Summer Pet Peeve: Gladiator Sandals

Noooooooo!

I live in Austin: a city that could easily be classified as trendy. If something is going on in fashion, Austin ladies are aware of it and rock it with the best of them. However, sometimes this is a bad thing--a very, very bad thing--case in point: the gladiator sandal.

It started out innocently enough but now they are EVERYWHERE and they are UGLY. I know, I know. If you own them, you probably greatly disagree. But I have seen many adorable outfit completely ruined by the oafish gladiator sandal.

I was fully prepared to accept the fact that this was my own problem and maybe they ARE cute, I'm just lame. I have to admit that I have feet that would make this style even more unattractive: long and skinny. I wear an 8 which is not huge for a lady but the shape of my foot would accentuate the flat weirdness of these shoes.

I personally feel the cutest with a dress and a pair of cowboy boots but I understand the need for shoes that allow the feet to breathe a bit more during the summer. I also understand how great it is to not have to kill your feet toddling about trying to look hot in a pair of heels but--there just HAS to be another way.

The finaly straw for me was when my friend of over ten years, A, a very hot and fashionable girl-commented on them when we were having one of our phone bitchfests. Now that I have backup I just have to come forward and say confidently: ladies, they are fugly. I'm sorry. Please, take the kitten heels and ballet flats back out of your closets. Your adorable, flirty dresses will thank you...and so will I.

Oh, and when I think 'When in Rome' I don't want to think hideous sandals, I want to think this:

Go Away, Mama!

My boys are at a really crazy age...it's just before their fourth birthday and they suddenly don't need me anymore. I'm not being dramatic, it's just been very clear lately that they are going through a very independent phase.

They've been very imaginative and creative and love playing together, but if I sit next to them on the couch or go in their room, they will literally ask me to leave. My initial reaction is to be a bit sad but really, I'm so proud of them. They have needed me SO MUCH the past four years and now I feel like I can really see the fruits of my labor. They are happy and healthy and secure. The really love hanging out together and I'm glad they have each other.

I'm also grateful for S, they love spending time with him. We weren't sure if they were going to go over on Friday or Saturday, but the boys decided on Friday that they were ready to have some Papa-time and packed their backpacks to go to his house. It's such a relief to drop them off and not feel guilty about leaving them. When they were smaller I couldn't go anywhere without a major meltdown. I called tonight to check in and they were literally like 'we're playing and hanging out, Mama loveyoubye.' My big boys.

I'm at a point now where I really need to focus on my career, both to support our little family but also to develop myself professionally. I recently acquired a new line to represent (more on that later!) and am excited about that. We're trying to solidify our plans for the boys' schooling and then I can really buckle down and make some things happen.

I'm also happy to have a little space to myself to hang out with my friends and make a few new ones. It's nice to have separate grown up time. I really think it makes me a better parent.

Here's a few recent pictures of my guys:

Super LeeLee

Sleepy superhero boy

Super LeeLee and Ollie, his faithful (plastic) steed...

BatMoomers

4th of July--What a nightmare. I decided that I didn't want to miss seeing the boys watch fireworks and tagged along with S. We had a major fight and I raced home to my mercifully empty house to recover. It was truly crappy--not at all unlike most of our later interactions from when we were married, it made me happy to not be doing that anymore. But--the boys had a blast.

LeeLee
Playing

On the way to Papa's house...here is Moomers PRETENDING to sleep! He saw that I had the camera and closed his eyes...my little ham.

LeeLee--he's going through a major money phase--that is one of my socks filled with change, he always has it in his hand, even when he's sleeping. Sometimes he gives me a few pennies and says: buy groceries, Mama...

Sweet N, the boys friend. This was a fun playdate

YodaMoomers and cranky N ;)

LeeLee and N

Sweet boys--I met N's mama, M when we were both pregnant. I'm so happy we're friends and that our boys are friends now too. She's a single mama too and has been a great source of help and comfort to me...

Another playdate, with one of my other favorite mama-friends, R. The boys had fun, but this "playnasium" *still hate that word* kind of sucks.

Silly LeeLee

Handsome Moomers

Handsome LeeLee

Sweet Face

Wrestling time

So silly

Best friends

Meltdowns, Metric & Menstruation

Wow, last week sucked so much. It just seemed like I was hit with one crappy thing after another.

Of course, I was full-on PMS'ing and didn't know, I hadn't really been keeping track of my cycle. I just knew that life sucked and I was freaking out.

I had to deal with my nasty tick problem which was tedious and really horrible. Then my entire left side went numb (just started coming back) THEN I woke up on Thursday and my fridge/freezer was warm. I had a complete panic attack and called my landlord. I cranked the setting up as cold as it would go and by the time he got there it was cool again and it was hard to tell that all my food had been melting. I was freaked out because I had JUST bought groceries and really can't afford more. I had raw chicken and milk in the fridge.

