Living in Munchkinland

We leave tomorrow for ten days of fabulous vacation. We fly into Seattle where we will be greeted by my best, most wonderful, deeply loved, friend Katie. She moved there in December and I haven't seen her since and I am so excited to see her again and her sweet boy, Bug. Uncle Steven and Aunt Melissa and their kids will join us and we will explore Seattle with Katie for a couple of days. Then we get on a cruise ship and cruise to Alaska. Michael's parents will join us all (minus Katie and Bug) and so will Marchelle! We have been to Alaska once before in '05 and I would like to go every summer. It is amazingly beautiful and for a Texas girl like me, the cool air will be so refreshing. Our suitcases are almost packed- full of coats and sweaters and jeans and other such things we haven't pulled out of the closet in months. I can not wait!

Davis has always been relatively easy. We've had our hard times though and they tend to cycle in and out. The age of three and a half is the hardest so far. My sweet, gentle child has become difficult and extremely wilfull. I'm finding myself at a loss with how to deal with him. Tricks and techniques that worked before aren't now. He's difficult in public and that is new. I remembered that recently my friend had mentioned to our group, The Austin Mamas , that she was having a hard time with her 3.5 year old. I went back and re-read all the advice that other mothers had given her. Over and over they recommended a book, Your Three Year Old: Friend or Enemy . I went to the library today and checked it out and read the first chapter while the kids played outside and I watched them from the porch swing. It is right on so far. I love it. It feels so good to know that this is a normal phase that should be over in about six months. I hope the book goes on to give m...

I went to my sister's girl only, pool party, birthday celebration this weekend. This is the third year of the party and I was very excited since the last two years I was either pregnant or nursing. My sister throws a fantastic party with karaoke, wigs, pool olympics, snacks and a wide variety of beverages. I really can't tell you much else about the actual goings-on of the afternoon because of the most important rule of the entire event- What happens at the girl party, STAYS at the girl party. But it was fun. And there was vodka involved. And I will never, ever drink Vodka again. I paid for my fun all day yesterday. So enjoy the pictures I can release and just daydream about all the one's I can't post. It was a FUN party. P.S. I have to give my husband major credit for this weekend. He kept the boys all Saturday and Saturday night and then on Sunday, he let me recover and took the boys on more adventures. He is a great dad and a fantastic husband. I owe him.

I've been wanting to do something different with my hair for a year. I wanted to cut it short, but I made a promise to Michael that I would never get the very short "mom/grandma" cut. I have always had very long hair and I really wanted a change. This year I have slowly been going shorter and shorter. On Saturday I went in and Fabian cut it off for me. My boys love it and I'm so glad. I feel younger and more hip and it suits my face shape I think. What do you think?

Five years ago today, I married my best friend and my life's partner. Michael is such a good husband and I am so lucky to have found him and married him. It was a beautiful wedding and we were surrounded by so many friends. And it was fun too! We watched our wedding video last night and that reception rocked. Can we do it again? We're going out for a drink tonight to celebrate with our friends. Call me if you want to join us and I'll let you know where we are! Happy Anniversary, my love.

I'm feeling much better today. How could I not be with those two cuties in my life. God, I love them. I have a week full of plans with friends, my husband is home, I've conquered Quicken, and I got to have several long chats with family today. Hooray for a new day!

I'm not having a good day. I didn't want to post, but then I realized that it's probably good to post on bad days so people don't think my whole world is sunshine and roses. Though you probably didn't think that anyway, did you. The day is fine. It's like every other day. It's me and the way I feel today. I feel constricted. I feel stagnant. I feel like I have the weight of the world on my chest and I am this close to tears. Why? I don't know. I do know. 1. It's 101 degrees outside. I have two small children and they want to go outside, but it's too hot and they are too little for one person to take them swimming. 2. The children are testing me. Davis tells me no in defiance and then checks to see how I'm taking it. He's non cooperative, sensitive, and extra defiant. Sam is also testing, but testing his world as well. As in, is it possible/acceptable for me to climb and stand on the dining room table? 3 Money is tight. Econ...

I love curry and Indian food. Michael does not. This means that I never, ever cook any kind of curry dish. Recently though, I had a serious craving for vindaloo. I went to the store and searched the ethnic aisle. I had no luck finding Vindaloo paste, but I did find some Tikka Masala paste. Now, Tikka Masala is my very favorite type of Indian food and so I just had to buy some. I figured if Michael didn't like it I would make him a sandwich and eat the whole thing myself. I took the paste home and searched the internet for good recipes. I didn't just want a meat Tikka Masala because I'm on the South Beach diet and I know that I can't have the rice. I wanted lots of vegetables and meat. At the grocery store I had picked up cauliflower, carrots, squash and green beans. I thought they would all be good in the dish. I had also bought bone-in lamb shoulders because they were extremely inexpensive and I love lamb. I found a recipe that sort of worked and put it all...

