Our trip to D.C.: Tour by Diaper Change

On this walkathon of a trip, I feel like I've toured D.C. by diaper change. I have changed my son's diapers in or around many of the major monuments and historical places in D.C.

Is it sad that my sister-in-law and I started early on keeping a running list? It actually sort of helps me to keep all of our sightseeing memories together. I don't just have a memory of seeing the Vietnam Memorial, I have the memory of the Vietnam Memorial AND the unprepared diaper changed from you-know-where on the sidewalk behind it...

Here's a short list of our (or just my?) D.C. Tour by Diaper Change: 

- Union Station - Shell and I tag-teamed this poopy diaper change in a tiny, crowded bathroom in Union Station. I couldn't have done it without her.

- CIA Headquarters- I changed Gabriel's diaper in a bathroom near the walk-through spy museum at CIA headquarters in McClain. 

- A bench at baggage claim in Dulles - My first D.C. diaper change! A heavy double number affair on a bench in baggage claim. 

- Vietnam Memorial - Michael and I walked to a  secluded sidewalk behind the Vietnam Memorial to take care of a terrific stinker. The nearest bathroom was dirty, crowded, and didn't have a changing table, hence the sidewalk idea. When the cold air hit Gabriel's bare nether regions, giggles and fountains of baby pee erupted for about 30 seconds. Michael and I weren't prepared for the extent of the poopy or pee fountain, so we ended up just having to let it run its course. We had to put on the now-drier outfit that we originally dressed him in because he had peed through that first outfit and had now peed through his emergency outfit from the diaper bag. 

- A sidewalk off Pennsylvania Avenue - a particularly loud and somewhat embarrassing episode in which we had to change him on a bench off Pennsylvania Ave. while heading to the Supreme Court building. He had a terrible diaper rash from me accidentally feeding him strawberry baby food the day before (strawberries and blueberries don't agree with him), so he cried and cried. 

- St. Patrick's Cathedral - We had to change him on an old pew in the back of St. Patrick's Cathedral after mass last Sunday. The bathroom line was too long and everyone else was anxious to get going to see the monuments. 

- U.S. Capitol - Gabriel peed through another outfit just before our tour of the Capitol. Shell and I rushed to the bathroom, changed him into his emergency outfit, and ran back. The tour had started without us, but the kind usher thankfully snuck us in the back.

- Mount Vernon - I did a quick diaper change before we went in to the 25 minute movie presentation visitors can choose to see before walking the grounds. Thankfully, this was not a very eventful one. 

On another note, I am overwhelmingly grateful that I am not still nursing Gabriel. I was very upset when I had to wean him a few months ago (I didn't even blog about the process), but on this particular trip, I have another reason to be thankful. Not to underestimate myself, but  I am pretty positive that I wouldn't have been able to handle this trip with a younger, still nursing, baby! (OK, make that, I am pretty positive that I would never have scheduled or wanted to schedule this kind of sightseeing trip at all with a younger, still nursing baby.) 

A "Trip" vs. a "Vacation": Let's Clarify

Michael and I had a good conversation the other day about definitions, specifically the definitions of "trip" and "vacation." This conversation came about after a very long day on the very "trippy" trip we happen to be on right now.

These "definitions" are completely subjective, and apply only to my own little family* :)

*In fact, I'll admit that some statements actually apply only to myself, especially if they involve naps or Very Thick Books.

TRIP

Usually to an exciting new place or city. Ambitious. Schedules. Lots of pre-trip planning. Tennis shoes with every outfit you plan to wear usually a must. A "full schedule" (Read: too many activities) planned on trip. Beautiful sightseeing. Beautiful landscape. Take 800 pictures and usually never go through them and print them out. Return home more tired than when you left (important point). Have some fantastic memories from the trip, but also a vague feeling of being really tired at least some of the time. 

VACATION

Relaxation. Break from normal responsibilities. Little or no worry about money, within reason. Hours of uninterrupted hang out time with my best friend/cute husband.  Beautiful sightseeing. Beautiful landscape. Little/no/VERY flexible schedules. Sleeping in. Every day. Naps (my own insertion). Great food. Reading an amazing book (or series of books if you're me). Take 800 pictures and usually never go through them and print them out. Come home refreshed and relaxed with some great memories. 

My best vacation to date? My awesome honeymoon at Sandals in St. Lucia. Quiet. A break from daily responsibilities. Little or no worry about money, within reason. Hours of uninterrupted hang out time with my best friend/cute husband. Beautiful sightseeing. Beautiful landscape. Sleeping in. Naps. Great food. Reading an amazing book (or series of books if you're me). 

I've had the blessings of many great trips and vacations in my life, and of course I've had a nap or two on some of those "trips" and have been dead tired at times on some of my "vacations." I'm not an all-or-nothing kind of person (at least I'd like to think so--my husband would probably disagree with that statement at times)  so I am not saying that I am expecting to be tired all the time on every trip or that I won't call anything a vacation where I can't read a 3-inch novel. I'm generalizing :).

It was just a nice (and healthy) thing to get my husband and I on the same page about what to expect when we go out of town.

Especially now that we have Gabriel, it is a good thing for both of us to be realistic about going out of town. Call things by their right names, you know? A communication point maintained, I think, by every great team. :)

So far, so good

We successfully completed our first flights with Gabriel today, and he did GREAT! (I am writing this from my iPhone)
We are so thankful!!!
It was an exhausting day (I was up a 4 am) though.
The only hitch other than the ridiculously early wakeup call was when Gabriel threw up copious amounts of badly blended banana-stomach acid smoothies all over my father-in-law, the aisle, and seat 31D. Poor baby. Poor passengers who had to clean tiny splatters of Gabriel's stomach contents off their carry-ons; Gabriel threw up right as we were getting up to leave the second plane. Good thing he had been smiling and making sweet eyes at every e around us during the flight;0)

Gabriel's going to be a singing man.

Here are pictures and video from Uncle Adam's visit last week for the Kahdalea/Chosatonga camp showing, AND from Lulu and Faux Paw's visit last weekend. Enjoy! 

I was obviously singing very badly one day, and Gabriel took a liking to two particular, not-very-good notes I strung together at some point. And he would sing them to mimic me! You be the judge. I think this kid will be a singing man: 

A singing man like this one that is: 

Mark LaBelle playing some tunes for the crowd at the camp showing last Monday night

The setup for the showing. Note the flood light above the garage doors that Michael (with the help of some faithful friends..ahem...Jason Barbour) spent hours installing all by himself - It really makes a difference! 

Uncle Adam Trufant (Gabriel's godfather) feeding him lunch

Wonderful Uncle Adam again :)

Gabriel with his new nebulizer. 

Daddy and Gabriel with the nebulizer.

Lulu (my mom) and Gabriel at BJ's Brewhouse for Great Aunt Mary's birthday lunch. Lulu was VERY excited to see her beautiful grandson again!

That's what you do when you love someone

I've been giving Michael a bit of a hard time lately because he refuses to take me to see the Nutcracker this Christmas. Not one show. Ever. End of discussion. 

I've been thinking, though. 

I've been thinking about how many times my husband emails me a link to neat article he found. Or comes to me excitedly telling me I have to go check out the next scene on a History Channel show he's watching. Or asks me if I want to see what he's been building in the garage. Or wants to show me a design project he's been working on all week for work. 

Let's just say that none of those things really inspires my soul:) 

But what I am thinking is that they should--at least a little bit. For Michael's sake. Because he's such an open, generous-hearted person that he naturally wants to share his enthusiasm with everyone around him--especially with his wife. How sweet is it that he wants to share something that he finds fascinating? He so actively tries to include me in his life, and I need to learn so much from him on that!

