Happy Birthday Hurricane Harry!

Over the last week, we've been pretty focused on Hurricane Ike around here, but today it's all about Hurricane Harry.

Because today he is three.

If you ask him how old he is, he'll hold up one finger on each hand and yell "TWO!!" And if you tell him that 'no, actually you're three today', he will argue with you. Because he is right and you are wrong, and he doesn't want to be three, he wants to be two.

Because when he turns three, he has to get rid of the very last pacifier we still have that hasn't been lost.

So tonight when we tucked him to bed, the paci was gone. We were a bit nervous about that, and I actually wondered if we should put it off again... like I had when he turned 18 months old, and two years old, and you get the gist. But we thought we'd go ahead and try it anyway, and it resulted in maybe 20 seconds of whining.

But then he became very quiet, very quickly, and we were beyond proud of our exceptional progenitive prowess and mad parenting skillz. Until James stopped back in a about 15 minutes later and found him lying there in the dark playing Mario Brothers on my Nintendo DS Lite. Doing quite well at it, according to reports. Playing a video game on a level that I didn't even know existed.

He's two.

Or at least he was at the time.

Photo of a boy in his treasured Lightning McQueen pajamas, taken on Saturday by Karen, courtesy of Chookooloonks.

Bad haircut, courtesy of me.

Hurricane Ike Didn't Hit Central Texas

So. That's where we went. And that's where we're going to stay until things get a little better in Houston. For anyone who's been calling, emailing, twittering, or screaming at me for not updating Facebook, we're at my parents' house... they just happened to be in Nashville visiting my sister.

Last time, we stayed in Houston. We had to. I was in labor and delivery. Delivering.

But this time, we were out of here. We decided late Thursday to head toward Central Texas, and a drive that usually takes two-and-a-half to three hours, took almost six. Not good. Three hours into the drive, we were seriously thinking we were idiots to get on the road. But our house was built in 1920 with almost original paper-thin windows, and it's surrounded by giant trees. I just didn't want to "hunker down" in the middle-of-the-night hurricane with an almost three year old. Even more, I didn't want to be without power for days. Especially when we had a perfectly good spot to go.

So we went.

We're a bit worried about our place in Houston (this building is across the street from where we used to live)... word is, power and water are out... windows are out, and trees are down all over our neighborhood.

But here, we have sunshine, electricity, water, sangria, internet, and Wiggles videos. So we're set.I've been on the phone all morning with work...making phone calls and touching base with everyone. Looks like I'm the Austin office this week. And it sounds like a lot of people are heading this way. We're not the only ones who want power.

Things aren't great in Houston right now. People survived the storm just fine but weeks and weeks without power and water...that's a problem. ATM machines are down, grocery stores are closed, air conditioning isn't working (a huge deal in Houston), plumbing isn't working (yikes), and the long list goes on and on.

Part of me wishes I were there to help out... perhaps it's evacuation guilt.

But most of me is just really glad I'm here with my husband and son. With electricity and water to make coffee... just one of the perks of power. I'm sure there are a million of them that I'm not thinking of right now, perks that my friends in Houston are wishing for today. While we're here wishing the best for them and hoping for quick returns to normal for everyone along the Gulf Coast.

UPDATE: Above photo taken on our street from CosmoPolitician. Thanks for checking on our house, Monica!

*Harper Seed Farm photo from Cynical Pink's Flickr photostream

Ike is Pretty

So should we stock up w/ peanut butter and water?

Or should we get the heck out of dodge?

We can't decide.