Si se Puede!

(Thanks Anna for the title of this post, I was just going to write it in English).

Last night was so overwhelming that I think I actually felt numb. I was disappointed in Obama's speech, but I can't imagine what was going through his head. What must it feel like to not only be President, but to be the first non-white president, and to do it all the day after your beloved grandmother, the woman who raised you, died? I still am so excited to see the future under his leadership. Seeing Jesse Jackson and Oprah and all those other African-Americans with tears in their eyes, Americans whose great-grandparents were "property", whose grandparents and parents suffered under segregation, just filled me with pride. Pride about my country again. I said it here, I know, I just did not believe that the United States was at the point where we would elect a black President. I thought racism still ran too deep. I have never been more happy to have been wrong. And I am so excited that my next child will be born into a country where truly anybody can be president.

I read the blog of a friend who is a very conservative Christian. She, of course, was very disappointed in the outcome of the election and linked to a couple of blogs expressing that unhappiness. It was very interesting to read the other side. One of the blogs was completely off her rocker and said how this was a sign of the End of Times, the other was a very measured and eloquent expression of how she did not agree with Barack Obama, but she could recognize how historic it was for black Americans to have someone who looked like them in the White House. How they could now say to their children, "you too can be President", like white Americans have told their (at least male) children for centuries. The latter woman is the type of Conservative Christian we can have a dialogue with. Hopefully we can reach out to these people and mend the country a bit. It's hard because they see everything through the eyes of their Christian religion, and I'm not even sure that I am religious, but I hope we can make small steps towards a common ground.

Of course both these women reached the conclusion that now unborn babies will be slaughtered at increasing rates. Is there some sort of uptick in abortions the day after elections or something? I don't get it. In any case, I can certainly agree that a decrease in the number of unwanted pregnancies is something to strive for. Hopefully having a President and an administration who believes in sex ed, birth control and women's rights will achieve that. If we decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies, we decrease the number of abortions, and, once again, I think we can all agree that would also be a wonderful thing.

FINALLY!

Today is finally the day. Election day. I keep getting teary-eyed because I'm so excited, yet so afraid that we won't win. But Obama must win. I am reading his book, "Dreams from my Father" and I am more convinced than ever that he is a decent, wonderful human being who is incredibly smart and caring and will lead our country forward with a steady hand. And to have a black president.... Oh, it fills me with pride just to think about it.

GO OBAMA!

Halloween!

one of the cool pumpkins we picked up on clearance for 3 bucks!

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, but now that I have a kid the focus has shifted from coming up with an elaborate costume for myself to enjoying the day through my daughter's eyes. Stella has said she wanted to be a witch for like the last month, and she said she wanted Tim and I to be witches too. Easy peasy, I spent $4 on witch hats for Tim and I, $15 on her costume, and recycled a bunch of stuff from Halloweens past for the rest of my costume. Next year I can go back to thinking long and hard of a good costume, preferably one with a "sexy" bent. (Come on ladies, you know you think of this too. When else can we get all tarted up and it's socially acceptable. Even in my mild-mannered witch costume, I adjusted the top so I could show off a little of my giant pregnant boobies!)

Anyway, now that I have completely scandalized at least my mother and mother-in-law, on to the pictures! Friday, Stella's playdate buddies got together for a Halloween party in the park. I didn't dress her up because I was afraid that her costume wouldn't survive the playground, Trick or Treating AND our Halloween party. We tried to get a group photo, but the 2-year-olds kept wandering off! I think this one has the most kids in it:

It's a pretty cool old-school playground. Of course, that meant that Stella fell off the merry-go-round and one of the horses on the 4-way teeter totter (not sure what that's called), but it was awesome. I'm sure we'll be back.

Friday night, of course, was all about the candy. It was a lot of fun trick-or-treating in this neighborhood because we know so many people. We never knew anybody other than about 3 neighbors in our old hood. Everyone thought Stella was adorable and gave her lots of good candy. There was a house a couple of streets away that is a big Victorian and the guy collects movie memorabilia. He had a life-size Freddy Krueger on the porch and a Predator in the front vestibule. I knew Stella might get scared and as we approached I said, "ooh, scary! But don't be afraid, it's just for fun and nothing will hurt you, I promise." Tim was really impressed with this explanation and she seemed to have no problems going up to the house. Sometimes I feel like maybe I'm pretty good at this mom thing:) We took her a bit too far, though, because we wanted to see our friends Angi and Meredith who live two long blocks away, and she sort of broke down before we made it home. But Daddy carried her some and we made it back. When we got home, we let her have some candy and she was just buzzing. It was sort of frightening. We also handed out lots of candy and saw some pretty cute kids, including a baby that was less than 2 months old. I gave the parents candy anyway saying that as new parents, they deserved it.

