Monday, March 24, 2008

Today is Day Four since we said bye-bye to diapers.

And Precious baby is doing pretty well... we started on Friday. As I expected, she had quite a few accidents on Friday... I think six. The last one was at Plucker's, hubby's favorite wing restaurant, while she was sitting in her high chair! Luckily, I had changes of clothes and underwear for her, as well as a plastic bag for the wet clothes, and I was able to take her to the bathroom, clean her up and re-dress her without any problems.

Saturday and Sunday were much better. She had two accidents on Saturday, and two (or was it just one?) accident on Sunday.

Last night I got together the required five changes of clothes and underwear (and socks too!) to take to nursery school today. I had to use laundry basket to tote it all in! While I don't expect her to stay dry all day, a mom can hope, right?

Really, I'm very proud of her progress. And I think she's really excited about it to... I know she likes wearing her "Big Girl Pants" and her eyes just light up when she goes in the potty.

Of course, as proud as I am of her, and as happy as I am to say good bye to diapers, it does mean she's growing up... and in a way, that makes me a little sad. I feel like she's growing up so fast! Sometimes I really wish she could be a little baby for just a while longer.

But then again, every night she reminds me of how sweet and babyish she still is, when she snuggles up against me to read stories and wind down before bed. I wouldn't trade those sweet moments cuddling with her for anything.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter Sunday.

Hubby and I aren't religious. In fact, we're aethiests, but we love to celebrate holidays like Christmas and Easter... because, let's face it, the holidays are just so much fun for young children.

Last night, after Precious baby went to sleep, I got out the plastic eggs and the chocolate candy. After filling the eggs, I hid them (in plain sight, more or less) around the living room. This mornig when precious baby woke up, we told her that Easter Bunny had come and left eggs for her to find.

Friday, March 21, 2008




St. Patrick's Day is a sacred day in our family. Hubby is Irish, and darn proud of it. I am not, but, I'm (almost) always up for a party, and I've always loved St. Patrick's Day, especially since it it's right after my birthday and just contributes to the whole "long weekend" aspect of my Birthday.

This year, as we always do, we went to the St. Partick's Day restival at the Dog and Duck Pub. Precious baby, age two and a half, has been every year since she was born, that little Irish Lassie!





The festival is a lot of fun though... Irish folk music, Irish punk bands, and even Bagpipe and drum units do the Festival every year. Of course, it's also a really good excuse to drink Guiness (I passed but Hubby drank enough for both of us!) and eat fish'n'chips. Dog and Duck does have the best fish'n'chips I've ever tasted, and Hubby says they are as close to what you get in Ireland as can be. But. given my desire to loose weight (yes, we aregoing to discuss it!) I managed to resist the temptation... except for about three "chips"... and I am proud of it.









Thursday, March 20, 2008

It's time to ditch the diapers.

Precious baby is two and a half. She's been showing interest in pottying from the day I showed her the potty... about two weeks after her second birthday. She's been pretty hit or miss about pottying, but getting better... but she still wants to pee in the pull ups.

However, recently, two of her little friends at school have started underpants. And she has said that she wants to potty train, and that she want to wear underpants.

So I've decided that it is time to put her in panties. And we are going to start this weekend, specifically, tomorrow, since I'll be off work for good Friday. I figure she'll wet herself a few times and she'll get the picture...

So in preparation, I've bought about 15 pairs of cute little girl panties... Dora and Hello Kitty. But that probably isn't enough, so tomorrow I'll probably go to Target and have her pick out some more. I figure I'll need about thirty pairs, along with many, many pairs of leggings and tee shirts, and easy little dresses, since her nursery school requires five (!!) full changes of clothes for everyday while they are potty training. It seems like a whole lot, I know... but I sure would want to have clean clothes to change into!!!

Wish us luck!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Time for a Birthday week-end wrap up.

Friday (the day before my birthday):
Hubby took me out to dinner at Vespiao Enoteca. Fantastic! As it should be, since they share a kitchen with Vespiao, the best (at least in my opinion) Italian restaurant in town. Enoteca is kind of like the kid brother of Vespiao, a little less expensive, and a little more casual... But still, so good. We ordered an apetizer plate of procuitto di parma, jambon, and duck rillets. Yum. Hubby ordered a margarita pizza and I had the gnochi with tomato sauce and a little cheese. Delicious. We would have probably just gone to a bar, and had another drink or two, and gone home early, except that my friend Brit called as we finished dinner... and she was ready to party!!!

Was she ever! She met us at some new bar on west 6th street (away from the SXSW crazyiness) and we had a few drinks before going over to The Brown Bar, the swankiest gin joint in town. Had a few more drinks. Then Brit talked us into going to Elysium, a dance club down town, right in the middle of all the SXSW insanity. So we hailed a cab. We got down there, and found out Elysium was participating in SXSW and the cover charge was outrageous, since we didn't have passes, so we got a bike rickshaw to Oil Can Harry's, the best gay dance club in town.

At Oil Cans, Brit began her "inspection tour" which consists of her walking through the club, "inspecting" (that means groping!) each attactive male behind that she saw... and given that we were at Oil Cans, which was full of well dressed, well maintained gay men, it took a long time.

After Brit had checked out every behind at Oil Cans, we went across the street for what would turn out to be our last drink at a Pub. Time to go home. Good fun, but I couldn't do that every weeked!

On Saturday, hubby gave me my birthday gift: an adorable little Micheal Korrs black patent leather clutch. I love it, it's so cute, and I can't wait to use it! Precious baby and the Boy had a gift for me too: The Kite Runner, ( a novel) and some nice socks.

