Modern Marvels

Crayons, play doh, Legos, Hot Wheels, Barbie...... Old School. Seriously, do you remember the toys we had back when I was a kid? There were some cool things, not gonna lie, but it was NOTHING compared to today. If you have kids then you know exactly what I am talking about, if you don't and you pay any attention to commercials then you still know what I am talking about. For example~

Then- Crayons and markers
Now- Specialized markers that only write on special paper only and toys that will print out copies of whatever you draw on their screens (think Etch-a-Sketch meets copy machine).

Then- Ride on ponies attached to a metal frame with springs
Now- Ride on pony that hooks up to your tv and allows kids to play games and control characters on the screen with their movements on the pony

It's mind boggling what they have come up with. Seriously, between toy segments on the Today Show, commercials, and print ads, I am learning that it is really a whole new world out there for toys. A world of technology, a world where "interactive" is a buzz word, a world where everything possible is being done to keep kids from simply playing outside. I envision long Christmas wish lists in my future :)

Cruel and Unusual

Seriously, infants have the capability to take this common phrase to a whole new level. Micah's weapon of choice recently has been sleep. Before Thanksgiving he was going to bed at 8:30 and sleeping through the night (til 6 or so)..... since we have gotten back from Kansas, however, he has slept a maximum of 2.5 hours at a time, he won't go to bed until at least 11, and last night he topped it off by screaming his head off and refusing to sleep from 12-1. Oh, and he still gets up for good around 6. Poor Nate is currently using all of his strength to keep himself from passing out at work... I have the BEST husband.

This experience has led me to one conclusion.... life isn't fair. My friend's 2 month old is sleeping through the night..... life isn't fair. But hey, if life was fair there would be no saving Grace through Christ, so I think I'll leave things the way they are :)

We Know People....

...picture people :) My sis-in-law Rayanna (not to be confused with Amy... also my sister in law and also a photographer) took these pics of Micah over Thanksgiving. Thanks Ray!!

Done!

As of Thanksgiving, I still had a few stocking stuffers to buy but otherwise I was finished. Well, after an uber-successful afternoon with my mom yesterday, I'm done and so is she!! We are sort of the Dynamic Duo of shopping :) Some of you may think I'm just on the ball.... in reality I would do anything to avoid shopping in the holiday crowds... yuck!!

Oh Christmas Tree

Fact: Nobody carries their own Christmas tree home in Houston, TX. Well, maybe not "nobody" :P

That is my pitiful little segue into a Christmas Tree tale for the ages.... Now, I know that most of the people in my generation seem to have fake trees, but that is something I simply cannot go along with. I ADORE real trees and just wouldn't consider it Christmas without one. Pretty much the only thing I don't like about real trees is getting them home and then disposing of them after Christmas. I enjoy the smell, feel and look of a real tree as well as the process of analyzing every single one at the store to find just the right shape, size and fullness.

I am typically a Home Depot girl, but this year Nate and I decided to shake things up. Our main determining factor was that there is a Houston Garden Center across Peek from our neighborhood's entrance. SCORE! We decided that, in an effort to spare the paint job on the roof of our car, we would walk over and carry the tree back to our house. As it turns out, this is NOT normal tree buying behavior.

Anyway, we prowled the store until we found the "perfect" tree and brought it up front to purchase it and get a fresh cut. As we attempted to pick up our newly sliced tree, the all-Spanish speaking staff shooed us away and offered to carry it to our car for us.

"Oh, no.. we are carrying it home from here, but thank you!"

blank stares

"We live in that neighborhood over there, so we are just going to carry it home."

blank stares... "oh, ok!" one of the employees picked up the tree and started walking towards the house. Hmmmm, weren't expecting this.... was he going to carry it home for us? We had our answer quickly as he began to point at different cars with a questioning look.

"We are carrying it home from here."

blank stare

"You can put it down, we'll get it from here, thanks!"

blank stare

"Seriously, we are carrying it home."

The guy gives up and puts the tree down with a shrug.

We made it home with no issues and it turns out it wasn't even that difficult! It was helped by the fact that we bought a smallish tree due to our low ceilings in the bay window. We got some interesting looks from some neighbors who spotted us, but it was worth it and even kind of fun!

