When I said good night to him last night, my beloved three-year-old son grabbed my face and gave me a big, fat smooch on the lips.

I am on top of the Mommy Universe now.  I hope it lasts. 

To recap from yesterday - best baby gifts.  I guess I should break this down between “most useful gifts” and “sweetest gifts.”

The “most useful gift” award goes to Grandma, of course, for her yeoman’s work in making both Ane and Tad cloth flannel diapers for infant usage.  Ane started life with a very complete set of diapers, and Tad didn’t care that he was wearing faded (by that time) pastel plaid on his butt when he was an infant, but Grandma made him cowboy, car and leopard-print flannel diapers to supplement his choices.

The “sweetest gift” award for Ane goes to Baby Cousin’s namesake, Auntie C.  Auntie C. is not really related to us, but she is a dear family friend (close friend of Great-Grandma’s) who has no grandchildren or great-grandchildren of her own (her only son was mentally disabled and died many years ago) so she likes to hear from Great-Grandma how we are all doing.  And Ressis has always liked Auntie C.’s name, so when Baby Cousin was born, Auntie C. was quite honored to have a namesake.  Well, then how does Ane get special gifts from Auntie C., you are probably asking?

Ane was born on Auntie C.’s birthday.

After Ane was born, Auntie C. sent her two special gifts.  The first was her own silver baby spoon (still in its original box).  The second was her son’s china baby mug.  Both items have a special place of honor on the top shelf of Ane’s bookcase in her room.  A close second in the “sweetest gift” category for Ane is the Army bear that the Captain gave her when she was born, along with a personalized dogtag with her name and birthdate.

Tad’s “sweetest gift” was a cross-stitched Dumbo baby bib done by teenage family friend Jess.  He was never allowed to even drool on it, it was so cute.  And cross-stitching wasn’t really her “thing”, but she made the effort to give him a handmade gift, and I’ve always treasured that.

Okay, back to the real post.  Feet.

I have small feet (size 6 to 6 1/2, depending on the shoe).  The Webmaster does not have large feet for a man (he usually wears a 10).  I took Ane shoe shopping yesterday and realized - she hasn’t outgrown her size 10 sneakers yet!  Why am I shopping for sneakers??

Granted, she has outgrown her winter dress shoes, so we do need to look for those.  But will a size 10 get her through the winter?  Should I get a 10 1/2, even if it runs a little big (and make her wear thick socks)?

What she wants are these Hello Kitty Mary Janes, which are at Target.  They are pretty cute, but that’s not why she wants them.  She wants them because Lina has these shoes.  But, since they are under the price limit that I mentally set for my kids’ shoes, it’s all right with me.  Whether it will be all right with Lina is another question.

Tad probably doesn’t need new shoes for another 2 years.  We keep receiving hand-me-down, barely worn shoes from my uncle and aunt, who are passing them on from another great-nephew from my aunt’s family.  The kid has NFL genes (both his father and grandfather played for the NFL) and he’s growing like a weed out of both clothes and shoes.  Lucky for Tad, he’s both younger and smaller, so he gets the hand-me-downs.  Not that Tad’s worn pants or shoes (he does wear either socks or sandals when we go “out”) for almost a month, but I’m pretty sure that his size 7 shoes will still fit when the cast comes off.  In TWO WEEKS!!!

That aside, sorry, kids.  You are genetically condemned to have little feet.  On the plus side, we’re getting plenty of wear out of your shoes!

They are coming at me, fast and furious.

First off, our friends Scrap Mom and Gaming Dad welcomed a little girl into their family on August 3rd!  As the new little sister to Princess Em and Mighty Boy, she will be known for now as Baby Princess.  I have not yet seen said baby, but I’m supposed to take them a meal next week, and I have a small gift for her, which I think will pay my admission through the door to see the little one.

Second, Friend is expecting!!!  Number Three will be arriving in January, and hopefully she finds out what gender Number Three is tomorrow!  If the baby cooperates.  Ane, during her first ultrasound, did not.  She covered herself with her hands, and we had to wait another four weeks to find out for sure.  The tech thought she looked like a girl, but because of the hands covering, couldn’t be sure.  When we came back in (we had a valid excuse - Ane’s arms were blocking the top view of her chest, and they wanted to check her heart with an unobstructed view) at 24 weeks, it was pretty clear that she was a girl - at least to the ultrasound tech.  We took her word for it, and she was right!

Third, CW Mom is expecting a boy in October, and I got an invitation to her baby shower yesterday.  In lieu of baby gifts, she is asking for pre-prepared scrapbook pages (with certain themes) so she can put together a nice scrapbook for him without having to make the pages herself.

I think this is a very cool idea, and I can’t wait to make some.  I have lots of good ideas, but it got me to thinking.

What was the BEST baby gift you ever received?  If you have more than one kid, you can choose the best gift you got for each one.  I’m curious, and I’ve been racking my brains to think of only one gift per each of my kids.  So many people were so kind and generous to us that it’s hard to pick.  But I’m tossing it out there.  Besides, if YOU thought it was the best, surely the rest of us need to know that, because someone else might think it was a pretty good idea, too, and decide to give that to someone as a gift.  Share, please.

Yes, Tad was very excited when he started opening presents.  The bat is foam, by the way.  Grandma and Gichan aren’t crazy.

We just put his chair in front of the fireplace, and I handed him presents.  The hard part was keeping him going once he opened something that he really liked.  I think Auntie said it best: “For a Mickey Mouse birthday party, he sure got a lot of Cars toys!”

He got Cars books.  Cars Mega Bloks (Mack and McQueen).  The Cars Doodle Pro from Friend, Doc, the Brain and Head was an instant hit.  It was his favorite present - until he opened this:

It was a Vtech Lightning McQueen learning laptop - a combination birthday/get well soon present sent to us by Matthew and family.  He loves this toy.  And it was an instant hit with all the other kids, too - we finally had to beat them off to give Tad a chance to actually play with it himself.

The Webmaster and I gave him something that he absolutely WANTED at Disneyland - a Buzz Lightyear doll.

Still, it was a Carsapalooza here.  In fact, these new toys got him so motivated that he started pulling himself up on furniture in order to better play with them.

And he was still having to fight for his laptop.

When we asked Ane to please let him play with it, she looked at us and said, “He’s sharing with me!”  Uh-huh.  Sure.  She’s been coping with the fact that he has all these new toys fairly well, but she still has to be reminded that these are HIS, not HERS.  When I said that to her yesterday, she said, “It’s okay, Mommy - he can go to my room and then he can play with my toys, and I can keep playing with his!”

When I pointed out that he can’t walk, she just shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well, he can crawl there.”

He doesn’t crawl quite that far, and she knows it.  Sneaky little brat.

To those who sent/brought Tad gifts, thank you very much.  You will be getting a real thank-you note, but your thoughtfulness and generousity has already brought much happiness to him - so much so that he has hardly watched any TV in the last few days!!  And he continues to pull himself up onto furniture and has tentatively tried “cruising” around.  At this rate, he just might be walking by the time the cast comes off.

He had a GREAT birthday.