Sweetness

Bleary-eyed and bed-headed, he wakes from his nap. Refusing to stand, he holds his arms out, and with one noise, insists I pick him up and pull him from his crib. Clinging to me like a baby orangutan to it's mommy, he insists we bring his Larry and Bob pillow. As I swipe the pillow, he holds his head away from my body in anticipation of a daily occurrence; I position the pillow between his head and my chest. He plops his head back down on the pillow, a faint sucking noise emerging from the sweetest two lips that ever graced a child's face. Binky slipping in and out furiously, his blinking is slow and unsteady...sleep is still looming heavily over his head.

We make our way out of his bedroom and down the hallway. Before the sharp left turn we must make to veer into the living room, we come upon the baby gate where, precariously on the floor, there stands a stack of five books. Just before we make our turn, something beckons him to lift his head. He glances in the direction of the books.

Bleary eyes are now as clear as the blue waters of the Gulf; as bright as the beams of light streaming from the now mid day sun. The suckling stops, lips form a smile before jumping into the shape of an O; his whole face lighting up like some sort of animated jack-o-lantern. The binky drops to the floor. He looks at the books; he looks at me. Finger pointing excitedly, he insists that he wants down.

Books, Momma!

I lower him down, and he sits surrounded by his five books...so joyous over these little compilations of simple wordings and pictures.

His favorite is the animal book. He opens it and stares at it for what seems like hours. He points to every animal, insisting I name them all...making noises along the way for the lion or the cat.

Tactuh!, he exclaims as we move on to the Bob the Builder book.

Every page is a surprise, and I just can't get enough of these times.

National Throw a French Fry Day

Today is good so far. A bit hurried...but good. Adrien and I woke up at around 8:20, which left little time to get to our 9:00 walking play date. Dang it. No time to stop at Starbucks or McDonald's or Sonic or anywhere for coffee along the way. Oh well. We made it, and we weren't even the last people to arrive. We walked the trail with the mommies and then played on the play ground for a while and then we all went to Olive Garden for the soup and salad lunch where we had to wait outside for 15 minutes with our screaming babies and toddlers for them to open at 11am. It was fun though. I feel bad for the new mommy in our group though. She sat right next to Adrien, and he kept throwing french fries, salad, pieces of chicken strip, and whatever else her way. I think she must have had at least 10 french fries under her chair. Then I learned she's only been in this country for like 3 weeks. She just moved here from Mexico City. Wow, what a welcome: My son throwing food at her. Sorry! She was really nice about it though. I just apologized over and over again. (Not as bad as about two weeks ago when he chunked his whole cup of water at a lady in McDonald's...it fell to the floor and busted open, throwing water EVERYWHERE!)

There's a get together at a friend's house tonight. I guess I won't be attending. I forgot to tell Andi about it (oops) and I don't want to leave Adrien with him another night just so I can go have a few hours to myself. I'm sick of time to myself, HAHA! Never thought you'd hear me say it? I'm sure you're getting ready to throw your french fry at me at this very moment...or sitting there reading this with a puzzled looked on your face. But it's true. He was with Andi's parents Saturday night through Monday afternoon. The week before last, Andi watched him three nights in a row while I did stuff for the mommy group or went to a mom's night out. Last week he watched him for a few hours while I met the other playgroup organizers at Starbucks for a late night chat about group affairs. So I'm just personal-timed out.

Tuesday is Andi's birthday. He insists he doesn't want to celebrate this year. I know that's a crock. I feel like I should have some big huge thing planned for him. Some superb surprise. But I don't. I feel like I should have something planned. period. But I don't. I feel like the worst wife ever, because if it was my birthday and he had nothing planned, I'd be a bit peeved. I do plan to bake him a cake from scratch and cook him whatever meal he wants. Suffice it to say that if the role were reversed right now, I'd be throwing a gigantic temper tantrum. I like birthdays. Specifically, I don't like to feel like mine is being forgotten or over looked. I guess that comes from growing up as an only child -- everything was about me. I'm high maintenance sometimes, but I know he likes it.

I don't really know what else to blog about. This was a let down of a read, I'm sure. But now I'm off to drink the rest of my green tea, watch some telly, and possibly doze off for a little bit before Adrien wakes up.

