TWO for TWOS-Day

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I've decided to focus this week's Two for TWOS-Day on our two favorite football teams: Mommy's Eagles and Daddy's Broncos (although Mommy likes the Broncos, too) and our "spirit" pictures taken over the last few years. Unfortunately, the pics are a bit more lopsided to Mommy's team.
2005-2006

2006-2007

We had a different Eagles outfit and an actual Broncos outfit for 2006...but didn't seem to catch them on camera.
2007-2008

No pics from this season yet, which reminds me...Katie desperately needs a Broncos jersey or shirt!

Two for TWOs-Day is hosted by Deanna at Eight is Great. Make sure you check out her site for other great Two-somes. Now let's go Eagles and Broncos...we want to see better from you this week!!!

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Baby Picture Sunday - Spaghetti Head

Sunday, September 28, 2008

I almost skipped out on this week's theme...I went through every baby pic I have this week and had a really hard time finding a good messy spaghetti head pic. I've got a great pudding mess and great barbeque sauce face...but short on the spaghetti. I think part of the reason is I'm not a huge spaghetti sauce fan myself (unless it's homemade or part of a "dish"). I generally prefer spaghetti with butter and Katie has always liked it that way...I do give her noodles and sauce , but always with just a little sauce for taste. However, she is and always has been a HUGE fan of Lo Mein...and really it's pretty close, right?

But, I did find these...

These are from our cruise in August 2007. Just a little bit over a year ago...for those that read my post about Katie's first haircut...you can see what I mean about how much her hair grew in just ONE year.

Now, head over to Debi's blog at Who Says 8 is Enough? to see who else is playing along for Baby Picture Sunday.

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Friday Foto Fiesta

Friday, September 26, 2008

I've decided to jump on in and join Friday Foto Fiesta hosted by Candid Carrie. This week I've chosen to reminisce a bit about those phirst days with Katie. It's hard to believe that in as much as 6 more weeks I'm going to have another little bundle of joy - boy am I not ready! But I regress...so here is one of my phavorite phirst photos of Kaitlyn (ok, I have a lot of phavorite phirst photos of her). In this one she is sweetly dwarfed by her daddy's hands. She sure looks tiny for a solid 8 lbs. Don't forget to stop by Candid Carrie's phantastic blog to see who else is playing along.

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Way Back When-esday!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Here is Katie 2 years ago with her typical runny nose. For the first 2 years of Katie's life it seemed like she ALWAYS had a runny nose. We've done well for quite some time...but all those sick people out there have finally caught up with us and today she woke up coughing and with a runny nose :( I'm still good for now, but it's only a matter of time before she passes it on to me, I'm sure. I guess it's too good to be true that I've made it through this entire pregnancy with only one cold so far. But, as she was in this picture, she's still in high spirits. I'm sure it'll ease up as the day goes on...morning is always the worst!

Now head over to Twinfatuation to see who else is playing along this week.

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Oh BOY!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Just a quick pregnancy update....

I started having contractions Sunday morning - like 2-5 min apart, but after an hour of laying in bed with them they cleared up completely.

Then yesterday, around 1:30 as I went to lay down I was SO crampy and uncomfortable, but managed to fall asleep. From around 4:15-5:15, I had contractions every 2 min, then every 5 min until 5:30, then one last one at 6. I called Chris at 4:30 and told him he needed to get home, just in case. I called the doctor around 4:45, but she didn't get back to me until just before 6 and by that time I was feeling better. They hurt, but weren't awful..I knew I wasn't like ready to give birth or anything. They were also really really quick..like only 10-30 seconds each. So, she told me to come in and be monitored if they were back to 10-15 min apart and they never were. I also already had my bi-weekly appt set up for 9:30 this morning, so I decided just to wait. It's funny, I'm almost like a 1st time mom in this regard because I never felt any contractions with Katie....even at times that I WAS having contractions (because I was being monitored) I only felt crampiness ...but nothing to time, etc.

