Hi, STEPH

I'd like to address a comment I received from "STEPH" on my post about my blog going private. I'm addressing this publicly instead of just commenting on her comment in case any of you other readers who never comment feel this way.

STEPH,

I am not, in any way, playing the victim here. I'm sorry that you feel that way but you've got the wrong idea. I realize I put my blog out there. It's linked in my signature on The Bump and The Nest. I also did a guest blog for newparent.com and my blog is linked on there. I never, ever tried to "hide" my blog from people reading it, nor did I EVER say that I did. As I believe I stated in my post, I was super excited when I first saw that so many people were reading it. But, the fact that I put my blog out there originally does not mean, in any remote way, that I can't decide that I am uncomfortable with who is viewing it NOW and decide to make it private. Understand?

When I started my blog, I didn't have a kid. When I had my kid, I still wanted people to be able to read it and tried to know who was reading it the best I could by encouraging comments and asking people who followed my blog to let me know who they were. When I added the feedtracker to my blog and realized that there were people coming from all over the world looking at the blog who were never commenting and I had no idea who they were, I decided it was better for my family to take the blog private. Before doing this, I added a NUMBER of security measures to protect my information and my pictures and my child while still allowing whoever wanted to read the blog to read it. Then, I decided that wasn't enough.

Playing the victim? Hardly. I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to say that it's sad or unfortunate that I have to take the blog private because there are creepy people out there. Don't you think it's sad that there are people who steal other's pictures and make up their lives? Don't you think it's sad that there are child molesters out there who might use pictures of children on blogs for disgusting purposes? I know I do. I never said I was a victim in this, I never said I didn't try to make my blog publicly accessible and put it out there. However, none of those things take away my right to make this blog private when I decide it's necessary.

Just Kidding (Re: Blog Future)

Ok, just kidding. Toots is still sleeping right now so I decided to go ahead and do the big announcement about the "future" of the blog that I alluded to here.

That's right, folks, I'm going private. I know I've said countless times that I didn't want to take this blog private and, really, I don't. But, every day, multiple times a day, someone from another country that I've never even heard of, visits my blog. When this first started happening, I thought "COOL! People alllll around the world are reading my blog!!! (squeeeealllllll)" But, then I started thinking "Wait. I've never even heard of that country, much less ever met (or "met") anyone from there. Weird." And now I'm just officially weary of it. Call me over-protective or whatever, but it kind of creeps me out that there is a possibility some weirdo/psycho is reading my blog and looking at pictures of my family.

Secondly, I don't like uploading my pictures through Flickr first - and it has a MB liper month so I can't even upload all the pictures I post on here - and I don't like having to go to picnik.com and watermark, even though I think that's cool. And, most of all, I don't like using a nickname for my child. Yes, nicknames are fun, but I pretty much always accidentally write his real name first and then have to go back and delete and write his nickname. It's a lot of effort and I just want to be able to say his name sometimes for goodness sake. But I can't. Because there are crazy people out there who steal your pictures and your kid's names and pretend they have your life. And that's unfortunate but I can't do anything to change it.

So, the conclusion I've finally come to is that I'm taking the blog private. I realize this is a tiny hassle because you have to log in, but you can ask it to "remember" you so you don't have to log in everytime. And, if that's too much of a hassle to you or you just don't like to read private blogs, that's fine. While I absolutely love, love, love the fact that you people read my blog, it is a chronicle of my life to look back on one day. I want to write stuff that is helpful to people, but if it's too much trouble for you to log in, then you don't have to take the time to read it.

People who don't have a Google/Gmail account, FEAR NOT! Thanks to my friend, Lacey, who is also considering taking her blog private, I have a solution for you. I will have an e-mail address just for people who don't have Google/Gmail accounts to be able to use to login to read the blog.

