24 hrs of weekend fuuuun

And not one picture to show for it.

Friday night, we went to St. Angela Merici's "Catfish Festival" that was just a big, fun fair with delicious fried fish. We met some friends there, Mike & Kelsey, with their little 5-mos-old, though neither of us actually attends that church. After eating, Paul wanted to do "Das! Das!" (That! That!) pointing to all the rides; hm... but, wait! There was a special, little fenced off section that was just for 6yrs and under! Oh, my goodness, the joy! There were two jump-jump things to get in, one was just a big ball pit + the jumping about = lots-o-fun, and the other was nothing I'd ever seen before. It was a full-on playground, complete with slide but all in the jump-jump material! Bouncing and sliding and jumping and rolling on balls and running and running into the walls. Oh, gosh. Just picture Paul's widest smile combined with biggest belly laugh + eyes closed, flailing about on the balls and running to do it again. Sheer bliss.

Of course, it could only end in tears. Because how do you leave something so awesome? Sigh.

Saturday morning began with blueberry pancakes, yum, and continued into an improv musical instrument show-n-tell. It started with Paul dancing around the table with a chopstick, which looked a little like a conductor's baton. So I started singing a piece - Firebird came to mind, so that's just what I sang. Anyway, we asked P if he knew what a conductor was, etc, we showed him a video of an orchestra playing it - ooo, something shiny! Did you see those French horns? Do you want to see a real French horn? And I'm sure you can imagine the scene that followed. It ended in Dylan sort of practicing the glissando at the beginning of Rhapsody in Blue. Didn't know we had a clarinet? Ah, well, learn something new everyday. I knew we had it, but what I didn't know is that Dylan could do anything with it. Anyway, after that, we packed up the car and headed to an Open House event for the Woodlands Conservancy about 15 miles from here where there were hot dogs, burgers, cake, punch, and, of course, the nature walking. Beautiful area - and so close! I think we'll take advantage of it again. Then it was nap time. (How much did you get up to before 12:30pm?) And then it was Baylor Football time! We were playing Heidi & Josh's alma mater, and so we made an order-the-winners-a-pizza bet. But they're gamers - as in they actually go to Vegas - and started making all these stipulations, so we shook hands (figuratively) on the 21-point spread. The game ended with Baylor exactly 21 points ahead, so do we buy them pizza? Do they buy us pizza? Is it a draw? Ooooh, what's that you say, Heidi, the day after the game? The spread is 21.5 points? Interesting. In any case, it was really fun to watch the game with friends a thousand miles away.

And now it's a relaxing, drizzly Sunday. Happy Fall!

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

I've posted twice, now, with no photos. Oh, for shame! So, let's just have at some cute, here. But first, Paul & Ada played together. For real play. In the kitchen, on the floor, Ada's crawling around, Paul starts crawling, too; she starts chase-crawling after him, he plays along and goes quicker, they both giggle, and keep it up for, like, 5 straight minutes. Adorable.

Lemon-ada 

I Spy With My Little Eye ... a sleeping Paul

 <-- How we roll



  Big boy walking -->

Helpful in the kitchen

Look who made it to the Clarion Herald twice.

Both (almost) swinging!

Spinach, exhibit A, with smile

Spinach, exhibit B, with flash

Spinach, exhibit C, with brudda

Knocked out

The season is changing, praise the Lord. It's cooling a little - this week didn't even have one day in the 90ºs. And people are out and about - finally. So, is it allergies? Is it a cold? What is it that my family and I all haaaaave?! It's nothing horrible; it's of the irritating and won't-go-away sort.

We decided to try Adeline's luck with one of those amber teething necklaces - an acid in the amber is supposed to be absorbed trans-dermally and have an analgesic effect. We put it on her last Tuesday and had 2 bogus nights in a row before scrapping it ... then her and Paul's runny noses and coughs set in. So we had more sleepless nights. Dylan finished a bottle of the overnight cough syrup in the last week, and I caved and started the breastfeeding-safe(r) version on Wednesday of this week ... with no luck in the sleeping department. I try to stifle a cough so as not to wake Ada, but I just toss and turn and head to the sofa. Womp, womp.

The kiddos are back to normal, though! Yay! I was about to lose it with Ada crying on - I dunno - I think Wednesday of this week before Dylan suggested we try the amber necklace again, now that she's got her game back. *Crickets* I was an unlikely candidate for those things, and now I'm a convert. I'm hoping once I can knock this random no-other-symptoms-cough rather than it knocking me down, we'll be getting some (nearly) normal sleep around here!

Since last post, we've had another visit from Nanna & Pappy, and while they were here, I was introduced to Angelo Brocato's, ie Heaven on Earth. Well, Italian Heaven in the southern US. It did remind me a bit of Italy, but it mostly reminded me of Brunetti's in Melbourne. Aaah.

And let me close with just another little comment about the weather, in case you missed it. It's cooling off! It didn't hit 90º, and it feels amazing. It reminds me of a great reason for moving here.

F•R•I•E•N•D•S

Last week was full of first and second dates. Mom dates. Here's how it went down:

Monday I met E, a mom with a 2-yr-old and a 6-wk-old, by forcing myself onto her via bringing her and her family a shepard's pie. Turns out she's Catholic and would love to tire her 2yo out.

Tuesday I had a second date with C, who has a 3-yr & 18-mos-old; she and I met previously at The Parenting Center, ran into each other at the Aquarium, and then intentionally met again at the Parenting Center one other time. C studied French. While we were there, E and her outta-town-sister-in-to-help-with-newborn showed up! 

Wednesday was Costco shopping morning, so no dates. 

