The Gaga Diaries

Yes, my two-year old son is sitting on the john, using an iPhone.  Oh like you haven’t… 

From the moment she wakes up smiling at me in the morning until the moment she closes those long, beautiful eye lashes for the night… I can never seem to get enough of this baby girl.  She’s really coming into her personality more and more every day now and she is just the loveliest, sweetest little thing. 

P.S. does that look like red hair to anyone else?! 

Back where I grew up we lived about twenty minutes away from the beach.  And along the Massachusetts/New Hampshire coast, there is a certain kind of pizza like no other.  Everyone in the area refers to it simply as “beach pizza” even though the places that make it go by other names (Tripoli’s, Cristaldi’s etc).  It’s sweet, it’s tangy, it’s sparse on cheese yet still cheesy… and if you are ever in the Salisbury MA/Hampton NH area, you should definitely stop and try it.   

Uncle Gaga — bless my brother’s thoughtful heart — traveled 2,000 miles to visit me with a cooler stuffed full of frozen beach pizza for my birthday.  The day he and Cousin Gaga left to go back home, I was definitely pretty mopey.  But opening up my freezer to this beautiful site definitely helped lift my spirits.  

And then when I sat down to eat a slice of heaven hot out of the oven, this happened.

Yup.  She is definitely mine. Don’t worry, I didn’t actually let Baby Gagette have any.  But when beach pizza almost became one of my daughter’s first solids (yikes), I admit my heart secretly did a little happy dance.  Then I snapped back to being a responsible parent.  I realized baby girl was definitely ready for solids, pried that pizza from her stone cold grip, and handed her a slice of healthy zucchini instead.  Baby steps, little lady, baby steps.  (And besides, your first bite of beach pizza needs to be a fresh one anyway.)

Naturally one of the places we were dying to take Cousin Gaga and Uncle Gaga while they were in town last weekend for my birthday was… the grocery store.  Well, not just any grocery store.  Central Market.  And as luck would have it, there happened to be a Beatles cover band playing there on Saturday night.  Sold! 

After everyone woke up from nap time, we loaded into the car and headed downtown to join up with Peepeye and Gamma for Central Market’s outdoor concert.  It was a muggy night with a full house, but that didn’t stop us from having a great time eating, playing and bopping around outside to Beatles’ hits.

The natural rhythm in these little dudes is seriously impressive. 

Toddler Gaga couldn’t stop bopping his head all night long. 

After working up a sweat on the dance floor, Cousin Gaga was so thoughtful and treated everyone to creamsicles.  

And after eating just one popsicle outside in Texas in June… 

I now know why Papa Gaga inhales his ice cream and why my children will likely grow up to do the same.  

It’s no big secret that Texas can get pretty hot in the summertime.  But since we’ve moved here the weather has been pretty fantastic so far — comfortable mornings, hot afternoons great for naps, and then perfect evenings that are warm enough for a swim but cool enough for eating dinner outside.  And honestly, with so many fun public pools and splash pads right nearby, I almost (dare I say it?) feel like “bring on the heat!”

We actually have a pool in our new house, but decided to venture out with Uncle Gaga and Cousin Gaga on Saturday to check out the Quarry Splash Pad in Leander that my neighbor told me rocked (hardy har har). 

$1 admission, honor system, and you can play all day. 

Toddler Gaga thought this place was the bees knees. He ran from fountain to fountain sticking his hands in the water so it would splash everywhere and it made him giggle like crazy. Even despite a few tumbles, he was running around nonstop having fun all morning. 

Cousin Gaga just took a couple extra minutes to warm up to the place and soon he, too, was having a great time soaking his Daddy with the big water canon and going down the slippery water slide made of rock.  

I was shocked how not-super-crowded this place was considering it was a Saturday morning. 

Since Baby Gagette can’t wear sunblock until she’s six months old, she had to stay covered up and watch from the shaded sidelines. 

But as usual, she seemed quite content and didn’t seem to mind. 

We had so much fun beating the heat here.  I want to say we will definitely be back, but with so many interesting splash pads and pools around town to explore (I hear some in Round Rock even feature lazy rivers and pirate ships?!) I’m not sure when that will be! 

                   Pretending to be “wolf baby puppy dogs.”  Duh. 

Yesterday we took Uncle Gaga and Cousin Gaga downtown to see beautiful Zilker Park.  Although we haven’t lived in Austin very long, we know that this is one place you don’t want to miss.  Especially if you are a young toddler boy.  You’ll see why in a little bit.  

We had fun eating hotdogs and running around the playgrounds. 

And staring at the ginormous spring-fed swimming pool wishing we had brought our bathing suits.  

But the highlight of the trip, of course, was the Zilker Zephyr.  These two boys (and even Baby Gagette too!) were *so* excited and Toddler Gaga gave his cousin a narrated play-by-play the entire twenty minute ride.  ”The train is mooooo-ving Luuu-kissss.” “We go in a tunnel now Luuuu-kissss.” 

So cute.  Afterwards we headed back home for some napping and swimming, followed by a pajama stroll through the neighborhood. 

Doesn’t my brother look like such a natural with three? I think he definitely needs at least one more.  

No matter how many miles separate us, these two haven’t forgotten one another for a second. 

Best buddies for life. 

It’s official. I’m 30.  Ugh.  There…I said it.  I woke up yesterday morning and the first thing I saw was Baby Gagette’s sweet little face smiling back at me.  I said aloud to her “Some day you are going to be 30.” Yow. That seems impossible to comprehend.  And that’s when it hit me. I felt old for the first time and realized how crazy it must feel to be my own mother right now.  

So how did I spend the last hours of my 20s? Living it up grocery shopping on my birthday eve and eating special cupcakes at midnight that my favorite new neighbor friend left on the doorstep earlier that evening.

Splurging on a cleaning lady for me and swim lessons for Toddler Gaga on my birthday morning. 

And nearly having a heart attack when I answered the door on my birthday afternoon to find my brother and nephew (who live 2,000 miles away) on the other side. 

Suddenly a low key birthday turned into one that included watching little boys steal our (non-alcoholic) margaritas. 

Working up an appetite in the pool for some good ol’ fashioned Texas BBQ.  

(Best eaten after shirts have been removed to prevent additional BBQ sauce spillage, of course.)

And staying up far too late watching the little guys open all my presents and eating chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting — my FAVORITE! Thoughtful Papa Gaga tracked down the one bakery in all of Austin that makes this and it was out of this world. 

My twenties were a lot about me — graduating from college, moving around the country, getting my masters degree, traveling, marrying the kindest man I’ve ever met.  And now here I am starting off this new decade from scratch, in a way.  Living in a new city in a new home with my new family.  Except now the major difference is that it’s not about me anymore.  Now it’s all about them.  And that’s perfectly okay with me because at thirty years old I already feel as though I have it all. Now it’s time to make the dreams of these other little people come true and I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing from this point forward.  

Look who showed up on our doorstep with his daddy this afternoon all the way from Boston to surprise me for my birthday! Best presents ever!!

There are two things I really love in this life: 1) family and 2) surprises.  I feel like the luckiest girl in the world today to have gotten both for my 30th birthday! 

Apparently apple slices taste especially delicious when stolen off someone else’s plate.  

And so — a little ahead of schedule at just slightly under 5.5 months of age — adventures in baby-led weaning begin for Baby Gagette! 

Mommy finally indulged in her first post-baby drink since Baby Gagette was born.  I wasn’t sure if I would go for beer, wine, or a mixed drink.  In the end I kept it simple and boy did this amber ale taste g-double-o-d. 

                                         Mmmmmmm…..TOES!

                                                  Doppelgänger?