Things I Love Thursday: Cute Baby Gifts

Obviously, given the age I am, I have lots of friends who are having babies. Because I am so practical, I do like to shop off a registry when someone has one, because, duh, they want those things. I don’t mind getting the boring stuff that you have to have (like diapers, wipes, etc) but it’s fun to be able to give a personalized gift. And boy, do I have the perfect suggestion.

When Jack Henry was born and I discovered that the Lord had given me yet another child who can’t hold onto his lunch, I started looking online for some cute burp rags. Something to take when we leave the house (i.e. church) and offer to unsuspecting people who wanted to hold him but didn’t know what he was capable of. Enter: Your Baby’s Room.

Amanda, the owner, makes the absolute cutest stuff, and it’s really reasonably priced. She communicates with you about your order and works quickly, getting your order to you in just a few days’ time usually. Isn’t it nice to do business with people like this?

I just recently ordered these two sets for friends with new babies. Aren’t they adorable? (Sonya - stop reading! Yours should be on your doorstep today or tomorrow. You aren’t reading blogs yet, are you? Kenzie’s only a week old, so I’m thinking not.)

Don’t you want some for the new babies in your life?

For more things people love, visit The Diaper Diaries…she’s just started a new blog carnival, and it’s easy to play along!

Out of the Mouth of Bennett

A couple of gems from the past week or so:

•”Mom? Is it fivesday?” (It took me a minute, and then I realized that he was thinking of Tuesday!)

•When Matt was playing Wii Shuffleboard with the two boys, he was Bennett’s partner. Luke was beating them pretty soundly, so Matt said, “We’ve got some work to do, Bennett!” A couple of minutes later, when it was his turn, he said (to no one in particular), “We’ve got some job to do!”

•Bennett and I were having a discussion about Jesus and it went like this:
Me: And do you know what Jesus did for us?
Bennett: He died on the cross!
Me: That’s right! And he died on the cross for us so that we can someday go…
Bennett: On vacation!

Today I’m Thankful for…

(so, technically, these are things I was thankful for on Tuesday, but I just didn’t get around to finishing this after I started)

…a garage, so that I can load kids in and out of the van without getting out in the rain. It’s easy to take this for granted until you have to park outside, which I did for 6+ weeks during the bathroom remodel and garage sale, which ran back-to-back last spring.

…Bennett keeping himself busy with a Lite Brite project, while I do laundry and clean up from breakfast.

…Vacation Bible School. Luke’s loving it, and it’s a nice break for me, too, to just have the 2 younger boys for the morning.

…the fact that Jack Henry likes to nap. See below.

…the fact that Jack Henry is meeting his development milestones. He napped great in the morning (when I started writing this) and at his afternoon nap, decided it was time to try standing in his crib. He’s been pulling up on things for more than 2 weeks, but hadn’t done it yet here. Instead of napping he did this for an hour, and then cried when he decided he was done with that game and wanted out.

Something I’m not thankful for? That it’s now time to take this out his crib. I don’t know why I love this mobile so much, but I definitely remember looking forever to find one I really liked before Luke was born. And now three babies have loved these bugs!

…good friends. We’ve been guests for lunch/dinner in two homes recently, and another friend sent a prepared meal home with me last week. Lots of nice cards, emails, and comments are still coming from friends and it’s just really nice.

…Bennett asking me, “Um, can we please play a game of Candy Land?”

…the boys building with Legos for long time this afternoon together, and then later in the day, playing with their Planet Heroes forever (they are pretending like they are making a “Planet Heroes 2″ movie!)

Anyone else want to play? You can do so in the comments or on your own blog!

WFMW: Buttering Corn on the Cob

Credit for this goes to my sister-in-law, Michon, who did this on the 4th of July.

If you use soft margarine or butter for buttering your corn on the cob, just use a small pastry or basting brush in the tub of margarine, and brush it on your corn. So much easier than a knife, and then you aren’t left with a weird, nasty, half-stick of melty butter when you’re done with dinner. Works for me!