My landlord (who, really is great) thought I was being hysterical and really, I was but--I needed him to assure me it was fine and he didn't and so I cried like a baby while his very sweet wife tried to comfort me. They finally went and bought me more milk and chicken and raced out of here, out of my den of hormones.

So I gradually pulled myself out of my funk (with the help of my amazing friends), took care of some work stuff I had let slide and then of course my period started. So today I've been super mellow and happy. Last night I stayed up late messing around online and listening to this band:

The boys have been going to bed at a decent hour lately and that has been really nice. I need to have the evenings to myself. I am, of course feeling much better now that I started my period. Damn those hormones! But I believe that you shouldn't discount the feelings that pop up during PMS. It would be so easy to be like 'oh, silly me and my awful little hormones I didn't mean what I said at all!' but I find that I mean exactly what I say I just don't feel comfortable or brave enough to let it out otherwise. But when I'm hormonal it's like RAWR! This is how I feel! And that's kind of awesome. I love being a woman.

I was told recently that I look like this local Austin lady:

And damn, I kind of do! Weird!

Fabric Butterfly Tutorial: Holocaust Museum Houston

Check out my butterfly tutorial on Craft Critique! I was so happy to donate to the Butterfly Project at the Holocaust Museum here in Texas. I will also be making butterflies with my boys to send.

Let me know if you decide to make one, I'd love to see it!

The Butterfly

The last, the very last, So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow. Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing against a white stone....

Such, such a yellow Is carried lightly ’way up high. It went away I’m sure because it wished to kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here, Penned up inside this ghetto. But I have found what I love here. The dandelions call to me And the white chestnut branches in the court. Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.

Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942

Born in Prague on January 7, 1921. Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942. Died in Aushchwitz on September 29, 1944.

Today was a good day...at first

This morning I awoke to LeeLee shaking me 'raining, Mama' he said. I jumped up and ran through the house and out the back door: I had laundry on the line. I grabbed it all before the rain started.

I fell back asleep to the sound of thunder and rainfall, my boys piled around me in bed playing. I slept for three more hours like that: surrounded by my guys and their imaginations. When they wanted me to finally wake up and play with them they stood next to my bed and shouted: "Cock-a doodle-do!!!!" over and over again until I dragged myself out of it.

Today they were super-lovey to each other which never fails to make me tear up. "My love you, you're my best friend..." Oh, *melt*

It warmed up by the afternoon, though and after lunch I took the boys to run some errands. By the time we got home I was cranky and beginning to feel sweat droplets forming beneath my cotton dress. My neighbor-boy calling me ma'am on my way to the front door was the icing on the cake.

LeeLee came inside but Moomies was flopped on the floor board throwing a tantrum. I grabbed him and brought him inside. He went to his room then came out, still crying covered in vomit. I had no idea he wasn't feeling well. I took him to the bathroom and let him finish then ran a cool bubble bath for him.

He fell asleep nursing right after that and me and LeeLee hung out and made dinner. Our night ended on a stressful note: my LeeLee fell outside and scraped his chin and Moomers had a fever and was cold under my quilt.

They were both in bed two hours later than last night, but even still I managed to check quite a few things off of my to-do list. If they aren't feeling well when they wake up that will spell a long day inside going stir-crazy but I am hoping we all wake up happy and cheerful and ready for pancakes.

Wordless Wednesday: My LeeLee's Poor Fat Tongue

*my poor guy keeps hurting his tongue! :(

Training Pants Update

I ended up going with the Potty Scotty (ugh what a lame name!) overnights. There wasn't a huge selection of overnights for "big kids" although they DID also have the Little Beetle Learners and oh, were they adorable. Organic cotton velour? I wanted so bad for my boys to be old-school 70's potty-training b-boys but it wasn't meant to be. The ladies at the store told me that they were strictly for daytime use unless you use a ($24) wool soaker and I just didn't want to use all that.

So, the ones I got aren't cute at all, they are just plain white cloth all-in-one pull-ups and I guess that's just how it goes.

I was, however completely transported back to my pregnancy. I was OBSESSED with diapering. I know I would cloth diaper and would wake up at like 4am and obsessively peruse the internet for diapering options. I chose a strange system and didn't use most of what I bought. It wasn't until I bought Fuzzi Bunz that I was totally satisfied with cloth diapering. I really wish Austin Baby had have been around in 2005, it would have saved me a lot of money and hassle! I'm so happy we have that resource here. (and I tried HARD not to get baby-fever being in there...)