This morning I felt a small gush of liquid...but really thought it was pretty small. Went to pee before I left for dr and was suprised to see I was wet enough that I needed to change my underwear. I still felt a little "leaky" after that, but not enough to wet clothing. So not sure if it was pee or what...but I told my dr everything this morning. He checked my cervix and it was fine. He also did 3 different tests that check for fluid leak. 2 were negative and 1 was positive. So, I was sent over the the maternal testing unit at the hospital to get a fluid check U/S - which showed plenty of fluid. I made my Dr. laugh this morning because he asked if I was still considering v-bac or decided on the repeat c-section yet...I was like umm..well since the "mild" contractions I had last night (and knowing that was really nothing on the scale of contraction pain), I think I'm just going to go with the c-section for sure :)

I was really happy to have one more U/S to confirm it's definately a boy! Now I feel comfortable washing clothes and bedding. He wouldn't turn for us to see his face, but he does have lots of hair and is already measuring 5lb 7oz..GEEZ..I'm only 32 1/2 weeks!!! My only consolation is that I was also told Katie was HUGE..guessing she was going to be 10-11 lbs and she was only 8lbs. I think it's cause the way they come up with the measurements they factor limb length, etc..and Katie was so tall...but didn't weigh so much...that it affected the U/S formula. Hopefully it's the same for Timmy.

So what I don't know now is if it is a small/slow leak, what is normal followup? My dr today had me schedule my normal 2 week appt after today's appt with the expectation that the U/S would be ok. However, I never gushed a lot and wouldn't imagine I WOULD be missing that much already. I guess I'll just wait and see if I continue to feel "leaky". But, no contractions at all today, so that's good news!!

On another note....Debi asked for ideas of things I could use as baby/welcome home gifts. I have an official registry at Babiesrus, but it's really only intended for my use so that I can get 10% off of anything I still need later on. In case any family members/friends besides Debi do actually read and were curious, here are some ideas of things I definately still need and will hold off on buying until after he's born:

1) Boy drool bibs
ALL the ones I have are pink :)

2) 0-3 month short-sleeved onsies (white or boy colors)
Since Katie was a summer baby, I got by on 1 pack with her - so I currently have 1 pack shortsleeve and have already bought 1 pack of long-sleeve, I think I'm good on all other sizes

3) Avent BPA free bottles, extra Avent newborn nipples, newborn NUK pacifiers
I traded in all my old ones at Babies R US. Even though there is no official recall on the BPA bottles, they are giving you store credit for old used bottles with which you can buy the new Avent BPA free bottles - the problem is that the new ones are twice the price...so I now have 8 bottles. But, I don't need lots more...I had about 13 total with Katie

4) Infant gowns
The longer the better, the Gerber ones were always too short for Katie...I had had some borrowed pink Carters one for her that were great..but will NOT put my son in all pink..even if it is to sleep. I've bought one 2-pack from Carters so far)

5) Diapers - Pampers Swaddlers - Newborn or Size 1

6) Baby frames/plaques/"firsts" set/albums/stuffed animals, etc.
I got lots of stuff like this for Katie at my shower - his bedroom is mainly tan, cream, and olive green with teddy bears and puppies)

7) Clothes
I have bought some things...basically anything cute at Carters I already bought - so don't get Carters stuff except for bibs, onesies, or gowns :)...I haven't bought from any other stores though.

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A Busy Day of Firsts (belated)

We've had a quite a busy last few days, so I haven't had a chance to update, but Saturday was a day of lots of firsts for Katie.

As usual, Katie woke up about an hour before I was ready for her to wake up. I told her she could go downstairs and put a DVD on...this usually keeps her busy for some time. Chris was also up getting ready to go into work at the same time. WELL, and what a shame I was too mad at the time to take any pictures, she decided that watching tv/playing nicely was not on the agenda. The previous day we went shopping at Michael's and bought LOADS of foam sticker supplies for some craft projects. Katie LOVES creating these projects. I also bought some dot art paint sticks. Everything was on the top shelf in our very large activity cabinet. So, my little evil genius decided that her new chairs from IKEA would make a wonderful stepstool to get whatever she wanted to play with. When I came down there were foam stickers EVERYWHERE...dumped out inside her easel tray, all over the floor and table, and STUCK all over both sides of her easel (thank goodness for Goo Gone)! She even had paint all over her hands and brand new gymboree stretch pants (thank goodness it's washable and came out fine). UGH!!!!! Later that night I realized I should have taken pictures...but too late. She did, at least, do an excellent job helping to clean up. Here is an example of her artistic abilities...LOL...I meant to post yesterday for Magic Marker Mondays - but just didn't get to it. I've been getting a few of these gorgeous finished projects on a daily basis now. Am I the luckiest mom or what? You know you're jealous :)

