Not Me Monday! Shopping Trips

NOT ME! Shopping Experience #1:

I took Tobi with me last Friday to one of my favorite consignment shops and I was excited to look for some new (to me) maternity clothes and maybe a thing or two for Tobs and maybe even something for the new baby.

Among the things that DID NOT happen while I was there are:

I DID NOT push the stroller directly into the frame of the door upon entering making a loud clang and a grand entrance and then immediately after I DID NOT grab the door that I assumed was quite heavy but was actually quite light and slam it into the glass window behind the door again clanging quite loudly, scaring Tobi and all the customers in the vicinity, announcing our arrival for the second time. That would have been kinda embarrassing.

Also in an effort to expedite my shopping I DID NOT decide to load up the top of the umbrella stroller with any thing at all that seemed reasonable to try on. When I got to the dressing area I was NOT totally surprised to find that the store had changed their policy and actually had someone manning the area and counting the items. I was also NOT totally embarrassed when she started counting the mangled mass of clothes I had accumulated. Then she informed me that no strollers were allowed in the dressing room.
So I proceeded to take Tobi out of the stroller and as soon as her feet hit the floor she DID NOT take off running while the sales lady was still trying to untangle the clothing mass...which apparently had been counterbalanced by Tobi's weight. The stroller of course DID NOT flip over onto the floor while and send clothing flying in several directions and I was NOT in the midst of chasing Tobi around the store with one hand and unsuccessfully trying to catch the stroller with the other. If that had happened I would have been completely relieved to finally get into the protection of the dressing room...until I realized that the stereo system for the store was on the floor of the room we were put in... oh boy! a stroller-free 1 year old + lots of shinny buttons and lights = a lot of crazy maneuvering and dancing to keep little fingers from connecting with those buttons....all while trying to actually try on all the clothes that now filled the dressing room.

NOT ME!Shopping experience #2:

Saturday, Ben & I went into a little baby boutique. You know the kind of place where even the basic items are not something you want to have to pay for. Tobi was in the umbrella stroller again and I was vigilantly watching her grabby little paws and keeping her just out of reach of any and all merchandise...this was no easy task since it was a small store with MANY little items. Since I was being so vigilant I would NOT have been surprised to look down to see that Tobi at some point had kidnapped a soft little monkey blanket and had been snuggling it for probably quite some time since the rest of the soft animal blankets were at the opposite end of the store! Sneaky little clepto-baby! If that had happened I certainly would NOT have been so surprised to see that she had gotten a hold of something that I loudly announced "Hey! How did you get that?" And that would NOT have alerted the owner to immediately come over and return the item for us! Oops! I'm sure our $4.95 pacifier purchase made up for inconvenience! I mean if any of that had actually happened!!

Tobren's Baby Dedication ( a look back)

So this is a little flashback to Tobi's dedication back in August. She was dedicated along with her cousin Sadie and 2 other babies from our church. It was such a special time. The church did a great job of making it a meaningful experience for everyone. I really felt blessed by the thought and preparation that went into making it special for all the families involved. It is a priviledge for us to be part of church family that will partner with us to help raise Tobi up in the truth and love of the Lord. The physical act of standing up and acknowledging our desire as parents to raise Tobi up as the Lord would have us to is both a great responsiblility and a great freedom. We have the great task of modeling a Christ-like life for our children, loving them as God would, and training them in truth and grace. But it as also very freeing to know that we do not do this alone. First and foremost Tobi is God's, and He loves her more than we ever could (Which is pretty amazing because we love her a whole lot!) and He already has her life in His hands. And secondly, there is freedom in knowing that we have godly family all around us and our church "family" both locally and all over the world joins with us in this endeavor!

This is the sweet frame the church gave us as a reminder of that day:

A family photo taken on that day:

Pastor Butler praying over our family:

Sadie looking at Tobi:

Tobi eating her baby's head and Kayla joining our family. At one point I think our family grew to 5 and Ryan and Sarah were down to just 2 kids. Kayla loves her Uncle Bennie:

Tobi looking out at all her adoring fans:

Tobi likes her frame, maybe someday we will actually hang it up:

Hoedown Tobi Style

Baby Running Barefoot #2

3 posts in 3 days...this must be a record for me. I guess there is a lot of news to report around here. It's true, we are I am pregnant again (I'm not allowed to say "we" according to the rules of Ben i.e. "We are expecting", "We are due..."). At my appointment today the midwife decided to go with the early ultrasound dating, so that means we are ...er....I am 11 weeks along. And our my due date is May 18, 2010.

