My feet are cold!

Did hell freeze over???

Barbie finally wrote a blog entry. So, mum, go read it because she wrote it for you :-)

A walk in the park

n Saturday morning Trent and I got to spend some much needed outside time with his two favourite aunts and his new cousin! What a treat!
We went down to town lake with Aunt Biker Barb and Aunt Bebe, and little baby Aria. The weather was gorgeous, despite the strong winds and scattered showers from the night before. Brian's soccer game was canceled, though, due to the rain the night before, but he was happy because he got to catch up on some Formula One racing, sans Trent :-)

We did the Mopac/Lamar loop at a leisurely pace, stopping at a bench along the way to feed Aria whose little tiny whimper indicated that she was hungry. And I couldn't help but feel envious of Michelle when I think back to Trent's "howler monkey" wailing when he was hungry, tired, wet, or just about anything was pissing him off. Meanwhile, Barbie helped Trent practice walking and got Trent all dirty. But we expect that from Barbie ;-). At one point I looked up at my pregnant friend holding MY kid and my friend feeding her baby and remarked "Look at this! oh how times have changed!". We all thought about it for a moment and laughed. I guess this is what happens when you reach 30something.
We took a small detour to the Taco Cabana on Lamar for some breakfast tacos while the babies napped, then made our way to the other side of town lake - I mean ladybird lake, I guess it's called now - and finished up our walk just in time for Trent's lunch time.

You can see more pictures in Trent's April 08 gallery.

First owie

Trent has a nice bruise on his forehead. His first owie. I got to kiss it!
Apparently, he stood up at the table and fell over his chair. Silly boy! But his teacher said it didn't really phase him. I'm happy to hear that he wasn't a huge dram queen about it :-)

Baby diet

Trent's been trying all kinds of new foods lately. He doesn't seem to turn his nose up at much, which is such a relief because we all know how fussy Brian is. This past week some favourites have emerged, though. He seems to prefer more strongly flavoured foods, and in particular, anything with pasta in it. Over the past week I've been experimenting by putting some of the things Brian and I are eating for dinner into the food processor for Trent. Turns out he loves Chicken Parmesan and Lasagna. He was not as enthusiastic about Chicken and Mozzarella Ravioli, but he ate it. He's also very happy to chew on raw asparagus and carrots, and he absolutely loves my garlic bread!
Last night we had lasagna and I cut him a piece off about half the size of mine and processed it. He ate the entire thing and wanted more!
Brian and I have always sat in front of the TV and ate dinner, but since Trent has been eating solid foods, we've kept the TV off and spend family time around the table. It took a bit of getting used to, but we really enjoy it. Dinner times are very messy in our house. Generally resulting in a bath for Trent, some stain treatment /pre laundry treatment for his clothes, and a good hose down of his chair and the floor surrounding it. It's a good thing he's cute, funny, and sweet :-)

Andrew Lloyd-Webber week

I really enjoyed American Idol this week. I hate to admit it, but I love Broadway musicals.
Some thoughts on the performances.

• I thought Syesha's performance was awesome. She's a natural Broadway star.
• Jason Castro's rendition of memories left me wishing that my cat had been singing it instead of him! What a whiney, crappy-ass performance that was.
  
• Poor Brooke forgot her words, and her performance was just, in the words of Randy Jackson "aight". I like her hair.
  
• David Archuletta's starting to become predictable. His performance was nice, but it's so boy bandy.
  
• Carley's performance of jesus christ super star was good. Having not heard the original version I can't compare it. I liked how bluesy it was.
• They saved the best for last. David Cook was amazing!
  

A side note... Brian has now started sporting the Fauxhawk because it looks so good on Ryan Seacrest. I accused him of googling Ryan's hair last week. He didn't fess up to it,but I know he did.

My reaction to the results show:

WTF, America???

This is what I get for watching on the DVR two days later. It's so obviously a popularity contest. Both Carley and Syesha performed WAY better than Brooke or Jason. Why can't people vote based on the performance? GRRRRRRR. Makes me SO upset.

Girl's just wanna...

...Not get robbed in the hotel lobby!

I'd been looking forward to this past weekend for quite some time. I got to hang out with my friend, Kris. She and I have been friends for about 14 years now. We've had our ups and downs, and our fair share of disagreements, but one thing I've always felt was that she'll always be in my life. Granted, it's been in a rather diminished capacity since we both moved away from Dallas, but nonetheless, we stay in touch and I still consider her one of my BFFs.

