A snake and a spoilsport on the Greenbelt

(you'll have to turn your head to watch it. sorry!)

Jules, Shiva and I thought we'd stroll the Greenbelt this morning before it got too hot out and I had to head to work. Not only did a cop on a bike bust me for letting Shiva go without a leash, but I also saw a snake! (Maybe a Texas rat snake?)

So much excitement and it's not even 11.

Take this, bike cop!

Cheesemania without a single curds and whey joke!

Lots been happenin' at work in the past few weeks, including several how-to videos you can find on the statesman's multimedia page. A column about making cheese, butter and yogurt is in tomorrow's paper, and the above video goes with it online.

My favorite line? "I got some whey in my mouth. Mmmm" (The part of me dropping the big curd ball and splashing whey everywhere got cut.)

Thought reduction

I found tweetstats.com via Twitter today. It gives you an idea of when, what and to whom you most frequently tweet. They do that cloud thing, which is basically a pie chart of words.

I've seen these before, but it's interesting when you look at them and realize they are, in cooking terms, a reduction of one's thoughts. At the least, it gives you a taste of what's been on my mind (or at least my Tweeting fingertips) in the past few months.

A (not really all that terribly) troublesome toddler

With his 18 month birthday, Julian officially entered toddlerhood this week, but to Ian and me, it's been a long milestone coming. He's been kissing, crawling, climbing, "no"-ing, "juice"-ing, laughing, playing, tickling, swimming -- all those toddler things that either make you melt or make you crazy. We've found parenthood this book of chapters that get both easier and harder the further you get along.

For example, he sleeps and sleeps, which we're eternally grateful for, but when he's up, he's up, and you don't really get a break until he's sleeping again. Before, when he was waking up and breastfeding and such, you could (relatively) go about your business. Not that this is different than any other kid in history, but when you're in it, you really understand this for the first time. You also start to understand that as soon as you *get* it, it all changes and it's like the first day of class all over again.

It's been long days for Ian while I'm at work, but he's figuring out how not to lose his sanity and still be a full-time parent, a feat I have so much respect for. And I go through the quintessential working mom emotions: feeling guilty for not spending enough time with Julian on one hand and on the other hand feeling slightly ashamed of the relief that sometimes accompanies walking out the door and into my other life.

It's been hard for me to balance my full-time work and also to alleviate some of the stress of his full-time work. And equally difficult, Ian's on call nearly every day for whatever strange schedule or event that comes up that takes me away from him and J.

But it's such a marvelous way to spend your days.

Our neighbor Fern, the one with no short-term memory who walks her dog Lucky about a dozen times a day, always reminds us of what a wonderful life ahead we have. "Don't you feel sorry for people who don't want to have children," she asks. "They don't know what they are missing out on."

She also always asks us when, not if, we're going to have another. That's a whole other story, a scenario I cannot possibly imagine right now. Our plates are full, and we're happily busy and occupied with one dog and one child (who just yesterday started saying sometime similar to "good girl" to Shiva).

For all the energy it takes to raise a child, you get it back tenfold, not over the course of a lifetime, but in the span of a few minutes or seconds, in moments like the one below, when Julian got to play with his cat friend, Toby.

It's the hardest job we'll ever do, and it ain't over yet.

It's been a while, mixtape. Good to hear you.

I think the last mixtape I made was for Ian not long after we met, which was three years ago today, or so we figured. (Love makes memory fuzzy, you know.) I realized there have been plenty of good songs from the past few years that I needed to compile.

So here you go. A mixtape from me to you.

Birthdays and cupcakes

My dear friend Meghan celebrated a birthday just a few days after mine, and we had a cupcake party! Julian had an awesome time, and I took this accidental (and awesome, despite the phone camera quality) feet picture! You can see how creative we got with the cupcake decorating!

Julian has a song for you

And here's a video to file under "General Cuteness"



He's picking up new words each day, "meat" being a popular one these days. He's getting pickier, or at least went through a pretty picky phase last week. We'll see if it continues.

Bought a little potty for him to play with this week. The concept of excrement is confusing him, but he's interested enough that we thought it would be fun for him to be exposed to a mini toilet.

He's be 18 months in a few days. Can hardly believe it.

Prepare to be horrified

Oh, gez, check this out -- I found this image of me on What Not to Wear with straight hair. If you look closely, you should be able to see my red, tear-stained face, the result of crying off camera for 20 minutes after catching a glimpse of my new 'do.

