Beth's favorite games

Right now Beth's favorite games are "Take Everything Out", Pat-a-cake, and Peek-a-boo. Take everything out is a fun one, this consists of removing everything from whatever the chosen object is- cabinet, suitcase, wallet, laundry basket, toy box, diaper bag... You get the idea. It makes for a very happy baby but a very messy house! She has her own cabinet in the kitchen the she's allowed to pull stuff out of- all the other ones have child-proofing on them. So several times a day she'll go in there and have at it. :-) Pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo are well-known games, but Beth likes to lift her shirt up over her head for peek-a-boo. She did this at Bennigan's today and really cracked up the people sitting next to us!

Today, Ryan took the day off since he had some left over vacation days, and we sort of bummed around and did a little bit of shopping. Beth got her first winter coat and Ryan got some new cleats since he's joining a soccer team. I'm so happy about that for him! But anyways, Beth really doesn't like to be held while we shop now, usually I let her push the stroller but today she just wanted to walk on her own. Everyone stops and says something along the lines of "Ohhhh how precious!" and we smile and continue walking at .00005 miles an hour!
Beth's cabinet!
Artsy shot
Another artsy shot

A special day

This morning I was able to slip away for a bit (my wonderful husband watched Beth!) so I could go with my grandma visit my grandfather. He has been diagnosed with Pick's Disease- similar to Alzheimer's. He lives away from my grandma now, in a home with several other patients where he receives 24 hour care- so today I tagged along to go visit. I'm so glad I did- it's so difficult to see someone you love so much in a state like that, but I loved being able to see him. :'-) Please pray for the sick, those who love them, and their caretakers.

Today we also went into town to a Romanian festival- my future sister-in-law invited us (she's from Romania!) so we went and listened to some spiffy music, ate some YUMMY food, and had some delicious wine. It was really neat to hear Romanian being spoken all around us, it's a beautiful language but I have absolutely no clue what anyone is saying since it's so different. I did learn how to say, "How's it going" but I'm not even going to attempt to spell it!

"Safe" toys

At this point I'm sure everyone has heard of the seemingly hundreds of recalls of toys this year, mostly due to the lead content in the paint. With Christmas (and a birthday!) coming up, I've asked around and compiled a list of websites of toys NOT made in China. Some are made in the US and others in European countries, which I hope should all be safe for our children to play with.

http://maplelandmark.com/
http://www.holgatetoy.com/
http://www.turnertoys.com/made-in-USA/american-made-toys.htm
http://www.ubah.com/ecommerce/default.asp?sid=A1269&gid=38390911 (sold by a friend)
http://www.unclegoose.com/
http://www.oompa.com/ (some are made in China and some aren't)
http://www.planethappytoys.com/
http://www.choochootrack.com/
http://www.woodentrain.com/ (for the train lovers out there)

http://www.parentdish.com/2007/11/04/websites-with-american-and-european-made-toys
http://www.coolmompicks.com/safertoy07/
http://www.parentdish.com/2007/08/29/buying-made-in-america-toys

This blog talks about some manufacturers: http://www.momgogreen.com/2007/08/toy-origins.html

Please feel free to add more links in my comments if you know of any!

Movies

I keep meaning to blog about this! If you have not already gone to see the movie "Bella" then go! Right now! It's a fantastic film that stars "The Mexican Brad Pitt" and has a non-Hollywood feel about it. This movie will change lives if it makes enough money to open in all theaters. So please consider supporting it now!

A Little Walking...

She's walking!

Bethany Grace has taken her first official steps! On several occasions, actually. Mostly they're from one thing to another (from the dresser to a box or sofa to the table) but they've been unsupported, on-her-own steps! And she doesn't want to do anything else, actually she's beginning to despise being held. I never thought I'd see that day! At mass on Thursday she was all about walking along the pew instead of sitting in our laps (we were the only ones in the pew so we let her walk up and down) and today at the mall she walked behind the stroller, pushing it. We were moving as slow as snails but she got the biggest kick out of it and of course everyone thought she was adorable!

Here are some of our Halloween pictures...

Pumpkin guts!

Our first carved pumpkin!


The cutest kitty cat

We went trick-or-treating with a turtle!

Beth and my grandmother. This was the day she was sooo happy!

Happy All Saint's Day!

It seems my "tricks" from yesterday arrived a day late...

