I could never be one of those cheerful people on one of those house hunting shows.

So there's this scene in an episode of Sex and The City where Carrie goes to try on wedding gowns with Miranda, and she's so stressed out about her pending nuptials that she breaks out in hives. I could completely commiserate with that, as wedding dress shopping was something that I did not look forward to. At the time (ten years ago!) it seemed like such a large, daunting decision. There was this dress: A dress everyone would see me in. The dress that I should have dreamed up in my childhood and fantasized about for at least two decades. A dress that would be photographed on my body literally hundreds of times in one day. A dress that I would lovingly preserve and save in the chance that one day I'd pass it on to someone else to love forever. There was so much hope and expectation that came with wedding dress shopping, and I just couldn't handle all that pressure. So... I just put it off and put it off and put it off until it was six weeks until my wedding day and I hadn't tried on a single dress.

It was actually Chris who got me to go into the store (his amp repair guy was married to a woman who owned a bridal shop and he had finagled me a discount). I took my mom and my best friend Brooke with me, with the expectation that I would never find anything that lived up to this monumental thing I thought a wedding dress had to be. I expected to come home with something I felt lukewarm about. I expected to feel raw and dejected during the whole experience. I felt defeated before I even began. "So long as it's long, white, and my boobs and butt are covered, I'm fine." But I wasn't fine.

Before we were five

A couple weeks before Baby Lucy made her worldly debut, my incredibly talented friend Amy, of the newly launched Pinwheel Portrait, came and shot a "Good Morning" session of our family.

[via Pinwheel Portrait ©]

I am just over the moon for these photos. Amy simply asked us to go about our Saturday morning as usual as she quietly snapped away. I much prefer these documentary-style photo sessions versus highly stylized portrait sessions. So often photographers will ask to set up a session of family hanging out on a sofa in a field in the middle of no where. Ten years later would I wonder what the heck we were doing in a rando field on an antique couch? While that's pretty and all, it just doesn't capture the little things about home life that I want to remember years from now, like Caroline's chubby hands clutching her cat cup or the way Jude's fine baby hairs stick up all over the place in the mornings.

I can't stress enough how important I think it is to invest in good family photos. When my grandma passed away last winter I found myself wishing we had gotten more photos taken. I can't recommend Amy (and Nathan!) enough, and I will always treasure these photos as she did such a great job documenting our family just as we are.

Check out our full session on the Pinwheel Portrait blog here.

The very long story of Lucy's not that long birth

I have sat down to write Lucy’s birth story three times now. I know a lot of people are expecting it to be funny (like Jude’s) or shocking (like Caroline’s) but if there is one thing that our youngest daughter has shown us, it’s that she is full of laughter inducing surprises. She is a child unlike our others.
My friend Kathleen refers to me as the “t-shirt cannon of birthing”. While I have not (yet?) launched one of my children straight from my womb to a crowd of eager spectators, I will concede that, yes, my body (for whatever reason) seems to be incredibly efficient at birthing babies. It may be my only talent, so please forgive me if this sounds like I’m bragging a little.

Spending time with Amelia

I wanted to keep my outfit post streak going, but alas, I had to make the tough call to hightail it up to Indiana to spend some time with my sweet, sweet grandma [more about her here].

Glitzkrieg!

Pageant pictures are crazy:
That said, I was a bit hesitant to get my first round of Mrs. Austin photos done. I had a fear that my first professional pageant photo would have to be decked out with fake eyelashes, impossibly perfect skin, and glass doll eyes:

Video: Caroline + Banana

Caroline is six months old now! The other day, we let her try her first solid food. It was a banana, and she was so not impressed:
Her little faces crack me up!

Two years ago, Jude had a banana for the first time, too. Unlike his sister, he dug it big time:

Next up? Avocados and sweet potatoes. I hope those are better received.

Family videos: March 2013

SXSW 2013 has blown out of town. Did you survive? Do512 and Skype treated me to some great shows over the weekend (Big Freedia, The Polyphonic Spree, Third Eye Blind, & Foxes, respectively), and I am exhausted in the best way possible! I got to deepen some friendships, see some awesome shows, try out some new products (swag bags!), and I fell in love with my city even more. Someone asked me if I had ever been to Coachella, and I was like, "No way. I live in Austin. I get to do SXSW, Fun Fun Fun, and ACL all without leaving my town." If we're connected on Instagram and Twitter, you've been witness to some of my SXSW shenanigans.

