Living in Munchkinland

Davis has an accent. All of a sudden, all his one syllable words have become two. Grass is grahyes, ranch is rahyanch. It's not whiney, it's just dragged out and lazy sounding. Like he should be leaning on the fencepost with a piece of hay in his mouth. What to do? Michael and I have been working on opening our mouths when we speak and repeating words when he says them in his little cowboy way, but it is not working. He's well spoken, has proper use of pronouns, gender, told me yesterday, "Mommy, may Sammy and I go ayoutsahd (outside)to plaaayyyyy?" Good grammer, but what the heck is he saying??? We knew lots of things would change when we moved to the country, but we never anticipated this. Somebody better buy this child a cowboy hat.

Saturday was busy. And so fun! We woke up early and decided to forgo yard work in order to spend the day having enjoying all that our region has to offer. We threw on clothes and drove to the starting point for the San Marcos Just for Fun Parade. Here's a video of it from 1982. It's pretty much the same now. We watched people gather in more and more outlandish outfits, often toting cases of beer along with their tie dye. It was funky, and upbeat, and different and made me glad there was something like this in our new town. Unfortunately, the parade was stopped before it began as they didn't seem to have the proper permits and the cops never came along to escort the parade. We headed home and I took Stella for training class and the boys took a quick rest. When I got home we loaded back up and headed to Austin along with Mom and Dad for the Mela Festival and Barsana Dham. Mela is an an Indian Spring Festival held at a beautiful Hindu temple in the Hill Country.

On Friday we had a playgroup. I'm trying to make this a regular thing. Elizabeth and Cheris both brought their kids and we had a great time. We took the kids to the garden and played outside. We went to several Earth Day festivities last weekend. On Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market in Austin where they were having a big Earth Day party. Both the boys had a great time. That afternoon we went to a pool party at Mimi and Papa's. It was a great day to be outside. On Sunday we went to Aquarena Springs for their Earth Day celebration. It was also nice, but I was feeling very sick so we cut it short. Still, Davis had a good time making spin art and drawing. We got some great pictures and so I thought I'd put them up. We have some more fun planned for this weekend. I think we're going to try and watch the Dragon boat races on Lady Bird Lake. Join us! Love, Amber

My friend Elizabeth gave me a subscription to this magazine for my birthday. It's a parenting magazine, but one of a different sort. I love it so much. It makes me feel respected. It's interesting and challenges me a bit, but not too much and I learn things and I'm also entertained. It's smart. I used to get Cookie Magazine and I had a fascination with it and also a certain hatred for it. It made me feel icky. It was too glossy and too full of things I couldn't afford. It talked about things I couldn't ever do and a life that wasn't even close to the one that I lived. It somehow made me feel inferior. Other magazines like Parenting were too dumbed down, and too preachy. Go to the Brain Child website and check it out. Link is here . Read an essay or two. Let me know what you think. I'm loving it.

Since my last blog post about the play, several things happened. The first, and most important, is that my parents offered to delay their trip to Canada in order for me to be able to be in the play. *BIG hugs* Second, I have really done some reflection to see if this is something I could do. Okay, I know it's community theatre. It's not rocket science. I'm not solving world hunger. But it's more than that to me. It's about defining who I was and what I am. It's about how much I've changed from who I was and how much of me is now completely dedicated to the roles of mother and wife. It turns out I am completely dedicated to my roles. And I am to a certain extent, confined to them. At least for now. But back to the internal debate: pros- I get to work on my craft, which I love and miss and adore. I get to meet new people within my field. I get to establish my presence in my new town. I get to spend quality time with a dear friend. I get to do somet

I find that as I get older, I know less. What I mean is, I realize more and more that I don't know the exact answer and there are very few black and white issues for me anymore. I used to have opinions! I knew everything! I was judgemental! Now I squirm when I'm faced with issues that I previously felt strongly about. I'm realizing that I live in a glass house and I am AFRAID to throw stones. There was recently a discussion about planned c-sections on a discussion list of which I am a member. A lot of people had opinions. I felt like shouting at them to stop. It's everyone's own private business. How can you judge? And why do you want to? It's not just that. It's all sorts of things. People who make mistakes. I'm realizing that I make them all the time and I still think I'm a decent person. So many issues within childrearing fall in the shades of gray. I don't have complete faith in my choice of where to draw the line anymore. I

The weather was beautiful this weekend. Low seventies and plenty of sunshine. We spent Saturday doing yard work and then visiting with friends. I had a luncheon at Eastside Cafe. It was delicious and I met some really nice new friends and enjoyed time with current ones. In the evening we got a sitter and drove back to Austin to Fonda San Miguel for a friend's birthday. The food was delicious there as well. It was a nice day. Sunday we drove out to my parents house in Stonewall. The drive from San Marcos up through the hill country to Stonewall is amazingly beautiful. If you live in this area, you really should try it. Everything is green and the wildflowers are abundant and the drive itself is twisty and twirly and you keep coming up a hill and being surprised by an expansive green vista of hills and rivers and more flowers. We went to a winery and tasted wine and then had lunch in Fredericksburg. After that we went to Living Farm next to the LBJ Ranch. We love that place

The first photo was taken March 14th, the day of the fire. The second photo was taken last weekend, three weeks later. The pictures were taken at basically the same vantage point. Isn't nature just full of miracles?

They are awesome. They play together all the time now. I am so, so glad we chose to have them so close together. I almost wish they were even closer in age. Davis is so fun. He speaks so well and he really understands so much as well. We can play board games now and imagination games. He writes and draws and sings and dances. He's totally potty trained and still always tells me the truth. He asks "why?" so often that Sam has picked up the word! Three is a very fun age so far. Sam just follows Davis around absorbing everything like a sponge. They are very different boys, and I'm glad I had them in the order I had them. Davis is independent and has a long attention span. He's very stubborn and very strong willed. Sammy is not so independent and always wants someone around. Thankfully, Davis is there to help share those responsibilities. Better than that, Davis actually enjoys it! He's so glad that Sammy is old enough to play now. Sam is not int

Ceillie was born on May 1, 1993. She was a Yorkshire Terrier and my sister owned her mother Hallie. Ceillie's full name on her papers was Little Miss Ceillie Abbu, after the Color Purple and the little monkey in a Disney film. I loved her from the moment she was born. She had a little red patch of hair on her head when she was born and that's how I could always tell her from the rest of the litter. I could hold her in my hand when she was born. When she was old enough, I used to shove her under the covers with me when we slept at night to cuddle. Soon she thought that was the only place she could sleep, which thwarted the men in my life her whole life long. She never knew she was only 8 pounds. She thought she was the biggest dog on the block. She loved me and was loyal to the extreme. She loved the people I was close to as long as they were women and tolerated women she didn't know well. I can count on one hand the number of men she liked. She always knew when I

Some of you know that before I had children, I was a musical theatre performer. I ran a theatre company and routinely performed in shows. I hold my degree in musical theater. When I had Davis, I stopped. Before that I had never been more than three months without doing something. Since then, nothing. I have not performed in four years. Several weeks ago I emailed an old friend expressing interest in auditioning for a musical. I heard nothing back. I was hurt. I also took it as a sign that maybe I wasn't meant to perform again right now. But I missed it. Then a couple of weeks later my fabulous friend Sarah told me that she was going to direct a local play and she would love it if I came to audition. I was so excited! This was something I could feasibly do. I wrote the audition date on the calendar and built stages in the sky. And then I realized something. The performance dates were the same dates that Michael had agreed to be in a wedding in Virginia. I thought, oka

My candle burns at both ends It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends - It gives a lovely light. Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), "A Few Figs from Thistles", 1920