Happy Halloween from Superman and Wonderdog

Happy Halloween!

For his first Halloween Cade had a PJ party in is super awesome Superman PJs. And Lexi was Wonderdog...which isn't really a costume since she's Wonderdog every day. By the way, please note that both the baby and the puppy are looking at the camera. That's a small miracle.

In addition to our early morning photoshoot, there was the afternoon with Ballerina Rowan, trick-or-treating at Uncle Ryan's (who gave Cade a box of Nerds...Margeaux and I had to inform him that Cade cannot have candy) and then greeting the neighborhood kids on our porch.

Thanks to the very nice neighbor
(whose name I don't know) for taking this pic

Dining Room Evolution

Slowly but surely our dining room is evolving from a cavernous space with doll house furniture to a real, legit grown up, functional and somewhat coordinated room.

Gone Girl and The Husband's Secret

The two most recently books I read did not end in ways I expected at all.

Gone Girl is about a couple going through a rough patch in their marriage (to say the least) when she disappears on their wedding anniversary. At first I thought it would be your typical whodunnit but I was way wrong. It was much more twisted and interesting than that. I wish I could tell you more but seriously any more and I would give away too many of the juice details. Just read it.

The Husband's Secret was a Nancy recommendation and since it takes place down under, I was sold. It tells the stories of three families and (as would be expected) they are eventually intertwined. But really that is the only very predictable part of the book. Most of the book goes along ho-hum. Interesting enough to keep you reading (there's the secret from the title, a love triangle, an affair...so plenty of reason to read). The last few chapters and then the epilogue, goodness the epilogue. Wowzas. Total curve ball.

I know I'm not giving you a lot on either of these but with the super unexpected endings I think I'd unintentionally give something away. And that would ruin them for you.

Take my word, they are both worth reading.

Four Celebration

A day after our anniversary we celebrated.

After a baby exchange with Nana at the usual Starbucks location, there was some mommy-time (shoe shopping resulting in super cute DSW brown leather "shooties" and then a pedicure). After which couple time began. We went zip lining!

This was a gift from Ross for my birthday but the weather did not cooperate back in the spring. So today was take 2. Much more successful. The tour included an 11 year old's birthday party, another couple about our age (thanks y'all for taking the picture!) and us. Hats off to the kids because they were very well behaved. Hat off also to our tour guides who enforced the "grown ups go first" rule at the last zip line which got us to the "lake side" bar a few minutes earlier. (If/when Baby Cade asks, please support us in our claim to have been cool...even if we aren't at the time. Historic pictures from Europe and now zip lining prove we were at least cool at one point. Right?)

Post zip lining we cleaned up and went out for a night on the (Round Rock) town. We had dinner at Jack Allen's Kitchen, a restaurant known for its very tasty locally-sourced menu. We started with the house guacamole (which included pumpkin seeds!) then on to entrees of sliders for him and ruby trout for me. We wrapped it up with dessert to-go (for tomorrow). Super tasty. An excellent dinner selection by the hubs.



Basically, Ross with his awesome sense of fun was totally #winning with all the plans he made/suggested for this anniversary. Two thumbs up for the hubs.

Lucky number 4

What's not to love

I've always liked the number four. I was born in the 4th month of the year so I think that started it. But today I have one more reason to like the number four. I've been married to my sweet husband for four wonderful years.

Four years of amazing and counting.

Background Music

I love days when the background music to my work is the boys upstairs playing.

Swing-aholics

We can't get enough of swings. So we keep going back and I keep taking (really cute) pictures.

Houston Baby

Last weekend Cade and I went to Houston to visit my family. He had QT with so many people! On Friday my Dad took over the role as Chief Baby Entertainer while I worked at the kitchen counter.



On Saturday my Mom and I took him Target shopping and then we spent a hour or so at Grandma's house and met Uncle Larry, Aunt Sandy, Megan and Rhoda.



After lunch Mom and I took his new shark stroller for a whirl and then his Auntie Melissa visited.





Cade spent dinner time and the evening with his grandparents while Melissa and I had an impromptu Girls' Night Out in Seabrook (burgers at Tookie's, baby grocery shopping at Kroger and wine at the waterfront Chelsea Wine Bar).



Good weekend!