So we planned a girly trip. Just the two of us. We shopped around, looked for deals. We finally settled on San Antonio because Kris could get a decent fare from Chicago, and I could drive, which means we could keep our cost down by consolidating the total cost of the trip and dividing it. San Antonio is actually a fun city to visit because of the River Walk.

The day finally arrives. I get in the car and drive the 1.5 hours to San Antonio and pick Kris up at the airport (after briefly getting lost). We drive to some place near the airport called Stone Works to meet our old buddy, Blake, who used to live in the same apartment complex as us in Dallas, and who is a good friend of Kris's hubby. It was nice to sit out on the patio in the gorgeous Texas spring weather and catch up with old friends. Afterwards we made our way to the hotel. We stayed at the Drury Plaza on the river walk. Upon arrival we got out of the car at the valet, Kris pulled some money out of her purse to tip the guy, and we took our bags and went to check in. I checked us in since my name was on the reservation and we made our way up to our room on the 19th floor. Our room was actually really cool. Nice flat screen TV, big bathroom, two queen sized beds, somewhat of a view, though from up above the river walk is nothing but a bunch of trees.
About 3 minutes after arriving in our room, Kris realizes she doesn't have her purse! We frantically search. Tear the whole room apart looking for it, practically. I went downstairs to see if she maybe had dropped it and someone handed it in. No luck. I went to the valet, nobody had seen it. I get Kris, and we both go with the valet to the car and check it. Maybe it fell off and is in the car. Though this makes NO sense because Kris took money out of her purse and tipped the valet AFTER we got out of the car. More searching, more retracing our steps, more looking in the car, more checking with the front desk. Nothing. The front desk clerk kept looking at us like we were crazy or drunk or both. No sympathy. That's so disappointing. They didn't offer any kind of assistance. After more searching we finally had to give up and come to the conclusion that it got snatched. The sad thing is that it was one of those purses with the long strap that you wear across your body (like a messenger bag), which usually equates to being secure. The only thing we can think is that someone cut it off of her, which in itself is scary that some thug came that close to Kris with a knife!
We consoled ourselves with the thought that it could have been much, much worse. The thug could have taken it by force. Though to be honest, I'd prefer that because a) we'd know what happened to it, and b) I could have had the opportunity to open up a can of whoop ass on someone who totally deserved it ;-)
Anyway, Kris had to have her husband fed-ex her passport to her so that she could get back home on Sunday, because, of course, her ID was in the purse, along with her money and credit cards! Poor Kris! I felt so bad for her.
We tried to put the incident behind us and go about our business as we would have done had this not happened. And huge credit is due here to Kris because we did have a blast, though it was punctuated with moments of head scratching and ponderings of how the hell it could have happened.
That evening, after consoling ourselves by crawling into the bottom of a bottle of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay that I had the foresight to bring along, we went out on the River Walk in search of a place to drown our sorrows and watch the world go by. Mad Dogs piqued our interest simply because it had the Union Jack all over the place and I am a sucker for an English pub. Suffice it to say, though, that the Union Jack and phone booth were about as English as that place got. We found two open seats at the bar next to a cute couple, who we ended up spending quite a lot of time with that evening. Connie and Rick from Washington (state, not D.C) were visiting for a weekend away from their kids. We had so much fun with them and many shots later Kris and I were stumbling down the river walk in search of some food. We ate dinner at some restaurant, but neither of us can recall which one... what we do recall is that we spilled 2 glasses of wine and finally I think the waiter got tired of us doing that and moved us to another table that didn't wobble ;-). After dinner we thought we'd call it a night and head back to the hotel. We found ourselves clutching on to each other so that neither of us fell into the river. As we passed by one tiny bar near our hotel we heard live jazz music so we stumbled inside to find everyone in the place up and dancing around their tables. So we joined them. Pretty soon the band stopped playing and some drunk lady requested that they play while she sang Patsy Cline's "Crazy", even though she didn't know the words. She asked for someone to help her out so I volunteered for the job and howled out a very bad rendition with her while everyone pretended it was awesome and danced. It was very bad. Trust me on this.
When we finally made our way back to the hotel we thought it'd be a good idea to go hot tubbing so we donned our bathing suits and made our way up to the roof top pool, only to find that it was closed!
I called down to the front desk and pleaded with the manager to open it for us. He was very nice about it but wouldn't do it because of city ordinance. At one point I asked him why the ordinance was in place and he told me because people commit suicide off the roof. I told him that was Darwin's theory at work and it was his duty as a good world citizen to help the idiots out! Fortunately he thought it was as funny as I did.
Saturday morning we both woke up feeling a little impaired. We had our free breakfast then went for a dip in the hot tub/pool. After that we made our way out for a day of sightseeing. The weekend we chose just happened to be Fiesta weekend and there was much to see and do. We walked down to the carnival over by the Alamodome and took in the sights, sounds, and smells. I made Kris race me down the bumpy slide - she was a good sport about it and the adrenaline rush helped us both feel better from our hang overs.
We spent quite a bit of time walking around the River Walk that afternoon, stopping briefly to talk to the guys working on the garbage barge to ask if they had seen a black purse in the river. We assumed that the thief would dump it in the river after removing the cash from it. No luck, but we did get some good tips from them on other places to see besides the River Walk. On their recommendation, we made our way to Market Square where more of the festival was happening. Great for people watching. Afterwards we headed back to the River and found a restaurant to have a late lunch and do some people watching. A mariachi band played while a bachelorette party embarrassed some poor woman. We saw a woman serenade her man, backed by the mariachi band, which was quite unique and very romantic.
That evening we went to the hotel happy hour, then set off in search of adventure again. We spent some time at Hard Rock Cafe where we chatted with a nice military boy for a while, then we headed back over to Mad Dogs (after going back to the hotel to pick up Kris's passport since the Mad Dog bouncer wouldn't let us in without it). More good people watching. Girls all booty dancing on the stage and making complete arses of themselves. Very entertaining. We dropped in at Coyote Ugly, purely because Kris had never been to one and I thought it would be interesting. It wasn't. Very much the usual scene. Bunch of drunk ugly guys gawking as drunk ugly women gyrate on the bar next to the sober pretty ones that work there. We left that place pretty quickly and found ourselves in Waxy's Irish bar. There was a band playing a very bad rendition of a Bon Jovi song. Even badly done Bon Jovi is good, though :-) After getting some drinks we found a spot to sit at a large table where some more military guys were hanging out. I had a 20 minute conversation with a Sergent who got into the army because he's a meth addict. Lovely. Hey, at least he knew he had to do something about it. The army guys were fun to hang out with and kinda crazy. One had a penchant for wearing women's clothes it turns out ;-).
It was time to call it a night after that. We stumbled back to our hotel, not quite as much stumbling really as the night before, but details become sketchy.
We still don't know what happened to Kris's purse, we probably never will, and that will drive both of us nuts. We both wrote letters to the Drury Plaza's GM regarding their lack of concern for Kris's predicament. Hopefully they'll step up their customer service for the next person that happens to. After filing a police report, we found out that it's quite common in that area for purse snatchings to happen, though the hotel disavowed all knowledge of that. Naturally.

