New Skillz

Xavier has been picking up news skills left and right from his big sister. He's starting to "draw" using his magnetic/erase board. I think crayons aren't far behind. I fear for my walls.

He's also been practicing his war cries. This is a neat little trick to get him to stop fussing and start laughing after a minor bump or scrape.

Hunter finishes up her first week of basketball camp today. She and I have a park date tomorrow so she can show me her new tricks around the hoop.

Eating as a Family

We've been having lots of fun these past two weeks with my step-daughter, Hunter, here for her 4-week summer stay. She's a real sport about adjusting to the separate traditions and rules from her Kansas home and her Texas home. A big stumbling block lately has been food.

As most of you know, Tim and I do our best to eat a healthy, whole foods diet most of the time. (Not to be confused with an expesive Whole Foods diet!) We like to cook from scratch when possible, prefer fresh veggies to frozen to canned, and avoid products with transfat, artificial coloring or high fructose corn syrup. We're not terribly strict about it -- we've been known to have a soda, bag of chips or spicy buffalo wings from the freezer section from time to time.

Hunter's favorite foods are speghetti (no sauce), ramen noodles, Sunny Delight (which has no juice in it by the way), and rice with butter. "Gross" foods include lettuce, tomatoes, fish, chicken with bones, cucumbers, etc.

In an effort to get her more enthusiastic about nutrition, Wednesday night is her night to plan and prepare dinner. I blanched when I saw her shopping list: two cans of cherry pie filling, two cans of pineapple, one can of mandarin oranges, one can of creamy corn, a package of hot dogs, and a box of mac and cheese. I gently suggested that she should add a green vegetable to round out the meal so she added a can of peas to her list. I prayed that the cherry pie filling would not find its way into the same dish as the hot dogs. I hoped for the best and was determined to be a good example of being open to new foods.

She made a fruit salad with the cans of fruit, split and sauteed the hotdogs (I cheated a little and bought kosher beef franks), and served corn, pasta and peas for the sides. All in all it was a yummy meal. I can't wait to see what's on the menu for next Wednesday.

Walking Man

We have honest to goodness walking over here now. For weeks Xavier has been teasing us with nonchalant cruising with one hand and the occaisional lunge from the coffee table to the sofa. On Saturday he was regularly pulling up and then taking several steps out into the middle of the room.

He is such an independent little dude. He refuses to walk upon command (or encouragement) but if you leave him be, he's walking like a little champ.

The timing of his walking is probably related to having his big sister around for the past week. Hunter is the object of his affection these days. This is particularly sweet since during her stay with us last summer, she missed witnessing her younger sister's transition from crawling to walking with her family in Kansas.

As a direct result of Xavier's new mobility, our 19-year-old cat has taken up permenant residence behind the couch unless Xavier is in a high chair or napping. Poor dear.

Wild Kingdom Presents:

a one-year-old toddler in his natural habitat:

And at the watering hole eating Chef-boy-ardee:

Meet the (Grand)Parents

Xavier got to meet his Grandma and Grandpa McNicholl this weekend. While he's "spoken" to them on the phone several times, this was the first time he got to see them face to face. As usual, Xavier worked his usual charm and showed them all his tricks: bear crawling, chasing the cat, drinking out of a cup, etc.
Xavier opens one of his birthday gifts.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Xavier the rocker that his Dad used to sit in to watch Sesame Street.
Three generations of McNicholl men.

Grandma gets a smile out of baby Xavier.

And Then We Were One

It's hard to believe that it was just a year ago today when I got to meet baby Xavier face-to-face for the very first time. He was born via c-section and I still remember his face as they lifted him up and over the drape. His arms were outstretched to the sides and his fingers were splayed wide. His little mouth was in the shape of a tiny 'O' and his eyes were wide open. It was as if he were saying, "Wow! Now this is something different!"

Today we celebrated his birth by inviting his friends from the neighborhood over for a wading pool party. Five families were represented and we had kids ranging in age from 6 months to 5 years. In addition to the pool, they enjoyed blowing bubbles, eating carrot cupcakes, and playing with Xavier's playhouse.

