Rebekah's Sleepover

Rebekah spent the night at a friend's house last night. Our friends had been asking if we wanted her to come play and spend the night with their 3 year old little girl, and we decided to graciously accept the offer. Another friend was having her birthday party that night, so we decided to live it up "old school style" (you know, before kids) and go out without worrying about getting home to relieve the babysitter.

This wasn't the first time I spent the night away from Rebekah. She stayed with her Grammy and Grampy in September while Adam and I went to the ACL Music Festival in Austin. But this was different. This time, we came home to our own house without a kid in it.

I had a few realizations with this experience:

It was nice to be able to go out and not worry about what time we needed to go home.
It was nice to wake up this morning and not have to worry about changing a diaper.
It was nice to eat breakfast at the coffee table and not worry about little fingers getting into it.
It was nice to set my coffee down on my bedside table and not worry about it being pulled off and spilled on a little head.
It was nice to leave the closet door open while trying to get dressed and not worry about all my shoes being dragged out of the closet.

BUT....
I missed my morning smiles and giggles. (I'm not a morning person, so this definitely helps with coping with the morning diaper change-see above.) :)
I missed Rebekah running around in circles in the crib while I'm trying to grab her to get her out.
I missed how excited she gets when she's eating and communicating - when she knows she's told me what she wants and I understand it - she gets so happy.
I missed her morning exploration of the house, finding all her toys and getting them ALL out again.

Most of all, I realized that I have more fun with Rebekah (and Adam, of course) than without her. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the chance to catch up with friends and had a great time last night! But, our little family has a lot of fun together, doing regular everyday things as well as big fun family outings. I'm just happier and enjoy life more when we are all experiencing it together.

Can't believe how much this little girl has changed our life. :)

September Fun

I know October is almost over, but I wanted to share with you some of the fun we had in September.

You already saw the new bag trick. She still loves bags, purses, anything she put things in and put on her arm. Many times she will fill a bag or purse, put it on her arm, and say "bye bye." I guess she sees me getting everything ready when we run out the door!

The first weekend in September we had an adventure with our friends, the Tamayos. We rode the train to the Nasher Sculpture Center for a free family day. We explored inside and outside and even did a craft! It was so much fun.


Rebekah and I took a trip with my parents to Arkansas to visit some family. She had not yet met her Great Uncle Rusty, Great Aunt Carla, several second cousins and other family on my mom's side.


(we were definitely missed while we were gone!)


Then some other relatives came for a weekend visit! Great Uncle Phil and Great Aunt Ellen were here (as well as Uncle Rusty and Carla.)


And finally, we made our first visit to the pumpkins at the Dallas Arboretum. We went with our friends Laura and Noah. We've made several trips to see the pumpkins, and will still go a few more times - gotta make use of that membership! Hope you don't get tired of seeing pumpkin pictures over the next couple of months. :)


Here are all the photos from our fun month of September!

2011.09 - September

Happy Baptism Birthday!

Wow, It's been over a month and a half since my last post. We've been busy with a couple of trips out of town in September, a class I was teaching, and other things with friends, family, and work. I owe you all some serious updates, but I thought I would post this quick one. Yesterday was the 1st anniversary of Rebekah's baptism! We want to make this a special tradition in our house. We had a busy day yesterday with brunch plans and a trip to the State Fair (went to mass on Saturday night...don't worry!), so our celebration extended to today.

We blessed yesterday Rebekah using a special baptism anniversary blessing in the Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers book. We celebrated today with a cupcake on our You Are Special Today plate.


She loved it!


Last year, I took a picture of her on the morning of her big day. This year I missed that chance...so I took one at night instead. (She's already awake and running around in circles in the crib when I go in there in the mornings!) Anyway, for comparison, here's last year:


and this year


such a sleeping cutie!

(We wanted to light her baptismal candle as a part of this special celebration, but it is buried somewhere in the closet...we'll make sure we find it for next year!)

Happy Baptism Birthday to our little girl!