Snapshots of My Day: And We Were Swingin'

And this one I like to call, "I'll just take this tree with me..."


Watch BabyBear's first ride in a bucket swing!


or go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Y2_fNbb54

Guess who's nine months old?

By this point I imagine you don't really have to guess anymore; it's BabyBear! Amazingly, the little guy has now been out here in the world as long as he was in his mommy's tummy; time sure flies!

BabyBear has a really fun personality, and it continues to show more and more every day. He's already a lot more outgoing than his parents, and he loves to laugh (as you can see in the previous blog post). He's up for going anywhere, and loves to people watch.

Since we're introducing more and more "adult" foods, he also seems up for trying anything; in fact, we have yet to really come across anything he actively dislikes. His favorites seem to be broccoli, turkey deli meat, and beef ravioli. Yet, at his official nine-month checkup, he had barely grown from the last time he was in, and is below the fifth percentile in height and weight (though his head size is in the 30th percentile - go figure). So, we're going to have to work a little harder to make sure he's getting enough food as he's still nursing, getting a bottle (formula) and eating regular food. He doesn't complain and seems to be happy with the amount of food he's been getting; this is just one of those things we're going to have to learn how to make work.

Besides food, the other big thing in the past month has been his quickly improving ability to walk (with assistance). He now routinely motors around the house, holding onto Mommy's or Daddy's fingers for balance (like in this video). He sits very well on his own now, but would usually prefer to be standing or walking, and is already getting close to being able to pull himself up.

Here he is -- the 9 month old himself!



As a bonus, here are some other photos from the past week -- playing with a beach ball and additional shots from the 9-month-old shoot. Enjoy!

Just For Laughs: Multi-tasking with BabyBear!!

Cleaning, exercising, playing, who knew you could do all these things at once? And yes, I hesitated to share this because you can obviously tell I have 15 more pounds of baby weight to lose (and then some), but thanks to Beth Moore's new book and blog study So Long Insecurity, I know that I am clothed with dignity and strength according to Proverbs 31: 25 and am claiming that word. :) So here it is (I just love his laughs!!!):



or you can click here to view it

PS- Please pardon the mess that is my sewing desk in the background...I'm still working on cleaning it up!!

Baylor Basketball in the NCAA Tournament!

Baylor's men's basketball team is headed back to the NCAA Tournament -- this time as a No. 3 seed, the best in school history! (You can read more about that here.)

Our family attended the team's gathering at the Ferrell Center for the Selection Show Party Sunday afternoon; can you find us in this crowd of several hundred?



You have to zoom way, way in -- there we are, up near the top left. Find the second Baylor player from the left (sitting on the floor in the white t-shirts); directly above his head is a girl in a gold t-shirt, and just above her is another gold t-shirt -- that's Bethany! Here's the zoomed-in version:



Yep, even BabyBear is rocking the green and gold, and proudly waving the Baylor blanket Bethany made for him!

Sic 'em, Bears!!

First steps?

No, BabyBear's not walking on his own (yet). But he is pretty clearly getting the foot motions down (left, right, left), even if he can't yet balance on his own. He took his first "steps" on Valentine's Day, and he's been getting better since then. For those of you who know the layout of our house, a couple of days ago he "walked" out the doorway of his room and all the way down the hall to the dining room where Bethany was. Today, he hoofed it from near the front door around the coffee table, around the dining room table, and over to our kitchen island. Pretty good for just under nine months, eh?

Here's an example of what we call walking, taken this past weekend:



Way to go, BabyBear!

Time to Simplify: De-Clutter

I don't usually do new years resolutions...I think I might have said that here before. This year though, I feel pretty strongly that I need to simplify things around here. There are MANY, MANY reasons why I want to do this...here are just a few:

- I feel a leading from the Lord to do it
- it will give me less to manage/keep track of/clean/find a spot for, etc. which will in turn free up more time to spend taking care of my family and hopefully make me a better follower of Jesus, wife, mom, family member, friend, etc.
- We have many things around the house that we are no longer using and I'd love to find homes for these things where they will be used. If we can get a few extra bucks in the process, it's a bonus!!
- When we purchased this house, one of the things I liked about it was that it didn't have oodles of excess storage space. Now that we have BabyBear outgrowing things like car seats, swings, clothes, etc. We need places to put those things that we aren't ready to part with...we need to make room.

Now, don't get me wrong...we have been very, very richly blessed and I don't want to sound ungrateful at all. That's not what this is about. In looking around, I'm realizing we really don't need two baby carriers, or two inflatable nursing pillows or the cell phone I'm no longer using or the movies we won't be watching anymore now that we have a little one in the house (I never noticed violence in movies until lately!), etc. So rather than look at it, walk away, find it again in a few months, walk away, I'm looking at it and now doing something about it. Ebay, Craigslist and Freecycle are working for me at the moment. We've already found a thankful home for most of the boatload of paint that was in the garage (we inherited it with the house), sold an extra chair we had in the living room, and have a few listings going on eBay right now. No worries, I'm getting clearance with the Hubs before getting rid of anything to make sure he's ok with it.

There are a few other parts to this overall goal of simplifying that I'm taking baby steps towards, but this one is one I've been putting off since the year started and thanks to Amy at New Nostalgia, I'm finally doing something about it. Thanks Amy!

PS- I couldn't find a good picture for this post, so I'm just including a bonus shot of BabyBear :)

Introducing to you for the first time...

BabyBear's amazing one baby band!