Attention all Martha Fans

Do not delay!  Head straight to this website and print your coupon for $1 off Martha Stewart's Halloween Handbook, then get busy crafting some spooky madness and baking some sweet treats!  I want to hear all about it.

McCord Is Three Months Old

This has been a productive month for McCord with lots of firsts:

• First trip to the beach
• First vacation to lake
• Baptism
• Started Kindermusik

Here are a few of McCord's favorite things:

• Marley - the rabbit you see pictured below is the first toy McCord has shown any preference.  He loves sucking on Marley's ears.
• Being outside - when McCord cries, we take him outside, and he immediately quiets down and starts looking at the sky and trees.  He gets really quiet and listens to everything around him.  (This is a good lesson for me - the whole world is just amazing to this little boy.  So much of it I take for granted, and he marvels at every detail.)
• Walks around the block, especially in the baby bjorn
• Watching TV (should we be concerned about this?)
• Bathtime
• Talking to you - (sometimes he really gets rolling and incorporates a scream or two into his vocabulary - this seems to impress him, and leads to more talking! One of Bo's friends calls it "talking whale" since he reaches such high octives!)
• Being held - and lately nuzzeling into your shoulder (this is one of my favorites too!)

McCord seems to be a pretty adaptable little guy.  For the most part, he's a happy baby and will let you know if he's uncomfortable/hungry/tired.  He's decided however, that he does not like to nap during the day, and if you'd like to hold him and rock him throughout his nap time, that'd be just fine with him.

Here's McCord next to his maple. We can't wait to watch it throughout the fall as it changes colors. 

Bo and I are enamored with this little Monkey.  He's so fun to be around and are thankful for every day that we have with him.

Family Vacation

We spent last week with the Keisler-side of the family at Lake Keowee.  McCord really enjoyed spending time with his grandparents - Aiya and Doe Doe, Uncle Ashley, Aunt Cam, and cousins Bayer and Calla.  We fished, danced with the kids, and we even worked in a couple of rainy-day crafts.  We also spent a good part of the week watching and rewatching and rewatching again the video of overnight internet sensation Antoine Dodson and the Antoine Dodson song.  McCord surprised us all and started laughing for the first time last week (not at Antoine like the rest of us, but at my mom)! 

Here are some pictures from craft day.  Please ignore my ghetto fabulous outfit - I must have been influenced by Antoine. 

Monkey says, "They're climbing in your windows and snatching your people up! They're gonna find you, so hide your kids!"

 This is a little onesie that my sister made for Calla using rubber stamps.  There's a tutorial for it here at one of my favorite blogs Fly Through Our Window.

This is a picture of my dad placing his footprint on an art smock for my mom.  We had the whole family put their print on it - babies included.  I'll post pictures of the completed project later.  Creating a family t-shirt or apron would be a fun Christmas gift for grandmothers. 

My sister, my mom, and Bayer worked really hard on these caramel snacks.  They dipped pretzel rods, ritz crackers, and apples in caramel and covered them with peanuts and crushed oreos.  Then they went back over them with melted chocolate. 

My favorite memory of the week: my mom, my sister, and I spent Monday morning shopping with Bayer and McCord.  On our drive home, McCord decided he'd had enough and cranked it up to a Level 10 Meltdown.  He cried at the top of his lungs letting us all know that he was not very happy about this shopping-business.  Four-year-old Bayer was completely unphased by his tears and started making up a little rap to cheer McCord up.  It consisted of a few "bop bop bop"s, and had a catchy little rhythm to it.  Here we are driving in the rain, down the back roads of Senaca, with a very unhappy baby and a rapping 4-year-old.  We couldn't get home fast enough.  All of a sudden, McCord broke into a whole-hearted belly laugh at his goofy cousin.  He loved Bayer's bop, bop, bops!  Before long, McCord was laughing at Bayer.  Bayer was laughing at McCord; and my mom, my sister, and I were laughing at the both of them.  I about wrecked the car trying to watch the two of them interact.  It was so funny!

