More Spoon Fun

Eli has really been wanting to try out utensils, so I bought him a little set....and being the camera picture obsessed person that I am, took a series of him trying it out!

It's so fun watching these motor skills grow!

The Simple Things

In the midst of all my busy-ness of my new part-time jobs (selling 31 products and taking pictures), I still have to make time to be a mom. As I took on this direct sales thing, and as my season of photo taking took off, I realized I truly am now a "working" mom. Thankfully I do not have to deal with daycare (or pay for it!) and have a supportive husband as I host parties and traipse off to take pictures on the weekends. During the day, I am having to learn to balance time working on the new "jobs," and spending time with my little guy. As we sit and play, or take walks, I have learned to squelch those feelings of "I need to be working on ____!" and simply enjoy being with my baby. I have even managed to bring the camera along at times to take pictures and document how he is learning and growing, as I attempt to capture all the "little things" and small moments.

Playing with a paintbrush he snatched from the kitchen table. Too bad he's not really cleaning the grout.

Taking our almost daily walk to the mailbox. Which, takes a looong time as we walk up neighbors' driveways, stomp on the water main covers, throw pinecones, etc.

Love to play with sticks in the sand at the playground.

Watching buses and cars go by.

Discovering acorns!

Playing on our "new" (to us, anyway) play set in the backyard.

Lovin' the slide.

Spotting this cool bird in the tree in the backyard.

C'mon, Lucy, don't you want your toy?

Rummaging through the junk drawer, finding just what he was looking for (I guess), and placing those batteries on the back on his truck and taking them for a ride.

Enjoying looking at one of his favorite books, of pictures of his favorite things right now - vehicles.

Ahhhh, the sweet life.

So What Have You Been Doing Lately?

I snapped this picture the other day of my kitchen table. I had to laugh at this scene, because each little item on the table represents something I have been working on lately!

The Thirty-One catalog laying open on the basket; I had four 31 parties in one weekend, so had to place all those orders.

The edge of the USB cord peeking out under some paper: this season is the height of my picture taking "side job," taking folks' Christmas card pictures, so I have been snapping like crazy and downloading like crazy, and subsequently editing like crazy.

The cowboy cookbook: did I mention I have a husband and child to feed? Thought I'd look up a bean soup type recipe for my hubby, as he requested beans for dinner. Actually bought the ingredients and made the soup that night! It was....ok. But at least I tried.

The Christmas tree wooden thingy in the background: the advent calendar I'm working on for Eli. I had this grand idea that involved using his old baby food jars, but....saw this in Michael's and had a half price coupon, so...convenience won out.

Leftover water bottles, empy soda can - just evidence of my lack of time for housekeeping duties.

And it's not even Thanksgiving or official Holiday Season yet!!! Yikes!!!

Rear View

This is the view I see now, most days, most of the time. With his new found walking skills, little E is constantly roaming and exploring. I just marvel at how he's growing and changing, every day it's something new. I'm not sure I like all this change! I try to embrace it, but he looks so OLD to me these days...and he's only 14 months old! As I watched him walk up this ramp at the playground, feeling the beautiful weather and light breeze, I just had a moment of complete contentedness (is that a word?), feeling like the luckiest person in the world, being able to play with my adorable son on a lovely afternoon at the park. Blessings abound. Can't thank the Lord enough for giving me this life. 

Butterflies. Just Butterflies.

A Day at the Farm

Last Saturday, we went to a birthday party at Old McDonald's Farm. I had never been there - it sure is a cute and fun place for kids! With his new-found walking skills, Eli is a travelin' man. He constantly wandered around. I think he might have been trying to follow the little train that circles the main area - the boy loves wheels and cars and such! I'm proud of E in that he doesn't seem to mind exploring (of course I like to think he gets that from me, but then again, he's probably just doing what his age is supposed to do). I don't want him to be a clingy or fearful child. On the other hand, it would have been nice if he wanted to stay with our group as we walked around to the animal cages and other areas! I think he just enjoys walking so much, and checking out everything, he just wasn't interested in staying in one area for very long. Here are the pics:

Going down the slide "on his own" (meaning Mom wasn't sitting with him on it!)

I purposely caught Lindsay in the background taking a pic of the funky looking Emu.

Taking a rest by the very tame deer that wander around.