For more tips, go to Rocks In My Dryer!

Oh, How I Love a Bargain

The kiddos and I just returned from Target, and I got some great stuff for Luke for next summer! (I always shop a season ahead…it saves me tons of money on their clothes! I do still buy some stuff when the new season actually rolls around, though, too.) I just love Target clearance stickers.

Anyway, for a whopping $22.42, I got him a pair of jeans for this school year, a tee with a guitar on it (he loved that one!), a muscle shirt, a polo, and a pair of swim trunks. Retail was $55 for everything. Pretty good, huh?

The boys also made their first purchase with spending money today. They combined their money and bought the Wii Game Party game…it was only $20, so it’s probably not that great, but they are beyond excited that they used their own money to buy something cool. They CANNOT wait until their dad gets home!

One more thing regarding Target. Ahem (clearing throat)

Dear Target,

It is obvious from the wide variety of people that you have hired that you embrace diversity. And that’s not something I have a problem with, generally speaking. What I DO have a problem with is the totally scary guy you have hired at one of our local stores, who looks like the devil incarnate. I am afraid of him, so you can only imagine what my children think of him. His face is so pierced you can barely make out his features, and the black of his hair (and nails) is quite unnatural next to his transparent skin. Also, the scowl. Super scary.

I’m all for explaining diversity to my kids, but this goes way beyond that.

I’m not suggesting that people like this don’t need jobs, or that they shouldn’t be hired, but rather that you, as the employer, have some standards that you expect your employees to follow. I know you don’t want to offend anyone by telling them what they can and can’t look like, and thus, be sued, but guess what? I’m offended, and I’m the one keeping your doors open.

Sincerely,
A Customer

PS I love your stuff, which is why I keep coming back. Obviously.

Raising Grateful Kids

I hope that I’m not the only parent out there who feels like they are constantly reminding their kids to use their manners. I mean, it’s not like this is a new expectation in this house; from the time they could talk, we’ve been working on using please and thank you and don’t even get me started on just good manners in general (not talking with food in your mouth, etc). I know that mine do, on occasion, without prompting, say please and thank you. We had dinner with the Pribishes tonight and both girls (who are 6 and 8 ) said, “yes, thank you,” and “no, thank you” when I was serving up some fruit salad. It was so nice!

We don’t buy the kids lots of stuff, so it’s not that they’re living in a world that’s filled with them just getting what they want. When is it going to sink in and just become part of who they are?

My sister Hayley showed me this video yesterday and it made me cry. I want my kids to be this grateful for what they have. DISCLAIMER: I certainly do NOT endorse the parents’ choice of Halo 3 for their child who appears to be no more than 8 years old. But watch the kid…amazing.

Why I Don’t Eat Thai Food

AKA I have a freakishly sensitive sense of smell.

A few years ago, Matt found this Thai place near his office that he really likes. He and some coworkers get lunch there every once in a while. Shortly after he started eating there, I noticed that he smelled funky, and when I’d kiss him when he got home from work, I’d know immediately that he’d eaten Thai. And that I wished he would sleep on the couch that night. I don’t even know what is IN Thai food, but it stays with ya…and not really even on the breath. I swear it is excreted from your pores.

This was kind of a jokey, “haha I ate Thai today” thing around our house until I was pregnant with Jack Henry. When I am pregnant, my already-heightened sense of smell goes through the roof. When I was pregnant with Luke, I swore that the ice in our old house had a funny smell. I made everyone who came to our house smell it to see if I was crazy (they all thought I was, for the record). But I swear it smelled and tasted weird.

In May of last year, when I was about 5 months pregnant, Matt and I went with a bunch of our friends from church on a retreat for the weekend. It was so much fun; we went to Pinecrest camp, and we stayed in a nice, air-conditioned room, or I would not have considered this. We left on a Friday in the mid-afternoon, and as soon as we were all enclosed in the van together, I smelled it…Thai food. He laughed and said that yes, he’d eaten it a couple of hours earlier for lunch. I’m sure I said something to the effect of “Do you not like me?”

