If the shoe fits...

If the shoe fits... BUY IT!

Sam and I took Robbie shoe shopping yesterday. You'd think buying shoes for an infant would be pretty easy. You find the right size. You buy a shoe. I spent several hours on Monday hitting local second-hand stores and department stores with no luck. Robbie's foot is a size 4 in length and a size 5 in height. In other words, you can't even squeeze his fat little foot into a 4, but a 5 is an inch too long and he can't walk in it.

So we spent all day Tuesday shoe shopping. We tried and tried and tried on shoes. Dozens and dozens of shoes... too long, too narrow, too short. Even the adorable baby Crocs won't fit. We ended up shelling out major moula for a cute pair of size 4 Pediped sneakers from Buy Buy Baby and found a pair of sandals that would work from WalMart.

Last night, Robbie got his first boo-boo (a badly scraped knee) while walking in the driveway. Sometimes we just can't be quick enough to catch him! So today, we made a trip to Target and got some funky Batman band-aids.

Do you think God sees me like I see Robbie? I've given Robbie the tools he needs to walk and I am so proud of him. But sometimes, he falls and gets hurt. So I wipe away his tears, kiss his knee, and bandage him up. Even though it is hard-- I'm going to put his shoes on and let him walk outside again today. God doesn't keep us from every little hurt, but he is always there to comfort us and encourage us to try again. So Velcro up your shoes, step outside, and get walking, people! LIVE!

I go a-walkin'

Yesterday Robbie and I went walking around the house... literally... we made a loop in the grass. He held my finger for balance and marched. We walked down the driveway and up the driveway. We explored grass and leaves and plants. A few of my neighbors came home so we walked across the street and he showed off for them. It was a lot of fun for both of us. He is so sweet and so proud of himself. He looks up with that silly two-tooth grin and squeals. I imagine he is saying "Look at me, mommy! See what I can do!?"

When I brought him inside, I took off his shoes (infant size 4) and saw that yes, they were really too tight. But, I thought, well he has his Robeez-style slippers (12-18 mos size) still. This morning as I got him dressed for church I saw those were too tight as well.

Did his feet grow overnight? Why is it that when he actually starts to NEED shoes, none of his shoes fit???

Christmas in July

Robbie must be wishin' for Christmas in July... all he wants is his two front teeth.

Yup. We are teething again. I say "we" instead of "he" because it feels like a family event: when he's grumpy and uncomfortable, we all feel it; when he wakes up at 2Am and refuses to go back to sleep, we all get to be awake; when he is completely covered in drool... you guessed it.. we're all slimy. So, faithful readers, pray for my sweet baby and his swollen top gums.

On the bright side, we've been having some fun the last few days. I found these super cute iron-ons at Wal-Mart that I just couldn't pass up-- One for our little rock star, one for our little pirate.

Robbie's new thing is pointing at the camera any time he sees it. Here is a funny one while he is eating and another on from our independent family holiday "Dress Like Daddy Day."

We also went to the zoo for an hour or so last week. It wasn't so busy this time. Robbie again enjoyed the aquarium and the penguins more than anything else. Although the meerkats caused a great deal of pointing and "Ooooo Ooooo"-ing.

Robbie now has four "sign" in his repertoire-- "light" (which he does in the morning when you walk into his dark room), "eat" (which he does when you put him in his high chair or when he's hungry), "hi/bye" (the adorable baby wave), and "touchdown" (which of course is not very useful, but very high up on the cuteness scale). We're working on a few more and hopefully will have some success before he goes back to daycare in a few weeks.

School is approaching so quickly! I anticipate going back to work with mixed emotions. I'm always pumped and excited at the beginning of a new year, but the lazy person in me dreads having to wake up so stinkin' early every day. I'm also looking forward to spending time with adult people and having more adult conversations, but I will miss spending so much time with my little Robbie! I'm excited that I get to teach 3 sections of a G/T math course but am a bit bummed by the low enrollment in my Discrete Math course. So, we shall see!

Gotta Run! Nap time is almost up!

Childers Reunion and Rash Update

Rash Update-- Almost entirely gone except for on his little arms. Hopefully that will be gone by tomorrow! Poor baby!

Today was the annual Childers Reunion. When I was a kid, I remember going on the third Sunday of July to the Avoca Fish Hatchery for the reunion. As a kid, I remember it seemed like hundreds and hundreds of people were there (of course this is a bit fuzzy...) I remember lawn chairs and mom packing special "picnic utensils" and plates to eat with. I remember tables and tables of food. I remember walking the trails behind the fish hatchery and trying to find the old graveyard. I remember the outhouse that smelled like, well, an outhouse in July. I remember my Dad standing on a picnic table and making announcements about things and giving prizes for the youngest, the oldest, the farthest traveled, etc.

