A Bunch of Words When All You Want is Pictures

I'm taking a photography class, which is a really cool thing. (Thank you, Joe, for supporting this hugely time-sucking endeavor.) It feels very indulgent to be doing something completely unrelated to work or baby. The upside for this blog I guess is that maybe the quality of the photos will eventually go up? But the downside is that I'm currently shooting everything in RAW format rather than JPEG, and since I'm not super tech-savvy, I don't even know how to view the images on my computer, much less upload them to blogger at this point. So, until those kinks are worked out, you're stuck with all these boring words and no fun pictures.

Here's the October recap: Steph, our fantastic nanny, got married in a beautiful ceremony in which Georgia's buddy Harry served as ring bearer. At the reception, the emotional, sweetly sentimental bride actually teared up at the head table when they played "Georgia On My Mind". Awwwww, Steph! I proceeded to shake my booty on the dance floor to Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" as Steph introduced me as her "boss." Yes, that shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S, my friends.

While Steph honeymooned, Georgia did some serious bonding with her grandmothers. Thank you Nana and Gran for all of your help! Did we say something to make you think that cooking dinner every night was part of the job description? I don't think so, but hey, we're not going to go changing that misunderstanding anytime soon. Yum.

After 2 weeks of g-ma bonding, we whisked Georgia off to a family vacation in Austin, Texas, a place that Joe and I love and have a special place in our hearts for, for obvious reasons. It's also a place that our entire families seem fearful that we're about to up and move to. RELAX, people! Our friend Jessica did outstanding legwork setting us up with babysitters, and we went out more during our four nights in Austin than we had in the past 4 months at home. We basically ate ourselves silly, listened to music (and even danced) at the Continental Club, hiked (okay, took a walk) at Pedernales State Park, waded at Zilker/Barton Springs, fell into Spoon tickets, ran into Sarah Silverman, rented 1/2 of a gorgeous house on a beautiful lot (with 2 barns) (which we loved, except that it totally freaked us out horror-movie style at night with all its creaks and low lighting), played Rock Band for the first time, and ate some more.

We discovered Georgia has an affinity for rock upon temporarily relaxing our "no TV" policy and letting her watch a few minutes each morning of one of Austin's many public access channels showcasing music (seriously, Austin has more public access than I've ever seen elsewhere, and most of it is hilarious, but I digress...). Have you heard of the song "I Am a Rocket" by the Rockland Eagles? Neither had we, but Georgia was pounding the screen in groupie-like adoration. I wish I had had a video camera to capture it. On this trip Georgia also learned the word "cheetah" when we walked through a toy store that had a larger than life-sized stuffed one on display. Somehow, this has since turned into a game where she says the word "cheetah", and then you are supposed to sprint over to tickle her. It's adorable and all, but we may have created a monster by encouraging this behavior, since she now says cheetah (or chee-TAAAH, as she pronouces it) about 400 times a day. Today I had to explain to her that she can't play cheetah while eating or in the bathtub. Finally, Georgia has a new found love for tapping her ear and looking at you quizzically to point out every noise she hears. Typically, it's cars, busses, and trucks that she's making sure you've heard, but also dogs, airplanes, and one time, a rogue fart! So, you had better be careful around her -- the girl will call you out if you let one slip! P.S. It wasn't me.