Bridesmaids, Blessings, and Birthdays

I've been distracted lately and haven't been able to write full blog posts. I like to write complete, coherent essays for each post instead of a list of nonlinear or unconnected thoughts or ramblings. I also don't think of this blog as a journal where I can just tell you what happened today. But recently I haven't found the time or, really, the inspiration to write a complete post.

Case in point: School has been out for over a week and I still don't know what to write about it. It was a strange year at my job, what with me taking off the equivalent of a summer vacation in the middle of the school year to be a stay-at-home dad, not to mention a tiring and frustrating year due to the country's current view that teachers are lazy, ungrateful water-flies. I hope to be able to make something of it soon, so I can post an end-of-year review.

I somehow have found the time to add a couple of tabs at the top of this page. Check out the new About Me tab. Fascinating stuff.

A new breed of chick flick posters.

Now to completely break my own blog posting rules and tell you about my week in disjointed, incoherent fashion.

It's been all Xander, all the time. Which I love. And still, it was with some relief that my wife and I were able to get away last night to celebrate our anniversary. We saw Bridesmaids, which is funny and sweet and gross in that Apatow way even though Wilson Phillips never did anything for me. Then while my in-laws stayed with the baby, we stayed at a local Westin hotel for a little luxury. The accommodations were a mite disappointing, but it was satisfying to sleep without a night light again.

Regarding Xander, he's off the oxygen during the day. Recent photos coming up:

Xander in his blessing outfit. He's a little old for his church blessing, but remember we didn't take him out of the house for five months.

Clifford doesn't taste very good.

Still with the oxygen cannula in this one, but babies are always cuter in hats. 

Photographing crazy-cute shots of the boy is getting more and more difficult. He seems to recognize the camera now, so he changes his expression when he sees we're about to take a picture. He gets all stoic, as if to say, "You can't make me be cute."

As you can see, Xander still has those sticky pads on the side of his face so we can pump oxygen up his nose when he goes to sleep. The doctor says that in July they'll send someone out to do a sleep test on him to make sure he's getting the oxygen he needs while he's asleep at night. Until then, it's pleasant enough to be able to take him places and not have the oxygen tank dragging us down.

Finally, my birthday was this week. I'm one year into the second half of my life. I've made peace with it.

My wife and I went with a couple of friends to Texas de Brazil, a Brazilian churrascaria that's rapidly becoming my favorite destination for meat. It's expensive, but we get these 50% off coupons or we'd never go. It's worth a birthday splurge. The only real authentic Brazilian taste you get is from the feijoada (kind of a bean stew with meat parts that, in Brazil, are anybody's guess; kind of a "parts is parts" situation). Even the rice is fancied up a bit with jasmine or something. But everything is yummy and the meat is double yummy.

By the way, we went there BEFORE we saw Bridesmaids. Once you see the film, you might think twice about eating at a churrascaria. But Texas de Brazil is kosher. I swear.

In conclusion, I've been reading Tiny Fey's Bossypants. I like her because she's nerdy in all the right places and she's exactly my age. This is what she says about being forty: "What Turning Forty Means to Me: I need to take my pants off as soon as I get home. I didn't used to have to do that. But I do now."

Cheers.