Over the years things have changed quite a bit, as things as naturally inclined to do. The Reunion was moved to Saturday to accommodate out of town travelers who didn't want to miss church. The location has changed several times over the past years trying to find a place that accommodates peoples need for shade and a/c and the need to find a place for kiddos to play. Today it was at the D&M shelter house next to PRD in Bedford. This year none of the oldest generation were present. My great grandpa and his brothers and sisters are gone. I honestly don't know if any of them are still living. My dad would know. It is remarkable to look at the family tree and see our family grow. I took a pencil and proudly wrote in Robert Mason Leahy 9/2/08 branching out from our line.

This year things were really different for me because Robbie and I (Sam was at work) were the ONLY ONES from my immediate family there. I really missed Dad & Mom, Nancy & her boys, and Jim with his family. I spent a lot of time making sure Robbie didn't eat gravel, but otherwise he did great with everybody. He spent time bebopping between family members and showing off his new skills at walking. He was in a really good mood, too, and chatted a lot. He won the "Youngest Childers" prize edging out the competition by about 17 days to win a fun toy that he went bonkers for. He played with it almost all night when we got home.

After the reunion, we went by Sam's parents house to say hi -- also so I could go to the bathroom as I was not about to try out the outhouse!

If Robbie Ain't Happy...

If Robbie Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy.

Robbie ran a bit of a fever on Friday, but we, being responsible parents and seeing nothing wrong besides a low fever went ahead and took him to Jack and Gwen's for the weekend. We figured it was teething or the start of a cold... and we both desperately needed a full night's sleep. When they brought him back on Sunday night they said he was fine all weekend-- Cool! However, I noticed he looked a little blotchy when I gave him his bath. Monday it looked a little worse... Tuesday it looked bad. Yuck. My baby is covered nearly head to toe in creepy red rash. He's also scratching at it and is not sleeping well. Which means we are not sleeping well. Which means the whole family is cranky.

Sigh.

Robbie frequently gets "contact dermatitis" which is a fancy way of saying he is uber sensitive to harsh detergents/soaps/etc. We have to double rise all his clothes, bedding, towels, etc and can only use fabric softener that is dye/scent free. We bathe him with Dove unscented sensitive bar soap and use Eucerin unscented sensitive lotion.

So I took him to Dr. Jason today to see what he thought. He said that it could be the contact derm. (like from the towels at J & G's house or from playing in the yard) or that it could be from a virus (which would explain the fever last week). Regardless, we are "wait and see"ing it for a week and hoping it clears up on its own. He gave us a prescription that we can give him at night to stop the itching.

Poor Baby!

In other news, I took Robbie to the Plainfield pool yesterday with some other moms. He did not like it. Not one little bit. The water was really cold and he was already cranky (see above.) Oh well. This picture is great because his face really shows how he feels. He's like "Mom-- Why are you doing this to me?" Maybe we'll try again on a warmer day!

Why, yes, don't mind if I do!

So Robbie is spending the weekend at his Nana and Poppy's house. It is pouring down RAIN in Brownsburg and Sam and I have running to do to get ready for the 1950's theme murder mystery party we are attending that night. Off we go...

We hit several Goodwills until we find the right "flashy sportsjacket" for Sam's character, "Chubby Cheddar" and find ourselves hungary for lunch. So... what did we do? Well, we were right next to Sam's Club on a Saturday, so we decided to go hit the sample carts. Yes, I'd love to try a sliver of chicken quesadilla. Why I'd love to try a piece of Polish Sausage. Grilled pork tenderloin? Don't mind if I do! Dixie cup of poweraid? Fabulous! Yes, a cream puff sample would be lovely. We hit all the sample tables and then finished off lunch at the Sam's Club concession stand. You can get a fourth of a pizza and a 32oz soda for $2.50. So for $5.00 we had a fabulous lunch of samples, pizza, and soda. Delicious!

After lunch we popped by Target and JoAnn Fabrics to get the last little tidbits to finish off our outfits and side dishes for the party.

The Murder Mystery was a blast. Sam won "Best Side Dish" for his fab chocolate layer cake. I got "Best Costume" which made the two hours I spent working on it worth it. I may be my mother's daughter, but I do not have her skill at sewing -- but I do have my Singer featherweight machine I've had since I was a teenager!

