It IS easy being green...

Little things that you can do to help the environment on a daily basis:

1. If appropriate, do your best to follow the old, hippie pledge: "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down" in respect to your toilet habits. This works especially well if you're like us and have a separate bathroom from your guests. Message to my guests: Please disregard this pledge and flush when you're visiting my house. 'Cause I'm prissy like that.

2. Think before you throw something away. Even visualize what you're about to throw away, in the landfill. Will it biodegrade? Will it pollute? Recycle, if applicable. You can go to Earth 911 to find out about your local recycling resources.

3. Turn off the lights when you leave a room. I'm striving to not have many lights on at all during the day...not only to conserve energy, but also to save on energy bills.

4. Switch your household cleaners to "greener" options. Baking soda is great for scrubbing tubs and sinks; vinegar works wonders on windows and counters; plain old water cleans most spills.

5. There are many natural remedies for pest issues. We've recently been using a garlic spray for outdoor mosquito spraying.

6. Turn off the water when brushing your teeth, while sudsing up your hands during hand-washing...anytime that you're not actively using the water. I've started practicing this while loading the dishwasher and realized how much water I was wasting while having the water run the whole time, whether I was rinsing dishes or not.

Hoping to get some more baby pics and videos happening again soon. In the meantime, you're stuck reading my words only. So sorry...

Why We're Bad Parents: Part 3

While watching Andrew Zimmern's show on Travel Channel today, I exclaimed aloud when he stated that he was eating beef balls in Thailand, "BEEF BALLS?!?". When I said that, Anna looked at me and belly laughed. So, this evening I've said "BEEF BALLS!" 64 times just to hear her laugh.

I got a good video of AC eating Simon's tail today. [Again with the bad parenting] Will post it soon...

Housekeeping

Just a little housekeeping to get done around here:

1. My computer is on the fritz, so all of my photo and video capabilities are stunted until Kevin and I both muster up the patience for him to teach me how to do all of that stuff on his Mac. Might be awhile, so be patient.

2. Anna goes for her 6 month doctor's appointment tomorrow. I'm anxious to see how much she weighs...I'm wagering 20+lbs. She's also getting shots and I'll be by myself so send "strong mommy" vibes my way.

3. We went to an Assisted Living Facility today to visit. It was a good time. One of the moms in our playgroup has a friend who's the activities director there so they organized the visit. We met lots of nice people--one of which was an 108 year old lady who has a great, great grandbaby! Anna loves elderly people so she had a ball, despite missing her morning nap.

3a. I dressed A.C. in a frilly little pink, flowery-lacy bubble suit (old ladies love a dressed-up baby). She also had on her nicest pink shoes. No less than 17 times, several ladies asked me how old my little BOY was and told me just how precious and happy HE is (maybe boy babies like to dress in drag?).Oh well...they were old and probably don't see many babies.

4. Within the past week, Anna has mastered the following: sitting up, holding her bottle and is trying like the devil to pull up in her bed. A lowering of the crib mattress is #1 on our list of things to do.

5. Most importantly, my oven is fixed! It hasn't worked since we moved in and we finally got it fixed last week. We've been eating our weight in casseroles ever since. (burp)

Hopefully I can master the Mac and figure out how to post pictures and videos again soon. Bear with me, oh faithful readers.

3rd Day of Swimming Lessons

 

Or, otherwise known as, "Anna Has A Meltdown". We think that the dreaded teething is now finally upon us (we've been thinking it's around the corner for months now). A.C. just hasn't been herself this week. Today during swim lessons, she was doing well and then something just set her off and she crumbled. I don't know if she had a little stranger anxiety with our instructor (Mr. Mitch IS rather odd) or if getting her face in the water was just too much, but she was inconsolable. Luckily, this happened at the end of class, so we didn't have to miss too much of our pool time.

Obviously, this picture was taken before we left for swimming lessons, hence the happy, happy Buddha baby! *Thanks for the bikini, Ashley!

Chupacabra in the Heights?

A fellow Heights Kids mom posted a message on our bulletin board system today. She was curious to know if anyone else had seen these strange, dog-like creatures in The Heights. This is how she described the two creatures that her husband spotted in their fully-fenced yard one night last week:

These were shaggy brown with spots, 20lb, big pointy ears, big
mouths, panting heavily. The oddest thing is when they jumped a 5
foot iron fence to get out, they leaped to the top like a cat,
paused & jumped into the neighbors yard. Very un-dog like behavior.

Aside from the descripion of "shaggy" they sound like the mythical Chupacabra of South America, Mexico and South Texas. What stumps me is the fact that the two creatures appeared to look the same (not common among the packs of strays that sometimes frequent The Heights) and that odd jumping-behavior. She also added that her husband, who saw the critters, has worked for the SPCA and Texas Parks and Wildlife, so he knows a lot about animals and couldn't identify these two.

Could it be Chupa? Please leave your guess as to what these critters might be in the comments.

