Just a few from today:

Carseat Head. The trip to Baton Rouge took its toll on Daphne’s pigtails. I promise at one point they were going out from her head, and not the one up/one down thing going on in this photo.

Getting ready to go to the hotel pool.

And our trip mascot on the hood of the Scion.

Greetings from Baton Rouge, LA! Daph & I are relaxing in the hotel, while Chris is out getting food. As usual when traveling with a baby, it took a little longer than we expected. Daphne is sick (I’m going to blame her little Typhoid Mary cousins, Sydney & Avery. I’m kidding, I don’t have any proof they were sick, it’s just a common occurrence for people to get sick after visiting with them) and she was so needy last night and today it was nearly impossible for us to get anything done around the house. Unfortunately that means Chris will have to pick up the slack later this week when he goes back to B’ham. I’ll be glad when this week is over.

Lucky for us, Daphne was in good spirits the whole time we were in Chicago. She did very well on her first flight and for the most part was great, even though all her feeding and nap times were completely screwed up. We spent the weekend at my Aunt Jackie’s house and went to the big family reunion picnic and a 1st birthday party for my cousin’s son. The picnic was held just a few blocks from where we lived in Oak Forest, not that I remember the park. Family picnics were a big thing for my grandfather’s generation and about 5 years ago his remaining 4 siblings (he was one of 7) and my Aunt Jackie got together and started them up again after many years. I swear for the first hour we were there I didn’t recognize a single person. Luckily they had name tags indicating who each person was related to. And honestly, the focus was on the Cubs-White Sox game and there wasn’t much interaction between the various families.

Eventually my cousins started to show up. It was cool to see how everyone had changed over the last ten years and meet their kids. My cousins Heather and Trish both have 3 kids each and they look exactly like them. We then went to my cousin BJ’s house. (Actually he goes by Bruce Jr. now, which is a good thing. BJ is kind of an unfortunate nickname these days.) They had 30+ kids and 90+ adults for a 1 year old’s birthday. Holy crap. And the best part? It was mainly family. Yep, all those Irish Catholic relatives and their big families. I hadn’t seen BJ, or my cousins Mike & Jeff in probably 12 years. We didn’t stay long, just enough to make an appearance and head back to Jackie’s for some leftover Aurelio’s pizza and margaritas. And yes, my dad & I (the Southerners) brought the margarita mix and tequila. Jackie and her husband are more the NPR/fine wine set and probably don’t drink margaritas that often.

I think the best part of the weekend was looking at old photographs. My cousin Helen gave me a copy of a photo of my dad’s mom. She passed away when he was 13 and honestly, I didn’t really know what she looked like. I also saw a few more photos of my Aunt Pat, who passed away before I was born. And learned that my grandfather (who used to play professional baseball) liked to dress up as a woman for Halloween. Weird, huh? And more information than I really needed, actually. Looking at pictures of my dad as a kid always cracks me up. You know that commercial for the Orlando tourism board with the father that becomes a kid again? It reminds me of my dad. His little boy pics look like someone Shrinky Dinked a 45 year old businessman.

I have more I could say, but I really need to wind down. Chris just flipped on the TV and the 2004 OU/LSU Championship game was on. Coincidence? Nah, I think Baton Rouge is taunting us.

We are back from Chicago! Thank goodness. Not that it was a bad trip, but I’m exhausted. Tomorrow we are leaving for Houston, so that means that I still have to finish packing up the house tonight. Luckily I can sleep in the car. Hope everyone had a great weekend and look for our Chicago pictures on my Flickr account later this week.

Back to that same old place. Sweet home, Chicago. (And thanks Chris for putting that song in my head)

Tomorrow we are off to Chicago and our family reunion. I don’t consider it “sweet home” even though we did live there when I was little. But my dad and everyone else on his side of the family do. In fact, my dad, brother and I are the only Hills living outside the Chicagoland area. We are the smart ones. Seriously, why live in a place that gets so freaking cold each winter? I don’t get it. Give me 90+ degree weather (while pregnant!!) over anything under 40.

Although last time we were in town there were 100+ degree temps and people were dying [I can't remember the year and I'm too lazy to look it up. It was the year that McGwire and Sosa were in a home run race and I (the baseball HATER) got talked into attending two games- an Astros (at the dome) and a Cubs game at Wrigley. Houston people have it right. Air conditioning is the way to watch baseball, if you are being forced to watch it.] My father always parks in the same place when we go downtown, not too far from Lake Michigan and the Art Institute and then we walk all over downtown. I mean, ALL OVER! On this particular trip we did our usual tour of the city (Chris had never been to Chicago) then walked to House of Blues. I was so overheated at one point I was ready to lay down with the bums. Go ahead, leave me here. Then I had the brilliant idea of eating a blackened chicken sandwich at HOB. I have no common sense. Caliente!! I thought I was going to stroke out. And we still had the game at Wrigley to attend. That sucked. Thank goodness for margaritas. At least this time we will skip out on the trip downtown and to my Dad’s old childhood neighborhood, or shall I say ‘hood, because I’m always afraid we are going to be victims of a drive-by when we are in that part of down.

I realized while I was ironing tonight that the last time I was in Chicago none of my 10 cousins had any kids. Now, including Daph and my brother’s 2 kids, there will be at least 12 little ones running around. That will be fun.

