Bethany's Toys

It's not a new concept to me that kids enjoy the box more than the toy that comes in the box. However, Bethany has some pretty unconventional toys that amuse me quite a bit. I thought I'd share a few of her favorite things with you.

1) A small Yankee jar candle. She loves to take the lid on and off. She used to have one that had a fragrance that smelled like an old lady. Then she would end up smelling like she was wearing old lady perfume. I don't know why I ever bought that fragrance. I switched it out for a pumpkin candle. Much better. She can even say, "Candle" and "Pumpkin.

2) Her sippy cups and plastic basket. I have a small plastic basket that you stick bottle and sippy cup parts in when you put them in the dishwasher. Bethany loves to play with a clean dismantled sippy cup and that basket. She just switches the parts from each compartment. Hours of fun there.

3) One of Daddy's screwdrivers and a board. Shane drilled some holes in a board, and she loves to stick the screwdriver in there and just spin it. She calls it, "Fix it."

Those are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head. I'd love to hear from my other mom friends about their kids unconventional toys.

I've got just a few pictures for this update.


Bethany wore this outfit to church last weekend. It's going to be a popular one this fall/winter. She loved the hat too.


We went to the house of some friends last night. Bethany enjoyed the car. I've been looking so hard at a garage sale for one of these, but I never found one. Maybe next summer.
Bethany really liked getting dressed up in Grayce's things. She even had one a pair of little pink high heels.
Bethany and Grayce on the stairs. This seems to be a favorite place to play for these two. Grayce doesn't normally play here, but Bethany is a bad influence. Bethany wants the camera in this picture. That's what a lot of our pictures look like these days.

Labor Day Weekend and the One After

We had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend. Bethany and I both liked having Shane home an extra day that weekend. Bethany is continuing to grow. Although these days it's more mental growth than physical growth. She's still in 18 month clothing. Her clothes from last winter still fit for this fall! Last summer when I was stocking up on clearance things, I thought she'd be in 2T this summer. Now I'm even wondering if she'll be in 2T by the end of winter. Well even if she's not putting on the pounds, she's learning lots. I hear the question, "What's that?" many times during the day. I do my best to answer her but sometimes she even stumps me. How do you tell her what words on the TV screen are? Usually I just say, "Words."

Bethany never went through the stranger anxiety phase around 9-12 months. Well she's making up for lost time now. The past couple of weeks she has been a complete Mommy's girl. There have been many times when she wants me over Daddy. Many of you know how weird that is. Up until now, she's always chosen Daddy over Mommy. When I dropped her off in the church nursery today, she had a death grip on me. I think if I would have let go, she wouldn't have gone anywhere because she holding onto me so tight. So I peeled her off of me and left her screaming and bawling. I really hope this phase goes by fast. It makes leaving her so heartbreaking. She even does this at bedtime. That is one thing she won't get me to budge on though.

Here's some picture evidence of what we've been up to lately.


On Labor Day weekend our Christian radio station had a free concert featuring Aaron Shust.

Our happy family at the concert. For those of you who thing Bethany is smiling, she's not. That's a cry of protest. She did not want to be held on to.

She loved listening to the music. She was dancing and clapping. We had a beautiful sunset that night.

On Labor Day we went to my grandparent's for a cookout. Bethany reunited with her cousin, Carly.

The both very fearlessly went to check out the cows. Here's my dainty daughter eating puffs with a fork.
Go figure. The finger food she insists on the fork. Sticky and messy food? Well that has to be eaten with the hands.
This weekend Daddy was working out in the garage. Bethany wanted to be outside with him, so I set her up "painting".
She loves to color with crayons, but this was her first experience with a brush. She painted the floor with water and loved it. Now she'll know what to do with real paint. Well let's just hope she doesn't paint the floor and that she paints the paper.

She's getting very good at saying, "Cheese" and posing for pictures.So while Daddy and Bethany are busy, what's Mommy to do? Well play with the camera features. I got some fun pictures.I love this one. I'm definitely going to have to display it somewhere.

This picture is from today with her post-nap hair. We were watching the Cowboys game, and you can see she was thrilled. Actually, she got into it. By the end of the game I had her saying, "Go Boys" and "Touchdown". I think she really liked the yelling part. She would mimic my every sound. She also liked the cries of disappoint when something bad happened. Anyway, I've got another Cowboy fan in the making.