Next we went to gymnastics at the Little Gym and stopped on the way home at the Amish farmer's market to get some fresh natural dinner and all natural pretzel dogs. YUM!!!

I had been thinking about getting Katie's haircut for a about a week and after nap we headed out for Katie's FIRST haircut...can you believe it? She's 3 year's old and has never had a haircut. It's amazing how much her hair has grown in just one year. It was short for SO long and when it did grow in, was so short on the sides that I wanted to wait until it was longer on the sides to trim. First we went to Hair4kids. Got there at 3:15 only to find out it closed at 3. Then we went a town over to Kidkuts - got there at 3:30..,sign said it was open till 4, but it was also CLOSED...grrr! I tried to talk Katie into waiting until the next morning, but she was so excited and emphatic she get it then... so we headed over to The Hair Cuttery. She was SUCH a good girl. She was thrilled to get a wash, cut AND blowdry/style and even more thrilled to get a lollipop when she was all done. Check out our pics. On the last page, you can click on the individual pics for a closeup and related comments. She wound up getting 2 inches cut off on the back and getting the sides trimmed and angled a bit to blend into the back better.

Click to play Katie's First Haircut

After Daddy got home from work, Katie played in the driveway with her basketball net and pulled out the big girl Dora bike with training wheels that Katie got for her birthday from Grammi and Pop-pop. For her 3rd birthday they got her a Dora scooter AND a bike, but since the bike has been too big - we've had it in the garage. (Below pics are from her birthday party.)



Well, she had no problems on the bike Saturday and rode down the sidewalk like an old expert.







They sure grow up fast!!!!

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Baby Picture Sunday - Fall Harvest

Sunday, September 21, 2008

This week's theme for Baby Picture Sunday is Fall Harvest.

This is Katie on her first (and only, so far) hayride, last October. We went to Storybookland with our friends Christy, Selena, and Josiah. Unfortunately, this is the closest I have to this week's theme since I've already posted my baby pics of Katie with a scarecrow :) This was my first time to Storybookland during the fall and I absolutely loved it and look forward to going again in the next few weeks. They have a hayride, decorate your own pumpkin center, and large hay maze in addition to the regular fun. They also have beautiful displays and "hay" creatures all over (Hint: all the beautiful lights displays (animals and such) at Christmas time are actually the hay displays from the fall with light nets over them.


Head over to Debi's blog at Who Says 8 is Enough? to see who else is playing along for

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Subprime Primer - Funny, but sadly very accurate

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Obviously anyone reading or watching the news has become very familiar with the subprime crisis that has destroyed our ecomony. Well, if you're not too familiar with the specifics of how this crisis began or you are, but would enjoy a laugh, take a look at this "Subprime Primer". Chris got this forwarded to him at work today....perhaps from someone who used to have a full time job but has now been layed off and has lots of free time.




Enjoy...I hope you learn something:)

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Surrounded by Twins

Friday, September 19, 2008

Although I don't have twins of my own ... it seems that I am surrounded by twins - to the point that I was very nervous for my U/S this pregnancy to make sure it WAS only 1 in there and although I would love to have another one in the future - doubly scared that the third pregnancy would be twins. I have so much respect for all the twin mom's out there and especially for moms of larger sets of multiples. Kudos to you, because I don't know that I could handle it.

My mom (1 of 7 children) has a set of twin siblings - My Aunt Renee and Uncle Mike. My sister, Lori, has been pregnant with twins twice - girls that she sadly lost around 14 weeks gestation and her 4-year-old boys Adam and Ethan. Russ and Debi (Chris's brother) have almost 2-year-old Emma and Will. My sister's SIL (her husband Jeff's sister) just delivered Seamus and Sophie last week at only 28 weeks gestation (they are doing well, but please send prayers their way).

