Some of life's mysteries

Why are kids obsessed with "toys" that aren't theirs? And that being the case, why don't toy manufacturers make all baby toys look like dog toys and McDonald's cups?

Boys beware...

Someone sent this to me and it's too funny not to share!

The Dog House

Oh snap!

We've got some milestones going on around here... first off, and most importantly, Bruce is saying "Mama". Now, not on demand or anything, but those are still sounds coming out of his mouth!

We've also got some waving and "snapping." Okay, not really snapping, but if you snap he wiggles his fingers all around trying to figure it out. I just wanted to pretend like he was all advanced so you'd all go "dang, how'd that boy get so smart...oh right, look who his mom is."

Most entertaining is the "forehead crawling" where he digs his forehead into the ground, gets his big old booty up in the air and tries to push with his feet. This is, as it turns out, a highly inefficient way to get around (I tried it...not really, but I wanted you to all get that visual!) The only downside to this, is he now tries it in his crib and gets himself shoved all into a corner and cries until I un-stick him. Not cool Bruce, not cool.

Word of advice...

Never play "peak a boo" shortly after a feeding...I just got projectile spit up all over my face. This has got to be one of the grossest things that's ever happened to me. Probably only second to having a bird poop on me. Yay for children!

Diapers savings...

Just wanted to let you all know...there are major diaper savings at Amazon right now. Just click here and it will take you to the Amazon website where you can get 30% if you sign up for "subscribe and save" (which you can cancel anytime...) and use the promotion code: PMPRSDO8

This is available until the 7th. I figured it out and here's the breakdown:
Price per diaper based on the biggest box sold in Pampers Cruisers (the best ones we've found in terms of value for your money) in a size three:

Diapers.com (with no tax and free shipping): $0.27 / diaper
Target: $0.26 / diaper
Babies R Us: $0.25 / diaper
Amazon (with 30% off, no tax, and free shipping...): $0.21 / diaper

We interupt this broadcast...

To get something off my chest. I'm not really sure why I'm writing this out, mostly to be cathartic for myself and partially because I can't be the only one feeling like this, but a lot of times it sure feels like it!

Does anyone feel like they're reliving high school again? That feeling that you just don't fit in and everyone else does? First of all some things about me: I'm loyal to a fault, I can be overly sensitive, I'd do anything for anyone (driving miles upon miles to change tires, deliver suitcases, etc.), I hold grudges, I have a strangely good memory for events(I remember when my sister was born...I was two years old), when I say I'll do something I do everything I can to do it, I'm scatterbrained and disorganized.

That combination of things makes for someone who gets hurt easily and doesn't forget it. And before I go further, this grumpy soliloquy (Definition: noun; the act of talking to oneself) is not based on any specific event so no one go thinking that I'm writing this about you...I'm not.

Anyone have that feeling like everyone else has their friends, their lives, everything together, and you're sitting on the outside wishing you had your friends, your lives, and everything together? To explain, my sister is the life of the party. Everyone loves her. She has lots of friends and is the most fun person to be around. Actually both of my sisters are a lot like that. I am not. I am witty and can be hurtful with my wit. I say inappropriate things. I hurt people's feelings. I like a few really good friends, and not lots of semi friends. I am awkward around people I don't know. I can fake emotion really well, hence I can appear outgoing when I'm actually really shy.

When I look at my youth group girls I see the girls that were me and I see the girls I wanted to be friends with. When you're living through high school you think the "cool kids" are limited to that, high school. It's strange when you realize life always has the "cool kids" and that maybe God didn't mean for you to be one of them. It's strange, and strangely hurtful. I'm an adult, I have a husband and a child, and yet, I'm still not mature enough not to be hurt over trivial things. I don't know what the solution is other than to do my best not to be hurtful and put my big girl panties on and grow up a little when I get hurt.

Big Boy PJ's and Race Day

First off, a few pictures of Bruce in his big boy pajamas. We finally retired the swaddle blankets. It took some adjustment for Bruce, but I think he's a fan of the freedom! And for any former Oak Hill's readers the shirt that Greg's wearing in the background is definitely my basketball shirt when I played on the church league...um that would have been middle school. I think that's a good sign that I need to throw stuff away more often...that and I wore my clothes WAY too big back then.

Next, my sister Lindsay, ran the half marathon last weekend here in San Antonio. This was her first one and she did really well. It was SUPER cold that morning (well super cold by San Antonio standards) so we had to bundle up.

