You know the saying, right? So we will be able to finish that sentence sometime tomorrow afternoon when we will be IN ROME. Cool, huh? Yep, we are going on our first REAL trip, none of that pansy-wansy day-trip-to-Venice stuff, no sir-eee. And if any of us remembers my LOVELY post after our trip to Venice (see: hot, sweaty, yucky, ucky, tired) then you can only imagine how much I am truly looking forward to our WEEK-LONG trip to Rome and Naples. << sigh >>
But seriously, we are excited that daddy has finagled a week off from work, which would normally be some miracle act of god but in this case is because he has a week of leave he will lose by the end of September so he was forced to take it - thank you U.S. goverment for MAKING my hubby take a vacation : ) But since he IS so terribly busy I was left to stress over the plans for our vacation for the last several weeks, aahhh, no problem, right? A week of traveling in assorted foreign countries, train schedules, hotel reservations, woo-hoo! It'll take me five minutes, no problem...
Actually, we decided a week-long vacation would be good time to do a big trip, like England or Ireland, sooo, I looked online for flights, read through a bunch of travel books from the library, seriously researched hotels and then... those terrorist threats in the UK kindof made us think we should postpone the galavanting to England bit, um yeah. So hubby said, let's do a big Italy trip, like Naples, Pompeii, etc., and after another few weeks of intensive online research into trains and hotels and the like I caved and went to a travel agent in town, thank god. An hour or so later and they had the whole thing booked - hotels, an inclusive tour from Rome to Naples, even had the train tickets printed right there in there office, whew - and not a moment too soon, that was only two days ago < blink > < blink > Nothing like last minute plans, or a matching pair of hubby and wife procrastinators : )
So, wish us luck on our FIRST big family trip cross-country here in Italy. We're excited about the trip but totally nervous about how Ella will do on the 5+ hour train trip, hmmm, restless toddler + stuck in a seat for what seems like an eternity = FUN! Stay tuned - we'll report back here next week, same bat-time, same bat-channel...
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Family life in Italy, no longer UNplugged
Last night I futzed around with the internet settings on the computer and finally got our DSL modem here in Italy to work, that's right, you heard it first right here - WE ARE BACK ONLINE!!!
Aaaaaah, I relax and soak in the sumptuous sounds of Yahoo launching up, and the brilliant visions of fantastically gaudy pop-up ads. Who knew how much you could miss these wonderful electronic treasures, until you are stranded in a foreign country (cool and interesting, but still very foreign) without your precious wires to the world!
Our re-connection to the world comes none too soon as I have developed a two-month long list of all the things I daily discover that I can't find here in beautiful Italy. I crave for a Target-down-the-street like some kind of crazed shopping addict, and even occasionally dream of walking down the aisles at Kohl's, just a little creepy to say the least... Anyone?, anyone?, wanna trade some cool old castles and good wine for that 5-min drive to Walmart you take oh-so-for-granted?
So, thank god for all the online shopping that completely saturates the internet, I think I could lock myself inside the house for days now, holed up with my little DSL connected beauty until my eyes completely bugged out, but, Ella does occasionally need some sunshine, so I guess I'll just have to see what I can get done while she naps : )
In parting, we will tempt your visual taste buds with a quick glimpse of our lovely Italian house (yucky yard but give us time) and a snippet of Ella. More news and photos and maybe even video to come soon, now that we are happily "plugged in".
p.s. -- love to all our US fans, we miss you all TONS.....
Our little Italian "villa" (Ella acting as "Vanna" in the street)
Our one weekend excursion to Venice last month was disgustingly hot and muggy but we did capture a few choice pics of the little princess...
Even in the summer heat, Ella takes on Venice - with flair!
Ella enjoying a quiet "seedy" repose with Venice's natives
Ella and momma, squinting in the July sun
Ella hangin' out on the porch in her festive July 4th 'digs', what a ham
Aaaaaah, I relax and soak in the sumptuous sounds of Yahoo launching up, and the brilliant visions of fantastically gaudy pop-up ads. Who knew how much you could miss these wonderful electronic treasures, until you are stranded in a foreign country (cool and interesting, but still very foreign) without your precious wires to the world!
Our re-connection to the world comes none too soon as I have developed a two-month long list of all the things I daily discover that I can't find here in beautiful Italy. I crave for a Target-down-the-street like some kind of crazed shopping addict, and even occasionally dream of walking down the aisles at Kohl's, just a little creepy to say the least... Anyone?, anyone?, wanna trade some cool old castles and good wine for that 5-min drive to Walmart you take oh-so-for-granted?
So, thank god for all the online shopping that completely saturates the internet, I think I could lock myself inside the house for days now, holed up with my little DSL connected beauty until my eyes completely bugged out, but, Ella does occasionally need some sunshine, so I guess I'll just have to see what I can get done while she naps : )
In parting, we will tempt your visual taste buds with a quick glimpse of our lovely Italian house (yucky yard but give us time) and a snippet of Ella. More news and photos and maybe even video to come soon, now that we are happily "plugged in".
p.s. -- love to all our US fans, we miss you all TONS.....
Our little Italian "villa" (Ella acting as "Vanna" in the street)
Our one weekend excursion to Venice last month was disgustingly hot and muggy but we did capture a few choice pics of the little princess...
Even in the summer heat, Ella takes on Venice - with flair!
