new name

we don't live in la so blaby doesn't really make sense. so i changed the name of this blog to bvaby. good thing we didn't move to to colorado. or kansas.
i also changed it to reflect our new address even though it won't be official until next week because our closing was pushed back again. and so we wait ...

very important call

tayloe in the car on the way to greensboro monday.
hello, grace? yeah, clear my schedule this week and hold all my calls. i'll be busy going to the pool and picking strawberries.
no. yes. no. no. no. yes. for reals? yes. yes, i fed cheese. uh huh. yes, yes. ok. when i get back we'll go out for french fries at that place we like.
um hum. ok. i will. no, frog catching and worm gathering is next week.
alright then. thank you. please. ok.
oh and grace? no no monkies jumping on the bed.
bye bye.

walking pumpkin

there's a good chance if you near me in the next three months you'll hear me lie about my due date. you might also hear me say i'm having siamese twins. just play along.
did you know that pregnant women get hot in the summer? or that august is a really miserable month to be pregnant? or that having a baby in early september means that you have to be pregnant in the summer? maybe you didn't know that june, july and august are really humid months in virginia.
tag along with me in public for a few minutes and you'll get a full-on weather report along with some kind, inspiring words like 'better you than me' and 'i don't envy you.'
isn't it weird that people respond first to misery and second, if at all, to joy?

back online

we're back online! horray!
we close on our house next friday - originally we'd hoped it'd be the 15th, but it took a little longer than expected. then it's renovations and painting and a short vacation for us and we get to move in. i can't wait.
meanwhile back at the ranch, there's a baby boy coming our way in three short months. i can't help but be excited about it, especially because little tayloe is so much fun to be around. double the pleasure, double the fun.

chics dig me

ouch my wrists

big tayloe had carpal tunnel surgery today. poor fella. it wasn't supposed to be the kind of surgery where you get totally knocked out, but i think maybe he was a little too wordy with the nurses. the anesthesiologist came out after it was over and said in a really sympathetic voice (sympathetic like he was sorry that he was going to have to send him home with me), 'he seemed, um ... a little uncomfortable, so we went ahead and sedated him.'
good idea, i said. better for everyone.
it only takes him being down for a day for me to realize that our team isn't complete without him.
tater you're hell on a nurse, but you're my guy. love you, mean it.

mac & cheese

sweet aunt mary talked me into getting a goldfish for t2 a few weeks ago. and as it goes with goldfish, one turned to two.
mary and i each picked one out (who are these fish for, anyway?). she picked the pretty calico one. i picked the orange one with part of its top fin missing.
i need two fish like i need a hole in the head. but my little boy? he loves them. 'ish' he says as he walks by them. he loves to stand up on the kitchen chairs and feed them. he kisses their bowl. he even helps me change their water. you should see his eyes when we net the little boogers out let them flop around in the air for a second. 'flip flop' he says.
a few days ago he started calling the orange one by his name - 'cccheeeese!!!' i must ask him 12 times a day what his fish's name is just to hear him say it. who knew $8 could buy us so much joy.

house photos

see the blog below for more details!

almost happy homeowners

if all goes well, we'll be homeowners in 15 days. there's a little cottage in scottsville, about 15 miles from charlottesville, under contract with our name on it. it's in need of some love - a little paint, a little shifting around and new kitchen counters - but after that it'll perfect and best of all - ours all ours.
so basically thinking about this new baby and new house and chasing t2 is taking up all of my brain space. what color should i paint the baby's room? it keeps me up at night.

home sweet home

well.
we made it.
we packed up everything and left california, tayloe and me and lawrence, two cars & a huge uhaul pulling a small sports car strong. tayloe single handedly dropped gas prices from 3.59 to .59 cents in st. louis with one foul swoop of the truck to the gas sign and we stayed in a very scary 'inn' in stringer new mexico (call it, friendo), but other than that it was happily uneventful.
my mother & dad are destined for sainthood. they had big times with t2 and he had BIG times with them. he's still calling for his 'janjane' and runs around looking for her. seeing him again after 8 days was amazing. he looked huge.
and i gotta say it, it's good to be home. it's funny how you don't realize you felt vulnerable until you don't feel vulnerable anymore. like having itchy pants all day and then realizing that night when you undress that you've had sand in your panties.
we've even found a house we like in c'ville and made an offer.
little tayloe's in hog heaven. lest you forget there's a huge river right in front of the cottage. one. giant. puddle. today he had the best time at low tide running into the little waves that i just didn't have the heart to stop him from sitting down in it. soaked, sandy and happy, we eventually wandered back up to the house for juice and cookies.
it's peaceful and happy here, but two things are driving me crazy.
first, where is the gold chicken toilet topper?
and second, the permasoft conditioner is all alone in the shower without it's mate, permasoft shampoo. where'd it go?

