partners in crime

Sisters

I'll use these to remind myself of the sweet times. Especially when they're 16 and 13 and A wants to borrow G's favorite sweater, but G says no, and then A borrows it anyway and spills something on it, and tries to wash it but the sweater shrinks, and then A won't own up to it, and then there's a huge fight and everyone slams doors and cries.

Wow. Getting a little ahead of myself, methinks.

The Graduate

This is the face of a law school graduate.



Congratulations, sweetie. We could not be more proud of you.
love,
your girls

Ah, that girlish figure (circa 1983)

Clearly Georgia and I share(d) a love of Band-Aids.

I just want to squeeze her

Oh, Abita

We're back... with many, many photos! The girls and I spent 5 days in Abita with Opa and G, and we had a great time. However, if I consider flying with the girls by myself again any time soon, just poke me in the eye with some sort of sharp object and I'll be reminded to not even entertain the possibility. (In all seriousness, they were both pretty good on the flights, but PLEASE won't someone invent a direct flight from Austin to New Orleans?!)
Moving along! Photos galore.

Adele enjoys being toted around by G.

And, in fact, I think she spent very little time in Abita NOT being held. Which is now evidenced by her shrieks every time one of us attempts to put her down. THANKS A LOT, GRANDPARENTS (and aunt, and great-aunts, and great-grandmother).

Case in point: Opa with Adele in the Ergo.



We spent some time at the world's coolest playground.




Georgia and Coco rode on a whale...



... and went on the swings.



Then G went off to play on something and left Coco all alone. She looked sad, if you ask me.

The trip would not have been complete without a visit from Lala.



And of course, some quality time visiting with Danny.



We had a wonderful time and came back to Austin just in time for the arrival of Nona and Papa for Casey's graduation. But that's a whole other post...

Bells on her Toes

The toes have been found... and I think she's mighty proud of herself.

Mother's Day

Ah, Mother's Day... that wonderful day each year where moms get to sleep in (until 7:15!), get taken out to breakfast (ours was at Mozart's) and receive beautiful flowers...



Casey and the girls got me flowers from Gretchen's new venture, Petals, Ink. They are just beautiful, and you can click through to Gretchen's site to see more photos of her amazing work.

What better way to celebrate than with this duo?

Walk for Babies

Thanks so much to all of you wonderful people who donated to the March of Dimes... Team Blake G. surpassed our goal of $500 and we raised $720! The walk was on Saturday morning, and Adele and I met the Galligans downtown and set off. It was a little hot, but the kids were troopers, and Mason even had video taken of her by the news channels while she was riding on Tiffany's shoulders. It was a great morning for a great cause... thank you so much to everyone who donated! (I of course forgot my camera. But I did manage to get there basically on time, so there's that. Baby steps, you know.)

Lesson Learned

If a child seems to be tired unusually early and you attempt to put him or her down for a nap and he or she is then suspiciously quiet (and has easy access to band-aids), you may find yourself in a situation like this.



Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Gratitude

I just finished reading a piece by a lovely woman who lives with her husband and three children in a Brooklyn apartment. Said apartment is 600 square feet.
If any of you should hear me griping about space in the future, please remind me (politely, of course) to shut it and get rid of some stuff or something.

Five humans in six hundred square feet. Holy moly.
But it does remind us that the people are the important parts, after all.

Summer Bob

She's sporting a bit of bedhead here; we did the summer chop yesterday. I love it... she looks like a little girl now, completely past toddler. A little sad, but a lot sweet.

Family Weekend

We didn't do a whole lot this weekend... lots of slow-down as a family time, complete with a trip to the Natural Gardener and the sprinkler park on Sunday. It was the perfect way to spend a weekend.

Day the First

So day one was... well, it could have been much worse. And clearly I was not the only apprehensive one.



The morning was great... we somehow managed to deal with the whole "Adele naps in the morning" situation without too much difficulty, though Georgia has very little concept of an indoor voice and so poor baby A's nap was cut in half. Since she was already up, we headed to Central Market. All went pretty well there (yes, there was a little bit of bribery involved but glass houses/stones and all that, people) and then headed home for lunch. It was the sad, sad attempt at trying to synchronize the afternoon nap that caused all three of us to lose our collective minds. Adele generally naps for three hours in the afternoon (two to five), so that's become my dishes/laundry/cleaning time. And since Georgia is trying to bury the nap altogether, let's bypass the ugly parts of the afternoon by just saying that there was no nap for G, a much abbreviated one for Adele, and no chores were done by mama.

But as I was tucking G in tonight, she squeezed me and said "I like being at home with you." Which made the whole day about one hundred percent better.