Today I woke up a few minutes later than normal because Ryan got Beth up with him and took care of her while he was getting ready for work. He put her in her jumparoo when he was leaving for work, so I had to get out of bed and get her when she started fussing. I scoop her up and realize I have poop on my arm- here we go. Half asleep, I bring her into her room to take off her diaper, haul her naked booty into the bathroom and realize there's poop down her leg and on the bottom of her feet. ??? So I wash her AND myself off, change her clothes and head to the laundry room to start the necessary poopy laundry. We go back into my bedroom and I think, hmm, it still smells in here. I investigate- yup, there's not only poop in the jumparoo but it's smashed into the carpet. Yes, it ran down her leg and she jumped in it for who knows how long. (Keep in mind I've been awake for all of 10 minutes at this point.) I clean. And clean. I've never cleaned poop from carpet before, it's not easy.

Our day continues, Beth is in a particularly good mood. Soon there's another dirty diaper, this time not a blowout. After her nap, another dirty diaper... In total, my poor girl has had 8 dirty diapers today (including a very noisy one during Mass this evening...which required a trip to the car since I had used all of the diapers in the diaper bag). Her little bottom is as red as a lobster, my sweet love. I don't know what is wrong, I'm guessing it's something one of us ate, hopefully it'll be better tomorrow.

Back to the rest of my day. We visit with my grandmother for lunch and Beth was in the sweetest mood, so happy and talkative! We came home and my cousin came over to help me out- she was going to watch Beth for an hour so I could mow the yard for my husband as a surprise. I head outside to start the old beast of a lawnmower and the pull cord thing snaps back, so I think I'll just pull it as hard as I can and it'll start. Nope. I pull, it snaps back, and I punch myself in the face. I'm not even kidding. There's blood pouring out of my nose, which is surprisingly numb, I think I've chipped a tooth, and my hand is POUNDING (it looks like I've popped a blood vessel in my thumb). My first thought (I'm so vain) was what am I going to look like with a broken nose? I come inside and stuff kleenex up my nose and call my mom who reassures me that it's probably not broken since the bleeding eventually subsided. (However, it's remained stuffy and sore for the rest of the day. Luckily not swollen so my ego is fine, thanks.) I put some ice on my thumb and the swelling went down- I have a pretty deep cut and the knuckle is a bit sore but again, not broken so I can handle it.

Needless to say, the yard didn't get mowed.

We closed the day by going to Mass to celebrate the saints who have gone before us. Beth behaved like a saint herself during mass, she's had a rough day but has been so happy and chatty today. I took some good photos but I haven't uploaded them yet, I'll get them up ASAP!

Cute girl

Happy Halloween!

Out little kitty cat. :-)

Weekend at the Grandparents

This past weekend we traveled again, this time to see Grandma and Grandpa. Ryan had to do something for school (working on his MBA) all day on Saturday so we took a long weekend to go visit. Beth had so much fun playing!

I haven't been posting too much lately so forgive me if I repeat, but I feel like I'm very behind on updating everyone of what she's doing these days. She's standing- on her own- and walking very well with the aid of our hands. It won't be long before she's cruising on her own! She's cut her very first tooth- her bottom right tooth. It's still barely there but it took about a week to cut through the surface, and it really wasn't as awful for us as I thought it would be. She was crabby, poor girl, but nothing a few teething tabs and a snack couldn't distract her from. She's waving bye bye to every car she sees (moving or not) and claps her hands when she's happy or if someone starts singing "Patty Cake" to her. She talks a lot- lots of "mamamamama", "dadadadada" and "bababa" although I'm not sure any of these words have meaning to her yet.
Beth's first peaceful, prayerful protest outside of Planned Parenthood. We prayed for lots of babies and their mommies!

Outside at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Her first rib- wow did she like the N. family ribs!!!

Reorganizing Grandma and Grandpa's cabinets. Isn't she sweet?!

Our trip to Austin

I know it's been a long time since I've posted a new entry. SORRY! We've been very busy!

Last Wednesday we left to visit my parents and family in Austin. My college siblings were also planning on driving in to visit but my sister was in a car accident- minor, praise God, but it was bad enough to keep her from driving to see us. :-( Thursday night we saw my brother play football for the freshman team- Beth's first football game! And he scored the only touchdown for his team that night! I am very proud of my very talented family members! We also saw my grandparents and were able to spend lots of time with them.