A little problem

At the beginning of this pre-holiday shopping season, I had two items in particular that I knew I wanted to find. I wanted to buy a nativity set and I wanted to buy an advent calendar. Easy enough, right? Well, I found a nativity that I really like at the Nutcracker Market... SCORE! Now I just had to find the perfect advent and I was good to go. Well, Target happened to put advents on sale yesterday, just in time for December 1st. I rushed out to get mine and found this little gem. It's cute.... maybe not the advent of my dreams, but I liked it and it came at the right price and the right time :)

As I sat filling the compartments last night and getting excited about my very first advent calendar, I noticed something a little.... off. Go back up and look at the picture... can you find what is wrong with this advent calendar? It is subtle, but it makes a bit of a difference :P Anyhoo, I will be returning it today and I have to say... this whole experience has sort of taken the fun and urgency out of my "need" for an Advent calendar. I think I am just going to wait until I find one that I am crazy about, even if it takes a couple of years :) I hope when I do find it that it has slightly better craftsmanship than the gem pictured above :P

For those of you non-Where's Waldo types that may be having trouble finding the problem in this picture, let's just say that I don't know what things December 15th will bring and I'm not sure I will want to live it twice :P

Great is Thy.... Thankfulness?

Funny thing about blogs.... there are certain givens when it comes to posting in the blog world. By this I mean that bloggers desperate for material have certain topics that they will jump on gratefully when the opportunity presents itself. That is why the vast majority of blogs had a voting post on November 4th and why now you are reading my Thanksgiving post :)

Nate and I are leaving this afternoon to go to Kansas to spend Thanksgiving with his family! We are taking Micah on a plane for the second time and we are braving the crazy holiday travel season. Because of this, I need to do my Thanksgiving post today as I will likely not post again until next week. So.... here goes~

I've always thought it was sort of corny to go around and say what you were thankful for. Well, I was wrong :) To be fair, I was also a kid and more concerned with the pie than the thought behind it. Now, I enjoy having a designated day that really makes you think of all that God has done for you and the ways that he has blessed you. I am challenging myself to remember more often what He has done for me and live my life out in gratitude to Christ. Anyhoo, here are a few things I am thankful for :)

~ God sent his only son Jesus to earth to be ridiculed, rejected, and murdered. All of this to save people who did not and will never deserve His grace. He provided salvation and He continues to extend His grace to us daily.

~ Micah! What a blessing to be given a healthy, (mostly) happy baby! He brings joy into our lives that we never could have imagined.

~ Nate! God has given me such a patient, loving, servant-hearted husband and I am so thankful for Him every day!

~ My amazing family whom I love and cherish.

~ I have to give special props to my mom here. She has provided support and friendship my entire life, and she is helping me learn how to be a mom.

~ I am thankful that in this economy, Nate still has a job and that the Lord has blessed us with the resources for me to stay home. I am grateful that he has continued to provide for us in a way that allows us to continue to care for others.

~ Finally, I am thankful for sweet potatoes with marshmallows baked on top.... mmmmmm, yummy ;-)

Long and Lean

A) Sorry for the late post!

B) I have an excuse! Micah had his 4 month appointment today at the pediatrician. He took the immunizations like a champ :) He is currently weighing in at 12 lbs 6 oz and is 25 inches long! He is in the 15th percentile for weight and the 50% for length..... seriously a toothpick! Anyhoo, that's all I've got for today!

Recycled Material

Ah, new relationships. Everything so exciting and fresh and.... well, new. This comes as a HUGE advantage for me when it comes to my friendships. You see, with pregnancy comes pregnancy brain which causes you to go brain dead more often than not. You forget things, simple things, all the time and suddenly everything seems more difficult than it was before.