Top (L to R): Aunt Renee (twin), Aunt Diana, Grandmom, Pop-Pop, Aunt Dannette, my mom Michelle
Bottom (L to R): Aunt Kelli, Uncle Bud, Uncle Mike (twin)

Adam & Ethan

Emma & Will


There is also one more set of twins surrounding us - literally. Directly behind our house, live Rachel and Olivia. They were born in March 2005 -and are just 3 1/2 months older than Katie.

Katie, Rachel, and Olivia


Rachel was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome last year.

Rett syndrome is a unique developmental disorder that is first recognized in infancy and seen almost always in girls, but can be rarely seen in boys. It has been most often misdiagnosed as autism, cerebral palsy, or non-specific developmental delay and is caused by mutations on the X chromosome on a gene called MECP2. There are more than 200 different mutations found on the MECP2 gene. Most of these mutations are found in eight different “hot spots.” Rett syndrome strikes all racial and ethnic groups, and occurs worldwide in 1 of every 10,000 to 23,000 female births. Rett syndrome symptoms appear after an early period of apparently normal or near normal development until six to eighteen months of life, when there is a slowing down or stagnation of skills. A period of regression then follows when she loses communication skills and purposeful use of her hands. Soon, stereotyped hand movements such as handwashing, gait disturbances, and slowing of the normal rate of head growth become apparent. Other problems may include seizures and disorganized breathing patterns while she is awake. In the early years, there may be a period of isolation or withdrawal when she is irritable and cries inconsolably. Over time, motor problems may increase, but in general, irritability lessens and eye contact and communication improve.

A landmark study reversing the symptoms of Rett syndrome in a mouse model was announced on February 8, 2007, based on an experiment performed by Dr. Adrian Bird, Ph.D., and past chairman of our Scientific Advisory Board. The results were astounding; breathing and weight were normalized, mobility and gait restored, and tremors disappeared in mice just days away from death. The principle of reversibility was established; the study suggests Rett syndrome and related disorders may be reversible even in the late stages of the disease!

To help support research to find a cure for Rett Syndrome, Rachel and her twin Olivia along with their parents Kris and Steve will be participating in the Stroll and Roll for Rett Strollathon this weekend in South Yarmouth, MA. If you would like to help, you can make a donation by visiting http://www.rettsyndrome.org/, click on "Make a Donation" in yellow at the right. Scroll all the way to the bottom until you see the strollathon logo and click. You are able to select the Cape Code location and make your donation in honor of Rachel Medeiros.

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Funny Girl - Random Silliness

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Katie has been cracking us up lately with the things she is saying. She has recently added lots of vocabulary and phrases. We can't understand it ALL the time...but she's getting better and better with her speech. The funniest thing is that she adds these new phrases to her sentences...but they don't always make sense. For example, for the past few days she is loving to use the word "either" at the end of her sentences. But..it's not always the most appropriate word for what she's trying to say, either. See what I mean. Sometimes it seems like she's using it instead of "too" - but she knows that word and loves to use that one, too - lol.

Her other current "frequent phrases" are:

Come on - said in kind of a growl of frustration. Whether she's waiting for a DVD to start, or most any situation that something isn't working right away for her. I have noticed though..that she may have gotten this from me (although I don't growl it when I say it)

Oops, sorry - I've been hearing this one 5 million times a day. Even when I'm really frustrated at something she's done, the way she says it definately makes me want to laugh. But she says it over everything...she did something wrong, the pets did something wrong, I just tell her there's something she needs to do...AND where did she get this phrase...I just heard it on Dora the Explorer this morning EXACTLY the way she says it. EDIT: I stand corrected, Chris just told me it's from the monkey on Go Diego, Go...oops, sorry!)

But my FAVORITE:

Yesterday, she started telling me, "Mommy, I love you ALL day long!"


