tookies

it rained today so for lack of anything else to do, little tayloe and i made cookies. the chocolate chip kind.
i gave t his own bowl (own bowl, mama) to mix stuff up in. 2 cups of flour for me, a sprinkle for him. 3/4 cups sugar for me, some for him. tablespoon vanilla for me, a splash for him. and so on.
i got so caught up playing rachel ray & explaining everything that i was doing with gusto that i didn't read the instructions and just dumped everything together. it wasn't until my batter was sandy rather than creamy that i realized i'd done something wrong.
so i dumped it all out and started over.
'what doin mama? what doin'? bye bye tookies?
mama messed up, baby. do over! (ooooowwwww mama! do over!)
when i finally got it right and was ready to give him his first taste of cookie dough (the only reason to make cookies in my opinion), he wouldn't eat it. he actually said yuck.
no, not yuck baby. yum! the yummiest yum ever. here, try.
no, mama, yuck. yuck!
if you insist. i'll lick the beaters myself.
he did, however, dig the chocolate chips. i gave him a handful to dump in, only he crammed them all in his mouth before i could even explain that they were supposed to be mixed in with the batter.
we plopped the mixture on cookie pans and sat in front of the oven and watched them bake while wolly licked spilled flour off the floor.
mmmm, tookies.

god bless texas

hi from austin, where tayloe and i are having a deliciously relaxing time made even more so by the news that thomas slept all night last night at my parents house. horray!
i love austin, but i'm sure i feel that way because i'm getting spoiled rotten. tay surprised me with a hot stone massage at the four seasons this morning after the most delicious breakfast (brioche french toast and a bloody mary) and a stroll through the local farmers market. we walked the town all afternoon, stopping for the yummiest margarita you've ever had in your life at our new favorite place, texas chili parlor. tonight we're going to a honky tonk and to hear live music. tomorrow is the benefit.
our life with children is so full and wonderful and of course we miss them, but our life without them is pretty damn good too.
tater, there's no one else in the world i'd rather be with. austin, tx, scottsville, va, stranded on top of a mountain in -20 degree weather. i pick you. always.

the do nothing stage

i'm not one of those parents who is anxious for her infant to do something. if you ask me, thomas is the perfect age right now. he's sweet and wonderful and i honestly don't ever want him to grow up - and by grow up i mean turn 2.
not that 2 isn't fun. it is. and it's fascinating. but imagine what a mess you'd be if you couldn't control anything you felt - not jealousy, joy, anger, fear - nothing. and then imagine thinking that was OK but all day people were telling you it wasn't. and then imagine you had a little brother WHO DOESN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING but everyone cooed over anyway, using up valuable time they could be spending with you digging huge holes in the yard and running around in circles until your head fell off. you'd be out-of-your-mind bananas.
cute probably, but bananas.
thank god for curious george. the only time tayloe will sit still during the day (aside from his nap) is to watch george. that little monkey might as well be our third child. i hear william h. macy's voice in my sleep and i've seen every single episode ever made at least 300 times, but it's ok because when it's on my child stays in one place for at least 15 minutes.
anyway all this wonderful madness has earned big t and i a break. we're heading to austin tx on friday for a benefit for one of tayloe's new clients, the african children's choir, and my parents are keeping the babies. until monday. WOW. until monday! WOW! then we're meeting them at nags head for t'giving.
i'm pretty sure i know what i'm thankful for ...

rock bomb, 2 months & a haircut

our kids will never think it's weird or new or different or even historic that a black man can be president. to them it is and always will be the way things are. isn't that awesome?
yesterday i'd ask t2 who we voted for. 'rock bomb' he'd say.
in other news, our little baby ain't so little. i have no idea how much he weighs but i swear it's got to be close to 13 or 14 pounds. he's huge. he's a great night time sleeper but the days? not so much. at least once a day he takes a longish nap, but it's never at the same time. and some days he just cat naps and then konks out at 7:30 for his 7-8 hour stretch of sleep. i have no idea if he's getting close to rolling over because all i ever want to do is hold him and love on him. the sweet, warm, soft baby part goes by so fast, something i feel keenly aware of as i watch t2 run up to me and hurriedly say 'hi mom, bye mom' and then take off running as if there's pure sugar running through is veins.
there isn't, but at times tayloe's so filled with raw emotion and he's seems so confused about how to express himself that he does the only thing he really knows how to do - use his body. he hugs very tightly, he pushes when he means to just touch, he runs into other children instead of just saying hi, he tries to tickle but usually ends up scratching. he knows he can't hit or push when he's angry so he's taken to just walking by and shoulder swiping his victims. it's actually quite clever - neither a hit or a push, a shove or a kick. if she can't name it, she can't tell me not to do it.
none of this really surprises me. he's always been more active than verbal, more tactile than cerebral. to help him get over this aggressive spell (and end the 'pretty little girl' comments), we got his hair cut yesterday.
i kept telling him he was getting his hair trimmed like a grown up boy and grown up boys don't push or kick or spit (yes, spit) they use words and keep their hands to themselves. (play along).
maybe it'll work.
the haircut didn't go so well (notice the choppiness) and at one point i was acting like a human straight jacket and promising him just about everything under the sun. but it'll grow out and hopefully the joy of his mother's love will bury memories of her virtually strangling him in a barber chair.

looking for eggs in the chicken coop.

happy 'ween, pt. 2

this is just after leaving a very scary house (smoke machine, skeletons - the works) so tayloe looks a little freaked out, but i had to get the 'happy ween' on the record.

happy 'ween!

tayloe ran around all day yesterday shouting 'HAPPY 'WEEN! HAPPY 'WEEN!'. his excitement was contagious - despite being pretty wiped from our respective trips, t and i carved pumpkins, trick or treated, ate way too much candy and toted our little pony rider all over scottsville in search of sweet treats. t even rocked it and made us all grilled cheeses for supper when we got home (dad is the best).
and no doubt, we had the cutest little pony rider this side of the james river.
the only thing missing was thomas' costume, which is somewhere downstairs in the dark abyss of our basement. there's no way i wouldn't have dressed tayloe up when he was 2 months old. but poor ol t3 got the shaft cause i just didn't have the energy to go digging for it. as we were trotting through neighborhoods, i imagined him asking me later to show him pics from his first halloween. i started feeling really guilty, so i snapped one of he and i walking.