Big 12 Champs...if you can call it that

On Dec. 5 we went to the Big 12 championship game at Cowboys stadium to see Texas play Nebraska.  We really had no business going to a football game when Maison was only a few weeks old but since it was in Dallas and at the new Cowboys stadium we thought it would be a nice opportunity to get out and to get to see the stadium without having to suffer through a Cowboys game (not a fan!).  

Unfortunately the SEC Championship was the same day in the afternoon and Florida was playing Alabama.  These two games would determine who would play for the BCS National Championship and we were hoping it would turn out to be Florida and Texas since we were almost positive we would get tickets to that game.  Of course Adam wanted to be somewhere when the SEC game came on and I wanted to be with Maison as long as possible before dropping her off at my mom's.  So Adam rode to Arlington with Kari, Lee, and Dan and I waited to go with Shari and my dad.

I have such a hard time judging how long it will take me to get out of the house with Maison when she is staying anywhere for over an hour.  It takes forever to determine everything she will need while I'm away...so needless to say I was super late getting to my parents house to pick up Shari and my dad.  My dad offered to drive which was great since I couldn't imagine dealing with game traffic after the chaos of taking Maison and somehow he got us there in record time.  We were in Cowboys parking 45 min after we left Parker.  We were supposed to swing by and pick up Adam and Dan at Chili's where they were watching the SEC game, but we somehow got in line for Cowboys parking and didn't want to circle the stadium to try to pick them up.

It was so completely freezing cold when we got there we just decided to go into the first gate we came to.  BIG MISTAKE!!!  Shari and I breezed through the women's security line but then had to wait on Dad to clear the men's line for like 20 min.  Once we got inside the stadium no one knew how to tell us to get to our seats and everyone we asked told us something different.  You couldn't walk in a complete circle on the level we were on so we kept having to go up and down stairs like 10 times.  It was completely annoying!  By the time we got to our seats the teams were running out and we weren't exactly impressed with the $4 billion "Jerry World".  Adam walked from Chili's, changed from his Florida shirt to his Texas shirt, walked in the CORRECT gate and made it in time for kickoff.  Are you kidding me?  It's that hard to maneuver inside the stadium if you don't go in the gate listed on your ticket?

The game completely sucked.  UT played like stir fried ass and we had absolutely no business winning the game.  For those that didn't watch...when the clock showed 0:00 UT was LOSING but apparently when McCoy threw the ball out of bounds there were a few seconds left on the clock.  Nebraska had thought they had won the game and ran out on the field celebrating only to be told there was a few seconds left.  The poor UT kicker had to make a field goal for Texas to win...uh no presure.  If I was a Nebraska fan I would be livid.  There were bad calls throughout the entire game on both sides but it was so close for them to almost pull off a major upset.  UT ended up winning 13-12 and were named Big 12 Champions and Florida ended up losing to Alabama...so will be arriving in Pasadena as two Longhorn fans and since UF lost we won't be contemplating divorce over a football game!

2 families, 1 Thanksgiving...and a baby

This Thanksgiving Adam's entire family came to spend the holiday with us and to meet Maison.  We just moved back to our house on Wednesday, as in the day before Thanksgiving, so there was no way we could do Thanksgiving for 7 people.  We hadn't even stayed at our house in 5 weeks, our dinning room table chairs hadn't arrived yet, and my dad and I were distressing our kitchen table and it was sitting in the garage half finished.  So we literally had NO place to eat.  My wonderful mother graciously agreed to host everyone at her house.  We had 12 people for dinner plus Maison.  After dinner we watched the UT vs A&M game before heading back to our house. 

Adam's family stayed until Monday.  Through the weekend we did a tour of local Dallas restaurants.  We even took Maison to the original Sonny Bryan's on Saturday for lunch and to Bread Winners for brunch on Sunday.  Both were learning experiences for dining with a newborn...

Sonny Bryan's only has old fashioned school desks inside and a couple of picnic tables outside.  Maison's carrier wouldn't fit in an old fashioned school desk so we didn't have much choice but to sit outside.  Luckily, the weather was warm enough for her but the table next to us had several smokers.  Not exactly the best environment for a 6 week old and this wasn't exactly the part of Dallas where you could politely ask them to stop.

