Staycation Day 1

Cartoons in bed, swim lessons with Dad, library with Mom, painting with Mom, play time with Holden.

Also tried to eat a Nerf football and some sidewalk chalk but...what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?

A Most Special Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We took a one-night trip to Seabrook to see the Lowe family. It was a quick trip but we had one mission in mind: to bring together all four great grandbabies with their Great Grandma for a holiday dinner.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

All 5 kiddos, their "Lowe" parent and Great Grandma

Woohoo! We had 23 people spanning for generations at our crazy Thanksgiving dinner. Ages 9 months to 89 years. It was an extra special holiday for sure.

Our Thanksgiving adventure we realized upon arriving, was also our first family vacation together. Since Cade was born he and I have taken trips but Ross' schedule hasn't worked for him to join before. This was the first time we all (Lexi included) headed out of town together.

So from our little traveling family to yours - Happy Thanksgiving!

A coastal holiday for the Black family

This weekend brought to you by the letter D

Whew, y'all, I am tired. It was a busy weekend! But lemme hit the highlights of our weekend brought to you by the letter D.

Dallas
Brit and I visited Nichole in Big D this weekend! We had a fancy night out on the town Friday with a late rooftop dinner (lobster salad! and oh my goodness, the best house Chardonnay. I've never had a house wine that tasty) and barhopping downtown. She lives right in the city (a loft apartment downtown - so trendy!) so it was like flashbacks to Boston...with cabs, trains, downtown nightlife. Pretty fun! Saturday we hung out at a swanky pool (I'm talking a fountain/waterfall thing, gorgeous blue tile around it and in the middle of downtown, SWA-ANKY) and then had a quiet wine on the couch night.

I told you we were fancy

Double Date
Ross and Cade had a double date with Jon and Rowan Saturday morning. The four of them went to the Austin Zoo. Seriously, the sweetest thing ever. What great dads! I love taking fun adventures with Cade and I'm glad Ross gets to do the same. Icing on the cake was Erin texting me later that when she asked Rowan what her favorite part of the zoo was, Rowan said "Cade." It's a good thing those two have chaperones.

Aren't they the cutest pair

Pool
OK I know this isn't a D word but whatevs. Cade stayed Saturday night with Nancy so I could have 2 nights in Dallas even though Ross had to work early today. I picked my boy up right after his nap and we enjoyed the last official weekend of summer at the pool*. He totally mastered the pirate ship slide which clearly made his day.

More slide more slide

*Trust me, I know I live in Texas. It will feel like summer for another 8 weeks (or more) but the pool hours are getting limited with school starting this coming week. 

This.

But he was so proud of his spoon use

You wonder why moms always seem to have their little humans' food on them?

Because of meals like this.

And that isn't an angry kid. Oh no, that is happy, singing, drum playing kid. Ya know, just a normal Sunday night dinner.

You're Killing Me Smalls

Ham Porter: Hey, Smalls, you wanna s'more?
Smalls: Some more of what?
Ham Porter: No, do you wanna s'more?
Smalls: I haven't had anything yet, so how can I have some more of nothing? 
Ham Porter: You're killing me Smalls!

You know what there's not enough of in 2014? The Sandlot references. But I'm here to correct that.

A few nights ago Cade was signing for "more" food but he hadn't had anything yet. Enter The Sandlot quote.

(I think in his baby mind the sign for "more" means something more general like "I want." Usually though it is pretty clear what he wants.)

The other and original inspiration for this blog post those was another food related item in which I'm the one saying "You're killing me Smalls" to my small person. Specifically Cade has not bought into the "variety is the spice of life" theory yet. He wants to eat the same fruits, carbs and dairy items all day every day.

Today I baked him these awesome delicious zucchini sticks/fries. Because a week or two ago, he liked zucchini. Nope, not today. Wouldn't let them anywhere near his mouth. All three that I gave him (before waving the white flag of surrender) ended up on the floor for Lexi. Ditto to the cherry tomatoes I sliced for him. And most of his mac-n-cheese. The cracker with peanut butter on it fared a little better. 1/4 of it made it into his mouth; the rest was smashed into crackery-peanut-butter dust and smeared all over his high chair tray and arms. But you know, 1/4 of 1 cracker was eaten so that's something. The toddler pasta stars and veggie meal had a similar fate. 4-5 spoonfuls in his mouth before he started swatting at the spoon and vetoing it. But then signing "more." No sweetie, you clearly don't want more of this. (As I said, I think the sign for "more" really just means "I want something" at this point.)