Here are some photos and video...enjoy!

Ethan in the playhouse.

Brook and Kiara.

The babies hung back and watched the "big kids" play in the pool.

Renee and Niona compare swimming costumes.

Ethan says hello to James.
Christopher takes a few steps.
David and Renee enjoy their carrot cupcakes.

The Good Life

A few things have had me thinking about the Good Life these days. First of all, my friend Angie lent me her copy of Crunchy Conservatives, a book written by a fellow alum of LSMSA, conservative journalist, and lover of many things crunchy (organic foods, less suburban sprawl, natural living, etc.) I found myself agreeing with many of the author's personal convictions and came to the conclusion that I didn't really know what a political conservative WAS anymore. I grew up in the Regan era. Conservatism IS Regan, right? No regulation. Low taxes. Trickle-down-economics. Anti-communist. What I'm beginning to realize is that what I thought was conservatism was actually mostly partisan Republican sentiment. So I've started reading up on Russell Kirk and other "fathers of modern conservatism" to get a better understanding more of the theory that informs conservative thought.

With thoughts of what makes up the Good Life swirled in my head, I heard a broadcast on Oprah and Friends XM radio about the Law of Attraction. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it is a loose synthesis of various philosophies and religious traditions boiled down to a single principle: What happens to you is the direct result of what kind of energy you put out in the universe. On the surface that doesn't seem too controversial -- sort of a New Age karma. But in practice a lot of LoAs (as its followers call themselves) apply this principle to tangible things like building a business clientelle, making more money, having better relationships. That's where it makes me a bit uncomfortable. Its a little too much like the Gospel of Prosperity theology for my tastes. Utilitarianism and spirituality are a touchy combination.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and I can find some inspiration in listening to a radio show about LoA. Specifically, the host mentioned that when we talk about what we want in life, we tend to frame it negatively or in terms of what we don't want. For example we tend to say things like "I don't want to be so stressed out all the time." instead of "I want my life to be carefree and peaceful." So as an exercise the host suggested focusing on one area in your life that is important to you and try to describe what you want in positive terms. Try it, it is a little tricky at first.

So I started thinking about my position as a homemaker. What do I want our home life to be like? I came up with five things:

• Welcoming. I want guests to feel like they belong the minute they walk in the door. I want to be able to offer a cup of tea of plate of sliced fruit to unexpected visitors.
  
• Calm. Some people love boisterous, noisy fun. So do I. Just outside. I've been moving toward creating more calm by limiting television and playing soft music.
  
• Orderly. A simple, clean environment makes me feel at peace. I work hard at making sure there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. It frees up the mind to focus on enjoying life.
  
• Enriching. Thoughtful books, nutritious and delicious food, good conversation. These are the things that truely bring color into life.
  
• Haven. Most of all, I want those in our home to feel as if they can drop their worries and insecurities at the door and find a place to rest in the here and now. If everything is working right, this is our little bit of paradise here on earth.

If I can make progress toward those goals, I will indeed be living the Good Life.

Happy Birthday Pan!

Xavier is lucky enough to have four (count 'em, four) grandmas and two living great grandmas. There's MaMere, MoMo, MiMi, Grandmother, Granny McBurney, and MaMa. In addition to that, Xavier has a very special lady in his life: Pan! Happy Birthday Pan! We love you!

Communication!

Last night we had our very first spontaneous clapping...or signing for more. Or both. It was brought on by the joys of cantaloupe for dessert. As Tim said, I thinks few more synapses just got connected. He seemed to be thrilled that if he signed more, he got more melon. The squeals and heavy breathing were adorable. May he always be so easy to please!

Is there anything sweeter?

Is there anything sweeter than sloppy, open-mouthed baby kisses? Lately Xavier will kiss his lovey or a stuffed animal when I suggest it but balks when I request kisses for myself. My theory was that since we spend almost every waking moment together, Mom-kisses got old quickly.

Well, Saturday afternoon and evening I was away from home and the babe while I participated in our Texas County Caucus (72% for Obama by the way). Xavier and Tim had some quality father and son time while I got to know some of my neighbors much better over the course of seven hours of mostly sitting and waiting.

