Jan 21, 2014

Californ-I-A

The Baby Cade and I survived our first plane trip and vacation! We spent three nights in the San Diego area with my brother Kevin and his wife Carly.

I'm officially brain-dead from travel (and because the crazy baby wanted to sleep in bed with me every night except that meant that "sleep" only applied to him; I was awake all night trying to make sure he didn't roll outta bed) so you'll have to stay tuned for more pics and stories.

For now though, enjoy this gem of Kevin and Cade playing peekaboo during Cade's first vineyard trip.



PS The Deltas and I decided that "first vineyard" is a thing, just like first step or first word.

Jan 14, 2014

A Ten Month Cade

WBC is already 10 months! Most the time it feels like it has flown by. (And then teething occurs and all four of us - yes even Lexi - are ready for time to fly by a little faster.)



At 10 months old the cutest baby in Texas is
  • Weighing in at 19lbs, 12 oz
  • Walking with his push-cart-lawmower toy thing
  • Sprint crawling
  • Talking up a storm
  • Not quite to associating words/sounds with people or objects. Yet.
  • Hard at work on giving up purees
  • Hit and miss on the bottle, in part because...
  • Getting some teeth we think and thus
  • Covered in drool all the time
  • Likely allergic to cedar and is thus
  • Covered in snot lately
  • In love with books. Reading books in his glider together have been this teething/allergy/whatever saving grace. 
  • Also in love with his monkey. They cuddle every night but Cade has been a bit more attached during the drooling/snotting/whatever
  • Not able to figure out which toy to play with first. He holds one and reaches for another and then immediately changes gears to yet another
  • Possibly spoiled (see previous bullet point)
  • Able to climb the WHOLE staircase, with mommy as his shadow of course
  • Willing to play in the grass outside (because it's Texas and we can see our grass in January, albeit brown grass but grass)

Jan 11, 2014

Another Mom-Mobile Pic

Sunny day in Austin means another (better) pic of the new Mom-Mobile. Check 'er out!



Now, I just need to name her.

Jan 10, 2014

My New Mom-Mobile (Sport)

Ta-da! Check out the new wheels!




We had discussed getting me a new car this year and well...I got really excited about it and wanted it as soon as it became the new year. For the past 2 weeks I've been test driving cars and negotiating deals. I started at the Hyundai dealership in Round Rock but alas, that one was not meant to be.

Using the fancy chat function for South Point Hyundai I was able to start negotiating on this pretty thing from my dining room table last weekend. Then early this past week I figured out the financing (a three-ring circus since I'm self-employed now), ultimately landing at 2.19% with Bank of America.

Today Ross, Cade and I loaded into the Elantra and went across town to South Point Hyundai to test drive this specific Santa Fe Sport. It totally fit the bill.

During my test driving I found that the Tucson was fun to drive but I couldn't convince myself it would be big enough long term. What if we decided to expand our family, either with another kiddo or another puppy? It would be so tight then. Plus to get the rear AC vents, we had to go fully loaded which I didn't really want because other than the AC vents, the upgrades were things that didn't fall high on my list and that I didn't really want to pay extra for. And in some instances were upgrades that weren't really a "plus" for me, like leather seats that Lexi would scratch to hell. Then I drove the full size Santa Fe but it just felt too big. I'm a little person; I don't need a bus. It of course also cost more and as a bigger vehicle wasn't quite as fuel efficient.

But like Goldilocks I found the SUV that was just right for me.

The Santa Fe Sport is a bit smaller than the regular Santa Fe and does not have third row seating (which I did not want). It does however have rear AC vents standard to keep the wee baby Cade cooler in the hot hot summers. It's also a 5-star safety rating and has decent fuel efficiency. And all that at the base trim so no paying for packages of upgrades I wasn't interested in. As icing on the cake, we wanted tinted windows, again to help combat the Texas summer heat and this one already had that done.

So after a few weeks of internet research, test drives at different dealerships across town and then a short drizzley test drive of this car today we said "SOLD!"

We had some complications with final negotiations and the voice activation on the bluetooth but as you can see from it sitting in my driveway, both were overcome one way or another.

It has such a smooth and quiet drive. The bluetooth works awesomely and the eco-boost ups the MPG but doesn't take much away from the "get-up-and-go". I also like the steering options, specifically the tighter "sport" option. I'm super jazzed about my new mom-mobile and am convinced that since it is a Sport, my cool factor has actually increased with this purchase. Woohoo!

Jan 8, 2014

2014 Kick Off

I usually don't blog about work, especially now that I'm doing the self-employed thing. Client confidentiality and all that. And while I'm not going go break any confidentiality, I am gonna blog about work a bit.

Being the first full business week of 2014 it is BUSY. Good busy. I have kick off calls, meetings, brainstorms, docs, emails, etc coming out of my ears! And I am so lucky to have a full client roster of great people and good companies with whom to do it all.

2014 is looking like marketing-geek-apalooza and I am totally jazzed!

Jan 7, 2014

I thought I had a baby

I thought I had a baby but it turns out I have a piglet. At least based on his squeals, that's the most reasonable conclusion.


Friday morning on his weekly Starbucks date with Miss Nichole...before the squeal-fest began.

Jan 1, 2014

Happy New Year!

The Black family welcomed in 2014 with a good night's sleep all around. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate!

With any new year of course comes new year's resolutions. Here are ours

Cade
  • Get off the bottle and onto the sippy cup
  • Ditch purees and do more of my own feeding
  • Sleep all night!
Lexi
  • Figure out which toys are mine 
Cheryl
  • Hit the gym 10x/month
  • Floss more
  • No life changes! 
Ross
  • Get through it 
  • Sleep all night!*
  • No more life changes!*
*Ross is really bad about new year's resolutions; he never makes them. And while he is close to perfect, gimme a break, we can all stand a resolution or two. So I just made these for him but I don't think he'll disagree.



First day of the new year, and already behind bars wearing jailhouse pants.