What happened in the end? The same thing that usually happens. I said "you're killing me Smalls!" which he did not get of course and then I gave him mandarin oranges and apple sauce. For the 1000th day in a row.* I did hold my ground firm though and not give him any teddy grahams. If you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything and all that.

*OK he isn't anywhere near a 1000 days old yet so this is probably an exaggeration.

Things are looking pretty stellar

Yes, indeed things here are looking pretty stellar if I do say so myself!

Tomorrow Ross and I are taking my former coworker out for BBQ at the Salt Lick. The lovely Margeaux and her sidekick Ryan are going to babysit Cade since it collides with his bedtime (and nobody wants a fussy baby at a restaurant). I'm looking forward to everything about this!

Then of course on Friday I turn the big 2-9 (for the first time). Ross and I have a lunch date, then I have a fancy pedicure and then probably some shopping.

Because a baby pic is
always a good idea

Sunday Erin, Jon and Rowan are coming over to celebrate birthdays and Jon's business ownership. Hurray happy hour!

In mid-May I am attending a marketing conference downtown. I haven't been to a conference that I wasn't "working" in ages. I am SO excited! Double excitement because Nichole is coming to town for the conference too!

There are probably more exciting things happening in May but the next thing I can think of right now is the Delta trip in June! One date night in Philly with the hubs and then two nights on the lake with all the girls (and their respective boys). WOOHOO!

And the newest addition to the super stellar list is a trip to Boston! Cade and I are going up there for five whole nights in September. We're flying with Nancy and Jack who are attending Jack's son's wedding on the Vineyard. We were all invited of course but with Ross' work schedule he can't make it. It works out though because Cade and I can go to Boston and Nancy and Jack can be my extra sets of hands for the flying part. I am really really really excited for Cade to meet his Boston family, Deltas and Delta children included.

Genius. Clearly.

We knew Cade was a baby genius but now we have proof.

He can use sign language to ask for more food!

And yes, it is no surprise that the first bit of sign language my kid mastered is for more food. Since he has not one but two hollow legs. Please enjoy the baby sign language video but ignore the mildly distressed face. I had to pause the applesauce feeding in order to make the video.



In other Cade related milestones, he has become a champion hug-giver. Sometimes when I drop him off at school I get five hugs before I leave. (Last week these hugs were accompanied by tears twice but his teacher said the tears lasted literally 90 seconds. Like finished before I even made it to my car. Thank God.) He gives us hugs all the time all day long. It is pretty wonderful. The funniest hugs I've seen him give though were to his classmate Natalie. She had a toy Cade wanted to play with. After being told no, that's Natalie's toy right now, he gave her a hug and then sat and waited for her to share the toy. No dice. Ever the persistent young lad, he did it twice more. Natalie is a smart girl though and wasn't swayed by cute boy hugs. Good girl Natalie, that self-confidence will serve you well in life.

During some morning hugging and playing before school today, Cade started growling. It was hilarious. The best was when he growled and hugged me. Clearly this is the epitome of a bear hug. We deemed it such.

"Recess" with Mom & Dad at a
new (to us) park after school

He's also starting to pick up his toys. Not all the time of course. There are still many evenings when he pulls his books off the shelf as quickly as I put them there. (I can't even get mad or frustrated though because hello, they are books. My kid loves books and wants to stay up late to read. Awesome! Usually this earns him a few more minutes of awake time so we can read one more book...or the same book again.) But if I am cleaning up, hand him a toy and ask him to put it away, he'll enthusiastically toss it in its cubby. So that's a good start.

Finally on a similar note, he now chunks his paci into his crib in the morning. Because as we all know "your paci lives in the crib for sleep time." Monkey also lives in the crib for sleep time but is returned to the crib much more gently than the paci.

Unrelated to development milestones, we have family pictures in the morning! In all my mom wisdom, I did not think to see if Cade's clothes, upon which all three of our outfits have been planned, fit until today. So we did a little test run before bed and - whew- they fit! There would have been some serious evening closet raiding and shopping tonight had that not gone so well. Now just cross your fingers and pray to the Clean Toddler Gods that Cade, Ross and I can stay relatively clean until 9:30a tomorrow. 

