April 2005 Archives

Scene from last night’s crab boil at Angela’s and Joey’s. It was a lot of fun.

I believe Steven found these guys panhandling in Pirate’s Alley. After the crawfish boil, he took them to Sin City.

Who could resist this face? He makes the most adorable pouty mouth when he's about to cry.

One of his first smiles.

My boy is sleeping through the night! He is going to be nine weeks old tomorrow and he has given me four nights of seven and eight hour stretches. I’m hoping this is going to last. He’s also smiling and cooing now.

We go next Wednesday, May 4, to stay overnight at Children’s Hospital for Samuel’s sleep study test. We’ll have to be there from 10 am that day until the same time the next day. If he doesn’t have any apnea episodes, we’ll be taken off the monitor. He’ll also have a PH test done to see if his reflux has gotten any better. That’s the one that I am not looking forward to. He’ll have a tube through his nose, down his esophagus, and into his stomach to test the acid level. He’s on Zantac right now because they did this test when he was 5 days old and found that he had slight reflux. Like father, like son. Joey had this test done before he had his surgery last summer and he was VERY uncomfortable. Samuel tolerated it pretty well when he was 5 days old, but I don’t think he’ll do as well this time, now that he’s more awake and moves more.

Love,

Rob

Some Sunday morning beauty; compliments of my sister, Katie. She gave me some red Louisiana Irises when we moved into our new house in Bush about 10 years ago. There was only one or two in the pot. I planted them in a low spot in the yard for a time before I had dug out our pond. After a year or so, the grass started growing and that spot was not all that low any more but Patsy watered them religiously for a long time so they would think they were in water. I pulled them up and tossed them into the pond two years ago where they are now thriving. Last year, Katie gave me some purple ones out of her ditch. Again, it was only one or two. They're thriving, too, and I had at least as many purple blooms as red. They're spreading nicely and I'll be just fine if they take over the pond. They are spectacular.

Last Sunday, I had one red Louisiana Iris and several purple ones. The purples are finished. The reds own the pond.

The reds are gorgeous.

Recently, Carol asked me how my "hounds" were. I immediately put her straight that they were "little ladies," never "hounds."

My neighbor's German Shepherd took a nip at Jacob's finger which was thrust through the fence to pet his nose. Christina drove around the block to talk to the owner and he said he would have to put up a privacy fence. (Elizabeth tells me he can legally ask me to pay half the cost, but I'm in the clear so far.)

After the fence was in place, turned out that Rudy objected to having his view blocked and he started to dig a tunnel under the fence into my yard. Once I saw it was head-size, I put my step ladder length-wise against the fence, and last night, while I watched, Gretel walked through the ladder and into Rudy's back yard. After some fruitless yelling, I drove around the block only to find out that the neighbors weren't home. When I came back, Christina had already taken care of the situation by shaking the doggie treat container, and Gretel showed up, followed by Rudy's head, also looking for a treat.

The trollop.

The one thing I really miss since we moved to the NorthShore is sno-balls. We were regulars at Sal's. There are no decent sno-balls to be found on the NorthShore within a reasonable distance of me that has hours or expertise that suit me. There was a stand on my way home that made fairly decent but expensive ones but it was totally dependant on a flighty teenager to open and serve. One night, it was open. The next, it wasn’t. Couldn’t depend on them. It’s now gone. Go figure.

My favorite. A spearmint with condensed milk. What spearmint and bubble gum sno-balls do to our digestive systems won’t be mentioned here in this family journal.

As I was eating my spearmint sno-ball with condensed milk in their parking lot, a guy pulled up to me, rolled down the window, and asked, " What's the best way to get to the zoo? ". If you know where this stand is in relation to the zoo, you can understand how difficult it might be to direct someone that was this far off. It requires a pretty long set of directions ( Did the best I could ) but I doubt that guy made it there without stopping again.

Mary Catherine has two very fun pieces of news that she would like to share with everyone. At 10am this morning, she got her braces off. Her orthodontist presented her with a big bag of chewy candy, gum, balloons, and a wine bottle of apple-grape juice. Her smile is so pretty now that she is minus all of the hardware. She wore her braces for two years, six days. (I didn't remember how long she had them on, but she had the exact date filed away in that steel trap mind of hers.)