Now I am sitting here blogging trying to distract myself from the absence of Sam (who had to go to work) and the absence of Robbie (who is still with Jack & Gwen). I miss my men!!!

Pictures from the children's museum

Rain, Rain, go away, little Robbie wants to play!

We had originally planned to go to the zoo today with the Guth family (Brian, Courtney, daughter Avery, baby boy Drake) but the rain caused us to make a last minute switch to the Children's Museum. A lot of the things were geared for kiddos a little older than Robbie, but there were quite a few things he really enjoyed. Playscape was a hit but the dinosaurs were really too loud and scary...

I'm too tired to be witty or creative, so I'm just going to post some pictures instead. Enjoy.

The Night of A Thousand Wails

Since I am listed as a contributor to this blog I decided to contribute. I worked until about 10:30 last night and assumed, as has been the case the last several days, Robbie would be asleep when I got home and would stay asleep until at least 6am. Boy was I wrong. He was asleep at 11 when I got home and stayed asleep until about 3am. For reasons only known to him, he was awake until 6 this morning. Three whole hours of crying for 20 minutes and then being consoled for 20 minutes repeat, repeat, repeat. It was a vicious cycle that really wore hard on Mandy and I. Robbie finally fell asleep about 6 and slept another two whole hours. Thanks Buddy! Anyway, we hope that this is due to his new development of walking and that it will pass soon. He is as cute as ever. Just ask me and I will tell you. This morning he took 22 steps in one trip across the living room. He's figuring out this walking thing out super fast.

Robbie is W-A-L-K-I-N-G!

This morning it was only a few steps... by afternoon he was crossing the room. Tomorrow, who knows, it may be a marathon. I'm so excited.

On another note, I was pushing Robbie in the swing today and met one of my neighbors. He seemed to be really nice and invited me to church with him. They go to the little Assembly of God church down the road. I also met his daughter who lives a few blocks down. She has 6 kids. (wow.) The youngest is about a month younger than Robbie. We talked in the yard and swapped mom stories for almost a half hour. When I came back inside, my wonderful husband was folding laundry. So, overall, this has been a really great day.

Celebrate the good days! Good days are like roses. In the winter, you can still cherish them by remembering their soft petals and beautiful aroma... and, just for a moment, you forget all about the cold.

Next Blog: Adventures in Blog Crawling....

At the top of the blogspot window there are several options, two of which are "Follow blog" and "Next Blog". Follow blog is a newer option. If there are blogs you read often, you can select "Follow blog" while you have the screen up and then it puts a little clip of the blog on your blogger dashboard. This is great for blogs that you like to read, but don't necessarily want to show up as a link on your own blog.

The "Next Blog" option navigates you to another random blog. Last night I was waiting on Sam to get home from work and started hitting next blog and looking at what other people were doing. It was fascinating!

There are a lot of people like me, who post pictures and stories of their family and their daily lives... a public extension of keeping a diary or scrapbook.

There are a lot of people who blog about their jobs instead of using a website... "I build custom motorcycles" "I'm an artist" "I do wedding photography" "I'm a personal shopper" "I eliminate invasive plant life"

There are a lot of people like my mom who use a blog to talk about their hobbies "I collect dolls", "I ride my bicycle" "I collect comic books" "I illegally download DVDs to my computer and post the scenes" "I listen to heavy metal music" "I clip coupons"

There are a lot of blogs that are not written in English. These may be the most fun to look at because you have to use pictures alone to determine what they are about. Are they a business selling party favors? Are they a stay at home mom who makes candy in the shape of small children? Are they poking fun at a silly a product they saw at a craft fair or are they proudly displaying their own handiwork? It makes me look at my blog differently: If you didn't understand any of the words, would my blog still clearly tell my story?

I found a few blogs that I think I'm going to follow. I am amazed at the stay-at-home Texas mom whose monthly goal is to spend $100 or less on food and toiletries using coupons and clever shopping. I am intrigued by the bicyclist who rides and photographs his travels in New England. And I am tickled and impressed by the woman who takes goodwill purchases and reworks them to fit her needs like re purposing a size 5T Henley shirt into a pair of pants for her toddler.

It is amazing how many people are blogging. If you don't blog, maybe you should try it out. It is really easy to do and can be very therapeutic... like writing in a diary (that everyone can read).

Ack... Robbie is stirring... awake from his nap. Goodbye blogger, hello baby.

Just pictures

Our celebrity: Robbie's 9 month photos featured on the wall at the Picture People Studio in the Castleton Square Mall.

Mommy's Little Mathematician (The shirt is from Brent and Christine)

Robbie planning his next trip to the zoo.