I live my life nap time to nap time. Bah.

Silver bells....silver bells....soon it will be Christmas Eve....

Nothing like the Christmas Section at Wal-Mart to get you in the spirit.

We had to make a quick run to the evil store for a few things (like a curtain rod to keep out the evil morning light in the bedroom), and the first place we went was the seasonal section. Christmas hadn't really been on my mind lately until the lady who does our children's sermon at church brought it up in the little story she told on Sunday. When she said there was a short 7 or 8 weeks left until the big day, Andi and I (the whole congregation, really) looked at each other with jaws gaping and visions of last minute shopping running through our heads. I know, I know, having shopping come to mind first thing when Christmas is mentioned isn't the greatest, especially while sitting in service, but it's the truth. What are we going to get for Adrien, we asked each other.

Anyway, I'm really excited about the whole thing now. Adrien's slightly older than he was last year, and oh man am I not looking forward to keeping him out of the tree. On top of it, I won't have the added stress of having a four year old foster child living with me (who happens to be my half brother) this year. Man, talk about tight budget: shopping for two kids -- one picky four year old and your own child who is having their first Christmas -- on less than $200. We did it, though, and man were they happy. Adrien got a huge stuffed Mickey Mouse from Santa. He loves that thing still. Just today he made the enormous Mouse give me a high five.

Andi's insisting we not buy anything with Season's Greetings on it. I agree. But I'll steer away from semantics.

So, here I am, anticipating the holiday, waiting anxiously to decorate...and still waiting for that cold weather to kick in. Nothing says Christmas like 80 degree weather and tank tops.

Only in Texas.

One other thing that's been on my mind is the recent time change. It's not so much the numerical time, as it is the day light that goes along with it. Never in my life do I remember the sunrise and sunset patterns to be so out of whack. For some reason, the sun seems to be rising before 6:30am and setting at a modest 6pm. I hate that I am awakened in the morning by the horribly rays of sunlight way before it should be bright out. (Hence the curtain rod we bought at Wal-Mart) And the fact that it's dark at 6:00 is preposterous. I mean, really. The whole thing has made me so incredibly sleepy all the time. On the up side, Adrien's started going to sleep much earlier...which is a huge bonus. But really, I could do without the wee hour sunrise.

Anyone else having that problem?

Hopefully I'll have something more exciting to blog about tomorrow. There's a get together with the mommy group...should be tons of fodder there. This blogging every day is really tiring.

I hope this counts

Just got back from the Angelika. We went and saw The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Very good movie. Superb.

I hope this does not "not" count for my post today. I started to post earlier...but hesitated. I didn't realize the movie would start so late or be so long.

All in all it was a great anniversary. Went through the whole day feeling as though I was missing something. (Pooter)

Went and had the best barbecue for lunch. Shady Oak. Walked around a mall with an ice rink. Decided we'd be better off at an ice rink at another mall tomorrow (today, technically), when it would be a Monday and the hoards would be at work or school mostly.

Very excited. The mall where we're going ice skating at tomorrow just opened the fourth American Girl Boutique. [I have Kirsten] Very Very Excited. Feeling like a little girl again...a tired little girl...that's still missing something.

We'll get Adrien back tomorrow (today), though. I swear I used to be relish my alone time, and now I can never count the hours down soon enough until I am no longer a liberated adult.

Five dollars for what seemed like a gallon of Dr. Pepper at the theater. I'm strange, I think I went to the same stall in the bathroom each of the million times I had to pee. Andi got Twizzlers that he didn't even eat.

We ate dinner at our favorite little fall back Thai restaurant (once taken for granted) -- Royal Thai. Tom Yum Gai soup with sticky rice...something with beef and peppers for Andi.

There was some sort of screening and Q&A session in the theater with an actor from The Kite Runner before our movie started. It seemed like a clown car -- all the people that kept filing out from that place haphazardly. We showed up to our film a good hour early (maybe more). We just watched all the artsy types and strange ones that came out of the woodwork.

We both felt out of place in that urban, hipster setting. Some place I used to feel at home in.

Now I just feel older, out of touch, and not so "cool".