Name Change

Well, I've decided to change the name of this blog to Little Mama because I think it best describes me at this point in life. I've actually wanted to do this for a long time but held off because I didn't want anyone to think I was copying them. For example, two of the blogs I read on a daily basis are Big Mama and BooMama and these ladies are very funny and I didn't want them to think I was jumping on their mama bandwagon. But then I realized that they have probably never heard of me, don't read my blog, and probably don't have a copyright on the word "mama". Hence, the name change.

Also, my wonderful hubby calls me Little Mama on a daily basis so I actually answer to this more than my real name. And I call him Big Daddy which I totally stole from Amy who also calls her hubby this. And we refer to Jake as Little Mister which we also totally stole from Amy and her son. I'm not sure if she goes by Little Mama but if so, again, I don't want her thinking I'm copying her. Even though I am. Imitation is a form of flattery you know.

Besides, my great grandmother on my mom's side had the nickname Fat Mama which is not nearly as flattering as Little Mama, but you see the "mama" nickname tradition is in my blood. It's my heritage.

Also, I've decided that since I'm now thirty-something I will not care too much about what other people are thinking of me. After all we're not in junior high school anymore. If we were, the name of my blog would clearly be something like "Ferris-Wheel", or "Bueller." Because kids are cruel and this is what I got called back then. Explains a lot, don't you think?

Remember when he used to be camera shy?

Two Questions

1.) Has anyone noticed that shortly after I posted about my dismay at the Survivor participants wardrobes they all showed up in new swimsuits? Coincidence?

2.) Is it possible to have a sinus infection that is so bad it makes your teeth hurt? Or do you think I just need a root canal or something? The pain is killing me!

How we spent our anniversary

This is us at Baskin Robbins for their Tuesday night $1 scoop ice cream cones. This was after we filled up on Mexican food for dinner.

Two Years!

Happy anniversary to my hubby! Who would have thought someone as good as you could have seen me on a boat looking wind blown and dirty and thought "now that's the girl for me!" I'm so glad it happened that way though. Thanks for two years of good times and many laughs. Oh, and thanks for the little boy too. I think I'll keep you both.

God Bless this Cold Front

Oh, merciful heavens, we finally got a cold front in central Texas. I'm not referring to the "cold fronts" the weather people have been teasing us with the past few weeks. You know where the temperature actually got down to 89 degrees for the high. And the people on the street being interviewed by local television journalists say they're adjusting to the lower temperatures by wearing t-shirts instead of tank tops. No, we got a real cold front with temperatures in the fifties! So, the people on the streets being interviewed by television journalists about how they're coping with the lower temperatures are actually wearing jeans and drinking hot beverages from Starbucks! Wearing jackets even! It's very exciting. Because as much as I love the summer, I've just had enough already. Plus, my legs really don't need to be in shorts anymore. God bless the long pants.

Now some of you may say "but weren't you the person complaining last year about living in Wyoming where it was too cold?" Why yes, yes I was. But see, that's because it was TOO cold there. Blizzards and freezing temperatures and arctic winds are also not my idea of fun. You won't find people being interviewed by television journalists about the cold there because people can't go outside. I'm just saying, it's way too cold.

So, anyway today we had cool weather with rain and even a little blustery wind. It was the kind of day where you want to sit and sip a hot chocolate or bake an apple pie or something. Instead of doing any of that, we had a fire drill at daycare. Well, it wasn't really just a drill because it wasn't planned or anything. It seems an iron on the second floor somehow set off the fire alarms just as we had gotten our eight little two year olds sitting down eating their lunch in relative peace. So, here we go pulling them out of their seats away from the nutritious meals packed by loving mommies and trotting them out in the cold and the wind (without jackets, because who had time to put jackets on?!) all the while trying to soothe the ones who were scared or cold or just plain mad that they were no longer eating. What fun!

And of course then I see Jake's little class being wheeled out of the building in portable cribs with about four or five babies per crib and most of them standing up holding on with their little hands looking around like monkeys at a zoo. Oh, boy. I've never wanted to leave eight little two year olds to go hold a little monkey so badly! But, I knew my duty was with our kids and that Jake's wonderful teachers would take care of him. So, I left him with them for about five minutes before I ran over and grabbed him and took him back to hang out with me and the two year olds. He was crying at that point. I'm sure he needed me. On the plus side, he got to play with some older kids for awhile and the church didn't burn down due to the iron on the second floor. Oh, and Fall is in the air!

Playing with Uncle Steve

See? Not all of my toys are ocean animals.

Visit from the OC

Our good friends Mike and Ivy came out to see us over the weekend. They got here on Friday and came to the house for dinner. Mike made his famous stuffed burgers and they were delicious. The meal did get off to a rocky start when Jake projectile vomited five seconds after getting him into his high chair. He had been running a fever ever since getting a flu shot that morning and just had to end the day with a bang. He is clearly an attention seeker.

Saturday we all went out to lunch and then we had a babysitter come over that night so the four of us could go out on the town. We had dinner at a nice little Italian place close to downtown and it was sooo good. After dinner, we headed downtown to show Mike and Ivy a little of the Austin night life. We found a piano bar (again I say who doesn't love a piano bar?) where we spent a couple hours belting out music from the 70's and 80's with the piano man. It was so much fun especially for my Mike because he hasn't really been able to enjoy Austin much since we've been here. On the downside, on our way home we both started feeling sick and it just got worse from there. Let's just say there was more projectile vomiting only it wasn't coming from Jake this time. I'm not sure, but I think it might have been from the chicken at the nice little Italian restaurant that I ordered and proceeded to give half of that order to Mike. I like to share.