Ella enjoying a quiet "seedy" repose with Venice's natives
Ella and momma, squinting in the July sun
Ella hangin' out on the porch in her festive July 4th 'digs', what a ham
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Thursday, July 13, 2006
One day at a time...
No, not the fabulous 80's tv show, just our little family's daily mantra as we continue to try to adjust to our big overseas move. Every day we get through is one day closer to being settled in here in Italy, right? I hope so, but right now I still miss home : (
Anyway, we've moved into our house and are awaiting the arrival of our household goods (i.e., all our stuff) so we're living in a semi-empty house with some military loaner furniture (picture your old college dorm room stuff, mmmm, comfy). Our little princess is doing relatively well, considering we've uprooted her entire existence in Texas and dragged her across the ocean to a strange and bizarre place where none of her stuff or friends are (or maybe I'm just talking about me). She also tried to test the odds, adding to her stressload by cutting TWO MORE MOLARS, yay! Oh, yea, and then she got a BOIL. Yes, that's right, I said a boil. What in the hell? Who gets boils? Isn't that some weird medeival skin disease that only lepers get? Our poor little baby, I couldn't believe it, but she actually got a boil, and you can only guess where, so diaper changes became a truly fun screaming performance for a few days. On the plus side, she thought it was terribly fun to have 3 or 4 baths a day since there was no way she'd sit still for "apply a warm compress for 20-30 minutes several times a day", yea, um, hello, can you say toddler sitting still for 20-30 minutes without laughing, 'cause I can't : )
So, boils and teething and all, I'd say we're still doing pretty well with our move and all, wouldn't you? Got our computer delivered but won't have a phone or internet access for another 3 weeks or so, so our little house still feels a little like jail being so disconnected from the outside world. Looking forward to a month from now when we can really start setting up "house" and return to our old routine of watching tv, gabbing on the phone and checking email!
Love and hugs to all our US friends and family, hope to be able to post pictures soon...
Anyway, we've moved into our house and are awaiting the arrival of our household goods (i.e., all our stuff) so we're living in a semi-empty house with some military loaner furniture (picture your old college dorm room stuff, mmmm, comfy). Our little princess is doing relatively well, considering we've uprooted her entire existence in Texas and dragged her across the ocean to a strange and bizarre place where none of her stuff or friends are (or maybe I'm just talking about me). She also tried to test the odds, adding to her stressload by cutting TWO MORE MOLARS, yay! Oh, yea, and then she got a BOIL. Yes, that's right, I said a boil. What in the hell? Who gets boils? Isn't that some weird medeival skin disease that only lepers get? Our poor little baby, I couldn't believe it, but she actually got a boil, and you can only guess where, so diaper changes became a truly fun screaming performance for a few days. On the plus side, she thought it was terribly fun to have 3 or 4 baths a day since there was no way she'd sit still for "apply a warm compress for 20-30 minutes several times a day", yea, um, hello, can you say toddler sitting still for 20-30 minutes without laughing, 'cause I can't : )
So, boils and teething and all, I'd say we're still doing pretty well with our move and all, wouldn't you? Got our computer delivered but won't have a phone or internet access for another 3 weeks or so, so our little house still feels a little like jail being so disconnected from the outside world. Looking forward to a month from now when we can really start setting up "house" and return to our old routine of watching tv, gabbing on the phone and checking email!
Love and hugs to all our US friends and family, hope to be able to post pictures soon...
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Qui! Qui!
That's here! here! in Italian, because we are definitely here, here, in Italy!
We've survived our long flight across the atlantic and made it through our first week in Aviano, Italy. I think we've gotten past all the jet lag and I'm just now beginning to get through the emotional-lag of moving my life overseas... holy cow. It wasn't until we were actually here that I realized how far away from home, family, and friends I was, and I had a few sleepless nights staring at the ceiling, wondering what in the hell I had gotten myself into! : ( Thankfully, in the last few days I have happily stumbled upond some really nice families in our hotel who seemed just as strung out as me, aaaah, so nice to find people as unhappy as you - misery truly does love company!!
Aside from the emotional woes of travel, our transition here is actually going really well, we've found a house and should be moving in next week, although our household stuff won't be here until late August, yay : ) Tony's finished his week of orientation and is settling into his new job and loving it - big office, big responsibilities, too good to be true.
Well, hope to write more soon, don't have our home computer yet so I'm at the mercy of the library hours and computer availability. Signing off from far away...
Ciao, ciao!
We've survived our long flight across the atlantic and made it through our first week in Aviano, Italy. I think we've gotten past all the jet lag and I'm just now beginning to get through the emotional-lag of moving my life overseas... holy cow. It wasn't until we were actually here that I realized how far away from home, family, and friends I was, and I had a few sleepless nights staring at the ceiling, wondering what in the hell I had gotten myself into! : ( Thankfully, in the last few days I have happily stumbled upond some really nice families in our hotel who seemed just as strung out as me, aaaah, so nice to find people as unhappy as you - misery truly does love company!!
Aside from the emotional woes of travel, our transition here is actually going really well, we've found a house and should be moving in next week, although our household stuff won't be here until late August, yay : ) Tony's finished his week of orientation and is settling into his new job and loving it - big office, big responsibilities, too good to be true.
Well, hope to write more soon, don't have our home computer yet so I'm at the mercy of the library hours and computer availability. Signing off from far away...
Ciao, ciao!
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
On the road again...
