Clocked by a bald head

Well, last night was not a great night in the Bodin household. Baby Hannah clocked me right in my nose with her big, giant bald head. She did this not once, but TWICE, within the span of about fifteen minutes. The first time, I was just stunned because she never hit me before and I didn't know if it was going to bleed or not. But then it wasn't so bad, so we continued to rock along. About ten minutes later, she sat up again, looked around, and before you know it, she had flopped herself down on my chest again, this time clocking me again right in the nose AGAIN!!!!! The tears just came rushing out. My baby never saw me cry before so she just sat on my lap with the most precious look on her face. It was as if she was saying with her eyes, "It's okay Mama, don't worry!!"



So CUTE!! How can you not love that little girl!!

Look what I'm into NOW!

Never leave an eight month old alone for ONE SECOND near toilet paper...




This is the first time she discovered that toilet paper can unroll! Allow me to set up the scenario. TYPICALLY, when I am doing the laundry, I set Hannah down on the carpet near my feet. As I transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer, she usually crawls into the guest bathroom and plays with her bucket of ducks. Not today...









I think she's getting the hang of it!



This is why having a camera by you at ALL TIMES is a MUST!!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Babushka Baby

Hannah is all dressed up and ready for church! She is the best dressed gal around. She got her cute little sundress and babushka from her long lost cousin Beth's wonderful baby store called Baby Old Towne Spring in Spring, Texas.

This morning she was just not interested in that camera. Can you imagine that she would be sick of taking pictures?? How is it possible!!! Not MY daughter!!!

She would look at me like I'm plum out of my mind, and then she'd run in the other direction.

Of course, she had to have all her favorite toys around her... She was teething all weekend. Her second tooth finally came in on Tuesday! Now she has a two-tooth grin!


But finally I caught her...

The way she's looking at me can only tell you one thing... she's gonna be trouble!!!

SHE DID IT

SHE STOOD.

She stood up by herself. She wasn't holding onto anything. And she was BALANCED!!! Tammy and I freaked out. Hannah was playing with "Nanny" Tammy and they were having a blast. Next thing you know, Hannah had climbed up to her feet and was just standing there in the middle of the floor. We thought, 'yeah, yeah, she's done that before' and usually about 1 second later she plops down to her bottom. NOT THIS TIME!! She stayed standing at LEAST for a whole minute. It was SO cute. She was just chillin... standing there like, 'hey ya'll, what's goin' on?' It was precious. I don't have a picture of her standing (YET!!) because we didn't think that THIS was THE moment of her first real standing. But I'll have my camera ready the next time and I'll get it posted.

In the mean time, if you'd like to take a look at all our pictures from our beach trip, go to http://cbodin1.photosite.com

Eatin' Sand...

My baby loves to eat sand. Is this normal? I mean, I only know my baby girl, so I am thinking that she is some freak of nature and I must be doing something terribly wrong in her diet to make her enjoy the sand feast. But then it occured to me that her oatmeal and rice cereal probably have about the same texture and flavor as sand, so in her mind, she may think that she's sitting in a huge bowl of oatmeal. Here she is getting her first real good bite of sand.

Yep, she's in heaven. Just look at those eyes. She makes this sound like, "ooooh ooooooh" when she's really happy. She was ooooohing when she ate the sand. Go figure.


Imagine getting five million pieces of sand out of the tiny crevices of a baby's neck, ears, mouth, eyes....

Beach Time Part 3

Baby is fast asleep right now... so I thought I'd take a moment to send some more pics your way. This photo shoot was done on our last day at the beach, Thursday, August 10th. It was around 6:30am. Listen folks, you must know this fact. I am NOT, repeat, NOT a morning person. I am a musician in heart. If I had my way, I'd stay up until midnight or later and sleep in until 10am. However, I have the worst job in the world for night owls. I teach. Therefore, I have to BE at work by 7:45, which means I have to leave my house before 7am. It's a curse. On top of that madness, my baby girl decided that this week was the time for her tooth to FINALLY pop up, so she's been waking up at 2 or 3am. Happy as a lark, she just can't sleep. ANYWAY... so we had been up since 3am playing in the bathroom in the condo while James and the kids slept. Hannah and I finally got stir crazy and so we left the condo when the sun came up and took a long walk to the state park nearby. Here's what we came up with.

I swear that's the happiest baby I know. Here she is cutting her first tooth, and can still make a great big smile. Does she know how to strike a pose or what?!