Sam is exactly the same age now that Davis was when I had Sam. How can that be? Sam still seems like my baby. And Davis took it so well. I wonder if Sam would do as well with a sibling. If Michael and I had decided to have a third child, we would have wanted a similar age gap. Would I have been ready? I think so, but I'm glad we made the choice to stop at two. Enjoy the retrospective and comparison. The first picture is of Davis when Sam was first born. Then there are two pictures of Davis at 19.5 months and then two of Sam. XXOO, amber

I am 31. That means that I spent my prime television viewing years watching 90210. I loved that show. It premiered the summer between 8th and 9th grade for me. They were two years older than I was (in the show) and I adored all of them. I fell in love with Dylan and later changed my mind and adored David. I would have killed for the wedding dress Kelly Taylor wore when she almost married Brandon. I cried at the ending. I loved it. And some of you will scoff at my low down television tastes. Yes, I watch big brother, and survivor, and gossip girl, and so you think you can dance. I love mindless eye candy drama. I also love pushing daisies and heroes and lost and top chef. Are those any better? It doesn't matter. Because this fall, 90210 is coming back and I am going to be watching it! It's on the CW on Tuesdays. So many of the originals are coming back too! Nat, and Kelly, and Donna and maybe even Brenda. Check it out! The new 90210 . Are you going to be watch...

We have reached a milestone today. Over the last month or so, Sam's language has exploded. Looking back, he is hitting a point in his language acquisition that Davis didn't hit until he was 23 months and Davis was a pretty early talker. (Let's hope Sam gets potty training down early too.) He has too many words for me to count and he will try any word you are willing to give him. But this morning when I went in to get him from his crib, he called me Mommy. Not mama, but Mommy. I feel this one in my heart. One of the best thing about this early language is that I get to know who Sammy is and what he is thinking. This morning as I was helping him get the last of the yogurt out of his cup, he screeched at me. "Use words.", I told him. "No help.", he told me. Okay. I got it, Mr. Independent. And he's saying Phone now and not Fuck. In some ways this is a good thing and in some ways it's sad as we've lost a favorite parlor trick. I can s...

Davis is always talking about how much he wishes he could go to band rehearsal. This is probably because his PaPaw is always dashing off to band rehearsal in his race car. Davis will suddenly announce that he has to go to band rehearsal and will put his Wiggles guitar in his back pack, jump on his little Vespa and ride off around the house. He tells me how when he grows up he's going to be in a band like PaPaw. A couple of weeks ago, my dad mentioned that his band was having a special rehearsal here in San Marcos in the Hippie House (a guest house belonging to my parents) next door. He invited me to bring Davis by to see his rehearsal. I told Davis and he was thrilled. Time passed slowly for him all day. When it was time to go, he grabbed his guitar and raced out the door and across the field to the other house. When we got there, we heard music and opened the door to the sight of the entire Lucky Tomblin Band rehearsing. Davis was suddenly overwhelmed and threw himself in...

I was just working on my computer and Sam came up beside me and shouted. Sam: STOP! Me: What do you need? Sam: It's night-night time. (it's only four in the afternoon) Me: No it's not. Sam: Yes! Night-night time! Me: Why do you want it to be night-night time? Sam: Know why? 'Cause I want the paci, paci, paci! Me: You wish it was night-night time? Sam: Yes! You read book! Soft-soft me! I guess I better go cuddle my quickly growing baby and walk away from the computer.

I have a cooking question. I tend to read a lot of cooking blogs and magazines and articles. Now that it is summer, most of those articles and posts tend to be about grilling. People are grilling everything. Vegetables, meats, pizzas, fruit. You name it, they're grilling it. Summer is the time for grilling. I got it. But why? I posted recently about roasting vegetables in the oven. I got a comment that turning on the oven would heat up the house too much and could they grill these vegetables. That got me thinking about cooking and heat. I started to question myself. Should I be cooking outside? Now here are my thoughts. It's HOT outside. We've had 20+ triple digit days since mid-May. At dinner time, it is scorching outside. Why is it better to go outside in that heat and start a fire, or heat up a grill and then stand over it and get hotter? I would rather raise the temperature in my kitchen for a bit and turn down the a/c and turn on the fans and cook comfo...