These are the first pictures of our little bean. Here is BRB* at 8 weeks and 3 days old. Measuring just 19 mm it's amazing that you can definitely tell it is a baby already! And we could even see the little heart beating at 171 bpm....how amazing!


*Baby Running-Barefoot

Tobi is excited too. She got a T-Shirt to help celebrate.


I don't know why but she keeps lifting up my shirt and pointing to my belly and saying "baby"...I may have told her that once, but I really don't even remember doing it. She also does the same thing to Ben...so she's not a total genius....but pretty close!

So far so good, I am pretty much right on track with my last pregnancy, pretty tired some days (Tobi and I take naps together most days) but no real morning sickness, just some appetite loss at night and certain foods make me feel like I might have an episode of "morning sickness"...but all in all it's been smooth sailing so far. We...yes WE...are very excited. It will be interesting having a 22 month old and a new born...but it's a pretty great thing that God is blessing us with another precious gift!!!!

15 months old today

Another month... they just seem to fly by these days. Tobi is a busy girl. She is a walking/toddling machine. She has to take care of "babies" everywhere she goes. It's becoming a bit of a stress on her I fear because she cannot finish a meal if she spots a "baby", she cries for her "baby" even when she can barely keep her eyes open from exhaustion, and she wails if we should have to leave a "baby" at the nursery, play room, or house to which that "baby" belongs.

Also she used to have more of a vocabulary but pretty much everything she loves has become "baby"...her sucky, blanky and the cat are all "baby" right now.
She does like to say "Dah-deee" a lot during the day. Every noise she hears makes her think that Ben is coming home...Dah-deee, Dah-dee. I think she works herself up so much that when Ben actually does come home she gets all excited and runs towards him and the u-turns towards me and start crying and begging for me to pick her up. I'm pretty sure this is the beginning of the turn and soon "Dah-dee will be it and "Mama" will be just that lady who's always around :)

Other loves include stacking toys, "ba-boo" (peek-a-boo) books, the book "Hugs" and for that matter almost all books. I love when she gets a book and sits down and starts flipping through the pages like she is reading it.

She loves looking at pictures and she loves playing with the big kids. She has definitely started exerting her independence in letting me know what she wants and doesn't want... hmmm, I don't know what that means for when we reach the 2's & 3's.
She is the best form of entertainment in my day and I'm just amazed at all the things she can do and all that she is learning...with what seems like very little help from me. I mean, I'm there caring, loving, nurturing, demonstrating, encouraging, but then she just does something that I never showed her or had any idea that she even was aware of...amazing.

Not Me Monday

It's that time of week again...time to NOT fess up. I can't think of how many times I thought to myself I am definitely blogging about this Not Me! moment this week....and now I can only think of a couple, but believe me when I say there must have been hundreds of moments that have all melded together in my mind by now.

Good thing I did NOT knowing let Tobi play with a box of wipies while I was in the next room assuming that she wouldn't know how to open it by herself and thus be able to empty the entire container out one by one onto the floor. If I had done that I might have found something like this:

When Tobi found her nucky that her Dad had given her as a special gift last Christmas in with all the toys I did NOT let her walk around with it just so I could laugh and take pictures...
And I would NEVER just keep snapping pictures even when she was obviously crying for me to pick her up...

And in a moment of last minute rush out the door haste I did NOT realize the only nucky that I didn't have to go back upstairs for was the same gag gift nucky she found earlier and just throw that in my bag to save me an extra trip. And I certainly would NOT have found some delight in looking in the rear view mirror to see this ridiculous scene:


At least her Daddy bought her the one with the "good" teeth...the other possibilities would have just been cruel.

If you want to read more stories of things people did not do then head over to MckMama'a blog here.

Frolicking in the Fall!

Last fall we stopped at a park for a few quick pictures. I laid her down in the leaves and she just laid there while I snapped away. At just 2 1/2 months old she really didn't have an option!

What a difference a year makes. This year we stopped at the same park but there was no laying still.
There was a lot of running ....

and crawling ....

and throwing leaves.

I got a lot of blurry action shots...but boy did she love the crinkly sound of the leaves under her feet.


After the park we stopped to pick out a pumpkin...but unfortunately I discovered I left my wallet at home. So no buying a pumpkin, but Tobi did try to bring this "ball" home.
There's my sweet little pumpkin. Love this girl!