Later that afternoon, all of our friends (except Brit... she was recovering!) came over to our house for chicken and veggie kabobs. It was great to see all of our friends, and Precious baby got to play with her cousin, and S, the daughter of our friends, S and C, who is just two weeks older than she is.

Yesterday was nice, quiet time, to relax and recharge... except for hubby who was resting up for today, St. Patrick's Day.

Last night, Hubby made dinner for me: roasted chicken with forty cloves of garlic. It was so good. I made parmesan mashed potatoes and french onion soup to go with it. It was a classic french bistro meal. Certainly a departure for our usual healthy eating, but then again, I don;t think it was too bad, in terms of fat and calories.

Besides, it was a birthday meal, and everyone knows that those don;t count. Right? Right? I wish.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

A few weeks ago, we had some friends over for dinner and drinks. My SIL and her adorable little boy, age three, were there. After dinner we were all talking, drinking wine and listening to music, when my nephew and precious baby decided to take off all of their clothes and dance around in the living room.

As parents, we all just let them be. They are so young, we thought it was just harmless, and also probably one of the last times it would ever be OK for them to be naked anywhere except the bathroom.

Well, Precious baby has kind of taken a shine to being nakey. Last week, she asked me to put on some music, saying she wanted to dance. When I turned on the stero, she started taking her clothes off and got upset when I told that no, it wasn't time to be nakey right now.

Last night, she woke up crying. I went upstairs and was quite suprised to find her totally naked in her crib, crying. I guess she was cold, and she was wet too... I found her PJs and her overnight diaper in the crib, and the sheets were wet, which told me she'd taken her clothes off before she went to sleep, and had then been awakend because she was wet and cold after going pee-pee in her bed.

I of course, dressed her in dry pjs and a dry diaper, changed the sheets on her bed, and rocked her back to sleep, tucking her in with a nice warm, dry blankie.

Let's hope this nakey thing isn't indicative of a career choice.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Hubby and I are trying to eat healthier, and cleaner.. less or no processed food, more whole grains, fruits and veggies. We've been buying more whole grains lately, like quinoa, which makes a great substitute for rice or cous cous, but it's hard to know what to do with some of the other whole grains... but I've come up with two good recipes for wheatberrys. I love the texture of wheatberries... nice and chewy, and the flavor is good too... but they are, in my opinon, a bit boring on their own, so I came up with these two ideas:

Wheatberry and edamame salad:

1 cup cooked wheat berries
1 shredded carrot
1/2 cup cooked edamame beans
three chopped scallions
1 T chopped chives
1 T chopped cilantro
2 T olive oil
1 T lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

toss together and serve! Delicious cold or at room temperature.

Mediterrantian wheatberry salad:

1 C cooked wheatberries
1/4 C shredded sundried tomatoes (packed in oil and drained)
1/4 chopped purple onion
2 T chopped fresh basil
2 T olive oil
1 T lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Toss and serve. Even better the second day, after the flavors have married.

Monday, March 03, 2008

I did it!

I ran my first half marathon! I ran the Moe's better half-marathon in San Marcos, Texas on Sunday. 13 miles of rolling country roads in 2 hours and 28 minutes. It was a nice run, and a nice course...rolling hills, only one really steep up hill in mile three. Once i got past mile three, it was pretty much smooth sailing until the lat mile.. that's when I started to feel like it was hitting the "wall" and running out of steam. But, I ran the whole thing! I never did stop and walk.

Here is what I learned, in preparation for the next long run I participate in, or (gulp) a full marathon next year.

1. No drinking the week before the race. I drank two glasses of wine with dinner on Friday night. I had no other alcoholic beverages for the week prior to the race. I don't think the two glasses I had really hurt me, but I won't repeat that for the next race.

2. Eat oatmeal for breakfast that morning. I did this, and it turned out to be the perfect breakfast for this runner.

3. Bring a banana and have it handy to eat during the run if you need it. I meant to bring one, and I forgot as I was going out the door (in my defense, I got up at five on the morning of the race!). I would have definitely eaten the banana at the start of mile 12 if I'd had it. I think the extreme fatigue I was experiencing at that point meant that I needed to eat. I will definitely bring a banana if I run a marathon... there's no way I could do that without some kind of snack... banana... protein bar, something.

4. Make sure you go to the bathroom, one and two, before the race. I kind of forgot about "two" in my keyed up state before the race. About mile 6, I realized I had to go. No bathrooms until about mile 8... not fun to run when you have to go!

5. Drink detox and laxative tea regularly for the week prior to the race, to help with number 4. I did not do this, and I wish I had. I will next time.

6. Shoes... wear better, newer ones next time! I realized about two weeks before the race that I probably needed new shoes... but everyone knows that you never debut new shoes on the day of the race. I especially can't do that, because even running shoes are likely to cause blisters for me until I break them in. that's right, I have to break in running shoes! I should have bought new shoes about six weeks before the race, so that they would be properly broken in, but in good shape, by the time race day came. Instead, I wore the shoes I had, which were far past their prime, and now my knees really ache, which I am sure is due to the fact that my shoes weren't tip top.

7. Get plenty of sleep the night before the race. I went to bed at 9:30 on Saturday. Before I went to bed, I took a long, hot Epsom salt bath. It really helped relax me so I could fall asleep.

There a some other races this spring.. that Capitol 10,000, and the Texas Round Up. I think I'll run both of them... might as well, they are both ten K races, which means that they are half the distance I ran on Sunday. That, I can do.