Forced Humility

Okay, so I was reminded today of one of the many reasons God blesses us with children. I decided that humbling me was definitely in His plan when he allowed me to be a parent. Allow me to explain. Today I took Ty to a consignment sale at Forrest Hills Baptist Church. It was a great sale by the way if anyone wants to go tonight or tomorrow. Anyway, he sat in his stroller fairly compliantly while I shopped as long as I gave him constant snacks, books, or toys to distract him. I was so pleasantly surprised that I even got in the time that I did before he got totally restless that I thought, hey I'll let him get out of the stroller and play with these big toys for a few minutes before I pay and strap him back into his carseat. Well, that was all well and good until it was time to leave. The term "drug him out kicking and screaming" took on literal meaning for me today. I literally carried the child out kicking, trashing, and screaming. It was priceless. Let me paint the picture. Imagine a 34 weeks (almost) pregnant woman pushing a stroller carrying a diaper bag and shopping bag with her left hand and an 18 month old being held horizontally face down and feet down on her hip with her right arm around his stomach while she tries to open the door with her body and leave. All the while the child is throwing a complete fit. Now, I know what all of those women (and couple of men) were thinking. It was either "Why can't that woman control her child?" or "Bless her heart. Her child is out of control, and look at her. She is about to have another one. She must be crazy." Let's just say I made it to the car without dropping him (barely) and chalked it up as not my proudest mommy moment. I write all of this to say that it is good to be embarrassed once in a while. It reminds me not to judge other people's situations and that it really doesn't matter what all those people were thinking. My other purpose in writing this is to ask: What do you do in a situation like that with an 18 month old? I talked to him very sternly about why we don't act like that and made him look me in the face. I also made him pat me sweetly to show him the correct way to treat mommy after he hit me while I was dragging him out. I am open for suggestions from any of you fellow parents. I realize that you can't allow your kids to behave like that, but I don't think I can give my one year old a beating either. So, what would you do? And don't worry, I won't be judging you! By the way, after that I took him to get a haircut where he screamed so hard to the whole time that his entire body was trembling. Banner day. It's a good thing he is so cute!!!

Mommy's Little Piggy

Well, I have been putting it off for fear of the mess, but I finally let Ty loose with a spoon by himself for the first time yesterday. We were having one of those very challenging days anyway so I decided to give him yogurt for a snack and gave him a spoon to go at it. He was pleasantly shocked at this freedom and made a total mess of course! He started out fairly clean and slowly became more of a mess. By the end he just decided to pick up the bowl and try to eat straight out of it. It was hilarious! I hope you enjoy the pictures. Now I guess I will have to keep letting him do it until he totally gets it. Lots more messes to come!

New House

At last I am delivering some promised pictures of the new house. We are officially in and partially unpacked. We are loving the new place and the new yard. We feel very blessed to have this place to raise our ever- growing family. Despite a 2 week sickness for me, a stomach virus for Brian, and 2 ear infections for Ty in the past couple of weeks everything went really well. That is largely due to the amazing friends and family we have who helped so much! We are all pretty healthy now thankfully. Ty is loving his new yard as you will see if you scroll down for more pictures. It is hard to capture a house on camera, but maybe you can get an idea of our new crib from these pics. Hopefully you can all see it in person soon if you haven't already! Our door is always open (figuratively). You just may want to call first to make sure we are dressed and awake! The first pic is of the kids' bathroom, the second and third are of the living room, the fourth is the kitchen from the living room, and the last is of Ty's room (which will soon by blue). By the way, speaking of our ever growing family, I am now 32 weeks pregnant and things are looking great. We are excited about getting to meet Miss Ansley soon. Hope everyone is doing great!

Ty Playing at the New House

Trip to Dallas

Well, it's been almost 2 weeks since we got back, but I am finally posting about our trip to Texas to visit Kim, Mitch, Ashton, Katie Ann, Campbell and Caroline. We had a great time. Ty really enjoyed his girl cousins. We don't get a lot of one on one time with these sweeties so we tried to soak it all in. Brian had to work while we were there, but he still got a lot of quality time with the Edgeworths. We've busy since we got back with the move. I will try to post some pics of the new place tomorrow. Have a great night!