More idol chatter

So finally Kristy Lee Cook is voted off American Idol. And just when I'd started to really like her. She's redeemed herself over the last couple of weeks. Jason Castro, on the other hand, is still awkward and goofy. Interesting how there's always an equal number of male and female singers at this point in the competition. More indication that it's rigged. It just has to be.
I absolutely believe that David Cook is going to win. I was really impressed with his version of Mariah's "Always be my baby". I would never have imagined that song could be rocked out like that. I've watched it twice. I think this week either Brooke or Jason are going home.
I wish, just for once, that Paula wouldn't wuss out when Ryan asks her if America got it right. I wish she'd give a real answer instead of a PC one.
Rock on, David Cook!

Pregnancy diet paid off?

During pregnancy I ate a LOT of vegetables, particularly carrots and asparagus, in the hopes that Trent would grow up to like vegetables. I worried that he would be as finicky as his daddy, who, when I first met him, used to refuse to eat anything but burgers, fries, and pizza and would only drink Coke. Brian's come a long way since then... he eats the vegetables I put on his plate for the most part, and has varied his diet now to include things that are not fried or loaded with cheese. He's expanded his liquid intake repertoire to include lemonade and white cran/strawberry juice, though he still refuses to drink water or any hot liquids.

Despite the leaps and bounds Brian has made in his diet, still I worried that Trent would develop similar tastes and I'd become a McMommy. A slave to the McDrive thru because it's the only thing my kid will eat.

Last night, though, Trent demonstrated that he has picked up my tastes in food when he ate his dinner. I tried him on some lasagna by putting it in the food processor. He really liked it! then I gave him a stick of raw asparagus to chew on, not really thinking he'd do anything but bash it on his tray... but he made me so proud:




He chewed on it for about 20 minutes until it was mush, so I gave him a cooked piece the next time, which he also demolished. What a good boy!
The funny thing is that asparagus makes your pee smell funny, and this morning when I changed his diaper, it had that distinct asparagus pee smell. I find that so amusing!

