Tuesday, November 30, 2010

At 10 months...

I can't believe you're already 10 months old. You've been in this world as a whole person longer than you were in my belly. It amazes me all the time how much you've grown and the new things you're doing all the time. I enjoyed your first Thanksgiving so much and can't wait to watch you experience your first Christmas. You are such a funny little Bear. Your personality develops more and more all the time.

At 10 months you...
-crawl on all fours
-crawl really fast! You're in a different room (and doing something you shouldn't) faster than I can catch you
-pull up to stand on any and everything. This means coffee and end tables have to be cleaned off.
-cruise the furniture
-love Morty the Moose. You carry him everywhere you go.
-have gotten tubes in your ears
-cry when Mommy and Daddy leave you
-don't love a bath like you used to. I don't think the ear plugs help with that.
-look for an item when I take it from you and hide it. You don't fall for the bait and switch anymore.
-cry when you want something
-bite. You think its funny when Mommy tells you no.
-do your "silly laugh." It sounds kind of goat-like. You do it a lot when you're being a stinker.
-have four teeth. Two on top, two on bottom. And a fifth peeking through.
-still hate to get dressed. Especially your shirt over your head.
-don't like to have your face or nose wiped. You cry and get mad.
-could care less about a sippy cup. You bang it around and chew on the spout and bottom of the cup.
-don't care anything about juice either.
-not only reach/lean for who you want to go to, but lean away when you don't want to go to someone else.

And this is what you look like at 10 months...


You're always standing!


A close up of those toothies...


And the sweet face your Mama and Daddy love...


The hours drag sometimes, but the days fly right by me. I find myself worrying about the wrong things...dishes, laundry, the dust you could write your name in. I have to remind myself all the time that this sweet face will not always look for me to play with him. I try to keep the word intentional at the forefront of my thoughts. I find myself saying "I meant to..." a lot. And I do mean to do things, but time always gets away from me. I have to be intentional about what I do everyday otherwise the days when he climbs up my leg while I do dishes or does his "silly laugh" and crawls faster to get to something he wants while I chase him...these times will be gone. He will be grown and moved away without me having done so many things that "I meant" to do. Like take him to the park...another thing "I meant to do" before it got too cold.

I have so many sweet pictures to share of Thanksgiving. Check back soon, I'll get them up ASAP.

Edit: I have changed the settings so that you can comment without having a special ID. From what I understand you previously had to have a Google ID to be able to leave comments. I think I now have it set up so that you don't have to do that. Comment away!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

My first real "shoot"

So, most of you know that I love to take pictures. I would love to be able to quit my job one day and supplement our income by doing portraits. That's many years away, if ever. But in the meantime, I have great friends that don't mind me practicing on them. And their kids. I've done a few Christmas cards for friends and that's always fun. But this was the first time I did a "shoot" involving kids. (I use the term shoot loosely, in no way am I professional enough for that yet!)
I work with Tracie and over the past year and a half, we've become good friends. She is wonderful...compassionate, thoughtful, and a great mom to three beautiful kids. I asked her if I could do some pics of them because I thought it would be good practice for me. She humored me (bless her heart) and she was sweet enough to let me share them here with you!








Just a note...they held hands all on their own. No prompting from me or Tracie...isn't that sweet! The kids were troopers. I'm still very slow at getting everything set up right and it takes me a while to decide what and how I want to do things. The kids did great in spite of me! I think the lure of Halloween costumes and candy when we got done helped. Here's one of all of them in their cute costumes.


It was Halloween when we took these and Tracie was already thinking about her Christmas card. Hence the red and plaid shirts. She's so organized! I hope we got one you're proud to use!

Thank you, Tracie, for letting me spend some time with you and your sweet kids. They're a lot of fun and it was a great way for me to get some practice!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Embrace the Camera: November 11



Happy Thursday! Danny is out of town fishing so Little Bear and I are holding down the fort. Should be an interesting night since Daddy isn't here to help.

It's time to Embrace the Camera!


This is what I look like when I say "tickle, tickle" to get him to smile. There were better ones of me, but this was the funniest one of him. He almost looks crazy he's smiling so big! Gotta love that "church hair!"



