Dinosaur Sandwich

That's right!

I don't have any idea what you just ate for lunch, but I guarantee it wasn't as exciting as these bad boys:

One day last fall I was out shopping and found this stop-you-in-your-tracks, amazing, wonderful dinosaur sandwich cutter at Williams-Sonoma. 

When I "shop" at Williams-Sonoma that means I am checking to see if they have any hot apple cider or candy or other free samples out for me to try.  :)  There isn't a lot in my price range at that store.

But while I was sipping my free mini cup of spiced cider I spotted this dinosaur sandwich cutter and knew in a split second that it was a MUST HAVE item for my family.  (Even though Knox was 3 1/2 months old at the time and hadn't even tried his first bite of rice cereal yet.)  :)

So when a couple of weeks later Nana asked for Christmas present ideas for the baby I may have given her a big hint about this sandwich cutter...and Knox may have found it in his stocking on Christmas morning. :)

Some people get really excited about, you know...music, books, toys.  I get really excited about dinosaur sandwich cutters.

Please do not rain on my parade by asking if, really, a cookie cutter would work just as well.  It clearly wouldn't.  This dinosaur cutter is sharper and thicker than a regular cookie cutter...you know...for that occasional REALLY thick peanut butter and jelly sandwich...and a cookie cutter wouldn't come with this handy dandy sandwich box now would it?!

Knox is still a little bit young to handle whole sandwiches but I just couldn't wait any longer.  I woke up thinking, "Today is a day destined for dinosaur sandwiches." 

And a terrific dinosaur sandwich day it turned out to be.

Heads or tails??

HEADS WIN! 

Happy Thursday!



"No."

As a parent, there are a lot of times when you have to say no.

Especially, I'm learning, when you have an [almost!] one-year-old who is just beginning to discover and explore a great big world...crawling and walking and reaching and climbing and grabbing and eating. 

He doesn't know yet what belongs to him, what belongs to others, what will hurt him, or what will hurt others.

For a while we couldn't tell if Knox understood the word NO.

But we have passed that stage. 

He definitely knows now.

When we say no now he gets a very serious look on his face and even shakes his head no along with us.

No means no.

But saying no isn't fun.  I don't think any parent enjoys saying no.   

Every day I try to look for and make a big deal of the YES's, too, so that I'm not always just saying no.

But sometimes NO is very necessary.
1.) Like when something is harmful to my child (i.e. electrical outlets, drinking daddy's coffee...);

2.) when something is harmful to others (i.e. hitting other people, pulling on mommy's earrings...); and

3.) when it's not time yet (i.e. that pile of colorfully wrapped birthday presents in mommy and daddy's room that are being saved for the BIG DAY...).

Eventually Knox will understand a little better that certain things might hurt him, or might hurt others...he will eventually learn the meaning of "wait until tomorrow."  (Although, if he's anything like his dad, he'll be asking to open his presents early for the rest of his life.)  :)

But right now he doesn't understand any of that.  He just hears NO. 

This has been intriguing for me to consider, because although God says YES to me a lot, sometimes He says NO, too.

Sometimes I don't like his rules.  Sometimes I don't like His answer to my prayer.

And like a little child, I don't understand why.  I get angry, I protest, I reach for what I want anyway.

Why can't I play with the electrical outlet?  It is (obviously) the most exciting looking item in the whole house!

I can't see that He is saying no because it is going to hurt me.  

Why can't I pull on mommy's earrings?  They're so colorful and inviting!

I can't see that He is saying no because it's going to hurt someone I love.

Why can't I tear open that bright wrapping paper?  It's TANTALIZING and it's mine, isn't it?!

I can't see that He is saying no because He has set it aside to give it to me later, on a special day.

God loves me even more than I love Knox. 

That is a lot of love.

I hope that the next time God says no to me I will hear myself saying no to Knox...and see His kind heart and loving intentions for me even when I don't fully understand the whys.

Whenever God says NO, it is because He has a big YES to give us later.

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline,
   and do not resent his rebuke,
because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
   as a father the son he delights in.

Proverbs 3:11-12

Motherhood...

My favorite dish towel...from my own mom :)

Mama

Knox hit his 8 month birthday on Sunday.

For some reason it feels like kind of a big one to me.  For the first time I feel a twinge of sadness about how fast he's growing up.  He's still our baby but he's not our little bitty baby any more.  Every day he becomes a tiny bit more independent.  He learns another skill.  He communicates just a little bit more. 

He can find the "Mr. Monkey" on the wall above his changing table when we ask him where he is.  He can sit up in the grocery cart without the aid of his car seat.  He can pull baskets off our bookshelves.  He can put Cheerios in his mouth (well, a few at least...quite a few end up on the floor.)


And last but not least, he can now say MAMA!

He has said this word before, but until recently he reserved it for extra dire moments (i.e. when he was sure he was about to starve to death).

Since Sunday, though...the very day he turned 8 months old...he has started saying it all the time.  Whenever he wants my attention...

When he wants to get of his high chair.  When he needs help sitting up.  When he rolls over and gets stuck in an awkward position.  When he's ready for a nap.  When he needs a new diaper.  When he dropped his toy and can't reach it.

Sometimes, when he just wants a smile or a squeeze.

When I hear his sweet little voice saying, "Mama.  Mum.  Mama!" my head whips around and I come running.  Who wouldn't run toward that?!  He's got me figured out. :)

It's the most wonderful sound I've ever heard.