Here's Bruce all bundled up waiting on the sidelines at mile marker 5 to cheer on his Auntie "L".

After that he got all worn out so his Daddy carried him for a bit while he napped.

This is the sea of runners coming out of downtown SA. It was pretty amazing to watch. This was the first time we'd ever been to watch a marathon.

Here's Bruce with Francie and his Auntie "L" after she finished the race.

Ignore the constant changing background...

I've gotten a little obsessed with digital scrapbooking and making blog backgrounds so I keep trying them out on here because I'm too lazy just to start a new "test" blog. If you happen across it at a time when there's a random background with a clashing header, links, or whatever just ignore it and read the good stuff...and if you can't find any good stuff, check out one of my friends' blogs! :-)

Free Photo Book...

Well I'm home from work sick so I'm getting caught up on some TV. I saw this today... If you go to www.snapfish.com/freebook2008 and make a book before midnight Friday you can get a free photo book.

While I'm blowing my nose every two seconds I'm also making a photo book. I made one when Bruce was first born and I LOVE it. I put in all the pictures of his birth and NICU time and documented all the different things we were feeling during that time. I will never be a scrap booker...I don't have the organization or patience to do that. If I ever start, I'll make two pages and never touch it again... much like Bruce's current baby book. BUT, since it's on the computer, I can make these books all day long. I figure as long as I make them every six months or so I can keep up to date on the pictures, of which there are A LOT.

Pretty proud of myself...

Okay, first off, I have to say...I'm pretty proud of myself. I added my new background and created my new title. Bruce has a cold, so we stayed home from church this morning and while he napped this is what I did.

I took Friday off and got my hair cut and hung out with Bruce. Bruce and I also went up to Pops' office so he could show little Bruce off!

It was a lot of fun and here are a couple of pictures:

Busy weekend...

Friday was Halloween and those pictures are posted below...Then on Saturday we went to Greg's cousin's daughter's tennis match. Say that three times fast. They live in Corpus and were up here for regionals so we headed that way to cheer Kemper on!

Here's Bruce with Kemper after she won her doubles match:


Here's Bruce with Paige (Greg's Cousin):

Here's Kemper holding Bruce while he tries out his first apple slice. He just sucked it and got himself sticky, but he enjoyed it.

Bruce had a big football weekend. First he went over to Francie and Pop's house Saturday night to watch the UT/Texas Tech game. Despite the orange shirt, Bruce was cheering on Texas Tech in honor of his good friend Case. Despite his parent's utter dislike for the Red Raiders, Bruce insisted he cheer them on because he likes Case so much. (The random things on the couch are bean bags that Karen had to sew for school...I don't ever remeber having to do that for a finance degree...apparently elementary ed majors get to take classes in juggling.)

Next he's been cheering on his favorite D2 school, ACU! They're doing really well...ranked Number ONE! Go Wildcats! In their honor he wore his ACU outfit to church on Sunday.

Then the Bronco's played Sunday afternoon so of course he had to have an outfit change. We won't discuss how the Bronco's are doing...

Finally, I put Bruce in his bouncy seat whenever I need some time without him attached to me... I was trying to get stuff done in the kitchen and could hear him fussing. I kept calling out to him, "Bruce, you're just fine..." After a minute or so I went to see what the fuss was about and this is what I found. In case you can't tell, he'd gotten his foot stuck in the ring. Silly boy!

It's ELECTION DAY!

No matter who you are choosing to vote for, just get out exercise your RIGHT to vote!

"...the land of the free..."

Post 3 of 3 Happy Halloween!

Okay first off, there are three new posts because I'm SO far behind...

Here are some pictures from Halloween the other night. Bruce was a Starbuck's Barista. I made him a little green apron that was only slightly higher quality than a Sing Song costume. :-) I couldn't find him a good black cap so he had a beanie. Kind of made him look like a bandit so I referred to him as the Starbuck's Bandit.

Here he is with his good friend Indiana Jones...AKA Spencer at the Trunk or Treat at church.

Afterwards we headed over to Skyler's house to do a little Trick or Treating. After a few houses it was back to Skyler's house so the husbands could set up and scare kids. We've gone to their house every Halloween that we've been in San Antonio. The boys dress up and sit out front with the fog machine and scare kids as they come to the door. It's fun!