Oh, my boys! The Bear thinks it's hilarious when I fake sneeze. Gets him to smile for the camera everytime. Can you see those top two teeth? They're there!

Thanks for playing along!

A Manly Man

I was at work today, talking with a co-worker. The subject of our conversation led me to think to myself, "Thank God I married a man." When I say this I don't mean I'm glad I married a man instead of a woman. I mean I'm glad I married a MAN instead of a man. Allow me to illustrate my point.

When faced with a large bug or small rodent, Danny doesn't hop onto the chair with me and shriek. He squashes it and rolls his eyes at my hysterics. While maybe chuckling a bit.

He can tend to our dog's health issues. He has nursed our pups back to good health after run-ins with vicious animals and other events that left them with angry looking wounds. Heck, he helped deliver Becky's puppies by c-section. Yes, dogs need c-sections too sometimes. I think he should've gone to vet school. I know what you're thinking..."If he's such a good doc then why do y'all spend so much time and money at the vet's?" And the answer is this: he doesn't have any meds, silly. No, you can't just buy them online. We thought about that.

When there is a problem with our vehicles, he doesn't take it directly to a repair shop so that they can charge us $600 to replace the brake harness. (Which even I know doesn't exist. It's a WIRING harness for your brakes when you tow something.) But some men aren't mechanically inclined and don't know this.

He can hunt and fish. (I feel like I should grunt and beat my chest here.) He can put meat up in our freezer to feed our family. And then (this is the good part) he can cook that meat. I don't know how to cook quail. He does.

When there is a problem with our garbage disposal (like this week), he doesn't hesitate to stick his hand into the black, unknown abyss to dig out the shards of the broken glass baby food jar. I know that deep down that's the last thing he wants to do but he knows that they aren't going to jump out on their own. Although I don't know why they don't jump out on their own...that's how the baby food jar got in there in the first place. Yes, that really happened.

He knows about firearms and how to work them. Not in a crazy, militia radical way, but in a way that he can protect his family and property. This makes me feel safe.

When the lid will not come off the jelly, he does not meekly grunt and groan while making feeble attempts to get it off. He gets in there and shows that lid who's boss. It may sound like a little thing, but those jelly jars are hostile.

If we were stranded with a broken down plane he could fix it. No questions, he's a good aircraft mechanic. If we were stranded like Lost we'd be pretty screwed. But he could take care of us while out there in the wild sci-fi jungle. He'd find a shelter, food to feed us, and ways to protect us. So maybe we wouldn't be that screwed.

When things break around the house, he fixes them. We don't do without an item while it's at the repair shop, he gets the parts and tools out and he fixes what's broken.

He can build stuff. He knows how to use hand tools and power tools to construct what needs buildin'. He can demolish stuff. He's tearing down our little patio fence now.

He knows about sports. Maybe I should say college football. Thank goodness he doesn't watch all of them and quote stats from 1947's world series game or insist on hanging women's field hockey memorabilia in the living room or scratch himself and belch every night of the week while watching "the Game." Thank goodness. I don't know that I could live with that. But he knows about and loves college football. That's plenty manly.

Danny is just the right amount of man. He isn't a macho, knuckle-dragging, poker night every week, cigars in the living room, womanizing asshole. Thank God. He doesn't insist on doing things that are outside the realm of his knowledge, capabilities, or what he is equipped to do. He knows when to call the professionals.

He is a self reliant and self sufficient kind of man. He doesn't depend on others to provide or maintain his family. His responsibilities are HIS responsibilities.

He is my kind of guy. Now I'm going to fix his meat and potatoes.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Time well spent

There are about 3 dozen things I should be doing other than blogging. Especially since it takes me about an hour to do one post. Does it take everyone that long or am I just slow? Anyway, while the Bear is napping I wanted to take this opportunity to get on paper (or the web) what I was feeling right this minute.

I have had more fun being at home over the last few days than I ever thought we could have right after a surgery (even one as minor as tubes.) I took Thursday and Friday off of work to take care of the Bear after his surgery. Danny was at home with us Thursday and it was nice to just hang out at the house. After the Bear got his nap, it was fun. He was ill as a hornet when he woke up from the anesthesia. But after that we played patty cake, peek-a-boo, gave high fives, and played with toys all afternoon.