This week our family of mommy, daddy, baby & two furry kitties will bid a fond farewell to our fair San Antonio as we head off on our journey to Aviano, Italy. We will also be bidding farewell to our computer until it's delivered in Aviano in JULY - yikes! We will try to post some updates during our fun moving process when we have access to a computer, but who knows...
Right now we are crazy-busy sorting through files and drawers, packing suitcases and taking down pictures, what a mess! The end result will be amazing when we are happily UN-packing in Italy, but for now everybody in our house is a little grumpy, especially our little one who is cutting TWO first year molars, poor baby! Other than the teething and moving mess, little Ella is doing great, we are keeping our fingers crossed that she makes it through the rest of this week's hellishness and all the travelling okay, they say babies are really resilient, I guess we'll put that to the test.
So, bye-bye lovely sunny (HOT) Texas, and our huge Texas-realty-is-so-cheap house, we will miss our first family home and all our great Texas friends (*sniff*)... Ciao!
One last look at our home...
...and Ella in her first back yard...
Right now we are crazy-busy sorting through files and drawers, packing suitcases and taking down pictures, what a mess! The end result will be amazing when we are happily UN-packing in Italy, but for now everybody in our house is a little grumpy, especially our little one who is cutting TWO first year molars, poor baby! Other than the teething and moving mess, little Ella is doing great, we are keeping our fingers crossed that she makes it through the rest of this week's hellishness and all the travelling okay, they say babies are really resilient, I guess we'll put that to the test.
So, bye-bye lovely sunny (HOT) Texas, and our huge Texas-realty-is-so-cheap house, we will miss our first family home and all our great Texas friends (*sniff*)... Ciao!
One last look at our home...
...and Ella in her first back yard...
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Friday, April 14, 2006
A Tale of a Cursed Closet
A bit of a girly fashion rant today so if you're not in the mood for such blathering, don't read on...
I speak to all the women out there with this ancient cry, this woeful wail, the mystery of the incredible shrinking pants!... I know nearly everyone out there has had this experience, the moment when we realize that our pants, the very pants that so luxiurously fit our lovely curves nay a scant week ago, these pants have been attacked by the sinister shrinking gnome that lurks in our closets, unseen, striking at our most vulnerable hour, when we were just beginning to bask in the glow of fitting into all our "tiny" clothes again. I retrace my steps to a few weeks ago...
The weather had begun to warm and I had courageously tried on last season's spring clothes, trying to not be too optimistic about my chances of fitting into any non-maternity pants, when to my great surprise I found that I could fit into most of my spring pants, and not only could I fit into them standing, but I could still breathe when I sat down, and it was entirely possible that I might even be able to eat a small snack without breaking any seams - amazing! I spent the next two weeks excitedly wearing my spring wardrobe, praising myself for not cowering in my maternity clothes as I did last spring, feeling even slightly optimistic that maybe I could conquer that last little bulge left from the baby. Then came the week that the pants were strangely tight again, and in my wonderful new optimistic haze I decidely thought "water weight", "bloating", "bad indegestion", nothing to worry about. Then came another week of tight pants, and another, and another, repeatedly trying on said pants again, and again, and withstanding long moments of trying to sit in them without breathing and realizing the only snack I could eat in them would be my last gulp of air.
So now here I am, realizing that the evil gnome has struck again - blast you, you little invisible bearded fool, your cunning magic has shrunk my lovely spring wardrobe again and I think 14 months after baby is definitely too late to be re-donning my maternity wardrobe, sigh. This week I finally found a few pairs of new pants that fit me without making me look like a bag lady trying to hide my beer gut but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to wear one style outside - the "gaucho" pants - sooooo extremely comfortable in their knit-ness that doesn't make me have to suck in my magically enlarged gut, but I either look very suave and sophisticated in their flowy-ness or I look like a bad 80's koolats flashback, oh well, best to not wear the keds with these : )
And please, after reading this, don't send the "You're crazy, you're so skinny!" hate mail because while it is true that I have always been naturally skinny I have been 'thickening' just like the rest of us since college, and while my own thickening may have been delayed it is none the less painful when I am donating trunkloads full of clothes to goodwill every other year. Besides, we all have our skinny and fat moments, even those size zero women have them (I hope), and waking up to find you have grown a jelly roll around the middle overnight (yes, I swear, it literally grew overnight) is truly horrifying and leaves you to question everything you have been eating and doing, and not eating and not doing. I am still trying to stay positive and believe it is some sort of side-effect of the new birth control pill I am on, but since it's been three months that's getting harder and harder to prove, so, I'll just resign myself to the fact that my body must just be having a good laugh at my expense and at my upcoming 30-year milestone, hurray, break out the exercise shoes.
I speak to all the women out there with this ancient cry, this woeful wail, the mystery of the incredible shrinking pants!... I know nearly everyone out there has had this experience, the moment when we realize that our pants, the very pants that so luxiurously fit our lovely curves nay a scant week ago, these pants have been attacked by the sinister shrinking gnome that lurks in our closets, unseen, striking at our most vulnerable hour, when we were just beginning to bask in the glow of fitting into all our "tiny" clothes again. I retrace my steps to a few weeks ago...