I still hold out a glimmer of hope that Michael will one day take me to see the Nutcracker or sit down and watch "Pride and Prejudice" with me. :) BUT...it's OK if he doesn't. And that's the truth. This whole marriage thing isn't a contract reading: "I'll watch Jane Austen if you get more interested in my woodworking hobby." It's a, "I'll spend a little time with you and something new because it's important to you." 

That's something you do when you love someone, right? 

New "This Week" section and Gabriel praying?

Make sure you check out my new "This Week" section on the left-hand side of my blog! I love how Katie at Let My Soul Flower in Thy Sight does a similar "Weekly Snapshot" at the end of her posts, so I must credit her blogging genius for that idea.

And here's one that's up for debate...Doesn't Gabriel look like he's praying in this picture? (Complete with handheld cross and palm up meditation pose :)

Happy are the grateful

My friend Fiona showed this video at last's night's Lifeteen Core Formation meeting at my house. The link is to a brilliant homily by Fr. Gary Braun, the pastor at the Catholic Student Center at Washington University in Saint Louis. 

This video is worth watching with your family this Thanksgiving. And I won't summarize Fr. Braun's homily in this post. Let watching this 10 minute homily be your time with God today. We all need to hear this message.

 http://washucsc.dreamhosters.com/10-10-2010/video-640x480.mp4

We do well to give thanks and praise to God.

In other words, it is good for us to remember our blessings and to thank God for them. We Catholics say these words as a community at the beginning of every single mass. I've said them (quite literally) a thousand times--but I've never thought about how important those words are to my happiness and to my faith. 

The beatitude "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" seems to fit this idea for me. Without exception, I can say that the most "pure of heart" people I know are also the most grateful and gracious people I know. 

And think that those people all see more of God and His work in their lives than the average person.  

Hospitality

We've had more than 30 guests and overnight visitors at our home over the past month, so we've been very busy lately! Between guests, Michael and I have been feverishly working on projects around the house, including lots of special just-for-guests cleaning and projects.

All of this work really got me thinking a lot about hospitality.

I love the art and challenge of making my house a home. I have such a strong desire to create a peaceful, holy, restful, (reasonably) clean, welcoming home for my family and for visitors. But now I'll be honest with you: I've struggled with what makes my house a home. 

My struggle has been with my desire for things that I think make my home the place I want it to be. The right curtains, paint, shelf, wall art, cute sign above the front door, patio furniture, landscaping, toothbrush holder (and matching towel bar), chair, doormat, candle, lamp...and the list goes on. "Wouldn't that greenery and matching candlesticks make my mantlepiece look gorgeous?" It would be so great to have those lovely pillows to decorate the beds in the guest room!"

I know it's not things that make a house a home. It's not the right mirror, or scented candle, or decorative sconce that makes people feel welcome. (I wonder if those things can sometimes just make a hostess a little more confident in having people in her home :). Beautiful things can surely help make my home a lovely place to be in for me, my family and visitors, but things can't stand in for genuine warmth, loving attention and old-fashioned hospitality. 

After we bought our house, I fell into a trap for a while in which I had to constantly inform visitors of every improvement we planned to make to the house, and also of my recognition of every existing fault of the house. "I know the carpet is a little stained here, but we want a lot of kids so we figured we would keep it for a while." "The shower isn't the nicest, but we're planning a full remodel in five years or so." "I'd love a bench and some pretty pots for the front porch, but we're thinking next summer." I also fell into the trap of getting my feelings hurt if anyone made any unsolicited suggestions about home improvements or decorating choices.

I've been freeing myself of those traps lately, though.

When he stayed with us last week, our friend Adam  was telling us about his mission work in Mexico over the summer, and how the people there were so generous and showed him incredible hospitality, even though they had little to offer him. The way he spoke about them told me that he had felt incredibly welcome in those people's humble homes. 

Talking to Adam was a wakeup call for me, a reminder of how frivolous my little hostess anxieties are--and how those anxieties are not of God. 

