Living in Munchkinland

When I was sixteen, I got Ceillie. She was a little yorkie puppy and she had my heart immediately. She helped me through high school angst, traveled with me to college in Arizona, enjoyed upper west side living in New York and lived in trendy West Hollywood in L.A. She eventually accepted Michael when we moved to Austin and acknowledged the existence of the children when they came along. She was my constant companion and lap dog. She died May 2008. It was her time. It was a good thing, though extremely sad. She had been living with my grandparents because the kids were too much for her and I was too overwhelmed to keep her as safe and loved as she needed to be in her old age. I loved having a lap dog, but my lap was full of babies and yorkies are not known for their acceptance of small children. I mourned Ceillie, but knew I didn't want another small dog right away. We attempted to adopt a young lab puppy to be friends with our older lab, but things didn't go well. St...

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life. Six years ago we had an awesome party. I'm so grateful that I met Michael when I did and that he fell in love with me! He's an amazing partner. I always feel supported and safe with him. We have dedicated ourselves to our children, to each other and to our spiritual path and our marriage is stronger than ever. I am so blessed.

The two weekends in a row we spent in Port Aransas. The first weekend, we went with my cousin Marcie, her partner Ann and their two kids Andres and Cruz as well as my cousin Jackie and my grandparents. It was the fourth of July and the beach was rockin'. We had so much fun. It was a giant party of families on the beach. Michael loved meeting lots of people and I loved getting to spend time with my family and a good book. Davis learned to boogie board on the ocean and Sam learned how to swim underwater without a life jacket. The four boys played and played. We went out for fried fish in town, but mostly stayed on the beach. We were home for three days and then we turned around and went back to Port A with some of our friends. We had been planning this trip since last winter and were really looking forward to it. On Tuesday night, the kids started throwing up and getting really sick. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to go to the beach at all, but luckily this v...

We've always had a tough time getting our kids to sleep together when we travel. At home they have separate bedrooms and at bed time we put them in their rooms, shut the door and walk away and they wind themselves down and fall asleep. When we put them together they would talk and talk until Davis would lose his mind because he wanted to sleep so bad and finally I would take Sam out of the room, let Davis fall asleep and finally bring Sam back in so he could talk to Davis' inert, sleeping form until he fell asleep. This took a long time and was very depressing. We have been planning two trips to the beach this summer as well as eight days in Canada where the boys would have to share a room. We were really nervous about this and worried that the sleep drama would take away from the fun of the vacation. We planned to try and practice letting them sleep together a few weeks before the first beach trip after my friend Cheris decided to try it with her kids . But then the kids...

The tides have turned. The phase is over. My sweet boy is actually sweet again. Most of the time anyway. It's not perfect of course, but it is so much better. For several months running, I can now admit that Davis was not fun. About a month ago, I noticed that maybe there was a glimmer. And now we see a fun, helpful, smart, eager to please little boy. Hurray!