Sooooo

I have been feeling stressed out and anxious about work. Things have been a bit hectic both at the office and at home and I am just feeling sort of like my focus is off a bit and it is causing my mind to race and my heart to beat a little too fast (not in a good way). I wish that I could calm the nerves, alleviate the anxiety a bit and take a deep breath. I wish I could feel that if I try my best it is good enough. So, right now in particular, I am thankful for the beautiful distractions, the love and support of family and friends (GG's paella tonight was such an unexpected and incredibly welcome surprise - not to mention - it was delicious) and the preoccupation with wondering just how long we can wait to child-proof things around the house. James has become fixated with opening and closing things. I never understood all of the locks and switches and bars on top of doors and handles and toilet seats...until now. Forget about the millions of safe and entertaining toys around the house, all this guy wants to do is open La Luz's dresser drawers and proceed to open and close them until he catches his hand inside, whacks his head on an open drawer, or tries to pull up on it and dislodges it. The game never ends well.

Here are the two beautiful distractions earlier tonight, getting ready for a Thanksgiving story and carefree sleep:




The lighting was challenging (so was James - what a face!). I wish I had more time to learn how to take pictures.

Celebrating Our Loved Ones

Mom and I took La Luz and James with us to the cemetery last Sunday. It was a little tricky trying to explain the concept of burials and cemeteries to La Luz. She has a pretty profound understanding of heaven (or at least what she believes is heaven) but the idea of a cemetery is a little bit beyond her grasp. I don't suppose that is surprising because some parts of the idea are still things that I struggle to understand. Needless to say, despite a few irreverent suggestions that we open doors and climb stairs, she was totally respectful and intuitive during her first visit. James, on the other hand, just ate grass. I am telling you he eats anything and everything he can get his hands on. Clearly, he is part goat:

All Saints

I suppose it is fitting that today in particular I am really missing Pop. I thought about him quite a bit yesterday since it was All Saints Day and then again today when I really couldn't get him out of my head. It started with an email from mom attaching a picture of James. She noticed a very uncanny resemblance and I sort of have to agree:



And then today was one of those perfectly beautiful NOLA fall days. The sky was blue and the air was thin and clean thanks to cooler temperatures and a burst of low humidity. On top of the picture perfect day, NOLA was vibrant. The Saints are playing the Falcons in the dome tonight and it felt like Mardi Gras or New Year's Eve or Halloween downtown. The streets were packed with people, tailgaters were already setting up as I pulled into the building for work this morning, tourists spilled out of stores and restaurants and on to the sidewalk, and it was all so energizing to see. I know Pop would've appreciated it so much. I know that on a day like today he would have disappeared from behind his desk at lunch time and spent the rest of the afternoon over a long lunch with friends and then strolling down Bourbon Street checking out all of the 'fools' celebrating in the French Quarter. Later on he would have asked me, ironically, 'what they all do for a living that allows them to hang out in the Quarter at 3 p.m. on a Monday' and it would make me smile and I would email my siblings so they could have a laugh.

Pop was a die hard Saints fan and, like all Saints fans, excused their abysmal performances and hoped for something better next year. I know that he would have appreciated the mood in NOLA today, this incredible swelling of pride. I guess I am comforted imagining that he is watching it all unfold, this time from the best seat in the house.

Halloween 2009

Although La Luz is still operating off of a sugar high that started sometime around 5 p.m. yesterday, I managed to get her tucked into bed by 7:30 p.m. (thanks, I am sure, to the time change). I watched the excitement and the craziness of Halloween through her eyes and I just don't think it could have been any more spectacular. We spent Saturday night at Margot and Walker's hanging out with friends and family, enjoying the street party that went on for blocks and thinking that there isn't a more perfect way to celebrate Halloween.

Here she is, ready to go:



Waiting, so patiently, for the sun to set and for trick or treating to begin:


Jamesy, so much less enthused about costumes and candy:




and by the end of the night it was something like this, La Luz eating a pixie stick that was longer than she is tall - at some point she figured out that physics dictated a change of position and decided it would be best to lie down:


and James, chewing on a Strawberry Shortcake Dream house toilet:



La Luz woke up this morning wondering why we couldn't just trick or treat every night. It was all that fantastic to her and I really remember that feeling. It is so hard to explain to her that she wouldn't appreciate it as much if she did it every night; that is not a concept that she can wrap her head around. When you are 4 years old there is no such thing as too much of a good thing.

Great Pumpkins

We are getting all geared up for Halloween around here - decorations outside, pumpkins ready for carving, Halloween specials way past bedtime for three nights in a row - and I couldn't be happier. I have been feeling a bit bummed out at work lately so the distractions around here are good. I am happy to be preoccupied with locating glitter for the perfect fairy costume and figuring out whether James will be more comfortable as a ghost or a dragon. I like worrying about when we will actually find the time to carve pumpkins and whether it is more important for La Luz to sleep or watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. So, that's what is going on over here, that and the Real Housewives of Atlanta Reunion show. Is it terrible that I enjoy watching the RH series? I think that is a rhetorical question.

Getting ready for Halloween - picking out the perfect pumpkin:


test run of the fairy costume:

Wild Thing

Christian and I took advantage of some free babysitting while Nana and Papa-T were in town this past weekend and headed over to the Prytania Theater for the late show of Where The Wild Things Are. It had all the makings of a movie for me to love - one of my top 5 books, a Dave Eggars screenplay, Spike Jonz direction, ridiculous wild thing costumes - but it fell flat. I am sad - not because I can't bring La Luz to see it because it is dark and scary and really really heavy - but because it just kind of dragged a bit and left me feeling, well, just sort of "so what"-ish about the whole thing. There were a few moments when I felt a little teary - difficult departures always evoke those emotions - but, other than that and a totally like-able 'Max' played by non-actor and coincidentally named, Max Records, I was not really moved.

The Prytania Theater, on the other hand, always moves me. I am not sure if I have mentioned it before but, in case I haven't, here you have it : it is the first digital theater in NOLA and you will notice a difference. If you don't care so much about sight and sound and are more concerned about melted milk duds on your seat cushion, rest assured, the place is in great shape. If your last visit to the Prytania was not in 2009, you owe it a chance. It is a remarkable place and the owner is dedicated to cinema. He runs classics a few times a week, midnight movies on the weekend, and loves nothing more than to visit with anyone who appreciates movies in the lobby between shows.

One very important hobby that Christian and I share is a love of movies, particularly the act of going to a movie and watching it unfold in larger-than-life proportions. We are not snobbish or particular and will generally indulge in whatever sounds entertaining at the moment. Sure, we have standards (we have never seen any of the Final Destinations or Fast and the Furious movies, for example) but they are not very high. I hope that we pass this love on to our kids because, at least for me, there is no greater escape than spending 2 hours engrossed in something that is not my life. So, even though I didn't love WTWA, I loved 2 hours in the Prytania Theater when my only concern was what Max would do next.

La Luz as Max, courtesy of the incredibly crafty cut-out featured at the Wilson twins' bi-annual Wild Things Birthday Party last Saturday, ROAR:

Check This Out

After all of Papa-T's hard work getting our garden in top shape Christian neutered all of the plants with weed-be-gone or pest away or some such thing and no vegetables or fruit ever appeared...until:


Papa-T discovered these when he was here last weekend and they are delicious!