Thursday I had a sort of dad-date. A little different. I met M, who's the husband of SR, and they have an 18-mos-old. Now, I've met up with SR about 4 times on Thursdays for a little playground fun and then the brief story time at the library. SR couldn't make it this time, but she likes for their little one to get his scheduled outings ... so Little M came with Big M. They're a military family who's just moved to the area, too!

Friday I met E at the playground for our first date, and she even brought me coffee. During our couple of hours wearing out the toddlers, I met SA and her 18-mos-old; she's expecting her second next Spring.

Saturday was party day at the library down the street. It was a back-to-school fest officially, I think, but there were tons of non-school-aged toddlers ready for cupcakes, music, and games. It was great! SR, SA, E, and my cousin, Rena, with Francesca were all there! Later that evening, we had our first real-live dinner guests who aren't related to us or visiting from overseas. We met M & K and their 4-mos-old back at a 40 Days for Life event, and we have tons in common ... as we suspected. Yes!

With the exception of C, who lives in Uptown, and M& K, who live in Kenner, all of these moms live right here on the Point. And there are so many little boys! It's wonderful. Paul has often shied away from (big) little boys, but I think because he's a smidge older than they, he's jumped right on in.

This week's been a little slower, with random playground meetings, except for Thursday morning with SR tomorrow; and I had an offer from C, but since Paul's been a little sick yesterday and today, I had to say no. We did go to dinner at Rena & Doug's Tuesday night, and that was great! Little Francesca's a doll, and she and Paul warmed up nicely to each other, especially over the piano. (Ada was smiling at a dog but freaked out at being barked at by him. Not used to that sound. I think it'll be cats for her for a while.)

All in all, making friends is looking up.

And now for a quick shout-out to old friends in MN, Pete & Denise, who just had their firstborn baby boy, Finn Peter, on September 10th! Hooray!

Growing family!

We have exciting family news: we're gaining a new member...

... Ryan Bivens!

See what I did there?

Ryan proposed to Ginny last week in the wee hours of Sunday into Monday. Sunday would have been my mother's parents' 79th wedding anniversary, and Ginny is now wearing Mammaw's ring. So, even though it was technically after the midnight mark on September 1st, the day really rolls over with a sleep, right? Well, maybe they'll just get to remember 2 days.

In any case, here's the happy couple:

Here's the beautiful ring Harry Tormey gave Frances Moore in 1931, which Ryan gave Ginny:

And here's ma sista:

So very happy for y'all, and I can't wait to hear everything you'll have to share in the coming months! Love xox

This is supposed to be weekly?

Another 3 weeks gone by, and I've just gotten myself to click the "new post" button. Partly because we've been busy, partly because we've had friends or family over for 3 of the past 4 weekends, and partly because Dylan and I finally caught on to how bedtime kept pushing further and further back. Tonight's bedtime is 8pm, sharp. Bam.

Back up to how I said "in case there's no update for a little while" because of French friends and Gin & Ryan. Yes, that weekend we had our French friends, the Denizards, in for 4 days of their month-long US tour. (More on that in a minute.) Then I turned 30 with Ginny & Ryan over to visit from Thursday to Sunday. And then it was our 6th anniversary / Labor Day weekend. And then we had Nana & Pappy over to visit this past weekend.

It was lovely hosting Valérie, Xavier, Alice et Basile! They arrived on a Saturday afternoon and stayed through Wednesday morning. We ran it like a B&B&D, sorta, with their planning their days for themselves but coming back for dinner all together. And, as expected, there was very little French on Saturday, a teensy bit more Sunday, and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday followed suit until we were perfectly comfortable again. Then they left! Of course. It was fun to get to speak French again and expose Paul to it, too, beyond just books. In fact, he and Basile hit it off great!

Quick turn around! The next day, Ginny & Ryan arrived for a long weekend and my first "birthday weekend". Leave it to my sister to plan a whole weekend for me! It was full and fun! I can certainly say that I welcomed thirty with a bang. We started with dinner at Pascal's Manale. Friday saw the. best. happy hour. ever at Broussard's with $3 delicious mussels & fries and then gourmet cupcakes at home. And champagne. There was champagne with practically everything! Saturday was a bit more low-keyed: slip-n-slide in the back yard! Pete was with us, too, for everything thus far. Then on Sunday, we had brunch at the little place around the corner. Full. On. And awesome =) Thank y'all soo much!

Then there was this little sitting monkey while we were all backyard-hanging:

The next weekend was our 6th anniversary and the first one to fall on a Saturday again, like 6 years prior. It was certainly funny to think about what we were doing at such&such a time then as compared to now. Dylan started it with his delish blueberry pancakes, and then we headed off to the Aquarium! The Family Pass was Mom & Dad's pressie to us - so, so awesome, as it gives us access to Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas, and the bird and bug place, too! Then that evening, we got to be dinner guests at Aunt Cyndi & Uncle Ben's, where we've stayed over many, many times but almost never just come over to visit for a few hours. It was lovely and delicious!

Lastly, this past weekend brought us Nana & Pappy with Gus & Ben, much to the delight of Paul & Ada! We met Pete & Serena for dinner on Friday night, stopped for beignets for dessert, of course, spent a long time playing in City Park on Saturday, and finally walked to dinner on the Point. And this happened:

The rest of the time not spent weekend-ing with lots of people in and out has been full of pottying for Paul and sitting up for Adeline, yay on both accounts! And I've been making mom-friends, yes! Ada's also been getting more and more real food. She's up to a fruit for breakfast, a veggie for lunch, and a grain/carb for dinner. By "a fruit/veggie" I mean about 6 or 7 tiny bites of banana or a strawberry or fork-mashed sweet potato - she loved the baked potatoes! Also, Paul's learning to pick out and name the letters needed for "Paul" "Ada" "Mama" & "Papa". Neat!

And this one's just a random day's evening nap, and I love it: