Kate and I ran into Target yesterday to look at a floor rug that I am considering for our living room. She was full of energy and wanted "down, down, down" out of the stroller from the minute we walked into the store. I promised her we would go back to the toy section as soon as I got done with the rugs.
Soon we were in the toys and playing on the doll isle. At this Target, all of the toy isles back up to one main isle where they keep board game and bikes. I was sitting on the floor playing with Kate when a VERY strange man walked past our isle and looked at me with a chilling glare. My mommy danger meter IMMEDIATELY went off, but I decided to keep playing with Kate, and would just keep an eye out for this joker. About 10 minutes later he walked back back by but this time he looked at Kate and then me, as if to see if I was looking at him. I gave him a direct stare back to let him know that I saw him look at my child, and this time followed him into the main isle and said, "Can I help you find something, because you can stop looking at my daughter." He turned and looked at me and then ran over to the book section located just across from toys. I was FURIOUS at this point because he responded with such guilt to my suspicion that he was a danger to my child and me. He never said ONE word to me, just took off. I then went back and got Kate back in the stroller and went over to books where I told him, "You have NO RIGHT TO BE IN TOYS!! I'm getting a manager." I think I sort of yelled at him, but I just HATE all of those stories of children abducted, raped, and killed by sickos like this guy. I just knew in the pit of my stomach that he was danger. I saw him looking at another girl before I began my confrontation with him. After I informed him of my plan to get a manager, he bolted out of the store. I informed the manager that someone needs to be watching the toy section for predators like this man or Target is going to have a kidnapping one day.
I know what I did was not the safest, now that I look back on it, but in the moment I could not help myself. The moment he looked at my Kate something in me went into attack mode. Not sure if it's the pregnancy hormones, or just the over all disgust that I have towards people who hurt kids, but either way I felt justified by his guilty reaction. I think if more mom's were "strong on crime" we could do a lot to save our kids and other kids in situations like these. I have no problem confronting a suspicios person (obviously) at the store, at the park, or anywhere kids play. I make eye contact with strangers at the playground all the time who seem to be there with no children, just to let them know that I am aware of their presence. I just wanted to blog on this topic to remind all of you mom's out there to watch your surroundings and don't be afraid to act if you feel that someone is out of place. You don't have to yell at them, like I did...but at least get a manger or call the police. It's time we moms stopped worrying so much about offending people who seem dangerous, and started risking it to protect our children.
Friday, August 29, 2008
This Mom is Strong on Crime!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Bye Bye Passy
Kate has been a faithful passy lover since the beginning. She LOVED it as an infant and then we started trying to only use it at nap/bedtimes when she turned one. This lasted for a few months, but in the past 4 months or so she has wanted it CONSTANTLY. I, being the loving mommy that I am, usually give in and allow her to have it. Finally after a lot of dicussion between me and her daddy, we have decided it's time to stop the passy use outside of bedtime. Let's just say it's been a traumatic 4 days of no passy. My sister always says that girls are drama and boys are distruction and she is exactly right on this one. Kate is VERY dramatic in whining for the "pass" as she calls it. She just sits and says it over and over in this really whiny voice. It goes like this:
Kate: "Paaaaaasssssss"
Mommy: "No, passy...all done passy...we can only have it at night night time."
Kate: (louder) "Paaaaaaassssssss Peeezzzzzz"
Mommy: "You're very sweet to say please, but no no passy right now"
Kate: the high pitch fake cry begins and I try hard to redirect her to a toy, her baby, food...anything.
She usually stops after about a minute and is perfectly happy and content until about an hour later and we repeat the cycle. I just want her to learn at this age that when mommy and daddy say "no" we mean it. It's very hard on me to not give in, but the last thing I want is a teenager who doesn't know what "no" means.
I love the passy and I will probably see if our next baby will take it, but it's the breaking of the passy that is not my friend. Maybe next time we will try a little earlier to break the baby of the pass. j
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Josh on the Big Screen
Josh was asked to help make a video for our church. We are doing a sermon series called "Heart Attack" that discusses things that attack our hearts...like greed, jealousy, guilt, ect. He got to make the jealousy video, and you get the privilege of viewing the sneak peak right here on my blog!!
They shot this in our driveway and on our street, and Kate was very afraid of the motorcycle and all the noise it was making. Josh could win an Oscar for his acting abilities here, or he might have actually been a little jealous of the Harley so little acting was needed. This video will be shown this weekend to 10,000 of our closest friends! He did great and it will be fun to see Josh up on the big screens! Way to go Babe!!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Catch up
Playing catch up...that is what I feel like life is about these days. I realize that I was SO tired during the first 12 weeks of my pregnancy that I did NOTHING extra in order to conserve energy for my developing baby and what was left went to Kate and Josh. I am now at 15 weeks and I realize there are little piles of stuff all around my house that need to be gone through and either put up or thown away, my hair is in terrible need of a cut/color, my makeup is to that point where it's either crumbled or I'm scraping the bottom, my car is so messy with toys, cups, kate's shoes, ect., we've been eating the same 4 meals or cereal every week...or just ordering pizza (I'm tired of pizza), and I have over 500 unchecked emails in my hotmail account because I just haven't taken the time to do them.