Here's what I need you to do. I need you to e-mail me at throneofthornes@gmail.com (or, if you know my other e-mail address, feel free to e-mail me there) and tell me you'd like to be able to read the blog when I make it private and give me your gmail address so I can send you an invite. Or, if you don't have a Gmail address, tell me that you don't have one and you need me to give you the Gmail address I've made for you to read the blog as well as the password and I'll be happy to do that.

I do hope that those of you who enjoy reading this blog will e-mail me and tell me that you want to continue reading it. I love your comments and I do love knowing people read, but I'm tired of all the run-around I'm having to do just to be able to keep writing publicly. I'm going to leave this post up for the next two weeks to give you plenty of time to e-mail me.

Hope y'all are having a wonderful week so far and I hope to hear from you :)

I Can't Believe It!

We had a couple of "I Can't Believe Its" happen at the Thorne house this week. One, Toots started rolling over from back to tummy finally!! And, Toots had a tooth break through :) It is still just broken through the gums at the top, the rest of the tooth hasn't popped up, yet, so I don't have a picture. He wasn't grumpy before it happened (which was yesterday), just seemed to sleep more, but today he is SUPER grumpy and still sleepy so I don't know if the second one is going to come through soon or what.

On another note, we also got our first-time homebuyers tax credit check in the mail! Yay! We got to get some things we've been wanting to get for the house, including getting tile put in the upstairs bathroom and utility room (that's happening next Monday), getting a TV stand for the living room, a table for the entryway, a TV for upstairs, and some other small things. We also used some of it to get Tucker's teeth cleaned.

Nothing much else is going on. I'm still doing P90X (I know, I never did a Skinny Tuesday update) and I'm feeling like I'm starting to look better and I'm eating a lot healthier, but the scale isn't moving :(

Toots is also moving his legs a little bit underneath him and back out like he is trying to crawl. He can also stand up for a couple seconds on his own if you stand him up against something he can hold on to. And, he had his first grilled cheese sandwich this weekend when we were out to lunch and I hadn't brought anything for him to eat. He liked it a lot :) He won't be getting a lot of those, but it's nice to know we have options if we're out and I happen to not have something for him to eat.

Here's some pictures.

Riding his horse, with Daddy's help, of course :)
I want that Coke so.bad. (Don't worry, he doesn't get to drink it! I just let him hold the can and touch it sometimes before I open it because he likes the coldness).

Before he was born, my mom bought him this "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly" storyboard with the woman and all the things she swallows and you stuff them into her mouth as you read the story. I brought it out for the first time this week and read it to him. He thought it was funny and then proceeded to go ahead and eat the Old Woman to show her what it feels like for someone to eat you up.

A little swinging time at the park! We haven't been able to hang up the swing we have for him at the house because the beams on our backporch are hollow we found out and we haven't figured out a way to rig up something to hang it from (no trees in the backyard, either.).

I just had to get a picture of those scrumptious cheeks. Someday they'll be gone and I don't want to forget them!

This was his reaction when he first saw his daddy get out of the car as he got home from work. Melts my heart!

This is what we think of Longhorns at our house! (Thanks to his Uncle Burl, Aunt Sandy, and cousins Abby and Trip!)

A rolling over sequence....

1. On his back

2. Starting the roll

3. Swinging the leg over

4. Half airborn for a second ;)
5. Completing the roll
6. Ahhh, victory! I got my prize!
7. Looking quite satisfied.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Please stay tuned for an important announcement about the "future" of this blog later this week.

Heyyy

Hi, I'm back to the land of blogging!

Sometimes when Toots is "talking" these days, it sounds like he is saying "heyyy" to us. Hence, the title of the blog post. I'm going to do most of my update in a series of pictures with captions because I don't really know a better way to sum it all up without typing way too much! Oh, by the way, that poster giveaway I posted about week before last? I won it!! Yayyyyy!! I never win anything so this is super exciting to me!

First, Toots had some battle scars from his 6 month appointment...