thumpa, thumpa

i had my 4 month appt today and for fun i took t2 with me.
he sat on my legs as the nurse poked around my belly looking for little baby's heartbeat. t2 watched intently, glancing worriedly from me to her to the heart beat apparatus. when we heard it i said, 'that's your brother' and his eyes got big as grapefruits.

last week

this time next week we'll be on the road, little tayloe will be safe on the east coast with his grandparents and it'll be my last day being 32. hm.
i had my last swim classes today, which made me very sad. the kids are so cute and they're so much fun in the water. i'll have to find a place in virginia to put my kiddie swim knowledge to good use.
packing is going so slowly. one day i think i'm really on the ball and the next it seems like we've hardly made a dent. it's so easy to get caught up in other stuff like canceling bills and saying goodbye to friends and getting the cars ready to make the trip that packing easily slips to the end of the list. nevermind that this week both our washer has broken and we had an electric problem that required a handyman be here all day yesterday. (tayloe and i fixed the washer on our own. bravo for us!) oh, and little tayloe has occasionally and without warning been barfing since friday. more on that later.
i keep thinking about monday night, when it'll all be done and tayloe and i will be in a hotel waiting to shove off the next day. come on, monday.

easter, part 2

happy easter

we had a big day on sunday. the easter bunny brought baskets and hid all the eggs we dyed and then we had brunch and another easter egg hunt at a neighbor's house. i even made jellybean cupcakes.

favorite pastimes

when little tayloe isn't helping me unpack boxes, he's begging me to turn the hose on in the backyard so he can spend hours filling and emptying pans and buckets, making puddles and watering the picnic table. honestly, hours.
i can't wait to take him up to mt.airy to water paint the exterior. oh kid, have i got a job for you.

best good friend

the good thing about packing for a move is that eventually everything turns up. i found my camera charger and with it these weeks old photos of tayloe and his best buddy at the park.
meet sean. tayloe's opposite in so many ways and his very favorite playmate. they stomp puddles, they dominate the slide, they run circles around each other, they kiss on the lips.
sean is proof that great kids come from great moms (and dad's). sean's mother lisa is one of my very favorite people and i'm going to miss her terribly. i get teary thinking about it, so i'm going to stop thinking about it.

bye bye

note that i haven't posted many pictures lately. there's a reason. i can't find the camera charger. or the rip cord. boo.
tonight i put little tayloe in his bed and covered him up to his nose, the way he likes. i told him we loved him and before i turned to leave, he wiggled his little arm up from under the covers and waved to me. bye bye mama.
jeeze louise.

carry me back to ole virginny

i'm pregnant, my birthday is very near and we've been in our house for two years. obviously, it's time to move.
we've got 2 more weeks in sunny santa monica until we load our u-haul and head back to virginia. i realized today i hadn't posted this news on my blog and i think that's because it's only now sinking in. we've been hemming and hawing over it for months, but things just fell into place recently and a plan started to form. after a couple of months at the cottage, we're looking forward to settling in charlottesville, where i spent the first 12 years of my life and where tayloe's lived on and off since college. it's a good place to put some roots down since we already have some there.
there are two things i'm enormously excited about. the first is thunderstorms. big boomer clouds that rush in late in the afternoon, dump rain and lots of crackle and then move on, leaving steamy evening skies.
the other is lightening bugs. flicker, flicker.
thinking about these things helps me forget that leaves die and fall off the trees in virginia and that it also gets very cold there. it also helps me forget how very, very hot i'll be this summer. i'll think about that tomorrow.
of course, there are equal things i'll miss about our home here. windy palm trees. the la cocoracha truck. in & out burger. the ocean. and the sun and our neighbors and our friends. plus, this is the place where we started our family. sniff sniff.
anywho, this troop's got a long way to go and a short time to get there. ever tried packing boxes with a toddler at your heels? i don't recommend it.
seriously, can't someone carry me back to ole virginny? like in a superfast sonic machine that also entertains kids, feeds husbands and packs and unpacks boxes?

something that makes me so sad

i've been reading every story i can find about eve carson, the unc student who was killed randomly in chapel hill, nc last week.
and what i can't believe is that they have photos of some thug using her atm card and driving her car in chapel hill. blocks from where she was found dead. unreal.
(as an aside, how does he know her pin #?)
what is keeping her parents from going stark raving mad?
i'd like to trust that the chapel hill police know what they're doing, but years of small town newspaper experience just won't let me. dear god, please PLEASE help them.

no, really

the morning barfs can stop any time now, little baby. your big brother is so used to it he comes into the bathroom with me and makes puking sounds while i'm hunched over the toilet. and then he spits. it's not exactly a skill i would have rushed to teach him.