All that to say I am catching up! The house was gone through this weekend and my cleaning lady (who I love, love, love) is coming on Wednesday, the car is being washed tomorrow, the hair is being cut later this week, and makeup will be purchased as well. We sat down and made a menu of all new dinners (and pizza was not on the list) yesterday and went to the store to get all of the stuff. I feel like I am beginning to get back on top of my life after my 12 week sleepy phase! I haven't attemped to go through email yet, but I'll get there!
That is where I am at the moment. I hope I'm not the only one who goes through these hard spells. It's funny that you can't identify it exactly until you are coming out of it. I appreicate all of my friends not saying anything about my hair, my house, my car, or my lack of email replys...thanks for having grace! My life really is so blessed, and I feel funny that I base my progress on all those material things around me, but I guess I just see them as a extention of what is going on inside of me. I feel so much better now and I hope I can get everything else around me caught up! Here we go!!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Big Girl Furniture
Big Girl Bed: Big Girl Dresser: Big Girl Bedding:
I'm making the curtains based on an idea I saw...I'll post pics when they are done! The bed and dresser will be here on Sat. 8-23 and then we will begin the transition. I'm hoping it goes well (or at least better than the potty training) so that mommy and daddy don't miss too many hours of sleep at night!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Never Too Old to Cheer!!!
Last week I got an email from one of our youth pastors asking if I could help out the youth group by putting together a stomp routine for them to do for promotion weekend this weekend. The cheerleader within me got really excited and then I rememberd that I'm in my late 20's and 4 months pregnant and too old to still be doing this stuff!
Needless to say, I went for it anyways and put together a really fun routine. I spent 3 hours on Sunday teaching 20 youth all the steps and putting it all together. The coolest part was how excited they all were about it and how fun it was to see them think that something I made up at this stage in my life is still cool.
Tonight they will do it for a youth leader meeting as a practice and then the big show will be this weekend. They get to do it on Sat. night and Sun. morning for both youth services.
I'll let you know how it goes...Josh, Kate and I will be there tonight to check it out!!
PS. Jennifer Kohl...if you read this can you leave me your blog address...I can't find it and keep wanting to check on you guys!!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Update and Rant
Just to update...the day of potty training was a bust! She sat on the potty first thing and then we did the pull up and set the timer for 30 min. About 15 min. into she came running up to me saying "pee pee" and so we ran to the potty and pulled down her britches and sat her down to go. Unfortunaely, her pull up was wet, so I think she was telling me "pee pee" as she was going. We got a fresh pull up and started over and about 30 min. in she started yelling "poo poo" and sure enough, she had just gone in her pull up. I decided to keep putting her on the potty and explaining that it goes in there, but she got real tired of the potty and had one of those arch the back fits when I wanted her to sit on it. Needless to say, we put a diaper on about mid-afternoon and set all the potty stuff aside until a later date. I had a feeling she wasn't quite ready, so that was confirmed. I am still reading a lot and learning about it and she continues to tell me everytime she is going in her diaper, but that's all.
Last Friday I had a dr. appt. and we found out that we will have our sono to discover the gender on Sept. 5th! We are so excited! This weekend we went and bought all of Kate's "big girl" furniture so that we can begin transitioning her out of the nursery to make room for baby. We are going to paint her room purple and her furiture is white. It will be way girly and fun...I LOVE having a little girl to do this for! I'll post pics as it happens!
One last rant...last Friday I had TWO incidents where conplete strangers were just giving me (and the world) way too much information. First in a bridal store (where I was helping my sister in law pick a bridesmaid dress) a woman came in and needed some jeans taken up. She looked at me as i was minding my own business and said "These are $300 jeans and just my size...a size 2...but they are just too long." I wondered why she needed to tell me that...was it because I am 4 months prego and OBVIOUSLY not a size 2, was it because I look like I can't afford $300 jeans in my maternity jump suite and pony tail...not sure. Maybe people just need to feel validated or important sometimes, even if it's by a stranger. Whatever the goal, I just smiled and said "We'll it's a good thing you can get them taken up then," and then tired to busy myself. Later in the doctors office waiting room a woman answered her cell phone and proceeded to have an all out conversation about how her company is a multi billion dollar company and she only will talk to CFO's of other mulit billion dollar companies and blah, blah, blah about how important she is. I wanted to go grab her phone and slam it shut and walk off. Not sure it that is the hormones, or just that it had been a long day, but again I wondered why people have to share so publically in order to feel special. Also, do we really care if someone works for a billion dollar company or stays home with kids? If someone's jeans are $300 or from Kohls? I don't think I even care...it really is just people's hearts that mean the most to me and sharing all that stuff shows me a lot about where their heart is. That might be judgmental or opinionated, but it's my opinion and this is my blog! Just kidding.
One last thing...I think it's stupid to spend $300 on a pair of jeans!
