Catching Up

Well its been a long time since my last post. This is partly due to the fact that Rowan dunked my digital camera into her kiddie pool.

We have yet to get a new camera. In our house, buying a camera, like any technological purchase consists of reading multiple reviews--both consumer reports, online reviews and friend suggestions, then shifting through numerous sale advertisements to find the best possible price, then looking at various store offers until finally getting sick of all the said effort and buying one at the whichever place we happen to walk into.

I generally opt to begin at the inevitable end and just go out and buy one; but for Andre there is an art to making a purchase, especially when it comes to technology.

Luckily Ivette arrived with her camera and allowed us to download her pictures before they left.

It was good to see them. The kids are growing so fast and I couldn't help but think about how small Austin was when I first met him. Just barely walking, younger than our girls are now perhaps.

It not that children grow so fast that is unnerving, it is that we too are aging. Once you get to the point that you are no longer changing in the upward direction, it is easy to imagine that your age is stagnant. "I'm still wearing the same shirt I did five years ago, so what's the difference?" Children, in their own unintentional way, are a reminder of our mortality and how fast it all goes by.

Andre, forever the tour guide, took the family to both the botanical gardens and Barton Springs. The weather was lovely and everyone seemed to have a great time. I so wish I could have joined them, but work has been teetering on the overwhelming side lately.

I also think its nice for Andre to spend time with his family without me. Not that I don't like to spend time with them, but rather that I think its nice for the family dynamic to have moments without all the new additions.

Later that night we had Beatriz and Jaime over for dinner. Beatriz and Jaime are the perfect dinner guests. They are the type of people who have contagious laughs and great stories. Arriving with delectable deserts doesn't hurt either.