Free Birthday Fun for your Child

For all of my new mom friends out there, here are a couple of sites I found that have some fun birthday clubs for kids.  Enroll your children now, so they'll have lots of fun to look forward to.

OLD  NAVY
Old Navy offers a free birthday surprise (I think this means coupon) on your child's birthday.  From their homepage, scroll down to the bottom where it reads "Sign Up and Save." Of course you'll have to enter in your basic contact info and e-mail address, but you can opt to sign up for e-mails and deals from Old Navy's affiliates (Gap, Banana Republic, etc.). 

TOYS R' US
This is the coolest idea - Geoffry the Toys R' Us mascot will call your child on his/her birthday to leave a message.  You can select whether you want him to call in the morning, afternoon, or evening.  And your child will get a free gift card.

THE CHILDREN'S PLACE

Receive birthday coupons during your child's birthday week. 

ZAXBY'S

Sign up for a free kid's meal - just FYI, you have to print a form and mail or fax it in.  It doesn't appear that they have an on-line submission form, but you get a card for a free cookie just for signing up.

WAFFLE HOUSE

This is for my little friend Ansley....If you sign your child up to be a Waffle House Regular (which she is!), then they'll enroll you in the birthday club and he/she will receive a special birthday present  P.S. - It's Waffle House's 55th anniversary!  I don't think they've aged a bit!

MOE'S

This is a really neat site - you can sign your child up for the Mini Moe's Birthday Club and receive a free kids meal during his/her birthday week.  When you sign up, they'll calculate how many days until your child's birthday (282 for McCord!) and it will tell you about what happened on that day in history and famous people who share their birthday (FYI - on McCord's birthday in 1847, the US Post Office released its first adhesive stamp, lick em' stick em'.  He also shares the same birthday as Princess Diana).  Visit their site for a free coloring page and on-line birthday games like tic tac toe and memory. 

Kindermusik Rocks!

Tonight McCord attended his first Kindermusik class which was held at our church.  Kindermusik is a music and movement program for young children (even as young as McCord!).  Research shows that music introduced at a young age can help build neural pathways by fostering language, mathmatic, and social skills.  We bounced, sang, and danced to a variety of songs led by our instructor and McCord loved every minute!  His favorite thing was the rainmaker that you see below.  McCord and his classmates were given goodie bags full of Kindermusik materials - a CD, book, and wall poster to study for their homework - too cute!

McCord's Baptism

THE DAY
Sunday, September 19, 2010 was a beautiful, sunny day in Rock Hill.  It was a perfect day for a baptism at Oakland Avenue Presbyterian Church.

THE GOWN
The gown was made for my mother-in-law, Frances, to wear when she was baptized as an infant.  Since then, it's been worn by Bo, my sister-in-law, Meredith, and her two children - Emily and Kyle.  We were so honored to have the gown passed down to McCord to wear for his baptism.  It is steeped in tradition, and we feel blessed to be connected to so many family memories. 

THE MENU
My mom helped me prepare for the big day - a celebration on Surrey Lane.  We had so much fun putting together the menu. It was a great day to pull out the crystal and silver!

THE PRAYER

McCord offered this prayer on his big day:

God in heaven, hear my prayer,

keep me in thy loving care.

Be my guide in all I do,

Bless all those who love me too.

Amen.

THE FAMILY
Bo and I were so thankful to have all of our family come up to celebrate McCord's baptism.  It was so meaningful to look out into the congregation and see them beaming at our little boy. 

THE BABY
Neither Bo nor I enjoy being the center of attention, so we were so curious to see how McCord would do when he was in front of the church with so many eyes on him.  We were amazed when he slept through the whole thing.  When our pastor sprinkled water on him, he waved his arms in the air, startled, but never opened his eyes!

Update on Football Platter

For all my fellow blog readers who dread football season...my mother-in-law found the platter and it's available here!  Thank you Frances for the info!