HomeGirl

Big Ups to my sibs!

I went home to Memphis for my twin brother's college graduation this past weekend. He'd worked so long and hard for his BA, so Big Ups, Twin, for doing your thizzle!

He sang (he's a really good singer) a sweet-sweet song to my son (it was also my 11 week-old son's first visit to Memphis to meet his kin). We're a singing family, so it wasn't out of place for me to hear him singing at a random moment. When I heard him singing I expected it to end quickly, but he sang the whole song, and my Zack was just there watching him the whole time. The lyrics were about Zack finally being here and the song was slow and sweet...it was special.

The highlight of the weekend was at my brother's graduation reception, when he presented our sister with a cake that read, "Congratulations Dr. Adriane Williams". (She's receiving her doctorate, so we celebrated her graduation this weekend too.) It was her first time seeing her name like that and she was totally overwhelmed with the moment and hugged him and started crying. Then he started crying. It was awesome. It went something like this...

He presented her with the cake...surprise!

Proud parents look on...pleased.

Hugs...that's me in the background like, "aaaww?!"

Me..."Is he crying too?! Aw! I feel left out, I wanna cry too!"

I didn't cry, but was deeply touched. Thanks to my husband, Billy, for being on his toes to document everything. Later this week it's Wisconsin-or-bust for my sister's hooding ceremony. Fun times.

Clinton vs Obama Star Wars Style

If you have 5 minutes, you should watch this. This is awesome.

Yadda Yadda Yadda

It's eleven o'lock and my son has been asleep for about an hour. I should be putting another load of laundry into the washer and doing a quick pedicure since I wasn't able to squeeze those things in today. That's what my mind is telling me, but my heart wants to blog on the sofa lounging next to my husband, so here I am. I don't really have anything in mind to say, but something will turn up I'm sure. Hmmmm. Well...

• I finally posted to my Honey Magazine blog after a good bit of time away. I totally need to find a direction for that blog. I'm freed up a bit to discover more blog-worthy restaurants, attractions, etc. to mention. My fall-back interest, which usually rears it's head when I have free time, is accessories and make-up shopping, so maybe that's a direction for me. However disapproving my bank account might be, there is always money for accessories.
• I hope my E-Prayer, in the right margin there, doesn't offend anybody. It's not meant to mock prayer at all and is very sincere.
• We went to a housewarming party this weekend. The house was decorated beautifully and got me in the mood to pick up some painting projects I had put aside when I got preggers. I've had this peanut butter toned paint chip pinned to the wall in our den/bonus area/whateveryouwanttocallit for almost a year now. It's definitely time for that room to come together. And my laundry room is SO on it's way to becoming a bright shade of avocado green.
• I'm about to embark on air travel with a breastfeeding infant. I checked the terminals I'm set to travel through and so far have found no place for families to take care of family business. I usually find a dressing room to nurse in when I'm caught out with the boy, so I may have to breastfeed in one of the busiest airports in the country. Hmm. The last trip we have planned at the end of the summer is to Billy's home in the West Indies where Zack will meet his other side. By then, I'm sure I'll be comfortable enough to whip one out on the beach.
• Speaking of embarking and breastfeeding, I've decided to explore the local farmer's markets around town over my next few grocery trips. The first one I picked is in a small town in the middle of Austin called Sunset Valley. It's supposed to be the best of the many farmer's markets around and I'm really looking forward to the experience. I'm planning to go the whole nine and buy organic meats from the vendors and everything. The price of produce is going up in the grocery stores anyway, so if I'm gonna pay more for a pepper it might as well be organic and support local growers. The first time, I hope I have enough time to check out the cafe and entertainment while taking care of business. The Sunset Valley market is right next to a Babies R Us, which has nursing rooms, which will definitely be planned into the trip. I usually stop by one before and after trips out that will likely catch me at a feeding time. It's a lot to go through, I know, but I'm new at this, so give me a minute to get comfortable. The second market I'm planning to explore is the Austin one downtown, which is nowhere near a Babies R Us.

Ok. I'm sleepy now. The Spurs just lost. It's almost 11:30. Time to hit the sack. I think I'll make a cup of tea then check out some other sights for another few before the post-game interviews are done. Goodnight.

Settling into motherhood...