Cade's Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

Baby's first birthday party - done! Success!

This afternoon we had Cade's first birthday party. The theme was "the very hungry caterpillar" which I think is his favorite book. We read it at least 3-4 times per week. For the theme I found a few simple decor ideas, specifically a caterpillar out of balloons (4 green balloons, 1 red balloon and some construction paper eyes) and a construction paper picture caterpillar (4 green circles, each with a picture of Cade in the middle, a red circle and the same construction paper eyes/antennas).



Yesterday while eating breakfast and wondering what in the heck I was going to feed people at the party, I thought to do the same food from the book. Ya know "On Monday he ate through one apple, but he was still hungry." Monday-Friday in the book is all fruit so very kid friendly. On Saturday the caterpillar eats a ton of stuff, including one slice of Swiss cheese so that translated into a cheese and cracker plate. While Cade took an AWESOME nap yesterday morning I had a rogue shred of ambition and decided to create table tents/labels for all the food. Holy cow I got SO lucky because one Google search produced an huge graphic that had pictures of all the food and the text from the book. So I saved it, opened in photoshop, did some quick cropping and sent them to Walgreens to print as photos. Score! The fruit/cheese with labels and a caterpillar cake from HEB rounded out the decorations and theme. And I gotta say, I was pretty damn proud of it all. It came together very nicely!

For his part, Cade was a birthday party champ. He took almost an hour nap right before the party and then got dressed in his birthday boy t-shirt and plaid shorts (of course, I love that kid in plaid shorts). And he was happy, happy, happy.

For the first 45 minutes of the party, everyone mingled, snacked and the under 2 crowd played with toys (the over 21 crowd enjoyed a few beverages). Cade received a "Cars" themed toy early from my parents and so he showed the other two kiddos, Rowan and Kenneth, all about that. He was such a ham! He was playing, smiling, walking and just loving all the attention.



Then we sang happy birthday (Cade almost stuck his hand in the candle but my ninja-like mommy skills had that sucker blown out too quickly) and ate cake. This was Cade's first REAL taste of legit, super-sugary cake. He was in total heaven. He gobbled up his piece and then wanted more to eat. We redirected his hunger to pear though because one piece of cake when you are one year old is plenty.



When I got him out of his highchair to go open presents we discovered a huge glob of yellow frosting on his shorts. So in true Cade style, he got to be pants-free for the rest of his party.

"We" opened presents (I did most of it but he paid attention for some). He made out like a bandit. A new baby animals book, a pirate ship rocker, a fire truck, a wagon, a hammer-music-ball thing, college money and the hands-down winner of the day...a Batmobile from Auntie Meg and Uncle Stacy. Cade and the other 2 kids could not get enough of it. In fact we had to sit him on it to get him to pay attention to the other presents he was receiving.

The party wrapped up 1.5 hours after it began which was good because he was starting to get a little over-stimulated (and tired though sugared-up, super combination). He had some real dinner, played with his toys and then was whisked off to bed by his dad.

All in all, a VERY GOOD first birthday party. No meltdowns (kid or adult), few leftovers, quick clean-up and an overall easy afternoon with our closest friends and family.

Special shout-out to Mom who came into town yesterday for the event and helped get the house ready. Also special shout-out to Ross for doing the vast majority of the clean up and then convincing the birthday boy to go to bed at his normal bedtime.

No Work Saturday

I try to make one day each week a full "no work" day. And yesterday I didn't even turn on my computer nor did I read any work emails.

I actually kicked off no-work-Saturday Friday around 4p when we went over to Jon and Erin's for an evening out that was in. First, lemme say I had no idea how busy 2 babies could be. You would think with 4 adults we could have this managed. No way. Two babies and three dogs kicked our butts. I have NO IDEA how Erin watches multiple kids at the same time. I think I would have surrendered a long time ago.

Despite how busy Cade and Rowan were, they were both pretty well behaved and both went to bed at their proper bedtimes. Which meant that the real party - board games! - was able to start by 8p.

Double high five to Cade who went back to sleep fairly easily when we got home around 11:45p.

