

When I was a kid, we got to do a lot of exploring in the "wild" places in our neighborhood. Nothing fancy, these were just creek easements, runoff spillways, and semi-wooded or cleared yet undeveloped lots. None of it was truly natural, but you could still collect tadpoles, dig up worms, gather clay, build dams, and hunt for (but never actually find) native american artifacts, crack open rocks in search of geodes (again, never actually achieved), etc.

Sometimes you came across a random homeless person's camp, a stray shopping cart, or some drug paraphernalia. We didn't have cell phones or chaperons. However, I never felt that there was any danger in it. Our parents could easily drive the less than one-mile radius of area and find us if they needed to. We knew not to talk to strangers or play with dangerous trash. We knew to stay off the railroad tracks. Giving your kid this amount of freedom was okay back then--either because Austin was a smaller town or there was less hysteria about child safety in our community or perhaps there were fewer dangers known, I don't know.

Yet, I don't see myself letting Tillie and Django do this now. Is it because I live a lot closer to the highway, with its speeding cars, seedy strip clubs, and drunken panhandlers? Is it because the creek near our house is just plain disgusting compared to the one I used to explore as a child? (Then again, perhaps that one was just as gross, but my 9-year-old eyes didn't see it as such.) Or, is it because I am just a more nervous person than my parents and their friends were, whether due to our inherent natures or due to our contemporary socio-political climate?

I can't stand the idea that my kids wouldn't get that kind of self education. I either need to take a chill pill, or create some sort of safe alternative. I could rent a farm or send them off to camp in the summers. Perhaps I could sign up to be a scout leader or buy some camping equipment. Fortunately, Tillie has a while before she will grow out of our backyard. In the meantime, let me know if you want to organize some future nature walks with my kids (and yours if you got 'em).

An Ideal Movie Date

Django and I went to baby day at the local movie theater/bar. He was the perfect movie buddy:
1) Let me choose the movie
2) Paid for his own ticket (he was free)
3) Let me choose where we sat
4) Did not talk during the film
5) Did not eat all (or any, really) of my movie snacks
6) Snuggled on my chest while I ate pizza over his head
It was a dream date!

My Children

Pie-rfection

We were invited to a terrific pie party this weekend. There were probably 50 different pies, both savory and sweet. Such an event--a potluck challenge, where participants are inspired to create both the delicious and the unique--is pretty much my favorite type of social occasion. I just love any type of cook-off where the food isn't actually judged and everyone gets to taste the entries. I made a sour cream pear pie, shown below. It was so delicious and fun to make that I made three, one on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm taking a break today, but I'd love to start up again soon. Do you want one?

PS. A lovely thing happened with the first pie, though not the others--half of the pears were a fleshy pink color. It was quite pretty. I wish there were a reliable way of getting pink pears so that all future sour cream pear pies could be this cute.

Lil' Brisket

We like to take Django out for BBQ and savor it while staring at him lovingly--perhaps you've noticed this now-weekly trend on the blog. I wonder if this will affect him in any way developmentally. Positively? How could it not be positive?!

A good friend pointed out this awesome little joint that is only two blocks from our house. It is just a guy in a trailer. He serves the meat until it runs out. It is some of the best barbecue I've ever had. If you are in town, stop by my house and we'll walk over together. Supposedly on weekends, people bring a six pack and sit out on the lawn furniture in the lot in front of the trailer and eat meat and drink beer and watch the busy highway and passing panhandlers. Sounds like the perfect Sunday to me!

I'm Cute Too

Can't You See How Much Cuter I Am Than...

Look at Me Darnit!

Tillie's Baby

Tillie's Bubbe and her Auntie Emily both had the great idea to get her her own baby and fun accessories, such as crib and stroller, diaper and blankie, and baby bottle and food:

This lets her take care of "Tillie's baby" while I take care of "Mama's baby."

"Wait a Minute"

The baby bag also came with a cell phone. Tillie really enjoys putting people on hold. Where did she learn that?

This Season's Hottest Accessory

Everyone looks good with Mr. Handsome in arms!

Big Sis Helps Out

Little Dude, Big Name

Tillie met him this morning and said, “He’s cute.” I agree!

So, that is his name in its full glory. For the curious:
His first name comes from the jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who, if you have never heard his stuff--go do it now, is a musical genius.
His first middle name is a family name and also just sounds good with Django.
His second middle name is the name he was born with, given to him by his birthmother.
His last name is the only semi-pronounceable name we could put together with the rest of the letters of the alphabet : )

I also like to call him D.J. or D.J.D.

One-Dayaversary

Going home outfit surprise:

Baby's first BBQ at Shep's in Palestine, TX (Delicious!):

Dinner with Dada:

He's Here!

We love him!
The data: 7 pounds 12 ounces and 21 inches and born at 6:14 pm on January 18, 2010

Spinning

This video might make you feel disoriented:

...which is how I feel right now. It is totally bizarre waiting for your baby to be born, but not having the baby inside of you. Is this how it feels to be an expectant father? I check my cell phone every 15 minutes. I get a little agitated when I have to be away from the land line. I wake up every morning and wonder if I missed the call while I was sleeping. I think I remember the expectant fathers that I used to work with were like this. Every time their phone rang they would snatch it up and like a hungry wolf and then kind of deflate when it turned out to be someone other than their wife. Of course, most expectant fathers don't worry whether they will get to be the parent of their child. Something happened this week, something just clicked, and I am now just a big ball of stress. It is actually not about being a parent, but whether or not I will get to be a parent. So far, however, even with all the stress ratcheting up as the big day approaches, being an adoptive parent in wait is still preferable to being 9 months pregnant...I think.

Resolution: Gather More Monsters