Kate and I went to a wedding this evening, so it was an excuse to get out one of her smocked summer dresses. This one was a gift and I love it! As much as I love dresses, I tend to put Kate in shorter stuff because the dresses make crawling a bit difficult on her. BUT, I knew she wouldn't be crawling around this evening at the wedding so I went for the dress. I took these pictures after we got home from the wedding, so excuse the wrinkles.
So I've mentioned that we're a bit behind on the baby proofing in our house. Typically, our fireplace looked like this....
But I finally ordered some soft guards thingys for our fireplace from Walmart. I had checked in store at Walmart and Target for these things, but apparently they don't carry them in the store. So I ordered them online and had them shipped to the store so I could save on shipping. I went by Walmart on my way home today and stood in line at the customer service desk for 15-20 minutes. Ridiculous. And when I got to the front of the line and told them I needed to pick up an order, I was told to go to the photo processing desk, since that's where you pick up Site-To-Store orders. Who knew? I was not very happy about that. BUT, at least now our fireplace is safe for Kate and our living room looks a LOT better...
Here's a Kate's-eye view...
PS- Today is Kate's 9 month birthday. :) I'll be posting her monthly update within the next few days!
Like the majority of girls, I would read this column occasionally growing up, along with Dear Abby. Sometimes I would think "That's crazy" and sometimes I would agree with what Miss Manners had to say. A lot of times I would think "Why do you even have to ask that? Shouldn't the answer to that question be common sense!?" Well, apparently it's not in this day and age.
You may call them old fashioned, or you can call them southern, but here's a list of things that I want Kate to know or do as she grows up. And maybe this is just a list that we all need to be reminded of every now and then.
1. Always say please, thank you and excuse me.
2. Say yes ma'am and no ma'am and yes sir and no sir.
3. Have common courtesy. Here are a few examples:
- The person you're physically talking to has priority, whether it is someone you know or someone you don't know, like a cashier at a register. Don't answer your cell phone. Let it ring and call whoever it is back.
- Hold the door for the person behind you. If someone holds the door for you, say thank you! Don't just walk right through it like it was expected that they hold it for you.
4. Leave good tips for those who are serving you if they did a good job- restaurants, hotel maids, etc. If you can't afford to tip, you can't afford the service.
5. If you get an invitation that requests an RSVP, respond! Not sending a response isn't a decline or a "no", it's just rude.
6. Send real thank you notes.
7. Offer to help.
8. Know the difference in an inside voice and an outside voice- and use them!
9. Don't interrupt someone when they're talking.
10. Being on time means being a little early. There is no such thing as fashionably late.
I read a good quote the other day and thought I'd share it. It's something to think about...
The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.
This was the first weekend that we haven't had to go anywhere since busy season was over. Since it was our first Saturday at home, we decided to use it for one of our home improvement projects. First, we wanted to "sleep in", which meant sleep til Kate wakes up. Kate miraculously slept until about 8:30. She usually takes a short nap after her morning bottle, but she went to sleep and slept all the way until almost noon. Wow! We went outside to start on our project after she went down for her morning nap.
We Kevin have been putting borders around the bushes/flower beds around our house and yard. Kevin had already put borders around the front and back beds. They look great! We have some other areas in the yard that we wanted to do, so that's what we worked on Saturday morning. I have to give Kevin all the credit though. I really didn't do anything except drag a few timbers around and stand on them while he drilled. Kate joined us to "help" when she woke up.
See the borders in the back? Don't they look great? Our yard has definitely come a long way in the almost 5 years since we lived here. It's still got a good long ways to go, but it's getting there!
I brought Kate inside for lunch. I think I mentioned in my last post that she's eating more and more solids. I gave her some mandarin oranges for lunch and she loved them!
And this is about the time that I noticed this...
Yes, I think I should win mother of the year. :) At least I DID remember to wash her hands before she ate lunch.
She did get a bath right after lunch, which was an adventure all of its own. We have tile floors and after her bath I usually bundle her up and sit her on the floor. Well, she lost her balance and fell straight back on the back of her head. The bang was pretty loud, and of course she started screaming. That's probably the hardest I've heard her hit her head. Like I said, mother of the year. Kevin thinks we need to get her a helmet. :)
We went to Zaxby's for lunch. After we got back, Kate went down for a nap and I ran a few errands.
I expected Kevin to take a nap while I was gone since Kate was napping, but when I got home he was putting in an addition to our back yard. See if you can spot it.
Here's a closer picture...
This was a hand-me-down from my neice and nephew and Kate LOVES it. And, we love recycled toys!
This post is getting long, so I'll be quick on Sunday! We went to church Sunday morning and then out to lunch. After Kate's nap, she played on her swing some more. Kevin hung it at just the right level for the dogs to walk under her while she's swinging. She enjoyed it.