I can't believe I spent over $200 on pictures from Allen Breaux... What a crock. At least by going there, I have new found confidence in my ability to capture a shot. It's all by completely dumb luck, mind you, but I still capture the shot...

Beach Time Part 2

Here are a few shots we took at the beach. We did this photo shoot on Wednesday, August 9th at around 7:00am. The sun wasn't too hot, the sand was cool, and Hannah was awake, since she's cutting her first tooth (naturally, since we're on vacation...) and she'd been up since about 3:00 that morning. All in all, she was happy as a lark, considering that some babies cry their heads off. Mine just wanted to play. No sleep, just play.

Here she is relaxing on the cool sand in the early morning.




She studied the sand carefully before she further examined it with her mouth.




It's amazing... she didn't even mind it on her hands and feet.



I don't know of anything cuter than a black and white photo of a baby wearing a white eyelet outfit on a beach.



But then again, I am biased.


Allen Breaux, eat your heart out...

Beach Time!

Hannah had a great time in Florida! She loves sand. What I mean is, she loves to EAT sand. We tried to stop her from eating the sand, naturally, but we were unsuccessful. The only time Hannah cried on the entire trip is when I told her she couldn't eat the sand. She had GLOBS of it down her throat!! It was disgusting! Her tongue was coated with the stuff, and I thought that after she got a really big nasty taste of it, she would want to stop. Not that baby girl... she wanted more. NASTY...

We had an awesome time while we were there. I was able to capture Hannah's first moments on the sand, her happiness in the outdoors, and her excitement about being at the beach. We had a blast. I knew she'd be a beach lover just like me. :-)

Here she is exploring the new world of sand.


The last day we were there, it got real cloudy in the afternoon. But that didn't stop us from enjoying some beach time. We took Hannah on the beach and we built sand castles and she watched us and cooed and screamed in delight. She had a ball.

Beach baby countdown!

WE'RE READY FOR THE BEACH!!!!

Hannah doesn't know this yet, but we are leaving in the morning to go to Florida. This will be her first beach experience. I love the beach. One day, I hope to retire near the beach. I feel a Godly connection when I'm on the beach. The sand, the surf, the wind, the smell of salt, the sun, everything about it makes me feel God is near. I can't wait to see how little Hannah is going to react to feeling sand in her toes for the first time.

Many people have told me that their babies hated the beach. I have a feeling that my daughter will love it. She loves trash and paper and anything she can grab and put in her mouth. So I'm thinking that this may work to our advantage when we go to the beach.

Hannah already loves to swim and be in the water. So I know she is going to love being in that giant pool. We bought her this adorable floaty that has a 'hood' over it to keep her shaded from the sun. SHA! So cute. I can't wait to see her kick and kick in the big pool.

We also got her these 'claws' that you use to play in the sand. Now, she's already found these claws and has been playing on our kitchen floor with them. So the toys will be familiar. But when she finds out that she can control the movement of the sand with these claws, I have a feeling she is going to be in heaven. The verdict is still out on whether or not she will actually like it on the beach, but my internal mommy instincts say she will love it.

In case she doesn't like it, we also rented this little 'pup tent' made just for babies on the beach. She can go in there and be shaded by the sun AND be off of the sand if she is bothered by it. There is this GREAT company called Baby Beach Rentals www.baby-equipment-rentals.com and they cater to the Orange Beach/Perdido/Pensacola area. We are renting our crib, high chair, swing, stroller, pup tent, and even baby food from them for a NOMINAL fee. It's like $3-4 a day for each item. Very cheap, and it will make my baby so comfortable while we're there, and it will make packing MUCH easier. The best thing about it is that this company knows our condo room number, and will come set it all up for us. When we arive, it'll all be in place!!!! How awesome is that!!! I am so excited.

Wish us well, people... I'll be back in a week to let you know how it all went!!

pictureless...

For some reason, blogger won't let me post any pictures. AT ALL. I've tried to upload about fifty times, and each time, although it acts like it's doing the work, when all is said and done, there' s no picture in my blog site. So I'm frustrated because every once in a while I can get a photo to work. So I know I'm doing it correctly. There must be a bug within the system. The thing that frustrates me is that here is this perfectly wonderful new avenue in my life that I can be creative with pictures AND words, and yet for some reason, instead of being a delight, it's become a burden. Now, I don't know about you, but for me, I don't need more stress. In fact, I am trying to create a life for my family and myself that is as stress free as possible. Needless to say, blogger isn't cooperating within those stress-free parameters.