Friday and Saturday we mostly hung out, Sunday morning was my 10K race I've been training for since my birthday at the end of August. I ran with my dad (ok, he ran ahead of me) and I finished in 62 minutes- basically 10 minute miles. I'm very proud of myself because my goal was not to finish in last place! I ran hard and pushed myself, my knees hurt me pretty bad for the rest of that day but I'm feeling pretty good now. I don't feel the slightest inclination to do it again, but I also didn't feel the desire to have another baby until 6 months after Beth was born! So maybe I'll do it again, but I have no plans to right now. I'll keep running on a lesser basis, and continue my morning/evening walks with Beth.

Big news with Beth- she's cutting her first tooth! And BOY is she cutting it! It's been coming through since about last Tuesday (almost a week) and it still hasn't broken the surface yet. It's so very close but I think mostly just causing her pain right now. She's hardly eating any solids and nursing a ton, and is of course very clingy. We're making good use of the Hyland's teething tabs- a blessing to parents around the world.

I think for Halloween we'll dress her up as a cat. She was incredibly fascinated with my parent's cats this past weekend so I think it's very appropriate and will be a good first costume. Now I need to find some kitten ears!

Beth at St. Mary's- where we were married. :-)

Walking with MawMaw and Uncle Alex
The object of her affection- Pumpkin
Playing piano with Uncle Michael
The leader of the pack! Haha.
Me and my dad

Cutie

This video was taken on Saturday afternoon after her nap. We discovered this old toy in the garage while I was cleaning and she climbed right in! She looks so huge in it compared to a few months ago when we actually used it!

The many faces of Beth

Big eyes. I see Ryan in this photo.

Leaps and bounds

In the past week Beth has started clapping and dancing. It is so stinkin cute! In Mass on Sunday, Beth was getting down to the offertory music. We really couldn't keep ourselves from giggling, although we were trying to behave ourselves as much as possible. After Mass was over, an older couple sitting near us came up to us and told us how funny her dancing was! They were also laughing at her! They also mentioned wanting grandchildren of their own soon. It makes me feel so blessed to have such nice people around us at church- complimenting us on our baby instead of glaring at us for being disruptive. I've heard sad stories of parents getting mean looks because of children, and my heart breaks for those parents! Children need to be at church! After all, Jesus said, "Let the little ones come to me..."

I am working on getting a good video of the clapping and dancing. Usually I have to do a little dance with her to get her going, so it's hard to film her while dancing (because I have some crazy dance moves, lol).

Getting ready to go shopping with Emily and Hannah!
I love the way she's looking at me in this pic. It's rare to catch a moment like this with a camera. :-)

Aggie Tailgating

Yesterday we took Beth to her first Aggie game! Well, we didn't go to the game but we tailgated in Spence Park, which is right across the street from Kyle Field. We had a great day- the weather was overcast and maybe a bit too warm but it didn't rain! When we arrived in College Station we walked around some bookstores on Northgate looking for a little Aggie souvinier for Beth but didn't find anything we wanted, so we walked across campus to the park. I think that was my first time back on campus since before I graduated! Beth was such a good little Aggie, taking it all in as she cruised along in her stroller. We hung out at Spence Park- eating, throwing the ball around, talking- until midway through the first quarter and then decided to head home (since we still had to walk back across campus and drive home). Overall we all had a really fun day, and it was exciting to bring Beth to campus for her first time, and show her where her mommy and daddy met. :-)



Rudder Fountain



My family of Aggies!

I didn't want to jinx myself...

...So I didn't post about the night that Beth slept from 8:30 pm to 5:30 am. That was Tuesday- and it hasn't happened again since then. But at least we know she can do it! She slept in her crib all by herself that night, it was so nice but you know I was up at 2:30 and 5:00 checking on her! So I still didn't sleep through, but it's nice knowing that it's a possibility that she might.

Our lives are changing so much right now, since Beth just really seems to be growing by leaps and bounds right now. She's playing peek-a-boo, crawling like a crazy woman, pointing, and starting to sign. She has even said "Daddy", "Mommy" and "Baby" although I know she doesn't know what she's saying. Right now she's in my lap talking up a storm to a piece of junk mail. It's really amazing to see this littler person grow up like this. I feel so incredibly blessed to be her mommy. :-)

Helping Daddy do the dishes

A recap of our day- in photos

Life changed drastically when you have a crawler!





The guilty party!