Happy Birthday little one!

I hope my guy has a great rest of the day. It definitely started out well with cinimmon toast, presesnts, and a phone call from gammy and pops!

If anyone else wants to wish him a happy birthday, please do so in the comments!

Child Speak

I've decided to really keep my ears peeled for my little man, just 1 day away from 3! He's really just at that age where he's making not just sense of the world, but his own sense. Some of the stuff he says is really obvious to the parents just how "OLIVER" it is! I think it's adorable!

For a while now Kiran has been requesting privacy in the bathroom or while getting dressed in her room. (Where is mine, Kiran?!!!!!!!) I do want to respect this but find it hard to stay on track when she's demanding a bath with oliver, or something like that. :-) As always, Oliver is soon after demanding the same things she is. He now wants "Private Seed" when he goes pee pee. How's that for child speak!

We also heard him call call a port-o-potty a "Bathroom House". I can see that, they're stand alone buildings that people go in and out of, and obviously it's a bathroom!

For the sake of being totally random, as I'm sure these types of posts will be, I'll throw this in there. If only I could remember the context of Daddy and I using the word shame. It's not as bad as you think, but Oliver stormed in the kitchen saying something, we responded, then he says "Shame is Dirty". It's just funny to me, what goes on this little boys head?! I guess listen and you just might find out!

3 Days until he's 3!!!

My little man hits 3 this Thursday! He's really hoping that he can skip this 3rd birthday altogether. He'd much rather go straight to 6. He has no concept of how the birthdays work yet. "We won't reach tomorrow without getting through today" i tell him, and he looks at me like I'm crazy.

We'll do the usual birthday party for him at school with goody bags for his classmates, cake, balloons, etc. Then we'll be heading to Dallas to celebrate together with family. We can't wait!

I'll have to introduce you all to the newest addition to our family, Fats Domino. That's our new kitten I got from the shelter I volunteered with this weekend. She's 5 months old, very sweet and adorable. Pics soon!

Child Speak

I think I need more child speak posts. I could fill a phone book!

I actually think this is pretty genius for a kid! Oliver has been using the term "lasterday". It's pretty obvious what it refers to but it's just so cute to hear him throw it into a sentense with all seriousness. His own combination of "The last day" and "yesterday". Adorbs!

I'm still digging on "butt-ones" too. I think it started with referring to the number 1 button on a remote control. You tell him what number it is and he just mashes it together. So they all became butt-ones. Daddy asks one day what he calls that tiny round hole in his tummy to which he replied, "my belly butt-one"...no grin or anything. He's GOTTA know how cute that is. I hope having this blog around FOREVER will help him know one day!

my 4th job

first, and foremost, i am a mother. my favorite job of all of them! second, as you all know i work for the board of neurosurgery. lets just say i'm giving them until february to do right by me. i'll be well into my 6th year of employment here and i deserve hired help and more respect OR more compenstation and more respect!
third, we have the band. hiss & hum seems to be going at it pretty steady these days. we're not doing shows every week anymore and are mainly focusing on practicing, tightening up the harmonies, and writing new songs together. 4th on the list is my (insert joke face please!) modeling career! haha. i am joking so don't take me seriously, but i did some modeling on saturday night for a indie fashion designer from austin. i can't say enough about erin & jen or their line of clothing. what a way to go for the first time. it could have been spandex and teased hair. ok, there was a little teasing on the side, but not too bad! i was just asked last minute, it wasn't a big deal. i agreed and thought it would be fun. the whole hanging out with real models part didn't sound as fun, but i went in with confidence. turns out i was their favorite model and did pretty much what they would want from someone represting their line of clothing. so, i'm not a lame plus size model at a HUGE size 2/4, i'm just a normal 20-"something" gal who is into fashion like the rest of you.
the place was packed. we had hair and make-up professionally done in the very lit-up window of this clothing store/bar downtown. there were 3 professional photographers and i'd say a good 30 extra papparazi snapping away as i recall it! ha. and many many more just in the crowd to attend. among them, someone from the show "project runway". i don't know much about it myself but i believe it's Victoria's Secret model Heidi Klums project on cable. big show, but of course i don't have cable or watch it.
we barely had room for a catwalk by the time we hit the runway at nearly 11:30. there were just too many people for that place. aside from that though, it was great. i hope to get some of the professional pics or at least some taken with friends cameras! but here is a cell pic, in the dressing room, of the first outfit i wore. very vintage: high wasted shorts, 3" stretchy belt, tucked in sheer blouse - a very cool gray/lavendar color with flowers mixed nearly the same shade of the shirt. and the coat that had trim matching the bottom of the shorts was really neat. maybe velvet? it was black and swooped just under my armpits and right to the back. i wore my anthropolgie headband that i thought just suited the look. so did they! so much fun! my second outfit was pretty rocker and edgy. we thought: joan jett, karen o. maybe i'll end up with pics one day, maybe not!
:-)
i may team up with these girls in austin again in the near future, we had some collaborative ideas that i feel really good about! will keep you posted.


so now....my big shout out goes to: TEAM FABRICATION!

i think stuff on their myspace page is soooo outdated compared to their current line. I mean it's old stuff of theirs, not "outdated"!
think dresses with a vintage twist, but still tangible and can blend in with every day fashion. it's like your own little cool vintage prom wherever you go! ha ha. i can't desribe the stuff all that great, but just trust me on this one!

getting old

I discovered this morning that i was right all along. i am getting old. i am too old to try out for Idol. American Idol. believe me, not that I ever would! they were discussing the new acceptance of video/you tube tryouts on my morning radio show and read allowed "you must be between the ages of "16 and 28". it is STILL ringing in my ears.
to tell the truth though, that ringing started years ago. i am not going to go into the politics of how wrong it is to say an "idol" is of a certain age simply because i think that show is rediculous and should stand for nothing in relation to the topic of idols. it's just a dumb show, just a dumb name. the concept, though....obviously cool enough to pull me in. here's where i admit to watching the last few seasons.

silence everyone!

ewww fest!

