Family Musings

I thought it would be fun to lead with that! Exciting isn't... and on her 12 week birthday. Yep, that's right, our baby girl is 12 weeks old today. My how time flies. When I put her down for tummy time this afternoon she was trying to flip herself over almost before I let go of her. She was definitely showing off for Mommy and her company this afternoon. She also knew when I had the camera because this was the last time she flipped over today. Once I put the camera in front of her she just did a lot of kicking. Since I had the camera turned to video mode this afternoon, I decided to fulfill my curious desire to see what Charlotte sees when she is lying in her crib watching her new mobile. Because I don't believe it would be prudent to actually crawl up in there, I shot this footage. How long do you think you could watch this without getting board? And now for some photos... Saturday Dr. Sabin and I put on some of the finest clothes in our closet and headed out to celebrate ...

I was recently made aware of the movie The Golden Compass and it strikes me as one that I would not want any child to see. What one sees as a young child embeds in the brain more strongly than that which we see as adults. I can still recall a certain Dean Koontz book I read as a teenager that affected my thinking about love into early adulthood. It took quite some time meditating on 1 Corinthians 13 to get the twisted idea of love the book portrayed out of my head. I encourage all parents to be informed about what is out there waiting to influence their children. I also think it is important to expose them to the reality that not everyone agrees with their family values. However, when those values are presented in such a contemporary and entertaining way it will be hard for children to not accept them as the truth . Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent o...

Bruce snapped these the other day and wanted me to share them with you. This first one is Charlotte wearing a favorite outfit of mine. The shirt says, "I love my Moomy" (no, that isn't misspelled, the shirt has cows on it) and is the only "mommy" outfit she has. There are lots of "daddy" outfits in her wardrobe, but only one for me. However, the shorts are still too big on her so I clipped them up with a clothespin so she could wear them without having them fall off. The next picture reflects how little Charlotte can be aware of her own body and how flexible a baby can be. She didn't even notice her ear was stuck! Oh, and I also updated the Sabin Dome website today. Check it out!

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

Today was my first full day back at work and I managed to make it through until 3:15 when I got to see my dear, precious Charlotte again. Honestly though, it was tougher than I expected. I had done fairly well the first half of the week when Charlotte was at the day care for half-days so I thought today would be just as easy... but it wasn't. The morning at home went great. I even ended up with an extra 10 minutes to play with her (over and above the 10 minutes I had already budgeted for morning play). However, once we got to the day care it started going down hill. I arrived about 5 minutes before their official open time (6:30 am) and no one was there. No big deal. Maybe Janet is running behind. Well, she wasn't. The person who was opening for her was though. It was probably 6:35 before she showed up and by then I had had enough time to start to really think about leaving my baby girl. When I realized that Janet wasn't coming in today it kind of pushed me over and the tea...

Ahhh... 10 days and no blogging. Forgive me for being selfish, but I was trying to use all of my time for my daughter since this is the week I go back to work. Yep, you read that correctly. I am going back to work this week. Charlotte was taken to her daycare for a half-day today and will begin full days on Thursday, when I am back at school. This morning I got out of bed around 5:15 (I'd been up and in and out of sleep since about 1 am already) and started my morning routine. I've written it all down so I don't forget anything important since I now have 2 people to get ready each morning. By 6 am I had to wake Charlotte up for a final nursing session before we left. Out the door by 6:20 and at the daycare by 6:30, when they open. I spent about 20 minutes there with Mrs. Wooten and Charlotte before I finally conceded it was time to go. I really could have stayed longer but it wouldn't have been productive for setting a routine. The good news is that neither of us cried,...

Look, my baby girl is trying to reach for the lion on her swing.

After my post earlier today I assumed it would be a few more days before I had anything to write about. Well, my cranky little baby decided she wanted more attention in the blogworld, so here it is! She rolled herself over from her tummy to her back today! I hadn't expected her to do anything like this so soon. Most of what I read said babies develop this skill between 4-6 months. Now, this really isn't a skill yet since she only did it once. But she did it! I was so excited I cried big, ol' alligator tears all while laughing excitedly. She was one confused looking baby. :) One reason for the tears that I haven't blogged about yet is my return to work on Thursday, October 25. As it turns out, my short term disability only covered the usual 6 weeks. I feel blessed that I don't have any medical reasons to need to stay out of work longer, but still wish I could afford to stay home with Charlotte until January. When she rolled over it just reminded me that I will miss l...

