Deja Vu

This is so crazy. Here we are after a long ass day on the road evacuating, we finally made it to North Carolina. It's total deja vu. My parents just left for church. The boys slept in really late so we didn't make it but it was a reminder of the anniversary of W's christening. It is 3 years to the day that we christened him here while we were evacuated from Katrina. He was barely 2 weeks old. It's even crazier that there happens to be another storm on the way. I really wanted to go so that I could pray to God in his own house that the result is not the same as it was 3 years ago. But I will still pray and hope that he will forgive me that I am praying at home rather than at church. I hope he will answer my prayers.

What a total bugger, this Gustav crap. I don't think I can do this one more time.

I haven't even had my coffee today which I think is making the stress worse. I went and got it but couldn't drink it and that's another whole post that will take a few minutes to write. I would have some wine but I have to have some of my wits about me if we have to take action quickly.

So, here I am. Waiting.

Big Mouth

Pman is blowin' and growin'! these days. He does all the normal baby things that you read about. W never did. He kind of was on his on schedule. and he never ever ever put anything in his mouth.
I think Pman may be different, ya think?


It's been a learning experience for J and I. We've learned very quickly that we cannot leave anything on the floor and tgat we have to comb all surfaces for small things. He'll put my shoe in his mouth when I'm not looking. It's very frustrating since we could give W anything to play with, a cork, a bottle top, money, whatever, because it absolutely never went in his mouth. So I spend my days figuring out what is interesting enough for Pman to eat.

Brothers

The past week or so the boys have been really enjoying each other. Of course, sweet W has always kind of taken care of Pman but they seem to be truly bonding. Master P laughs incessantly at W's antics and W gets his share of laughter from Pman's silly doings. A most common refrain we hear is "Pman is funny." Which he is. and "doing!" which means Pman is doing something really funny. Tonight it was Master P who had the giggles as W was playing the peekaboo game with him.


I pray every night that J and I have the wisdom and knowledge to know how to encourage this brotherly love. W often helps me soothe P when he is upset. If he doesn't do it automatically I always enlist his help. I hope by encouraging this behavior now it will continue into their manhood. and if they have each other to go to when they are men I will be the happiest mom around.

The greatest post

I just read the greatest post from Nola Notes' blog. It explains so well how only a mother can know exactly what her baby needs. It gave me the goosebumps. Please read it and tell me you agree.

People are REALLY freaking about Gustav now. I still don't have the itch to evacuate. For some strange reason I feel like we won't have to so here I sit. Not doing anything. We have no water. We use a frickin' water pitcher that I can't stand but that's another story. We have no snacks. Well, I did buy goldfish when I had to make a mad dash to the grocery right before nap time but that's it. I am SURE we have soup because J buys a buttload every time he goes to the grocery. (I am sure I have written a post about his soup buying obsession but I can't seem to find it.)

J told me to get wine in case we needed to hunker down for a tropical storm. We have wine but I guess he was talking about good ole drinking wine because the bottles we have are from my dad that we know are good but are scared to drink them because we don't know just how good. Anyway, You think I would have done that first thing but my friend C who is freaking out went and bought a "few jugs". Jugs? Who cares. We'll just have to go to her house after we drink what we have here. So that's it. What I do know is that I am going to enjoy myself if we do have to leave. I am going to drink and whoop it up and not stress out about any of it since last time I got the short end of the stick having just been 10 days out from a c-section.

and besides the fact we won't really know anything until it gets into the Gulf and that won't be until at least Saturday. So go into a freakin' frenzy if you have to. Jam up into the grocery stores with everybody and their mother which never made sense to me. I mean if it's coming you are going to leave, right? If it's not than water and soup shouldn't be a problem and if we get the side effects of it, enough to leave us without drinking water and such-aren't you just going to go somewhere that has water? Anyway, maybe if you know something I don't know, I'd appreciate it if you would let my lazy ass know as I sit here at home with no water, a bit of soup and no wine.

Hurricane Gustave

For the love of God, Gustave, go away! I mean, I just can't handle another one of you. Seriously, though, for some reason, knock on wood, I have a strange feeling he's not going to bother us. I hope I just didn't jinx us by saying it but it's what I feel and I have to go with my gut. J says he's still too far out to tell where he's going so it looks like we will just have to wait until the weekend to find out more. But do me a favor-don't stress. There's nothing we can do and I don't want the stress of running around preparing for another hurricane. Just be aware and pay attention and hope for the best.

I was catching the tail end of Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentis on the Food Channel the other day and I started to drool. I couldn't quite catch what it was because of her affected Italian accent (which drives you crazy too, I am sure) but it looked delicious. Turns out it was an Eggplant Timbale.

The pan is lined will grilled eggplant and then filled with smoked mozzarella cheese, ground beef, penne, and peas. Can't beat that.

