Adventures in Being Myself

Even though an arctic blast chilled the evening, there's something a bit odd about a pumpkin patch that is surrounded by palm trees. But that's the way of our world here in Southwest Florida This was what I did last year for Hallowe'en. And this year: Zane was not very fond of climbing around on the pumpkins, to my disappointment. We visited the patch during his usual catnap time. The upside-down Jack-o-Lantern.

This week we reached a record low temperarture for October in Fort Myers. 43 degrees. That's pretty chilly for Southwest Florida. This is what Zane chose to wear for school that day.

College football, Gator football, has always been part of my life. On the night that my mother went into labor with me, my father was with my Uncle Lenny in Jacksonville for the Florida-Duke football game. The story goes that my dad and Uncle Lenny made it home to Clearwater in 3-1/2 hours and, as soon as he arrived, I was born at 7:16am. That was in 1970. By the 1971 season, my dad and mom had season tickets - three to be exact - and our Saturday afternoons were spent in Section 15, Row 71, Seats 10, 11 and 12 at Florida Field. That was well before Ben Hill Griffin gave the UAA a boatload of cash for upgrades and naming rights. It was also well before the first Glory Years of Gator Football (1983-1985), before Emmitt Smith, before the second coming of Steve Spurrier, and before most everything that now defines Gator Football. Back then, we sat through day games, in dress clothes, and suffered 0-10-1 and 0-11 seasons. We ate Original Recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes...

What do you get when you add one 85th birthday, one 65th wedding anniversary and one 90th birthday?... A GREAT BIG OLE' PARTY! Ever since I can remember, summertime meant "Grandmama's house." Ashley and I didn't go to camp; we spent six weeks at Grandmama's in rural Alabama. Our grandparents hail from large, tight-knit families - as do most folks their age, in that part of the country - and they created a large, tight-knit family with six children. When grandchildren started arriving, close relationships with the new members of the clan were forgone conclusions. The challenge was creating those close relationships, since all of the Top 5 Grands lived far away from Fort Deposit. My grandmama is a strong woman, and she loves her grandchilden, and she wanted us for the summer. Think about that statement for a moment: she wanted us - all five of us - for the summer. There was no question of where would we all sleep, or bathe, or what would we eat, or however would...

In one of my recent posts here, I said I wished that time would just STOP for a while so I can memorize every small, changing detail of my sweet and beautiful baby as he careens toward the one-year-old mark. In much the same way that time moves faster in the fourth quarter of a football game, it seems like time is moving at warp speed in these last two months before Zane turns one whole year old. Where monthly updates were sufficient during the first seven months of his life, it seems weekly - or even daily - updates are not only warranted but necessary . So, here's what is new in the last week : He has five teeth now. Desi has joined Lucy & Ricky on the top choppers. Fred & Ethel are still enjoying their alone time on the bottom choppers. Zane has been officially crawling for about three weeks. Until last week, however, he was content to "crawl in place," never leaving one room for adventures in the great beyond. Now he CRUISES! He may start in the office with P...

Three months ago I posted the Seven Month Update about our Zane. Three months! It is a truism that infants change by the minute; but it is also true that, as time passes, and if you pay close attention, babies become less a mystery. The more things change, the more they stay the same... So, here is what is still true about our little man - three months later: He is still the happiest and smiliest child I have ever known. He still LOVES people. He still has 100 different variations of his smile, and I love that his face is so expressive. His fingernails still grow faster than mine. Blowing raspberries still cracks him up. He is still a very good eater. He will eat most anything we prepare for him, but his favorites are lentils/brown rice, yogurt, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, pears, peaches, applesauce, bananas and apples with any other mix-in. We have not tried the prunes again (no need) and we do not push the green beans (there is plenty of time for him to learn to love the...

One of my favorite bloggers used a very clever device to update her blog on Monday. Joy explains that her writer's block is a result of lack of time to express herself, or at least lack of time to express it well . I feel the same way. So often I will compose a witty, cogent, topical blog entry in my head and then, before I can either commit the words to paper or reach my keyboard, poof! it's gone. And I'm back to the mundane. One thing I've learned during my foray into blogging is, internet thievery is sort of okay as long as you properly attribute the source. So here, now, is what's current in my world: I'm: Sitting ...at my desk at work, spending the last 20 minutes of the work week composing a blog entry. This week has been tough because I've had to carry 90% of the parenthood load - including the entire morning routine - all week, AND still arrive at work at a reasonable time, ready to give my "110%," only to re-trace my steps in the afterno...