Barefoot and pregnant in The Feminist Kitchen

This time, I have a perfect good excuse for the nearly two-month lapse in posting.

I started a new blog. (More on that in a second.)

Fear not, faithful readers of La Vie Dansante, who have been tracking my family's progress since I was pregnant with Julian. This blog was my very first foray into blogging and social media, which is now a significant part of my work life (Not to toot my own horn, but I just found out that I was named the top user of social media by a national association of features editors).

As my online (and much more public) life as a food writer has developed, I've spent the time I would have spent writing about the dancing life trying to consciously live the dancing life.

And now I find myself two months from having another baby and two months from having posted a single thing of record for the first one.

Family and kid blogs really are the modern day scrapbook, and I owe it to my own to keep this up, even if it's not as frequent as I'd like.

And as if I don't have enough balls to juggle, enter The Feminist Kitchen, an online project I started a few months ago.

It's a blog (bookmark it: thefeministkitchen.wordpress.com) that I post to about once a week on topics related to women and food. I've been fascinated with women's studies and feminism since before I was ready to identify myself as one, and connecting feminism and food is a natural extension of my personal and professional lives. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it. Please engage by leaving comments, sending me topic ideas or story links or, if you feel compelled, contributing an essay you feel moved to write. (E-mail me at broylesa AT gmail DOT com if you are interested in writing a guest post.)

Now, on to a little update about Julianito and all the changes in our lives.

The biggest change is this belly and the baby growing inside. He's already getting hand-me-downs (foremost, the name we almost gave Jules) and tons of love from his big brother, who gives my belly kisses and tickles and wants him to play pirate with him.

We couldn't ask for a better few months leading up to baby. It may be hot as hell, but it's my favorite time of year, there's water in the greenbelt, exciting things are happening at work, Ian and I are playing on the same team and we all have a great attitude about the new kid.

Like last time, I'm loving being pregnant. It's the most special, unique period of time because it's always changing and it comes to a definite end. This will be the last baby, so I'm trying to enjoy every kick and hiccup, every fawning comment about my glowing skin or cute belly. (I could do without the heartburn, but I really can't complain. Baby's healthy. I'm healthy. Not everyone is so fortunate.) I can't remember if I've written about this before, but I don't mind when people touch my belly. It's nice when they ask, but it's such a privilege and an honor to carry a child, it's the least I can do to share some of that glory with others.


Julian has been obsessed with what he calls "dangerous signs" for months now. When we go to the greenbelt, he has to stop and read all the signs about no camping or alcohol. If he sees a flash of yellow or red (especially that circle with a line through it) on a trash bin, a box or even on the visor of the car from his perch in the backseat, he wants to know what it says.

I'm so proud of us keeping up the Spanish with him. We have a ton of English books at home, so when we go to the library, we check out books in Spanish (the Bizchoco series is his favorite right now). When he pointed out Amelia Earhart on the cover of Night at the Museum II, he called her "Familia Earhart." He's excellent at understanding commands and will sit through cartoons in Spanish. We practice as much as we can on our frequent "adventures" in the city to the grocery store or the bibilioteca or the mercado de granjeros. He's my little amiguito adventuroso.

Julian went on his first field trip today to see "Toy Story 3" (we saw it when my parents were in town in early July — yes, I cried — but he enjoyed seeing it again) and last night, he ventured for the first time into the deep water at Barton Creek with the assistance of a small inner tube. (We hadn't been able to get him into water where he couldn't touch in any other flotation device or even with Ian or me.)

(Small detour here: A few weeks ago, on Father's Day to be specific, when we were swimming in on the Blanco River in Wimberley, I saved an older gentleman from going under. He was in distress and I was the only person within earshot who heard him call for help. The adrenaline kicked in, and I swam over to him, calling for additional help to a group of folks on the shore. I can't remember exactly if I pushed or pulled him to a place where we could both touch, but somehow we made it. By that time, several strapping fellows had hustled out to help get him up on the bank. Luckily, he didn't lose consciousness, but he was pretty close.)