The second major news item is that Mary Catherine made cheerleader!!! 72 girls tried out and 24 were selected. She worked very hard. She had to learn a dance, a cheer with all kinds of hand movements, a few jumps, and how to "spirit out". I didn't know that the cheerleaders danced. Their dance was a lot of fun!! I think she is going to have a great year! I can't wait to see how darling she looks in the cute little uniform!! After she was selected, I got to see her perform with the whole squad and it was such fun!!

While I was busy with Mary Catherine, Scott was entertaining Joe and 4 friends who came over for his birthday party. I had planned his birthday party before we knew about the tryouts. I didn't know until yesterday that if she made it, I would need to be there for an informational session and performance. Immediately after the performance, I raced home to meet Scott and the boys to take them to Funland. (I was supposed to leave Scott the van and I forgot.) Joe and his friends rode go-carts, played golf, and laser tag. We also gave them each a $3.00 card to play the games at the end of the evening. We thought they would blow through that really quickly and then we could leave. One boy went through his in no time. The rest took a while, but JACKSON took forever. I think somebody was ADDING money to it when my back was turned. I didn't think he would ever be through!!! They were all so cute (and a bit wild) and had such a good time! I am exhausted!!

I am so drained! I have been on an emotional rollercoaster this week and (as Scott kept pointing out) I wasn't even the one trying out!!

I hope that y'all get to read this. This is my fourth attempt to post something and I think if this doesn't go through, I'm done.

Make sure you read Mom's story below.

April 14 -- Eleven days past due date

For about a week I had a bad case of the flu. I had lost weight, couldn't eat, was getting weaker by the day. Poor me. I called the doctor on Sunday and he said he would set everything up for an induced labor next day.

We were told to report to the hospital at 3 p.m. and so we did. Nobody looked at us for a long time and then finally, about 5:00, a nurse came and got me. She put me to bed in a labor room and we continued to look at each other till the doctor arrived around 8:00.

He hooked me up to an IV drip of Pitocin to start the labor. It took him about ten minutes to get the drip dripping just so; one drop every five minutes or whatever. He didn't want it too fast nor too slow. Perfect. Daddy was invited back into the room and immediately tripped on the stand, yanking the drip out. Dr. Albert couldn't believe it and guess what? He started it over again and it took him one minute. It seemed to me that the second time he didn't care at all whether it was one drip every five or one drip every twenty or fifteen drips every three. Didn't matter any more.

Sue was born at 10:00 pm weighing 7 pounds 14 ounces. She was a perfect little girl right from the start, although Daddy claimed that she cried when I walked out the door, never stopping till just before I returned.

Robbie, aged 14 months, loved her. He called her "Nnnnnnnn." Until he was three years old.

She continues to be a perfect girl to this day.

Happy Birthday, Sue.

Patsy and I are headed to French Quarter Fest in about an hour. Muriel's Crawfish and Goat Cheese Crepes ( On the menu today for $4 in Jackson Square ) are calling out to us. Update: It was delicious although the portion seemed a little smaller this time.

St Louis Cathedral in mourning for Pope John Paul II. Black wreath over the door.

This had to be the smallest shop I have ever been in. It's right off of Pirate's Alley.

I don't know if I'd drive to Baton Rouge for a Hopper's Hot Fudge Sundae but I think I'd make a point of finding it if I was heading in that direction. Mom and Dad used to take us to Hopper's Drive-In for Hot Fudge Sundaes when we were kids. The waiters used to run to your car and you could hear the coin change jangling in their pockets. From the web page:

Thomas recalls that parents brought their children in nightgowns and pajamas when they stopped by at night.

That was us.

A fabulous hot fudge sundae in a tall fountain glass (Not plastic) at Hopper's was 20 cents. Yeah, I guess I'm old. They had standard drive-in fare, too, but I don't think we ever ate dinner there. Burger King bought the two locations I knew but I'd rather have the Hopper's back.

This is about a third of the people we had over for the crawfish boil earlier tonight. Some of the adults were inside because it was a bit chilly although it was a gorgeous day otherwise. Some of the kids were running around on the trails in the yard. A bit of an understatement to say the kids like the trails.

This is one of the gorgeous Louisiana Irises that Katie was gracious enough to give me out of her drainage ditch. I took this picture earlier today before everyone got here. They like the pond I put them in. Thanks, Katie.

Thanks to everyone who came. Patsy and I had a great time. Getting to see Stephen's video was also great.