Saturday morning was Brandon and Courtney's baby shower and then Saturday night it was time for our Halloween party! We had a great time, first with the crazy toddlers (we had 4 two-year-olds and two babies), then with the crazier adults. I failed miserably in the photography department, but here are Stella and Daniel "raving":

Tim and I verrrrry late in the night, so the costumes aren't very "fresh".

Karen and Frank did "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?":

Our neighbors across the street, George and Kathy, had my favorite costumes of the evening, not to mention the best wigs, Joan and Don from Mad Men. I literally did not recognize them when they walked in!

Jeff had another of my favorite costumes, along with Tara who just looked gorgeous:

Stella's getting antsy on my lap, so that's all the photos for now! I guess now it's time to get ready for Thanksgiving!

Art: Thursday, 10/30/08

Stella and her glitter pumpkin, which unfortunately we left over at Baba and Grandaddy's:

I like this one because I think her smile looks like her Pappy's in this one (my Dad). I don't know why exactly. But that's the impression I get.

18 weeks!

Okay, so I'm a week behind. Here I am at 18 weeks (last Sunday):

I swear, it's much bigger in person:)

And here we are on the way to B. Iden Payne Awards at which we had a blast:

Art: Tuesday 10/28/08

So I'm a little behind...

This is in a plastic baggie because it had some sort of weird cheeto substance that would fall off of it. Apparently it is coating Granddaddy's backseat because Baba picked her up from school.

Stomach Bugs Suck

So Tim and I both were waylaid with an awful stomach bug Monday that kept us yakking until the afternoon and immobile the rest of the day. Luckily, Stella was really understanding, more understanding that you would expect a 2 year old to be, and mostly was happy to play by herself and cuddle with us some. And her Baba was kind enough to come by between her classes that she's teaching to bring us Gatorade and saltines and make Stella lunch and put her down for her nap. Which Stella unfortunately didn't take, although she did stay out of our hair for an hour or so. Then Baba came back to pick Stella up and take her to sleep at her house and took her to preschool and picked her up! So we were able to sleep almost straight from 11pm Monday night to 10:30am Tuesday morning, which I credit mostly with our recovering. It is SO nice to return to the land of the living. There is one good thing that came out of our sickness, though. We had a super-busy weekend and as a consequence, ate a lot of unhealthy fast food and restaurant food. So perhaps two days of eating nearly nothing will counteract that weekend of gorging and I WON'T blow my completely on target weight gain so far. Yay!

I'm very proud of that fact that I have gained exactly what you are supposed to by this point in my pregnancy. I sort of wish I'd kept where I recorded what I gained with Stella, so I could see what month it was that I started going out of control, but I'm pretty sure it was about now. With her, I gained 5 pounds the first trimester, like you are supposed to, and then gained like 5 the next month, 6 the month after that, 7 after that and then freaked when I gained 8 after that. Or something like that. Too much, anyway you look at it. I'm really hoping that I won't end this pregnancy with double-chin;) Heck, maybe I'll even still have ankles! Ha!

Monday about 6pm we broke down and watched an episode of Sesame Street on the Kids on Demand channel. Man, Sesame Street really hasn't changed much since we were kids. I think they even used some of the same videos they would show way back then! And Stella was transfixed, it was really creepy. She sat in the chair, totally glued to the television, and she would squirm every once in a while and answer my questions about the show, but she really was like a zombie. It's totally what T. Berry Brazelton describes about kids and television. It was even weirder because usually she totally ignores tv, even television aimed at kids. I guess Sesame Street is a special breed and, as Tim pointed out, it is educational. But I still think she'll be watching it in emergency only situations!

As far as potty training, between the accidents on Friday, a super-busy weekend and our sickness, we definitely got off track. Hopefully we can get her back on track soon!

Aggh!

I should not have jinxed myself. Stella has had two accidents this morning, including a poop, her previous strength. And because we forgot to wash the training pants, she's back in diapers temporarily. Although she is now in love with "Everyone Poops" which I rediscovered on her bookshelf yesterday afternoon and which was given to her by her Aunt Christine. Christine, I love you, but that book is gross!

Dancing Daughter vs Dancing Mama

So my mother sent me some photos today of me when I was Stella's age rocking out.

Sadly, my dancing hasn't gotten much better in the subsequent 29 years. And this is Stella just this morning:

I wish she was looking up, but in the others I took, she has the blue "hat" over her head.

