happy 11 months, silas! (playing catch up)

Hi there!! I have some catching up to do. Marshall was gone for 3 weeks to Airborne School at Fort Benning, GA and he got home Friday night. I didn't share his absence on the blog because well, you know, it's a public place and I didn't want the world to know we were home alone. There are some creepies out there. We missed him and are so glad he is home safely with no broken bones, etc. Way to go, Marshall! Thank You, Lord for protecting him.

Silas turned 11 months old on Saturday. He is doing some waving bye bye and loves to "give me five". I'm trying to get him to eat chunky foods, but he's not very excited. He does like his puffs. Sophie knows to sit under the high chair and when she hears the puffs canister open, she stands at attention. Tooth number 2 broke through sometime during the night. Silas still loves to climb and walk along the couch. He is really gotten good at getting up and down to and from standing. He now likes to play at his exercauser as well as in it. Right now he is wearing the most adorable set of long johns...a one piece union suit with bears on it. Pure cuteness. I can't believe my baby will be a year old in less than a month.

How sad is it that we don't have a real pumpkin yet? We'll be working on that after nap is over.

Can't wait to show you Silas in his costume tomorrow! I'll give you a hint.....ribbit ribbit!

Thanks for checking in on us!

you're gonna love this...

Silas and I went to the commissary this afternoon. Our bagger was a sweet lady that has bagged our groceries before. When I got Silas out of the cart to carry him to the car, she sweetly let it be known that he wasn't dressed warmly enough. She took his blanket out of the cart and wrapped us both up.

Now before you get offended, it was really sweet.

We walked and talked on the way to Priscilla the minivan. She has a 21 year old son and asked if Silas was my only child, etc.

And then she said, "I have a Black husband too. My son looks a lot like your son."

I said, "Oh...you do." Smile.

That was not the time to go into lots of details. What will really be fun is when Marshall, Silas and I go back together and she sees my husband...my white husband. :)

Last week when I went to vote, we had a similar experience. I was wearing a t-shirt from a 5K race we did last year. The Librarian asked Silas if he ran with Mommy or something like that. I said, "Oh no, he wasn't born yet." And she said, "Well, he still could have been with you...you know, in your tummy."

Again I responded with something like, "Oh yeah, you're right" instead of going into details.

I don't mind people knowing Silas is adopted. In fact, I love to talk about it. I don't introduce him as my adopted son, just like my friend wouldn't introduce her son as the one conceived on birth control or delivered by c-section. Most times our story is obvious, but these anonymous instances where strangers just see a Mom and her son, well, those are sweet too.

happy birthday, daddy!

transitions

I really need to work on Silas' baby book. Right now, every detail is contained in this here bloggy blog.

For the record, I want to say that my boy is transitioning to 1 nap per day. I guess it's time...it's happened naturally.

Whatever makes him comforable....

we've had a breakthrough

People, we've got a tooth. Front, bottom, left has broken through and front, bottom, right is not far behind. Would you like to see it?

Me too. He won't let either of us see it. It's his tooth and he wants to keep it to himself.

I have seen it, briefly, and felt it, so I know it's there. Maybe he will let me see it tomorrow.

rock the vote, baby!

Silas and I headed out to the polls for early voting. It was quick and easy. Dare I say too quick and easy? Here's how it went down...

Voting was at the library in town. I haven't received my voter's registration card in the mail yet, but my voting friend, Amy, said I didn't need it. Her experience this morning was exactly like mine this afternoon.

We walked in and approached the table. The volunteer asked me if I was Registered. I told her I was. She asked my name. I told her. She asked me my address. Before I finished it she was saying it aloud with me. She asked me to sign a paper verifying my address. They showed me how to used the computer machine to cast my vote.

Notice anything odd? I wasn't asked for identification. None at all. No military ID, no driver's license, no utility bill to show I should vote in this county. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. If I was a criminal, I could have given my neighbor's name and since I know her address, I could have voted Obama on her behalf even though I know she's a fan of McCain.

Isn't that crazy?

Have you voted yet? Tell me, how has your voting experience been?

To make it even more comical, since the voting was at the library, there was a sign saying "So you're registered to vote, but have you registered for a library card?". I felt like a good citizen, so I took Silas in for a library card, you know, I want to be a good example all around. We both got one. BUT, not so easily. I had to show my driver's license and a bill with our address on it. They weren't going to give me the library card because the cell phone bill is in Marshall's name. I showed my military ID to show Marshall is my sponsor, etc. They let me have the cards even though they weren't supposed to.

What is wrong with this picture, ya'll? Library card registration was more secure than the voting booth.