Saturday Cade and I had a Starbucks date with Brittany. It was nice to see her but again, a busy baby. I think Cade might have to be off of Starbucks for a few months. The past two attempts have been a little crazy. Oh well. Still nice to do indulge in a frappacino with whip cream and chat with a girlfriend.

Then after I got baby boy home and down for his nap, it was mommy-time. Pedicure and shopping. That pedicure was desperately needed and highly enjoyed. The shopping went well too. New top for me, new plaid-shorts-and-polo outfit for Cade, because really that baby cannot have too many pairs of plaid shorts.

Then trashy TV, HGTV, dinner, baby bath, House of Cards with a bowl of buttered popcorn with Ross and an early bedtime in anticipation of springing forward on the time. Bonus points: we had all but 1 clock (the one in Cade's room) moved forward before we went to bed.

The funny thing about no work Saturday...even though I did not work, Cade thought he should. So he let himself into my office and shut the doors behind him. Unfortunately, he did not do the taxes like I asked.

The Life of Cade

What does the life of an almost 11-month old Cade look like?

Well first, there is some blended learning...that is watching a bit of the Very Hungry Caterpillar cartoon and reading the book before nap time.



There are pretty messy meals (self-feeding ain't easy y'all) that now require a bib with a catcher.

Cade's First Christmas

Whew! The first Christmas has come and gone!

Christmas Eve my parents arrived for the holiday. With them they brought a very very special present: Cade's stocking, handmade by my Grandma. There's a snowman, and lots of beaded sparkles and of course his name at the top. She did a wonderful job on it and having such a special, sentimental Christmas stocking for my little boy warms my heart. I know he'll grow up knowing his Great Grandma worked hard making sure he always has a special stocking.



All day Christmas Eve, Cade was spoiled with grandparent love (imagine that) and we had a big delicious ham dinner that night. Like a little angel, the elf slept the whole night through. Merry Christmas Mommy!

Christmas Day Ross arrived home from the station and the four of us (4 = Lexi) opened our stockings in our PJs. I received a year's supply of chocolate and wine to go with it. Cade received pears (to try as finger foods), a book, T-shirt and socks. Ross received a travel coffee mug, gum, candy and shaving cream.

Compared to the Christmases I grew up with, the post-stocking, pre-party part of our day was pretty mellow. Ross smoked a brisket, we all took turns playing with Cade, Mom and I made tortilla pinwheels, we whipped together side dishes and pour our first glass of wine around 2p. Now unfortunately during all this Cade was just too excited about the holiday to do much in the way of napping. But I guess with all those presents under the tree and his grandparents here - who could blame him.

Around 3ish, Nancy arrived and we started gifts. It was 3 gifts for Cade, 1 gift for someone else, 3 for Cade, 1 for someone else. Needless to say he received a few gifts. The hands-down favorite though was this activity table from my parents. He literally crawled on top of the box and started playing with it through the "test me" window.



Now with the nap situation, Cade had to go to bed at 5:45 while the grown ups ate dinner. And OH WHAT A GOOD DINNER it was. Brisket, Caesar salad, french bread, green beans and mashed potatoes. Then for dessert, cranberry pie and ice cream. YUM! Ross did a bang up job on his first Christmas brisket. I'm so glad I won't have to wait until next Christmas for another brisket. Thank goodness he likes to smoke them!

After dinner and dessert, the night calmed down. (Well, except for Cade's crazy sleeping/waking all night but that's a story for another day.) All in all I'd say Cade had a good first Christmas and we successfully hosted our first holiday.

Hubby/Daddy for the win!

I'm churning out tons of work today and my fabulous hubby is working just as hard. He's taking care of the Cade-man (and from all the giggling I hear, doing a great job of it) and he even delivered a working-lunch to my office for me. Including Four Cheese Cheez-its, my new snack-food obsession.

Best hubby/daddy ever.

Our wine bar

Check out the new pendant lights over our (wine) bar. Big thanks to the hubs for hanging them last week.

Also I had forgotten how delicious Cupcake chardonnay is. But I am remembering now. Yum.

Who wants to come sit at our wine bar and drink some with me?

(Two days notice requested so I can order barstools via Amazon...otherwise we can sit on the couch and admire the bar and lights from a distance.)