Luckily, the pregnant lifeguard wasn't needed during subsequent trips to the San Marcos River (floating with Erin from Dallas) and the Gulf of Mexico (Port Aransas, on the Fourth of July, with my mom and dad and the boys). It's been a summer full of water, which makes this water baby very happy.

Here are some photos from our trip to my friend Loncito's ranch over Independence Day weekend:











YaYa will be coming down in September for the littlest's arrival, but that means we have just less than two months to enjoy what's left of life as a family of three. It's been a wonderful summer, which I'm sure will lead to a fantastic (not to mention eye-opening) fall.

May in Missouri

To celebrate my grandmother's 80th birthday, the entire side of my mom's family converged in Missouri in early May.

From Friday to Monday morning, all 17 of us — including my California-based uncle to my grandmother's now grown foreign exchange student Fernando and his partner Kim — split our time between my folks' house and my grandmother's, mostly coming up with excuses to eat.

Every time we get together with the family, Julian has grown and changed enough that they have to get to know him all over again. This time, he was entertaining them with jokes, songs ("Little Bunny Foo-Foo" is a favorite right now) and observations about Missouri. He was such a trooper on the way up there. Nearly 12 hours without a DVD player or other electronic device to keep him entertained. I know, I know; we're draconian parents, but we'd rather break up the trips with rest stops than turn him into a car-riding zombie.

I brought two cameras, three if you count my iPhone, but didn't take nearly as many photos as I should have. I guess I spend so much time trying to photograph things for my blog and work that it's nice to have a break from capturing everything in a picture.

I was happiest when stealing moments with just a few members of my family away from the group. Chelsea, Nick and I went flea market shopping in Springfield before meeting up with our cousin Christian for pizza. Chelsea and I pulled ourselves out of bed at 8 a.m. on Saturday go with GaGa to the farmers market.





We had a nice celebration for GaGa at my parents' house on Saturday night where I was in charge of prompting the stories and laughter. I came up with top 10 lists (top 10 reasons GaGa should be on Facebook, top 10 reasons she really goes to San Diego every year, top 10 reasons I hope she never stops cooking) and once the ball got rolling, everyone, especially my uncles and mom, started opening up and sharing memories. Having us all in one room was so special. GaGa is in such good health, and she is the reason we're all so well adjusted and have such giving spirits.

My Aunt Betsy, who never minces her words, said some of the most poignant things about GaGa and her lasting impact on the family she married into. After everyone pitched in to throw a flawless reception at the community center in Aurora on Sunday, she made note of the fact that there was not one fight, spat, disagreement or even a tense moment the entire day, the entire weekend in fact. Most families can't even make it through a Thanksgiving dinner without some drama.

"You are the reason that our family is so open, outgoing and service-oriented," she told GaGa later. "You have passed that legacy on to us. Not every family is so blessed."

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After the family-filled weekend, it was time to start meandering back to Austin. We wanted to take our time, hopefully canoeing and camping along the way. Rain killed our canoeing plans, but we stayed in an awesome cabin in the Ouachita Mountains in Southeast Oklahoma and we camped at Cooper Lake just northeast of Dallas.

It was nice to spend some time just with the boys. The weather was perfect for sleeping and cooking outside, and Ian finally got to go fishing with Julian.









It was good to get back home, where summer is definitely underway. The garden has exploded, the AC is on and my belly is getting big. 2010 is flying by. I hope you all are taking time to enjoy it.

And baby boy makes four

The news started to trickle out to our friends and family in January, then our wider circle in Austin, including work, and finally on Twitter and Facebook, so it's time to fess up here.

We're having another baby.


Looks like baby boy No. 2 will be born in September, just as the heat of the summer finally starts to set into our bones and we lose hope that it will ever turn cool again. But we get what we ask for: I didn't want to have another baby in winter, so I'm lucky enough to get to have one in summer this time around. Boy or girl, I could have cared less, but now that we know it's a boy, I'm thrilled to think of Julian having a little brother.