He is loving attempts to use utensils these days.

The birthday boy!

What's in there? Too bad we didn't have time to crawl through the tunnel! We'll have to go back to explore this play area.

Ramblings from the Pumpkin Patch Question

Last week (or was it week before last? Time is flying by), Eli and I went to Dewberry Farms with my sister in law and her homeschool group. We met this friend of Laura's named Kathleen. She also had a son who was just about 2 or 3 weeks younger than E, and an older daughter closer to Rachel's age. As we were talking about baby stuff, she caught me off guard with a question - "What surprised you the most about motherhood?" I paused, stammered, not sure what to say - I hadn't really thought of that before. I started to answer something about how the changes in my body kind of freaked me out, but we were interrupted (not sure by what, we were standing in line for the hayride with a bunch of people, so it could have been anything, my memory fails me). We got back on topic after a few minutes, and she told me her greatest surprise was how she worried about her children. "I slept with them, held them all the time, couldn't let them out of my sight those first few months," she told me. "I was so worried about SIDS, about something bad happening to them." I don't remember how I responded, I supposed the line moved and it was our turn to board the wagon for the ride to the pumpkins, and the conversation was over.

I wish I could answer her question now, because I think I have an answer. And, my answer is totally different than Kathleen's. Overwhelming love. I don't care how cliche, or cheesy, or whatever that sounds like, it's totally true. There have been times I have been totally knocked over by the force of how much I love my child. Sure, I imagined how devasting it would be if something "bad" happened to him, but it all came back to how much I loved him. I could, and still can, just stare at him in all his cuteness, and want to just hold him close to my heart. Whoever said, "Having a child is like having a piece of your heart walk around forever outside your body" was totally right. I love my family, I love my husband, I love my pets - but the love for your child is something different, something unexplainable. And awesome. I thank God every day for giving me this gift, this gift of our child.

So now, if someone suddenly asks me that question again, I know how to answer it.

Our new friend, Chef Boyardee

Our first attempt with markers

So, I'm at Walmart, and see these "baby" markers on the clearance aisle. Thinking, "I need to start Eli with some art!," I bought them. He did enjoy (I think) hitting them on the paper. And, they do wash off very easily. But the issue is, they don't have lids! After our attempts, they went in a box, and I doubt we'll be seeing those again for a while! Maybe art will wait a couple of months....

p.s. - that's not just drool on his shirt, he did spill water too.....

No lids!

Halloween

Here are some fun pics from our Halloween weekend. About 6 years ago, I started a tradition of carving pumpkins with Grace and Collin; somehow, with all our busy schedules, we've managed to keep it up. This year, my inlaws came over, as well as Laura F and family. It was fun having everyone over to carve and eat dinner! We also had our "trunk or treat" at church in the afternoon, and the family over that evening (on Saturday). It was a busy busy day, but a great one. To top it off, Baylor beat UT, and we were able to watch it on t.v.! That really made the weekend! By Sunday night, actual "Halloween" night, we were all kind of halloweened-out, but still took Mr. E trick or treating to a couple of houses on the street. Walked around with our next door neighbor, Philip.

Eating a snow cone at the trunk or treat; he wasn't a fan of the big crowd, so didn't stay that long.

Posing with cousin Collin! We didn't plan the outfits, Collin just happened to be a banana, didn't that work out perfect with my monkey?

Running away with one of the spoons we were using while cleaning out pumpkins.

Ewwww, what did I just step in?!

Four of the five pumpkins. I carved flowers this year.

Getting candy from Ms. Rachel next door!

Mercer Aboretum

We went out to Mercer Arboretum this week to take pictures of my friend Marie's little girl. (Gisele is only 5 days older than Eli!) I also wanted to scout out a picture spot at the arboretum for a large group of people; I've been asked to take a group shot for a friend that lives out that way, and wanted to stay close to home. Even though it was warm, we had a good time walking around and taking pictures. My friend Stacey and her two little girls came along too, to help out with E and just to hang out with us! I love Marie and Stacey, they are both such great ladies. So, on to the pictures!

This picture really needs a caption! I think it's so funny.

Ms. Stacey taking care of Mr. E.

Going to try this area for the big group picture I'm taking next weekend.

My Favorite picture of Gisele!!

sweet sophie and audrey!