First big trip

I'm taking Button to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving and some other family related parties that will be going on that weekend. It's about a 9 hour drive but we are stopping in Texas to spend the night. I'm a bit nervous to take her on such a long drive. You can't just plug in a DVD player for a baby like you can for a kid. I know she will sleep a lot and that either me or my mom will have to sit in the back with her sometimes because she hates being alone. I think she would cry more in the car except she usually has her brother with her and he will talk to her and pat her occasionally. But he is already gone so she will be alone back there.

I don't think I would be making this trip if she were any younger. Now that she is almost 8 months she can go longer without nursing and my milk is so established that engorgement is rarely a problem. But if she were less than 3 months I doubt we would be making this trip. It would be too hard on both of us. I'm hoping now that she is "older" she will fine. But the longest she's been a car is 2 1/2 hours so I guess we will see. Because the trip home will be made all in one day.  Now that is going to be the real adventure.

And I'm back...

e had a nice time though I'm not sure everyone else did.  Half the family was cranky all weekend long.  I was just trying to get along and enjoy the quiet, the beach, and my drink.  I feel like I succeeded for the most part.  Little man loved the beach specifically the sandy part.  He was a little less enamoured of the water though once he got used to it on both days he had fun in it.  The first day we had a great sandbar right in front of us and he loved that.  The second day his grandfather and one of the family friends that came along made a sandcastle and they had toy knights and soldiers and so Bub spent quite a while playing castle.

The weather was beautiful and not too hot with a nice breeze especially in the mornings.  The water wasn't the best I have seen, too many sea hares and too much seaweed where we were, but it was pleasant outside and nice to be away from home and work.  We went to the beach for two days and then came home on Monday.  We didn't do too much other than that.  Just hung around.  The drive home was ridiculous though.  It's normally a 6 hour drive, but it took us 8.5 hours to get home.  It was insanely back up almost the whole way home.  So we are all super tired today.  Funny how that much driving can wear you out.

Recent trip to Galveston, TX

So my sister was going on a cruise and they were leaving out of Galveston and she talked me and my parents into driving over there to see her.  We packed up and drove over on Saturday morning and got there about 4 and checked into the hotel.  It was nice.  I got a king sized bed for me and the little boy and we got an adjorning room to my parents so we could go in and out and I could Bub down to sleep and not have to stay in the room with him.  At about 2:30 am I was awoken to "Mommy" and he was in my face.  So I cuddled him up to me and we went back to sleep.  But I was too hot with him sleeping on me so I got up and went to the other side of the bed.  Then at 7:30 am I had a little boy in my face again, "Momma, momma, Momma.  Wake up" and he was shaking me.  We went and ate breakfast and went down to the beach and played for a little bit.  Then checked out of the hotel and came home.   It was a nice little trip.  I liked Galveston.  The downtown area was really cool.

Ya'll I have to stop the madness

Once again I felt brave and crazy and we gathered ourselves up and went to New Orleans for a day trip. But this time we went with my cousin Kia and her husband David. So we all rode together in their car which is roomy but that car seat takes up a lot of space so Kia and I crammed in the back with Bubs. I should mention that Kia is tall and her husband likes to spread out when he drives apparently because his seat was pushed all the way back and she was folded up like a sardine. I told her to sit behind BT since he doesn't need as much leg room but she didn't so whatever. We went to the aquarium (of which I have no pics since we forgot our camera) and it was nice since it was cool inside. By the time we got there however I was already ready to kill someone.

Bless their hearts, but they have no idea how to schedule time when they have a toddler with them and boo on BT and me for not saying so. When we got to New Orleans Kia was hungry so we walked down to the Riverwalk to eat, which was our first mistake. It was hot in there and I forget that the food is not the best. Bubs is already freaking out since we didn't stop to see the dinosaur outside the aquarium and he is tired, hot, and unhappy. Then we walked back to the aquarium and waited in line to get tickets and Bubs is still trying to see the dinosaur and we don't let him. Then inside he is happy running around going Fish! Fish! and all is okay. But he is still stuck on the dinosaur and wants me to hold him the whole time. But I'm hot and aggravated and I think he needs to walk some or get in the stroller. And then...

he see the white alligator but BT wants him to go to the touching room first and thus begins a total meltdown. Alligator, I see alligator and BT is trying to get him to play, but there will be none of that. So finally I said let's just see the damn alligator and Kia & David are lagging behind since I don't think they wanted to be in our little group by then (not that I blame them, I didn't either). So we see the alligator, which is HUGE, and we are happy.

Then we went and walked down the Quarter and showed David some of New Orleans, of which he didn't seem impressed, and that was about it. We walked to Bourbon and BT (& David) got a hand grenade for BT's birthday and Bubs slept in his stroller and that was fine. The car ride home was long and tiring and Bubs got a little stir-crazy and we of the backseat fell asleep and I have little fingernails indentations in my skin from the little man and I learned never to wear a long dress to walk around New Orleans. Oh and I'm not going back until it cools off. I'm done with New Orleans for now and that's that. It's too damn hot.

Oh, man I need a drink

I feel like I've been neglecting this blog, especially after BEDA and posting everyday. We have been so busy lately, but for some reason I haven't blogged about it.