We didn't get a film camera until I was 3, so no film of me making up songs until then, but here's Stella composing some music. She starts yelling, "no no" at the end because she realized I was filming. She hates paparazzi messing with her creative process.

As far as the outfit, she is wearing cotton training panties with real panties over them, my socks and her own shirt, obviously. Yes, we are trying toilet training again and so far it's going pretty well. I got her a book a few weeks ago called "Big Girls Use the Potty" and in it the little girl's teddy has his own potty. Stella expressed desiring a potty for her own lion, so when we went to Ikea Monday, we got one. She's subsequently showed a lot more interest in the potty and has even gone successfully twice! I'm trying not to get too excited, but I think she's (mostly) got it down. She does find pooping a lot easier, I think because she has more warning, but cvxd1` has been peeing in the training panties. She's also had one pooping accident in the training panties. But I'm still optimistic and she wants to keep trying. Apparently peer pressure did the trick. Sully at school wears underwear, she told me, and her teacher said that Tuesday she even asked to go to the potty with the other kiddos. So please send successful potty training vibes our way!

Stella's Art through October 23rd

Stella usually does a piece of Art every day at school and they are starting to overrun our refrigerator! So my goal is going forward to take a picture of her each Tuesday and Thursday with her art and post it on my blog. It'll preserve her art for posterity AND give me some content!

And don't worry, I'm not throwing them away or anything. Just this way I know I'll have pictures of them when I decide what to toss and what to keep at the end of the year.

I don't know why she looks so perturbed in this picture. The tortured young artist, I suppose.

Awesome, almost disturbing retro postcards

My friend Mindy sent these to me. Her professor compiled them. They are utterly bizaare and I just had to share!

http://www.uta.edu/anthropology/petruso/tackyintro.html

3 weeks!

2 weeks, 6 days and 20 hours until we find out whether this bambino is a boy or girl! But who's counting? I'm really excited and ready to start picking out names and thinking of nursery schemes. I have a feeling it's a boy because my symptoms have been so different this time than with Stella, but who knows? Tim thinks boy too. Obviously there's a 50/50 chance we're right. Luckily I don't really care this time, which I can say honestly, unlike with Stella where I really really really wanted a girl! I don't know how people wait the whole 9 months until the baby is born to find out. I don't have that kind of patience!

What? the Chronicle and I agree?

The Chronicle and I rarely agree these days, they support neighborhood groups to be super-powerful too much, but they also said vote NO on Proposition 2. They explain perfectly why this proposition has no business amending our city charter. It has been mis-represented by its supporters and if you want a clear explanation of what Prop 2 is, visit the Chronicle's endorsement page.

Just a taste of one of the more awful things the Proposition will do:
"Voters need to clearly understand that this amendment will not affect only the Domain. With some exemptions, it would eliminate incentives – including, for example, affordable housing buy-down grants – for any project that includes a retail component. Used well, incentives of various kinds have been a valuable tool for positively shaping developer behavior and mixed-use projects. Yet the full amendment (not visible on the ballot) would broadly "restrict the use or expenditure of tax revenues or other resources of the city to provide subsidies, financial benefits or advantages for development of real property that includes one or more Retail Uses" (emphasis added) – whatever the extent or kind of those uses and regardless of the community goals the subsidy might achieve."

It will take away one of the city's most effective bargaining tools with developers. Say what you will about not being able to afford anything beyond Starbucks at the Domain, it is a lovely place to walk around and window shop. Much better than a suburban wasteland strip mall where you drive from store to store. Or the empty IBM factory that was there before.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get my butt in gear. We're going to take the bus to the AltCar Expo at the Palmer. It'll be a green family adventure!

Impeccable Timing

Stella's sicknesses have incredible timing. Last time she was sick, she missed the first week of school. Today she's missing picture day. She's been teething and so late yesterday afternoon when she had a fever of 101, I chalked it up to that and we gave her ibruprofen before bed. Then this morning she woke up with a fever of 102.2. We gave her ibruprofen, but we can't very well send her off to school with a fever, especially one that high. So I guess she misses out on pictures! And I spend another day cooped up with a cranky toddler. (It rained yesterday so we were inside most of the day. Today it's cold, so I don't know how much time we'll spend outside). On the bright side, tonight is date night and we're going to see Dug Up, Cindy Williams' new script, at Austin Playhouse. The very talented Liz Fisher and Jude Hickey are in it, so I'm super-excited!

