yum

Whoops!

Heretofore to be labeled "the asparagus incident," it started innocently enough, Sam sitting on Aunt Bari's lap during dinner, when Sam thought he might like to try asparagus. And grilled potatoes, and bread, and leeks. He made a dive for the flank steak, but I had to draw the line, somewhere. It was so funny that we just let him play, I was excited that he was refining his palate and trying new things. Then I remembered that he was 5 months old and spent the next day looking for suspicious rashes.

Feeding Frenzy!

I have eaten rice cereal, bananas, and avocados. I have eyed sweet potatoes suspiciously. I now enjoy grabbing my spoon from mommy and trying to feed myself. It's a work in progress. I also enjoy gumming zweiback biscuits.

Where's the Dead Show?

as I have not much hair yet, mommy made me wear this silly bandana

cute baby!

It's the playoffs, bitches!! make your free throws!!

Every year, it's the same old thing. Poor Houston. The one year I am finally rooting for them, and they are getting their shiny red butts handed to them by one of my two nemesis teams, the Utah Jazz. (The other team surprisingly, is no longer the LA Lakers but the dreaded Dallas Mavericks.) You would think with all that build up you would spend a lot of time practicing free throws. But NO! And Houston (and my beloved Rick Adelman) will be once again eliminated from the playoffs in the first round. My team this year will be the New Orleans Hornets. I am psyched for Peja to get another shot at a title, I loves me some Bonzi, and Chris Paul is phenomenal. I would root for the Hawks if they had a snowball's chance in hell to beat the Celtics. Sorry Mike Bibby, maybe next year!

We had a lovely Passover in the Bay Area! Sinead was invaluable in and out of the car with Sam, and Sam enjoyed seeing his mom's side of the family! He had his first sleepover with Aunt Nadine and Uncle David, and was a really good boy! Grandpa Steve got him a super suave Hawaiian outfit that he cant wait to rock this summer at the river, and Beebee made him laugh the longest and hardest I have ever seen him laugh!

Mandi was a wonderful hostess, and we really enjoyed meeting cousin Bandit! Mandi made me laugh harder than Sam! But, alas! no product this time. Not like there is anywhere to wear makeup here, anyway!

We are happy to be home in beautiful Orleans, though. It poured today, so we could not play outside, but Pam sent us the last 3 episodes of Jericho (!) (Justen, where's my Survivor?) and we have Dexter on netflix. Oh, and BASKETBALL!!

Another thing.....

I was just re- reading some of my old posts and read that I wrote that Sam does not like to be naked. Hoo boy was i off the mark with that one. This kid cries every morning when I try to put a t- shirt on him, much less pajamas with the dreaded feet. And the biggest smile is when we take his feet out of the feetie part of the pj's. He does not even like to be covered in a blanket at night. Jeff and I are certain it is residual angst from "the swaddling period", when we used to wrap him up so tight at night so his flailing self would not wake him up. But we had to give that up because he wiggled all night so much that he still has a bald spot on the back of his head, so now we just suffer with the wiggling, and it is pretty intense wiggling. I gave up on the crib last night, partially because I was lonely and mostly cause I did not want to keep getting up every five minutes, and by the time Sam fell asleep (for the hour he slept) he was sideways and every time I turned over to check on him I got a baby fist in my eyeball.
So no, we are eagerly looking forward to summer when no clothes will be required.

Say Cheese!

What did you do today? I made cheese! Can you believe it! It was just Queso Blanco and it was really just hot milk and vinegar, and, truth be told, I have not tasted it yet, but, come on! Cheese! I am going to try the 30 minute mozzarella recipe next. I have just read "Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver and, while I am not quite ready to eat completely local, or, for that matter, raise my own livestock, but I am definitely inspired to try little things!
So yes, every day I am loving it here a little more. Its so weird to go to sleep and hear frogs croaking and my nieces still outside and running around instead of ambulances and beer can, bum projected shopping carts. Janet has been kind enough to let me cook a lot, and I have had some big successes, mostly my pizzas, which have gotten strong accolades, my hummus and homemade pita- always the first thing gone at a party, and most recently, random pimento cheese (pronounced, as I was told by a Texan, 'pimmennacheese') that I made for book club where we needed to bring a southern dish.
Sam has a little cough, so he is a little more miserable than normal, and I have had to bear the brunt because my dear husband is at (allegedly his last) A comic book convention in Portland. I have not slept for 2 days. At least Janet, Bari Gail and the girls have been such wonderful, huge helps. Jeff gets home tonight, and I hope he is ready to stay up because I am going to SLEEP! I was so frustrated at 4 am this morning when Sam rolled over, wide awake, and smiled at me that I just gave up and we watched "The Departed."
We are getting very excited for our trip to San Fransisco this weekend!
Oh, and Brian sent me a long email, so we can all be nice to him again.
And, happy day, in what has bee a huge basketball void, Sam and I were able to catch the end of the cluster*#%@ that was the Lakers/ Spurs game. How far I have come, I was actually rooting for the Lakers!
Cheers.

Boo Hiss

This is a public reprimand to Brian who has not e mailed me in 2 weeks. Shame on you!

Sleepy Mommy

We are trying our hardest to crib train Samwise, but he is fighting it. Last night he slept in the crib from 8:30 till about 10:45, then again from 2 till 5:30, the longest stretch yet. And today, under great protest, he even took a nap in the crib. This is essential because I have been walking around like a zombie, because I am having a hard time getting back to sleep after putting Sam down. Between the huge logs being sawed by my dear husband, and trying to listen to the next room to make sure Sam is still breathing, plus all that is going on in my head, I manage to toss and turn until literally the second that Sam wakes back up. Oh well.
I am very excited because it seems like I have a lot of catering opportunities coming up. That is something I have always wanted to do so I am looking forward to seeing how it is going to pan out. This weekend I am going to observe my future partner, Nancy, as she caters an event. We have one that we will be doing together at the end of the month, and then in May I will have a 3 day event of about 100 people all to myself! Perhaps that is what is keeping me up at night?

nadine's website

Hey everyone, go visit my sister Nadine's website!
http://www.tvnewsnadine.com/index.htm

Routines

Things have settled down into a pretty comfortable routine here in Orleans. We just wish that Sam would sleep better. We think he might be teething, clues would be that he chews constantly on his whole little fist and the constant drooling, not to mention the crankiness.He loves being around his cousins, and he seems to be happiest when surrounded by a flurry of activity. I, on the other hand, seem to be constantly exhausted. Jeff has been wonderful helping out during the night, and even letting me sleep in some mornings, but it just seems like I can never catch up. Sam also likes to be outside, which is great now that the weather has turned nice. We walk outside in his stroller, and go on the swings at Bari's house. I think that he just cant wait to be a big kid and go go go. Soon enough.