More than six months later, I still cringe at the image.



For those of you who haven't seen the episode, what do you think?

P.S. We'd gotten a call this week from the show; they wanted to ask a few questions in preparation for a follow-up episode they were going to shoot at the end of the month. Told them about the food job, my new style, etc. etc. and thought it was a signed deal, but we got a message today saying they regretted to tell us that they weren't going to come to Austin this time around. Too bad, I say. They don't get to see my new kick ass teal heels.

Summer

Snapshots of love (and a wedding)

If we hadn't done about nine loads of laundry out at Uncle Tom's National Park today, I'd probably feel a little more like sharing what's going on in this crazy life of ours. Let's just say that at the end of the day, we're all pretty pooped. The great news is that it's a good kind of busy.

Guilt tapping me on the shoulder to edit these wedding pictures finally won, so I was able to at least get this small gallery of the wedding ceremony itself. Our incredible photographer Brian Diggs took thousands of beautiful photos, now it's just a matter of sharing them in an easily digestible manner. (Speaking of, does anyone have any ideas to make a stop motion movie with these photos? I've been trying iMovie, without success, and I just don't think Jump Cut could handle it.)

Anyway, looking at these photos takes me back to this beautiful moment in time, standing under my sister's yucca and lavender altar, Alberto's voice and soothing words of wisdom, Julian tugging on my dress to be with us while we shared our thoughts on loving each other. My promise. Ian's promise. To do our best.

Because that's the only thing we can really promise.

Just one more snuggle

Fellow toddler mom Jenny posted something about her son Ollie that resonated with me today. He and Julian are almost the same age, and they are both at this stage of intense and physical of love and play.

He feels free to touch us, pat us, lash out at us, snuggle up to us, or in my case, nurse, http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifas if we don't have separate bodies but are extensions of each other.

It is funny to think about how this will slowly fade away as he gets older. It has already done so, some, and will continue to. There will be a time where he and I will think it inappropriate or weird to snuggle up to me as he does (especially since right now he is fond of snaking one hand into my bra). And there will be a time where he will no longer have sweet baby skin to caress on his back or tummy and I will not be able to give him all the kisses I want, while he giggles for more.

Julian likes the sensory experience of taste and touch, so he loves fingers in the mouth, be it sucking his own thumb or feeling mommy's molars. It's amazing how even Ian gives up nearly every bit of personal space for Julian to explore. He climbs all over me, using my limbs as a ladder and my hair as handle bars. I'm his La-Z-Boy, his horse and his skateboard. He pokes my eyes and inspects my toes. He's so curious about the human body, both his own and others'.

He is a snuggler, but I think it could already be fading. Each time I hold him, hoping that he'll stay still a little longer. A little longer. What is it about that baby skin? I think about losing the intimacy to nuzzle that soft neck when he gets older, and then I remember how gradual and natural it happened between me and my parents. Never gone, just different ways of expressing emotions. But they taught me well, so I know good and well that I can still look forward to playing mama Shamu well into elementary school.

I, too, am sad at the thought of the day when he won't want to give me such big, sloppy kisses, so I just try to enjoy as many of them as I can now.

Julian photos June 2008

Whew! A story, a column, several blog posts, a handful of Tweets and now an updated addiebroyles.com, I've been busy all over the place but on the blog! Lots happening with the Fourth of July (I went downtown with some neighbors to watch the fireworks and check out the portable pool at the Beauty Bar), a long weekend (Barton Springs, and — get ready, casino-lovers — Chuck E. Cheese) and a full week to recover from (see above and next Wednesday's Statesman).

It's been an on-the-go month. Julian and I met up with Dallas Erin in the middle of the month and took a colossal (or maybe it just felt that way in the middle of Oklahoma with a fussy kid) and totally awesome road trip to visit our friends Rachel and Russell (we lived with Rachel in Spain). Picked some blueberries, hung out with the grandparents and PDX visitors. Made me wish we all didn't live quite so far apart.

Julian's setting the pace for our summer. He's an energetic toddler these days, climbing on top of the table, lovingly throwing trash away and talking to any stranger or animal or inanimate object he encounters. I didn't catch any photos of our swimming adventures this month (Julian is into sitting on the edge and falling in, with a half second underwater, to mommy's arms) or of the regular barbecues we've been having with our neighbors. Or just the plain jane afternoon tickle fests, where we all fall down on the pillows and make funny noises and laugh ourselves breathless.