Oh my boy is such a McCutie!

Patio before and after

It's finished! the patio, that is. It was actually finished over a week ago, but I hadn't gotten around to taking pictures. The final touch, which was to hang the swing, was completed last week. My neighbours, Jim and Ted, were enjoying their usual evening glass of wine in Jim's back yard and heckling me as I hung the swing. Jim actually did come over and help me hang it, though :-)
We're thrilled with the end result and if you're looking for a recommendation on a construction company to do any home improvement projects, including roofing, let me know. Our guys came in much lower than any others we got quoted, and the workmanship is amazing.

Here are some before and after pictures for comparison.







And here is the finishing touch...

Run your buns off

This weekend was fun. Brian graciously agreed to skip date night with me and Trent, and even gave up his indoor soccer game, so that I could spend some much needed "me" time. I went down to Cedar Street to see Brian Andrew Lee play for happy hour. Michelle, Barbie, Scott, Adam & Sara came also. After happy hour ended, I played 5th wheel for dinner with Barbie/Scott, Adam/Sara at Chinatown. We got free dessert because our waiter was flirting with me ;-0
On Saturday, we met up with Grandma and Grandpa downtown at Shady Grove for lunch. Trent hung out with Grandpa on the wall and flirted with everyone as they went in or out of the main restaurant. Then we went to pick up the race packets for Sunday. The Bauman boys were doing their very first "Tres Generations" fun run - The Schlotsky's Bun Run. Trent was bandit running it since he didn't register. On Saturday afternoon, Grandpa and Brian custom fit something to the top of our stairs so that we could attach the baby gate. They did a great job.
On Sunday we got up super early and headed downtown for the Bun Run. The race started at 8 so we left a few minutes before 7am to ensure we got parking. Trent was a little sleepy and a tad grumpy due to being woken up so early. He likes to sleep until about 7:45 most days :-)
We ran in to Julia while we were waiting for the race to start and she took a really cute picture of Trent (which you can see in his gallery).
When the boys started their race, Grandma and I waited just past the start line to catch a glimpse of them going out, then we waited and watched as the fastest people came in around 14 minutes. When the boys approached the finish line, they took Trent out of his jogger and he crossed the finish line on-foot, hand-in-hand with his daddy and grandpa. A proud moment, indeed :-) and he looked so cute in his soccer outfit from Great Aunt Pam and Great Uncle Mike, and his awesome Puma's from Uncle Kev and Aunt Darice.
Sunday afternoon, we worked on the garage a bit. I can't believe I forgot to mention a huge milestone for our friends - Mike and Tara moved into their new house a couple of weeks ago! More on that in a bit... Anyway, they moved their furniture out of our 3rd garage so now we actually have no more excuses and will have to actually organize it and hang things. So we made a dent in that work by breaking down all the boxes and getting rid of all the trash, and starting a pile of things to donate to charity. The boys also trimmed the palm trees in the back yard, though I can't remember if that was Saturday or Sunday... my days tend to blend together these days. I remember what I did, just not when :-)
Sunday afternoon we went to Mighty Fine Burger. I hadn't been there before. I can't say that it's the best burger I've ever had. Probably would give it a 4 out of 10 to be perfectly honest.
On Sunday evening we went over to Mike and Tara's for dinner and to check out the house now that they're all moved in. It turned out so beautiful. The sinks, tile, floors, counters, cabinets... everything all came together so beautifully.
In other news, Trent had his 9 month check up on Friday. It's hard to believe it's been 9 months already. He's now in the 50th percentile for height and weight, which we're happy about because he was rather small on his 6 month visit. He's now 28 inches tall and almost 20lbs. A few more months and he'll be able to ride in a front-facing car seat. When the nurse took blood to test his iron levels, Trent didn't even cry. Brian and I were so proud! He's hitting all the milestones and his early problems with colic and acid reflux are resolved. He's even been cold-free for a couple of weeks now! It kind of shows in his personality that he's feeling good these days. He's been much easier going lately, and has discovered a love for Cherios. We put a handfull on his high-chair tray when Brian and I eat dinner, and he just feeds himself and is very content. We have to trick him and feed him his regular baby food first, though, otherwise he only wants the Cheerios.

Fun with animals

This weekend Trent did a lot to redeem himself of his recent behavior. We had a wonderful weekend together. Here are some highlights.
On Friday, which is date night, Trent and I went for a long walk while Brian went to play indoor soccer. I had been craving a burger all day so for our date we went to dinner at Red Robbin.

