Ma Cher Amio

In an effort to start a Julie and Julia-esque cooking spree through The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine (which Trent has never mentioned, but I'm pretty sure is somewhere in the back of his mind), Trent cooked up a Cajun feast on Sunday night. He has been lusting after the cookbook for years, so finally receiving it for Christmas last year was hopefully the beginning of a new meuniere sauce filled stage of life. He set off on a Hank Williams inspired meal.

The man is serious about cooking from scratch. He made homemade french bread, skipping the encyclopedia's recipe which called for vital wheat gluten among other ingredients we didn't have, and instead used Maree Calcote's recipe. In Trent's eyes she gets her credibility from growing up in Natchitoches, LA; otherwise I'm sure he would have been scouring the Pearland HEB for specialty flours.















The french bread was just an accompaniment to jambalaya and crawfish pie, but no file gumbo this time. I mean seriously, let's not overdo it. Crawfish pie proved to be incredibly rich and delicious. The homemade jambalaya was also quite good and I can tell Trent's going to be making this anytime he has a real meat and rice craving as it called for chicken and sausage and pork.

I made my part of the meal, dessert, on Saturday, leaving me free to lounge about on Sunday while Trent chopped vegetables. We finished off the meal with Dolly's lemon squares, which I consider Cajun because they were always made by my mom's friend Dolly who lived in Baton Rouge. Of course we ended up with no pictures of our friends over at our house sitting on the back porch drinking beer or having big fun on the bayou, but hopefully there will be many more nights of Trent's Cajun cooking.

We'll have to wait and see if the quest to make all the recipes in the book ever starts to happen. Julie may have had to make a few aspics and cook a live lobster, but did she make Smothered Nutria (p.572) or Squirrel Jambalaya (p.566)? Not likely. If those recpies ever make it into our kitchen, let's just hope they're followed by Chocolate and Clover Honey Ice Cream (p. 621). I could enjoy a bowl of that right now.

We're Walking, We're Walking...

It's true!
Rush is still learning and not walking all the time by himself, but each day he's taking more steps. I can tell he's proud, smiling and laughing as he goes. Plus, he'll walk almost anywhere now if he's holding on to one of my fingers.

Each stage with Rush has been better than the last. I'm a little surprised by how many people have said "oh, you don't want him walking" just like people said "oh, when he starts crawling, it's all over." People I don't even know will say this, right in the middle of an innocent conversation at the grocery store. In fact, I do want him walking. He likes it. He likes exploring and moving around.

There are trade-offs with every new stage. Sure, when Rush could only sit up but not crawl or walk I wasn't ever chasing him around. But I was breast-feeding seven times a day. And do you know what the attention span of a 7 month old baby is? About 40 seconds. So it's not like he was totally content to sit on a blanket for any reasonable amount of time. The more he can move, the more he can entertain himself.

So I am really excited about Rush moving on to the next stage. We will hopefully have a little more time on the playground before the truly oppressive heat sets in, plus the pool opens in a few weeks. Rush will be everywhere and I'll be chasing him. And really, he's been everywhere and I've been chasing him for quite some time now.

It's going to be a great summer.

Beach Baby

We made a post-Florida stop at Crystal Beach last weekend, a way to ease us back into our regular lives. We pulled out a wagon full of beach toys that Rush received as a gift when he was born. At the time it seemed like it would be years before he would be big enough to play with them, yet just a year later, here we are.

More Vacation

Rush knows how to work a pair of water shoes.

Our hotel had a fantastic kids' pool. We stayed at a Holiday Inn, which is arguably the most unreliable hotel chain in the country, but the Holiday Inn Main Gate East in Kissimmee was a winner. Our room overlooked the pools and hot tub and there was a playground, so we're definitely staying here again. Rush had to check out the window every morning to see what was happening outside.

Those cheeks!

These gigantic bats were one of my favorite parts of Animal Kingdom. Not only were they huge, there were a lot of them, all hanging from trees and ropes along one of the trails.

The number of strollers in the park was incredible. Somehow we never had trouble finding ours. I love having a stroller; you can bring all kinds of things but you don't have to actually carry any of it.

After a long day at Typhoon Lagoon, Rush grabs a nap on the way back to the hotel. What a great little traveller he is.

Ah, Disney World

How do I even begin to describe the trip that is already one of the best vacations we have ever taken? Maybe I should start with the fact that Rush actually did take his first steps on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom while waiting for the parade. He may look like Trent, but he was my mini-me on this trip, getting up early and staying up late, opening and closing the parks, and generally showing me that he's going to be happy coming back to Disney World again and again.



Rush proved to be an awesome traveller. He really didn't sleep very much during the trip, but just as SpectroMagic started he fell asleep. It was the sweetest moment with the parade passing by and Rush snoozing away.

I know there are all different type of trips: visiting a new city, relaxing on a beach, enjoying nature. But there's just something about carrying an inner tube up a hot concrete slope to the top of a waterslide that just is vacation for me. We had the perfect day at Typhoon Lagoon where it was crowded but we didn't have to wait in any lines for waterslides or for tubes in the lazy river. Plus we arrived as the park opened so we had a prime spot in the kids area, which we think was the highlight of Rush's trip.


I love being hot and sweaty and covered in sunscreen, full of french fries and ice cream and heading to the next ride. Thank you Walt Disney for creating a place where the sole purpose is to have fun. Thanks to my employment history with Disney, I know the effort that goes into creating the "magical guest experience" and I love every minute that I get to enjoy it.


Rush really got into vacation mode. That's a donut hole clenched in his fist. Where else but vacation can you lay in bed and eat Munchkins at 2 o'clock in the afternoon? (For the record, we did make him sit up to eat, even though he kept laying down and laying down and laying down.)

In addition to his first visit to DisneyWorld, Rush also had his first taste of Flippers, possibly the best pizza I have ever eaten and a staple of any trip to central Florida.

There were just so many great moments on the trip; I'll try to post more of them. We've been home less than 24 hours, but I'm ready to go back. I was flipping through a brochure in the hotel and discovered that Disney's Main Street Electrical Parade is going to be in the park for the summer. It hasn't been in Florida since 2000, it's only staying June through August, and it's quite possibly my very favorite part of Disney World. So can we fit in another trip this summer?