Today's Reality

One of my favorite mommy-bloggers, Amanda, is super awesome because she tells it like it is. She has three girlies and she writes about really good days with so much cute it should be illegal, and more typical days where 3 minutes with a cup of coffee is a major accomplishment. That's why I like her blog. I know she is happy with life but I know she has a real, normal, often hysterical life. So it is with Amanda inspiration that I tell you about my reality today.

• It started at 6:24a with happy pterodactyl baby shrieks.
• By 10a I had already given Lexi a foot-bath because of all the mud outside. She leaped out of the tub before I was ready for her to do such and flung muddy water on the bathroom walls and tile. Then she marched little muddy puppy paw prints on our white (I know, foolish) bathmat.
• Clean bathtub, walls and floor.
• 10:15a give fussy baby Cade a bottle. He drinks 3 ounces and I swear as much comes squirting out his nose all over me and him. I changed shirts but not jeans. Dear people in my afternoon meeting: sorry.
• At 10:30a, I had a fussy baby who would not eat and thus was unceremoniously tossed into his crib for nap #2. Thank God, it took.
• Bless Erin because she arrived at 11a to watch Cade-man.
• Phone calls, work, phone calls, work. Per the usual.
• Head downtown for a meeting. Accident or something on MoPac means 75 minutes of driving (total) for 50 minutes of meeting. Doh!
• Home, phone calls, work, emails, work.
• Go to steal baby Cade from Erin so she can leave and see...more MUDDY paw prints up and down the stairs. Find Lexi...her paws are so muddy I cannot see her normally white fur.
• Toss Cade into his crib with toys and give Lexi bath #2. Note: Neither Cade nor Lexi were pleased.
• Say "screw cleaning the tub. She'll just have muddy paws again tomorrow."
• Bring Cade into the bathroom, set him in his play-chair-thing and jump into the shower myself. As I'm throwing clothes in the laundry hamper, I eye-spy ants. In the laundry hamper. Talk about ants in your pants.
• Try to feed Cade. #Fail (Thankfully a few minutes into the struggle Erin texts me that he ate like a monster that afternoon, hence not being hungry.)
• Put fussy baby into his crib. He takes a catnap! Yay!
• During the catnap, finish cooking my dinner, pour a glass of wine and turn on Diane Sawyer. 15 seconds in she teases a story about the increase in alcoholism among women.
• Shut the damn TV off and drink my wine.
• Feed Cade green beans and tell him no bath tonight. Mama has already given the other baby two baths today and has reached her daily bath giving quota.
• Hang out with Cade in his room listening to a lullabye CD (thanks Tad!), FaceTiming with Ross and watching Cade practice getting up onto his knees in crawling position. Needless to say, this was the happy highlight of my day. Oh sweet baby Cade, I do love you.

College Man

Already a college man at just 7 months old.

Thanks Dr. Jane!

Dining Room Table: Check

If I don't blog for six days but then I blog twice in one day, that's, like, totally acceptable right? I know it at least brings up my monthly blogging average.

Good news! After 11 months of having a kitchen table in our dining room that was so small it looked like doll house furniture in the cavernous room, we finally got a proper dining room table! It is so BIG. And, because we're grown ups now (hell we have a baby), we even got the server/buffet thing. Complete with wine rack for six bottles.

We only have four chairs for now (we wanted to see how it all looked/fit before buying more) but we will soon increase that to six. And if we have a really big dinner crowd one night, we'll get old-school and roll in the desk chairs.

Next up: window treatment, artwork and my favorite CHRISTMAS DISHES.

(By the way - wine rack for six bottles and table that seats six. I don't think that is a coincidence. Everyone grab their own bottle!)

7 months old!

At 7 months old Cade is...

• about 17 pounds
• sitting by himself
• rolling a bunch
• doing baby push-ups but no crawling yet
• sleeping 11-12 hours per night, usually waking up just once or not at all (Hallelujah!)
• taking 2-3 naps per day
• eating fruit with breakfast and veggies with dinner
• not super enthusiastic about the carseat
• happy in his swing
• holding small bottles by himself
• starting to hold onto the handles of sippy cup/bottle hybrids

#Winning at Motherhood

Hi, nice to see you. I know it's been five days. I'll try not to go MIA for so long again.

At also helps to have a supremely cute baby

Tonight one of my not-yet-a-mom girlfriends asked me what I thought the tangible things were you needed to be successful at motherhood. I'm not sure how she defined success but I was mentally thinking "to keep your family alive, healthy-ish, happy and sane-ish."