Yesterday and today, the Bear has gotten to sleep in until he's ready to get up. I've gotten up before him and had time to eat breakfast or shower before he's started stirring. This morning I could hear him moving around in his crib and talking his sweet gibberish. I left him in there for a few minutes and listened to that sweet baby talk through the monitor. When I opened his door to get him up he was still on his tummy with his legs tucked up under him and his hiney in the air. He smiled when he saw me before picking up his little head and trying to stand in the crib so I could get him.
I've also gotten to rock him for a few minutes before putting him down for his morning nap. He lays his little head on my chest and does his slow blinks until he just can't fight it anymore and dozes off. That has probably been the highlight of the past few days. Holding and rocking my baby for his nap. He doesn't often let me cuddle him and put his head on my chest. He's too big of a boy to do that anymore. I love how the sun shines through the curtains and makes his hair look a little lighter and casts shadows in such a way to make his little cheeks look even juicier.

While he naps I've gotten kitchen cabinets organized, the living room vacuumed, and a living room cabinet straightened up. But when he's awake we play. He's cruising furniture like nobody's business. He crawls so fast I have to run to get to him before he plays in the trash or finds the minuscule crumbs on the kitchen floor to eat. He's so mobile these days you can forget about household chores when he's awake.
I even cooked dinner last night! *SNAP!* Alright, come to already...I know it's shocking but nothing worth fainting over. I cooked dinner AND made a pumpkin pie! Now I'll wait while you regain consciousness......welcome back. Anyway, I think Danny was in a bit of a shock too. Bless his heart. He certainly didn't marry a Martha Stewart. As is evident by my meager dinner offerings of Hamburger Helper on at least a weekly basis. Isn't that sad? When I do cook dinner it's something like Hamburger Helper. I don't like to cook. I do like to bake.

I'd like to tell you a little about the Bear and his BFF, Mortimer (we're on a first name basis, we call him Morty) Moose. Wade loves Morty. He drags him all over the house, he went with us to the hospital, he plays with him in the car on the way to daycare. Here they are playing under the coffee table.


And playing in the kitchen...the Bear is laughing because Morty tells hilarious jokes...


But this is how sweet Morty spends most of his time: with one leg in the clutches of the Bear and one of his colorful, bell-ringing feet in the Bear's mouth. Like this:

They're quite a pair.
Hope everyone is having a happy Saturday! We've got a busy one when Danny gets home from work: Bama game then a party with people Danny works with. I won't know a soul, but I'm kinda looking forward to meeting some new peeps. Have a restful weekend!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Embrace the Camera: November 4



I should've combined this with the last post but wasn't thinking. So...two in one day. Some sort of record for me! Here we are Embracing the camera on Halloween.



See the previous post for his adorable costume and its sweet little history. Now go get your camera and embrace it. Love it.

Also, Wade's surgery (tubes in his ears) went fine this morning. He was really grumpy when he woke up but after a good nap and something to eat he was set to go. He has played like crazy this afternoon. Thanks for thinking about us!

Halloween and the Great Pumpkin

I know I'm a little late getting this up and that you've already seen his costume, but I just had to post some of the cute pics we got with him. I also wanted to tell you about his costume. My mom made this little pumpkin and I wore it when I was about 6 months old. Since then about 18 other kids have worn it. And now my little Bear has worn it. It's got holes in it and the stuffing is coming out in places, but it's still precious. I think that's a pretty neat little story. Just thought I'd share.



These are of the cute outfit his Nana got him.

We didn't actually trick-or-treat. We just went to the grandparents houses and showed him off in his little costume. Next year though, look out. Hide your candy.

Monday, November 1, 2010

I Love October

Just a few reasons I love October...

1. It finally cools off. Somedays you can still wear shorts, but it isn't as hot as Hedes anymore. Finally.
2. The FAIR!

source

3. Hubby's Birthday
4. Our anniversary
5. Pumpkins

6. Beautiful leaves
7. Football. Specifically, University of Alabama football.

source
8. Punkins
These aren't in any particular order. Although I have to admit that number 8 probably is my favorite. Hmmm...I miss October already.