I could NOT get the smell out of my nose for the entire weekend. We checked into our room, and it immediately smelled like it. That night, sharing a bed with him, I nearly gagged at the overwhelming stench, though he had thoroughly brushed his teeth (this is when I came up with “pore excretion” theory). On Saturday he swam in a heavily-chorinated pool, which I was sure would do the trick. But no, when he returned, he smelled like chlorinated Thai food. It was awful. Every time I went back to our room all weekend long, it hit me.

Now that I’m not pregnant, my sense of smell is back to it’s normal (but still unusually sensitive) state. So I notice when he’s eaten at one of his favorite restaurants, but at least now I don’t feel like I’m going to get sick. The funny thing is, I’d probably actually LIKE Thai food. But now I’ll never know, because there is no way I’m going to make myself smell that way on purpose.

(sidenote: I thought of doing this post tonight while I was out shopping, looking at some purses, one of which had a bad odor. How does a new purse stink? Do you love that I put my freakishness out on the internet for all the world to see?)

Apple Dumplin’

He found his way to the apples almost immediately…isn’t he the cutest?

Things I’ve Learned from My Kids

1. Putting sunscreen on a baby is hard. And, you might end up with 50 SPF on yourself in random places, which, of course, only shows up later. Once early this summer, when Jack Henry had much less hair, I put some sunscreen on his head, and then fed him a bottle a little later. I got a huge white patch on my arm from where he laid his sunscreened head.

2. An Elefun net fits (barely) on a 3-year-old’s head.

3. Clean glass is a magnet for kids who have a) just finished a cup of yogurt or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or, b) just been coated in sunscreen. My sliding glass door is a mess. Again.

The following are still mysteries:
1. How does milk splatter 7 feet in the air when spilled off the side of a table?

2. Why do tired children not sleep?

3. The kids’ fingernails grow so fast, and clipping them is one of my least-favorite jobs (especially Jack Henry; he’s the worst.). Why don’t mine grow that fast?

We’re Either Crazy or Stupid.

Today, Heather and I got together for what has become an annual ritual…making homemade applesauce by the gallon.

Heather’s done this for years with her mom and grandma, and for the last 6 or 7 years, she’s invited me to make some with her. We always use Lodi apples, which are kind of hard to find, and bless her heart, Heather and her family always round up enough for me to have some, too (I’ve proven to be no help in this area - turns out I have NO connections in the apple orchard business). After you’ve eaten this stuff, there’s no returning to the Musselman’s or Mott’s.

In the olden days (pre-children, or even just baby Luke), it was easy! We’d pick a day and spend the entire thing making and canning applesauce. We’d break for lunch, not worried about how much time it took. Now, it’s an event. There are 5 children 5 years and under: Luke (5), Norah (4), Bennett (3), Lucy (2), and Jack Henry (9 months). Oh, and then there’s this.

Both of us have switched to freezing much of it instead of canning it, because it takes so long to complete the canning process. And time is of the essence when you’re trying to accomplish this large a task with 5 small children underfoot.

We bought 3 bushels of apples to share this year. That’s a LOT of applesauce. Heather got started on a batch before we got there around 12:30, and then we went nonstop until 5:30 (only breaking to get the kids a snack or pick up a baby), and had about 2/3 of it done. Because Heather is a saint, she is finishing it tonight. When I left, we’d made about 42 quarts so far.

And the kids? The kids were awesome. No fighting until the very end, when Bennett hit Norah, so Luke hit Bennett (totally logical, right?). They stayed busy playing outside, watching a bit of High School Musical 2, playing a bingo game and Hi! Ho! Cherry-o!, and some kind of make-believe game where they all lived downstairs and there was never any bad weather.

Here are some pics from our day. I’m too tired to load them into the page, so just click on one to see it larger. (Heather - will you email me that cute one of Jack Henry with the apples when you have a chance?)