Gross

I'll spare you a gross pic and just give you
what you really came here for: a cute baby pic

Motherhood is pretty incredible but it isn't all rainbows, unicorns and butterflies. And I never want you, dear reader, to think I am giving anything but an honest portrayal.

Which is why I am now telling you this: baby eating solids is new and exciting. Except when it isn't. Like when there is spit-up within a few hours of trying out some avocado.

That is just gross.

Avocado Monster

Today we added avocado to Cade's diet via the mesh food holder things. The only thing that wasn't popular was when the avocado was finished.

Mmmm Sweet Potatoes

Tonight the Cade-man had sweet potatoes (mixed into rice cereal) as part of his dinner. They were a hit!

This was also our first store-bought baby food and the first veggie that was successful. Previously I've been pureeing his food but after peas failed this weekend (I couldn't get them fine enough in my cheapo blender thing), I decided to try a store-bought veggie option (organic of course...not because I'm super concerned with that but because apparently that is the only kind of pureed baby food our yuppie grocery store sells).

For the next month at least Cade will remain a vegetarian baby: fruit with breakfast, veggies with dinner. After his 6 month check up maybe we'll try pureed meat, if the doctor recommends it.

Happy Mother's Day Me!

My first Mother's Day as a mom!

The day started lazy-like as Cade had a slumber party with his Nana on Saturday night. But at noon, I got my baby back. We all met at Meg & Stacy's where Stacy prepared us a Mother's Day feast of stuffed jalapenos, cheeseburgers and homemade fries. He really out did himself. We had all the fixin's. My burger had Swiss, grilled mushrooms and avocado. Hello heaven.

Cade, Lexi and Ross gave me a really pretty pair of James Avery earrings (I'm wearing them in the picture). They are so very pretty. Nancy and Jack helped Cade make me a handprint-in-a-frame. I know how hard they worked on that since I tried to do the same for Nancy and my mom (they ended up with frame footprints which was much easier).

After our enormous and delicious lunch, we came home and had a little family nap. Cade and I snoozed in bed together for 2 full hours while Ross and Lexi did the same on the couch. We took this picture right when we all woke up so if I look a little sleepy...well, I am.

Sleepy but very happy to have spent my first Mother's Day relaxing with my two awesome kids and my super fabulous husband.

Piggy

Getting our savings on at the bank

1. My son is a porker. Our pediatrician wants to see him gain an ounce per day at this point. Well oink oink, baby Cade has gained 9 ounces in the past 4 days! That means he's at a wonderfully chubby 8 pounds, 2 ounces. And trust me, with his recent feeding habits - my fav being when he wants 2 meals within 90 minutes - it adds up.

2. He has a big boy piggy bank! He's letting us bring home the bacon and put it into his brand new savings account! Hopefully in 18 years there will be a respectable sum saved for the fancy pants college he's going to get into (and/or a respectable sum saved for the car we'll bribe him with if he can get a full ride to college).

Cooking Quiche

Breakfast for dinner - yum!

Tonight I made my first quiche. It had spinach, mushroom, a little onion and a sprinkling of cheese. I used this recipe and I think the consistency turned out excellently. The only thing I would do different next time is more cheese. Because you can rarely, if ever, have too much cheese.

Thankful Part 2

Patient, forgiving AND good-looking

13. My patient and forgiving husband - (Very similar to Thankful item 1) This past week I was - how do I put this delicately - difficult. Every day. My hubby was not only patient in the moment but forgiving after the fact(s). Bless him.

14. Black Friday sales - Because we bought a pretty bad ass refrigerator on sale today. I'm very pleased that Lowe's started their Black Friday sale a full week in advance.

15. FaceTime - Yes, the iPhone/iPad app. Because every third day when my hubby is on shift, I still get to see his pretty face before I go to bed.

16. Texas - It may sound cheesey but I really love my home state. I can wear short sleeves in November (and 9-11 other months a year), the cost of living is low, the economy is strong and diverse, the accents drawl, there's a national magazine, we don't (usually) take ourselves too seriously (how could any place with such big hats/hair and so much glitter be too serious?) and it just feels like home y'all.

17.  Grandma Betsy's food legacy - Also known as pumpkin bread. It completes the season, can brighten anyone's day, is my one family recipe and the only thing I can consistently bake.

18. The Houston Texans - It may not have been pretty today, but we got the job done! 9-1!