I’ll be completely unplugged until Sunday night, and even then probably won’t be online much since we are leaving for Houston Monday morning. So, tune in next week for Chicago pics and more of my ramblings from the new Texas ELM blog. (No, I’m not really doing a new blog, just blogging from a new location, and maybe a new Texas attitude. Y’all.)

What a cute idea! You can now put a small image on your custom M&Ms. I did the regular customs for our 10th anniversary, but with my complete inability to keep a secret Chris managed to find out about them weeks before our trip. I need to do all my shopping for him about 5 minutes before I need to give him a gift.

As soon as we get to Texas I need either a fabulous Tex-Mex meal and frozen margarita, or a Fall Off the Porch tea from Babin’s (it’s basically a Long Island iced tea). It’s been a long week and it’s only Wednesday. After a hard day it would have been really nice to just get dressed up, head over to our favorite cheapo Mexican place and have dinner. But we are just too busy for that. In fact, tomorrow will be my last full day here in Birmingham and the house is only about 70% packed. Ack!!! So I had to settle for Whole Foods frozen burritos and a lime popsicle dipped in tequila and triple sec. I know, pathetic right? My blender and smoothie makers are both packed away in the basement, my organic frozen strawberries were given to a friend and I just can’t stand Jose Cuervo margarita mix by itself. Yuck. Oh well, the move will be over soon and we can get back to normal. Whatever normal is these days.

Etsy seller, Brian Rubenacker was featured recently on Etsy Finds and I fell in love with his dog artwork. Seriously, how cute would these be in a baby boy’s nursery?

And a cowboy/indian series, how friggin’ cute is that?

And x-ray glasses

So these will definitely be in the running for possible baby #2’s nursery, along with a space/robot theme (with Blik Space Invaders wall decals) or monkeys. Unless it’s a girl, then the nursery theme will be Surfer Girl Redux. Nah, I’m so sick of Daphne’s room decor. This is reason #1 why I’m so cheap when it comes to decorating. I get bored with paint colors, wall art, accessories, etc. after about 6 months. My living room alone in the last 12 years has gone from country cottage, french country, shabby chic, primitive americana, a Trading Spaces Laurie Smith inspired room, a gold and red “looks like the interior of the Cheesecake Factory barfed” design and finally a chocolate brown/aqua bird inspired room. And I just sold all my living room furniture today, so look for another new living room design in Houston.

This is going to be a crazy week. Not only do we have to finish packing up the house and get it ready to sell, we are also leaving for Chicago on Friday morning. We fly back Sunday night and leave for Houston Monday morning. I normally don’t mind packing, but with an almost 10 month old it’s nearly impossible to get anything done. I’m very glad the next time we move I’ll have family close by to help out.

It’s funny the things you find when you are packing. For example, I have three candy thermometers. I know, three? I don’t mean to have that many, but once a year at Christmas when I’m making English toffee I can never seem to find one so I buy another. And as many times as I’ve made that recipe I still can’t eyeball it. It turns out burnt to hell or is still grainy if I don’t monitor the temperature. I also found three pairs of scissors while cleaning out my kitchen drawers, which is funny since I can never find scissors. I’m always cutting tags off clothes with a kitchen knife, almost slicing myself in the process. Lately I’ve been using Daphne’s fingernail clippers to cut off tags. At least I always know where those are. That girl has dragon nails. I wonder if it’s normal to have to trim them every other day or so? And I found my lost address book, not that very many of the addresses are current anymore, but at least I can update it now.

And to top off my week we have a plague of gnats in the house. I guess they are coming in from the drains or something. Normally I’d fog the area with Raid, but I really can’t do that with Daphne in the house. I’ve been trying to keep the sink areas clean and dry and block them from coming in. I did get irritated at them in my bathroom and started to spray them with hair spray. It was mildly satisfying to see them drop out of mid air and die. Of course, now I have more hair spray residue than normal on the mirror and walls. So that was not really a great plan.

Currently I’m giving myself a pedi, because if I don’t do it now, I might not have a chance later and since I don’t have any normal (non-sandal or flip flop) shoes to wear to Chicago it really is a must.

And FYI to friends and family- my ancient cell phone finally bit the dust. Chris has been bugging me to get a new phone for ages, but up until now I didn’t think I needed one. I mean, as long as it makes calls and stores at least 10 or 15 numbers what else do I need it for. (Of course, I’m also the same person that buys a car and drives it until it falls apart.) So, call Chris’ cell if you need me.

Daphne has had a busy few days, with the mama/dada thing and a new tooth. Today she was standing in the middle of the room and took three steps by herself towards us on the couch. Of course I did my best Lucille Bluth squeal, picked her up and squeezed her to pieces. You could tell she was pleased with herself. I’m so glad Chris got to be here so we could see her first official steps together.

Cowboy Hat at Loretta Lynn

Originally uploaded by Naughty Secretary Club

I’m strangely drawn to this mini cowboy hat headband. Since we’ll be living in Texas I’m sure I’ll have more opportunities to wear a hat, although I’ve never been a fan of cowgirl/country music style. I remember a friend in college from Minnesota was shocked that I didn’t like country music. She had just discovered Garth Brooks, Rockies jeans and Ropers boots and was loving it all. Yep, you can be from Oklahoma and not like country music. So unless U2 goes country I don’t plan on tuning into any country stations. Wait, I do have a Dixie Chicks CD. Does that count as country these days?