I don't have a picture of this, but on Friday, July 9, I flew to San Antonio to get my hair done and I was planning to drive back to Fort Worth with my mom the next day. We originally were going to all go and stay for the weekend in SA, but plans changed. I didn't want to bring Toots on a flight and then a 5 hour drive back the next day because I thought that was too much, so Tim stayed with him overnight and half the day for the first time. They had a great time together and Tim did an awesome job (of course!).

Next, it was my birthday....I am now a quarter of a century old. (Excuse the blurry pic)

The day started out with me going to get an EIGHTY minute massage, courtesy of my wonderful husband and little boy! It was heavenly! And, the place where I got the massage gave me a mimosa as a birthday gift :) My dad, stepmom, brother and sisters came down for the dinner. We went and ate at Pasado's (sp?) for dinner and then came home and had a delicious strawberry cake they brought me.

Also, earlier on my birthday, we had a playdate at Toot's new friend's house. A is only 3 days older than him and they are pretty cute together. Toots loved some drums she had, so I am searching everywhere trying to find them for him. Every Target in the city is out of them except one in Arlington but that's like 30 minutes away.


Toots got a new fishbowl toy from his CiCi. He loveeeees the crab. It makes a crinkly noise and he likes to chew on it all.the.time.


He's still very happy almost all of the time


Toots got a new puzzle with big knobs to make it easier for him to grab


Mostly, he likes to pull out each piece one at a time, chew on it, toss it aside, and pick up another one.


We like to do lots of playing in the morning after eating our banana and drinking some milk.


Heyyyyy mom! (His hair sticks up all the time, even if I brush it :))


His new most favorite thing is playing in the sink


I tried undressing him and filling the sink with water. He only liked it a little. Look at those biceps!


We had a swimming playdate, but Toots was having a bad day, so he didn't have too much fun.


I had a mom's night out last week as well at The Wine Loft in Southlake. I picked up A's mom, Nicole, and we met 4 other moms there. It was a really, really fun time and it was nice to have some girl talk without the babies.

We got Toots a rocking "horse." It's actually an octopus - Ollie the Octopus. He's not very good at staying on it right now but it's very cute.


I gave him a stuffer animal when he was taking a nap the other day, just to see what he would do with it. When I went in to get him when he woke up, this is how he was laying in the crib...


On Friday, I was cleaning the house and Toots was playing on the floor by himself. He has gotten SO good at playing alone when I need to do things and played by himself for an entire hour when I was cleaning. He likes me to put the basket of his small toys on the floor and then he tips it over on its side and picks the toys out of it. All of the sudden, I couldn't see him sitting up anymore and I ran over to make sure he was okay. This is how I found him:

He wasn't crying or anything. He did, however, start crying when I took more than one picture.

Also on Friday, we met his Pops for lunch and we decided Pops would take him back to Waco with him so Tim and I could go see Inception, have dinner, and have a night to ourselves. It was the first time Toots was away in a different city as both of us, but it was nice to have a night alone and Toots had a wonderful time. We went on Saturday to get him and spend the night. I don't even know if he knew we were gone :) Here's some pictures:

Lots and lots of playing (I thought it was cute how the yellow ring is hooked on his foot)


With Lolli (look at that belly!)


With Pops


And with Aunt Emily (more belly)


I've been terrible about participating in the Mommy and Me picture thing. I have several pictures, but keep forgetting to post on Fridays. I will hopefully change that this week! Also, I will do a Skinny Tuesday update on Tuesday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Timeout

Hey everyone. I'm realllly behind on work and working out and housework this week, so I'm trying to take the time to catch up on all that so I can get paid, get in shape, and have a clean house! Because of that, I need to take a little timeout on blogging this week. If I start getting caught up, I will post later in the week, but it might be Sunday before I get a chance.

Just didn't want you to think I disappeared! Sorry for the timeout - I'll be back soon!