I'm going to spend the next couple of days reconnecting with my family. I feel like Jude woke up this morning and he was no longer a toddler. He's a little boy full of energy and has an endless desire to learn. I am hopeful that he'll be an early reader. I was a little lax on lessons this past week and a half, and we're both missing our alphabet time together.
Can you believe how big he is getting?

Not to be outdone, Caroline is trying her hardest to show me how grown up she is. She is trying so hard to crawl and has been rolling and scooting (backwards) all around the living room this morning:

Doesn't it seem like only yesterday that Jude was learning to crawl?

I've missed these little monkeys! Thankfully SXSW doesn't last all year, and I have one entire year to rest up for the next one.

Thank you, Amplified Austin Partners!

 

My City Life friends and I were able to raise a total of $1375 for the Austin Children's Shelter, which is just phenomenal. I just want to do a quick shout-out to all the kind businesses who donated to the Austin Children's Shelter through my Amplify Austin fundraising page:

• Beauty Queen Blog 
• Blank Slate Patterns 
• Dragon Flight Dreams 
• Little Low Studio 
• Longhorn Fashions 
• Musana Jewelry 
• Noonday Collection 
• Polished 
• POM PR 
• Red Chair Market 
• Team Ensor 
• Toni Marie Photography 
• Tupelo Grease Co.

Please make sure to visit each of these websites and support small businesses who give a darn. I am grateful for their generosity and floored that Austin was able to raise $2.8 million dollars for charity in just 24 hours. They say everything is bigger in Texas, and I'm starting to believe that includes our hearts.

Ended: Amplify Austin [updated]

[Edited: Amplify Austin is over. Thank you to everyone who donated!]

Just a quick reminder, Amplify Austin is going on right now until 7pm tonight (Tuesday, March 5). If you donate through my give page, your $25 donation will be matched by local businesses and goes to The Austin Children's Shelter.

As a special thank you for your donation, businesses who donate $25 or more though my personal fundraising page will get sidebar advertising on Adored Austin through the end of April. If you want to donate to this great cause and you are not a business owner, I'll mail you a copy of Crave Austin (a $20 value) as a special thanks for donations of $25 or more.

See also: previous posts on Amplify Austin and The Austin Children's Shelter.

Donate here until 7pm: http://bit.ly/AmplifyATX

Austin Music: Meet Miranda Dodson

I want to do something unorthodox here and take a break from writing about clothes and my children to introduce you to my friend Miranda Dodson. If you aren't familiar with Miranda Dodson's music, I'm glad you're here. You're in for a superb treat.

©Miranda Dodson / One Pulse 

I am so happy that her music is getting a wider audience after being featured on NPR (right now her photo is on the front page of NPR.com... right under the Pope!). I listened to her song "Try Again" this morning and had a good, healthy weep. As I've mentioned before, my marriage was once on the brink of divorce, and somehow this song conveys the complexities (the tough spot where we vacillated between heartache and the hope) of Chris and I fighting for our marriage (we're celebrating nine years together this summer!). However, the song was written under a different circumstance:

Austin singer-songwriter Miranda Dodson didn't set out to write one of those songs that "sounds-like-one-thing-but-means-another"; it just happened that way. On first listen, the haunting, soul-searching "Try Again" appears to tell the story of a relationship gone wrong, but the heartbreak Dodson sings about is, in fact, her real struggle to bear a child. Following a miscarriage, Dodson found herself saddled with a sense of shame. During an interview with KUTX, she told me, "I thought, 'Something's wrong with me.' That's because no one talks about this." Dodson turned to her songwriting as a kind of therapy, but when she was done, she decided to go public — with both the song and her story — in the hope that others might find it therapeutic. What the song leaves out is the real-world ending: Her son just celebrated his first birthday. On second thought, "Try Again" is just what it sounds like: a love song. — David Brown, host of KUTX's Texas Music Matters

The song is haunting and lovely and poignant. Take a listen and download the song for free on NPR.com (and have Kleenex at the ready).

