Vacation So Far by iPhone

Vacation photos to date as captured by phone camera and blogged by phone - so maybe these photos are thumbnail-sized, will find out in a few days. We are having so much fun!

Breakfast with daddy before airport drop-off. 

Sunglasses from Aunt Robin.

With great-grandpa and grandma!

At the park with Grandpa and Aunt Robin.

Born three days apart in Alabama - reunited!

View from the backseat, St Louis to Kalamazoo.

Meeting newest cousin Graham.

Lucas Jack Band at the Union, Kalamazoo.

This Carter's outfit is about the cutest thing that ever happened.

Time to go inside where the Cheerios are.

With Daddy in the hammock. 

With cousins for very first zoo visit!

Hope you are having a great week! TTFN from Michigan!

Weekend by iPhone

The little lady and I were mostly up to our own devices this weekend. On Friday night I skimmed a pile of magazines and half-watched a terrible movie (Diana) -- after a long workweek some me-time felt great. On Saturday and Sunday C and I did our usual hustle-out-of-the-house-so-Daddy-can-sleep [due to our haste, these are very grungy and yes downright grimy mornings for us]. We hit up our usuals - the Y, the museum reach of the riverwalk, the Landa library playground (x 2), Central Market (x 2), the farmer's market, the new bakeria/loncheria La Panaderia, TCBY (probably my first TCBY in this millennium, of course a chocolate-vanilla twist). Running around with one child is very easy - what will happen with two?! I may become a shut-in.

Now we pause for something completely different - some tantalizing tidbits from the NYT opinion page:

What pregnant women and their partners google. The search engine as window to the soul.

Always hungry? Here's Why.  Time for a paradigm shift?
 

Oh and I picked up these trial size Dr Dennis Gross peels at Sephora along with my sun safety kit (a treat I look forward to all spring) and my skin feels like buttah.

Ok time for baby.

Have a great week, y'all! Just a couple of days until vacation, thank goodness.

STOMP!

 

Baby gets into the family planning drawer

 

TCBY

 

Just aswingin'

Pearl Brewery reach of the Riverwalk

 

A Monument to Man's Arrogance

Mother's Day weekend is when the San Antonio heat returned to meltcha face off.

Luke returned home very late, four in the morning late, from a gig Friday night so C and I had a morning of errands planned. We hit up the Y, the Pearl farmer's market, and dropped off some clothes and shoes at a consignment shop - a trip I've been meaning to make for ages. [Closet purge in progress, I hope to share the result someday.] While waiting for them to select the keepers, I wandered around the store holding C and was suddenly so tired.  Not in a worrisome, I'm going-to-collapse way, but a 31 weeks pregnant-and-it's-hot-outside-and-I-have-a-dilutional-anemia kind of way. When people ask about the due date and I reply July and they say -- ooh, it's gonna be hot -- well, that prophecy and its associations of sweaty lumbering discomfort suddenly came true in Too Good To Be Threw. I packed up the Goodwill-bound nonkeepers and C and drove home, handed off C to Luke, and took a nap, something I never do.

Restored, a couple of hours later C and I headed to grocery store and after 30 minutes the car was about 120 degrees and as I buckled her into the car seat my spirit was completely broken. So.hot. A day or two later someone posted this on Instagram and I thought, THIS IS SAN ANTONIO! A latitude unfit for human habitation.

via

Now begins the season, which spans 2.5 seasons, of having to accomplish every outdoor activity by 10 am. The SATX winter is a marvelous thing but oh how we pay for it. On Mother's Day we went to the park and had brunch at Central Market and repaired home to simply be in air conditioning. That evening I made scallops and risotto, each for the first time (verdict: too expensive and too much hands-on time, respectively).