She's so weird in her sense of humor...she likes saying she's a girl, but thinks it's hilarious to tell me that I'm a boy and laugh. But if I turn the tables on her and joke back that SHE'S a boy..she gets pretty upset and defensive....NO, I'm a GIRL!!


She also started trying to put my baby in her tummy last week. I do this thing to her when she's hanging her tongue out her mouth and I pretend to grab her tongue and stick my thumb between my next 2 fingers and then pretend to put her tongue (my thumb) in my mouth..and I'll give it back to her if she keeps her tongue inside her mouth. She thinks it's hilarious. Well, last week, she pulled up my shirt - started making grabbing motions on my belly and then patted her belly and told me..Mommy, I took your Timmy. I have Timmy in MY belly now.


And finally, the stardom of getting on the bus the first day has gone a bit to her head and now she wants me to take the camera outside when we wait for the bus and take pictures of her everyday..which I'm happy to oblige. The second day on the bus, she even turned around on the bus steps waiting for me to take her picture there again. I nipped that one in the bud, but I have been taking cute pictures of her outside almost every morning.


Last Wednesday:
Mommy, mommy, take my picture!


Getting on the school bus for the very first time!



Thursday

Friday

Today

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TWO for TWOS-Day

It's once again time to show a favorite "Two-some" pic, whether it be twins, siblings, friends, husband/wife, pets, or anything else you can think of. This great idea came from Deanna at Eight is Great. Check out her blog to see who else is participating!!

This is Katie and her "boyfriend" Max. We met Max (along with some other good gymnastics friends) when Katie was 18 months old. They have been in the same class at the Little Gym for 1 1/2 years now. They are crazy together. Max actually tells everyone Katie is his girlfriend because he likes her pretty hair and they love to wrestle and roll around on the floor. Max is half Korean and half caucasian just like Jon from Jon and Kate Plus 8 ... so we know they'd have adorable kids, lol. I just hope it's not Max and Kate Plus 8...

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Toby's First Days

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Just a quick post to add a slideshow of our first days with Toby ... especially for his foster mom Carrie who misses him a lot ... hopefully she forgives us for changing his name!

Click to play Toby's First Days Home

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Baby Picture Sunday - Animal Kingdom

Better late, then never:

This weeks theme for Baby Picture Sunday is Animal Kindom.

Here is Katie with Lucky when she was 2 months old:

and again at 3 months old:



Head over to Debi's blog at Who Says 8 is Enough? to see who else is playing along for

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What's in a Name? - Part Two

Finally, back to explain the meaning of the "More" in

"The Other Boufs: Mommy, Daddy, Katie ... and More"

Well, first and foremost would be the impending arrival of our son Timothy in November. I'm currently 31 weeks pregnant. Obviously, I'll need to change the name of the blog slightly after he gets here.

...and the rest of the family that I recently realized almost qualifies us to host the next Ark. Yes, pretty soon we will have 2 parents, 2 children, 2 dogs, and 2 cats.

The Doggies:

Chris and I had been considering getting our first dog for awhile and in June 2004 we got a call from Chris's parents down in NC that they were currently taking care of a stray puppy that they thought would be perfect for us. A momma dog and her puppies had been running around for a few days around their golf plantation and it turned out that they all got hit by a car except for one. Chris really wanted a lab and I didn't want TOO big of a dog and kind of preferred a black dog. Well, Lucky fit all the criteria for both of us. As an adult he's about 55lbs, which although considered a large dog - is nowhere near how large SOME labs can be.

Lucky - 4 months old:


Lucky - last November being a daddy to our new puppy Sophie:


Sometime around last October Chris and I both got an e-mail from someone at work about lab puppies that needed a home. We hadn't been fully looking for a 2nd dog, but had talked about it. It turned out that when we finally decided to call, the puppies had all been adopted, but once we had decided to go for it we started searching on petfinder. Our main reasoning was that we had watched my mom's and another friend's dog a few times when they went on vacations and Lucky loved having a second dog to play with. Definately got a lot of energy out for him when we didn't have the time to play with him for hours in the back yard. We found Sophie in a local animal shelter. She was originally from West Virginia and her whole litter had been brought to NJ for adoption. She was from a very interesting litter of lab mix puppies. Two were yellow labs, one was black with white (like Lucky, but not quite as cute as him), one was all over black and tan brindle, and our Sophie was mostly black with tan brindle on her face, legs, and paws. She will also be around 50 lbs - full grown.