Congrats to Miranda, her music, and her family. Your friends are so proud of you!

Get ready for Amplify Austin, Austin

On March 4, the city of Austin is invited to rise to the challenge of raising $1 million dollars for area non-profits:

From the Amplify Austin webpage:

Whether Austin is the best place to live or the best city for dating, when it comes to national rankings, we stand tall. But there’s one area in which our fair city can improve – philanthropy. To show the rest of the world just how charitable this city can be, I Live Here I Give Here® proudly introduces Amplify Austin. 

Beginning at 7pm on March 4, 2013, Central Texans will be encouraged to hop on http://www.ilivehereigivehere.org and donate to their charity of choice from our list of local nonprofits. The good vibes you get from giving isn’t all you gain by contributing.

Throughout the day randomly selected donors will win impromptu serenades from some of the city’s most cherished entertainers. Although only a handful of people can win the in-person performances, EVERYONE who donates will receive an e-tribute from a surprise musician too famous to mention. You’ll just have to wait and see once you do your part to Amplify Austin!

As a local blogger and a volunteer at the Austin Children's Shelter, I want to do my part to help spread the word and to raise money for some of my favorite non-profit organizations. I'm going to come up with some incentives of my own to encourage giving, but go ahead and mark your calendars for March 4th. One million dollars is a lot of money, but I know Austin and I know this city is full of  generous people who have benefitted greatly from living here. I just know we'll be able to exceed our mark.

I Didn't Come Here to Die DVD release

It has been a long time coming, but today is the day! After enjoying a lengthy run on the festival circuit and having its theatrical release last fall, I Didn't Come Here to Die, the campy, low budget horror film I acted in a couple years ago, is finally available for wider consumption!
  Will, the composer // me // Emmy, the lead // Steve, my co-star // Pruitt, first Pruitt (crew)
  dvd cover & movie artwork
Check out IDCHTD on iTunes, Amazon (rent or buy), Redbox, and Blockbuster
If you like gory horror movies, this one will delight you. I had a lot of fun shooting this (and incidentally, this was my last acting project-- I've had two babies since we shot!), and I'm immensely proud of our little film. Here's a peek at some behind the scenes footage from my first day on location:

[Updated!] The very long and very true story of Caroline's very short birth

It only took us three days, but Chris and I finally settled on a name. Meet Caroline Maple Adams.

Maple was chosen because my grandpa planted a silver maple for each of his grandchildren, and they're my favorite tree. Lucy was a very close second choice for a first name, but in the end I decided that Caroline gives me the freedom to name subsequent children names outside the Beatles catalog. Not that I'm planning on having subsequent children already. My crazy birth experience would probably give anyone pause when considering birthing again.

There are two reasons why I initially considered not writing down and/ or publishing Caroline's birth story. First, Chris cautioned me that any account of a mother having a ten pound baby... at home... without pain meds... in twenty minutes... could make the delivering mother come off as a braggart. Secondly, there was a major embarrassing mishaps that happened that my family would probably feel most comfortable if I did not share. It is this second piece of information, though, that assures that I will not come off as a braggart, so as embarrassing as it is, it is an essential part of the story.

It took me nearly two years to share Jude's birth story here, although most of our friends know all the nitty gritty details. I think Chris is still embarrassed that I shared so much private information with strangers, but in the spirit of sharing between women (and because you have already seen a rendering of me nearly nude), I have decided to go ahead and share the very long but true story of Caroline's very short birth. Again, do not read on if you're squeamish about birth details.

She is here!

This morning I had a post queued up that basically said, "Some of you may be wondering 'have you had that baby, yet?' with this outgoing link. But around 6:00 this morning, I deleted it.
Baby Girl Adams (who is still unnamed) was born at home at 6:10 this morning after a surprisingly quick, 20 minute labor. She came before the midwives could arrive, and Chris had only just returned from the gym... just in time for my last contraction and two pushes. Our girl weighs ten pounds, two ounces and is 22.5 inches long. I am still in shock, but I am doing well.

I have a non-baby related post queued up for tomorrow (it is a funny post about my mom) so we're going to spend tomorrow relaxing and recovering. Nursing is going well. Baby is doing well. Jude slept through her delivery, but upon meeting her, he whispered "I love you", his little voice full of wonder. I am not super sentimental, but that quiet moment was perfection for me.

