Family Alive

I’m back! I know you’ve not heard much from me lately.

I’ve probably lost some of my frequent readers with my

lack of posting. Brian’s been so good about posting,

thought, especially with pictures:) It’s taken me a

while to get over our stomach bug, and I’m finally

feeling better. Besides that, it’s been a pretty quiet

week, and there’s not much interesting going on here in

Sweet Home Alabama. I’ll see if I can catch you up on

all the funny, interesting and mundane in the Toone

household.

Rise and Shine
Analise is determined to make me an early riser. Since

the daylight savings time change, she’s been waking

around 5am, sometimes before. Aggggg… I can usually

bring her to our bed for a bit, and we doze while I pray

that we can stay snuggled under the down comforter until

at least 6am. That’s about the time she’s ready to get

up, though. I’m not sure what to do… she’s not

screaming to get up, but she’s in her crib, crying

unhappily. Maybe it’s a phase, like everything else in

toddler hood?? One small advantage is that she’s ready for a good long nap by about 9:30, just when I’m ready for some quiet time getting things done. Thank goodness!

Sam’s Sample Vultures

Analise and I discovered the wonderful world of Sam’s

Club this week:) I had forgotten all the samples they

have, and we enjoyed browsing the store over the lunch

hour both Tuesday and Wednesday. Analise has been a

picky eater lately, but she devoured everything we were

offered, from crabcakes to teriyaki vegetables to

chicken enchilada soup! Her favorite were the petite

quiches on Tuesday, and they were handing them out on

Wednesday too. The lady had just run out, and told us

to check back in 10 minutes. Since I really wasn’t

shopping, we wandered around through the Christmas

decorations and toys for a while, and kept coming back

within sight to see if the lady had taken them out of

her oven. No, no, almost… so we wandered around an

ailse and found a lasagna sample we hadn’t tried. When

we got back, she said, “You just missed them – they’re

already gone!” And I was feeling bad about circling

like a vulture watching for her to take them out of the

oven… I’m sure we’ll be back at Sam’s more often,

since we had such a fun time.

Analise moments
She’s saying a few more words lately, but more

importantly she’s got a whole repertoire of animal

sounds. Very cute!
She’s also full of kisses – for all her stuffed animals,

her Little People Noah and animals, for the air. She’ll

come up to me in the kitchen, wrap her arms around my

leg, and go, “MMMMMuh!” Love it. I have the sweetest

little girl, and she’s just in such a charming

stage.
Even her first real tantrum was cute! She wanted some

graham crackers, but not the one I handed her. So I let

her pick one, then she wanted another for her other hand

(of course), so I assented. Then, with a graham cracker

in each hand, she leaned forward with her mouth open to

grab the one in my hand. She wanted a 3rd cracker for

her mouth! I don’t think so… When I wouldn’t give it

to her, she proceeded to throw herself on the floor,

dropping her 2 graham crackers and cry for 5 entire

minutes. She didn’t want either of the 2 graham

crackers, and she was irate that I wouldn’t give her the

one in my hand. Poor girl. I’m sure it won’t be in the

future, but it was so comical!
She’s also learned where the belly is, and she takes

great fun in finding it on people. She particularly

likes my belly, which is a little jiggly. Brian’s very

very ticklish, so she’s found his belly to be fun, too.

Wednesday night during our group discussion at home

church, Analise was sitting on our friend Ben’s lap. I

saw her reach over and try to lift up his shirt to find

his belly! Watch out, everyone! Then she crawled

across all the laps on the couch… tooting all the way.

Ah, the fun moments she brings us!

Antique Adventures
We’ll be having Thanksgiving dinner here at our house next week, so I thought this would be the PERFECT time to use our antique china for the first time. It was given to us by Brian’s grandmother, whose birthday is our anniversary. Her husband was in Germany for World War II for their first anniversary and sent an entire set of German china back as a gift. Other servicement sent their wives sets as well, but they all insisted on repacking it themselves. Unfortunately, most were broken when they arrived, but because Grandma’s husband let the company pack and send it, hers arrived in perfect condition. I love it! It’s been carefully packed since she left her house in Virginia through a move to Alabama to Brian’s parents before we were married, to California for our first year and a half, stayed packed through our move back to Alabama in January. I’m finally getting to unpack it and see all the beautiful pieces. It’s 12 complete settings, with more serving pieces than you could imagine. I spent an hour on the internet trying to figure out the pattern name and how much its worth, but it’s nearly impossible to identify china simply by picture. Oh well, the sentimental value is priceless. I’m excited to use it this week, and I’m sure I’ll post a picture of my pretty Turkey Day table.

I’m going to post this, since I told my poor mom and sister I was going to do it yesterday. But I’ll probably be back this afternoon with a couple more blurbs and even a photo or two. Have a good day!