The weather had begun to warm and I had courageously tried on last season's spring clothes, trying to not be too optimistic about my chances of fitting into any non-maternity pants, when to my great surprise I found that I could fit into most of my spring pants, and not only could I fit into them standing, but I could still breathe when I sat down, and it was entirely possible that I might even be able to eat a small snack without breaking any seams - amazing! I spent the next two weeks excitedly wearing my spring wardrobe, praising myself for not cowering in my maternity clothes as I did last spring, feeling even slightly optimistic that maybe I could conquer that last little bulge left from the baby. Then came the week that the pants were strangely tight again, and in my wonderful new optimistic haze I decidely thought "water weight", "bloating", "bad indegestion", nothing to worry about. Then came another week of tight pants, and another, and another, repeatedly trying on said pants again, and again, and withstanding long moments of trying to sit in them without breathing and realizing the only snack I could eat in them would be my last gulp of air.
So now here I am, realizing that the evil gnome has struck again - blast you, you little invisible bearded fool, your cunning magic has shrunk my lovely spring wardrobe again and I think 14 months after baby is definitely too late to be re-donning my maternity wardrobe, sigh. This week I finally found a few pairs of new pants that fit me without making me look like a bag lady trying to hide my beer gut but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to wear one style outside - the "gaucho" pants - sooooo extremely comfortable in their knit-ness that doesn't make me have to suck in my magically enlarged gut, but I either look very suave and sophisticated in their flowy-ness or I look like a bad 80's koolats flashback, oh well, best to not wear the keds with these : )
And please, after reading this, don't send the "You're crazy, you're so skinny!" hate mail because while it is true that I have always been naturally skinny I have been 'thickening' just like the rest of us since college, and while my own thickening may have been delayed it is none the less painful when I am donating trunkloads full of clothes to goodwill every other year. Besides, we all have our skinny and fat moments, even those size zero women have them (I hope), and waking up to find you have grown a jelly roll around the middle overnight (yes, I swear, it literally grew overnight) is truly horrifying and leaves you to question everything you have been eating and doing, and not eating and not doing. I am still trying to stay positive and believe it is some sort of side-effect of the new birth control pill I am on, but since it's been three months that's getting harder and harder to prove, so, I'll just resign myself to the fact that my body must just be having a good laugh at my expense and at my upcoming 30-year milestone, hurray, break out the exercise shoes.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Ella the "toddler"
Okay, I'm trying the video embedding again, see my post below for details on this new trick. This is a slightly more recent video clip of Ella walking, I think taken about a month ago when she was really starting to "toddle"...
If the embedded video isn't playing above, click HERE for the link to the video posted on YouTube.
If the embedded video isn't playing above, click HERE for the link to the video posted on YouTube.
Cool New Video Stuff!
This is too cool - check it out, I can have video clips of Ella on the blog!, I think...
I was reading one of my favorite sites/blogs this morning, dooce.com, when I was directed to a site called "YouTube.com" to see a video clip she posted. Then I read about the site and decided to sign up so I could try posting my own videos, because membership was FREE, and who doesn't love free stuff?
I just now tested the site by loading up a short video clip of Ella - the same one I had posted on the scrapbook site last month while I was trying that out - I was planning on buying a membership to that site because it was the only way I could share video but this may be a new solution, I am so excited! Anyway, the YouTube site gave me html code to link the video or to 'embed' the video, I've tried both below in the blog and they both seem to work, how awesome!
For any of our fans out there reading, let me know if you can view the video too, by linking, or if it will play for you below, which just seems ultra-cool to me, I guess I'm a nerd at heart, tee-hee. I'm so excited I'm going to go see if I can go put together a new video clip of Ella to try sharing, hope to post back here soon...
Click HERE to view a video clip of Ella posted on YouTube.com
Or, just look below to see the same clip "embedded", hopefully you will see a little play button, click that and the video should play right here on the blog... (and no, your speakers aren't broken, there's no sound on this clip)
I was reading one of my favorite sites/blogs this morning, dooce.com, when I was directed to a site called "YouTube.com" to see a video clip she posted. Then I read about the site and decided to sign up so I could try posting my own videos, because membership was FREE, and who doesn't love free stuff?
I just now tested the site by loading up a short video clip of Ella - the same one I had posted on the scrapbook site last month while I was trying that out - I was planning on buying a membership to that site because it was the only way I could share video but this may be a new solution, I am so excited! Anyway, the YouTube site gave me html code to link the video or to 'embed' the video, I've tried both below in the blog and they both seem to work, how awesome!
For any of our fans out there reading, let me know if you can view the video too, by linking, or if it will play for you below, which just seems ultra-cool to me, I guess I'm a nerd at heart, tee-hee. I'm so excited I'm going to go see if I can go put together a new video clip of Ella to try sharing, hope to post back here soon...
Click HERE to view a video clip of Ella posted on YouTube.com
Or, just look below to see the same clip "embedded", hopefully you will see a little play button, click that and the video should play right here on the blog... (and no, your speakers aren't broken, there's no sound on this clip)
Thursday, March 16, 2006
PBS stands for Poopy, Bad Station!!
Um, hello?, PBS? As devoted to educational programming as you are, could you please explain to me why on god's green earth you would randomly replace Sesame Street today with some gay-ass (sorry to be crass) 'Colonial Williamsburg' show? Yeah, leave on Dragon Tales and the other goofy morning programming, but replace the award-winning, historically fabulous Sesame Street, brilliant way to get those pledges. Oh, my little Ella was totally jazzed to see that programming change. Thanks for screwing with the routine of a 13-month old, I do believe she has placed a hex on you, or I think that's what she meant with all that whining and crying that started when her eyes were not greeted by the beautiful faces of Big Bird, Ernie and Elmo at 9 o'clock sharp. We were actually forced to change to the Disney channel whereupon my daughter became a Wiggles zombie for 30 minutes, terrific. You better bring her friends back tomorrow morning or she's stormin' the castle for sure...
just look at this sad, deprived baby face : (
just look at this sad, deprived baby face : (
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
la la la
Now I'm not a music-geek or even a well educated music lover, but there's something for me about how a favorite song can make the world stop spinning, just for a brief moment, and let you soak up all the goodness into your heart, for safekeeping...
