new can lights
new can lights!
It was a long and hard weekend for me. I put in about 14 hours of hard labor in a hot, dirty attic, installing 4 can lights in the living room. I think, however, the results made it worthwhile!!
Bumbo Bumbo Bum
Katherin's Bum in the Bumbo Seat
I have seen the Bumbo Seat in stores. In fact, mom and I had quite a laugh at the picture on the box of several kids sitting in their bumbo seats at a birthday party. It is a seat designed for kids to sit in who are not yet able to sit on their own. Anyway, today at playgroup, Katherine sat in Robert McElya’s Bumbo seat and did quite well.
Oh my gosh…
Katherine and Eden
she is wearing the same outfit as me! This is the first time this has happened to me. Mom ran into a friend from college, Dan Brown. He and his family were sitting b ehind us at church. Their little girl, Eden, is 6 months old. We were wearing the same dress. It is pretty cute.
I’m growing (slowly)
Today I went to the doctor. I am now 10 lbs. 14.5 oz and I am 23 1/4 inches long.
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Finally, the perfect diaper bag
For the past three months I have been searching for the perfect diaper bag. I had three. A small one made by my friend Erin is perfect for short outings. The large one from Pottery Barn is big enough, but difficult to carry around on one shoulder. Then there was a back pack. I thought I liked it but never actually used it because there were a few things I did not like about it. My main problem with my diaperbags were that they were all slung over one shoulder and were difficult to carry with the car seat and my purse. I thougt I would solve the problem by finding a small purse to fit in the diaper bag but I never could find the perfect one.
Finally, while in REI looking for something else, I saw a really cute small backpack with lots of pockets inside. It is really made for traveling (something I fear I may never get to do again). Anyway, I thought it would work as my purse/diaper bag hybrid. I have been using it for a few days and I love it. There is just enough room for all I need when Katherine is with me, but it is small enough to be my purse. Yeah! The search is over.
Target - you gotta love it AND hate it
I have to give my two cents about Target - that wonderful store that we all spend way too much money in. As a new mom I love Super Target. I can get all my groceries, clothes, baby items, gifts - really anything - in one store. I love it.
The problem: they have really gotten strict on their return policy. It used to be that you could return anything to Target. If you had the reciept, gift receipt or the credit card you used to pay for it, it was really easy. If you did not have any of those, they would just give you a store credit. Sure it was for the lowest price the item had been sold for, but not a huge deal most of the time. Well, recenly I have been very frustrated with Target. You see, having a baby, I recieved and bought a lot of items. Some way back in December. By the time I realized that I had too many of something, something was broken or not what I ended up needing, many were past the magic 90 day time period that they take something back. For example: I received two of the same Baby Einstein CD. I had the gift receiptbut it was past the 90 days so they pretty much said I was out of luck, even though it was still in its wrapping and they still had it on their shelves. I had a lot of items to return, two were things that did not work but I had received through Target.com. Apparently they will only take two returns per year from a customer (checkin DL#) without a receipt. I had already made my two returns on items that I had no gift receipt. I finally got them to take the return but the only thing they would do was give me a store credit that had to be used that day, in that store, in the same department. So I had to spend 89 dollars in the baby department. Well, I outsmarted them on some of it by purchasing some things I knew I did have a valid receipt for at home so I brought those back and got my money.
Really, why do they have to make it so difficult, especially on a baby registry. Regardless, I am sure I will still spend thousands of dollars there this year because it is so stinking convenient.
You gotta love garage sales!
Where else can you go to buy so much for so little? Last Friday I went to a garage sale at Lake Highlands United Methodist Church. I paid a grand total of 29 dollars and for that I bought one outfit (I needed a red shirt to match some other shorts for Katherine), a Fisher Price musical toy, a 2 foot long stuffed catipillar, links, a game, a bag of childproof safety items (not pictured), and 40 books (three were mine). Katherine really cleaned up. I was especially excited about the books. I have been reading a book called “How to make your child a reader for life”. Being a former teacher and avid reader myself, I really want my kids to love reading. The best way to do that at Katherine’s age is to surround her with books. They can be very expensive so I was happy to find all of these. Some are classics and most I have never heard of. I flipped through them all before purchasing them and they all are educational and well written.
Goodbye Priscilla
Impala SS
Tonight I sold the Impala… It’s sad to see her go, but exciting to see how much bigger my garage is now!!!
I’m slowly learning that time is more valuable than money. When We bought the Malibu, I thought it was crazy how little they wanted to give me for the Impala as a trade in. I tried CarMax and thought they were too low as well. I tried ebay, and just got frustrated with people that weren’t serious about bidding. I tried a for sale sign in the window, but anyone that asked about the price just kept driving. So tonight, 9 months after buying the Malibu, I finally crawled back into Carmax and took the same that the Chevy dealer had offered me as a trade in — except that I didn’t save 300 in sales tax on the new car, I’ve been paying car insurance for the last 9 months, and I blew 100 on ebay adds. But again, I’ve got one less thing on my list of to-dos, a bigger garage, and I didn’t have to spend any more time or money on fixing the impala!!
Goodbye Priscilla. Your 5.7L LT1 will be missed.
Finally Home!!
a warm welcome
It was a long trip, but I finally made it back to Dallas Saturday evening (5/13/06). Unfortunately, my trip was extended by about 6 hours when I missed a connecting flight and another hour to wait on my bag to arrive. What a mess!! I had specifically booked an early morning flight to be back in time for Amy & Trent’s wedding, and I totally missed it — sorry guys!!
But it is great to be home! As you can see, I had a sweet welcome home picture fom Emily waiting on me when I arrived. I also had a beautiful wife and daughter to greet me at the airport! Katherine had really changed in 2 weeks. The most exciting change is that she will now smile in response rather than just randomly!!
I have now posted all my pictures from Germany on our website http://samandchristybroyles.com/ Please go check them out. I labeled almost all of the pics, but I will try to add some more comments too.
I am three months old
Three month birthday
Today I am three months old. It has been another busy and fun month. There were a lot of firsts for me. I went to my first movie, my first wedding, my first museum and stayed for the first time with a babysitter other than Nana (the Thomas’s and the Ossenforts).
Everyone says that I have changed a lot this month. Daddy was in Germany for two weeks and when he came back, he said I had grown a lot. He could also tell that I had learned some new things. I now smile all the time. I smile at people when they look at me and make faces or when they talk to me. Really I smile a lot. I am a happy baby. I also have become much more independent. Mommy can put me in my swing, my bouncy seat, on my play mat or really just about anywhere and I am happy for at least thirty minutes. She likes it because I am more entertained and also it gives her more time to do things around the house. I also am learning to talk. No one can understand what I am saying, but I have conversations all the time. Pretty much we just say “oooh”. I also found something very exciting - my hands. I put them in my mouth all the time. Mommy laughs because sometimes I smack on them so loudly while in my crib that she can hear me from the den. I am starting to be able to find individual fingers too, but I have not decided which one I like best.
I sleep really well too. I go to bed every night at about 9″00 and wake up at about 8:30 the next morning with only having to eat once in the middle of the night. Some of my friends go to bed and get up much earlier, but Mommy and Daddy are glad that I have chosen this schedule because they are not early morning people.
Mom is also excited because I have decided this week that a bottle is not that bad afterall. That will give her a chance to let daddy or Nana babysit more since I can eat while she is gone.
Month three has been a good one. I cannot wait to see what I learn to do this next month.