At Bread Winners on Sunday it was packed we had called ahead so luckily got a table in the corner with a booth on one side.  But the hostess had counted Maison as a 'child' so she brought us a booster seat...uh she is 6 weeks old...what on earth would I do with that?  We told her we didn't need it since we were trying to make it work so her carrier could sit in the booth with me.  Then she brought us a high chair which too was useless.  Third try she just bought a normal chair after I had told her twice I would just put her carrier in the booth with me.  The restaurant was super busy and the table was rather cramped with the carrier taking up more than a seat, but what are you going to do?   That's not really 'news worthy' but the fact that they discontinued their impressive coffee drink menu was rather disappointing.

So lessons learned:  Don't take a baby to a restaurant that doesn't even have adequate sitting even for an adult and don't take a baby to a crowded brunch place and expect the hostess to appreciate your situation of trying to eat with a newborn in a carrier...much less expect them to know the difference between a child and a baby.  But most importantly, call ahead to make sure they still have fab coffee drinks especially when you could use a little something to take the edge off ;o)

Adam's family returned home on Monday and it was back to work for everyone except me as I'm still on maternity leave until 1/25.

Newborn Photo Poop?

On November 17th we took Maison for her newborn photo shoot so that we would have some pictures to use for her birth announcement.  I had already come up with the idea to do the "party animal" birth announcement so we knew we wanted some pics with her in her white tiger Halloween costume.  The photographer suggested that Adam and I wear black and that we have Maison naked in the other pictures.  I was a little leery of having Maison naked when she was only 3 weeks old but we decided to go with it.  

This obviously wasn't the photographers first newborn shoot as she had 'puppy pads' laid down in case Maison were to pee while she was shooting.   Surprisingly, we didn't need the puppy pads because Maison didn't pee at all...she just decided to poop on me and on Adam.  There is a reason we call her the 'poo poo princess'.  I felt like an embarrassed dog owner when your dog pees on a display at Pet Smart.  They obviously expect animals to have accidents you just don't want it to be YOUR pet.  The photographer could have cared less.  She wasn't the one pooped on and she said she could edit out anything on us if it were to show up in the pictures.  Poor Adam had to go back to our house before he could go into work because he didn't have another shirt with him.

Despite the shit storm (literally!) we were very please with how the pictures and the birth announcement turned out.  We went ahead and had them design our Christmas cards with the 'best' family shot.  

         

Birth Announcement (front and back):

   

This is Texas....Parker, Texas that is...

While our house was being finished we stayed at my parents for 5 weeks after Maison was born.  I had visited my parents often and we had stayed there on and off through our home remodeling but I had never been there long enough to notice several oddities in their neighborhood until we were there for 5 straight weeks...

My parents neighbor has a live nativity scene and when I say live I mean living animals that they purchased and care for all year long so that they can participate in the Christmas pageant at the church each year.  Ok...so anyone can feed and care for a few donkeys...right?  Uh, this guy not only has donkeys, he has a camel...are you kidding me?  Who buys a camel for a yearly gig?   Here is the camel hanging out with the donkey...

I mentioned in an earlier post that I took Maison to Bob Woodruff park almost everyday.  After a few trips I decided to venture to the trails that spawned off the lake.  One of the trails went on forever and along the way I found a peculiar sign..."No Horses Allowed Beyond This Point"

I've lived in Texas a long time and have ridden horses most of my life and I have never seen such a sign.  This trail is NOT a horse trail; it is a paved bike, run, skate, etc trail.  I have no clue why anyone would even think to take a horse on the trail much less need a notice not to take a horse past a certain point.  The sign was conveniently located about 10 yards from a huge picnic area and then another 20 yards or so to reach the lake that is always highly populated with walkers, runners, children on the playground...so why on earth would anyone take a horse there?  I thought this sign was so odd...yet the more I walked on this trail and the further I went I now know why it was there.  Apparently some people DO ride horses on paved trails and let them 'do their business' on said trail.  I've run/biked/skated/walked on Plano trails for about 20 years and have seen a lot of 'dog business', 'duck business', and even a some 'unidentifiable business' (possibly squirrel or rabbit???), but never in my life have I seen horse poo up close and personal on a running trail....eeeewwwww!

