With apologies

to all the other babies out there: Avery is the cutest baby any of us have ever seen.

The thing about Texas

is that it's so big. Even when you finally get back into Texas, you're still nearly a whole day's drive from home.

My bff Donna is home from her two-weeks long road trip to Pennsylvania. Yay!

oh so lovely

I have this grotesque sore on my left nostril. It's infected and red and swollen and oh boy, does it hurt. It's got a crusty, yellowish, boogery-looking scab all over it. Which is just so much ugly icing on the painful cake.

I went to the doctor today and got a prescription for some antibiotics and I hope to be feeling better soon. If not, I'm supposed to go back next week for a follow-up visit.

My Little Friend, with wrinkled nose and grossed-out look on his face, informed me tonight after looking at me (apparently for the first time in days) that, "Oh. You've got something, um, on your face".

Thanks, friend, for pointing it out.

nuance

My Little Friend asked me this morning if "exceed" is a real word. I told him it is, and that it means "go over" as in go over the speed limit. He said, "Okay, so it's the same as 'transcend'".

My first thought was "transcend?". Where did he learn the word "transcend"? And I told him that no, "transcend" means to overcome, as in overcome an obstacle or a hardship.

Go/over. Over/come. I thought about this quite a bit while I was driving home from Austin today. There are so many words that have just a shadow's difference in meaning. Come. Go. Over. I love this about language. I love the dictionary. I could spend hours going from one word to the next in a big chain just to see if it eventually loops me around to the first word I looked up. So when I got home tonight I looked up "transcend" in the dictionary.

Sure enough, one of its meanings is "exceed". And again I'm left to wonder if it was all just a test invented by my Little Friend to prove to himself again that I have no idea what I'm talking about.

itty bitty

Little Avery has the tiniest fingernails, but still manages to scratch her face. Guess who got the job of trimming those little fingertips today?

You guessed it - me.

I did a great job, if I do say so myself. No accidents and no tears. I am good at this grandmothering job.

Tomorrow we go back to Austin for a check-up with Avery's pediatrician, Dr. Bell, just to make sure she's on track with her weight.

quiet

It's been a nice, quiet day. Karie and Wils took the baby over to his mom's house to visit today, and I spent the day kind of tidying up after yesterday and beginning to get things somewhat back to normal.

For dinner we had split pea soup made with leftover ham, carrots, and potatoes, and it was fabulous. Cheli gave us a honeybaked ham for Christmas and it added a deliciously sweet/spicy flavor to the soup. Thanks, Cheli!

I love Christmas. I also love when it's over.

Sweet Avery

It's been a very merry first Christmas with our dear little Buttercup. I think her present pile was bigger than anybody else's pile. Avery is such a good-natured little person - hardly ever fusses and just generally looks around when she's awake, and smiles when she's sleeping, and makes the world a more joyful place to be all the time.

She's a love.

Christmas Eve crafting

for a sweet little girl who needed a stocking. Lucky for her, she's got a crafty Grammie who is prepared for emergencies just like these.

Ava-ree

I wonder what this little sister's name will morph into by the time she starts kindergarten? Our family is quite spectacular at making up nicknames.

It's Avery D.

Of course, this sweet girl doesn't really smile yet. I caught her in a smiley moment but I know she didn't know what she was doing. She's only a week old, after all.

But she has a look around her eyes, when you're talking to her and she's alert and interested, that I swear is smiley. It's a look that says "How fun!" and "You're funny!" and "I'm so glad I'm here with you!".

We have lots of fun, funny, and smiley times ahead of us.

flower power

It's amazing how the teensiest little Buttercup in the house is running the show.

Sweet little Buttercup

Avery Danielle was born Wednesday, Dec. 16. She is cute, healthy, and peaceful. I've been trying to put into words the adventures and emotions I've experienced the last few days but mere words fall short of what I'd like to say.

I love this girl.

Life as we know it

It's all going to change tomorrow. Tomorrow's blog entry will be all about our dear little Buttercup and her arrival. If I can figure out how to get pics from my camera to Karie's computer, you'll also get to see Buttercup's sweet face.

Stay tuned!

check, check, check...

I got A LOT done today. I'm trying to get enough done before I go to Austin for the debut appearance of our lovely Buttercup so that:

• I don't feel like I have to rush back with people who likely won't be capable of hurrying;
• everything that must be taken care of this week (the week before Christmas!) is done;
• people will be satisfied and contented and nurtured with what has been made available for them;
• when I get home with my two lovely ladies I will feel relaxed instead of aggravated at a long list of chores to do.