He's pretty excited, too. It's a hard concept to impart on a 3-year-old, but he's really digging the idea of a baby brother, for whom he's always coming up with different weird names. (Most of them characters from movies or strange sounds like Wall-E or Ree-Roo.) He gives my belly tickles and kisses and — most of the time — is happy to share his Lucky Charms or quesadilla with his mommy so the baby can have some.



Speaking of the belly, there she is, growing by the day. I can still wear most of my clothes, but just with a rubber band to close the button and a cloth band to cover up the open fly. I'm very excited about having an excuse to wear moo-moo dresses all summer long (as if I needed one!), and swimming has already proven to be a relaxing, soothing way to easing my muscles.




When Ian was a kid, it was often just him and his dad, so in some ways, he has an only kid mentality. I feel so lucky to have grown up alongside Chelsea, and I knew I'd want two kids. When Julian was born and just an infant, it was hard to imagine having the energy, time or gumption to want to go through it all again, but I knew we'd eventually feel ready again. I feel so fortunate that Julian has grown into such an independent little boy and Ian into such a confident, patient father. It's a lot easier to prepare for this new little life because each of us plays a role in making our family stronger.

Being pregnant again has been great. Last pregnancy was pretty easy, minus the heartburn, and I'm feeling the second trimester glory right now. It's so funny to me, now that I've been pregnant, then not pregnant and now pregnant again, the stereotypes about pregnant women, especially about their emotional stability.

Sure, all kinds of crazy things are happening with hormones and anticipating such a big change, but I feel more focused and confident than ever when I've got a baby growing inside me. Many pregnant women report feeling in their prime, some physical symptoms notwithstanding. I'm lucky enough not to be suffering from nausea (I had some in the beginning, but it was linked to when I was taking vitamins. Once I started taking them at night, the nausea went away) or back pain (I'm sure that's probably coming soon.), but emotionally, I feel like I know what I want for myself and my family and there's little that can stop me.

Mentally, preggo brain does seem to have set in, which means I'm pretty freakin' forgetful, but even though I sometimes can't come up with the exact word or phrase I'd like, I still know that the feeling behind it is solid. I have no tolerance for people who come into our life and affect our balance in a negative way, and I just don't have time to deal with pettiness or problems that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

I'm bakin' a baby, people. Family is very clearly at the top of my priority list.

After all, come September, there will be four of us.

Hunting for Easter eggs

We did our first Easter egg hunt this year. Last year, we did a hunt with my parents when we were on a camping trip in Oklahoma, but this year, Julian really got into the egg dyeing and Easter Bunny hiding the eggs thing.










18 eggs was just enough, and we didn't go crazy with candy. (Julian had an Easter party earlier in the week for that.) It was all about the hunt, and the other fun things we found along the way, like this cute snail.

A different kind of bread pudding, plus my sister's new food(ish) blog

Been having a lot of fun at work lately, writing about these adorable Easter-themed (and easy to make) cake pops, as well as a Mexican bread pudding called capirotada that is full of dried fruit, nuts, brown sugar syrup and, of all things, cheese.

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My sister, Chelsea, and I have been talking a lot more about food lately. She's always been an astute shopper, but now her focus is on ingredients. We talk about genetically modified seeds, so-called "natural" chicken, organic milk, "Fresh" the movie, rice bread and grocery store prices. We're both officially food dorks in the best kind of way. I was bugging her this weekend about starting a food blog. She needed a place to share her discoveries, like the bruschetta grilled cheese she'd just made. And then just like that ('cause that's how my determined sister rolls), she started Simplicated. I'm so excited that she's at least testing out the blogging waters, now matter how much it ends up being about food.

Spring play days

It's been such a lovely spring so far. The garden is growing like crazy, and we finally got a mower to deal with the grass that just seems to shoot up a few inches every day.






Cousins Jenna and Michael came down this weekend to celebrate Ian, Scott and LaVonne's birthdays (all in the second half of March!), and they had a bunch of fun playing in the yard. Jenna even helped me plant some tomatoes and peppers.


Our friends Ryan and Jennifer hosted a crawfish boil for Ian's birthday, and Julian loved playing with AND eating the crawfish. With his dad's help, he even figured out how to tear off the tail all by himself.