Here's Skyler saying "Cheese!" She was so sweet playing with Bruce. She was getting out her toys to share with him.

Bruce is definitely rollin' now! Here he is getting to the toys!

Post 2 of 3 So you think you can dance!

So I know...I'm a complete nerd. I'm okay with that. As my five year anniversary present from Greg, I got tickets to go see "So You Think You Can Dance" in Austin. My friend Misty and I watched the show the whole season so we went together to go see the tour afterwards.

I'm going to solidify my nerdiness when I tell you that I had an AWESOME time. It was so much fun! We didn't exactly have awesome seats, but it was still really cool. It was also nice to have a whole day with a great friend. We left after church and drove to Austin. We had a good time walking around IKEA and looking at stuff. After that we had a great dinner of some great Mexican food and headed to the show.

The show didn't even start until 8 so we got out pretty late.... but not too late to stop by and get some Tiff's Treats. I have a new love for this wonderful place. I was happy that Misty introduced me to it! Then we drove home. I didn't go to work until lunch on Monday, but Misty definitely went in bright and early Monday morning! I have to say, it was worth it!

Post 1 of 3 New Exersaucer and Baby Blessing

So we had a baby blessing at church, but of course I left the camera in the car so this is the only picture of Bruce from the day. He's reading with Francie. He's a big fan of books!

Here's a relatively updated video of Bruce in his Exersaucer. He's funny, he really likes to play in it. In this video he was way more interested in getting his hands in the pocket on the front of his outfit. All day he'd been messing with it and I finally realized he was trying to get his hands into the little "fake" pocket on the front. It was pretty funny.

Happy Belated Birthday to Francie...

Well I'm behind...of course. Here are a few pictures from a few weeks ago when Greg and I took my mom out for her birthday. Bruce has outgrown his carseat carrier so it poses quite a problem when we go to restaurants. He can't sit up yet, so the whole high chair thing doesn't work out so well. We usually just bring the carrier with us and let him sit in it while we're eating, but we forgot to grab it. We tried to prop him up in the high chair, but that didn't last too long. We still caught a couple of pictures of it.

We ended up getting the stroller out of the car and using that. But of course Francie had to get some holding time in too!

Bruce gets solid food!

Bruce got his first taste of solid foods over the weekend. He wore his special "I love my Grandpa" bib since Pops is in Japan for the next couple of weeks. He looks like such a big boy sitting up in his chair! The first few are at my parent's house and the last couple are back at our house.

This post is probably boring to everyone but me, but if I didn't post this kind of stuff I'd never remember!

Why can't dust be good?

As I am feverishly cleaning my house so that my coworkers can come over tomorrow I'm wishing that dust was something people liked. I mean, why can't people come over and say, "Wow, all that dust on that fake tree looks so good! You must have been saving for years to get that much!"

I am by no means a hospitable person, but I'm trying to be. We're trying to have people come over so that way I'm forced to keep my house clean. It's kind of working... I can't wait until Bruce is big enough to do the dishes. That's why you have kids right? That's why my parents had us...to clean the kitchen! Just kidding...kind of! :-)

Go Sooners!

My dad is an OU fan so I grew up cheering on the Sooners. As a result, Bruce is also an OU fan! His good friends Tammy and Spencer (and Cricket), the biggest OU fans, provided this awesome attire for him to wear during OU games.


Last night he was really getting into it, cheering them on. Okay, I'm lying, he was asleep...but he looked really cute! Robin wanted in on the pictures too!

Bruce LOVES Robin...and well Robin loves Bruce back. Last night Bruce "kissed a girl, not sure he liked it..." (side note, I hate that song, but it gets stuck in your head worse than any song I've ever heard!)

Bruce's new trick...

We always joked that my niece was showing off her tricks...kind of felt like we were talking to a puppy. "Gracie, roll over...Gracie, show us your muscles"...etc. So Bruce has his own new trick. He can officially roll over. Our babysitter called today and said he'd rolled all the way over on the bed. He's trying to get to the cat. We caught these pictures the other day as he was rolling over in his bouncy seat. He's funny, he can roll from back to front, but not front to back. That means once he's on his stomach he's just mad and can't figure out how to get back!

Also in these pictures, you'll see he's all the way at the bottom. He's figured out if he scoots himself down all the way then he can grab the toy and get them in his mouth. If I put him up too high he just gets mad.