I have a problem. That's right, my name is Abby and I tell people the same stories over and over again. I have the unfortunate tendency to tell people stories that I have told them before whilst they smile and nod politely before telling me that I already told them this. DRAT. I find myself often thinking, "I need some new material!" like I fancy myself a stand up comic or something. What I have learned recently is that if you can't manage to come up with new material, new friends work just as well! That's right folks, new friends allow you to use recycled stories without fear of discovery. You get to turn off your brain and replay conversations from past gatherings, not to mention having the advantage of editing your script and leaving only the best received parts in :) Go forth, make new friends, appear intelligent and interesting all over again ;-)

Not so sweet dreams

Parenting has brought many things into my life that are strange, unexpected, wonderful and curious. I have become so used to bodily functions that I will now casually look down and calmly observe, "Oh, he's peed through his diaper again and I'm all wet....oh well". I don't take pride in it, but if you don't adapt then you will spent the first couple of years of your child's life being perpetually grossed out :P

I experienced something new last night though.....you know how sometimes you will wake up at it takes you awhile to realize why you woke up? Well, as I reluctantly emerged from my sleepy cloud at one point this morning, it was a few seconds before I knew why I had awakened....but then I heard it. Micah was farting.....a lot..... in his sleep. He just kept on going strong and I held back a giggle as I realized that it wasn't waking him up (although me laughing might have). Sure enough, he slept through this fit of flatulence and we all got another hour of sleep. Ah, good times :)

Jen- sorry about not a lot of pics recently....we've all been sick, so nobody is really up for it :P

The Decorating Itch

Ok, it's driving me nuts.....really, it is! It is just not fair that shopping centers can decorate for Christmas and I have to wait! Every day I have to force myself to wait until after Thanksgiving to pull out all of my fun Christmas stuff. To aid in this effort, I have adopted a sort of mantra that I chant to myself in times of weakness. It varies, but the general idea is "Only crazy people decorate before Thanksgiving. Only crazy people decorate before Thanksgiving. Only....." and so on and so forth. Just when I think that I have a handle on the insanity, I drive past another shopping center with 6 ft high ornaments out front or larger than life glitter bows on top of the shops and I end up back at square one.

I suppose the upside to this is that I have been attempting to satiate the desire by figuring out where I will put everything once it is sane to do so. This will save me a lot of planning time and maximize the time I get to enjoy the decorations before it is no longer sane to have them up :P Anyhoo, speaking of decorations, my mom brought this little beauty over last week and I was SO excited!

Although I do have to admit that after hearing that Cindy and Allison were both making their husband's stockings, I felt like maybe I should have made this myself. Then I got over it because my mom does a fantastic job and if it were up to me this year, then he wouldn't have one finished in time. Thanks Mom, I am so happy with how it turned out!

So anyway, to all you people out there who are fighting back the urge to decorate and are wondering if you are crazy... yes, you are. But hey, you aren't alone :)

Statler & Waldorf

While not the most cuddly of Muppets, these two are still some of my faves. Their real life counterparts, however, are not quite so entertaining. As a part of our nutrition program this semester, our leader includes circuit training with her (a personal trainer) for free every week. It is a great bonus and Peggy does a fantastic job. What I find not so fantastic is the heckling of some of the older men that come to circuit training. They aren't in our class, but you are allowed to pay to come just to training and many people do.

These guys stay in the back (after we've done all the stations) and they make sarcastic comments and make fun of the cool down routine. They make their comments loudly and are very rude about it. These are 50-60 yr old men!! GROW UP!! Not only that, they are Christians.... it drives me nuts! I want to turn around and tell them that nobody forces them to be there and that they are ruining it for others. Seriously, some people refuse to leave junior high behind :P

4 Months Old!

Micah is FOUR MONTHS OLD today! It feels old to me, but I also feel like he has been a part of our lives for a lot longer than that. I have been throwing tidbits from Micah's life at you constantly on this here blog, so it's tough to think of things you may not know about him already. Still, I thought I would write down a few things that he is doing now that he is a very mature, very grown up 4 month old~

~ He is much more responsive now and will turn to face you when you talk to him and his eyes will follow you all around the room.

~ He sings :) When you sing to Micah, he will respond back in a very different way than he normally vocalizes. He makes prolonged sounds and tries to mimic you.

~ He laughs a lot more now :)

~ He is beginning to show a preference towards people he knows well.

~ Given enough time on his stomach, he almost always rolls over

~ He will now grasp toys and hold onto them.

