Communication

Last night as we were finishing dinner, I asked Madison if she'd like anything else to eat. 

She said, "Applesauce. Sprinkles. Orange bowl."

Well, alright then!

   Thank goodness she's grasped the concept of asking for what she wants. Oh, the tantrums we'll avoid (let's hope...)!

Fashion

Sometimes, when I sit at the computer desk in our bedroom, Madison likes to rummage in my closet 

and bring me shoes.  She piles them up at my feet, then insists I put them on.

So this morning, as I'm checking my email in my pajamas, I'm sporting this lovely combination:

Basketball shorts and peep-toes, folks.  It's the next big thing.

BBQ. (This one's for you, Dad!)

When we decided we'd be moving to San Antonio, my Dad asked me to do something for him.
"  Find the best barbecue in Texas,"  he said. "Learn how to make it, then teach me."

See, my dad loves good food. And he's pretty handy with a grill. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I think his cooking rivals any of the local fare I've tasted here.

However.  This place is a pretty close second.

 Rudy's claims to be the "worst" BBQ in the state, because they serve up your dinner on parchment and paper boats, all loaded into a plastic crate.  The dining area is a big concrete room packed with wooden picnic tables and folding chairs, condiments on the tables and napkin dispensers on the walls.  The whole place is sandwiched between a little general store and a gas station.  Not the fanciest digs in town. But my oh my, the food is something else!

 

Real Texans don't put sauce on their BBQ (so we've been told), but if you must have sauce, this is supposed to be some of the best.  Maybe misspelling it makes it better...?

But if you do nothing else, next time you find yourself in Texas, go to Rudy's and get some creamed corn. I'm not even sure I like creamed corn.  But I LOVED this stuff.  Really, you've got to try it!

Which means,  Dad, when ya'll come to visit, we'll be bringing you here for dinner! Maybe you can talk them into sharing some of their secrets.  

(But for the record, I don't think your BBQ needs any help.)

Dear Madison,

I had a hard day today.  For reasons that had nothing to do with you.  And I snapped. I got so frustrated, and I yelled at you.  Then I slammed a door, and stomped around fuming for a while (in other words, I acted very childishly).

Fifteen minutes later, you said, "Mama, hug." And I burst into tears.  I felt so terrible about losing my temper. I felt horrible for raising my voice at you, especially when you had done nothing to deserve it.  And as I sat there, tears streaming down my face, you got so quiet.  You stared at me, cocked your head to one side, wrinkled up your nose and said, "Sad."  Then you reached out your little hand and patted my cheek and said, "Okay."

Then you stuck a finger in a big tear rolling down my face and said, "yucky!" 
And I started to laugh.  And you laughed, and gave me a big hug.
All better.

And then I thought about Jesus, who took a child in his lap and urged his disciples to be more like little children.  And I realized I have a lot to learn from you.  I'm the one who acted childish and immaturely today, while you- not even two years old!- showed so much sympathy, love and forgiveness. Thank you for being an example to your mother today.  I have a feeling it won't be the last time.

Love you, Bug.
Mama

Halloween in Texas

Last Halloween, Madison wore a long sleeve onesie, leg warmers and a big puffy coat over her costume.  And we didn't even go out trick or treating-  that was just for the walk from the house to the car on our way to a party.

Lucky for us, Halloween this year was a balmy 78 degrees, even after dark. There's a good reason to love Texas! 

 The whole concept of collecting candy was lost on Maddi (she's a cookies and ice cream kind of girl), but she sure loved running around in her "bumby dress."  And once she spied the blow-up bouncy castle at our church "trunk or treat," she lost all interest in walking around asking for goodies.

 

Halloween is definitely not my favorite holiday, but I participated a little.  Medusa hair is about as  Halloween as I get (But let's be honest, I secretly love pinning rubber snakes in my crazy hair). Micah donned some Harry Potter getup and we felt very festive.

All in all, a fun day. And as much as I miss both Utah and Colorado, I have to say I'm glad we weren't in either place for Halloween. We'd have had one cold little bug!

twenty-seven.

My main man recently had a birthday. 

Birthdays are a pretty big deal around here, 

so we celebrated all day long. 