One other thing. I just have to say I LOVE our babysitter. She's so awesome. I got a text from her the other day saying she decided her and Bruce were going to start having Bible Class every day. So they sing kid's songs, read the Bible, and pray. How awesome is that? What a wonderful woman we get to have in our lives. Bruce is very lucky!

I'm addicted...

To Nintendo Wii. I have even been caught nursing Bruce with the Boppy while playing Nintendo over his head. No, not Wii Sports, MARIO BROTHERS! Oh how I've missed Mario!

That's my dirty little secret. I'm in love with Mario. It all started when my parents bought one of the original Nintendos way back when. From there we all got Gameboys and it's been history since then. I'm ashamed/a little proud to admit that I've owned every version of the Gameboy.

There, I've said it, now you all know my dirty little secret!

We're DONE!

Bruce is officially off his monitor. I honestly have no idea what those people are doing. I'm pretty sure their right hands don't talk to their left hands since one day we're hearing two more months and a couple days later they say he's done! Who knows...all I know is we can take him off and I feel really good about it!

Woo hoo!! Bruce is officially wireless! :-)

Here's a picture of the monitor for posterity.

Bad Mommy...

So Bruce can almost roll from back to front now. If there's something for him to use as leverage he can do it with his legs. He demonstrated this the other day on the recliner as he proceeded to fall out. Now that's not even why I'm a bad mommy...from what I hear it happens to most moms at least once. I'm a bad mommy because I took a picture of it! I saw it happening and grabbed the camera and not Bruce. Luckily I did catch him right at the last moment and kept him from hitting the ground (the wet spot in the other corner is where Bruce had been before and I moved him). He can also flip out of his swing if he's not strapped in. He hasn't done it yet, but he's come close when he got really mad the other day.



Here's a video of me trying to catch him blowing raspberries. Warning: Don't watch if you get motion sick...the swing is moving the whole time! :-)

Finally, here's Bruce in his swim diaper. He tried swimming this week at his friend Leyna's house. It lasted all of two seconds before he started screaming his head off. He preferred lounging in the sun...


Tomorrow is round two of immunizations. Woo hoo! Not very excited at all! Also, Bruce has two more months on his monitor. After setting it off for three nights in a row, all night long, we went to the doctor. Ultimately they decided nothing's wrong with him, his alarm limits were just too high. They've lowered them and it hasn't sounded since, but our two months still starts over...

So much to update...

I'm way behind on the pictures so here goes!

First, my college roommate's wedding in Abilene, TX a few weeks ago.

Jordan and Greg:

Heather, Lauren and Bruce:

The girls and Bruce:

My awesome hair creation that Heather did:

Eating Taco Bueno in the hotel after the wedding and being way too ridiculously silly and having a WONDERFUL time doing it! Bruce slept in his pack'n'play at the side of the bed through it all. He's such a good sleeper!

Joking about all of us (Josh, me, Heather) spending the night together (Greg included...he was taking the picture):

Bruce post-bath:

Bruce headed to East Texas (Lufkin) and met his his GREAT-grandparents for the first time:

Funny story about this picture. We got back to the hotel after visiting with Nanny and Pops (great-grandparents) and Bruce was fussy so his Francie thought we should calm him down with a nice bath. We got it all ready and Francie stuck him in and Bruce FREAKED! He was screaming the loudest I have ever heard. The water wasn't too hot or cold, he just wasn't having it that day. I'm sure other hotel guests thought we were abusing him! As soon as he got out and was wrapped in his towel he was just fine. He's just too modest I guess. :-)

Bruce's awesome EMO church outfit that he wore in Lufkin:

Karen, Francie and Bruce...I had to include this one just because of the look on Bruce's face! Despite the face, Bruce really is quite enamoured with his Auntie K...she kept him quiet most of the way to and from Lufkin. They shared quite the special moment the other night as he was whispering sweet nothings to her and then started laughing! I wished so much I had the camera!:

Bruce rocking Pops' hat:

Bruce, Francie, and Pops at the Flying Saucer...officially our family's hangout spot. We're pretty much there every weekend. It reminds us of hanging out at beer gartens in Germany.

Bruce playing with his rattle...which he has recently discovered he can hold (please ignore the awful sheets and mismatched bedding...it was a quick sheets change made by my dear husband who apparently doesn't know that we own matching sheets! :-) ):

And finally, Bruce singing "Head 'n' Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!":