Our little princess's favorite song for the last few weeks has been "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt (click HERE, and scroll down to the "You're Beautiful" video, if you haven't heard it). She first heard it during our Saturday morning ritual of watching VH1's video countdown - hey, don't judge my parenting, when Sesame Street's not on for those two long weekend days, you gotta fill the time with something or you go right into Elmo withdrawl - and, on a sidenote, it's a good ritual for me as a mommy, keeping me up to date on what the cool people are listening to. Anyway, since she was an infant, Ella has been totally into music, usually vocal stuff, she's even periodically entertained by my own singing, which is truly the best compliment a girl can get. Last summer she loved the band Weezer's song "Beverly Hills", it could stop her woeful crying in the car with just a quick click of the CD to track 12, aaahhhh, peaceful car rides are awesome, even when you have to listen to the same song, looped over, and over, and over. And then, a few weeks ago when she heard the James Blunt song, it was love at first 'hear' again - she stopped dead in her little toddler tracks and became transfixed with the silly skinny white man in that weird rainy video. We've been tuning in week in and week out for the countdown ever since, in hopes of hearing the song again, and then this week I finally downloaded it for her so we could make a new magical-stops-all-crying CD for the car.
So this is our song that can just stop the world for me right now - I pull Ella up into my lap at the computer and play the song on iTunes (with those cool onscreen graphics, of course) and she just lets me hold her for those few glorious minutes. For her, as a newly active toddler, being held by momma is the baby torture equivalent of being put in a straightjacket, so you can understand my rapture at a few exceptionally long minutes of baby snuggles - pure joy, pure unmatched absolute joy, if only for a few moments. I sing along to that simple song and can't help thinking about how she is beautiful, just like the song says, and you just get pulled into the music and away from the rest of the day, the crying and flailing, the drooling and runny nose, they're all gone and you just have a nice cheezy moment to love your imperfect life in it's moment of perfectness. And then it's back to the day, and the week, and the to-do list, but with just a few extra 'warm fuzzies' stored away for safekeeping, or, for the next bout of screamy-mimis : )
(here she is transfixed by another of her favorite pasttimes - lunch!)
Our little princess's favorite song for the last few weeks has been "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt (click HERE, and scroll down to the "You're Beautiful" video, if you haven't heard it). She first heard it during our Saturday morning ritual of watching VH1's video countdown - hey, don't judge my parenting, when Sesame Street's not on for those two long weekend days, you gotta fill the time with something or you go right into Elmo withdrawl - and, on a sidenote, it's a good ritual for me as a mommy, keeping me up to date on what the cool people are listening to. Anyway, since she was an infant, Ella has been totally into music, usually vocal stuff, she's even periodically entertained by my own singing, which is truly the best compliment a girl can get. Last summer she loved the band Weezer's song "Beverly Hills", it could stop her woeful crying in the car with just a quick click of the CD to track 12, aaahhhh, peaceful car rides are awesome, even when you have to listen to the same song, looped over, and over, and over. And then, a few weeks ago when she heard the James Blunt song, it was love at first 'hear' again - she stopped dead in her little toddler tracks and became transfixed with the silly skinny white man in that weird rainy video. We've been tuning in week in and week out for the countdown ever since, in hopes of hearing the song again, and then this week I finally downloaded it for her so we could make a new magical-stops-all-crying CD for the car.
So this is our song that can just stop the world for me right now - I pull Ella up into my lap at the computer and play the song on iTunes (with those cool onscreen graphics, of course) and she just lets me hold her for those few glorious minutes. For her, as a newly active toddler, being held by momma is the baby torture equivalent of being put in a straightjacket, so you can understand my rapture at a few exceptionally long minutes of baby snuggles - pure joy, pure unmatched absolute joy, if only for a few moments. I sing along to that simple song and can't help thinking about how she is beautiful, just like the song says, and you just get pulled into the music and away from the rest of the day, the crying and flailing, the drooling and runny nose, they're all gone and you just have a nice cheezy moment to love your imperfect life in it's moment of perfectness. And then it's back to the day, and the week, and the to-do list, but with just a few extra 'warm fuzzies' stored away for safekeeping, or, for the next bout of screamy-mimis : )
(here she is transfixed by another of her favorite pasttimes - lunch!)
Friday, March 10, 2006
how sweet it is
Ella, the oh-so-mild-mannered baby has developed a new completely obstinate behavior that we like to call the screamy-mimi's, in which she randomly gets ridiculously frustrated with someone, shall we say, mommy, who tells her "no" and then she throws herself on the floor and screams - what fun! Something about being 13 months old means suddenly being able to understand nearly everything and yet without speaking more than five words expect everyone to understand you! Woe to those who do not meet your demands within less than TWO SECONDS!!!
This week she seemed to have more bad days than good but yesterday afternoon she was so sublimely happy running around in the grass outside for a few minutes that I caught this awesome picture:
Even I can't complain when I get to share my bad days with this gorgeous face. Having a baby is such total joy, even the screaming days are fun, when did we ever think that would be possible?