So I went in to the office and had The Talk with my bosses a couple of days ago. I'm not returning to work after my maternity leave. They were great about it...and not surprised. I will be working on a project basis from home from time to time, but I won't be working full-time or part-time anytime soon. I love being at home with my son. I love being a mom. I'm glad I can focus on him right now. When he can tell me how his day was, I'll feel comfortable putting him in someone else's care--not a day sooner than that. After that, I'll consider working again, but only part-time. There will be more children soon and I'll want pretty much the same time with them, so just call me Momma Bear!

Right now, I'm exactly where I want to be--listening to the last of my three morning talk radio shows (Austin Morning News, Neal Boortz and Rush Limbaugh) and ending this post so I can step over my two sleeping dogs on the way to peek in on my sleeping baby... 

Will somebody please tell Minister Jeremiah Wright to go sit down somewhere?

A Little Humpday Cheese

We took Zack on his first ride through Zilker Park on the Zilker Zephyr miniature train Saturday. He had a really good time--he even chimed in 9-week-old style with the big kids making train sounds when we went through the tunnel. A fellow passenger took this picture during the ride--we had a moment.

 

Just Felt This Flick: Once

Ok. So Once is film that you could totally watch with your eyes closed. I netflixed it last week and watched it once (pun, however weak, still intended) and then immediately played it again just so the music could float through my house as I hung out with my kid. If you like acoustic guitar music and awesome lyrics, you might like this film. I say might because it's a musical that's just short of being an opera...there's probably more singing than speaking lines...which is awesome! The film made the secret acoustic guitar playing, free living artist inside of me want to hang out with my imaginary musician and artist and dancer friends in an apartment that's way to small to hold all of us and sing and play our instruments and smoke and drink wine and obscure beers and be artsy and talk about how much pocket money we made in tips during our street performances and waiter jobs that day. There is something exciting about people who live their passions. That's what this film is.

It's a love story. It's a musical. It's Irish. It's Indie. It's awesome.

Ben & Jerry's Annual Free Scoop Day!

Happy 30th B-day to Ben and Jerry's. They're giving out free scoops tomorrow from noon to 8pm at participating shops to celebrate. I didn't even know we had Ben & Jerry's here in Austin. See if there's on near you and get your scoop on.

Happy Scoop-ball Thursday!

I cut my 9-week-old son's hair a couple of days ago for better access to treat his dry scalp. I left baby-hair bangs and an S curl patch at the top. The hair will grow back, of course, and his dry scalp is responding better to the olive oil and Selsun Blue treatments. Plus, for now, he gets to be bald like his dad...

 

I baked!

...a Chocolate Mayonnaise cake from the Joy of Cooking cookbook my sister got me. I love chocolate and I love mayonnaise so when I saw the recipe, I really didn't have a choice--I had to try it. Your reaction to chocolate mayo cake may be different, but if you consider that may is mostly oil, egg yolks and lemonade it's not really that bad is it? Anyway, it's SO good! It doesn't even need icing. The recipe doesn't call for it, and rightly so. It's like a light brownie...so sweet and moist and rich. I used Hellman's mayo and Ghirardelli baker's chocolate and it's pure heaven. It's the best cake I've ever baked. I will eat it until it's gone. I'll have some help from Billy, yes, but he won't be home all day staring the cake in the face. So this week I'll need to do a couple of extra tae bo kicks or walk my dogs extra far or something to add to my 34 pound weight loss since I had my son. I really don't have a choice...I have to eat this cake...until it's gone.

Time for another J.T. post

No, not Justin Timberlake, although he is awesome an gets awesomer by the minute, but I' m talking about James Taylor. I'm playing his Greatest Hits Volume 2 in my ride these days. [Note to self: Add multiple CD changer for car to Christmas list along with IPod adapter]. "Your Smiling Face" is my favorite James Taylor song after "Jellyman Kelly" from Sesame Street, which I've written about before. SO looking forward to singing that song and many other Sesame Street tunes with my kid. And I'm itching to get into the Philadelphia Chickens read & singalong book/CD my sister gave me--silly songs about cows, snuggle puppies and belly buttons...what silly mom can resist that? The book not only has illustrated lyrics, but sheet music too! Anyway, "Your Smiling Face" is awesome and it makes me happy, so I'm sharing. It might make you happy too.  Happy Thursday!

Right?!