This post isn't to say that I am not asking for plenty of gift cards to home stores and Hobby Lobby for Christmas :). I'm simply declaring that I've pushed my homemaking reset button and gotten back to the basics.

I saw a fantastic sign this weekend that God snuck in there to help me pin down those basics:

"Live so that people who don't know God will come to know Him because of you." 

I'd really love to have a sign with that quote on it for my foyer. :)

Easy dijon chicken recipe - Just thought I'd share

I've made this easy chicken dish several times now, and everyone always likes it! I pair it with a simple salad of Romaine or spinach, tomatoes, green onions, croutons and/or whatever veggies I have in the pantry. I make a simple balsamic vinaigrette for the salad of 2 parts olive oil to one part balsamic vinegar (with a little minced garlic, salt and pepper added if I'm being an overachiever that day).

Enjoy :)

Dijon Chicken

Ingredients: 

1. Dijon mustard
2. 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, patted dry and trimmed of fat
3. 1/3c Parmesan cheese
4. 2/3c bread crumbs
5. 1 tbsp Italian seasoning (or thyme and parsley)
6. 2 tbsp butter
7. Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Mix bread crumbs, parmesan, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper
2. Brush chicken breasts with dijon mustard, then coat with bread crumb mixture
3. Melt butter in a large skillet
4. Cook chicken breasts over medium-high heat until cooked 

The best adjective to describe me right now is...

Tired.

Michael and I have been ridiculously productive this week. And we're beat. If you want to skip the rest of this post and head to the adorable pictures and video at the bottom, I won't be upset. I'm too tired to write anything remotely edifying or intelligent tonight. :)

Since this past Monday, we have: 

• Finally installed a new toilet in our master bathroom
• Nailed in new baseboards in the bathroom
• Finished painting the walls in that bathroom
• Organized the garage
• Installed a much-needed floodlight above our garage doors

(Just me)

• Done almost all of our laundry
• Made more baby food for Gabriel
• Cleaned out the drawers and cabinets in the vanity and re-lined them
• Cleaned out the master vanity and re-organized bathroom supplies
• Planned youth group night for this Sunday
• Wrote a talk I am giving for the youth group night this Sunday evening
• Dealt with five days of the worst diarrhea and diaper rash Gabriel has ever had (Michael has helped of course :)

All of this has been in conjunction with normal work for our jobs, cooking, grocery store, errands, etc. Yikes!

We are going to bed early tonight, though. As in right after the video and pictures finish loading for this post. I'm breaking out my favorite snuggly pajama pants and fuzzy socks for the first time this winter. Helloooo cool weather! 

The house projects, at least, have all been in preparation for the camp showing we are doing on Monday night for Kahdalea and Chosatonga. Gabriel's godfather and our dear family friend, Adam Trufant, is driving down with another friend, Mark LaBelle, to do a showing in Houston at our house. 

Adam and Mark are going to give a little concert in the front yard, and we'll have food and desserts for everyone. I'm making homemade vanilla buttercream cupcakes I found on Brown Eyed Baker. 

Like I said, you could have skipped down to this point in the post and not missed anything important. Most of you just come to this blog for pictures of the cutest 11-month-old in Texas anyway, right? :).  

I can't get enough of my baby boy laughing. It is the most wonderful, wonderful sound in the world to me!

He is going to hate that I posted this picture one of these days, but I don't care right now. :)

He starts laughing when you don't pull his shirt all the way off his head, so half the time I just leave it and we have some bonding time laughing together. :) I have been trying to make him laugh a lot this week, since his diaper rash has been so awful that he cries through every diaper change. The Coles lent us a special powder they use instead of diaper cream now, but I accidentally  left it at MDO on Friday, so we have to wait until Monday to start using it again. In the meantime, all the Boudreaux's in the world and scaling back his food intake to plain foods hasn't seemed to help; Gabriel's diaper rash has stayed bad all weekend! Prayers for poor Gabriel please! :)

A great post on the business of becoming

I just wanted to share this great post by my friend Nicole on her blog, the business of becoming.