Full birth story to come. For now we rest.

I have a two year old already?

Jude is two years old today!
[The above video is a collection of photos and videos of Jude's first birthday through this past weekend. Here is his birth day through his first birthday if you want to see him as a teeny tiny baby to see how much he's grown].

Some of Jude's favorite things:
Sharks, fish, monkeys, trains, trucks, and busses.

Jude's favorite activities:
Basketball, car rides, bike rides, and running.

Dear Jude,
Happy second birthday to my silly monkey boy! It has been amazing watching you go from a baby to a toddler this year.  Your hair is finally filling in, you have a mouth full of teeth, and I've watched your shaky, chunky baby thighs turn into the confident, long, lean legs of a child. You are growing into your size seven boots, your 2T pants, and your big personality. Your birth should have been an indication that as a child you would do all things with gusto. People always comment on how much energy you have, and I think that's fantastic. I love all your little boy energy-- how you seem to think, "Why walk when I can run?" You run everywhere, you sleep hard, and you show love enthusiastically. You pray for your friends by name, you shout "I love you!" when you leave the house, and when you hear someone sneeze you yell "Bless you!". You're tidy and polite, curious but cautious, and silly and sweet.  

Also, you have a great imagination. Just the other day, I heard you telling a story to Khun Yai about how you saw a shark with a blanket, and last week, when Daddy got home from work, he asked you what you did that day and you spun a tale about a bike ride and train tracks and swimming and rainbows. I always want to appreciate and encourage your boundless energy and creativity. I love being your mother, and my heart swells thinking about how many more birthdays I get to celebrate with you. 

UPDATED: To Caitlin in Austin from Andrew in Chicago: Happy (super belated) birthday!

Unbelievable news: Andrew emailed me, (see the end of the post) and the whole internet deserves a high five. 
- - - -
Bedrest is boring, but today an opportunity has presented itself to make my humdrum day a little more exciting. Today I got a misdelivered package.

Here at the Adams Abode, we get a lot of packages, and misdelivered mail is usually at least a bi-weekly occurrence. Typically, we get our neighbor's packages or a bill meant for someone the next street over. No big deal. We just walk the wayward mail over to its correct home. Just a couple days ago we got someone's social security check, so Chris just gave it back to the mailman since it was meant for someone not in our neighborhood.

Since I get a fair amount of unsolicited packages from PR reps and companies who request for me to do reviews, I have received several packages meant for me but addressed to the wrong person. I've had packages sent to me addressed to "India", "Jennifer", and "Amy". Again, no big deal; it's usually a mail merge mistake or some poor intern's oversight.

All this exposition is to explain that when we got a package addressed to Caitlin today, I opened it with no hesitation.
When I opened the box, it was immediately apparent that this was not a sample for me to review or a gift for our new baby. This is a very thoughtful (though belated) birthday gift from Andrew in Chicago to Caitlin in Austin.

When the package arrived in Dallas, Caitlin's address was scanned in as mine. If I simply request a "return to sender" action, this package will never get back to Andrew because his address is gone, too. It will go to the great mail graveyard known as the Mail Recovery Center (where hardly any recovery happens, apparently).

I figure that I have enough Austin-based readers that surely we can find Caitlin and get her her gift. Would you help me out? If one of my friends took the time to send me a very thoughtful birthday gift and it ended up in the wrong place with no hope of delivery, I'd certainly want the recipient to try to track me down.

Or, if you're based in Chicago, perhaps you know Andrew. In the spirit of trying to find them (and in a blatant disregard for privacy), here's the handwritten note Andrew included in the package:
And here are the main contents of the box:
So now we have a list of clues:
1. Andrew lives in Chicago at "1635 W. P[something]"
2. If Andrew got Caitlin's new address correct, she lives somewhere in Austin in a new apartment that begins with "5413 Co[something]" and may have recently returned from Europe.
3. They have a mutual friend named Chelsea.
4. Caitlin's birthday was (perhaps) somewhat recent, although the gift is belated.
5. The main gift is this along with a travel journal, a gold money cat, and some postcards.

Isn't this fun? See why this is a mystery? Surely together we can figure this out. Haven't you always wanted to put your inner Harriet the Spy to the test?

