Wordless Wednesday

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Alaina - 8 days old

No, I Did Not Give Her One

This morning during breakfast, Alaina was whining. She had eaten most of her peach instant oatmeal, and was sitting her in chair just whining away. And she's a toddler, so there were no words, just annoying sounds. I said, "Honey, I can't understand you when you're whining. You'll have to use your words. What do you want?"

She looked at me and said, "Cookie?"

I don't know where she comes up with this stuff.

I Think She's Teasing Me

Alaina is a pretty smart cookie. She can count to 11. She can recognize a circle. She can tell you what a cat, dog, duck, bird, chicken, pig, horse, cow, sheep, lion, gorilla, monkey and an elephant all say. I think she finally knows the difference between up and down and on and off. And she can also recognize the letter "A" and the letter "B."

But every time I draw or point to the letter "C" she says "circle." Every. Time. To which I usually respond, "No, that's a 'C.' A, B, C." Yesterday she replied, "A, B, circle."

I think it might be her first joke.

Goodbye, Baby

Alaina is officially getting old. She did so well in her booster seat at Grandma and Grandpa Kimble's that we put away the high chair yesterday. She now eats at the table like a real person. She also wears real, velcro little girl sneakers. And of course, the potty-training began yesterday.



Goodbye, Baby Alaina. We've loved having you and we'll miss you. But we also love this new Little Girl Alaina. We can't wait to see everything you learn to do.

Welcome 2010!

Happy New Year! We've been spending the last two weeks in Kansas City with the in-laws. It's been a quick, relaxing, enjoyable holiday and we're as bummed about leaving as we are looking forward to being home and starting our new year.

You're never going to believe this, but I've actually started another blog. No, I'm not abandoning this one or even my other one. This new one is called The Pumpkin Pie Patch, and I plan to make it about all things mommy. My idea for it came because I plan to start potty-training Alaina next week, and I'd like to blog about it a la the movie Julie & Julia. I'd also like to get into product reviewing and blog giveaways, and I needed a not-so-Kimble one in order to do that. The Pumpkin Pie Patch will have a little less personal info on it so I can really send it into the void. I hope you all read it and even publically follow it, so more people will be inclined to. The more people who follow it, the more inclined companies will be to let me review products and giveaway their stuff.

My sister-in-law's husband (my husband's brother-in-law? my brother-in-law? I never know what to call that guy) has also introduced me to book reviewing. I haven't done any yet, but there are several websites to sign up on that will send you books to review. I plan to do said book reviews on the Victoria Kimble blog.

So check them out. Tell your friends. And happy new year.

http://victoriakimble.blogspot.com

http://thepumpkinpiepatch.blogspot.com

With My Own Two Hands

Ever since we got married almost 5 1/2 years ago, I have been looking for Christmas stockings for us. I could not find any that looked right. So many were ugly and gaudy, or they were plain and cheap looking. I was probably trying to find ones that looked like the ones I grew up with, and since those are over 20 years old, then they were no where to be found.

Then last year my mom made one for Alaina and for my sister's husband to hang at her house. And they looked exactly like what I had pictured having for my family. So, after putting off the project for almost a year, I finally made three. I went to the store, bought the fabric and trimmings, followed a pattern and used my mom's sewing machine. It was my first sewing project since 7th grade, and I am dang proud of how they turned out.

You should know that Lee makes fun of how big they are, but I think they are perfect.

My New Hobby

I have a new hobby. It's probably a long shot, but I'm enjoying it. I enter giveaway and sweepstakes on the Internet.

I got the idea from an article on MSN.com about making extra money. It was a whole list of things, like start your own home business (duh) or take online surveys. I've tried the whole survey thing, but I never qualify for them. Apparently I need to spend more money as a consumer, so I can tell people how much I like their products. Or maybe they always have their fill of middle-class, white, stay-at-home-moms, ages 25-34.

Then this article mentioned online sweepstakes as a legitimate form of making extra money. They referred me to this website, sweetiessweeps.com. It is dedicated to posting a bunch of online sweepstakes games and instant win games. Of course the owner of the site has this huge success story of winning a bunch of stuff. I figure it can't hurt to try, especially the things that are free. I even created a gmail account so our regular email won't be flooded with all the junk that inevitably comes along with passing out your email address in contests. (Wendy of SweetiesSweeps recommended this.)

Which leads me to today's blog. I was entering a giveaway on a lovely blog called RaisingMy4Sons. As a stay-at-home-mom, I love reading other mom's blogs about their kids. If you go to her site, you can see the giveaways she has listed. www.raisingmy4sons.blogspot.com. She even has a button called Reviews/Giveaways.

I wonder how I can get in on that action.