She asked for the #1 but that's really hard. So here are my top 4, in priority order.

1. The real, genuine desire to be a mom. Because when you get simultaneously peed and spit up on while changing a poopy diaper only really, really wanting to be a parent will keep you sane. That and excellent baby wipes. Seriously though, motherhood is both wonderful and challenging. Sometimes at the same moment and sometimes you just feel one of those things. When you are feeling the latter, it is incredibly helpful to remember how much, in the big picture of life, you want to be a mom.
2. A good relationship with your significant other. I assume fatherhood is also wonderful and challenging. Inevitably there will be moments that you are both feeling the challenging part and will lean on each other. Many times that will get you through it. But sometimes you will fight. Sometimes you will have big, sucky, awful fights. You need to love each other and be so committed to each other that you can power through the big, sucky, awful fights. And work well enough together that even in the middle of that fight, you can get the baby dressed, fed, diaper bag packed, house locked up and be out the door to do whatever it is life mandates you do, fight or no fight.
3. A strong village. Not your literal town of course, but the village in "it takes a village to raise a child." People you trust with your kid, pets, house, car, self, etc who you can call to help with whichever one of those is needing some extra help. And who will find a way to help you, come hell or high water. The kind of people who will call in sick to their own job because you need them that desperately. People who will non-nonchalantly wash your dishes and not mention that you have spit up in your hair and your breath smells like a horse's rear. You really really need those people.
4. Financial stability. There is likely someone who will debate this one and that's fine. In my experience though, financial stability matters. In the pre-baby days, Ross and I had a seriously impressive (not from the dollar amounts so much as the organization) family budget. We could tell you exactly how many dollars came in when and exactly how many went out and to what. Post-baby, the reality is we know roughly how much comes in, what the big bills are and when they are due. I have no idea where all the little $5, $10 and $20 things go to like I used to. NOT A CLUE. And with a baby, there are a lot more of those. My point is for me, it is important to have enough financial stability not to need to track those things. Because if we are too tired to cook and we really just want to spend $15 on ordering in pizza, we need to be able to do that without concern.

So there you have it. In the World According to Cheryl, those are the four things you need to say you are #winning at motherhood.

PS BONUS I would say you need to be happy with what you did pre-baby. Like for us we really wanted to go to Europe. So we did. And if it is 10 or 15 (gulp) years before we can travel like that again, so be it. We checked that off our list. DOUBLE BONUS You also need Amazon Prime.

Busy Week in Babyland

Cade's social calendar is no joke. It is probably comparable to the Queen's. It certainly is more full than mine.

Last Saturday he had a playdate with Wyatt, the son of my friend/fellow Delta alumna, Andrea. Wyatt is exactly a month younger than Cade so they had TONS in common.

Then Sunday he spent the afternoon with Nana. When he came home we were having a game night which included Rowan, her parents, Uncle Ryan and Margeaux. More baby fun.

Monday and Tuesday he spent with Rowan, Piper and Miss Erin. Per the usual.

Wednesday and Thursday we kinda took it easy, just hanging out with Mom & Dad. But there were lots of stroller walks, dance parties, a few new (bath) toys and a couple of shopping trips. Last night he had a FaceTime dinner date with Great Grandma too.

Today Miss Ali came over to play in the morning and when he wakes up from his nap, we're going furniture shopping. Then Miss Brittany and Miss Nichole are coming over for a visit.

But wait - there's more! Tomorrow is Rowan's birthday party and Sunday afternoon is another date with Nana and Grandpa Jack.

I'm telling you - he is one BUSY baby.

(Knock on wood but he's been sleeping fairly well lately. Maybe we're finally wearing him out instead of the other way around!

Lunchtime stroller adventure w/Mom

Don't Pay 'Em

I heard "...but the President and Congress will get paid..." one time too many yesterday. So I started a petition.

If Congress were (ever) to enact a law that said their pay would stop during a government shut down, it would not impact that Congress. It wouldn't go into effect until the next term. This is because of the 27th Amendment which was put in place to prohibit Congress giving themselves a raise.

But that's fine. Unfortunately our government will probably shut down again one day. Even if it 17 years in the future. And when that happens, I don't want those elected officials to get paid during said shut down either.

If you are on the same page, please sign the petition.

A petition may be a long-shot at getting anything changed but history has had a lot of long-shots so what the hell. Might as well give it a go.