~ He understands cause and effect... If I kick this, the star will play music for me :)

He has been so much fun to have around and we can't wait to spend another month with him! (and hopefully a whole bunch of months and years after that too :)

Nutcrackin Good Time

That's right folks, it's that time of year again. The time of year when over 60,000 women join together to pay homage to the arts and crafts; the time of year when people will cut you off, block you in and run all over you in pursuit of an ornament; the time of year when new mothers will break out the Baby Bjorns and use their newborns as human shields..... that's right, it's the Nutcracker Market.

For those of you unfamiliar, the Nutcracker Market is a yearly Christmas market that is set up in Reliant Center to benefit the Houston Ballet. Hundreds of vendors come in from all over the country to sell their goods and you can find pretty much anything under the sun. Yesterday was my first market experience and let's just say that it left an impression :P

My mom and I went because a friend of ours from Dallas was there helping out at a friend's booth (it was good she did too, because they were SO busy... one person couldn't have handled it). We both enjoyed the experience and we both decided that we don't really want to go back :) The crowds are just too much... it's stressful. I don't think we looked into every booth that we would have had it not been so crowded, plus it is so huge that you feel like you have to keep moving or you will be there forever. We each bought one thing that we are excited about and I'm glad we went, we just don't see that madness becoming a yearly tradition for us. That being said, if you live in Houston and you haven't gone before, you should make the trip out there... it's a true Houston experience that you need to have :)

It's Good to be Wanted

A little flattery can go a long way, even if it isn't really meant to be flattery. Sometimes, as a stay at home mom, you begin to feel kind of useless. I mean, I definitely see the merit in staying home and being with your kids, but other people do not always see this as a useful contribution to society. I'm not gonna lie, when people ask me what I do now, I more often than not tell them that I used to work as a transportation engineer instead of saying that I am a stay at home mom. I want people to know that I'm not stupid because I'm staying home, and I'm not staying home because I can't find gainful employment. It's stupid, and it's prideful, but it's the truth.... I don't want to be considered a "stupid housewife" as my coworker once referred to anyone staying home with their kids.

Well, I'm getting over it. I am happy with my choices and I know that my new job will give my child/children multiple benefits and that their future teachers will be thankful that they have had parental attention and not been raised by a daycare (it makes a big difference... or so my teacher friends tell me). Still, I was flattered when a company that I had an offer from last year called me recently to ask if I wanted to leave my current situation and join their team. I told him that I am staying home with my son right now and he congratulated me and asked that I give him a call if/when I want to rejoin the workforce and they would be happy to have me. This gives me 3 offices in Houston where I have a standing job offer. It's nice to feel wanted :)

Tidbits

~ Micah and I are sick... Boo!! I've decided that the last thing you want to do when you are sick is take care of a sick baby.

~ Anybody out there watch the Biggest Loser? I wonder if Vicki will be embarrassed when the show airs by how evil she looks..... I can't stand her and I'm just glad that other peeps on the show are starting to catch on that she is messed up. Poor Amy is in for it next week :P

~ Micah likes books! It is the coolest thing. He doesn't just want to eat them :P He is totally drawn in by the colors and pictures on the pages. He turns the pages as I read and will talk to the book.

~ Another random Micah fact, if you spin him around, he spots as he turns. It's the craziest thing! I get dizzy watching him but he is perfectly fine because he is spotting!

Kickin and Screaming

First has a really nice "infant care" room in the church where they have 6 gliders, a couch and a changing table. Women go in there and feed their little ones while they chat about motherhood and other various topics. It is a peaceful, relaxing place.....or at least it was before I showed up :P Micah is, shall we say, an angry eater. He pulls off constantly and screams while he is eating (he has gotten better and no longer does this EVERY time) and he refuses to calm down while he eats. This Sunday was the first time I had to try to feed him in the room at church and it didn't go so well.