This photo is courtesy of the Food Network

Does this just make your mouth water or what? I am going to make it and I will let you know how it comes out. If you decide to cook it before me, let me know if I should even waste my time.

Holy Tantrum

I think school is wearing the LB out. Once we got home I wasn't quite sure I picked up the right kid and I felt like I was on a show about kids who throw violent tantrums. It was crazy- a lot of crying and screaming-yes and no was the answer to everything including whether he wanted to watch Elmo. W never uses Elmo and No in the same sentence. I figured he was so tired that he didn't know what he wanted but he wouldn't willingly go upstairs so I carried his 30 pounds of dead weight to his room and into his bed. He immediately started humming his pacifiers at me.

Wait, What? Who are you?, I thought as I ducked the oncoming fire of pops pops.

I gave him a chance, picked them up and put them back in the bed thinking that if he threw them out again this would be a good chance to just get rid of them altogether. All of this was accompanied by violent, blood curdling screaming and running across the crib to throw himself up onto the other side. I was really scared he was going to hurt himself but there was no soothing him. Now, you have to understand the only other tantrums W has thrown have been mild ones in which he cried non-stop. Other time he would simply go straight on me when it was time to leave or go somewhere. So this craziness was totally out of character. After about 20 minutes of this I heard him say, "Please, Mommy." over and over again. At this point he had calmed down enough to talk to me straight. He was in his crib, pants and socks off, blanket and monkey and bunny rabbit and 5 of his pop pops that he only gets in bed, all on the floor. He asked me politely to turn his light on, which I did and then he asked for every item one by one.
Blue pop pop, please.
Yellow pop pop, please.
Green pop pop, please.
Other blue pop pop, please.
Blanket please.
Monkey, please.
Bunny rabbit, please.
Socks on, please.
Pants on, please.
Back in night night, please.
By this time I was sweating but the tantrum was over and he quietly went to sleep.
Talk about a Holy Tantrum.

Ear PIckin'

This is probably a post of which J wouldn't approve but it's very near and dear to my heart so I have to do it.

I love to pick at ears. My own and my boys especially. W's ears secrete an amazing amount of wax. I don't know why. I treasure the ear picks the doctors have and would do anything to have one. I don't stick anything in their ears except for my pinky fingernail. I know it's dangerous so I don't even use cuetips. Just the occasional wash with the wash rag and my fingernail. W used to not tolerate it too well so I made a game out of it. I pick his ears and say, "EEEEWWWW!" and show him what I got and he then says "EEEEWWWW!" back. The greatest moment though was the other day when I picked a mound of wax out of his ear and he said, "That's a good one!". He's a man after my own heart.

I just hope that he doesn't pass it on to other kids. If your kid knows mine you may want to encourage him to cover his ears when W is around because he seems to enjoy it as much as I do. You never know when he might stick a finger in your child's ear. But all in all, it's good for the community. It takes a village...... to keep ears clean.

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Whoopin' it up weekend

Whew! The weekend is over and I'm alive but barely. It was an unexpectedly big one. Friday night we did the usual Friday night supper with RaRa and Dodo. We always whoop it up in a tame kind of way with kids. Saturday we went to Emeril's first for drinks and appetizers. THE BEST MARGARITAS you will ever have, before going to the Chairish the Children Fundraiser for the Children's Museum. We were fully expecting to leave early so we could go eat somewhere afterwards. I mean who really intends on whoopin' it at a fundraiser? Well, we did and big time. Let me just say our Sunday was very unproductive. We did a lot of eating and sleeping.

We ended up at Superior Grill again today. We haven't been as regular since I got deathly sick a few months ago but we're back at it and lovin' it. Here's W eating his Guacamole. (I'm having a problem with my camera lately. All of my pictures all blurry)



So needless to say I am feeling pretty happy after a fun weekend. Life is good. Except for hearing W screaming while his dad washes his hair. Is anyone else having this problem? It's a new phobia for him. He screams and cries and hyperventilates no matter how you wash his hair. It's very unnerving. We welcome any tips.

Back to school

It finally came...and went. The first day of school. I was giddy and still am. It was all very different from last year. He cried and cried and cried and I had to pick him up early for a few weeks until he adjusted to time away from Mom. This year he couldn't wait to get there. He could hardly pose for the First Day of School Photo he was so excited.


Knowing how he is such a picture ham I knew it was going to be a good day when he couldn't wait for picture time to be done and he could go "To the car!!!" as he says. He couldn't get there fast enough but at least I got an "I wuv you, Mommy!" on the way.

When I picked him up he was sweaty and joyful and said he "had a lot of fun at school and on the playground".

Super Room Mom

I returned a phone call about 30 minutes ago.
"Hey Room Mom", she said.
"What?! Are you kidding?"
She wasn't.
Our kids will be in the same class at school this year. We had discussed what we would be willing to do. That was, help out the room moms if they needed help for any holiday parties. The Room Mom position was a slim possibility. ONLY if no one else signed up for it. So C had the last time slot at orientation today. No one else had signed up and yes, she volunteered us to do it.

and let me tell you. I am going to be the best damn Room Mom the fishies have ever seen!