Anyway, she could teach me a thing or two about enjoying the good moments, afterall, we should all have this much fun just being outside soaking up the sunshine (and chasing kitty cats)...
This week she seemed to have more bad days than good but yesterday afternoon she was so sublimely happy running around in the grass outside for a few minutes that I caught this awesome picture:
Even I can't complain when I get to share my bad days with this gorgeous face. Having a baby is such total joy, even the screaming days are fun, when did we ever think that would be possible?
Anyway, she could teach me a thing or two about enjoying the good moments, afterall, we should all have this much fun just being outside soaking up the sunshine (and chasing kitty cats)...
Thursday, March 09, 2006
On again, off again
I have always had such an on-again, off-again love affair with our little blog here - I think about it almost everyday, but never post. Think about things to say, but never say them. Come across fabulous photos but never show them. 'Tis a sad, sad tale of unrequited love...
Well, that little bit of silliness off my chest, I can say in all seriousness I realized after talking to a friend today (yes, Amanda, that's you), that I don't have to be a noble-prize winning poet laureat to write in my blog (after all if Amanda can survive TWO MONTHS in Yemen - yes, I said Yemen - I can certainly bare my soul on the world wide web). I usually wait until I have a ton of baby news or an oscar-winning heroic mommy story to post, but in truth, I have plenty of fun daily tidbits I could share that would just be plain fun for me to journal about. I've shared our blog address with almost everyone I know, but I know there are only a handful of people that check in on it, like I check in on my friends' blogs. And I know that I'm always dissapointed when they don't have updates so maybe I'm dissapointing someone out there too. Highly unlikely, I know, for even as I make this miraculous post it will more than likely stay completely unread for days or weeks until someone accidently types in my address : )
Anyway, I wish I were as funny and well-read as Heather Armstrong (true fans will know this real 'dooce' name), but maybe for today I can just be me and see how that goes. Signing off in mommyville as I listen to the cries of the just-awakened baby Ella-beast...
- no actual tidbits were related, created or harmed in this post, tune in tomorrow for some actual content -
Well, that little bit of silliness off my chest, I can say in all seriousness I realized after talking to a friend today (yes, Amanda, that's you), that I don't have to be a noble-prize winning poet laureat to write in my blog (after all if Amanda can survive TWO MONTHS in Yemen - yes, I said Yemen - I can certainly bare my soul on the world wide web). I usually wait until I have a ton of baby news or an oscar-winning heroic mommy story to post, but in truth, I have plenty of fun daily tidbits I could share that would just be plain fun for me to journal about. I've shared our blog address with almost everyone I know, but I know there are only a handful of people that check in on it, like I check in on my friends' blogs. And I know that I'm always dissapointed when they don't have updates so maybe I'm dissapointing someone out there too. Highly unlikely, I know, for even as I make this miraculous post it will more than likely stay completely unread for days or weeks until someone accidently types in my address : )
Anyway, I wish I were as funny and well-read as Heather Armstrong (true fans will know this real 'dooce' name), but maybe for today I can just be me and see how that goes. Signing off in mommyville as I listen to the cries of the just-awakened baby Ella-beast...
- no actual tidbits were related, created or harmed in this post, tune in tomorrow for some actual content -
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Happy FIRST Birthday Baby!!!
What a great week for our little princess, her very first birthday - Hooray!!! Grandma Penny came to visit for a whole week and helped us plan a fun little party for Ella with her baby playgroup, it was fabulous! Check out all the partygoers in their cool birthday hats (except for Ella, she of course refused to wear a hat in the spirit of "It's MY party, and I'll cry if I want to")...
Despite the hat-wearing, Ella had a great time with all her baby friends, and as the oldest in the group she showed off some truly impressive cupcake eating skills - she started with some dainty licking of the icing and moved quickly onto cupcake smashing, yum...
She is showing off in so many other ways too, taking more and more steps each day and officially using her first words, "baby", "daddy", and occasionally "mommy". She is just so much fun and we can't imagine our life without her - thanks baby for a wonderful year, we're lovin' every minute of you!
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Happy New Year Baby!
Happy New Year to all, a belated Merry Christmas and apparently Happy Thanksgiving as well, since I haven't posted since November, gasp, how dreadfully embarrassing! As always, I have a wonderfully cute excuse who keeps me away from the computer more and more as she learns to get into everything more and more each day : )
Ella has had a fabulous "winter", if you count the 70-degree days we're having here in Texas winter, tee hee, to all our beloved east coast family and friends, we love it! Ella's first Thanksgiving was a fun one spent at our aunt & uncle's in College Station, Texas, Ella was really getting into her solid foods so had a fun time with stuffing, mashed potatoes and turkey, woo hoo!
Her first Christmas was a fun whirlwind of travel spending a week in Maryland with mommy's family and a week in New York with daddy's. While in New York she also got her first taste of snow, woo hoo! She detested the copious amounts of layering she was subjected to, to endure the strange fluffy white stuff, but she seemed to have fun, and even got her first sled ride with papa. Overall, I think she loved all the extra attention from her relatives and was sorely disappointed to come back home to her boring days with just mommy : )
Since we've been home Ella has been jumping through milestones with leaps and bounds. Before Christmas, totally not interested in walking, after Christmas, pushing around her cute walking cart with a vengeance and demanding to hold hands and walk around the house all the time, she has even taken up to 10 steps all alone (before she realized she could get down and crawl much faster). Before Christmas she was a sea of crazy babbles and then just this week she proudly uttered her first real word - "baby". And while she points to a variety of things whilst uttering "baby", including daddy and the cat, she gets most excited about saying it when pointing at the baby faces in her "Happy Baby 1, 2, 3" book and when looking through her cousin Kyle's baby albums. Looking at photo albums is one of her new favorite things to do, she scrambles joyously down the hallway to our front living room where all the "nice" stuff is and pulls the photo albums out one-by-one, flips through the pages, excitedly pointing to each picture of Kyle and pronouncing "BABY" as if we had no idea a baby was hiding in these books, it is truly beyond adorable.