He was making his opinion of what was happening known....loudly. The other women (the room was packed) just kept staring at me. I felt SO inept. I absolutely could not wait to get out of there. I changed him and he calmed down. I brought him back to the couch and propped him in the corner while I packed up his diaper bag.... he face planted. He was staring down at his feet and ended up face down on the couch. This earned me more looks from the women in there and cemented my position as World's Most Inept mother in their minds. It was a blast. All I know is that I NEVER want to go back in that room again. Maybe I'll find a nice secluded bathroom stall next time :P

Belated Halloween

Today Could Be Rough......

Facts-

~ Since Tuesday, Micah has been grumpy each day from noon to 4 or so and then off and on beside himself crying from 5 til whenever he falls asleep.

~Whatever is bothering him, it is making it difficult for him to sleep giving him a max nap time of 45 minutes and a max nighttime sleep of 3 hours.

~ Nate and I are not getting the sleep we had been growing accustomed to prior to Micah's downturn.

~ I have not been feeling well the past two days and have expended what little energy I do have walking Micah around the house in the hopes of placating him even if only briefly.

Results-

~ I am tired, I do not feel well, I am worried about poor little Micah, and I am trying to make it to the doctor today to get him checked out before the weekend....... I need a nap

We've Got More Bounce in California

So a few things took precedence, but you didn't think I was just going to skip over our Cali trip, did you? We had a really great time, I'm so glad we went!!! I'm typing one handed and Micah is losing it, so I'll make it short....

We went to Pasadena to hang out with Courtney and go to a museum.... Micah and Nate were thrilled :P

We went to Cars and Coffee in LA and saw everything from a Maserati, to a Model T, to vintage Corvettes and new Lamborghinis..... it's a rich area :) Basically, local car peeps bring out their new or restored things of beauty and us poor folks get to walk around and drool at them all... it's a lot of fun!

From Cars and Coffee, we drove to San Diego to visit the most famous zoo in the world. It was AMAZING. All of the animals were very playful while we were there and we saw polar bears play wrestling, hippos swimming and bouncing underwater, tiger cubs exploring and stalking/pouncing on each other, a monkey harassing an otter, arctic diving ducks (so cool), and rhinos playing in a water spray (to name just a few of the super animated animals we saw)

On Sunday we went to Laguna Beach and got rained on :P We left and the rain stopped when we were a little down the road, so we went to Newport Beach instead. It wasn't as pretty, but the size of it was beyond belief, my Dad said it was like being on the beaches of Normandy.... super deep beach :) We dipped Micah's feet in the ocean to give him a little Pacific experience.. it was fun! We spent that afternoon in Downtown Disney... a downtown-esque area outside of DisneyLand that is free and full of fun shops, diverse restaurants, and numerous people watching opportunities. My Dad has some of the pics from this day (my battery was dying) so when I get them, I'll put them up :)

Here is a pic of Micah chilling on the couch in Irvine on Monday morning. He was a champ on the plane... he was perfect on the way there and on the way back he only cried for 5 minutes during landing and taxiing. He was so distraught and then as soon as the plane was pulled into the gate and Nate stood up with him, he burst out laughing. I mean, hysterical, cracking up laughing.... everyone around us started cracking up too... all he wanted was to stand up :)

I am my mother's daughter

That's right..... I attract crazy people. Nate and I took Micah for a walk to our local polling place this morning and were pleasantly surprised to find only a 45-5o minute wait to vote. We took a gamble by going right when the polls opened, but it turned out ok for us. The only thing not ok was the lady in front of us.... OH MY GOSH. She would not stop talking.... loudly.... in a quiet gym..... mostly to us :P At one point, the guy in front of her said something to her to which she replied, "hey, every American's voice counts for something!" to which he replied "I'm not sure about that right now." Which was his version of "shut up, crazy lady".

People were staring at her the entire time as we found out that her son was an AP student and her Grandma lives in the hood in LA and that she is black, Irish and American Indian which leads to her always getting patted down at airports. She is from LA and doesn't vote straight ticket. Her son plays baseball and is going to the playoffs.... she nursed him. He wants to go to MIT. Her older son is 25. She thinks she might know who painted the mural in the gym. Her husband is in IT and so she "knows" that large blocks of votes will be lost by using non-paper ballots..... and so on and so forth.

Anyhoo, we voted and I'm glad it's over :)