We're enjoying the 75 degree days while they last. We should have another month or 6 weeks of nice weather like this before the blazing heat sets in, but at least the Greenbelt is full of water so we'll have our beloved swimming holes back!

Riding the rails

For an upcoming story for the paper, I took Julian on Austin's new MetroRail commuter train. It was free this first week, so everyone and their mom was riding, too. (Literally. There were way more kids and parents on the train than I expected.)

Julian is obsessed with all things transportation, so he was thrilled to ride the train up to Highland Mall. There are tons of problems with the train (no weekend or midday service, no benches at the stations), which I'll cover in the story, but all-in-all, we had a great time. Plus he got to play with one of these cardboard MetroRails while we had to wait for another train. (The first one of the afternoon leaving downtown was full 15 minutes before it was scheduled to leave the station.)

Taking an artist's date at the Modern Museum of Art in Fort Worth

A few weeks ago, we took a weekend trip to see Ian's brother and his family in Fort Worth.

The 3.5 hour drive up I-35 is enough to keep us from going up there very often, even though there are a ton of fun things to do in the DFW area.

But every time we go up there, I promise I'm going to go to one of Fort Worth's incredible museums, and I've never booked the time to do it until this trip.

So on a rainy Sunday morning, a day after we took both families to the Forth Worth Zoo, I drove my happy little self to the Modern, which is considered to be one of the best modern art museums in the country. I relate to contemporary and modern art far more than traditional art forms, so you can imagine my delight when I showed up to the museum to see signs advertising a Warhol exhibit.

Before I'd even walked in the door, I knew the effort to take an artist's date with myself had paid off.

The Warhol exhibit was fine and dandy, but nothing compared to the museum's permanent collection. The building itself is striking, a design from Japanese architect Tadao Ando that was complete in the early 2000s. The glass-encased building is surrounded by water that during my entire visit was beautifully speckled with rain.

The most memorable piece was a set of 32 photos by Nicholas Nixon called "The Brown Sisters." Each year for the past three decades, Nixon has photographed his wife and her three sisters standing side-by-side, their stoic, determined gazes saying as much as their journal entries from the same period of time.

Here's what I wrote in my own journal while captivated by the images:

Four sisters, from young girls who've just lost their innocence to wrinkled, wise women. They grow determined over the years, holding each other, rarely looking at one other, but always connected together in some way. Their clothes change, but more so, the style that comes to identify them. How one always changes her hair and the wily-haired one doesn't, not even once (However, it does gets more unruly by the year.). You see none of them with child (or at least not visibly), but it's as if you can see the husbands and the children come and go, and through it all — the jobs, the houses, the triumphs, the losses, the once-trendy jackets, blouses and accessories — they have each other.

Here's an image of all the pictures, but I haven't been able to find a gallery where you can flip through them to get the same frame-by-frame journey as seeing the piece in real life. Nixon, by the way, is still photographing the women once a year.

Happy birthday. Have some staples.

So many words, so few I can manage to type here. Sorry, dear readers, for leaving you hanging for so long.

Just a few days after Julian's third birthday, he fell off the couch and gashed his head open. Had to get two staples. The first such minor emergency for us, and I'm happy the first is over. He was a trooper, but it was hard on everyone. He got the staples out and had his yearly well-check, which went well. He's healthy and growing just like he should. We are so blessed.

As usual, he's on fire, telling jokes, coming up with crazy questions and exploring the world of Hot Wheels. (He recently got a Hot Wheels collector book with hundreds and hundreds of car pictures. He's as happy as a pig in slop.)

A few cute things he's said lately:

"I'm a big boy. I can teach anyone anything."

"The snow is so beautiful! It is beautiful to my heart and to life and to earth. Life comes to the earth!"

Today, we made flapjacks with blueberry syrup, which he was just delighted to help with and — surprisingly — eat. (He's your typically picky kid these days.)

I have some pictures on my camera that I'll download and hopefully post soon. Thanks for understanding how nuts life with a young kid and a more than full time job is. Blogging about me and the family has just taken a place on the backburner lately. :/