Happy and Ti-red

We just got back from a wonderful quick weekend in Memphis with Josh's parents and all of the Keep Believing Ministries staff.  Josh works for his Dad's ministry from Dallas doing video editing so we were invited to join them for this staff retreat.  We were so happy to be able to be there.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone and exciting to hear all that God is doing with and through KBM.

Knox was especially excited for a chance to see Grandma and Grandpa. 

I think they were pretty excited to see him too. :)

(I didn't take ANY pictures of the weekend so I just stole those from Josh's Dad's Facebook page.)


The only downside to the weekend was that Knox didn't want to sleep very much Friday OR Saturday night.  Apparently he just missed his own bed. 

He sprawled out on my lap on the plane ride home and and caught up on sleep...he's bright and chipper and full of energy this evening:

But we look like this:

Is it bedtime yet? :)

Ronald McDonald Bandaids & Some Tender Loving Care

It's been a rough afternoon here in Knox-ville.

And we have Ronald McDonald bandaids to prove it.

Today was the dreaded day for

6 month shots.  

The little man was brave while it was happening...

cried for 30 seconds, then gave the nurses a smile.  

But now that we're home, and it still hurts, 

life is just no fun.

Even the singing gumball machine could only win a 

half smile today.

So forget about cleaning, forget about cooking,

forget about everything else on the To-Do list.

Some days are all about giving a little TLC. ♥

A Happy 6 Months!

 

Knox

 

You are our sunshine!!

 

We love looking at your newborn pictures 

and seeing how much you've changed!

We love seeing you grow and

learn new things every day.

We love it how you give us the biggest smiles in the world 

from across the room

and pat us on the shoulder whenever we pick you up.

 

We love it how you giggle when we put on your PJ's at night

and how you tell us long, loud stories throughout the day.

We love your big, intense blue eyes

 and how eager you are to explore everything in your world.

We love you.

Every day you bring us smiles, laughter and so much joy. 

We will never be able to tell you how thankful to God we are for 

special little you.

Happy 6 Month Birthday!

My Day of Technological and Culinary Tragedy

First, my cell phone died this morning.  It has been acting possessed for about a week now...would randomly turn on and off, wouldn't let me read any text messages, and only allowed me to type certain things when I sent a text.  Josh became an expert at interpreting my psycho texts.  For example, "Love!" means "I love you!" and "Cronies!" means "Don't forget to get a brownie mix on your way home!"  (Sugar police: I had to make the brownies to bring to a friend's house for dessert last night.)  But today I can't even send psycho messages.  My phone has officially bit the dust.

Second, at the check-out of the grocery store this morning, I opened my wallet to find...no credit cards, no debit card, no checkbook.  Oh, and no cash, although there's nothing too abnormal about that. :)  Nope, I hadn't been robbed.  It's just that when you're holding a baby sometimes it's easier to put credit cards in your pocket than to put them away in your wallet.

One credit card was in my black jacket pocket in one closet, one was in my gray jacket pocket in another closet, the checkbook was in the kitchen drawer and I'm thinking the debit card is in the diaper bag in Knox's room.  So yes, I had to leave my overflowing cart, drive home, get a credit card, and go back to the store.  I couldn't even call Josh to meet me outside our building with one of his cards because, as you will remember, my phone is dead.

After all that, I forgot to get onions.

Third, it's January 26.  This is my mother-in-law's birthday (Happy Birthday, Mom!) and also the official day when, if you haven't already, you really need to take the Christmas music off your ipod.  Most of you probably just added a Christmas playlist to your ipod to listen to through the holidays, right?  Not me.  I wiped the whole thing clean and transformed it into a Christmas-music-only ipod.  Who wants to listen to anything but Christmas music in December?

But today, when I went to replace the Christmas music with "Leah's Ipod" playlist (which took me an entire Saturday to create in iTunes), "Leah's Ipod" playlist was nowhere to be found.  Apparently when hard drives are reformatted (an event which happens pretty frequently in our household) playlists can disappear.

Some people really enjoy taking a whole Saturday to sort through all their music and their husband's music in iTunes to choose what music they want to keep on their ipod.  But I don't.  In terms of fun-ness it's right up there with balancing a checkbook, or cleaning my closet.  So I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen again until...April, maybe May?  I guess Knox and I will be listening to a lot of Pandora this winter. :)

Fourth, I asked Josh, "Is there anything good on TV tonight?  This is a TV kind of a day"  And he said, "Oh, I just got a new video card and it needs a different adapter...we can't watch TV for a couple of days." I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't.

Fifth, and last, just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse...I remembered that tonight is chicken stir-fry night.  I hate chicken stir-fry.  Every other week or so I can't help but put it on the menu, because it's easy and healthy.  But I dread chicken stir-fry night.  Of course today has to be chicken-stir fry day.

Cell phones, credit cards, ipods, television, and chicken stir-fry.  Who needs 'em?

I'm going to go take a nap.

King of the Living Room

We've been taken over!

Why Whole Bean Coffee is Never A Good Idea

Today at the grocery store I picked up whole bean coffee by mistake for Josh, so I decided to be a peach and grind it all up for him.  

Unfortunately this can't be done without making a mess of the counter.

or without the loud coffee grinder scaring the baby.

 

Jumping to rescue the baby just causes more coffee grounds to make their way to the floor. 

 

So I am faced with a choice: 

cry along with the baby,

throw the entire coffee grinder into the trash can, 

eat a large brownie...

or grab a camera and turn this into a blog entry.  

I choose the latter, and then proceed to vacuum up my mess.

Unfortunately, the vacuum cleaner also scares the baby.

The great thing about being Mommy is...

 

you can make it all better.♥