Poor Kiki's wart. We're trying so hard to get rid of. Two scrapings by the doctor and now some INCREDIBLY expensive medicine that she will hardly let us apply. Who knows how much of it has been wasted. I just want to see her happy and pain free again. And no more walking like a ballerina!

Grandmother of the Year goes to.......

Gammy! Last Friday was Grandparents day at Kiki's school and the most dedicated and loving grandmothers of all was there! And a quick funny story and i'll get to the pictures: I got my "Helms Monday Morning Memo" just a bit ago and they discussed it and the success of it in the first paragraph. She gave props to 1 Grandmother who drove in from San Antonio for the lunch. They must not have met my Mother in Law who came from Dallas! :-) No competition really, i think it's lovely that so many want to support the kids.

Gammy read a book to her class as well (in English, tisk tisk!)...wish I had a picture of that. Or at least of Kiran's proud face while her..HER VERY OWN...Gammy read to her friends! awwwwww

Without further ado....

America's favorite vampire, "Edward"

Amber, Robert, Myself *and my HEADBAND!*, Gilbert. (evan's take on this photo: Hiss & Hum, some random vampire dude, and some other random girl!) tee hee








The awesomeness of a Friday night, but on a wednesday. A typical for local celebrity Erica Cleveland (or "Squerica", or "cruz" or "momma scandalous"....).
What did I do after band practice? I went to Dean's downtown in preparation for possibly another show as usual! Only this time I spent 5 hours hanging out with my peeps + Robert Pattinson (and HIS peeps). His friends Tom and Sam were actually really cool guys to be honest. They were all pretty chill, impressively chill maybe, and talented as well. I don't mean they have the ability to fly through tree's, or exist without warm blood and a heartbeat. He's not really a pale vampire like you just might think he is in real life. He went scruffy to do his best undercover indie look. He didn't pull it off in Lubbock, but oddly enough he told me he enjoyed that city. Wild right? What's in lubbock? well apparently a bunch of blood-thirsty teens, true Twi-Hards, who would wait outside of a venue for hours just to get a glimpse.

Anyways, past all the chit-chat, really cool guys. He walked me 4 blocks to my car so that nothing would happen to me, we grabbed my guitar, amicalbly argued over music and bands the entire way there and back, then we just hung out and jammed all night. He and Sam played, then me, and we had an incredibly fiddle player right along with us - threw of the blues vibe they had going but still great nonetheless. Eventually it got nuts and we had to begin finding private back rooms, but when we accidently all slipped into the models rooms where they were changing - things got um...interesting! Then we ended up on the 2nd floor of notsuoh's.....you peeps who know this place can summon up the greatest mental image of all....and we played guitar in a more intimate setting amongst mannequin's (dummy's might be an appropriate version of the word!), 100 year old show boxes that lined the walls, and what i can only describe as junk. I'm still going to have to find my neat vintage headband. Perhaps a ghost stole it.

I talked his buddy Sam into doing the impromptu show and he was cool about it. Robert had the most aweful cold which he assured me i will get now (????) so he just couldn't pull off getting on stage. I couldn't really pressure him.

I do have video of this jamming but i sorta made a pact with Tom that i wouldn't be making that sort of stuff public. I totally get that and wouldn't want to do that to someone who's moves are watched and within seconds all over the internet. give the guy a break. And being that they were all 24 they assured me that 29 isn't old even if they kept making me feel that way. Rob says "Wait, you're under 75, right? youre not old then". Okey Doke, i'll take it stranger.

I did my best not to pull out vampire talk, and allowed myself at least a few "Bella" remarks - aboslutely love Kristen Stewart! ha. Mostly we talked about learning Chinese, where we all wanted to live and do in the future, mad a bit of fun at a girl attempting to rap at a spoken word / poetry reading type of thing that was happening near by, talked about kids and the wonderful married life, tattoos, played guitar, sang, and then....well...what does momma do? Naturally i asked him if he wanted my autograph! (wink)

Sad that i could have googled "robert pattinson in houston" hours before i was DONE hanging out with him and found loads of pics. I found one of me in the first link and i'll attach it. Should have more later when i get to it. I'll give a few cell phone pics too. It was dark and i have NO flash on my BB curve (if someone can explain this to me, please do).

That's that. I'm glad my daugher isn't a teen yet and in love with him like everyone else in nearly every country. She may have been a bit angry with me, or jealous or something.

Good times. Sadly i have to go BACK again tonight to do a rehearsal for tomorrow nights fashion show i'm modeling in. And hair & make-up then could likely take forever, don't know how many girls i'll be modeling with. - things WILL slow down soon Erica! I promise. :-)