Picture Update

September's pictures are posted, including pictures of Aidan and Devin hanging out together on the big comfy chair, Devin flashing his smile to everyone, and Aidan showing off his newly mutated fingers.

Enjoy!

ACL Fest - Day 3

The last day of the Austin City Limits Festival was — how should I say this? Well, hot should suffice. It was officially 107 degrees at the downtown weather station. Thus, we stayed home.

Devin entertained us with some smiles and laughs and showing us he can grab a hold of his toys and stuff them into his mouth (sort of). Otherwise, it was an incredibly hot, lazy weekend, kicked off with a little music on Friday and a lot less hurricane than we expected. Not so bad....

ACL Fest - Day 2

Day 2 of the ACL festival was a wild-card day; either Hurricane Rita was going to impact our area enough that attending the festival would have been impractical (or unsafe), or we would get to spend most (or all) day listening to music.

It turns out, we didn't go, but it wasn't because of Rita.

There was a little bit of wind. No rain. And plenty of heat. With temperatures up around 100 and our energy supply low (we were completely drained from the day before), we decided to pass on going to the festival.

Instead, we made Halloween decorations and decorated the house, took long naps, and generally just hung out at the house. It was a very nice relaxing day, hopefully recharging enough that we can take advantage of the last day of the festival...

ACL Fest - Day 1

We spent the morning sort of preparing the house for high winds (in case Rita decided to come a little closer to home). Then, we all took naps, and headed out to the festival around 3:00 p.m.

The wind started to kick up around this time — it was strong enough to start spreading some trash around our neighborhood. There's a lot of construction going on around our neighborhood as well, and all the exposed ground had dust and dirt flying through the air, which was perhaps the most dangerous thing I saw.

After having some difficultly finding some parking, then making our way to the shuttle buses, then taking the 15 minute ride to the festival, then walking for 10 minutes to get to the entrance, we finally arrived (around 5:00ish). Thus, unfortunately, we missed Lucinda Williams.

But we were able to catch Mr. Jose (one of Aidan's old gymnastics teachers) and his band, Grupo Fantasmo, who play kind of a fusion-latin sound, mixing salsa, cumbia, and other latin sounds.

We were quite impressed with this band, as they packed about 12 musicians onto perhaps the smallest stage at the festival. The horn section was excellent and Mr. Jose (congas) and the drummer were very exciting. There were a couple of conga solos, which had the place jumping. Very fun.

We then moved on to see John Prine, which is something that Renee wanted to see. In the end analysis, though, she decided that she liked him better on the radio than live. Perhaps this is true, but the experience may have also been tempered by the blowing wind, which was kicking up dust, and the heat, making us all feel a little grimy at this point.

John Prine finished his set just as the sun was going down, adding a new dynamic to the experience — lower temperatures and light shows!

Renee and I were pretty much ready to go at this point, but the next stage over just started. The band was Keane, which Renee and I didn't care for all that much. However, Aidan loved them, and insisted that we stayed until their show was over. Kids and their music....

After Keane was Lyle Lovett and his Large Band, a band Renee and I were hoping to see. Yet, with the prospect of a long walk back to the shuttle buses and finding our car, we headed out. By the time we got home and ready for bed, it was close to 11:30.

We'll keep an eye on the weather for rain and increased winds, but odds are, the show will go on tomorrow! If you're interested in reading another take on the festival, check out the Friday daily report, from the ACL Fest Web site.

Rita is Coming to Austin City Limits

Renee and I have been planning on attending this year's Austin City Limits Festival after missing all of the previous versions. A friend of mine finally talked us into it (they had to talk us into it?), by mentioning that it is as Austin a festival as there is — much like the venerable South By Southwest festival — and we really should experience it for ourselves.

So we bought our tickets for this year's festival as soon as they were available, which was back in March or April. We finally received our tickets in the mail around the end of August.

The next step in the process is to exchange the tickets for wrist bands.... assuming we can find the tickets. Which we can't.

We turned the house upside down. No tickets. Renee and I woke up the next morning telling about how we each dreamed of finding the tickets in crazy and remote places. This was obviously causing us a lot of stress and anxiety.

Under the premise of "if you don't ask, you can't receive," I called the ticket agency — and they issued us new tickets! Yeah! We're back in business.

But not so fast. A slowly developing under-story was coming to light: Hurricane Rita. As of Thursday night, the Austin city limits were directly in the path of the storm, in fact it appeared the eye would pass right overhead. It was also projected to still be at hurricane strength as it passed through. That would make standing in Zilker park a little less desireable.

At this point, we played with the idea of leaving Austin, evacuating out west a little. But the people on the Gulf coast are evacuating here, which is a problem in itself (since all the hotels and such are already booked for the ACL festival). Roads are clogged. There really isn't anywhere to go, even if we could go.

So, last night, I headed out to the grocery story to get some basics, although a lot of the basics were already gone. However, I headed out to Central Market, which had plenty of basics (I guess no one thinks of Central Market for this sort of crisis?).

But now, the latest reports have the eye of Rita going significantly East of Austin; however, the storm is big enough where we will likely get at least the western edge of the storm. Thus, we are preparing to hunker down for the weekend. We'll learn more if the ACL festival is cancelled or postponed later today (supposedly around 6 p.m. CDT). Yet, as of right now, are plans are to go to the festival on Friday, hide out on Saturday, and then see what Sunday brings....

Two Months Old!

Devin is two months old as of yesterday and had his scheduled doctor's visit today. This isn't the most fun of visits, as this the appointment where Devin received 4 shots! His thighs are incredibly sore and we have to give him Tylenol at regular 4-hour intervals (we missed one follow-up dose by a half-hour — we won't be doing that again).

Overall, Devin checks in at a very healthy 14 pounds, 13 ounces, 22.25 inches long, and a head circumference of 41.5 cm, which is fairly similar to Aidan at this point.

Mid-Month Picture Update

For those who can't wait a whole month between picture updates (I know I can't), here's a little something for you until the end of the month.

Tiny Bubbles

Devin has recently begun blowing little bubbles, and cooing, and holding his head up, and ... so many other things that I can't ever document them quickly enough to remember them all!

Basically, Devin is being an incredibly good baby; he sleeps a lot and doesn't cry much, and when he does he's easily consoled. I think one of the reasons for this is that every time he moves, or someone touches him, or a slight breeze touches his face, he passes gas. Seriously. There is no gas shortage in our house.

And it is because of this that I think Devin is doing so well right now; he doesn't really have much in the way of gas pains. Aidan, on the other hand, was never like this (i.e., supplying so much gas) and I think that may explain why he was so ... shall we say, "expressive" in his first few weeks of life.

Anyway, Devin is doing great, Aidan is still fairly well adjusted (although bringing him to school is sometimes very difficult since he has to leave Mom and Devin at home), and — thus far — all is well in Austin, Texas.

Aidan at School

Some observations from Aidan's teacher:

• Aidan was using some stacking circles to stack them "high and tall." He had to stand up to reach the top; his patience and balance was very impressive.


• During center-time, Aidan was sharing a book with a friend. They were taking turns reading to each other. When I told Aidan that I really enjoyed hearing him tell the story , his face lit up and he had a big smile.