So each day I either went a different route or went further on the trail than I did the day before...on several outings I noticed people picking pecans.  I'm not talking about 3-4 people...I'm talking 20-30 people.  Most of the trail I was walking on is part of the nature preserve.  I'm not versed in nature law but I don't think that is that legal.  Can you just take pecans from a nature preserve?  Uh, not like a sample but 5-gal buckets by the dozen?  I would have taken a picture or two to document the pecan pickers but there would have been a mass exodus towards the southern border so I decided to limit the pecan picking description to verbiage only.  

After telling my dad about the pecan pickers he told me that Carlos, our gardener, said Texas Pecans are 'big business'.  You can sell your picked pecans by the 5-gal bucket for money.  Who knew???  Apparently Texas Pecans don't go through any sort of processing before they are packaged and sold to the buyer.  Let's just say I won't be buying 'local' in the future...

The Pram Parade

While we were staying at my parents house I would take Maison on a walk every day.  We started going when she was about 2 weeks old just around their neighborhood and eventually we got confident enough to drive to Bob Woodruff park and walk around the lake.  I called this our "pram parade" because everyday for the first several days Maison wore a different Halloween costume and thus it was a parade of different costumes or characters.  Some days she was a pumpkin other days a white tiger or just a normal newborn in a hat and a onesie....it just depended on the weather and how tall she had gotten as to which costume/outfit she wore. 

       

Ok...so the 'pram' part of this post:

If I was a celebrity I would be getting paid millions for the following comments but since I have yet to be discovered I will give the disclaimer that I have not been compensated for the following endorsement:

If you are in the market for stroller you HAVE to get an UPPA Baby Vista...it is AMAZING and worth every penny!!!  The stroller has a pram attachment that is for a newborn that pops on an off with the click of one button.  The stroller then collapses with ONE HAND.  It has sturdy tires like a jog stroller that corners like a luxury vehicle.  If that wasn't enough to warrant the exorbitant price it has an attachment to work with our car seat and it converts to an umbrella stroller...but oh wait there is more....it grows with your family.  It can work as an umbrella stroller WITH the car seat attachment so one child can face backwards in the car seat and the other forward in the umbrella seat.  Wait one stroller carries 2 kids that is not marketed as a dual stroller?  I LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT...thank you Mom and Shari for such a fab gift!!!!
 

Gators, Dogs, Cowboys, Cows...and Skeletons!

Halloween was quite eventful for a 10 day old...

We started the afternoon with the Florida vs Georgia game which was immediately followed by the Texas vs Oklahoma State game.  2 football games combined with my entire family, trick or treaters, and Charlie was a little too much stimulation for little Maison.  

To make matters worse we changed her 'outfit' about every 4 hours throughout the day to try to accommodate all the halloween costumes she received.  There were so many she started wearing them about 3 days before Halloween and wore some of the larger ones to the park after Halloween (see next post regarding the "Pram Parade").  On actual Halloween night she was a skeleton including a white skull hat. 

Here is the fam watching the Texas game and celebrating Halloween with our little spooky skeleton!

   

A New Madcow is born - Maison Marie Maslow

After 16 hours of labor, 3 hours of pushing, and a c-section, Maison Marie was born on Oct. 21st at 4:45pm.  Here are her very 1st pics...

                

Day 2, Thurs Oct. 22 - recovery and lots of visitors!  My parents, grandma, sister, and Heather all came to visit us.

        

Hanging with G'daddy, Nooey, and Aunt Shari

    

Notice the cute hat with the bow on it is only in one picture.  That's because Maison pulled it down over her eyes so many times that it eventually started to fray so we had to 'dispose of it'.  We ended up sending it to my parents house so their dog, Charlie, could get use to her scent.

Day 4, Saturday Oct 24 - HAPPY B-DAY BUBBA!

We were still in the hospital on Saturday so we missed celebrating Bubba's bday....Shari even beat me to singing "Happy Birthday" Marilyn Monroe style...bummer.  The hospital photographer came by to take Maison's newborn picture.  She scratched her face literally right when the lady walked in the door and we had to pay to have it touched up...what are the chances of that?  Here are her 'professional' hospital photos when she was 4 days old:

   

Day 5, Sunday Oct 25 - Going Home...kind of!

We were released from the hospital on Sunday and our house was still not finished so my parents graciously agreed to let us stay at their house until we could finish ours.  Here are the pics when we were leaving the hospital and arriving at Nooey's and G'daddy's!