The reward the next morning was priceless. Tim usually brings Xavier into bed with us in the morning so we can all get a few more minutes of sleep. This Sunday though, Xavier was so excited to see me that he kept kissing my cheeks until I woke up. Sloppy and adorable all at the same time.

Oh, and yesterday, he gave me a zerbert on my shoulder and we both giggled and giggled until he did it again.

Last Day of Lent and Easter

Xavier and I took a quick trip to Lafayette last Wednesday to visit with his two great grandmothers and have an extended play date with cousin Matthew. Granny McBurney gave him a chocolate covered graham cracker which he promptly made a mess with.

It was so cute to see the two little boys together. Xavier wanted to do everything that his older cousin was doing. When Momo and I walked them to the park, instead of looking ahead in the stroller, Xavier just gazed at his older cousin on his tricycle the entire time.

Matthew was a big helper too. He enjoyed bringing diapers to My Susan (his moniker for me) when I changed the baby. He is also an amazing little mimic. You really have to watch your words when around a two-year-old.

Here's a photo of the boys enjoying some otter pops in the kitchen:

Easter went well here in Beaumont. Xavier wore his much-too-big-at-the-time "christening" outfit. He made all the ladies in church swoon with his coos and smiles during Easter morning mass. When it came time to renew our baptismal vows and get sprinkled with water, I realized that it was very fitting that Xavier was wearing his little outfit.

At home, Xavier enjoyed riffling through his Easter basket and goodies. Mom and Dad helped him eat his chocolate bunny and he chowed down on some peach puffs found inside his plastic eggs. With 50 days of Easter to celebrate, I fill an egg each morning with puffs and let him "find" it around the house to enjoy.

More Vacation Photos

I had high hopes of narrating the remainder of our family spring break to Corpus Christi but Holy Week and a quick trip to Lafayette have scuttled those plans. So in the interest of grandmas waiting with baited breath for more baby pics, I give you the following:

Thanks, Nancy!

Each Sunday, Tim and I enjoy eating brunch and watching This Week on ABC. It is a Sunday morning ritual that I have been doing since I was 11-years-old and the title of the program was This Week With David Brinkley.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was interviewed about her views on the economy. If you click on the link and go about 45 seconds into the clip, you'll hear her say something to the effect of, "President Bush is finally coming around to recognize what any homemaker in this country could have told you several months ago."

Setting aside the debate of the state of the economy and what can or should be done about it, I want to point out how refreshing it was to hear the term "homemaker" being used in a positive and respectful tone--by one of the most powerful working women in the U.S. no less. We homemakers are typically a quiet bunch, tending to the cares and needs of our families and immediate communities. We don't practice microeconomics...we practice nanoeconomics.

For example, I can tell you without referring to reciepts or my price book that milk has increased from $3 to $4.25 per gallon in the past year. Bananas have gone from .29 to .49 per pound. Bread has gone up apporximately 25% as have eggs. These increases mean a few extra dollars go out of our grocery envelope each trip to the store. While that may not seem like a huge difference, just think about how loudly folks wail when gas prices go up .20 a gallon. Little increases on products that you use every day make a big dent in the family budget. If we are feeling the pinch, I can only imagine how tight things are getting for poor and working class families who have even less wiggle room in their finances.

So when politicians and lawmakers are debating about what to do (if anything) about the economy, I just simply ask that they take a step away from the big numbers (GDP, price of a barrel of oil, etc.) for a moment and tap into our country's nanoeconomic barometer: homemakers.

Goose Island State Park

Tim, Xavier and I got back home last night after a wonderful family vacation to Goose Island State Park just outside of Corpus Christi, TX. The location of our trip was determined fairly last minute (one day before departure). Originally we had thought about heading over to hill country to enjoy the bluebonnets in bloom. Unfortunately about half of Texas also had the same idea and all the camping grounds in that area were booked. After a search of places a few hours away where a burn ban was not in effect, Goose Island was the only park on the short list.