It seems as if her brain cells are just bursting with growth and activity the way she surmounts new tasks and explores her world. We can even proudly acknowledge that she no longer just eats the shapes in her shape sorter that we bought for her, to teach her shapes and colors, and while she is still not completely interested in "sorting" them, she does like to dump them out and then playfully drop them back in the bucket (leaving that darn sorter lid off, it's just no fun yet, mommy!).
We are excited about the coming weeks as her first birthday quickly approaches, we can hardly believe a whole year has gone by, although it feels like we have never been without her - what was the world even like before she came?
Happily awaiting new milestones to share...
p.s. -- we are also trying out another fun way to share info and stuff with everyone, check out http://figierafam.aboutmybaby.com/, we're doing a 30-day trial before we decide to keep it, they let you post photos and VIDEO, if friends & family like it we'll keep using it so let us know!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
9 Months of Mommyhood
Nine months, nine months, nine months.... I can't believe our little one's been here nine months!
So, Ella turned nine months old this past Friday and we have no exciting news to report from her check-up 'cause there was a bit of a scheduling snaffoo and they made our appointment for the wrong hospital, aah how we're loving this new outsourced appointment company that's working for the military healthcare here in San Antonio : ) We decided we'd have our own checkup and went home and weighed and measured her and can proudly report that ever-so-petite-one is up to a whopping 15 pounds! And we had been told to wait until the 9-month check-up to add any meats to her diet, but I said screw them for messing up our appointment, so we gave her her first taste of chicken this weekend, woo hoo! Not that she even knew, as it was mixed in and completely diluted by cereal and vegetable and applesauce - applesauce, applesauce, applesauce, I swear she will eat anything as long as you mix it with applesauce. Sweet potatoes, wouldn't eat em' - sweet potatoes with applesauce, eaten faster than I could spoon it in. But I still can't stomach the idea of green beans and applesauce so we'll have to find another mixer for those : )
Anyway, I also realized the nine month marker meant that she has been "out" as long as she was "in", sounds weird, I know, but it really just means I can no longer say, "Hey, I had nine months to put the weight on, so I have nine months to take it off", oh well, the deadline has officially passed.
So, nine months of parenthood conquered, mastered, passed, achieved, and all I have to say is I find more and more funny little quirks about 'mommyhood' that make me stop and smile. I've decided you could have a whole list of running jokes, like the comic Jeff Foxworthy has his "You might be a redneck if..." jokes, I think you could have a "You know you're a mommy when...". I think I'll work on it and here's a couple to get it started...
You know you're a mommy when... you check your pockets thirteen times for the pacifier and still walk out the door without your keys (every time).
You know you're a mommy when... doing one load of laundry and remembering to eat lunch are the only things you can accomplish in one day
But my favorite for the week and totally true is...
You know you're a mommy when... you drag the mixer and ALL your ingredients into the BATHROOM to make chocolate chip cookies, just so you won't wake the baby from her nap. (Seriously, I did it)
So, Ella turned nine months old this past Friday and we have no exciting news to report from her check-up 'cause there was a bit of a scheduling snaffoo and they made our appointment for the wrong hospital, aah how we're loving this new outsourced appointment company that's working for the military healthcare here in San Antonio : ) We decided we'd have our own checkup and went home and weighed and measured her and can proudly report that ever-so-petite-one is up to a whopping 15 pounds! And we had been told to wait until the 9-month check-up to add any meats to her diet, but I said screw them for messing up our appointment, so we gave her her first taste of chicken this weekend, woo hoo! Not that she even knew, as it was mixed in and completely diluted by cereal and vegetable and applesauce - applesauce, applesauce, applesauce, I swear she will eat anything as long as you mix it with applesauce. Sweet potatoes, wouldn't eat em' - sweet potatoes with applesauce, eaten faster than I could spoon it in. But I still can't stomach the idea of green beans and applesauce so we'll have to find another mixer for those : )
Anyway, I also realized the nine month marker meant that she has been "out" as long as she was "in", sounds weird, I know, but it really just means I can no longer say, "Hey, I had nine months to put the weight on, so I have nine months to take it off", oh well, the deadline has officially passed.
So, nine months of parenthood conquered, mastered, passed, achieved, and all I have to say is I find more and more funny little quirks about 'mommyhood' that make me stop and smile. I've decided you could have a whole list of running jokes, like the comic Jeff Foxworthy has his "You might be a redneck if..." jokes, I think you could have a "You know you're a mommy when...". I think I'll work on it and here's a couple to get it started...
You know you're a mommy when... you check your pockets thirteen times for the pacifier and still walk out the door without your keys (every time).
You know you're a mommy when... doing one load of laundry and remembering to eat lunch are the only things you can accomplish in one day
But my favorite for the week and totally true is...
