Clogged noses, sleepless nights, and farewell parties

And somehow it's already Thursday...?

Donovan's been fighting some kind of cold all week, it started even a few days before we came here, so all week he's been congested, coughing some, and a runny nose off-and-on, and sleeping very badly most nights.  I think we've had maybe 2 nights this week when he's slept through from 8/9pm till 5/6am.  It's such a huge help to have all the grandparents around to help take care of him during the day, but ultimately I'm still the mama and the one he's been demanding loudly, and so I'm still the one who ends up having to get him back to sleep at night, and who he demands to snuggle with during the day, and the end result is I'm kind of a little bit tired.  Just a little.  You know.

Sunday afternoon a bunch of our local friends came by to hang out for a bit.  The weather was gorgeous, and it was fun to see all these kiddoes running around in the backyard, kids that were now full-grown toddlers but were a few weeks/months old last time we saw them.  One of Zach's oldest friends, Butch, was there with his wife and their little boy, who's just a few months younger than D, and it was very cool to see them play and see that friendship extend to the next generation.  It was also the first time, I think, that we got Donovan and his 2 cousins, Ryan and Mira, all together, a moment I commemorated by taking about a gazillion pictures of them together.  I can't help it, they're all just so darned cute.  =P

Monday we took D to a nearby park and ran into our friend Bodar and her 2 kiddoes, which was a very fun and lucky coincidence.  Afterwards Philip practically forced Zach and I to go on a date, giving us the keys to the MR2 he's "trying to sell" (but really loves having), so we drove out to The Salt Lick for an early dinner.  It's been forever since I've eaten there, it was a nice reminder of how damn good their meat it.  It was also cute to see the room where we held our rehearsal dinner oh so many years ago.  ; )

Tuesday we all went to the playground at Zilker park to meet up with Jessica and get to see baby Liam.  D had fun running around and playing, and it was fun to get to actually talk with a friend knowing he was being taken care of by others.  Zach flew off back to California in the afternoon, and then that evening I went on a total flashback of a night, driving down to UT campus for the first time in I don't even know how many years (driving down 24th street at night brought back so many college memories...) to see the farewell Austin performance of one of my favorite bands of all time, The Hudsons-- made up of Hudson Mueller and Brian Hudson, and if you're in Austin or have ever visited then you'll know them or should at least recognize the names b/c I probably pushed you to go see them at Waterloo for their Thursday night gigs.  Zach knew Hudson from grade school, we started going to his shows in college.  Then Brian joined him, and I swear I spent every Thursday night for 2 years in college at their shows.  I adore them, they are insanely talented musicians and very fun people.  And now after 8 years they're breaking up since Hudson's now moved to NYC.  I am sad to see the end of this era, but so, so glad I got to see that last show with them, and I cannot wait to see what their next musical ventures will be b/c I know they'll be good.

Finally, yesterday, Wednesday.  It rained.  I went to the mall and Target for a bit of solo shopping (I also really really want to head down to "SoCo" to shop at Parts & Labour but I know I'll end up spending a bunch of money there, it is inevitable, so I'm kind of trying to avoid it for now).  My youngest sister, Katie, is a senior in high school, and we'd planned to take some senior portraits for her yesterday evening, and luckily the rain held off just enough so we got to take a few shots just out in the backyard.  I'm hoping we can do a few more maybe Saturday morning, we'll see.  I do think we got some good stuff yesterday, I'm downloading the photos right now and it's taking FOREVER since I opted to actually use RAW files.  I'm curious to see how long a process it will be to edit them...

Here are the pictures I've gotten around to uploading so far.