Caught Ya!

One of Kayla's favorite things is to squeeze between me and the fridge door every time I open it...and grab something.  Most of the time I'm faster than her, but when I'm not her item of choice is a tub of strawberry frosting.  (Now where does she get that from?!)  She mostly likes to just open it (containers are fun to open).  I usually give her a dollop and put it back into the fridge.  On this day, however, I had a fire to put out somewhere else so she had a bit more time to "explore" the can of icing.

If you look carefully you'll see a graham cracker in her hand.  She had the good sense to use something to dip with!

Children's Museum

Jeremy and I had a day off together so we decided to take a trip to the San Antonio Children's Museum.  The last time I was there was with a couple hundred 2nd graders on a field trip.  Just having my Kayla was a nice change of pace.  We started in the Bubble Room where she found wands, rubber duckies, and faucets (already a favorite of hers).  If we didn't want to get our moneys-worth she would have stayed in this room for the whole trip.

(This won't be the only back-of-the-head shot I got...she wasn't too interested in posing.)  We then headed to the Water Cycle where Kayla slide like rain and evaporated up the steps over and over.  (Daddy was ready to move on....)  She is such a champ with slides, attempting even the tallest ones as long as Mommy or Daddy is at the bottom.

This is the toddler area, which was new to me.  How awesome!  There were instruments, balls, climbing areas, light pegs, and...

 a "babah!" (baby).  What else could my sweetheart ask for?  She thought this baby was  totally kissable and the perfect size to try to pick up and carry around.  She is giving the baby's hand a smooch.

Our last stop was my favorite.  In the basement, they set up a mini HEB, complete with grocery carts and checkouts that actually beep to read the bar codes.  Kayla was very excited to push the basket around, abandon it and then pick out another basket and push it around, and so on.  We led her through the aisles, but our shopping trip was basically finished when Kayla found a bag of raisins.  She would not put them into the cart and she tried really hard to try to open them.  (Okay, so she may be used to me doing this at the store...snacks keep her happy in the cart!)

What I noticed most as we went through the different areas of the museum was how Kayla was more interested in people than in all the things we were showing her.  She could be playing with something, but if another kid came around she stopped and watched what he was doing.  It fascinates me to see the gears working in her mind as she interacts with the world.  What a fun trip to the museum!

Kayla's First Haircut

I have put off cutting Kayla's hair for quite a while now.  She used to have this mohawk type patch of hair coming down the middle of her forehead when she was younger, but I would just swoop it over to the side.  However, it had gotten pretty long and I was tired of seeing my poor baby's hair like this...

(Isn't she sooo cute anyway??)  I got brave last night and decided to do a little trimming on her bangs so that I could leave her hair down without pesky hair tickling her nose.  I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt.

Doesn't she smile so pretty for the camera!  I think I'll be leaving the rest to just grow out for a while.

The Romans 12 Challenge

Upon entering 2011, my hubby and I decided to continue going to a Care Group at our home church, NWCC.  This semester we will be studying Romans 12 presented by Chip Ingram.  So far we have seen the first lesson which broke down Romans 12 into five parts concerning our place in relationship:
1.  with God
2.  with the Pattern of the World
3.  with Yourself
4.  with Spiritual Family
5.  with Others
At the same time that I have been thinking through this information, I have been thinking about my new-ish role (7 1/2 months!) as a stay at home mom:  who am I in it; how can I grow; how can I best help Kayla grow and develop; how can I get involved in things outside of my house?  These thoughts have stemmed from feeling a bit bored at home in our day-to-day activity and noticing that Kayla sometimes feels the same way.  It has been a yucky feeling of well, blah.
Maybe I am just having a hard time with South Texas winter, being unable to do outdoors things because of below 40 degree weather--haha, cabin fever.  Maybe I am also just used to constantly being on the go, never a dull moment at work.  Maybe I see fellow moms working full-time jobs who are doing awesome things with their kids and I think, "Where do they get the time??" or "How do they do it all!"  Maybe I have a list of "mommy projects" I'd like to do, but still don't have much time for--frustrating!
Whatever variety of feelings has led me to this place of blah, I am getting motivated to change it.  I believe God has given me a plan that is not just for me, but for Kayla and me.  Together.  Part of my role as Mom is to bring Kayla to a knowledge, an understanding, and a love of God, other people, and herself.  But I need more of that, too!  How to do that seemed ambiguous to me, but like I said, God gave me a plan.  This blog will a journal of our journey to that end.