Do you know me? If you do, you know that it will take quite the effort on my part. I'm not the most positive kid on the block. If you're a fan, you probably already know that. Don't get me wrong. I think I am a pretty good mom when it really comes down to it. But a Room Mom? I quit the Jr. League if that says anything. I have no idea what this Room Mom thing entails but I am deciding from this moment forward that we will go down in the history books as the best. You just wait. Before you know it I will have a new blog. Roommom.com It will tell you how you too can find that inner Room Mom in you.

Happy Birthday, Little Buddy

I cannot believe that he's another year older, my Little Buddy. He truly looks like a little boy now-definitely not the baby he was. But he will always be my baby. I know you are probably really sick of hearing me say it but it's true. I sit around rushing him to grow up-to walk, to talk, to hold a conversation, to socialize, to go to school but in reality I cry every year several times on his birthday. and I crying now as I compare these two photos. In the first one he is one. You're my sweet and adorable Baby, Little Buddy. Don't you forget it.

I just read Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life Boys and I want to read it again. But there is one section that made me cry )if you haven't gotten it by now I cry ate everything) and I think it will stick in my brain forever. It is the section “Dan with Mom: Making Room for Other Relationships”. Dan said his mom “maintained a respectful demeanor through my high school experimentations with romantic relationships, and she maintained this poise even well in to my college days, even though I knew she had strong negative reactions to some of my more politically strident, counterculture girlfriends.”

He never knew about her feelings about his girlfriends until after he got married. When he ended any relationship she never questioned him. “When I asked her about all of this recently, when I told her that I appreciated how she had handled my relationships with my girlfriends, I was again a little surprised by what she had to say: “When I realized that all I would ever have was sons, I figured that I needed to get along with whomever you married or I could lose you. You know the old saying: ‘A daughter’s a daughter for all of her life, but a son is a son ’til he marries a wife,’” she said. “I didn’t want that to happen.”

“And so she had maintained her calm through the years and the girlfriends, offering a reliably nonjudgmental response with only slight variations-never a cheering section, never a harsh judgment. She made it clear, though never in words, that the girlfriends I had were my choices-not hers-and that if she was biased in her sentiments, she was simply in favor of me.”

This section really hit home with me. I think because I am already ready to hate any little you- know-what who is not good enough for my boys. I am kind of joking but hardly. And when I read this I just knew I had to quickly change my perspective because I will just die if I lose my little buddies. And I know it will be my fault.

Now of course when I see my Little Buddy with sweet girls like this, it will be a softer blow.

I have tried my best to correctly quote the authors of the book. It’s been awhile since I have taken a writing class so I was just trying to remember how to do all of that. I have a great respect for them and don’t want anyone to think that I am taking credit for writing anything above.

Keep away

The other morning W and Pman were hanging out on the floor of my room. I was trying to catch an extra few z's before J left for work. Pman was playing with an old batteryless cell phone my dad gave W. W doesn't like P to play with any toys especially his so he took it and slid it across the floor.

"Go get it!", he said to P.

P got up on his knees and slowly made his way across the room to get the phone. After much effort he go to the phone only to have W take it away again and yell, "Go get it!".

They did it a couple of times. P didn't seem to mind which is why I didn't intervene but W was falling down laughing. Poor Master P. I think that's only a glimpse of things to come, at least until he outgrows the LB and turns the tables on him.

The Green Limousine

W and I took our first ride together on the streetcar today. We rode on down to Camellia Grill and had lunch. We didn't have to wait long for the limo to get there thank goodness. He was getting kind of impatient.



It is the first time I have gone since the storm and I have to say it was better than ever. I had a Camellia Grill Special. Again a first after many years. It was all I ate in high school. I even painted a picture of my favorite sammy in art class. He of course had a grilled cheese, french fries and pickle as he does wherever we go but he was especially impressed with the pickle.


It was "wee wee weeeeee!" all the way there and just a look of delight all the way home. (I guess it should have been the other way around-ha! get it? wee wee wee all the way home!) Anyway, it was a great date before my little boy grows up and turns the big 3.

Hot summer in New Orleans

There are days when I just can't get it together to get both boys dressed and ready to go to the pool. The thought of it makes me want to get back in bed. We have a great time once we are all there but getting there and 'getting gone' are too much. So the past week we've been lolling around the blowup pool, me included. They don't really seem to mind. There are many perks.
1. we can have it all to ourselves
2. we can come and go as we please
3. we don't have to share our buckets and shovels
4. we can pour water on each others heads and laugh loud and hard and splash as hard as we want
5. I can be a total redneck and keep Pman in his swim diaper and don't have to worry about his bathing suit sagging or anyone else judging us (well except for you, dear fans).