The drive down was nice and Xavier managed to get through it with only a few crying jags. He did however end up with a diaper rash despite frequent changes.

Goose Island is a hot spot for fishermen and birders. By the time we arrived, it was booked to capacity. A short walk around and you could see why. It was a beautifully maintained park and it was bursting with birds. There were pelicans by the bay as well as gulls, spoonbills and terns. In the woodlands area, where we camped, cardinals, warblers, verios and other songbirds reigned.

Xavier loved to crawl around on the grass or cruise along the picnic table. He waved at puppy dogs and their owners as they passed by our site and generally charmed most of the retirees. Toegether we mastered the new word, "yucky," which was our new cue for "take that out of your mouth or I will take it out for you." Our yucky list consisted of oak leaves, random sticks, and dirt. His favorite thing to do in the park was to ride on Dad's back in the carrier. After sufering the torture of Mom putting sunscreen all over his face and limbs and being forced to wear the dreaded sunhat, he'd sit back and relax as Dad walked up and down the park paths.

One of the joys of camping is that it has a way of slowing down and simplifying the day. Without the whir of television, telephones, internet or radios, Tim and I took a break from politics, New York sex scandals, and NCAA basketball. My watch stopped halfway through the trip and it was really no big deal. We get up with the birds and go to sleep with the sun. Making our breakfast and dinner each day provided most of the structure we had. Even Xavier seemed to nap more consistantly than he does at home.


Camping is the opposite of a luxury, full-service vacation. There is no room service, no spa, no bell hop. We had a short walk to the bathrooms and showers and took small grocery bags of our garbage to the dumpster several times a day to prevent being too popular with the squirrel and racoon population. But being that close to nature and that free from all the unnecessary things in life (including luxuries) bring with it a precious gift: peace.


Of course, we ventured out from the park too. I'll post about those outings later on. Back home our vacation has made me all the more grateful for the many blessings in our life. I am struck by how much larger and vast our home appears to me upon our return. As we transition out of vacation mode, little amenities that often go unappreciated like indoor plumbing and a soft mattress are exchanged for the serenity that only time spent in the woods can bring.

Busted!

Xavier has been practicing his gross motor skills lately. Translation: he crawls all over the house and gets into stuff. Fortunately our small home and its open floorplan allows me to keep tabs on him without always having to have him in my direct line of sight.

Yesterday I heard him crawl into the bathroom while I was emptying the dishwasher. He loves to open and close the cabinet doors in there. But this day, things were quieter than usual. When I peeked in to make sure all was well, this is what I found.

I gave him a gentle "No, no, Xavier." He smiled and removed his hand from the roll, and then promptly started pulling paper off the roll again. Ah the temptation of Charmin!

Cruisin'

Xavier is getting better and better at cruising these days. He loves to move along the side of the couch or coffee table and can easily pull himself up to look out the French doors in the back. He has also taken to pushing his plastic activity table across the room as a sort of makeshift walker. So when I was in Target the other day and saw a little riding car that converts into an upright walking toy, I figured Xavier would love it.

At first he loved the box it came in more than anything else. Silly baby. But once I put his little hands on the walker bar, we was crossing the room with amazing speed. When Mom or Dad isn't standing nearby to spot him, we keep the car in "ride on" mode to prevent accidents. As you can see, Xavier likes the riding experience just fine too.

Simplicity Challenge -- Part II

It's a bit overdue but I wanted to post a follow-up to Part I of my self-imposed Simplicity Challenge to try to waste less food. I found that meal planning and pantry organization were key to this effort. I just didn't keep a lot of spare, perishable food around the house.

In January, we made pretty good progress in this area.

• I made chicken and vegetable stock with scraps and leftovers
• Almost all other leftovers were reused or repurposed with the exception of some funky lemon wedges that got shoved to the back of the fridge
• As a last resort, non-meat foods were put into our compost pile

The last bullet leads to my current Simplicity Challenge: to significantly reduce the amount of waste we send to the local landfill. I was inspired by a New Zealand television show called Wa$ted. In it a family tries to reduce their ecofootprint by reducing the amount of wasted energy and unnecessary trash sent to landfills. In a dramatic flourish, they go through the family's garbage for the past week and sort out recyclables and compostables and identify other ways to reduce the amount of garbage. It is really inspiring to see that only about 1/10 of the garbage they send to the landfill is truly unusable garbage.

