Snow in Austin!

Today we had nearly a full day of snow in Austin. It was awesome. The flakes were huge and fat and fell heavy from the sky.

So she wouldn't miss out on the snow while she was traveling, I took some pictures across the street at my neighbor Deanna's house. Her desert century plant presents quite a juxtaposition to the snow.

Here's the field across the street from our house.

The dogs enjoyed the snow, too.

So did Mateo. We made a snowman. He has peanut butter pretzel eyes and a baby carrot nose. He's a little grassy, but we like him.

I offered "snow ice cream" to Mateo, scooping some fresh snow from the hammock, but he got completely grossed out yelling "yucky yucky yucky!" when I took a bite. Boys... *rolling eyes*

We will miss our Pecos Bill.

Rest in peace, good friend.

Garbage gut.

Marley has been diagnosed with colitis due to "dietary indiscretion." In other words, she's a garbage gut. I've been saying for years I didn't know how she hadn't had a bowel obstruction by now. But she'll be just fine. She got a shot to prevent vomiting and some anti-inflammatories so her guts will start feeling better. She also can't eat until tomorrow morning and even then has to eat a prescribed ultra-bland canned food that will help rebuild her colon colonies. (I really like how those words look together - "colon colonies." They're a matching set.)

Poor Marley girl... or "Marney," as Mateo calls her. As for now, she rests. At least she tries to. She was getting irritated with my picture taking.

She kept moving from place to place to get away.
She eventually turned her back on me.
Pixel, on the other hand, is always a willing subject.

Pixel

I love this photo of Pixel. We were sitting on the couch with the baby as usual, and he made himself comfortable with the pillow. (This is actually fairly common, but his expression was too funny.)

Pixel's 3rd Birthday!

Pixel turned three yesterday, so of course we had to have a party! :) Click HERE for the photos.

We also added another "guy with baby" photo to our growing collection. You can click HERE to check out all of them.




And here's a nice photo of me (ha!) that shows the effects of motherhood...

A few photos

Having my mom in town has been wonderful - not only does she help with the baby so I can rest and take care of dinner, but she is right on top of getting photos! :) Here's a link to Mateo's first bath photos. Mom also completed the baby blanket. It's really pretty, AND it stands up to machine washing and drying - always a plus. She has been working on it almost throughout my entire pregnancy.
So far Mateo has been a pretty easy baby (hate to jinx myself by typing this). He sleeps so much that I have to wake him up for feedings. One thing that has really helped was something I saw on Oprah about baby language. (The Dunstan Baby Language teaches five distinct infant sounds that have specific meanings each and every time they are made.) I can't believe how accurate this has been. It has saved us much trial and error I'm sure.
As for me, I'm slowly recuperating from my bronchitis, but I'm definitely getting better. I've been getting a little more sore lately, though, so I need to remind myself to take it easy. I'm also having a really hard time convincing myself that I'm actually NOT going back to work for a while. That seems so insane! I do miss my students and regret not having been able to say goodbye to them.
We've also enjoyed watching the dogs' reactions to the new baby. Marley has a new nickname - "Nervous Nana." She seems so concerned with the noises the baby makes and runs to my mom to "fix it." Pixel has really surprised us with how calm and accepting he is of the baby. He really seems to know that he's a person and not a plaything or other dog. As with grown people, he really likes to "clean" Mateo's bare feet. :)

Bachelorette Party and Doggy Hospitals

So much happened over this past weekend that I'm feeling out of breath just thinking about typing it all. So I'll make it short and sweet.

First off was Tina's bachelorette all-day event. We started off by getting our hair done, meeting some friends for lunch, and doing some shopping in SoCo (that's South Congress for you non-Austinites). I don't think any of us really purchased much, but it's the looking that it's all about anyway. The storm started to roll in (and Tina and I were getting headaches from our very tight hair-dos), so we waited some of it out at CVS (getting hairclips so we could take out all the bobby pins) and then did a little shopping over on 2nd street. As the night grew nearer, we had some drinks (I had ice water and one diet Coke - which our waiter so kindly put into a martini shaker for me!) at 219 West where Tina opened some, ...er, interesting gifts. (I still have dibs on the chocolate paint!) From there we headed downtown to watch Esther's Follies (no doubt it's a MUST see!) where I drank MORE ice water, and I know I laughed so hard my cheeks hurt - both my facial ones from smiling and my other cheeks from sitting. After that we stopped off for some pizza and lounge time (and more ice water for me). We all had a really fun night. :)

From there that's when the weekend turns. While I'm sitting in some bar (I have no idea which one, but I assure you I drank ice water - again), I get a call from Rafi. Pixel had gotten into a bottle of extra strength Tylenol, he didn't know which dog (if not both) had eaten some, so both dogs were at the emergency pet hospital. Since it was already past 1:00am, we girls headed home. Walking into my house sure felt empty with no doggies to greet me. :(

To save typing time I'll skip ahead and let you know that the dogs are fine. Fifteen hundred dollars and lots of blood tests, vitamin C shots, acetaminophen blockers, active charcoal (to promote puking and pooping), multiple IVs, and liver tests later, it was determined that Pixel was the only one who had ingested the pills. The dogs were in the hospital most of the weekend, but were very happy to come home. Pixel had to get two more liver tests on Monday and Wednesday, but both proved that the toxin levels in his liver were decreasing. So all is well now - except for poor Marley!! I think she has had it with us thinking SHE is the one misbehaving! (And I have learned not to leave my purse close the the edge of the countertops.) But we're having a fun time calling Marley "Poodle Girl." Check out her poodle arms!

Oh what a mess...

Since we started changing the rooms around in our house, we've been living in a pig sty - at least it feels that way. We are changing our twice-used dining room into an office (maybe with French doors later) and cleaning out the old office upstairs. This has turned out to be a huge deal. I never realized we had so much equipment and stuff in general that we aren't using. Anyhow, I'm guessing when the weather gets a bit cooler we'll be doing the garage sale thing one more time.

Not much else is new. School starts for me in two weeks, so I'm excited about having a daily purpose. On the other hand, I'm sure I'll miss not having to have one. But I always feel happier when I'm busy working anyway.

It's so hot here that the dogs sleep all day inside. What a life they have. I think they probably enjoy their lives more than we do our own. :)