Sophie - 3 months old:



Sophie - last week - about 1 year old:

The Kitties:


Well, when I created my blog (and the name) - we had two cats Bailey and Caely. Bailey sadly passed away this past August at almost 14 years old from suspected liver failure. I got Bailey from the local farmers market pet store in fall of 1995, when I was in 11th grade. My mom took care of him for the 4 years I was away at college and then he came to live with me in North Jersey for 3 years until Chris and I bought our house in South Jersey - where he spent his final 5 years. Bailey was an AWESOME cat. I think I would have actually paid to clone him if it was a possibility. He wasn't quite as friendly once the doggies arrived into our home...but he was his old self whenever they were outside. I have some ADORABLE kitty pics of Bailey but unfortunately my ancient scanner is on the fritz...so I'll have to just post some pics from the digital age.

Here's the fatty enjoying our new house in 2003:



We noticed Bailey losing weight over a few weeks and then all of a sudden he looked so different. The night before Katie's birthday party at the end of June we noticed he could barely walk. I took him to the vet on Monday and was basically told he probably had a few days left. The antibiotics they gave him helped a lot in the beginning and he actually had another good 4 weeks in him. During those 4 weeks, he was great to be around. He was super cuddly, slept with me every night, and even began to enjoy laying around with the dogs. His very last weekend he even ran outside for one last hurrah to lay in the grass and bushes.

Katie really enjoyed her last few weeks with Bailey since he let her carry him and pick him up to help get on the bed. Pics below are Katie with Bailey the day we got home from the vet, since I didn't know how much time left we really had and then Bailey with Caely.


And my great last pics of Bailey. I absolutely can't believe he passed on only 4 days after playing outside with so much energy...but I think he knew and just wanted to enjoy it.

Click to play Bailey - Last Hurrah


Then there's Caely. A waste of space...although I have many more pics of her I'll leave it at the one I have of her above with Bailey. Mostly cause I'm getting sick of writing this never ending post. I got Caely in summer of 2000 after moving into my apartment after college. She has always had mental problems. She is petrified of anything that moves. We don't see her at all unless we are in the bathroom, sitting at the computer or laying in bed...basically as long as we're not moving and a threat to her. She's not bad at all...just a sad waste. A shame, since I wasted one of my favorite girl names on her (I love Micaela with Caely as a nickname but Chris hated the name and told me I should name my cat that since he wold never allow a daughter of his to have that name..he also didn't like it cause he thought it was a made up name...funny in the current climate of Mikayla/Micaela/Makayla popularity). Again, my kitty pictures are not digital so, the one above basically shows what she looks like now...

SIDEBAR: Oh my freaking goodness, after writing this blog for over an hour...Katie just decided to turn off my computer...thank you, thank you, thank you blogger for saving this in autodraft...

Ok and FINALLY...

Introducing Toby:


I had decided that it wasn't a bad idea to wait to replace Bailey until after the baby came, but I was feeling really bad for Caely because she seemed to be really missing Bailey. While afraid of any human, canine, or other moving object - Bailey was her pal. I was a little nervous because after having one great cat and one worthless cat - you never know what you're going to get. Well, we sure got lucky!! Toby is terrific. He is SO super friendly...he follows us from room to room - wants to be with us and even likes the dogs (they on the other hand are being pretty annoying in their excessive amounts of attention they are paying him). He even comes when he's called. I think Bailey was watching out for me from above. One downside is that Caely isn't as thrilled with him as I had hoped. She will coexist with him in the same room, but if he looks at her or gets too close she has to start up with her groaning and whining. Hopefully she'll warm up to him in time. She is getting slightly better with him though. The only other is that he's pretty annoying at night. He likes to play with and eat my hair and generally attack may head/face when I'm laying down in bed. So, he's banned from the bedroom for now..hopefully when he outgrows his kitten antics he'll stop with his fascination with my hair.