I Love Posters! Giveaway

Kaitlin at Life of a Busy Wife is hosting a giveaway on her blog for a poster from Field Trip shop on Etsy. I want to win one of the "Love" posters for our bedroom because I need some stuff on the walls in there! Go check out the giveaway on Kaitlin's blog and maybe you could win :)

Fee Fi Fo Fum...

We had Toots' 6 month appointment this morning. His stats were:

27 3/4 inches tall (90th percentile)

20 pounds 9 ounces (90th percentile)

17 3/4 head circumference (85th percentile)

He's still a giant baby! The doctor said Toots is as big as his 14 month old son right now - haha. Everything looks great physically with him and he is hitting all his milestones at the right time. He got three shots. He didn't start crying until the third one but then it was big ol' crocodile tears. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, woke up to eat when we got here, and went right back to sleep and is still sleeping almost two hours later!

That's about all for now! I actually got another picture of me and Toots so I think I will start participating in the weekly post of a picture of me and him that Rachel told me about. Thanks for the tip, Rachel!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

It's baaaaaaack!

I'm bringing it back on a Wednesday, but Skinny Tuesday is back! I'm starting to exercise again (finally) so I figured I needed to re-start the posts. I started P90X yesterday morning bright and early at 5:00 AM with the Chest and Back DVD. I can't do a single pull-up, yet, but maybe that will improve as I keep doing them. Last night, I did the Ab Ripper X DVD. I went to bed too late to get up at 5:00 AM this morning (I need to go to bed at, like, 9:00 to be able to get up at 4:45), but when Toots takes his next nap, I will be doing the Plyometrics DVD.

Tim and I are also eating Weight Watcher friendly meals every night for dinner except Tuesdays when we go to Rosa's. Hopefully the exercise will help me start losing the weight again because I felt like that's mostly what stalled me out was when I had to stop Stroller Strides. I'm already sore from the workout yesterday and I'm going to go to bed early enough to get up at 5:00 tomorrow.

My starting weight this week is 145 so I have 11 pounds to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I have a goal to lose it by September. Hold me accountable!

House

Here are some pictures of the house with our stuff in it. Like I said, we STILL haven't finished hanging pictures, so you're going to see a lot of blank walls!

Front of house
Front porch with our new patio furniture

Entryway

Dining room

View 1 of the kitchen - ignore baby dishes by the sink :)

View 2 of the kitchen

View 3 - The eating area. I'm not sure why this turned out so dark.

Living Room - View 1. We are going to get an armoire for the TV (right side of the picture) but we haven't found one we like, yet, so it's just one our old coffe table right now.

Living Room - View 2

Tim's office - View 1

Office - View 2. The desk by the window is an old Captain's desk that my Nanny gave us. The chest on the wall (right side of the page) was Tim's grandparents that they bought when they were living in Japan. It has a really cool scene carved into the top of it.

Upstairs living room - View 1. Tim had the table set up for poker because he was going to have friends over to play but they ended up not being able to come. Usually the table is against the wall. That area is actually set up to be a wet bar - we might add that in in the future.

Upstairs living room - View 2. The baby wasn't included with the house ;)

Upstairs bathroom. We're going to get tile put in up here that matches the tile in our bathroom and the downstairs bathroom. Right now it's laminate by the toilet and tub and carpet by the sink.

Upstairs bedroom, view 1.

Upstairs bedroom, view from the door.

Toot's room looks absolutely terrible in this picture. We haven't gotten any stuff hung up and the curtains are just tacked to the wall. I shouldn't have even included this! I swear, it will look cuter than this!

Downstairs/Toots' bathroom. Surfer theme!

Downstairs guest bedroom. This one turned out kind of dark as well. Tim calls this the "Happy Room" because it's really bright and cheerful looking.

Our bedroom with our new bedspread. The baby wasn't included with the bedspread, either :)

Our bathroom.

Tub and shower. I swear these pictures didn't look this dark whenever I took them.

That's all I've got! I might post some more once we get the pictures hung up, but I didn't want to keep telling y'all I would post them and not do it!