Our New Family Motto: "You Don't Have to Shovel the Heat"

Y'all heard it here first: We are moving to Houston, Texas!

Our departure date is July 28!

Here is Cate in her new Texas outfit:

Cate and I picked out this cowgirl onesie while Sam was at his audition--yes, audition--to become the Executive Pastry Chef at Mark's American Cuisine. We decided right then and there that if Sam got the job we would purchase this get up from the hotel gift shop.

After I found this job posted online we worked together to get Sam's resume, cover letter, and portfolio together. We sent it off in the middle of June and within a day the Executive Chef owner of Mark's had called Sam and offered to fly him out to audition in the kitchen. Thus began a feverish few weeks of at-home preparation. Sam practiced four plated desserts that he would make when he got there. Here are photos of two of them (these are the rough draft practice versions he made at home--they were even better for the real thing!):

First, bread pudding made with chocolate donuts. This is topped with an almond toile (uh, that might not be how you spell that) cookie and served with a pistachio macaroon and tart cherry sauce.

Next, a lemon tart served with mint granita in a meringue basket and raspberry puree. Those are Pop Rocks on the end of the lemon tart:

The other desserts were a peanut butter banana s'mores and a goat cheese Bavarian with strawberry watermelon salad, basil, and a balsamic syrup.

Getting to Houston meant that Cate took her first airplane ride. Don't you love how skeptical she looks in this photo:

But she got the hang of it pretty quickly. Here she is on the plane:

While Sam was at his audition Cate and I mostly just hung out nervously in the hotel room. At one point we took a nap together in the giant hotel bed and when we woke up I found myself thinking, "Please let it be 11:00" but it was only 10:04. Sam's audition was six hours, from 8 until 2. I put off going to the pool until about 1:15 so that we'd have something to look forward to during the nerve wracking part. Here is Cate just before we headed out:

This girl is a fish! She loves swimming lessons so much and now she really gets the hang of getting in her bathing suit. As soon as I get it out she wiggles her whole body and squeals in delight. We had a great time at the pool! (It was the 4th of July, and so of course she wore her red, white, and blue suit from Grandma!)

While we were at the pool I was checking my phone every two seconds and Sam finally called. He had been offered the job! The next day we checked out neighborhoods and found a place to live. Within a week all the details of the package had been finalized, Sam had given his notice at work, and we had started to pack.

We are sad to be leaving our friends in Salt Lake, but we are so excited for our new adventure! I can't wait for warm Christmas. I'm already thinking about how we can have an outdoor element to Cate's first birthday party in December.

On our third date, Sam told me that when his kids turned one he wanted to make them cakes bigger than they were. Thus began our love story.

Clearly, a cake bigger than she is is a possibility--Sam made this wedding cake this week and Cate and I went to check it out:

Here is a better shot of it:

Not sure if I'll get to another post before we head out, but I'll get back on the blogging once we get settled in our new home.

See y'all later.

A Family Getaway

On Memorial Day we had a fun family getaway to Park City, which was a welcome respite after a couple of crazy weeks of work for Sam. Monday evening we took Cate in the pool, then hung out in our room eating pizza and watching TV (I know it seems totally un-American, but we don't watch TV at home. A whole evening of The Food Network and trash like The Bachelorette felt like a real indulgence!) It was perfectly blissful until … the 2AM family meltdown.

Cate had taken an extraordinarily long nap Monday morning, which was no big deal until we were all up and exhausted at 2 AM. We were all a little crazy, and two out of three of us were crying. A different two out of three of us were considering packing up and going home. We ended up staying and three out of three of us slept in until almost 10. On Tuesday morning when we woke up Sam jumped out of bed and addressed Cate and me, both still in bed: “Family,” he said, “I think we’ve regrouped after a good night’s rest! Good job, Family! Now let’s go have a fun day!” And we did: Off to Utah Olympic Park for the morning (Aerial ski jumping! Luge! Bobsled! Making of the medals video!) and lunch (and dessert by Sam's former boss, Raymond) at the new Montage Resort.

Bliss indeed.

Here are my two favorites in the pool (before the family meltdown):

Here we are all together at Utah Olympic Park (after the family meltdown):

You'll have to just imagine the family meltdown part, which included (among other things) brief but wanton disobedience to the government warnings regarding modifications to Cate's Pack-n-Play.

Here is Cate enjoying her first luxury hotel experience at the Montage Tuesday afternoon:

I think she's a natural on the chaise.