If you are Caitlin or Andrew, get in touch with me. I'll make sure one of you gets the package. And Caitlin? Happy birthday!
- - - -

Update: Alyson was having a slow day at work, so she had the brilliant idea of emailing THE THING Quarterly to see if any Andrews in Chicago had placed an order for Issue 16. They wrote her back saying they'd look in to it:

I bet we can figure this out... or at least help. We are looking into it now.
-Jonn (via support@thethingquarterly.com)

A few hours later, I got an email from Andrew. Yes, THE Andrew:

The Thing just sent me this link to your blogpost. That's the package I had sent to my friend Caitlin for her birthday! Not sure how it ended up in Dallas, but thank you much for holding on to it and trying to find either of us! :D That was incredibly thoughtful, and I'm lucky the package was mis-sent to you. I talked to Caitlin and she said that she's willing to come pick up the package from you. If that's alright, I'll let her know!

Thanks again for that blog post!
Andrew

PS: Caitlin told me she's read your blog before and loves it. She's ecstatic that you're holding on to her present right now.

And almost immediately after I heard from Andrew, I got an email from Jonn at THE THING Quarterly:

Hello. This is Jonn Herschend from THE THING Quarterly. We think we've solved the mystery. We just contacted the Andrew whom we think ordered the Dave Eggers issue and asked if he sent something to Caitlin in Austin. We had to do a bit of detective work because we had many Andrews who were in and around Chicago. But the fact that you provided the letter was a huge help because in the letter there was a PS regarding a Chelsea. The Andrew that we thought might be your Andrew ordered the Eggers issue from Illinois and sent it to a Chelsea in SF. We could not figure out how it got back to him in Chicago, but we figured we should send him an e-mail with a link to your blog, nonetheless. And it turns out that this is your missing Andrew! He should be getting in touch very soon.
Best,
Jonn Herschend
co-editor
THE THING Quarterly

And the final piece of the puzzle is that Chelsea is Andrew's girlfriend, and he had the Eggers issue sent to her in California. Chelsea brought it to Andrew in Chicago, who then mailed it to Caitlin in Texas.
- - - -

Thanks so much to everyone who emailed tips or tried tracking Andrew and Caitlin down. It made today's day of bedrest so much more exciting. Maybe something fun like this will happen to me tomorrow, too! High fives all around, internet!

The very long and very true story of Jude's birth

Since Little Lady Bird's arrival is eminent and I've been prescribed bedrest from now until her birth, I've been laying here thinking a lot about Jude's birth, excited to see if LLB's birth unfolds in a similar manor.

When Jude was born, I didn't share a lot of details here because I kept all birth stuff and family stuff separate from this site. In the last two years, I've become more comfortable sharing stories about my family here, so I thought I'd take a moment to relay some truths about what really went down on Jude's birth day. Beware. This story is very detailed and very long, but for those of you who are curious, here is my complete and true account of what really happened the day Jude was born.

[photo by Amber Snow, announcement by Oodles of Color]

WARNING: Do not read on if you're squeamish about birth details or a male (who is not Chris) who knows me personally. There's a NSFW "photo" below, and honestly, I would never wish for you to picture any of the things I'm about to tell you.

Everything's Bigger in Texas (2012)

I have really great friends. I throw a lot of themed parties, and my sweet friends always indulge my whims. This past Fourth of July was no exception. Chris and I had our second annual "Everything's Bigger in Texas" party where guests were asked to bring comically large foods to share, and our guests did not disappoint. Here's just a sampling of what was on the table:

(Top to Bottom): Kathleen made a festive four layer cake (red velvet and white cake with cream cheese icing) | Matt and Joanie made a giant cheeseburger | Kayla made palm sized Goldfish Crackers | The Hansens made a cookie tower | Kristan made big 'ole pretzels | Faye and Dave picked up the "World Famous Round Rock Donut" | I busted out some large chocolate covered pretzels while Chris smoked a 17 pound beef roast. Holy cow!
One of the cutest things was Heidi's and Dearing's Gigant-O-Sizer (corn version), which was just out of production in time for the party (be sure to click on the video below the photos to see it in action):
Baby corn goes in, regular sized corn on the cob comes out!