I should have taken a picture of the drive up voting. Do you have that in your county? You didn't even have to get out of the car to vote. Only in the U. S. of A, I tell ya!

Even if you don't have drive through voting, please get out and VOTE!

giggle-fest instead of oktoberfest

october cuteness

These are NOT leg warmers...they are called Baby Legs and they are too cute for words.
A couple of weeks ago, this is how I was greeted in the morning.
He hasn't stopped pulling up and standing since. He loves to stand and walk up and down the couch...
Our world is about to change again.....walking is on the horizon!

And the winner is.....

Laura Cordray, come on down!!!!

Congratulations Laura! Please email me your address so I can send you your bracelet (marshallandjill @ hotmail dot com).

Thanks everyone for playing. I loved reading your answers. We'll need to do this again soon...



Random Integer Generator (random.org)
Here are your random numbers:23
Timestamp: 2008-10-11 16:04:00 UTC

My First Fun-With-a-Purpose-Blog Give-away

Ya'll, I feel like a big time blogger. All the big time bloggers do this. A blog give away. Are you ready?

Last week, for the first time ever, I entered two different blog give aways. They were both for CD's. I did not win first one. The second one has not been determined.

So anyway, it gave me an idea. Why not host a give away myself? Maybe this will give me a better idea of who is reading the blog. I'll take off the comment restrictions so you won't even have to log in for this one. Leave your name though, so I'll know it was you. In case you win. You'll want me to know it was you.

Want to know what you could win?! One of these bracelets from AHOPE for Children. The proceeds from one bracelet will feed a child for a week.

"AHOPE for Children is a non-profit organization whose mission is to serve the children of Ethiopia, with a primary emphasis on caring for orphans infected with HIV.In Addis Ababa, AHOPE's two pleasant, well-staffed Children's Homes care exclusively for orphans who are HIV+ and have no extended family to care for them. Many of these children are now finding their forever families through adoption.AHOPE's Community Outreach Program enables orphaned children to remain within their extended families and culture, while receiving medical care, education, food, and other services."

Here are the instructions:

1) Leave a comment beneath this post and tell me who your hero is. It doesn't have to be a long answer....just your hero's name is fine.

2) Go check out AHOPE's website.

3) I'll announce the winner (randomly selected by the Random Integer Generator) on Saturday.

Isn't this fun?!

If you don't win a bracelet here, go to AHOPE's blog and order one (or ten) and feed a child (or ten) for a week.

Thanks for playing!

no one is safe!

Silas is really moving these days. A couple of days ago, he was laying on the floor drinking his bottle. I turned my back for 3.5 seconds and this is what I found...

Sophie got "treed" on the couch. I have a feeling it won't be long before he's climbing onto the couch. Oh my!

He is army crawling all over the place. He can crawl on all fours....I've seen it with my own eyes, but I think the army crawl is faster and more effective.

In just the last few days he's gotten so much quicker and bolder. His new favorite game is, when I'm laying on the living room floor, to crawl over and pull himself to standing, beat on my stomach, crawl on top of me, plant a big, wet kiss on my face, crawl off of me and then back and forth over me. Fun times here!

Enjoy this little video of Silas in action. Do us both a favor and turn your volume DOWN, because my voice is very annoying. If you choose to leave the volume up....don't say I didn't warn you. ;)

Stay tuned...I'm cooking up a Fun With Purpose Blog Give-a-Way!!

rollin', rollin', rollin'

I told you! I'm getting a lot of this lately.

pray for salomae

You may remember I posted a while back about Salomae Harbaugh. She is having major surgery tomorrow. Here is an exerpt from her mom Apryl's (our travel buddy) blog:

The complicated part is cleaning out the infected bone and abscess. The general surgeon is going to do that (he's got experience cleaning TB out of organs). After that, he'll take a rib and anchor it into healthy vertebrae on the top and bottom. Then he will flip her over and put anchors and rods along the weak area of her back. He said it could take from 2 to 10 hours to get the first part done. He feels very confident about the surgery and about the final results.

Very serious surgery. Please hold this family up in prayer.

**ETA**

Glory to God! Thank you for your prayers today. This is from Salomae's mom on their blog:

On so many levels the surgery went perfectly--even better than perfect. God has answered our prayers today! She still has a long road ahead. She will be ventilator for a few days, and still needs to wake up and wiggle her toes (hopefully sometime in the night otherwise they'll do it in the morning). Please THANK GOD for his care today and continue to pray for her as she recovers!

the power of choice

Of all of the toys in that big basket, he rifles through them and chooses a book. That's my boy!

Speaking of the power of choice.....GET REGISTERED TO VOTE!!! I ended up at www.rockthevote.org. Very easy and very necessary. Have you watched the news lately?!