So, on Sunday Mike and I were both too sick to move or pick up Jake much less do any entertaining of guests. Mike and Ivy were nice enough to stop by and check on us and they even brought us soup and crackers and Sprite. Then they headed over to San Antonio to remember the Alamo for the afternoon. It was so good to see them, but we were really sorry that the visit was cut short by some undercooked bird. Maybe it was the chicken's way of getting back at me for saying that birds are crazy. I don't know.

Jake at ten months

Jake continues to learn new and marvelous things every week. Ten months is seeing him learn how to wave and how to give "high fives". I took him to the doctor on Friday to get a flu shot and he hadn't gained any weight since his nine month appt. So he's still at 17 pounds 6 ounces. He is the fastest little crawler I've ever seen. Still no signs of walking although he can stand on his own for a few seconds now. He cracks me up every day especially when we play chase. His face just lights up and he squeals with sheer delight when I'm chasing him around the living room. He is definately saying papa and mama (especially when he's upset) and I think now he's trying to say bottle. He recognizes the word and the sign and starts saying ba,ba,ba whenever I show him either one. Probably about the best thing to happen in the last two weeks is that he's gotten happy when he's at daycare. I was really worried that we were doing the wrong thing by me working two days a week and having Jake in a different environment. But he's adjusting now and even takes a good nap there each day. Plus, I think he has a girlfriend! Her name is Lily and she's super cute and about twice as big as he is.

I wish Zoe would get out of my stroller!

What we've been up to

Jake got to attend a birthday party yesterday. He had a good time. It was Amy's little boy's birthday and he turned three although he really wanted to stay two. Jake got to see what it's like to open up presents and find toys hidden in a haystack. It was a very cute party and Jake loved the cupcake tractor cake best of all. After all that activity I thought we would stay home and do nothing today. But Jake isn't really a do nothing kind of guy. He's been very busy as you can see from these pictures. Apparently, he's in charge of distributing toilet paper in our household. Maybe he'll be the manager of a warehouse or something someday. He's also showing signs of becoming a drummer, but we'll see. Or maybe he'll just act like a dog the rest of his life. Anyway, after all that hard work who wouldn't want to sit down and just chew on the dog bone for awhile? YUCK!

Hangin' out with Daddy

Me and my Binky

Random thoughts for the day

Let me just start off by saying how excited I was for the new fall television season to get underway. We've lived through many months of nothing to watch all summer long and couldn't wait to be able to sit in front of the television together instead of, oh I don't know, having a conversation or playing with the baby or something. So, below I will share my thoughts and feelings of this year's line up.

SURVIVOR: I have been hooked on this show since the first season and still love it so. I have a secret desire to go on because I know I could win that million dollars even though I have no idea how to build a fire or eat bugs. I'm sure there's a manual somewhere that I could read. Mike and I are hoping that one day there will be a couples Survivor and we can go on together. Let's get down to this year's participants. First of all, after 25 years of Survivor being on, anyone going on that show should know that at some point you may be whisked away to a secret location wearing only the clothes on your back. That being said, why would the clothes on your back consist of anything less than a good pair of athletic shoes, some sort of short or athletic type bottoms and for girls a good sports bra. These clowns this year were dressed totally inappropriately. And, honestly, I'm the one paying. After three weeks of seeing them try to compete in challenges wearing teeny tiny underwear I seriously want to gauge out my eyes. Have they not ever seen the show?! Last night one of the guys actually got naked to compete in a challenge. I guess he thought no one would want to touch him with all of his bits and pieces hanging out. I really wanted to vomit. Because even though the network blurs out exposed body parts, people I have a very vivid imagination. And all of those things flying around and coming dangerously close to falling out of flimsy undergarments is keeping me up at night. Until last night I really wanted James the gravedigger to win. That was until I saw his dark side where he made fun of people who pray and skinny girls. I'm telling you God will make him pay for the prayer remarks. As for the skinny girl, I think God would like to see her eat a sandwhich or something.

THE BACHELOR: I had given up on this show years ago, but was talked into watching it this year by Amy, partially because the Bachelor is from Austin. He is very cute and seems like a nice Texas boy. This show is like a train wreck. You want to look away, but you just can't. I can't get over these girls crying over this guy they've known for about five seconds. We've seen everything from webbed toes to the human pretzel to the girl with "morals" who takes her top off every chance she gets. Quality entertainment.

GRAY'S ANATOMY: I must admit that we almost decided not to watch this season because last year this show drove us crazy. THE DRAMA! It's ridiculous. This is a show about doctor's who you'd think would be very smart people. Only these doctors are all disasters outside of the hospital. Is anyone else as sick of Meredith Gray's character as we are? I know her dad left when she was a kid and her mom was a nut job, but does that really give her the right to be so selfish and mean to others? I think not! I think I might not make it through the entire season. However, I do enjoy the spin off show Private Practice that came from Gray's Anatomy.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: I'm here to say that this is the best show on television. The first episode begins tonight so if you missed it last year, you should tune in! The only thing that I'm confused about is how the coach's wife is having a baby tonight when she wasn't pregnant in the last episode? Thoughts please.

LOST: I think it starts in two weeks. It has also gotten a little ridiculous but there are still many interesting characters and since I know the show will go off the air in three years I'm sure I can stick it out to the end just to find out what's really going on over on the island.

Playing with Zoe