The thoughtful folks over at Honest Tea made sure the kiddos at our party had plenty to do and plenty to drink:

They made red, white, and blue (and purple) tie dyed shirts.
And using empty juice pouches, paper straws, and strips of duct tape, we crafted super easy "no-light sparklers". I want to do these again in blue for Jude's birthday party in October!

These low sugar juices hit the spot after a full day of eating giant junk foods and playing in the sprinklers. Thank you, Honest Tea! Kudos to everyone who made it out. We loved having you over and can't wait to do it again next year! Go ahead, friends, mark your calendars for our 2013 party. The party falls on a Thursday, and I'm already scheming up what I can make.

[disclosure: Honest Kids juice and supplies for tie dye and crafts provided by Honest Tea]

26 weeks: pregnancy update

In high school, I once accidentally flicked a guy's crotch area with my finger, and I was astonished when tears sprung to his eyes. I mean, sure, I had seen plenty of episodes of America's Funniest Videos (why is there always a section of grown men being hit in the privates?!), so I was aware that this area could be sensitive, to say the least. However, as a woman, I have never really been able to empathize insomuch as simply sympathize with groin pain. Until recently.

The following conversation took place last Wednesday:

Me: So, for the last week, I've been having pain in my front groin area, but today, oh, man! It's like someone whacked me there with a sledge hammer. I can't even walk up stairs or turn over in bed without wanting to cry.
Midwife: Oh, dear. You have symphysis pubis dysfunction.
Me: I have syphilis what?!
Midwife: No, no. Let me start over! Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction. Basically it means the ligaments in your pelvis have weakened and your pubic bones have separated. 

Apparently this is pretty common. An estimated of 25% of pregnant women experience this to differing degrees, so I'm certainly not a medical anomaly here. My case is pretty painful, and there's really nothing I can do about it aside from seeing a chiropractor a couple times a week for adjustments to get temporary pain relief. It goes away almost the instant after birth, and thankfully it will not at all interfere with my plan to have another med-free home birth. I've been ordered not to lift heavy things, swim, do yoga, prolonged walking, and vigorous exercise. I'm supposed to wear a support band around my hips and pretend I'm wearing a mermaid tail in order to keep my knees together and my pelvis held in the correct spot (maybe I can convince Chris to get me one of these...). I'm supposed to rest as much as possible and prepare for it to worsen the further I go along in my pregnancy. I may have to get crutches and even eventually go on some kind of modified bed rest. Ha! Yeah, right. Tell that to my super active 20 month old! 

Anyway, I post all this not to have a pity party or to brag about my super stretchy pelvis, but as a way of explanation of what's going on over here in the Adams household. Chris is amazing, I'm feeling fine today, and the new baby is healthy and growing just fine. I'm 26 weeks along, so almost 2/3's of the way done! Hooray!

Unplugged in Florida

Just a quick little post to let you know that we've returned from our week in Florida. What a wonderful vacation! Chris' family came down from Boston and rented a gorgeous beach house in Indian Rocks, and since my family was nearby we were able to spend time with them, too.

The last time we went to Florida, we did Disney and ran around like crazy. This time Chris requested that we "do nothing" (with the exception of Busch Gardens for Jude one day). For days, we just laid on the beach and swam in the ocean. We both left our computers at home and had our phones turned off most of the time. It was just what we needed.

 Here's Jude (in the front) on our last night on the beach with his three older cousins.

Sadly, my camera battery died immediately upon arrival, so I only have a few phone photos. I guess that's for the best, though. I was able to relax and almost completely unplug instead of trying to document everything. 

When I get back into the swing around here this week, I owe you some posts on maternity wear on the beach, traveling with a toddler without using an iPad or DVD player, reviews for SwimSpot and Bearpaw, and giveaways from Blowfish, VincaUSA, Bucco, and Vaseline Total Moisture, kid brands Shirts that Go, Paige Lauren, and eco-friendly / fair trade conscious brands My Mela, Go Fish, and Naya Shoes. For today? I need to do laundry to wash the sand out of our belongings and spend the afternoon getting reacquainted with Austin. I've already visited Chuy's since returning (who knew I would miss Tex-Mex so much?), but I think a breakfast taco and a trip to Casey's is in order, too.