  We also gave Micah 27 Mini Oreo Pies, the photos of which have been somehow lost, which makes me very sad because they were sure a sight to behold, all lined up with pretty numbered labels.
If I do say so myself... :)
 
We think he's pretty special. 
Happy 27, you old man, you! 

little shutterbug

 

I take a whole lot of pictures.  

And seeing how Madison is in the Copy-Everything-Mama-Does phase, she wants to hold a camera every time I do. The result: Either she gets to be holding a camera, or I don't get photos of her.  So this is what we end up with- pictures of her "taking pictures."

Never mind the camera's upside down, or her fingers are covering the lens, or the power is off.  She's happy as can be just smashing the thing up to her forehead and saying "CHEESE!"

 

I especially love the way she crouches down, just the way I do to take pictures of her.   

I think we have a little photographer in the making!

 

Caught.

Lately Maddi has been using the word "do" as a conjunction.  She seems to have noticed that sentences have connecting words between the nouns and verbs, so she throws in "do" to fill all the spaces. She says things like, "Maddi do eat apples," and "Mama do shoes on," and "Daddy do computer."

This afternoon, while we were watching the final talk in the final session of General Conference, I closed my eyes for a minute while I listened.  Madison yelled out,
 "Mama do sleeping!!!"

Micah busted up laughing.

And I have a feeling I'll never be able to get away with anything again.

Labor Day

This is what we did on Labor Day.

We drove to a little town called New Braunfels and rode a train around beautiful Landa Park.

Maddi loved watching the ducks and the fishermen all along the Comal river, but the best part of the ride was the fact that every single person in the park stopped whatever they were doing to wave to us as we passed by.

The conductor even let Madison sit in the engine when we got back to the station.
(Couldn't get the kid to smile at the camera for anything, because it was just too bright for her sensitive eyes!)

New Braunfels, founded by German settlers in the 1800's, is just full of old world,
small town charm. I loved all the pretty buildings.

Next we headed over to historic Gruene (pronounced "green"), a tiny little place just outside New Braunfels.
Gruene is about one block square. But oh so packed with fun little shops and restaurants.

This gorgeous Victorian (the original home of Henry D. Gruene himself) has been restored into a Bed & Breakfast.
Micah and I decided we wouldn't mind spending our next anniversary here:

After hitting the Antique Mall and a few drool-worthy boutiques (okay, I was drooling, Micah not so much), we finished off the day with a stop by the Gruene General Store, where we bought ourselves a brick of homemade peanut butter fudge. I sure do like Texas.

Ps. Thanks to all for the vegetable advice! We have been trying all kinds of new and different ways to eat them. So far we've discovered that Maddi loves zucchini, as long as it is cubed, not sliced (?), and she loves broccoli, as long as it is smothered in alfredo sauce. Celebrate the little victories, right?

Well, it was worth a try.

Tips for getting a picky kid to eat vegetables?

homemade.

Sometimes, I sew things.

I guess you could say it's kind of a newfound hobby. And it's come in pretty handy, like when my $10 plastic, bought-it-on-the-cruiseship-because-I-forgot-to-pack-my-purse bag just started falling apart.

I started with a $4 roll of remnant fabric from Ikea and this (free!) pattern from Made By Rae. I enlarged the pattern by about 130% (using the extremely high-tech method of zooming in Microsoft Word and then tracing onto tissue paper directly from the computer screen... not sure I should admit that!) and tweaked a few things here and there to make a completely customized, just the way I like it, brand new purse.

My favorite part of the whole process was getting to put pockets exactly where I wanted them, in exactly the size I wanted them to be (no more fishing around for my keys!!).

I added a divider in the middle to keep the diapers and toddler paraphernalia separate from the wallet, checkbook, etc. Thanks to my friend Aubrey for that idea! You are officially thinking like a mom ;).

I also reinforced all of the lining with heavy weight interfacing and added padding to the strap, since I tend to be a bit rough on my bags (How many snacks, toys and books can we stuff in one bag to get the kid to sit through church?).

And there you have it! A completely one-of-kind, made just right for me purse for under $5. I just love being thrifty!