MM nine month stats: 17.3lbs; 24.25in
She's in the 25% on the growth charts.

100k

I LOVE my car. It has treated me well. It's rarely in the shop and drives fast when I want it to. It fits my personality to a tee. You can't ignore it but not too outlandish. My only real complaint is the thing I love the most. It's too small.

We hit a mile stone together today, 100,000 miles.

I can't believe it's already been 100k. I've loved every mile.

How Does Your Garden Grow

Certainly no silver bells nor cockle shells for us. The past few weekends we've been working in the yard, getting our garden ready for Easter. I've been learning to garden since we bought our house. And despite my inherent black thumb, I've successfully grown many plants.

But this year, I decide to try vegetable gardening. Li loves tomatoes. So I put in four tomato plants, two cucumber, two yellow squash, and two eggplants. I also move my bell pepper, tabasco, and other pepper plants to this garden. We are also growing rosemary. And I'm happy to say my satsuma trees are flowering for the first time since we put them in the ground three years ago.

Hopefully, we'll have a nice crop of late spring veggies. When these plants are finished, I'll grow MM's favorite food, sweet potatoes

tomato and eggplant

One satsuma tree and rosemary
My day lilies look a little sad but they'll perk up


Peppers and cucumber

Li is very proud of her garden
We're teaching her to grow her own food like all good Cajun girls should

She's Crafty

After a long day of gardening, Li decided she wanted to paint.

Bath Time Fun

My girls, like most kids, LOVE taking baths. It's one of my most favorite things to do with them.

Li likes to "swim" in the tub. She has this ritual of putting all her toys in the tub one by one while the tub is filling. When bath time is over, she won't get out until she puts each toy back on the side of the tub.

MM gets so excited. She bounces, squirms, and fusses until I get her in the tub. When I take her out of the tub, she like to stand next to it and stretches to she what her big sis is doing.

It's almost warm enough to break out the inflatable pool. I'm sure we'll spend many Saturday afternoons hanging out.

New Phone

Now I can blog on the go. I got my birthday present early. An iPhone. I'm super excited.

Land Owner

We are now the proud owner of a strip (20' x 100') of land behind our house. The golf course we live adjacent to needs to liquidate some cash. So they are selling small plots of land to each homeowner. All this means is that we have a larger back yard. We can't build anything on it. I wonder if this means if we forclose on the house, can we pitch tents and live on it.

To Parade or Not to Parade?

That was the question. With the forecast not not looking too favorable, we headed down to the parade anyway. I figured, we're tough. A little rain won't keep us from having a good time. It was more than a little rain. It was a torrential down pour. I can't remember the last time it rained this hard for an Irish Channel Parade.

I was trying to get a family photo before the rain started
but Lilly was having none of it.

Lilly holding her umbrella. She's already soaked to the bone and freezing.

MM and I hiding under our umbrella trying to stay a little dry.

When's the last time you saw this many umbreallas at a parade?

Run on the Bayou

This morning I participated in the Run on the Bayou in Bayou Segnette State Park. I usually run races without the girls. But Lilly and MM woke up before I left for the race. The weather was nice and this was a short race, I decided to bring the girls. You can see my awesome jogging stroller in this picture.

I had a good run, finished faster than I expected. Guess the treadmill/elliptical training at an incline has been paying off. This is my last race in March hopefully St. Patrick's Day Parades and birthday celebrations won't slow me down too much.

MM, Li, and I after the race

Clementine's Belgian Bistrot

Corey and I haven't been on a date in awhile. Too long in fact. I can't remember the last time. Saturday evening my sister Frannie was kind enough to babysit for us.

We like to try new restaurants when we go out. So with a little googling we found Clementine's in Gretna. Who knew there was such a thing as a Belgian Food restaurant? We started the meal with the brie on a slice of baked sweet potato. So yummy. I bought brie and sweet potatoes to try to make the dish my self. Online reviewers recommended a few entrees, fries with dipping sauces, clams for me and a pork dish for Corey. Everything was delicious. The atmousphere is very cosy, just right for our date.

I highly recommend making the trip across the river to this unusual and interesting bistro.

Big Girl

MM may be small for her age. But she doesn't know it. She thinks she's a big girl, like her sister. She holds on to me an tries to pull up to stand. She eats cheerios and other soft solids like its going out of style. She babbles constantly and smiles at anyone who talks to her. She's been working at crawling for a few weeks.

I worried MM might suffer because she will be compared to her smart and outgoing big sis. I guess I don't really need to worry.



Watch out! She bites

Race Season

Spring is nearly here. And in NOLA that means race season. This morning I ran the Elmwood Classic 5K. My friend Zack ran the 5K, as well.

Yesterday, a front moved in and the weather went from high of mid-70s to 35 degrees this morning. And it was windy. I hadn't really prepared for the cold. I put the race shirt over my running jacket and had to wear my weight lifting gloves to run in. As I write this 2hrs after completing the race, I still haven't warmed up yet.

We ran the first part of the race against a head wind. It was sooo hard to breathe I didn't think I could finish. But as soon as the course turned, the wind was against our backs. We had to fight the head wind for the last section of the race but it was only 1/4 mi. Plus, I can push through anything if I can see the end. I finished with my best time yet, shaved a minute off my last race time. Zack and I didn't stick around to enjoy the after party. You know it's cold if I pass up free MGD and food.

Zack and I after the race

Up coming races:

• March 7th - Run on the Bayou - this race is through the the Bayou Segenette State Park

• March 28th - 24th Annual Ochsner Run - Erin says the after party is a lot of fun. This is also my 30th birthday.

• April 4th - Mississippi Bridge Run - I'm excited about this one. Its just up the road from my house. And it's going to be tough. This is also Corey's Birthday.

• April 25th - March of Dimes Fundraiser - More to come on this