I love the way she unpacks issues in popular culture's ideas about femininity. For example, she juxtaposes modesty vs. prudishness, and the provocative use of sexuality and gender dominance vs. what Pope John Paul II called "the feminine genius."

Wonderful stuff :)

http://thebusinessofbecoming.blogspot.com/2010/10/modesty-thoughts-on-being-prude-and-new.html#comments

I'm addicted to Gabriel Giggles!

For an instant pick-me-up today, do yourself a favor and watch this little home video Michael took last night (It's on his blog, Franco Philosophy).

I was picking up a plate from the kitchen table when Gabriel started giggling his heart out at me for some reason. I started teasing and tickling him, and we had a glorious Gabriel giggle fest for a few minutes!

http://francophilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/11/gabriel-was-in-laughing-mood.html

I love this kid!!!

A rainy morning poem

It's a humid, rainy Election Day here in Houston. When I woke up for the day around 6 a.m., the sleepy patter of rain on the windows and roof made me want to just roll over, snuggle myself warmly between Michael and some pillows, and go right back to sleep!

It's raining, it's pouring, 

wish I were still snoring, 

back in my bed

covers over my head 

sleeping through the morning

In the end, though, it's a no-brainer to get up early now. My morning prayer and quiet time has become a treasure for me each day--especially during the work week.

Zombies, spiked hair, a little lion and unsung heroes: http://ping.fm/LgGuw

Zombies, spiked hair, a little lion, and unsung heroes

We had a great Halloween this year!

I am not a fan of Halloween, but I will admit that this year has somewhat revived my enjoyment of this strangely-evolved holiday of our culture for me. (All thanks to Joe and April :)

The years since my trick-or-treating days have been highly uneventful and unmemorable as far as Halloween goes. Aside from the year I wore my first pair of "heels" (quite ugly black 1" high sandals, borrowed from a friend for my teeny bopper costume. I LOVED them.) and the year I first got to wear makeup (I went as Cleopatra to a friend's birthday party and my mom put REAL eyeliner on my eyes), I have usually stayed home with my family or else escaped  from candy duty somewhere with pizza and a movie. 

This year, we were invited to several Halloween parties. For a pumpkin-carving party we went to on Friday night, we didn't have a costume for Gabriel yet, so we put on some Halloween-themed pajamas somebody had given us and spiked his hair with water and hairspray. He was pretty cute :)

The highlight of Halloween this year for us was a zombie themed murder-mystery party hosted by some friends of ours. We had a blast! 

I was cast as intrepid and ambitious Zombie TV reporter Anita Storie, and Michael was out-of-prison-for-one-night inmate Willy Bolt. Neither of us had ever been to murder-mystery party before, but we both loved it and had a great time! We decided to give this new experience our best shot. And we weren't so bad at it! In fact, I was voted "Best Actress" at the end of the night, and Michael lost "Best Male Costume" by one vote!

Michael's costume was pretty cool. He dressed up as a thuggish inmate, complete with a red bandanna around his head, gangster-ish shirt, jeans and heavy boots, and real chain strung around both ankles, around his waist and between his hands! (Pictures below!)

And I forgot to mention we did some killer zombie makeup (pun intended :). We looked up a how-to video on YouTube and ended up buying a $2.35 makeup compact with black, white and gray eyeshadow, smearing it artfully all over our faces, and looking completely hideous. 

Good thing Gabriel was in bed before we did our makeup! We about made the babysitters jump out of their seats :)

Alright, alright...here are the pictures! :)

And here's the sweet little lion who visited us on Halloween night. We just wanted to eat him all up he was so cute! Good thing we didn't put our Zombie makeup on again to hand out candy...our zombie selves would probably have been overcome by the cuteness and have taken a bite out of his chubby little cheek! :)

By the way, Happy All Saints Day today! What a beautiful feast to remember all of the saints, both those we know and remember, and those "unsung heroes" throughout history who who lived humble, yet powerfully holy lives.