She Sits!

Cate is getting bigger and more fun every day! Her personality is coming alive and she—she, who for so long wouldn’t smile outside of our house—has become the biggest ham. She will smile, laugh for, and generally charm anyone who will look her direction. It turns out she might not be so much of an introvert after all.

On more than one occasion recently Sam has gotten her laughing so hard she can’t catch her breath, and she cannot contain her laughter and giggles when she is sitting in either of our laps listening to us talk to her or each other.

She has mastered so many new things lately … the most exciting of which is … sitting up! For a few days I wasn’t sure whether what she was doing officially counted as sitting up, but on June 3 it was official. She is a sitter-upper. She has not figured out how to get herself from a sitting to lying position on her own, so much like when she gets on her tummy and refuses to roll on to her back, she simply squawks, cries, or moans until her people (that’s Sam and me) come do the hard part for her. I know, I know, if I didn’t roll her over she would eventually figure it out for herself. But honestly, who suffers during that process? All of us. And I’ve never met a grown up who squeals to be rolled over from her tummy to her back or to get from sitting to lying down. So whatever, we do it for her.

Here she is with some toys on the first day I would officially count as a sitting up independently day:

She's Half Wisconsinite

First, a disclaimer: there will be no photo with this post because Sam has done some re-working of the files on our computer and as a result the computer wants to auto-upload the more than 700 photos of the munchkin that are on our camera, even though 697 of them have already been uploaded. It's a technical conundrum I am unprepared to deal with tonight.

Ok, so now on to the story: Our girl loves a good breeze. Regular readers will remember that for weeks Cate would stick her tongue out whenever she was faced with this force of nature called breeze. She's stopped doing that, but you can tell that she still just loves the blowing wind. And she has shown a distinct preference for cool breezes, which she definitely gets from her dad. I prefer to keep my "cool" breezes at about 72 degrees, thank you.

It's been in the mid-40s to low-50s here for a week or so (gasp) and tonight when Sam left to teach, Cate and I walked outside for a minute to say goodbye. She was so happy to be in the cool air that I decided to bundle her up and head out for an adventure.

Because Cate is half Wisconsinite, bundling her up meant adding a sweater and hat to her outfit. I am decidedly not half Wisconsinite and added a sweater, fleece-lined ski jacket, scarf, hat and socks to mine.

Not surprisingly, when we got to the playground there were (for once) no menacing fifth-graders standing in the baby swing. In fact, there were no kids out at all. Funny, when you take your infant to the park in 50 degree weather with rain clouds brooding overhead, you get the whole place to yourself.

I put Cate in the baby swing and she was in heaven! Hanging out in a hat swinging in the cool breeze is just her style.

I really try to not worry about what everyone else thinks about my parenting style (see "Yes, She's a Baby. And Yes, She's Here for Dinner"), but tonight as I pushed Cate in the swing for a few minutes I did find myself wondering what kind of kook passers-by might have thought I was.

And I came to the conclusion that I'm no kook ...

I'm just a California girl doing the best I can for my half Wisconsinite baby.

Recent Photos & Quick Stories

This is my third (and final) post of the evening. Believe it or not, there is one that is not about Cate, but you'll have to scroll down to get to it. This one is all about Miss C. Here are some recent photos of our favorite girl.

Cate loves to hang out in her diaper, but to be honest I never really remember that until I've already got her clothes on her. The other day I remembered and it was particularly warm that day so I decided that as a special treat Cate could sleep in just her diaper for her nap. She's never done this before, and this is what I found when I went in to check on her:

I think she liked my idea.

Here is Cate is her "Grandma Sweater" and a hat my mom sent her from Cannery Row in Monterey. We just love this girl's serious looks:

Finally, Cate in her tropical dress with her current favorite toy, Polly the Parrot:

And now for two quick snippets before I hit the sack.

First, on strollers: We are thinking about getting a jogging stroller so that we can take longer walks and not wear out the stroller we have, which is really not made for the three- mile route my post-pregnancy bum really ought to do every day. I’ve found strollers to be the only thing I don’t love about being a mom. I got so frustrated with one of ours this week (yes, we have two and we’re thinking about a third) that I very uncharacteristically almost broke it in two with my bare hands. Really not my style, which I think probably says something about the ongoing sleep deprivation, the poor engineering of the stroller, or both. Cate, for the record, was not in the stroller at the time.