On Saturday, I took Trent for a long run while Brian did the yard work in the front of the house. Trent and I ran 11k! Then when we got home, Trent hung out in his exersaucer on the front lawn while Brian finished edging and I trimmed the bushes.
It was such a beautiful spring day so after lunch we went to the Austin zoo. It was our first time to go and while it's really small and not as well laid out as the larger zoos, all of the animals looked comfortable and well taken care of. All of their animals were rescued from people who think they can keep wild animals as pets, or from the circus. I feel such a conflict about zoos because I hate to see animals in cages, but I suppose it's better than them being euthanised or continuing to live in abusive conditions. And by paying to see these animals, it ensures that the zoo can continue to support them. And a zoo is really the only way that I would ever get to see these animals in person. It just makes me so sad, though, and I wish it could be different. Trent seemed to enjoy seeing all the animals. He also seemed to enjoy watching all the people. He especially likes children.
After the zoo, we went to Costco to pick up some essentials, then we went to Sears to buy a new water heater. Something we've been putting off for a year now but we think we're tempting fate to put it off any longer. Fortunately, we were able to pay for the water heater and installation with credit card points so it was pretty much free. After Sears we went home and spent some time on our new patio. Trent played on a blanket while Brian and I sipped on our wine/beer and enjoyed the tranquility of our back yard. We made a delicious dinner - pecan praline chicken, and after Trent went to bed we watched Spiderman 3. At least some of it. I managed to pass out on the couch about half way through the movie.
On Sunday, we all went out for a 7k run, then came back and did some work in the back yard. Brian cleaned the grill while I hammered in tree fertilizer spikes around all the trees. Then we ran errands for the remainder of the day, including yet another trip to Costoc, but this time it was for a hotdog! (ok, so we also picked up some things we needed that we didn't get on Saturday, too). Trent seemed very happy to be out and about. He had I minor fussing episode Sunday afternoon and it turns out he was just over tired because he didn't get any really good naps in during the day. While he napped we watched the rest of Spiderman 3. That evening we all went for a walk around the neighbourhood and listened to some country music, then we had family dinner time - chicken and asparagus with feta and bowtie pasta, then Trent had his bath and went to bed.
Brian and I then did something we've been dreading and putting off. Our taxes! We finally got them done. No refund for us, though :-(

In good news... the new porch swing arrives today. I can't wait to hang it!

Hell on wheels

I've been running a lot lately, it seems. Not crazy miles or anything, but frequently. The main reason is that Trent seems to really enjoy going out in the jogger. He's always so calm and relaxed during our run. It's sort of a mental break for me. We plug the iPod into the speakers on his stroller (thanks Mum & Dad for getting us that -- we use it every day!), and off we go. Usually about 6 or 7 kilometers each time and on weekends we do a little bit longer. I can zone out and not have to deal with a crying baby, and he gets to take in the scenery. Lately Trent has been a little more high maintenance than usual. I think he's frustrated by the fact that he can't walk around yet, and he absolutely refuses to crawl, in favor of rolling everywhere, which is kind of funny to watch. And why should he crawl when mummy and daddy will help him walk and chase the cats around the house? that's way more fun. I had a dream last night that Trent started walking on his own. In my dream, I heard him giggling and turned around to see him teetering over to me. It seems like this dream is going to come true pretty soon. Then we'll have a whole new set of problems to deal with. I can already see areas around the house that need to be baby-proofed. Such as the book shelf in my office, where the fish tank is. -he likes to grab for the ornaments and chachkas. And the fountain in the entry way, he hasn't grabbed for that yet, but it's only a matter of time and that will be messy. We already have outlet covers on most of the electrical outlets, but now we also need to secure the cords, and also tie up the cords on the blinds so he can't get tangled in them. I'll probably have to move my wine rack to under the stairs and put a child proof doorknob on the door. I guess I can technically claim that I have a wine cellar in that case :-)

For the most part, though, our house isn't so kid-unfriendly. And what did people do before all these baby proofing gadgets came out? Is it so hard to teach your kid that poking the electrical outlets, pulling over book cases, and throwing themselves down the stairs is bad for them? It sounds simple in theory, but I'm sure in practice it's not. I imagine in the near future I'll be blogging about all the things Trent has broken in the house or has attempted to shove up his nose, etc. I feel so torn because I'm really looking forward to him gaining his independence and being mobile, but on the other hand I don't want him to grow up so fast, and I don't know that I'm prepared for all the challenges of chasing a toddler around. He's already changed so much right before our eyes. It's hard to imagine now that he was smaller than the cats when we brought him home.