BTW, just wanted to explain that I haven't been posting much because Stella's naps have been getting shorter and shorter: an hour to an hour and a half. Since I still need to nap every day, I don't have much time for blogging. I'm either getting stuff done or reading other people's blogs! But I definitely need to blog about my Casket of Passing Fancy experience and the Pumpkin Patch.

Oh, computer you evil time-sucker

I had plans. Grand plans to do all sorts of things this morning. But first, I wanted to check my email. And well, of course I must check Google Reader. And wow, look at that, there is an interview with my friends Josh and Matt at Rubber Rep on the Chronicle's website. So of course, one thing leads to another and we are yet again 20 minutes away from having to pick up Stella and my to-do list has not had one thing ticked off of it. Although, in my defense, I did go this morning and get the DBA for Loaded Gun Theory, which caused me not to get home until after 11. And I also cleaned the enormous mound of toys and trash out of the car.

Yes, LGT is an official entity now, and Bill, Ian and I are now bound together for life. Or rather for 10 years or until we decide to relinquish our assumed name. Very exciting!

But I simply must be more disciplined about getting work done before getting online. I think I'll go engage in a mad dash to at least vaccuuum the kitchen, if you'll excuse me.

Obama+Babies=Adorable Hope for the Future

I warn you, this site is too cute for your own good! A few minutes of ridiculous, clean fun.

Go Obama!

I think it's moving?

So I think I felt the baby move, first Saturday while I was napping and then last night before bed. But it's so hard to tell when you first feel those little flutters! It's like someone's blowing bubbles inside of you. Can't wait for the kicks in the ribs, those feel much less ambiguous!

Stella gets a stellar report from school

When I picked Stella up from school, her teachers raved about what an awesome day she'd had. Apparently she helped a lot, handing out the napkins for lunch and patting a friend on the back when they got upset. She also hugged some of her friends when they came in. The teachers couldn't get over what a wonderful little child she is. She's such an empathetic, caring little thing, I hope she never loses that.

And I love how she's so happy when she gets to school in the morning and immediately goes over to start playing with her friends. Then when I come to pick her up in the afternoon, she sees me, her face lights up, and she runs over and hugs me. Of course, today she also told me she had a poopy diaper, but I don't mind that so much because she's such a little sweetheart;)

Today's project was a necklace made out of Froot Loops for the birds to eat. We hung it in a tree and Stella watched it intently for a little while, but so far no birds have bitten. I can't blame them, honestly, those things are foul! Or fowl. HA!

And for no reason at all other than that it is adorable and I'm too lazy to get my camera and post my picture of her Froot Loop bird feeder, here is Stella professing her love of bacon:

Don't Vote

I found this quite entertaining. Really, it's 4 minutes long, but it's a very entertaining, important four minutes. Vote already you numbskull!

On the mend

So I'm starting to feel better today. I'm still snotty and my throat is itchy, but my head doesn't feel like a hammer is pounding on it anymore. I still get tired easily, though, going to the grocery store this morning was exhausting, but it's exhausting every week, really! Unfortunately, though, Tim's on the way down. He's got the plague as well.

I finally got it together to get a tummy picture this weekend, so hopefully BabyBean won't feel TOO neglected, even if its sister got a tummy picture a month:

Yes it still looks like a beer gut, but it's a baby, I swear!

We burned the candle at both ends and in the middle this weekend, which is probably why I finally caught the Marisol sickness. Friday night we had the cast party, where things got so wild Jen started hallucinating that her wine was talking to her. Will was not amused. Seriously, this photo is not posed. I looked over and Jen was just had her wine up to her ear like that!
Saturday we traded off with Stella so each of us got a little extra sleep, then headed over to his parents for lunch with Caroline and Daniel at Freddie's, where Stella climbed the playground ramp like a monkey. I broke my no caffeine rule by having a coffee at breakfast, and then a soda with lunch. Later, before Marisol, I also had a mocha. It was either that or pass out. Saturday night after the play we went to the Okkervil River show at Emo's with Ian and it was AMAZING! I'd never seen them live and they put on a fantastic show. "For Real" turned into a goth sing-a-long, I nearly peed my pants. If you have the chance to go see them, DO. They are real crowd pleasers and played all the favorites. Sunday it was back out for lunch with Christine and Brian and Tim's parents before my matinee. Sadly, we did not get to eat at Austin Java in Southpark Meadows as I had intended to because they are out of business. Seriously! They'd only been in business about 2 months!

Stella is clutching the "Rasta" Lion that her Aunties and Uncles brought her this weekend

And then we closed Marisol.

So it was a fun weekend. And now I am paying for it. But I'd probably be sick no matter what.