What I did today:

• cleaned out the fridge;
• cleared off the desk;
• put together all the health insurance paperwork for our year-end claim on our Health Savings Account which
• naturally involved more than one phone call and
• navigating through multiple automated telephone labyrinths and
• required a consult with Mr. Dub about Member ID numbers, usernames and passwords;
• packaged and mailed off the Christmas gifts I've created/hunted for/wrapped;
• finished some Christmas pretties for my bffs and delivered them;
• vacuumed the entire house and then mopped the entry/hall/kitchen/dining room;
• made a difficult phone call to explain what I'm capable of and what I am not capable of and didn't feel guilty about not being able to do everything.

My "to-do" piles are gone. My home is tidy and clean if not spotless. My heart is light and my conscience is clear.

I'm ready to go to Austin.

leafy green vegetables

I saw an ad today about an article that says leafy green vegetables will prevent osteoporosis. It makes sense, sure, because they have calcium in them.

But my question is, why do leafy green vegetables seem to be the answer for just about everything?

And why do they go bad so quickly? I throw away a lot leafy green vegetables because they go bad in the two or three days it takes me to get to them after I bring them home from the store.

I saw red Swiss Chard planted as an ornamental in a flower bed the other day. I'm not kidding. And it made me really laugh. Someone apparently thought leafy green veg was even the answer to "What next?" in the landscaping.

Oops!

It's so late and I just now remembered that I didn't write a blog entry today! I had planned to scan and doctor up a super cute photo of my Pretty Girl as a baby. In the photo she's wearing the cutest pink dress with embroidery on it. But I've been crafting and sewing today and just never got to it.

I haven't been sewing for Buttercup today, but oh, don't you worry.

I will.

newborn baby

Today is my Pretty Girl's birthday. I was sort of hoping that she would give birth to her own Pretty Girl today, but I haven't heard anything about it. Rats. I am so anxious to meet our dear little Buttercup!

This pic was taken when Karie was about a week old. She still looks brand new but had lost that "raw" look that really newborn babies have. I love this girl. I didn't know her at all, and sometimes I wonder if I know her at all now, but I love her. Truly.

Happy Birthday, Karie Blueberry!

(Blueberry is not her real middle name, in case you were wondering. Her real middle name is Elizabeth. But if you call her "Karie Blueberry", "Blueberry", or even just "Blue" she'll answer to it. )

Sleigh bells ring....

Are you listenin'?

A friend of mine gave me a Christmas present today - a bracelet with lots of teeny tiny jingle bells on it. I'm not a jewelry-wearing kind of girl so it's taken a little bit of getting used to. Do people take all their bracelets and watches and everything off when they wash their hands? I don't know, it seems like a lot of fuss. Even now when I'm not changing diapers a dozen times a day, it still seems like my hands are wet and soapy a lot of times every day.

But this bracelet has a pretty, silvery, jingly kind of look and sound. It makes me feel fancy. I want to wear this bracelet every day. I love it!

I knew this about myself before but today it's been made very clear to everybody else too - I'm a fidgety person. And consequently now a constantly jingling person.

Jock and Trusty

Remember them? They're one of the best parts of my next favorite Disney Movie, Lady and the Tramp. Jock with his Scottish accent and poor Trusty with his memories of Ol' Reliable. "Don't know if I've mentioned Ol' Reliable before?"

Remember when Tramp kills the rat in the baby's room? That has to be one of the most fearsome scenes in all of Disney. It's still upsetting to me as an adult.

Remember when Tramp sells his muzzle to the beaver at the zoo? "It's a LOG PULLER!" Because it's not the cuttin' that takes the time, it's the pullin'. So funny.

Remember when the Italian waiter Tony says that Tramp has a "cockerel spanish-a girl"? So cute.

Here you go, Jill

You knew it had to be coming, and of course it was!

Ariel. The lovely little mermaid.

The Little Mermaid was the first video that we bought for my Pretty Girl and she and I watched it multiple times a day from the day we got it until, well, we would still watch it once in a while before she moved away to go to college!

The music is great, the characters are fun and memorable, the story is romantic. Remember the song, "Kiss the Girl" ? Wow. And what girl doesn't have a secret cache of cool, mysterious and very valuable treasures?

