Wordless Wednesday

Sixteen months

One of my proudest moments as a father ...

... happened today.  The dogs finally caught and killed their first squirrel.

While Emilia and Gigi were quite distressed, I was beaming.  The dogs' wildest dreams had come true. 

Since this is a family blog and all, I do want to share what was a momentous time for some of our family (dogs).  But since this is a family blog and all, I figured pictures of dead squirrels on the front page wasn't the best idea.  So if you want to see the proud dogs, just click here.

Flashback Friday

In honor of all of the bluebonnets that are popping up around town, here's my favorite shot of the world's cutest baby in the wildflowers.

We have plans to take some shots this week of the world's cutest toddler in the bluebonnets, so stay tuned.

Pigtails and Peacocks

We met up with some friends at Mayfield Park yesterday morning for a picnic lunch. The weather was gorgeous and the kids had a great time exploring the grounds. I brought David's new camera and tried shooting in a manual setting. I'm getting better but still have so much to learn.

One of the dozens of peacocks that roam the grounds.

Desmond got a little wet and spent the second half of our playdate without his pants. Clearly he didn't let it damper his spirits.

I put pigtails in Ruby's wet hair that morning. When she pulled out the rubberbands, we were left with this.

T-Dawg, chillin' as usual.

(Jack was there too, but he runs real fast. I couldn't snap a picture quickly enough.)

SXSW

We took full advantage of the beautiful weather and free music last week, meeting up with Tio and Aunt Megs at the French Legation. Some pictures from our day:

My girls

More pictures from the past week or so will come later, but I had to share this one before heading to bed tonight.  My girls on Thursday evening:

Flashback Friday

St. Patrick's Day 2009

From Ruby Albina

The Salt Lick

For those of you who have not had the utter joy of visiting the Salt Lick, the BBQ joint west of Austin in Driftwood, make plans to go.  Now.  It is that good.  After visiting for the first time with Tio Chuy and Aunt Megs, even Ruby agrees.



And if the delicious, mouth-watering ribs, brisket, and sausage aren't enough, it's BYOB.





When we asked her what she liked the most, Ruby said the pork ribs.  When we explained that we don't speak baby, she made this face to translate what she said:

My lovely daughter

Seeing as though I'm off work all week, Ruby and I went to the park today.  Ain't she a cutie?

Mommy Mobile!

My fabulous husband traded in his beloved VW yesterday, and we bought our first "family car." It's a gorgeous 2010 Honda CRV- I am in love! I can't wait to take road trips and load the dogs up in the back, leaving plenty of room for Ruby and a future sibling in the backseat (not anytime soon if any readers are wondering).

Look for us on the road. We'll be the ones with the sunroof open singing along to a lively mix of the Scissor Sisters and Baby Einstein tunes.

More from our Favorite Fashionista

What do you do when your halloween shirt gets dirty at breakfast?

You change into your valentine's day shirt, accessorize with some glasses and a paci, and hope that no one notices that your shirt and pants don't match. Oh, and be sure to keep the thong around your neck. It really makes the outfit.

Fifteen Months!

Ruby had her fifteen month well-check yesterday afternoon.

Height- 32 inches (87%) She's grown 2.5 inches in 2.5 months!

Weight- 23 pounds, 4.5 ounces (54%) She's gained one whole pound in the same time period.

The appointment confirmed that Ruby is more like her daddy every day- tall, skinny, and as cute as can be.

Some random cute stuff she's doing these days:

• Ruby knows tons of body parts. Her favorite is her "butt." It's not her bottom she's talking about though, it's her belly butt-on.

• She has quite a flair for dramatics. She likes to say "sad" now and scrunch up her face like she's crying. I am excited that she has learned her first emotion word, as she also uses it when she is genuinely sad about something.

• Ruby is still breastfeeding and we have no plans to stop. When Gigi was watching Ruby last week, Ruby would bring Gigi the nursing cover, sign for milk and ask for her momma. Gigi would bring her upstairs to nurse, then take her back downstairs to play while I slept some more. What a sweet Gigi!

• Stella and Ruby have a special love connection these days. Ruby is always loving on Stella, climbing on her back, kissing her all over, and patting to invite her onto the bed. Stella loves Ruby too, but I sometimes wonder if the bond has something to do with Stella eating the remnants of mealtime that she finds on Ruby's clothes.

• Ruby knows about thirty-five words. I love to hear her repeating new words, but realize now that all cursing will have to take place once she's in bed. Not that David and I ever curse.

• Rubes is obsessed with video-chat. She will bang on the computer, yelling out the names of favorite family members with whom she would like to chat. Then, while chatting she will make demands for others to get on too. For example, while talking to Aunt Lo the other night, it was difficult to even hear Lauren talking because Ruby kept yelling, "Jake! Jake! Jake!"

• She has discovered the joys of dress-up already. Everything goes over her head, as you can see in the following photo where she is modeling a pair of my underwear with gray heels and Halloween pj's.

Hello there

So sorry for the lack of updates,  but the entire household has been sick the past week or so.  It began with Ruby, moved to Emilia, and has now infected me.  It's quite fun.

As a means of showing we do still exist, here's a picture of Ruby from her trip last week to Houston to visit Gigi and Baba:

The Great Outdoors

Ruby is an outdoor-sy kid.  About nine out of ten times that she's grumpy or in a funk, all we have to do is go play outside and her mood will brighten.  So we knew Ruby would enjoy our trip on Sunday to Austin's St. Edwards Park.






And indeed she did.





More pictures after the jump ...