I ran across this post of random questions on PaulaSoul.com yesterday and had to share some them here. Some questions just beg to be asked...

• Why isn’t “phonetic” spelled the way it sounds?
• Why is it called a TV “set” when you only get one?
• Why do we assume that humpty dumpty was an egg? There is no evidence in the nursery rhyme that he is IN FACT an egg.
• Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp which no decent human being would eat?

That toaster question is a good one. Wassup with that?

My Boy

He's 2 montsh old now. The time is passing so quickly. Bliss to tears in about a minute...and I loved every second of it! :)

       

Get Up

I heard this song on a movie soundtrack yesterday. I looked for the video 'cause I couldn't recall what it was like. I wish Ciara had been out in my college days...back when we would learn dance routines for nothing. It would have been fun back then to learn the choreography to her "My Goodies" video.

Happy Monday, Y'all!

Happy 7th Week in the world, Zachary! 

Happy 7th Year being a great husband, Billy! ...
also Happy 7th Week of being a great daddy too. :)

I'm reading again!

Stay tuned...

Just Felt This Flick: Stomp The Yard

I know I'm late, but I finally watched Stomp The Yard today. I was flipping channels and caught it from the beginning on Starz. It was a little dramatic with the beefs between the college step teams, but was good still. Very entertaining. It's funny how Meagan Goode is the same girl in every film she's in. Her style doesn't even change. As for the guys in the film...lots of handsome, young, brown, strapping, bare-chested gents.  *clearing my throat*

Anyway, the film was actually better than I thought it would be. I'd actually watch it again. I usually do enjoy the films about black college life. I didn't go to a  historically black college, but they always look like so much fun on film. This film was all about stepping . The tradition of stepping among black college fraternities and sororities is so cool. I don't know the history of it, but it's the closest thing we have to tribal dancing...since we were stripped of our various African tribal traditions during slavery...so I wonder if the roots of college stepping are based in recreating those traditions. Some quick google action could answer that for me, I'm sure. Basically, this film left me thoroughly entertained and impressed in general. Black people have so much flavor.

Saturday Afternoon Randomness

• Lipstick Jungle on NBC is awesome. Brooke Shields's character is my favorite.
• The Office is back, post writers strike, with a new episode this week! Yay!
• While I have added new evening programs to my watch list, I haven't been watching much daytime TV while home with the baby. Instead I have become addicted to playing online word games like Scrabulous and Bookworm on my laptop while nursing my son and afterward when he's napping.
• I'm really happy that Jigga and Bey legalized their situation. I hope it lasts forever.
• It's that time of year again...the anniversary of MLK's assassination...when all the radio and TV news specials discuss conspiracy theories and James Ray's innocence and I get frustrated with America and The Man all over again.
• Baby acne and cradle cap are very unawesome.
• Boston Market is my new favorite drive-thru.

Happy Monday! I heart my Babybjörn carrier.

My baby likes to keep things moving! I can't sit too long at home with him before he's all about touring the wall of pictures in the living room or playing or reading in his nursery or gazing out the front window as I point things out or dancing around with me...anything that involves us not sitting still for too long . He's getting heavier by the minute! I bought the carrier Friday night, but had forgotten about it until yesterday when my son decided he was going to stay up and play for 8 hours straight. 

After about 5 hours I remembered that we had the carrier so I strapped up and mom and baby were content. I got to make a sandwich, start dinner, pee, make a few phone calls and Zack was nuzzled up and enjoying the ride and the view from in there the whole time. Eventually he fell asleep--how long he stayed asleep (about 10 minutes) is a whole other story, which ends with me handing him off to my husband and crying myself into a sa.weet afternoon slumber. I had been happily engaged with a 6 week old all day and was so tired and sleep deprived that I wasn't sure how/if I could keep it up much longer. So when Billy got home from church, he took over for me. But that's not the point...

Getting around with the baby at home and out is going to be so much more fun for both of us now.

Training wheels are officially off

My mom went back to Memphis tonight. She'd been here in Austin since Feb. 8th, a week and a few days before my son was born. She's the awesomest mom/grandma ever...showed me the ropes and took the reigns most of the time, which was fine with me. My sister was here for 2 weeks and was our cook. Before that the Austin chapter Mocha Moms brought food and/or had food delivered for a week. We're on our own now for the first time. Things are about to get really real over here. I'm glad we got to ease into this...