the cowboy angel

the stages in the creation of our tree topper this year, called the cowboy angel.

his frame, which jeremy sculpted out of baling wire

 working the papier mache, late into the night

 the final product, the rope is so realistic!

 does look like another cowboy angel who lives in our house, but don't psychoanalyze

garden of eden

these days, it is no surprise to look in the video monitor at our sweet sleeping child and find her naked. as a matter of fact, a couple of weeks ago, jeremy found her sound asleep, naked, with poop smeared all over her crib.

these are a couple of interesting shots from the monitor this past week.

409

there are worse things than having a child who is obsessed with cleaning.

mouse in the house

the freezing rain has brought us a house guest, but he's not much trouble, he is quiet and fertilizes our lawn.

all the days

it is no secret that kids love singing. esther margaret likes to combine hymns and broadway tunes (surely goodness and mercy/tomorrow from annie).

light club

as with all projects and renovations at the echols household, the idea comes about 12 hours before it begins. this time, we needed to replace lights over the sink. that turned into adding recessed lighting, which turned into "why is there a crack in the ceiling", which turned into having to replace drywall, which then turned into refinishing the ceiling and replacing the pendants. re-wiring, re-painting, re-everything. we are very, extremely, crazy lucky that jeremy is so handy. and handsy. just kidding. i did not lift even a paintbrush during this time. i even timed it so our housekeeper would have to clean it up. it took jeremy about two weeks.

next he is replacing the ceiling in the foyer and refinishing the floor in esther the messter's room. i think.

ni hao

i am under a deadline, which is why i am inextricably thinking about things which have no relevance in my life.

esther margaret watches a couple of tv shows, and ni hao kai-lan is not really one of them. but she ends up watching this a couple of times a week, normally because it coincides with a time when i have to take a shower, fold laundry or reply to email.

kai lan is a little chinese girl whose friends include hoho (a tiny monkey), tolee (a koala bear), lulu (a rhinoceros) and rintoo (a tiger). the authority figure is yeh yeh, her grandfather. i find this show confounding for many reasons.

first, where are her parents? yeh yeh puts her to bed so maybe she is an orphan? and why does she not have any human friends? she and yeh yeh are the only humans on the show. they interact with ants, dolphins, even the sun and yet there are no other humans. why.

and why do these other animal children not have parents either? if kai lan goes to see if tolee can come on an adventure, she always finds him in a one room tree house. and tolee is always wearing house shoes and matching hoodie, it makes me crazy. if he had parents, he would not be leaving the house like that. while we're on that note, why does he wear clothes but rintoo and hoho don't?

all of her friends seem to be male except for lulu, the pink rhinoceros who floats around with a red balloon tied to her horn. i guess if she is a tomboy it explains her horrible outfit choices consisting of red high tops, orange and yellow board shorts, an embellished blue muscle tee and an insane traditional chinese hair cut.

i'm pretty sure em will have to stop watching it soon because i almost can't handle it. getting out of the shower one more time and hearing tolee whine or kai lan talk about someone's feelings will take me over the edge.

on a different note, esther the messter, who is super sensitive to insect bites, got a bite right between her eyes last saturday. the top half of her face swelled up so much, she spent the rest of the weekend looking more like her mongolian descendants.

punkin with a pumpkin

jse carved a cowboy small pumpkin for esther margaret this year, she loved it!

chick chick chick

i think blogger is a dying breed. that's what i hear about facebook too. i guess i will be posting until it takes its last breath.

we have all been doing well, although i would like to get more sleep.

homecoming weekend, a satisfied katie's custard customer.

 doesn't she look so old?! heartbreaking but true. we rode the train at lion's park

 inside evan's rocket ship on a trip to austin to meet up with family

 the only one eyed passenger that can fit in her car

 unpacking at the swartzs last week, we found these two budding rock stars

 a quick pump in her swimsuit before bed

 with cousin hallie last night, em couldn't tear her eyes away from pinocchio

*it has started to happen, em's indoctrination to blue and gray. i have tried other colors but think she looks like a tiny clown. i will continue to try, but gravity is hard to defy.

costume party

em ends up in some interesting costumes, although i don't know how intentional it is. here is a sampling of different outfits in the last month or so.

a fire person

 a server at whatever restaurant requires socks from korean air with sandals but no shirt or pants, and serves tinker toys

 a cyclist

 jack nicholson

 joseph stalin

little bo peep show

the new bow from balenciaga, a touch subversive on an iconic feminine symbol, which i love

showcase showdown

i have wanted to post but don't feel like i have much to say, so like lesley, i am posting the last five pictures i have in my phone.