A rough Friday night

 

Friday night, Anna Claire had some tummy troubles and couldn't get to sleep. I snapped this picture as Kevin finally got her to sleep. I'd like to tell you that it's an artistic pic that I planned to look that way, but it's really just an example of my bad photography skills, but I think that it turned out sort of cool.

Sandal Toes

 

This is Anna Claire before we left for our Saturday playgroup today. I love these little sandals, but every time I put them on her, she manages to get her toes wiggled out of them and then they flap in the breeze. I thought I'd give them another shot today, because they looked so cute with her outfit. In the movie below, you can watch her methodically work on her toes to get them free from the confines of the gold foot prisons.



Saturday playgroup was fun. Anna seemed to enjoy it until she fell forward and bumped her cheek on the edge of a wooden block. After that, she'd had enough, so Mommy and Daddy slammed the rest of their mimosas and hit the road.

"My own personal tragedy will not interfere with my ability to do good hair"

I got a much-needed haircut today and I took Anna with me. She got to meet my stylist, Dean, his partner and a few of the salon employees. I just adore Dean. He's always pushing me just a tad out of my comfort zone. For instance, like today, I went in, asking for a bob and he pushed my boundaries a bit and suggested "stacking" the back. So now, I have a really chic haircut (think Posh, but not quite as severe) that is much more interesting than what I thought I wanted. He's also very warm and personable. He's a hugger, so you get a hug when you get there and a hug before you leave.

Overall, Anna Claire did really well, until Dean began blowing my hair dry. She hates the blow dryer, with the heat of 1000 suns, so she freaked out a bit to see a strange man, holding this loud contraption up to Mommy's head. In the end, I walked out with a cool new 'do, the gushing compliments of several gay men (Man, I really need a whole gaggle of gay men to follow me around, issuing complements all day long. How good would that be for one's self-esteem?) and a reasonably happy baby.

An Apple A Day...

Most every evening, when Kevin gets home from work, he and Anna go in his computer/music room and make music. Anna loves to make noise on his keyboard. You'll notice that she gets distracted by her own cuteness when Kevin turns on the monitor cam and she sees herself on screen.

Mamamamamama

Just in the past week or so, Anna has started "talking". She says, "Mamamamamamama" all day, everyday. I've told her that she'd be a lot smarter if she learned to say, "Dadadadadada" post haste, as he's the one that will buy her stuff.



p.s. The eating of solid foods is going much better. She was enjoying a dinner of peas and brown rice while I was filming this video (as evidenced by the smears of green all over her face and bib).

Hosting Playgroup

Anna Claire and I hosted our first playgroup at our house this morning. We had a great turnout and a grand time was had by all.

I sent the cats, except for Wynonna Judd, outside, so as not to freak out the other mothers with our extreme cattery. Surprisingly, Wynonna hung out in the family room the whole time and seemed to enjoy watching the activity.




In the picture, clockwise at 6pm is Anna Claire, next to her is baby Kayla (who's only 6 weeks old), Wynonna's demon, glowing eyes in the background, handsome, Australian Henry, and then Nick (in the blue bib, who also has a twin sister named Mira who sometimes comes to playgroup too). We had a total of about 8 babies and mommies.

Two bugs in a rug

 

Kissin' Cousins

Anna Claire got to visit with her cousin, Nolan this weekend. They got along smashingly...and Nolan gave her one of his famous scalp massages, but she wasn't so sure about it.

Hand Adoration

Anna Claire has a fascination with her hands. She spends many hours a day, making pretty ballerina-like hand movements and practicing her "Jazz Hands". I caught her on video doing her hand adoration.

Scootin'

It ain't graceful, but it gets her where she wants to go. There's no more leaving her unattended for me. If I leave her on the floor and leave the room, 9 times out of 10, she's wiggled off of the palette and onto the hardwood floor.



She just started this scooting and has become proficient at rolling over in the past few days. She now rolls from her back to her front and front to back all day long. This palette on the floor is her latest playground. She's happy on it and it makes me feel like she's relatively safe.

Swimming Lessons!

Here are some pictures from our first day of swimming lessons. Click on the first picture to open the album.

Anna's First Astro's Game

We took Anna Claire to her first Astro's game. She was sporting her little pink Astro's outfit--very cute.

However, Mommy and Daddy are really, really, really dumb and they didn't think about how loud a freakin' Astro's game is--especially when Biggio hits a double right as you're sitting down. Our sweet baby girl screamed her head off each time the Astro's did something well. She relied heavily on her pacifier to keep her calm when the noise level got out of control. Either she didn't like the noise, or she's a die-hard Phillies fan.

I Scream, You Scream...

We all scream for BERRYHILL (our local, favorite Mexican food joint):

Cutting the mustard

The playgroup that Anna and I belong to is very large. It spans the ages of infant to teen and includes more than 250 parents. There's also a very active internet bulletin board system where parents can ask questions, get recommendations for goods and services, post things that are for sale or free, etc. This little gem showed up in my inbox today and I just had to share. I got a good chuckle out of it and would love to know the backstory:

If anyone wants a box with 499 Heinz Mustard Packets ... they're by the
front door. 1139 Rutland. Don't ask. Thanks