My verbal wit is waning these days... I don't seem to have as much to share about my dear, sweet Charlotte or anything else for that matter. I have started and stopped more posts this month than we've had days. Nothing just seems to come out as eloquent in words as it sounds in my mind. So, to substitute for my own writing, I've been reading the blogs of other Christian moms to inspire me. I have been inspired to do some things around the house and today made beautiful mini-loaves and muffins of Chocolate Chip-Banana Friendship Bread. I have 6 starters also. Anyone want one? I also had my blog rated and came out with this: I earned this rating because I've used the word 'breast' 3 x and the word 'hurt' 1x. Hmmm... just goes to show that breastfeeding doesn't get the respect it deserves and that this software doesn't take context into account. Okay, I can also add this picture of the 3 living generations of women in my family (because to do 4 gene...

While I am not married to my house, there is a book coming out soon that I am very interested on reading. It it called Passionate Housewives . I've really been working on being a better wife recently and this book is definitely in my que to read at the moment. Of course, it won't be published for another couple of weeks, but I can wait. :-) Crystal at Biblical Womanhood has a great post about the book on her blog and is also giving away 10 copies of this book this week. Go on over and check it out.

Per my first post on my new blog, I made a honest-to-goodness attempt at elegance today. First, I wore a new dress that was bought for my back-to-work future. I like this because it flatters my figure (i.e. hides my remaining baby belly) and still modern looking. I fancied it up with some vintage-feel jewelry as well. Second, I made a home-cooked meal without a recipe. It looked very elegant compared to my usual meals, as you can see below. The menu consisted of Cinamon Braised Butterfly Porkchops with Pear Sauce, Herb and Butter Rice, and Italian Beans. I have to admit though, it looked a little more elegant than it tasted. I underestimated the amount of seasoning needed for the braising liquid so the taste was a little flat, and the chops didn't braise long enough to get as tender as I would have liked. It also needed some orange or red on the plate. So, what have you done recently to obtain elegance?

We had lunch this weekend with Grandpa Sabin. Camera fun was had by all. Charlotte told me about several pictures taken this weekend that she wanted to share with our faithful readers. So, I let her pick out the pictures and took the trouble to translate her cute baby noises for you so you could know what she thinks about each of them. Enjoy! Oh my gosh! I don't know what mommy was thinking when she took this photo, but I have a good sense of humor and thought the look on my face was funny enough to share. So this is my other grandpa? I was wondering when my mom and dad would get around to letting me see him again. They took us all to this place called "Chili's" that they seemed to really enjoy. I wasn't too crazy about the french fry that Grandpa tried to give me though. Daddy had to explain that babies like me aren't too crazy about salt yet. Mommy really thought this outfit was cute. Personally, I think the green and purple compliment my skin tones rather w...

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month and I am sure many of you have already noticed the plethora of pink products purveyors of all things are now selling. I have jumped on the bandwagon myself and received a gift of a pink ribbon Tervis Tumbler today. I love it and the ribbon makes it even more special! I also wouldn't mind having a new pink camera. Of course, the one I received from Bruce for Christmas last year is great... but this one is pink. :-) I've been thinking about breasts a lot lately... their new purpose in my life, how to support them better, whether to hide them while nursing, and how best to use them to feed Charlotte... they have become a much bigger part of my day than ever before (pun intended). I'm adding this button to the right side of my blog to permanently remind us all to "click daily."

For those of you bemoaning the lack of Charlotte news.... Charlotte recieved a most special gift yesterday... a quilt handmade by her Great-Aunt Susan. It would have been precious all by itself, but she made it so much more with the personalization shown in the photo below. Thank you Great-Aunt Susan for showing so much love to our daughter. We look forward to meeting you again someday.

I haven't done much for fun and frivolity lately, so thought this little name game (found here) would be fun to share with all of my faithful readers. Enjoy! 1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) - Honey Focus 2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)- Coffee Famous Amos 3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) - J Sab 4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) - Green Penguin 5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) - Sab Je 6. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2 nd favorite color, favorite drink) - The Purple Latte 7. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) - Ray Allen 8. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5 th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) - Layton Louisville 9. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, favorite flower)- Spring Gerber 10. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, artic...

I've been reading so many wonderful blogs recently and am contemplating the need to revise my own blog design. You can see some of the best posts on the link to the right. There are lots of individuals online who design great blog templates for reasonable prices, but who can pass up free? Especially when none of you can see the picture I uploaded to blogger as the background for my title! Splat Designs is having a contest I am hoping to enter... wish me luck!

Infant Potty Trainings - This is soo.... not for me! No Children? - This is too horrifying for words! If You Knew - Apply these questions to all of the relationships in your life... you might be surprised that some of them aren't worth it. Diaper Pricing - This is mostly here to hang onto as a reference for me. I don't want to forget what kind of pricing is a real bargain when I go out to get more. Not that I have to worry, I still have several hundred size 1 diapers left!