Then Kate and I went by Lowes to get some flowers. They didn't have what I was looking for though, so we didn't buy anything. Check out how Kate rides in the shopping cart. Just like in the stroller, she makes herself comfortable and props her legs up. Not sure HOW this position is comfortable, but oh well!
And that was our weekend! Hope you all had a good one!
I know I'm a day early on the Cinco de Mayo wishes, but oh well. It will make a little more sense if you read all the way to the end of this post.
Normally when I get home from work, Kate is right in the middle of a nap. Today, I got home a little early from work and actually beat Kevin and Kate home. They pulled in the driveway a few minutes after me so I got to play with Kate a little before we ran errands and went to eat. She immediately crawled over to the couch and found her favorite "toys"... the remotes.
Kate needed a nap before we did anything though. Aren't sleeping babies just the cutest? Why is it that almost all babies sleep with their rear ends stuck up in the air? I'm not sure, but I love it!
After she woke up, we ran by Lowes to get a replacement collar for our underground dog fence. Apparently at some point today the transmitter fell off of Max's collar. We definitely needed to replace it ASAP so before we went to eat, we ran by Lowes. Kate was past due for dinner so I fed her most of a bottle in the back seat while Kevin went in to find the collar.
Then, in honor of Cinco de Mayo and Kate's heritage, we went to Mr. Salsa for dinner! Actually, those things were pure coincidence because neither of us even realized it was almost Cinco de Mayo until we got to the restaurant and saw their specials. I guess that explains the crowd!
Kate had already had most of a bottle, but we put down a disposable place mat and let her have a few puffs to keep her busy while we ate. And then of course she wanted to try our food. She had a bit of ground beef, and some rice and beans. She's been eating more and more real foods and less and less pureed foods. If anybody has any good baby finger food suggestions, I'm all ears!
If you read my blog yesterday, you'll remember that I said that Kate has been saying "No" by shaking her head. And if you have followed my blog over the last few months, you'll also know that Kate LOVES food. Put those two things together and you get this...
I can't believe this sweet little girl will be 9 months old in just one week! Wow! She's also learned something that I wish she'd waited a little bit longer to learn. She's learned to shake her head "No"! This was definitely not something that we taught her. She just picked it up on her own. The funny thing is, she can use it in context!
I tried to get a video of it tonight, but she was too busy playing to pay me any attention. But, you can ask her questions and she'll just smile and shake her head "No". I'm working on teaching her "Yes".
Tonight, she would crawl over to the edge of the rug and try to pull it up. I'd say "No, Kate" and she'd look up at me and just shake her head. Then she'd go right back to pulling up the rug. Oh boy. We're in trouble.
I briefly mentioned in my last post that Kevin's Uncle Wayne passed away this past weekend. Kevin's most recent post on his blog is about Wayne and I wanted to share it. Here is the link to his post...
The title of this post is ambiguous on purpose. Yes, it was a 3 day weekend so it was a long weekend, but it was also a long weekend in another sense of the word. We definitely had our share of ups and downs. We had a lot of fun, and some sadness. Let's start with the GOOD things.
On Friday we had our 3rd meeting with Kate's birth parents and it went great. We're so thankful that we're able to have a continued relationship with both Kate's birth mom, birth dad, and their extended families. We enjoy spending time with them, and we know that it will be good for Kate as she grows up. The last time they saw Kate was in early December and she couldn't really even sit up on her own at that point, so she had grown a LOT since they last saw her. She gave them a huge smile and started waving when they walked in the room, and for that I was really grateful! She's not afraid of new people, but I was still nervous about how she would react. Fortunately, she loves being the center of attention so she had no problem and was crawling all over them within minutes.
The meeting was in Columbia, so we decided that we would spend Friday afternoon and most of the day Saturday at my parent's lake house.
Saturday morning ended up being very overcast, foggy and cool so we were worried that we wouldn't be able to go out on their pontoon boat. Luckily, it burned off by later in the afternoon and we decided to take Kate out on her very first boat ride. We didn't take a long ride, but she seemed to enjoy it. The life jacket was a bit snug on my 20+ pound baby, even though it SAYS it is good for babies up to 30 lbs. It really wasn't too tight. I do realize that's how these things are SUPPOSED to fit on babies.
We got home Saturday evening and were unpacking everything from our cars when we got the call that we needed to get to Kevin's dad's house to see his Uncle Wayne. He had been fighting cancer for some time, and was nearing the end of his battle. He passed away around 10pm Saturday night. It was definitely a sad time, but because he was a Christian we know that he is now rejoicing in heaven. His funeral is this afternoon, so please keep our family in your prayers.