Second, on a mother's instinct: Dogs are my second-to-least favorite animals, right above mice/rats/other short-haired rodents, which are my least favorite. This week, I was visiting someone from church who I know has a black lab. I’ve been over to this house before, and the dog and I have not really spent any time together because when people come over they put the dog in a bedroom. As we were visiting, Cate got squirmy and I asked to put her on the floor in the front room where we were visiting. I laid out Cate’s blanket and down she went with her rattle. I assumed the dog was in its usual place until, all of the sudden, the front door opened and in came my friend’s husband and her crazy, cantankerous, slobbery 70lb. lab, which lunged immediately for my sweet Cate. I have lived to tell you that I have never, ever in my life moved as fast as I did to pick Cate up. I grabbed her, her little body jostling, and held her so close to me I couldn’t believe what I’d done. Cute girl, she didn’t even cry. When I told Sam about it that night the only way I could describe it was sheer instinct. I told him I could never re-enact it. Sometimes I wonder if I would really “do anything” to protect Cate the way people say a mom will, but in that moment … I knew that I would. So did the dog.

Adios for now ... if you got this far, there are two more posts from tonight below.

Ladybug Cake

Ok, so I didn't fall asleep while that last post was uploading, so here is one that is actually not about Cate. Sam made a ladybug cake this past week for a girl's birthday party. He also made 24 matching cupcakes, but he didn't take pictures of those. Here's The Lady:

Cate's Latest

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, so I'm just going to copy and paste from a little newsletter I write once a week or so for our families. It's 11:39 PM right now, and if I don't fall asleep while these little snippets are uploading maybe I'll write a new post. If not, check back another time. And speaking of that ... does anyone read this? Will you leave me a comment? I don't mean to be a nag, but I sure do love comments. You're the best, Reader.

She Eats! Our pediatrician (have I mentioned lately how much we love him?!) said that we could start giving Cate some food in addition to formula whenever we were ready. We had tried some rice cereal to no avail, but we tried it again and it was a hit! The key: a tiny bit of applesauce mixed in. Honestly, who wants that pasty rice cereal with just formula in it? Not Cate! A little no-sugar-added applesauce was just the trick. I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised, since Cate comes from a long line of applesauce lovers on both sides.

Giggles Cate has been smiling for a while now, and on occasion and with much effort we have been able to get her to do something akin to a laugh. But in the last week or so she has really gotten the hang of giggling! Today, for no apparent reason, she just couldn’t get enough of herself laughing. She giggled for a few minutes, and I giggled right back at her, which just made her giggle more. I wish everyone could see her adorable double chin, two dimples, and tongue out as she howls!

Tummy Sleeper For generations, babies were put to sleep on their tummies. In our generation, that is a no go. Babies go to sleep on their backs. That is, until they can roll over. Cate’s new favorite thing is rolling over on her tummy to sleep, and it is the most stressful part of mommyhood so far. It absolutely freaks me right out when I go in her room and find her face-planted in her mattress. I know she’s strong enough to roll over. I know that she can use her bionic neck to lift up her head any time. And she is always breathing just fine. It’s me who stops breathing when she sleeps on her tummy.

Daddy-Daughter Date Sam has been able to be home for a whole day every few weeks since Cate was born to hang out with her for the day. One of their favorite things to do together is go to the Red Box to rent an action movie. This week they rented Harry Potter and something called Tron. I’m not proud of this, but Cate is absolutely mesmerized by the television. It’s hardly ever on, but when it is, or when she spots one somewhere else (in the mall, at a restaurant, in the waiting room of the tire place) she can’t take her eyes off it! She especially loves to sit in Daddy’s lap watching action movies, taking a break only to eat. Hey, don’t judge. At least she’s eating formula and not potato chips!

Cool Things Cate Has Figured Out Cate can officially turn pages in her board books! I’m so excited! It’s so fun to watch her grab the page and turn to the next one. We were in a waiting room this past week and she was totally entertained by her book the whole time. I did not read to her while we were there (how obnoxious would that have been?!) but I just let her flip through the pages looking at the pictures. When we read at home, she’s my go-to girl for page turning.

Another cool thing Cate has learned to do is sit in a grown up’s lap while the grown up eats without grabbing the food or the plates (she’s still working on not grabbing placemats and napkins). At first, she could only do it for about a minute, but now she can sit on a lap through a whole meal! How many grown ups could do that?!