it is not a good sign when my thighs have almost completely rubbed through denim, the same fabric that was used to protect the skin of coal miners and factory workers.

 a view from one of the showrooms i visited in nyc this week

 evidence that the fashion industry is not kept buoyant by creative people but by dudes like this. i sat next to this guy on the flight back to dallas, he is the director of store planning for an extremely big and extremely old parisian fashion house. let this be a lesson to anyone who wants to major in fashion merchandising.

it's not weird

 half of the time when em is quiet, she is playing with her stuffed animals or reading books. the other half, she is naked, sticking markers in her belly button

artichoke project

what.....

wrinkles in time

jeremy is an extremely diligent person. he never ever gives up, he stays focused no matter what, he gives one hundred percent, all of the time. examples of when this is can be bad: arguments (marital and other), playstation games (have woken up thinking i am having a ptsd episode from 'nam), catching cows (broken limbs). other than that, his dedication makes incredible things happen. i am so proud of him for his efforts the last two years, giving his best every day, inching his way towards applying to school. he is almost there, and who knows what will happen, but the hard work and golden moments have illuminated life.

hair spray

i am a tad impulsive with hair, and i have cut my own hair in the dark hours of the night more than i would like to admit. and i suppose it's natural that i feel the same way towards my child. this weekend, i cut em's hair on a whim, but really i just lopped off the mullet.

seeing that hair in the trash made me feel sentimental. bye bye baby.

now she looks more like this

 and less like this

bubble tapeworm

one of the best and worst thing about kids is that they have fun playing with almost anything. here is our little kid, in her undies, working over some bubble wrap. toddlers try so hard to jump, but manage to get about 3/4 inch off the floor. her face is hilarious when she lands, she is so stiff, like she is bracing for a mini earthquake every time.

the orange tent

one of her favorite books, madeline's rescue, with her favorite uncle-brother.

tomorrow

you can't see anything here (i was driving, em has also become a little camera shy these days) but wanted to capture her singing her favorite song of the moment, tomorrow. she has a sweet little singing voice.

post op

when jeremy and i first got married, i made enemies with time and reality. i have to say here that life was a bit jarring. he moved in with me mid-may (and by he, i mean he plus four dogs, horse and cattle trailers, a tractor, welding and carpentry equipment, vintage clothes (grossss), cars that did not work, a lot of crazy furniture and art (one landmark fight was over the portrait of the "lady in the red dress playing the piano"), a tendency to form very high piles of extremely dirty clothing on the floor and one mean habit of leaving tobacco spit cups e v e r y w h e r e), we married in june, had esther margaret in july and he started school full time in august.

maybe to brace myself for all of the change or just to cope with a new baby, i occupied my thoughts with how i wished things could be. consequently, i had a very hard time accepting that i was betrothed to someone, that i had a child who depended on me 24 hours a day, that i bore the financial weight for my whole family, that i was not independent anymore, that my tax filing status would change, that i felt like my mom died again, that i had to answer to someone. i escaped in my mind because it was just too much.

i imagined life without so many dogs. i imagined life where i could park in the garage. i imagined a life where i could rely on my car to start from my imaginary parking place. i imagined a life that jeremy could read my mind and unload the dishwasher or take the trash to the curb on thursday nights. none of my wishes ever seemed like too much to ask and yet nothing ever changed. a year into into it, we still had five dogs, livestock equipment sitting in the car port and i was still president, cook and janitor. i ran the machine, completely alone, on top of my mountain of anger and tears. i was bitter, anxious, so depressed and sad inside. people tend to feel that what is most harsh is the most real, and while i don't think that is true, it was the most satisfying to believe at the time. this was life.

then one day, our favorite dog, muneca, died. within a few months, another dog, winnie, died too. then esther margaret started becoming this profoundly simple, gorgeous, funny person. then jeremy started laughing at my jokes (he never thought i was funny before). then over time, we shed trailers, equipment, then cars and bought a different one that started every single time. then jeremy turned out really good grades every single semester. then the trash bin started to appear on the curb every friday morning and the dishes back in the cabinets by sunrise. one day i realized that i needed him, which was the same day a very good friend told me that i should "trust life".

i pulled into my perfect, minted spot in the garage today and realized that things turned out as i wished they would, but i had nothing to do with it. life seems to always reveal itself on its own accord, and those revelations are always good, always god.

here are the people i love the very most, my family. i am grateful that they have loved me through the good days, the bad times and the salty desserts.

number two for number four

a great montage from lela's birthday party. their personalities are very evident here, lela is very easy going, generous and free spirited. esther margaret is cautious, sensitive and orderly. since that party, em has told me every day that it is lela's birthday.

 

photos by kathy wiethorn