Buttercup is going to love it just as much as we do.

When the Little Biggie (aka "our trepid trekker") was old enough to start watching it with us he was a little freaked out by Ursula. One time I had bought some Dixie bathroom cups that had the characters from The Little Mermaid on them. He would take a cup, one after the other, from the cup dispenser in the bathroom until he found a cup without Ursula on it and was therefore safe to drink from. Everytime I went into the bathroom there would be Ursula's clean, dry cups all over the counter. Dozens of them. Ursula is the Sea Witch after all - it must be quite dangerous to go drinking water from a cup with the Sea Witch on it.

This is for you, Taylor:

Health to the princess,

Wealth to the princess, long live the princess Aurora!

One of my other favorite Disney princess movies is Sleeping Beauty. The artistry is so rich and lovely and who couldn't love the story!

And Maleficent is so evil and terrible that she's awesome.

Disney movies

A few years ago I sold all our Disney VHS tapes at a garage sale and made quite a pretty penny doing it. I thought that since my kids were getting older, and all the ones left at home were boys, that I wouldn't have any call for Disney princess movies.

Now that Buttercup is about to be born I realize how shortsighted I was. I've only got a year or two to assemble an appropriately girly collection of Disney movies on dvd.

Cinderella is one of my favorites. Unfortunately it's been discontinued. Meaning a grandmother cannot buy it for her dear little Buttercup.

It's a travesty is what it is. I hope they re-release it before Buttercup feels the lack!

Eglantine

My Little Friend and I watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks together tonight. I know that I saw it when I was kid, and one part I do remember quite vividly, but I had forgotten the entire plot, the characters and their names, and what happens in the end.

(I think it would be kind of interesting having a name like Eglantine. Nobody would ever forget meeting you, that's for sure.)

Watching the movie again all these years later I'm amazed at how much all the old Disney movies resemble one another. They seem to have had a particular team of artists with quite recognizable work that collaborated on all of the Disney movies.

Tonight, while watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks I was reminded of Disney's:

1. The Jungle Book
2. Robin Hood
3. Pete's Dragon
4. and Mary Poppins

It was fun watching it. And very fun watching my Little Friend enjoy it, although he was quite unimpressed with the special effects. Some things have come a really long way since I was a kid.

a big sigh of relief

Tonight was the last really busy night of the busiest week we're going to have this month. Starting tomorrow it's about relaxing and having fun for Christmas. We do have a few more events and a few holiday details to wrap up, literally and figuratively, but nothing too taxing.

Guess what! It snowed at our house today. I got to drive in it. It was fun.

And now it's gone. Which is really quite great because snow becomes a bummer very quickly in a place like Houston where practically no one ever learned to drive in it.

Oh, the possibilities!

Because of our dear little Buttercup and all of our anticipation and dreams for her, this holiday season has seemed especially fun and exciting and sparkly. Because of Buttercup everything seems brilliant and delightful and special, full of hope and confidence in what the future holds in store for our family.

That seems like a lot of responsibility for a baby that isn't even born yet. But the golden, beautiful part of it is that she doesn't have to do anything. She just has to be. Just her being makes the world seem more lovely than it was before.

Thank you, Buttercup!

Art Appreciation

My bff Donna is taking an Art Appreciation class. I think she hasn't loved it but I'm glad she's taking it anyway.

Because I love art. And because Donna knows that, and because she likes me and she's a nice friend, she got for me the coolest present ever.

Two board books - one featuring the art of Van Gogh called In the Garden with Van Gogh, and the other with Monet called A Picnic with Monet. The authors, Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober, have written simple, sweet stories to go along with the paintings.

"Twelve sunflowers lean toward the light. Five are wide open, seven shut tight...In a yellow field under bright blue sky, a farmer reaps when the wheat grows high...Plant and pick, sow and reap, all things that grow need time for sleep, in the quiet light of a starry night."

I can't wait to share the beautiful world of fine art with my dear little Buttercup. And we'll start with these very lovely board books.

Thank you, Donna!

It really is the best time of the year

It's cold. It's festive. It's filled with days spent dreaming and remembering and concocting.

It's a time to enjoy thinking about the people I care about and the people I appreciate and creating gifts that I hope they will love. And use. And understand to be a small symbol of the affection and esteem I have for them.