Since we already cloth diaper, that is one HUGE family trash factor that we eliminate from the landfills. My frugal penchant for buying in bulk and eschewing serving sizes means that we already have less packaging than we used to. We also have a compost pile which I have varying success with. But Beaumont discontinued its curbside recycling program in 2002 for lack of participation and interest.

I decided to see how difficult it would be to self-recycle. Lo and behold there are several recycling companies here. After a few calls I found one that takes paper, cardboard and #1 and #2 plastics, and another that accepts aluminum cans. Now both companies would actually pay me for my drop offs, but our trash volume is so low, it doesn't really make much sense to go through the process of weighing it in. I mean I might pick up a nickle off the ground but I'd feel silly standing in a line to pick up a nickle.

Fortunately, both companies also have "donation bins" where the proceeds from the collected items go to local United Way charities. Both companies are also locally owned and operated so the money they generate stays here in our community.

I'm still refining our collection area and find myself hunting through the kitchen garbage can to retrieve a pizza box or cat food can that got mistakenly thrown away. Every day is an Easter Egg hunt when you're trying to get a home recycling program started I suppose.

Babies for Obama

Xavier and I attended a precinct captain training session and local grassroots rally for Barack Obama.

The night before I created two t-shirts for us to wear. They were a big hit. Xavier enjoyed getting to meet so many new people. At first he cried a little whenever the crowd began to chant "Yes, We Can." I think he was a little scared. But by the end of the event he was smiling and waving along with the crowds.

It was so inspiring to be in a room of such a diverse crowd of people who were all coming together for a common cause. At one point during the training, we paired off to share personal stories of why we were supporting Obama's campaign. No two stories were alike but what seemed to be a throughline was that he was a face of a movement to cut through partisanship and devisive politics to bring a new era to American government.

Between the training session and the rally, Xavier and I left to go grab a bite to eat. When we came back, about half the folks in the room cooed and said, "Xavier's back!" It was as if he were Norm entering the Cheers bar. I have a feeling for the next three weeks, I'm going to be known as "Xavier's Mom" at campaign headquarters.

Even the local news crews weren't immune to Xavier's inherent charm. Check him out at the end of this clip: http://setxhomepage.com/media_player.php?media_id=5794 .

New Photos

No time to post...feeding baby. Here are some recent photos.

Mardi Gras in Beaumont with our neighbors.




A bath.
I'm still standin'!

Drama with Mama

Last week I took Xavier to his very first play: Miss Nelson Has a Field Day at the Lutcher Theatre in Orange. The 45-minute drive from Beaumont was well worth the experience. When we arrived there were about 500 little kids bussed in from all over southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. Xavier was fascinated by their sheer numbers. I don't thing he realized that many kids existed in the entire world before that.

Thanks to a friendly Lutcher volunteer, I found a quiet room to nurse Xavier in before the show. While I'm not against nursing in public, I wasn't ready to become the science/civics lesson experiment for so many children all at once!

Once Xavier was well fed and ready to sit still we found our way to our seats. The powers that be put all of the non-school folks and homeschoolers together in the same section. Xavier and I had two seats although we both sat in one together. Having a little space turned out to be a good thing. The poor woman to my right kept getting smacked by Xavier whenever he got really excited. Xavier was waving his yellow lovey (known around here as Lovie Smith) during all the songs...second lining skills must be transmitted through the placenta!

What was fascinating to me was what types of things would capture Xavier's attention since he obviously couldn't follow the storyline. Lighting played a huge part in directing his attention to the stage. He had little interest in the straight dialogue but loved it when there were patterns such as a teacher asking three kids the same questions. His favorite by far were the dance numbers. Whenever I found myself getting bogged down in the plot, sure enough, Xavier's attention was beginning to wander. I think that every director should rent a baby to help identify the lagging parts of a show.