my life in pixels and pronouns: March 2011

This photo sums up how much fun I had.

Back in November, my pal Shannon (who is also Kit's babysitter) texted me about a "Mommy's Conference" to be held in Dallas that she wanted to schedule in March. For those who don't know, a Mommy's Conference is a time when mommy's get together without their children and husbands and do the things that women love to do: Eat, Shop and Talk. Even though Shannon was nice enough to give me four months to prepare for my first overnight-trip away from Kit, I was still anxious about being away from her for two nights. To try to lift the mood, I made a mixed CD of some of the best girl band songs for the roadtrip. It helped.

Me and four of my closest pals, Shannon, Sunny, Stephanie and Tracie, headed to Dallas sans babies, husbands and grocery lists. For the record, I did not cry when I left. In fact, I didn't cry at any point in the trip. We headed out Thursday afternoon and arrived at our hotel around 7 p.m. Minus a little confusion with the check-in date, we were golden. Thank goodness my astute friend, Sunny, knew exactly what to do.

Then we went to a fabulous Italian restaurant and wine bar called Mercy. I was feeling wild so I had a glass of wine and the filet mignon. It was delicous. But what I want to remember from this experience was the crazy waiter who would literally disappear for 15+ minutes at a time. The service was horrible, but it made for a really funny memory. Oh, and who could forget the photos of naked women in the bathroom.

Because of the awesome (not) service, we didn't leave the restaurant until 9:30 p.m. We tried desperately to find this gelato place that didn't exist before retiring back to our hotel. Oh, but not before I fake ran into the pole to give all the girls a good chuckle. We stayed up talking until after midnight. For those who know me, this was about two hours past my bedtime. I was told that I fell asleep about four seconds after the turned off the light. I believe them.

The next morning, we woke excited! We decided we would have breakfast at this cute little cafe called The Dream Cafe. This was one of those places where you really had a hard time picking what to eat ... do you go with delicious sweet pancakes or a hearty breakfast? I opted for the latter as evidenced by this photo. Yes, this was my BREAKFAST. Don't judge me.

I had the Austin Tacos which made me think of my LP in Austin.

Here is Sunny with her chocolate chip muffin which she enjoyed with an iced cold glass of milk. Did I mention that they heated up the muffin?

Shannon, me and Steph

Sunny and Tracie showing off the french toast.

After we ate, we laughed, we shared and we cried. We did a lot of this. But this particular time, I witnessed why you need good girl friends in your life and I'm lucky to have them in mine.

Then, the action started. We headed to NorthPark Center which is a big fancy shopping mall in Dallas. We stayed here for a LONG time. We did a lot of shopping and ended up eating lunch here. We left the mall to hopefully find a place to get some spa treatment near Allen Outlet Mall. As we were pulling into the mall, there it was ... a nail salon. It was like a light from heaven shinning down. Two of the girls got pedicures while Sunny and I got our eyebrows waxed which is a whole other funny story that I won't get into for fear of people thinking I'm stereotyping. But I wasn't!

OK, this might have been the funniest thing that happened to me the entire trip. After we left the nail salon, Shannon, Sunny and I were walking over to the outlet mall. As I'm walking, I reach into my purse and pull out my sunglasses. After I put them on, I realize something isn't quite right. At first, I thought I was having some sort of dizzy spell that actually worried me because I wasn't walking straight. This went on for a few seconds before I took off my sunglasses to realize I had lost a lens and that's why I was walking funny. I laughed. Hard. And Sunny took pictures.

We shopped our little heart's out until the mall closed at 9 p.m. Then ... we were hungry! Tracie had talked about this great place that had a huge ice cream cake thing. That's all she had to say. We were in. We drove to Champps, but not before stopping at Walgreens. I ordered the meatloaf. Isn't that random? OK so picture this ... five girls in what appears to be a sports bar and let's just say the alcohol tab was probably not what the waiter had hoped. We stayed until 2 a.m. YES, 2 a.m. I seriously can't tell you the last time I was out until 2 a.m. and it certainly wasn't because I was having the heart-to-heart I was having with these guys. I would be lying if I said I didn't have a breakthrough at about 1 a.m. I think we all did. But I am especially grateful for my amazing friends and what they mean to me. Thanks girls!

Here we all are with the Mile High Ice Cream Pie.

So we close the place down and drive back to the hotel only to stay up until 4 a.m.! Did I mention that we were getting up at 7:30 a.m. to leave that morning? We finally crash and it seems like 30 minutes before the alarm went off. We all hurry to get ready and eat breakfast at Einstein Bros. Bagels. It was OK. But it's no Old School Bagel Cafe.

On the way back I break out the "All About Me" book and we laugh some more. We stopped by the Gap at the Gainsville Outlet to make sure we didn't miss anything at the Gap at the Allen Outlet Mall that we went to just 16 short hours before. Surprisingly, there was.

We had to backtrack a couple miles to hit up Rumpy's Little German Backerel and Deli. Let me just say that if you're ever passing through Gainesville, go ahead and stop by Rumpy's. You'll thank me. I promise.

I got home around 2 p.m. to a sleeping baby. I took the opportunity to take a little nap myself. The moment I heard her rustle on the monitor, I jumped up and literally ran in there to get her. It was a very happy reunion. She did great without me thanks to her daddy and my mother-in-law for taking such great care of her. I think this Mommy's Conference is going to have to be an annual trip.

If I made a graph of the total number of pictures of Kit I have taken each month since she was born, there would be a steady decline. There's a simple explanation ... it's easy to take tons of photos when all she did was lay around all day. It's dang near impossible to get a decent pic of this kid nowadays. If she see you with the camera, she'll come running, yes running, to grab the camera. And trying to get her to smile? She's way too interested in looking around to smile. All my old tricks don't work. That being said, I did manage to take a few photos of her yesterday out in the front yard.

This month has been busy. She went from slowly walking to running. Yes, running. She's into everything. She is also developing a little attitude. I had to use the "n" word for the first time this month. The "n" word is "no." And almost every time I use it she sits down (if she's standing) and starts crying. I think this is an early indicator. I calmly walk away and try not to give into her. It's hard.

I feel like she is very umm mature. I don't know how to explain it. She just seems older to me than a normal 11 month old. As we close in on a year, I have a pretty good outlook. I'm not overly emotional or too terribly sad. I really look forward to each new step. Now, on to planning a very special first birthday!

My little Kit at 11 months.

Wears size 12-18 months
Size 3 diapers
You're losing your baby fat
You love to play with your stackable bowls, bug jug and babies
You love to bounce your plastic balls on the kitchen floor - you'll do this for several minutes at a time
Bedtime routine begins about 8 p.m. and you're asleep by 8:30
You wake up between 5-6 a.m. and then go back to sleep until 7:30-8 a.m.
You hardly eat any baby food - you prefer whatever we're eating
You love lunch meat, cheese and bananas