As for HIS name. There was something about his pointy little face that made me think of Toby ... but we took a day or two to decide. He came to us named Milo... I asked Katie - How about Elmo since it was close and she loves Elmo and she said NAAH! Later than day we were on the couch and she randomly turned to me and said "Mommy...how bout...Winnie the Pooh?" LOL. Well, I think that would be too much of a mouthful and Winnie alone just reminds me of Winnie Cooper. So when I said Toby the next day everyone seemed to like it (Katie, Chris, and my mom). Unfortunately, I came up with some possibly better ideas the next day, but Katie was pretty set on Toby at that point. She had a really hard time saying it at first (kept coming out as Coby - which I had a dog named) and once she got it down pat, there was no changing it because she was so proud of herself. My other ideas - as I was commenting to Chris that Toby kind of has a butter face due to some coloring around his nose was to name him Butters..like the South Park character. Although his personality doesn't fit that character..the name is cute. My other idea (which Chris didn't like anyway) was Weasley (ie. Harry Potter) since he's orange. We also though about Leo - the redheaded Little Einsteins character which Katie thought was a GREAT idea...but then I thought..well on a cute name basis, Leo is kind of on the same level as Milo...so Toby it is, and we love him.....especially Katie (doesn't hurt that he lets her carry him around everywhere) and even Chris. Oh and Candi...since you don't like "people" names for pets unless they represent a tv character...you can just call him Tobias :).

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What's in a Name? - Part One

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Today, I wanted to write about the meaning/background of my blog name:

"The Other Boufs: Mommy, Daddy, Katie ... and More"

1. The Other Boufs - This actually stems from a few sources. My SIL Debi has a great blog, Who Says 8 is Enough?. If you're not already coming to my site via hers, I highly recommend checking it out. Last Christmas time, she talked about coming to our house for dinner and mentioned that her family had been to dinner at the "Other Bouf's" house. So, since she was my inspiration (do you call nagging to start a blog inspiration? :), there's a bit of a shout out to her in my name. Honestly, I'm really glad I've started and have quickly learned how addicting it can be. Here' some pic shout outs of her beautiful family:

Ok, this pic is really old, but it's one of my favorites taken in Disney World in April 2004. When Katie was born..this was the pic of her cousins that I chose to put on her family picture board (clockwise from the bottom right are Teddy, Henry, Alex, Gabi, David, and Stephanie):



Fast forward 3 1/2 years for the entire Bouf clan (from left to right: Keith, Stephanie (holding Emma), my Katie, Henry, Gabi (holding Will), Alex, Teddy, and David) during Christmas 2007:


Anyone who knows Debi knows that pics of her are hard to come by and I think she'd prob kill me if I put up any of the pics I DO have of her since they are MOST flattering - lol - but here's a terrific one of BIL Russ (on the right) and his little (but bigger) bro (my husband Chris). Pretty much shows their true personalities...aren't they so cute dressed like twins?

The other inspiration for "The Other Boufs" was that right around when I actually created my blog, I had just seen the "The Other Boleyn Sister" with my sister, Lori, which was a really good movie (despite what the critics say and it's departure from actual history). Since Debi already had her blog, which is pretty widely read in the twin and multiple circles of the net, we are clearly the lesser known Bouf family.
2. Mommy, Daddy, Katie - Well here we are:
Thanksgiving 2005

And a bit more recent, from this past January:
Katie absolutely LOVES "Mommy, Daddy, Katie" time. From the time she was very little and barely spoke, her favorite phrase was to just repeat over and over "Mommy, Daddy, Katie...Mommy, Daddy, Katie." Even now, she is never happier then when the three of us are together going somewhere in the car..usually out to eat or to a store together and STILL likes to chant her favorite phrase. However, as much as she loves it being the three of us she is so excited about her new brother on the way that I don't think she's going to have any problem changing her phrase to "Mommy, Daddy, Katie, Timmy" in November.
I'll finish up with the "and More" in Part 2 since the formatting is driving me crazy in this post every time I add a new pic.

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