Sorry for the grouse-fest but I feel so resentful AT THE SUN for chasing me into the house most of the day. Trundling around now is getting uncomfortable, I've transitioned from the glow of the second trimester into the grim determination of the third, and I'm making mental lists of all the things I wish I could do:

Ride my bike
Lie prone
Eat salami and raw milk cheeses
Play tennis
Sit at my desk comfortably

Much like my ambitious closet purge plans - formulated with feverish detail at my desk at work, never executed at home - I'm thinking of all the athletic pursuits I will undertake when delivered of this child - Spinning! Barre! TRX class! Hold me to these things come September, readers, once of the fog of birth has lifted and the lady parts have cooled off a bit [a separate post will likely be dedicated to the deep deep dread I have of those postpartum weeks.] I suspect my elaborate Y class plans (hmm, I'll go to Spinning at 6 am on Wednesdays and Thursdays, bodyflow on Monday) are sublimated TEMPORARY RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME PLANS, driven by a fear of being homebound, as anxiety about having two kids bubbles to the surface. I googled the availability of home grocery delivery yesterday. I am worried that I will never leave the house again - and I've really come to enjoy taking Clem out and about.

Advice and encouragement welcomed! I'm kind of freaking out.

Some pics from the weekend...

this is the greenest grass in all of San Antonio

She's too fast - most of my pics are with her back turned...

...plus a dusting of wood chips

I didn't know Luke took this picture. This is after the 45 minute risotto stirring, shortly before the 5 minute scallop-searing, and the 3 minutes it took to eat this dinner.

Dear Mom - this All-Clad pan is about the best gift you've ever given me.

Our Weekend by iPhone

Our weekend in iPhone photos.

Brunch during oil change, Twin Sisters. [Saturday was great - errands, Y, pedicure, dinner with friends on a beautiful patio.]

Landa library park Sunday morning.

New kicks.

Oh hi.

Helloooooo!

Brunch redux. This lady loves being in the high chair.

Target. We bought the tiger and these two toys (here and here) that she actually seems interested in because they are reasonable simulacra of her Very Favorite Things. (I think we will purchase several items from this line in the future - really clever, gender-neutral, no obnoxious primary color palette).

We are working on hugs for Little Sister Acceptance Training

Central Market, waiting for mom to finish her pasta.

Sippy cup launch in t minus five seconds

Tickles. Luke was busy most of the weekend but we got him back Sunday night.

 

 

C likes to drape herself over the ottoman (blocking a door that doesn't shut tightly) and wait for the tickles...

Other good stuff: Watching 20 Feet from Stardom (so great!), reading this fascinating article about the recent capture of a Mexican drug lord, watching Joel McHale kill it at the White House Correspondents' Dinner (I am still giggling about the comparison between C-SPAN and the Paranormal Activity movies), lovin' my sample of Armani Luminessence CC SPF 35 moisturizer - that stuff is great, making ATK's icebox key lime pies in - confession! - storebought mini graham cracker pie crusts. So cute!

18/52

 

Dinner at the Clean Plate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2014.

Hello May!

April may not have been the cruelest month but I am excited for May -- great stuff on the horizon:

// Ok this isn't on the horizon, it's already in the freezer: Annie's Eats dreamy creamy strawberry ice cream - Saw this on Pinterest and the recipe was too easy not to try - and it is delicious! The strawberries I used weren't even looking that spectacular and the ice cream still has great, bright berry flavor. A plus plus plus for ease of cleanup; next time I'm going to macerate the strawberries and chill the puree right in the blender canister for even fewer dishes to wash.

// HEY BIG BLENDER-SPENDER: I think I'm going to treat myself to a Mother's Day gift of...a....VITAMIX!!!!!!

// Stone fruit in season - my favorite. To make: rustic blueberry and nectarine tart and glazed pork with plums. Eating peaches over the sink! Can't wait.

// Start our new schedule of my taking C to daycare in the morning and Luke picking her up so I can go to the gym in the afternoon and he can sleep in... this is a mysteriously long-overdue adjustment.

// Complete the closet purge I've been talking about for months. Why I am dreading it so much?

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// See this movie based on an Alice Munro short story:

// Take one of my longest vacations ever to relax with friends and family in Missouri and Michigan. Do you have your Lucas Jack tickets for St Louis, Chicago, or Kalamazoo?

 What are you looking forward to?