Then I began to think. Maybe God wants me to spend less time on my blog, and more time with Him. Maybe this is a test for me and He's waiting to see if I will pass it or not. And although this blog is a wonderful thing, perhaps He is wanting me to long for Him and not for things that are less satifying. ("He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness." ~Psalm 107:9). So this is my decision. I'm going to blog in an effort to keep all my friends and family connected only after I've filled up on Him first. And throughout the week I'm going to be in the word, in an effort to keep my soul refreshed and connected to the only one who can truly fill me up.

There are endless things that can take my away from our time with Him...from cell phones, iPods, computer emails, and now blogs. I hope today you can find the time to drink from the cup of life found only in God's word. I'm going to go get me a cup right now...




(editor's note: Naturally it let me post this picture of the coffee cup... But if Hannah was holding a cup, it wouldn't have let me upload... Do you see my frustration?!!! HA HA HA!!!!!!!)

"I'm right here..."

Tonight Hannah had a rough time going to sleep. We sometimes stuggle with bedtime on Wednesdays because we are usually at church late which means Hannah's normal bedtime routine is a bit off track. Typically, we come home and I give her a late night bottle and she goes right to bed. Not tonight...

I gave her the bottle, but she just didn't want to sleep. I tried to rock her, which is my ace in the hole with her, a sure fire way for her to fall fast asleep. Nope. Nothing. So I lay her in her crib and walked out, thinking that she'd eventually stop her fussing and go to sleep. Again, no dice. She wasn't having any of it. Finally, I could take no more. So I went in and by this time, she was having a true one of a kind hissy fit. When I picked her up, she was so histerical that she didn't even realize that I had her. After all, that's all she wanted was her mamma. I sat her on my lap and rocked her for a good five minutes before she realized that I had her. She got what she was screaming for. Yet, in her anger, she didn't even realize I was right there. I kept whispering in her ear, "Hannah, I'm right here..."


Isn't that just like us and God though? I thought about this and realized that this incident tonight parallels my faith. So often, I cry out to God for this or that, wishing and hoping and screaming out to Him. And in my haste, I forget that He is right there by me telling me, "Shhhh... Caryn... I'm right here..."

God is Great. He alone is God. And I am his child, curled up in His lap as He rocks me to sleep in the comfort of His arms.

If only we'd rest... trust that He's there doing the rocking.

Sweet dreams...

Random Candids

Sometimes I go around the house with my camera in hand, just waiting for Hannah to do something cute. And sometimes I get lucky and I capture the shot. My favorite thing to shoot is her eyes. If I can actually get her to look into the camera and I'm able to shoot her eyes, to me, this is success.


She's so busy looking around and trying to grab anything and everything (to put in her mouth, of course), that it's very hard to capture her attention and keep it long enough to get a good shot. But sometimes it happens, and it's magic.


I love taking several pictures of her at the same time. I am blessed with a very good camera. It's a Canon EOS Rebel XT SLR digital. The SLR means that it's a single lens reflection... just like a standard 35mm film camera. So it's the combination of all things wonderful about a film camera along with the conveniences of a digital. Mine is an 8 megapixel camera and I have a 2 gig photo card that holds roughly 500 shots. Hey, what can I say... I take a lot of pictures! Anyway, I rattled all these stats off to say this: with an SLR camera, I can take pictures with absolutely no delay in shooting like a standard digital. And so I can take every facial expression that Hannah makes and get them all on camera.



She's a mess, and adorable, and I love her so much. James and I can't remember what we did with our time before Hannah came along. She has made our whole family so much closer, and she has given our family a huge dose of happiness and joy. What can I say... we like her.

Trash Talk

Hannah's newest thing to do is to eat paper from the trash. Yes, I am serious. She will find any trash can within crawling distance and she will dump the trash can out and eat all the paper. Right now, under my feet is a little seven month old girl, chewing up an old envelope. She looks like a school teacher with all her papers around her in a little pile. She thoroughly investigates each paper (with her mouth, naturally), then she sets it back down and finds another delicious page to mouth.

We have a paper shredder that usually holds mounds of unsolicited credit card applications and junk mail coupons on it waiting for their day of shredding. Guess who found the pile!! Here she is nestled in amongst all her paper treasures.

I'm wondering if she is just curious about her world and willing to explore everything, even trash, or if she truly has a fettish for things uncivilized and worthy of a trash can. Let's pray she's just inquisitive!