Last weekend was crazy. Long ago I told BT that if The Veronicas came to our area then I wanted to go. Well, then I found out they were coming to The House of Blues in New Orleans and I checked the calendar and my friend's wedding wasn't till the next day so I bought some tickets and got a hotel room and all was great though BT said the only way he'd go is if we went down Bourbon Street afterward since we didn't get to go for our anniversary.) Then the wedding invitation came and the wedding was at 2 in the afternoon which, frankly, is a ridiculous time for a wedding and it's too hot anyway. But, whatever, we can make this work. Then my mom decided she wanted to go visit my sister so she wouldn't be around to care for Bubs. So we called BT's little sister to come and she did and I was thankful.

So after work on Friday I go home (didn't get to see my baby since he was napping) and we left for New Orleans. I forgot the tickets at home so we had to stop at the public library and print out new tickets. Thank God for printable tickets and the public library!

We check into the hotel and they have us in a room on the Bourbon Street side, but I didn't think it would be too bad (ha!). Then we walked to the HoB. We knew it was an all ages show but I didn't really think that we'd been the oldest people in line except for the parents taking their teenage child to a concert. *sigh* And since it was all ages no alcohol was served and BT was not happy since it was one of the reason he agreed to go. Oops! The first band was Carney (video not from our show but in Baton Rouge) and we did not like them. I liked one of their songs, but I couldn't tell which one. Also they didn't play the single they were releasing soon or any of the songs on their album, which was stupid. The second band was called The Pretty Reckless and I didn't know it was Taylor Momsen's band (from Gossip Girl) till she walked out and all the little girls started screaming and I was like hey she lookes like Little Jenny and then I wiki'd her and she was and that was cool. She was wearing a slip dress that had lace on her lower abdomen and you could see her black thong underneath and BT was staring at her. So I leaned over and said she's only 16 and he jumped and was like really. LOL So they were really good and their drummer was much better than Carney's. I would buy one of their CDs. She's a pretty good singer and there were only a couple of mishaps.

Then the Veronicas came out and they were awesome and their drummer is freaking awesome and we had a good time. None of those kids really danced or anything which I found strange. Like they were all too afraid of looking stupid or something. Anyway, I love The Veronicas and BT likes them too now and I'm glad we went.

Then we went and ate at Acme Oyster House and it was too loud in there so we texted each other across the table. Then we went down Bourbon and got a Hand Grenande then BT knocked mine out of my hand by accident and I was sad, but we got some dairquis and they were awful. So we were tired and went back to the hotel. BT went and got us some food but I fell asleep and he woke me up and I ate a 2 burgers (Krystal!) and fell back asleep. It was a good time.

I'll tell you about the wedding some other time.

Zoorific

Elephants
Originally uploaded by curlyakb We went to the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans the other day. The little boy, B, loves animals like a whole lot so we thought it would be fun. He'd only been the the little zoo by our house which is nothing compared to the New Orleans Zoo. So the Monday after Easter, we drove over there. I hadn't been to the Audubon Zoo in a very long time and it is so nice. It is a very pretty zoo with lots of room for the animals. B's favorite animal are elephants. He carries a stuffed elephant around with him that is his lovely and can say elephant pretty well for a 2 year old.

Here's some pics from our trip:

This was early in the morning so everyone was just waking up and the tiger was laying around.

The Gorilla had just eaten was moving over to finish off his last sweet potato.

The little giraffe is only 3 and kept hitting the bigger one in the side until the big one got tired and whacked him back.

Big ol' alligators!

Relaxin Orangutan


Leopard

White alligator. They have two, but this was the bigger one.


We even got to ride the Carousel, although we skipped the train. B got to ride a zebra.

This is just some of the highlights. We had a lot of fun and it was a very nice day most of the day. Next time is the Aquarium of the Americas!

HSM3 & New Orleans

Among all the other things I did, I saw High School Musical 3 this weekend. First of all, though, I went to New Orleans with my husband to celebrate our anniversary. Except that Thursday I started sneezing and couldn't stop and woke up on Friday like crazy sick. I brought Bubs to daycare even though driving wasn't the best idea I but he needed to get there and then went home and rested. We had a nice time but it wasn't what either one of us had in mind. We had dinner at the Palace Cafe and it was excellent but I could only taste like half of the food b/c my nose was so stuffed up. Then I offered to go to Bourbon and walk around but thank God BT took pity on me and said to just go to sleep which I was practically doing anyway. The next day we had breakfast at Cafe du Monde and I got to hear people mispronounce the easiest words that we have here in Louisiana, like Baton Rouge or Monde. For some reason, the hilariousity of how people pronounce our words is never lost on me. BTW, Cafe du Monde must use, like, a box of powdered sugar on each order of beignets.

So Sunday, feeling much better, I went to see High School Musical 3. I enjoyed it but I would have enjoyed in more in the comfort of my home more. The songs didn't fit into the movie as easily as they did in the first one and, to some degree, the second. It was a cute story and everything worked like it was suppose to, of course. One of the girls that was with me asked if Ryan and Kelsey were dating now and I said no, they were just going to prom together b/c frankly Ryan is the gayest thing on that show, except for Troy's dancing, and I know that it's Disney but he (Ryan) is seriously gay and that's okay but let's not pretend otherwise. Also why was Troy giving a speech at graduation. There is no local reason for that. At least he wasn't wearing man capris b/c that and the dancing *head shake*


Also the little British chick can't sing and if they think they are building a franchise around her and the annoying surfer-hiphop-basketball guy than they have another thing coming. Because, at least Troy and Gabriella are likeable unlike these two idiots.

Also the fact that Martha, the bigger smart chick, is valedictorian and the head cheerleader and the best dancer is totally the best. See that's a lesson that we can take home without being beaten over the head with it. I think Martha personifies the whole point of these movies and she doesn't even sing about it. Okay, there was that one time, but still.