You know you're a mommy when... you drag the mixer and ALL your ingredients into the BATHROOM to make chocolate chip cookies, just so you won't wake the baby from her nap. (Seriously, I did it)
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Ol' Blue Eyes...
Just too pretty for words, isn't she? (and yes, I'm quite sure she's mine despite the embarrassing lack of resemblance)
Well, it's been a pathetically long time since our last post and no good excuses, ah, welcome to family life : ) All is well with the little princess, she recovered quite well from the infamous first cold (see our last post) even though the snot seemed to continue running from her nose for weeks and weeks - ah, yes, there's my excuse for not writing, right? She's keeping us busy with her fabulous crawling skills, which have not yet progressed into walking, just to faster and faster and faster crawling! She also foud the stairs a week ago and proudly climbed all 15 or so of them, through both landings and up the switch-back turn, totally impressive, really, and the absolute and total glee of her discovery was way beyond cute. And this week she met her first 'baby friends' when we attended our first playgroup for a stay-at-home-moms club that I recently joined, oh hurray for other mom's to talk to, I think poor daddy was getting tired of hearing us talk about diapers and spittup and poop non-stop! She loved seeing all the other babies and just wanted to crawl all over them, it was "fun" chasing her around and trying to convince her to play with her own toys instead of slobbering all over strangers', ha!
What else can I say, our little family's doing pretty good, we're totally enjoying the much deserved cool-down in the hot Texas weather and looking forward to playing outside well into December! ...anybody wanna come and visit? : )
(and here's another pic of little pretty pants... Ta-Da!)
Friday, September 30, 2005
The spam stops here
Just a note to let everyone know I've just added a word verification option for commenting so don't be surprised when you see that request if you go to leave a comment on this blog. We've been getting a lot of "spam comments" which I didn't even know was possible, and is definitely as annoying as spam emails. Thanks to my friend for suggesting this to keep out the spammers!
And on the family front, the little one is still battling her cold and now I've caught a new one, yippee, the house of snot legacy lives on...
And on the family front, the little one is still battling her cold and now I've caught a new one, yippee, the house of snot legacy lives on...
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Baby's first cold
No, no pretty little picture of the fabulously snotty baby enjoying her first cold, I am kind at heart and thought to spare everyone that wonderful view, you're welcome.
Yes, yet another milestone for our little one as this past week she began sneezing and coughing and dripping snot all over her toys - hurray for baby, she's caught her first cold! I had a cold for about a week and was right in the middle of congratulating myself for not giving it to my baby when I noticed the steady stream of snot coming out of her nose last Sunday. I tried to convince myself it was some sort of fluke from her afternoon nap, drool from all the teething that was magically flowing upward into her nose, but no, then more snot came, and then the sneezing, and then the fever and then it was pretty hard to ignore. So, I pulled out all my baby books and magazines and read everything I could find about her symptoms and discovered there wasn't much I could do but watch and wait, she only had a stuffy nose and a really mild fever and to top it off she was happy as a clam! She couldn't have cared less about not being able to breathe, seemingly suffocating every time she ate, and leaving a bright shiny slime trail everywhere she crawled around the house, she loved it! Of course she's had a few fussy moments throughout the week, but between her and me she wins the prize. I had the same cold and whined and complained the whole week but give it to my little 7-month-old baby, and she can kick that germ right on it's ass. You are so your father's daughter, thank god for those tough-guy genes.
So, as of today, I am finishing up the famous cold, the little one's battling her way through it and daddy seems to have just started sniffling, hmmmmm, I think that officially makes us the snot family. Oh well, signing off from snotville with a fun little non-snotty picture of Ms. Cuteness...
(Looks like she's on a really important conference call, doesn't it?.... Baby calling god, are you there god? There's been a mixup, this is soooooooo not my mother, this crazy lady right here, who WON'T STOP TAKING MY PICTURE!) : )
Yes, yet another milestone for our little one as this past week she began sneezing and coughing and dripping snot all over her toys - hurray for baby, she's caught her first cold! I had a cold for about a week and was right in the middle of congratulating myself for not giving it to my baby when I noticed the steady stream of snot coming out of her nose last Sunday. I tried to convince myself it was some sort of fluke from her afternoon nap, drool from all the teething that was magically flowing upward into her nose, but no, then more snot came, and then the sneezing, and then the fever and then it was pretty hard to ignore. So, I pulled out all my baby books and magazines and read everything I could find about her symptoms and discovered there wasn't much I could do but watch and wait, she only had a stuffy nose and a really mild fever and to top it off she was happy as a clam! She couldn't have cared less about not being able to breathe, seemingly suffocating every time she ate, and leaving a bright shiny slime trail everywhere she crawled around the house, she loved it! Of course she's had a few fussy moments throughout the week, but between her and me she wins the prize. I had the same cold and whined and complained the whole week but give it to my little 7-month-old baby, and she can kick that germ right on it's ass. You are so your father's daughter, thank god for those tough-guy genes.
So, as of today, I am finishing up the famous cold, the little one's battling her way through it and daddy seems to have just started sniffling, hmmmmm, I think that officially makes us the snot family. Oh well, signing off from snotville with a fun little non-snotty picture of Ms. Cuteness...
(Looks like she's on a really important conference call, doesn't it?.... Baby calling god, are you there god? There's been a mixup, this is soooooooo not my mother, this crazy lady right here, who WON'T STOP TAKING MY PICTURE!) : )
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